Moving In!

And here are the infamous countertops! We have passed our electrical & plumbing finals, the grass and finish grading is happening today, and we should be getting our CO tomorrow. We are moving in tomorrow!! We probably won't stay there until the weekend, but at least our stuff will be out of our apartment and where it needs to be! Praise the Lord for friends who can drop everything and help you move with less than 24 hours notice. :) L

Carpet was installed late last week. 

Not Without Delays...

Well, we are into crunch time for our house. We have to be moved out of our apartment by the end of the month... for all of you in la-la land that is 8 days from now. According to my master schedule we could have made it:

Wednesday: Carpet & Countertops
Thursday: Plumbing & Electrical Finals
Friday: CO Inspection (Certificate of Occupancy)
Monday: Sod
Tuesday: Close on Loan & Load Truck
Wednesday: Unload Truck
Thursday: Clean Apartment

So what happens when the countertops have a crack in them and they have to go back and remake them??? It means your plumber can't hook up the facuet and the electrician can't put in the dishwasher and the inspections have to wait until Friday or Monday, which means the CO must wait until Tuesday, and moving to Wednesday or Thursday and Closing on Friday... which means a few nights on the couch at my in-laws. :) And to top it all off we are going to be gone Friday and Saturday. (Did I mention that mud slid into the neighbor's yard during a rain storm, and even though we fixed it and cleaned up her yard she still managed to slip and break her arm and blame us?... and insurance doesn't cover it unless it was on our property? Fun times.)

On a happier note, Drew & I sorted through all of our papers last night, and got them filed and got my the extra bedroom TOTALLY packed... tonight is the kitchen and family room. And, our (new) house now has carpet. Wohoo! And Choir starts tonight!!!

L

Our Hero

We had an amazing weekend (2 delayed planes, and 2 lost bags later... thank you Delta). It was HOT, and we didn't have AC, so that made it mildly miserable, but it did cool off in the evenings and there were fans. Thursday was family day, so we were able to see Micah and learn about the what he has been doing for 4 months and then we were able to take him and his friend Jeris out for lunch. (They had to be back for bed by 8 :). Friday was graduation so we saw our own PFC Krishnan from Utah walk across the stage and graduate from Army Basic Training as a Combat Engineer. Saturday we had a BBQ and a friend from childhood, Tanya, came down to visit so we were able to catch up on our Utah days and mutual friends. Also, in accordance with Micah's wishes, we kept a good eating pace for the weekend, we had a BBQ, an ice cream cake, thai food, sushi, cake, pancakes, eggs, bagels, chocolate milk, chocolate covered nutter butters, oreos, hamburgers & a few other things in between. Sunday was church and then packing... my family left for home (driving) the same time we flew out (2 on time planes and no lost baggage... thank you Northwest).
And in closing I will leave you with my favorite marching cadence from the weekend... I used to date a beauty queen, now I have an M-16. :)

Micah and his Best Friend from Basic, Jeris. 

Micah and his favorite Drill Sargent 

Uncle Sam wants YOU! 

The true test.... PFC Durene & his drill sargent 

Visions of Basic Training 

Micah (2nd from right) and his best friend from basic, Jeris (1st on right) during urban training.  

Micah the Expert Marksman, he received 2 awards during the graduation ceremony as well.

Brothers L-R: Nathan, Micah, Ryan & Buzz (Aaron)

And here is a picture of our lovely hosts... I love being with other big families because they understand how they function! Back Row: Bruce, Joe & John... Middle Row: Maddie, Noah, Mimi, Meredith & Michelle. And on the floor is Mikaela. :) They were very sweet to move around and sleep on cots and floors and even outside, and fix meals for all 17-20 of us!

Asheville Regional Airport

Well, in an attempt to be on top of things Drew & I were checked in for our flight to Springfield, MO 1 hour 45 minutes early... only to have no line at the check-in counter, sail through security and walk the 10.5 feet to our gate... and then they delayed our flight: so here we sit. Thank goodness for wireless internet!

As I mentioned before, we are flying to southern MO this weekend to see my brother graduate from Army Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. It will be a great family weekend, all of my siblings my grandpa & great aunt will be there... sadly Micah's girlfriend wasn't able to make it due to a death in the family... please pray for the Massey family!

Based on Micah's letters we will be eating 5-6 times a day... cuisine includes an ice cream cake from Cold Stone, Thai food, sushi, buffalo wings, dutch oven dinner, pancakes & more... I guess when you eat the same yucky food for 4 months you dream of food all day long. :)

Have a great weekend, I know I will... despite the nasty hot & humid weather in southern, MO. Pictures coming next week!

L

Work-Filled Weekend

Here is Ryan working on grouting the kitchen and hallway. The weekend was spent cleaning windows, (thank you Missi!!) cleaning out the garage, grouting the floors, and sweeping the house in preparation for carpet and plumbing fixtures. What great fun! Oh yes... and just for an added twist the water line was already buried so we had to use ice water from the cooler to rince the floors... my hands will never be the same. L

And here is Andrew washing the floor after Ryan grouted it. My job was polishing the tile afterward...  

And here is our beautiful bathroom... we finished the tile around the tub (once we got it to stop squeeking) and grouted it... they installed the glass yesterday. It is beginning to look like a house! 

