Portland Weekend

Jon and I went to Portland. It was Jon's idea. See he really likes to reload, but he does not have much of the supplies. But see my dad does, so Jon wanted to go down to get some work done. Sage did pretty good in car, but by the time we got to Troutdale she was tired.



(that is right, she climbed behind the back seat head rest and fell asleep)

On Friday we went to have lunch with my Dad at his work. He has a little more than an acre in the back field. Every summer his work puts out 8-10 cows. So every day Dad goes out and feeds them and has lunch with them. It is funny they come to the sound of his voice. At first Sage did not like them, but than they became friends. And the cows could not take their eyes away from her.





We took a break to walk around, trying to find some pheasants so that Sage could get some practice in. We found this little canal and thought, the day is warmer than at the property. So we tried the water once again. She did better. But of course with water and dirt, comes mud. She was filthy.











After that little fun, we went back to cows!!









But before we left she had to get a bath before getting into the car!! Though I do not know how clean the water actually was, but she was cleaner than before.

Memorial Weekend

Jon and I went camping to my parents property for the weekend. It was Sage's first trip. The weather was so cold and it rained once or twice on us. There are not a lot of pictures because as always, we work more than we play at the property. We ended up building a lot of fence, down and up a steep hill. Let me tell you when we are all done fixing the fences, we are going to be pros!!!











Sage liked being so close to where we ate, she just wanted to take a bite. But once she figured out she was not going to get anything, she turned to sticks






One afternoon Jon and I got a chance to play at the pond. We wanted to see how well Sage did with water.





She did not like it, so after playing with the frog...we headed down to the creek, where it was shallow and Jon could go in with her






She did not last very long. But overall we all enjoyed the weekend. It was full of hard work and a little bit of fun!

New Family Member!!

Everyone meet SAGE!! She is a purebred yellow Lab, and she is about 8 weeks old.



On the long car ride home! She was having a hard time!!





She slept a lot the first few days, the peaceful moments that will never come again.



Yes we are trying to train her early to be a bird dog!



First Video- Before the fence she just had too much energy to stay in the house. We are BOTH very grateful that the fence is done!! She has been trying to jump, but her short little legs don't let her get to far. But she stills tries!



The second Video- We are trying to kennel train for night time and times when we leave her in the house but we have to go. I read online that they need to feel like the kennel is a 'happy' place. So a couple times a day I try to play with her and the kennel. I think she is starting to like it a little more!

She loves that we now have the fence up so she can go run around all she wants. Now we just have to work on the "no digging"!







So far we are pretty lucky with her. She only had potty issues the first few days. We are pretty good at taking her outside often enough, but she has gone to the door a few times to let us know. BUT let the record show she never once has pooped in the house! We are also getting used to sleeping at night. She wakes up a few times a night to go to the bathroom. I am learning that I do not need as much sleep as I had thought. All in all she is a good puppy and hopefully will grow into a good dog!!

Getting Settled

We have been in the house for about a month. Not all the boxes are unpacked, but that is ok cause we have a garage! (That way I do not have to see the boxes everyday and tripping over them)

We have been super busy, I never would have thought that buying the house is the easy part. No one ever tells about the list that comes with the house and how it is never ending!! Thank goodness Mom helped me with the pictures and some organizing. Jon and I have been so busy in the evenings with the fence. Which is not 100% done, BUT all the boards are up and we are enclosed. It is so funny that we now have cable, but every night we are to tired we hardly ever watch it.

Mom made curtains for our new house. It was supposed to be a teaching moment, but we had a bad experience with the first set we made. So we did want to take any chances with these. Honestly I am glad the other ones did not work out, these ones are so much better!! The pictures do not do them justice!! Thanks Mom you are the BEST!!

We have also started meeting our neighbors, well as people move in. So far we do not think that we have crazy ones. I think we will be pretty lucky! Some just stay inside and in fact Jon mentioned last night about a house that is sold but no one lives in it. I had to explain that there are people there and in fact they moved in before us. We also feel really lucky that one street down we have LDS neighbors that are in our ward. They moved in the same time we did. We look forward to doing a lot of fun things with them!!

Our ward is pretty fun. Right now our building is 15 minutes away in Burbank. BUT this weekend there is an open house for the new building that is like 5 minutes away! We do not know yet, but everyone hopes that we will get reassigned to this building.

All and all things are going great and we are staying busy!!

Finally

We are officially homeowners!!! We have moved all of our stuff over, and unpacked like all of it. We have been having a hard time with the internet and our address so we still have the Apartment until Wednesday, You know in-case we needed the internet. So that means that this is the last week we will ever (or for a really long time) live or have any of our stuff in an apartment. That just means it might be a few weeks without internet.

My mom and dad came up this weekend. They were supposed to come up and help us move. So of course that means that Jon and Dad leave to go hunting and fishing and camping. That really helped us out. Mom and I got a lot done...we cleaned the garage, got rid of boxes, hung up pictures, did laundry and as always shopped. It was a pretty fun weekend. Jon and dad had a blast too.

We are doing really good and remembering every day that we are truly blessed.

Busy Busy

Here is just a quick update. Yesterday Jon and I signed our lives away! After we did our final walk through and everything was perfect. We are planning on getting the keys on Wednesday or Thursday. We just have to wait for the paper game between the Escrow company and our Mortgage company. Which I guess is fine, we do have just a little bit more packing to do. But we are just super excited we just have a few days left of apartment living!!! Just can not wait to get out. I will update more after we get some what settled.

