Black Widow

The white ball/onion looking thing is

the egg sack. She's upside down and

underneath it holding on.

Finally!

We finally closed on our house and are mostly moved in. We had an amazing team of women working on our side that got everything necessary done in 10 business days. Thanks SOOOOOO much to the Jeffers for all their help in this whole process too. We had hired a cleaning crew to do the house but apparently they thought the kitchen was just fine... I'm sorry but it wasn't. Kris came over and helped me scrub it down on Friday. Saturday Rich and Caleb moved almost everything in (while Brigit watched the younger kiddos TY!!!) while Kris, Kaden, Elias and I unpacked and put things in the right rooms. They helped us out ALL day. We couldn't have done it without them. We also had a couple neighbors drop by and help here and there. Yesterday Kris took my younger boys and Elias, Isaac and I got pretty much all the unpacking and putting together done. The house is relatively clean and livable now. We have phone, Internet and satellite back so we're on a roll!! Our home phone is the same as it used to be. Man I guess we're just about there. On Sunday the phone repair man came because the phones weren't working. While he was working in the basement I went and checked out one of our window wells and found a HUGE black widow spider with a giant egg sack. There was also a male one in the same well. FREAKY!! Kris and I didn't see any signs of them in the house in all our cleaning but having one so close still freaked us out. Caleb sprayed an entire can of killer on them yesterday and I think they're history now. Quite the welcoming crew! I tried to take some pix but they didn't turn out well through the glass and I wasn't about to get closer! (the Picture loading function isn't working so I'll have to post my sorry pictures later).

Norway Pictures

The hike up to this place was a lot harder than what everyone expected. Some of the group didn't quite make it but it was really neat. I didn't get close to the edge but some parents let their little kids sit right on the edge with their feet hanging over. I wasn't that brave or stupid but the views were amazing.

Carpet suggestions???

We are set to close on our house next Friday the 20th. Very exciting! If all goes as planned we're going to have the house cleaned on Thursday and want the carpets done too. We haven't hired a carpet cleaner since we bought our last house. We used COIT and I don't remember if they were good or not. Anyone local have any suggestions for the best bang for your buck cleaners?

Just a Few Pix

Home Sweet Home

We heard back during church today. The owner countered back to both offers and ours was best and we were fine with the counter so we are now under CONTRACT!! I was so touched by Isaac's faith through all this. It's amazing to see how in tune with the spirit he is. I went and pulled Isaac out of his Sunday school class to give him the news. He grinned from ear to ear and gave me a big hug. I had to fight back the tears as I thanked him for his faith. What a neat experience to share with a child. Back to the house...NO it doesn't have acreage, well it's on a half acre but that doesn't really count. For some reason it's just not our time to live on loads of land. We have our 20 acres in Idaho though so that has to count for now. We love our new house. We're so happy to be staying in the ward. We're happy that the kids schools will be what they expected and we're humbled by the Lord's plan for us and know we're where we're supposed to be. Thanks for your support and prayers!

FLUSHED

The poop house has been flushed. We found out on Friday night that the lady filed for one more extension and was able to close the deal. We can't believe we waited for two months to have it taken away! We had a few back up houses in mind and started to work on them only to find out they all got contracts in the last few days. So, we looked in an area we never thought we'd buy and found a house that we all LOVE (it's still in our ward)!! We made an offer and found out that another offer came in the same day! So we're waiting to hear back. They have until 5pm tonight to answer. Isaac started crying when he found out that we had asked for closing costs. He knew that meant it was less than a full price offer and that we could maybe lose the house over that. The boy is so emotionally vested in his future he's been a mess lately. Last night as I tucked him into bed he asked me if we were going to fast for the house (we've fasted about 4 times as a family in the last 2 months for our future plans). I said we could if he wanted to. He told me that he thought we should. So he and I are "fasting" breakfast today. Him - to get the house and Me- for Isaac to have answers to his faithful prayers and that he might gain a testimony of fasting and prayer. We all feel really good about this place so if we don't get it WE'RE JUST GOING TO RENT A HOUSE in the same subdivision that we just moved out of!

You Know The Kids Are Bored When...

...they ask if they can fill the iron up with water and use the spray function as a squirt gun. Four boys in a little apartment equals a crazy Mom!!