To My Neglected Friends...

If you have written me an email over the past two months that I have not returned I am very sorry. This blog is a good representation of my life right now... consumed with house stuff. It comes and goes in spurts, but when we are not at the house we are recovering and resting up to do it again. There is an end in sight, but it looks like the moving date is going to be the end of August, not the beginning as we had hoped. (Note to self: never use that cabinet guy again). There have been too many bullet point lists lately, I hope to have more interesting posts again soon, but here are a few of the things we have done lately:

• My favorite family from VA came to visit, I had a wonderful time showing the Blasdell family around Asheville during their three day stop. We managed to cover the Biltmore, the Grove Park Inn & Downtown Asheville, as well as hit the pool, twice, play war for hours and 5 rounds of Whoonu?. (Pictures below)
• Bele Chere - Asheville's Street Festival, second only to Mardi Gras... we explored the booths, had french chocolate crepes, gyros, polish sausage with sauerkraut, painted our names on huge canvas, saw Galatic ??, A funk band, with 10,000 other people, got beer poured down our backs as two women....... because their beer glasses were bumping together, saw break dancing in the street and watched 5 guys play drums for an hour.
• Drove to Hendersonville in search of cabinet handles and ended up walking around an art festival downtown and eating the most amazing carmeled apple ever! (No worries, we found all the pulls and knobs we needed).
• Made many many phone calls about our house, but it was worth it... we can now have lights, indoor plumbing and hot water!
• And last but not least... worked far too many hours at work. :)

Now all that is left is packing for our trip next week to see my brother graduate from Army Basic Training!! (In Southern MO, outside... not so !!) I guess we won't be going with just carry-on anymore...

Well, I have run out of things to say... ttfn!
L

Blasdell Children #'s 3, 1 & 2

And here are three of my favorite children (L-R Rachel, Joshua & Hannah) just goofing off at the Biltmore Estate while waiting for our taxi (and by than I mean their father in the minivan). :)

And... #4

And here is Nathan jammin' to Ryan's new IPOD.

Bumpersticker of the Day

Put Your Big Girl Panties On And Deal With It!

Pictures for My Mom...

More House Pictures... I know. Here is our fan, and a painted mantle... this is looking from the kitchen into the family room. It is almost looking like a real house!

Dining Room Fixture 

And here are our cabinets. I LOVE them. I know they look a little weird without the countertops. You can see the corner of the sink cabinet on the left, and the whole for the dishwasher. And you can't tell from the picture, but the knobs match the light fixtures. :)

Here is the little desk and pantry area near the back door. You can see the braces for the countertop on the left and the deck on the right.  

Sick of House Pictures Yet?

Well, I am posting a house picture anyway. I know there is one set of shutters missing... it will be here next week. And thanks to the 3 second delay in taking the picture Ryan is in it. :-P They are hanging light fixtures, putting in registers and plumbing fixtures and finishing the cabinet installation today. so there will be more pictures soon. :)

The World Is At My Fingertips!

I have loved maps for as long as I can remember. I played with globes as a child... and loved our geo-safari (all you homeschool geeks out there I know you had one too). And I even married someone who loves them... so when I told him we needed and atlas there wasn't much objection. :)

Well, we recently returned some books that I had gotten for Christmas so I had a credit at Barnes & Noble, then I got a coupon in the mail because I am a Discount Member... THEN last weekend was the no-tax-on-school-supplies-weekend...so, after much deliberation I decided on this DK Atlas (it had the best pictures, the most interesting facts, and was the biggest, thickest and most beautiful. :) And with all the discounts and it came out to exactly 25 cents less than the credit I had. So, I knew it was meant to be. I walked away with an awesome at atlas and a new Nebraska Quarter :). (Yes, I know what you are thinking... just one more thing to move... but it is worth it. :) L

Bumpersticker of the Day

My Road to Success

IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Ups & Downs of Home Building

Well, this is not the best picture since I took it in the dark, the only light is the flash. But here is a picture of our beautiful mantle which will eventually be painted white with black slate tile on the hearth and around the insert.

They have sanded the floors and put down the first layer of stain... I love the variation, I hope it stays after it is finished. The siding guys will be out there today to finish the siding and put the shutters up and the water and sewer lines are going into today as well (wohoo... we will have indoor plumbing!) And the landscaping should start early next week.

The house is moving along, but we ran into a big snag yesterday. It was the first time I have cried during this whole process. I was so angry and tired and frustrated and I just wanted to scream. We have run into relatively few problems along the way... little things here and there (and the foundation problems which we hoped would be the biggest issue). Well, we were supposed to have our cabinets and countertops installed on July 24th... well here we are almost 10 days later and the cabinets are not even delivered, let alone installed... And THEN yesterday the guy called me to tell me that the laminate countertop edge and color I wanted was going to be TWO WEEKS before it was in (he didn't bother to call 2 months ago when I had told him what I wanted, he had waited until 2 days before installation!). So, to make a long long long story short... My amazing husband called him and he is paying to extend our loan rate past the Aug 14th deadline and he is giving us granite countertops at his cost which is barely more than the laminate was going to cost. It still makes me mad that our house is delayed 5 weeks because of one man but I suppose I will live and it won't matter in 10 years so I probably shouldn't care. L