A Reveal

Remember this??

Well I finally turned it all into this!

So in love with it! I had plenty extra to make pillow case and throw pillows. I love the way it brightens up our room and the little bit of blue in the fabric makes the walls pop more!

We're HOME!!!

This is it, our new home! Its so exciting to have bought a home together- yes the one in Boise was "ours" but since Adam had been living there for a few years before I ever came along, and I knew we wouldn't be there for too long, I never really connected to it. The picture above is taken from across the street and shows our nice big corner lot, complete with RV parking (we're awaiting your visit Grandma & Grandpa!) . Yes there are no cars out front because we've cleared out the garage and both cars fit! YEA!


Another front view, but important because you can see we actually have grass! I was so excited for this. So many homes down here just have desert landscape, and grass just feels homier!





As for this thing, well its ridiculous. I'm not sure why they planted it here or what purpose it serves... we'll be getting rid of it soon. Hopefully we can manage to transport it to the backyard.




And now my favorite room in the house:

Yes, I know its not 'in' the house but I love it! I love that we have a pool. I love that we have some landscaping to do. I love that we have a potential guest house (thats the building you see on the left) and I love this guy:

is our ginormous Saguaro cactus. Those of you who haven't lived in AZ might not know that its illegal to get rid of these guys, so we'll have him around for a long time. I'm thinking maybe we should name him - any suggestions?

Oh and I can't wait to eat this later this winter.... mmmmmmmmmmmmm (for those of you who don't know, this is an Orange). I can almost taste it!

That's about all for now. I don't have pictures of the inside yet - I'm still trying to get decorations and things settled in. So more to come!

Please Forgive me...

I just wanted to let everyone know that blogging and email will be a little touch and go here for a few weeks. We are getting "settled" into our temporary apartment right now and will not have internet access until we move into our new home! I am so excited about our house and hopefully we will be in it in a month or so. Until then, I'll try to post when I can and respond to emails the best I can, but probably won't have any pictures or anything for awhile.

Current update: work is going well, just lots of training and reading. Adam is studying for his Series 6 and Series 63 licensing so he can start his new job soon.

Other notes: A very well lunged rooster wakes me up every morning at the crack of dawn... which here comes well before 6 o'clock.... we will be living no dishwasher, no washer, no dryer, no microwave, no bathroom outlet for the next month - wish us luck! (I'm drying my hair in the kitchen... is that sanitary? Don't answer that please! I'm trying to figure out how people who don't "cook" survive. I'm not used to trying to plan all my meals around what doesn't take flour, sugar, sauces, canned goods, other kitchen electronics etc.... Any ideas would be great!

We made it!

I thought I better let everyone know we are here in Arizona! Well, we are here but our stuff still isn't! Hopefully we get it tomorrow. The only plus side with that is I'll be at work and won't be here to help unpack it in the 100+ degree weather..... darn! Sorry Adam.....

We rolled into town Tuesday evening (we drove 10 hours on Tuesday only stopping once for gas, that's some good bladder control if you ask me!). Wednesday was car shopping day for Adam. We found one and so far he really likes it. Its an Audi and he got a really good deal on it; if I wasn't so lazy right now I'd go take a picture to post... maybe later!

Thursday was Adam's birthday. He had an interview Thursday morning with Farm Bureau Financial Services. They basically begged him to come work with him. So now he'll be working on studying for his insurance and investment licenses and hopefully pass the test swiftly so he can get back to work soon! I think he'll do great at this job and really like it. The greatest blessing is that its only about 3 miles from my work, which makes finding a house soooo much easier. There for awhile we were going to be spread out clear across the valley so we're very excited about this. I also had to make an appearance at American Express on Thursday to sign some papers and get my orientation documents. I was so excited to see the dress code. Its business casual, however nice shorts and jeans are considered appropriate! WOOHOO! I made Adam take me shopping Friday for a new outfit that better fits the climate down here.

Yesterday we went house hunting and I'm happy to report that it was much better than last time. We found a house we really like and are hoping to make an offer on it this week. Our house in Boise hasn't sold yet, but we're still hopefull that will happen soon - anyone interested?

Well, that's the catch up on whats going on down here!

Next stop.....ARIZONA!

We're almost on our way! The house is cleaned, the car is loaded and these two hummers are packed to the gills -


Now we're just sitting and waiting for the movers to come pick up our cubes. I can't believe how much stuff Adam was able to stuff in them. Its like a huge game of tetris in there.... I'm pretty sure he'll be unbeatable at Dr. Mario from now on! These cubes are only 6' wide, 7' across and 8' tall.... We have two of them and that's it. And don't think we aren't taking a bunch of stuff with us, in those cubes we have: a king size bed, big table, 6 chairs, elliptical machine, couch, love seat, fridge, 55" big screen (not the flat ones either) TV, mountain bike, 2 big book cases, 2 folding tables and chairs, a big movie case, not to mention all our boxes of clothes, books, scrapbooking supplies, sewing stuff, loads of sports equipment, etc..... I can't believe we got it all in!

