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!

Diamondbacks

Adam and I spent the weekend in Arizona and among our many adventures, was attending the Diamondbacks game on the 4th. It was my first pro baseball game and it was fun... the Diamond backs lost, but the fireworks afterwards were great.

Make sure and stayed tuned for more about our adventures....We've got a few things to take care of before we can tell all!

Goin' Courtin

One of my favorites things to do during the summer in Boise is to travel up to Garden Valley and attend a Starlight Mountain Theatre production. I've attended at least one every summer since I've been here. I love it. Being outdoors, in a secluded mountain setting and watching a classic musical.

It was actually pretty funny when I told Adam I wanted to go, and then I told him it was an hour away, and then I told him how much it was - about $20 each, and then that the muscial was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. For those of you who know Adam you'll know I had my work cut out for me. But then things started to swing in my favor, not less than 15 minutes after telling him about it Thursday evening, I got an email from Starlight saying they were having a weekend special and tickets were just $10!!!

Well by Friday afternoon, Adam had given in and we were on our way to Starlight! The weather was perfect and the show was fun. I loved being able to share one of my favorite things with him and I think he might have enjoyed it at least a little bit!

Oh and on the way up I was hoping that my good friend Erica's granparents, Ben and Jan, who live in Garden Valley would be at the show and they were! In fact they sat right behind us! I was so excited to see them and introduce them to Adam. They are some of my favorite people - I still use their peach ice cream recipe because its the best.

Introducing CAPTAIN SHIELD

Have you ever hastily volunteered for something and a moment later thought "wow - this could potentially be the most embarrassing thing I've ever done"? Well this happened to me. A few weeks ago, one of the relationship managers I work for was telling me about U.S. Bank night at the Races. You see U.S. Bank is a major corporate sponsor of Capitol Racing, the local horse race company, and every year the Bank has a night that they encourage all employees and their family to attend. It just so happened that U.S. Bank night at the Races coincided with Mascot Night. We're not just talking Mascots that walk around and high five little kids - nope these Mascots get out on the track and run a race against each other! Well, it just so happens that U.S. Bank has a brand new mascot and its never been to Boise. But on this special night it would be here. So as Kathy explains to me how the Idaho Powerball, Humphrey the Hawk and many others will be running I quickly exclaim "OH I WOULD SO DO THAT!". And that's how it happened. I had just volunteered myself to suit up as none other than CAPTAIN SHIELD for a night!

I can honestly say it was a blast! I got to mingle with all the famous mascots - and let me tell you they are famous. The Idaho Powerball got screams and hollers - it was amazing. Really I just think people thought they could somehow get money if only they could meet the Powerball. Whatever. Here are some of the Mascots preparing to make our entrance into the grandstands:

After the initial introduction we were quickly escorted out (Mascots aren't allowed in the area of the track during a race. Seems the horses are a wee bit scared of the color red and as you could tell there's LOTS of red Mascots!) We were given a little break - it was only in the 70's but those costumes were HOT. I even had a cooling vest on with ice packs in it and I was a sweaty mess. After a few more horse races, it was our turn to take to the track. There were 3 heats and we really did line up in the horse shoots! The power ball had to be squished and pushed in - I'm still not sure how he fit - I had to stand sideways and someone had to push me out as well. Soon enough the gates flew open and we were off. I soon discovered Captain Shield is not a runner. His "Shield" is a little shifty and there are wood beams all over that can nail a persons nose pretty good if the Captain runs to fast - and with the arms sticking straight out the front there's really nothing to hold onto to steady the"Shield".
Well, I didn't come in first and I didn't come in last, but it was still a blast and we all got to stand in the winners circle just the same!