Winter Wonderland

My brother Nate got married a year ago to a lovely gal Cynthia (you may remember a note of panic in a wedding cake post around that time) and I am so proud to say that they were sealed today as a family (including little Xander).

Any of you who know me know that I love to plan parties and I can be a bit of a theme Nazi when it gets right down to it. It should come as no surprise that I ended up being the unofficial wedding planner for the open house they opted to have in honor of the big event.

To set the stage, the theme was a winter wonderland (no blaring Christmas references or reindeer sweaters) with shades of blue, silver, and white. It was at my parents new house and was created by a team of highly skilled professionals (including my Dad & little bro) that I bossed around something fierce these last few days. It turned out lovely, if I do say so myself!

Here are some pictures:

The rumors are true...

...we've moved!

Just a few days after my vent we got the call that everything was finalized and we signed the papers that night. It's a huge relief, but we are totally homeless at the moment. We've been bouncing around (first at Nate's parents house and now at my parent's house) while we search for a new abode.

We've had a plethora of offers out on the table, but none of them have panned out (definitely not for lack of trying, let me tell you). Our top contender of the moment has been on our books since August and we still haven't received an answer to our offer because it's a short sale that has been delayed up the wazoo. The last we heard we *might* hear something before Christmas, but since we've been told "just another week" about 10 times, we aren't placing any bets.

Here's the lowdown of our number one pick of the moment: 3 bed/3 bath on a 1/2 acre with a detached shop and shed. It's fully landscaped and fenced and has a finished basement to boot. It's in Enoch, about a block from my sister's house, in a really family friendly, young area.

Here it is: (What do you think? Is it worth the wait?)

Attention: All New Posts!

Yes, I finally did it. I updated the blog. A lot has happened in the last few months since I posted and I still have more to add, but this will give you an idea of where we are at.

By the way, please scroll down to May because I finally published an old post with some funny video of Linkmeister.

The Waiting Game: Everybody Loses!

Arrgh! I used to think I was a pretty patient person, but lately things have gotten out of control. I'm no longer waiting for something specific anymore... I'm just waiting to reach a point in my life where I'm done waiting.

To answer the questions that we have gotten time and again, and you may even be wondering right now, NO we have not sold our house, NO we have not gotten a new house, and NO we have not left Hurricane (although YES we have moved out of our house). Let's discuss each question:

• No, we have not sold our house:
  We got our home under contract with a really lovely couple on August 14th. They wanted to close in the first week of October and we asked for a few extra weeks because we didn't know where exactly we were going to go. Then we discovered we could stay with either of of our parents so we went back to the earlier day (Oct. 8th). Needless to say there were delays from the get-go and the 8th became the 15th, the 15th became the 22nd, and the 22nd blossomed into the 29th. Since we never suspected it would drag on like this we were totally out of the home by the 10th of October and staying with the Douglas'.
  
  Needless to say it is now November 12th, we are on our third extension addendum, and we still have not closed! The new day is supposedly November 20th, but I'm not placing any bets. The sad thing is that it isn't in our control or our buyer's control at all. It's just the bank (down with Bank of America!) and USDA Rural Development that are incredibly slow. Our poor buyers have been in a motel since Oct. 31st because they thought we would be closed by the first week in November and we have totally crashed the Douglas' for more than a month. Insanity!!!
  

• No, we have not gotten a new house:
  We have been looking for houses even before we sold ours. I'll admit we've been a little picky because we simply don't want to have to move again (and finding a good deal wouldn't be bad either), but we've had offers on a few places that haven't panned out. Most of you know about the Utah Trail house in Enoch. It's by my sister and is in a great family neighborhood. It's a short-sale that we put an offer on before Labor Day.
  
  We'd checked in with the bank a few times before they told us at the beginning of October, "We'll have an answer for you at the end of the month, but don't call back before the 26th or we'll make you wait two weeks longer." That is a direct quote (and guess which bank??? Bank of America strikes again!). A call on the 26th told us to wait another week because they just hadn't had a chance to look at it yet. A call on the 5th told us that they'd looked at it, but couldn't make a decision until they reassessed the property. This week they told us there was some kind of discrepancy between the two independent assessments and they had ordered and they now would have to do a formal appraisal... which they said we might hear back by, oh, the 22nd or so of December. DECEMBER.
  
  We really haven't found anything else that is screaming out to us, except another short sale, and judging by the timeline we are on with the first one we'll be lucky to hear anything by Labor Day.
  

• No, we have not left Hurricane:
  We originally stayed with our in-laws so we could be near the house to clean it, get the mail, etc. for those few days before we closed. As our deadline kept getting extended so did our stay here. The master plan at the moment is actually to head to Parowan to stay in my parent's basement (words I never thought I'd utter). LOL. We should be down there (regardless of closing) by November 15th.
  
  To sum up, we are waiting to close on our house & waiting to find/contract/close on a new house (which we will be extremely lucky to do before the end of the year). We each have a suitcase with our clothes and pretty much everything else is in storage. It's been frustrating, but Nate & I are both very aware of how lucky we are. First of all we found buyers in a horrible housing market, we got the price we needed, and we have great families that have opened their doors and given us a place to stay.
  