We've had some interesting occurrences since we started this adventure. One occurred last Sunday, and while it has nothing to do with us moving its still very crazy!

This is a close up of our TV. You might think that there is a spider on the screen. Well you'd be wrong. This little fella is BEHIND the screen. I don't know how he got in there, but Adam went to kill him and realized he was inside the TV! He eventually crawled away, and I just hope he doesn't come back and die right in the middle of the screen... or worse lay eggs and have us forever viewing arachnophobia!
Another incident happened with the TV as Adam was packing up. He had it on the driveway to load into the cube and as he was inside the cube making room for it he heard a funny noise. He looked out just in time to see the TV rolling down the driveway! He flew out of there and barely caught it before it hit the curb. He still gets scared every time he hears that story.

One of the strangest things I found while cleaning were these little guys:



So you might not be able to tell what these are, but they are little catnip mouses. Yeah, we don't have a cat, Adam's never had a cat. But apparently the previous owner did! And apparently the previous owners did not clean under the stove. I pulled the bottom tray out and started sweeping and all these little guys came swarming out. It makes me wonder if the previous owner ever wondered where the heck her cat hid all those things!

The joys of packing and selling a house... at the same time.

Nearly one week into packing and selling, I can tell you its quite a daunting task. I know many of you can probably relate. I've moved several times. This is the 4th place I've lived since I moved to Boise 5 years ago. However, this is the first time I've had to move a whole house and not only that, in the past I could just huck all my stuff into a car or two and not really have "pack" things down very good. You start to really consider what stuff you want and what you can do without when you know you have to fit it all into a couple little moving pods.

But probably the hardest part is doing all this while maintaining a clean, clutter free home. Everyday we pack stuff up and then we have to clean everything back up. Since our house is on the market we just don't know when someone might want to come see it. So every morning we have to make sure the bed is nice and neatly made. The counters are completely cleared off. Dishes out of the sink. And in general no clutter. EVERY TIME we leave. I don't consider myself to be a messy person, but I'm also not a neat freak so it somewhat of an annoying task. Somehow we've managed to contain most of the moving clutter to Adam's office and the extra bedroom. Just one more week!

Yep, this sign is in our front yard; so that means we must be moving!!! Its true, Adam and I are packing up and heading to Arizona in, gulp, two weeks! I know crazy. Last week during our trip to Arizona I had a job interview and a subsequent offer that we accepted. We've given our two weeks notice at work and listed our house for sale and we're one our way. Its very exciting and very overwhelming at the same time.

I'll be working as a Financial Analyst for American Express and I am very excited about it. I think its going to be a very good career move for me with lots of opportunity to grow and advance. The Phoenix area has the biggest number of American Express employees with over 7,000 and I'll be working at a center with over 3,000 employees. American Express is ranked in the top 100 employers and I'm excited about the opportunity to join the company. Getting hired happened FAST. I sent in an application, was set up for a phone interview within a week and two days later they called to set up an appointment to fly me in for an in person interview. We were able to coincide it with a planned trip to Arizona for the 4th. I interviewed and they called me the next day to offer me the position.

Adam is still working on his options. Eventually he would like to return to school to get his MBA and he wants to do that at ASU or Thunderbird. We weren't enjoying his current job situation and he's ready for a change.

We spent some time checking out houses while we were down there. It was a bit overwhelming for me... OK a BIT is an understatement. I was way overwhelmed. Houses down there DO NOT look like they do in Boise. I have no idea what to look for. I don't know what a nice house looks like or what a nice neighborhood looks like. Around here you basically look for grass and nice siding.. yeah there's hardly any grass in Arizona and siding is actually not a good thing down there. Who knew.

So our plan is to pack everything furiously, and head out in two weeks. We'll live in an apartment for a couple months while we sell our house here and find something down there. It will be difficult to leave family and friends here, but it will be great to be close to our Arizona family as well. It was a lot of fun being with them this last weekend and meeting my new nephew and I look forward to competing for favorite Aunt Status. I think Adam might have some trouble being the favorite Uncle for awhile cause little Brycen doesn't seem to care for him too much! It also helps that my good friends Andy and Erica are down there so I'll already have some friends in the area as well.

As soon as we're settled we welcome anyone to come visit us! My dad informed us he'll be visiting us in January and wants to slide down a water slide... I guess we better find a house with a pool!

For those of you here in the Boise area, we'd love to see you one last time before we leave - we're crazy busy but if we can find time to go to lunch, dinner or just stop by and say hi we'd love it! And for those of you in Arizona, see ya soon!

Du du du looking at my back door

So I live in Boise right? Well for those of you reading this who aren't in Boise, let me just tell you that I grew up in the Treasure Valley and I've spent the last 4 years in Boise, but never never do I remember seeing this much snow here!!! Now I also spent 4 years in Logan so I know what winter is all about (I mean how many people get a snow day at college? Yeah, it happened), but this is just not normal for Boise. And if it does snow in Boise it doesn't stick around. Not this year, I don't even remember the last time I didn't see snow somewhere on the ground! This picture is what I woke up this morning, just like the many others with new snow in the last month or so. Crazy.