Side note: I am sad to leave the apartment, with all of our ducks. You know spring time is in the air. And so far we have counted 7 little ducklings. They are so cute, and love bread!

T-Minus 2 Weeks

We seriously had to break in last night to get a last look before the walk through. They finally put a door nob on the outside garage door, and they remembered to lock the back door. The only thing they forgot to do was to lock the windows. Since they do not have screens up yet it was really easy to get in. Well like I said we wont be going in until the walk through on April 12, but there also is not a lot left to do. Now it is the waiting game!!

It is finally painted on the outside!!! They prepped for paint at the end of last week but it has been so windy they held off. Luckily the last few days have not been as bad.



The backsplash tile is in, the nobs are on, the fridge was all the way in and the microwave too, just waiting on the stove. It will look even better when it is all dusted!!



This is our bathroom, but the tile is in, nobs on. Again just really has to be cleaned and than it is ready!



We have started packing again, luckily we do not have that much to pack. Last night our upstairs neighbors were being kind of loud. You could hear walking and doors and the bathroom. Jon and I just looked at each other and smiled. Because in 2 weeks we will not have to hear that stuff, above or below us anymore!

Almost Home

Great news!! I got a call last week, confirming that our house is a head of schedule. So that means we are no longer closing on April 27...it is April 13!!! We are just so excited! We are now trying to plan accordingly, starting to pack ordering blinds and getting some lawn care. The really cool things! The outside of the house is still not painted, but they taped up the outside and they should be doing that today, or Monday. But until the finish product here are some updates with the inside..



This is looking at our entry way.



This is our living room, I am so excited to have a fan!



This is where our dinning table will go, but right now is holding our appliances.



This is my pantry!!!



Laundry room, it will look so good with my CHERRY Red front loaders in!



Our Bedroom!



Our bathroom, so much space!



And finally the outside. It is so nice that they put in a front yard!

Oh My...

Well I was not going to put up anymore pictures until it was all done...but I got out voted by my husband. Since Monday they have done a lot of work, just see for yourself



This is part of our bathroom. We got his and her sinks. So the tub was already in (you can't see it but its off the to the left). And yesterday they put in cabinets, counter tops and flooring. Not to mention base boards and doors.



This is my laundry room. Again they put in floor, base boards and door. All they have left is to fill in hole and paint base boards and door, and to put a shelf on the back wall.



This is from the living room facing the front door. I just wanted to show how white our walls are, I can not wait to paint. And the big closet will be our pantry. I did not get a picture of it but they laid tile in the entry way as well.



These are our kitchen appliances which are taking up half of our living room. There is the fridge, which we got really lucky that they are paying for it. The gas stove, dishwasher, and stuff. Did I mention stainless steel?? That is right!! No more cheap apartment appliances.







This is our kitchen. I love all the cabinets and counter space I am going to have. I would have to say that I love my floor, (but no picture is doing it justice since it is covered in sawdust). They put all this together in 2 days!!

The house is coming along so fast, and I can not wait for the phone call today from John (the Realtor), about the meeting with the contractors.

Side Note~ I am off to Idaho for a week leaving this afternoon. I old Jon to make sure and get house photos this week. And I just cant wait to see the progress. I am really excited to go. Mom, Grandma and me are going to sew like crazy!! And I am going to Rexburg Sunday and Monday, it is crazy how much I miss that place!! Since I will be gone this weekend Jon is heading down to my families property. It is about 2 and half hours. He is going to do a little work, and coyote huntin, and scoutin some turkeys. He really deserves a break and it will be so awesome for him to go. Lets just say, both of us are really happy!!

Oh the Joys

Last night was awesome. It is good to know that our new front door is hard to break in to, but we need to remember that the sliding door is always easy. That is right we had to break into our new house last night. We were just dieing to see what they have done. The dry wall is up, the walls are textured. The cabinets were in boxes on the floor, all the doors were in the garage. And our garage door was on, and our driveway was poured. What was really cool is that we measured the back yard, and it is a really good size for that neighborhood, probably the biggest one. We are right next to the corner house, you would think that they would have more yard, I think we beat them. A little birdy called me this morning (our amazing Realtor) and told me that the house is a head of schedule. Now we do not know exactly what this means, there is a big meeting taking place on Thursday with contractors and we will know after that.

To me this means I might have to many chains on my count down. It would be such a blessing if we were able to move in before April 27. I am ready to be out of this temporary apartment. I am so ready to have pictures on the wall, and to have that homey feeling back, and to not have to trip over boxes.

A side note. Jon really loves his job. We are really happy that we took this. Now I wish I would have taken a construction class or something...He is always talking about something new that I do not understand, maybe I need "construction for dummies". We are truly blessed and are so thankful for the support of our family and friends.

Update

We are so excited, the roof is on, the inside is dry-walled. We actually went in and walked around the house. The tubs are in, the garage door on. Things are right on schedule. And soon there will only be updates on the inside and no more outside. All they have left to do on the outside is paint and pour the driveway ( yes we are finally going to have a driveway!) and lay sod for the front lawn.



Now I know I am just posting about the house right now, but we are really boring people...until the house is built. I swear every weekend we go by the house. Stop at Home Depot and Lowes to look at things we will need to get or projects Jon wants to do in the house. We come home and I day dream about paint and new couches, and finally getting to use my new washer and dryer (they are currently in boxes in our living room). Needless to say right now we are like consumed by the house.