  We will very, very relieved when the waiting game is over!

Cake Wars 2009

The Competitors:

• Jon: 21 yr. old telemarketer & Rasta enthusiast
• Jenny: 28 yr. old former teacher & Food Network aficionado

The Challenge:

• Pick a theme for your cake design from the official "Hat o' Themes" that was filled with the help of Mel & Shell.
• Using the communal (and limited) cake decorating supplies frost & decorate a 8-inch round cake in under 10 minutes.
• The cakes will be judged on three criteria: Technique, originality, and adherence to theme.

Entry # 1: Jenny Chosen Theme: Space Camp

Description: "The first thought that popped into my head was to use a spaceship in some way. I didn't have time to to do any elaborate piping, but by putting on smooth base coat of frosting I was able to fashion a rocket ship out of M&M's and add piped stars and a little bit of a border. The candles as the rocket boosters was a last minute inspiration."

Entry #2: Jon Chosen Theme: High School Sports Injuries

Description: "It's basically a football field made of red licorice sting and green icing. I have no idea how Jenny got the icing smooth because all we had was a plastic spoon & plastic butter knife. I did pink on the sides and white on the top. I sculpted football players with toothpicks & gumdrops, as well as a football. If you look close you'll see one of the players is actually held in a freeze-frame type position diving for the football which is soaring into the endzone. I even fashioned a pair of rudimentary goalposts with candles & candy."

The Winner (now two years running): Jenny

Confidential to Jon:
You'd better bring it next year sucka!

Fun with Cousins

We visited Mel & Ry's a little while back and the kids had a blast together. I took some pictures of the little cutie pies having fun.

Road Trip!

This post is so last July. Literally.

We went to Texas this last July for a family reunion on the Douglas side and it was so great to see all of our long lost family. Surprisingly, the drive wasn't too bad, despite strapping in a very active 18 month old. We actually caravaned with Nate's brother Jim & they loaned us a few of their kids every so often to keep LJ busy. Our time in Texas was awesome, so here are some highlights:

We went to bounce house center that was a huge building just filled with bounce slides and obstacle courses. It was really fun, but it got a little competitive! All I can say is, I'm definitely not in the best shape these days. Whew!

Dan & Shelby getting ready to race.

Getting ready to go into the Fort Worth Zoo
& styling some fab reunion t-shirts.

LJ making a new friend. That little lizard was going bonkers!

Lincoln gave into the power of sleep somewhere
after Texas Wild but before Penguin Paradise.

The gang... we had quite a crowd.

We did a lot of other fun things that I didn't get pictures of, but overall it was a great trip with lots of great memories. A huge thanks to Dan & Shelby for hosting it and for the good meals and the good times. We miss you guys already!!!

An Overdue Update...

So, I hope everyone hasn't given up on me. It's been a really crazy few months and blogging is something I've just had to leave at the wayside. So, if you haven't heard yet, we have been trying to sell our house these last few months. Nate's been commuting for about 45 minutes to and from work every day (since October) and we know that our future just isn't here in Hurricane.

It's been devastating to us because we love our home and our ward and the community and the proximity to Mom & Dad Douglas. Not to mention the fact that we bought in the boom and are selling in the recession. Yeah. Good timing!

So basically we've been working like crazy to clean-up, clear-out, and make everything nice & shiny. Thanks to everyone that's been helping out with it (TOM!!! CEC!!! DIANE!!! TEHANI!!!). We totally owe our Hurricane crew for watching Lincoln, loaning tools, and donating time.

It's looking so nice that we really don't want to leave now, but as fate would have it we found a buyer for our house so look out Cedar City, HERE WE COME!!!!

Projects include:

Staging the porch with a new chair, plant, doormat, putting lattice over the extra door, repainting the trim, refinishing the exterior doors, replacing the house numbers, and replacing the hardware on the door.

The trim before

The trim after

Power-washing our cement work before & after.
I couldn't believe how dark & dingy it really was.


We refinished the the kitchen cabinets & added hardware. The door on the right is the original stain (though most of the doors were more worn & damaged than that one). The door on the left is one that has been stripped & sanded.

I don't have a finished kitchen picture, but the bases have the new stain on them. We did a dark, glossy walnut with brushed silver knobs & pulls.

No pictures, but we also repainted a few rooms, replaced some nasty linoleum, added new window treatments & accessories, and just staged it by clearing out the closets and rearranging our things a little bit. It was a lot of work, but it paid off!

Before & After

The computer room before I checked my e-mail:

The computer room after I checked my e-mail.

Kids... you gotta love em!

Father/Son Campout

Lincoln had his first camping trip last month (may) at the local father & son's outing. He had a great time with his daddy & his mom had a night off so everyone was happy!

LJ & Daddy outside their tent.

Getting fries from grandpa. Yummy!

Little wilderness boy on a hike with his dad.