My Life

I would LOVE to be posting new pictures of the house, but alas we STILL have dial-up.... DUN DUN DUNNNNNN (SCEAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM) ha ha...
SO instead I am just going to update everyone on what I like to call "My Life" . . .
We are OFFICIALLY in the new house. We moved in the previous Friday Night. We had about 20 people from the new and old ward show up for the move and it took under two hours to get all my junk moved over...
ALL last week I was unpacking boxes, getting things WHERE they go, and cleaning out the garage so we would have work space to do the finishing touches on the house. I hope to do before and after shots of the rooms, but until then you just have to believe me that it was done!~
THEN Friday October 1st came... MOST of you know that is my birthday. Can I just give you a little break down of my recent birthdays... On my 23rd Birthday we bought our Condo. We signed the papers the week before, and we were remodeling it ON my birthday... Matt has a funny "trowel" story from that birthday but I would rather NOT tell you about it... JUST before my 25th Birthday I found out we were pregnant with Hailey... Just after my 27th Birthday Matt lost his job for the first time and I was 7 months pregnant and SO stressed... and on this my 29th birthday (AHEM 25 Years old for all those who asked) we tiled the Kitchen floor in the new house...
VERY big LIFE CHANGING things have happened ON or VERY NEAR my Birthdays. I like to think Heavenly Father is blessing me, but some of those blessings were VERY hard to take...
This year we celebrated the day before my birthday by going out to eat with the kids. We ALWAYS go to Red Robin for my birthday because you get a free burger!! It was neat sitting at the table with my husband and kids. When I get the opportunity to really sit back and take in my life, I feel wonderful because we REALLY are blessed!! It was a great way to celebrate early! :)
But what I like BEST about my birthday is that is ALWAYS falls near General Conference. As a child I HATED it! I mean what kid wants to be watching "old men" talk on their birthday?? It was a burden for me as a child, but now that I am an adult I am LOVING it!
To those of you who do not know what General Conference is... the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (which is the church I belong to) has leaders that speak to us twice a year. We have a Prophet who leads the church, and we also have Apostles to help him lead the church. They are the usual speakers at the General Conference. We also have other church leaders that speak at these meetings... they are the leaders from different branches of our church, Primary, Young Women's, Young Men's, Relief Society for Women... and various other Elders from the Quorum of the 70 which helps the Apostles lead the church.  ANYWAYS... they speak to us about different topics. Their words are inspired, and they help us with daily life struggles. The topics they choose to speak on ALWAYS pertain to a current trial we are facing as a people or as a nation. It is BEAUTIFUL to hear the words spoken, and uplifting to take them into our daily lives. Since I have been SO busy with the new house, it was a EXTRA blessing to sit down and enjoy General Conference this year. What a WONDERFUL Birthday weekend!!
So between the new house, the kids, my birthday, the Fresno State game, and conference we had a FUN FILLED weekend!! (Fresno State beat Cal Poly just in case you were wondering... pictures of that to come later...)
THIS week we plan on:
~Grouting the Tile in the kitchen
~FINALLY switching out the electric outlets and switches
~ Getting the area rug! YEAH!!
~ Putting up some baseboards
and sitting back and admiring ALL the little things we have done to make our house a HOME! :)
This upcoming weekend I have a GIRLS RETREAT with my dear friends Amber, Megan and Amy... we are leaving the kids with the boys and getting away to celebrate our birthdays together! :) (all our birthdays are within a month of each other... don't you LOVE it!)
Hopefully pictures to come soon... pray AT&T gets their act together and I get REAL Internet access... :)
UPDATE ~ I had someone remind me that I FORGOT to mention our house got broken into on my birthday... YEAH you heard me... some very mean people broke into my house and ... LEFT me a CAKE and a Balloon. My girlfriends (with whom I am going to celebrate our GIRLS RETREAT with) came over to my house expecting my husband and I to be tiling the kitchen floor. Unfortunately we had left to get dinner for the kids, but FORTUNATELY we returned JUST in time to catch them in the act. They drove around a little looking for us at Lowe's and did not find us, so they went back to the house, and went in through the windows I left open because it was nice outside... LOL! ~ THANKS GIRLS! The cake was AMAZING! In fact I had a piece just last night! :)

DIAL-UP

Dial-Up is RETARDED...
So is AT&T...
I called to transfer my service to the new address, and guess what??
They forgot to transfer the High Speed Internet Services...
It WAS going to be ALL ready when we moved in on Friday.
BUT NO...
My lovely husband has been calling them daily and they are expediting everything...
YEAH RIGHT.
At least we got some perks out of the MESS...
2 Free Months High Speed Internet AND a $75.00 Visa Gift Card.
GOOD JOB HUBBY!!!
But dial up sucks so I will not be online too much... so until then...

P.S. But on the bright side because I have not had Internet I have been unpacking and getting my house in order! :)

House Work

MAN... I forgot or I had NO idea how much work this "house work" would be!!
We got the keys to the house on the 14th and started the "remodeling" that same day.
First thing we did was start to pull the wallpaper down. We were having the house painted, and needed that done ASAP!
The painters painted everything but the bedrooms and the bathrooms. I wanted more time to pick out the colors I really wanted in those rooms. We went with a VERY neutral taupe color.
As the painters painted Matt and I worked on the bathrooms and the Laundry Room tile. We had to pull up carpet from the bathrooms, and that was a TASK I tell you! I hate tack strips! By doing this we had to pull out the toilets... so NO toilets for us to use while working...
LUCKILY for Matt and I my mother came to help watch the kids for us to be able to work. It was SOOOO nice having her here. Not only did she take care of the little ones she also made dinners AND sewed my Living Room Drapes together for me. I decided to do black and red checkerboard... I hope they look as good up as they look laying on the floor! :)
Both our fathers came for the weekend to help with the floor. We ripped out all the carpet in the Formal Dinning Room, Living Room, and halls and closets in the hall. Then we had to pull up the entryway flooring. We are currently laying the laminate floors as I type. We are SO close to being done, but we have hit the hardest part of the house.
We grouted the tile in the bathrooms and laundry room yesterday. Travis Cluff did the majority of it! THANKS TRAVIS!~ And Amy Harden has been watching the kids for us this week so far. THANKS AMY!!
I hope to get the kitchen all clean for when we move in. I'd rather put all the kitchen stuff in CLEAN cupboards then having to clean later.
A few things we NEED to finish are:
The baseboards in the Laundry room ~ I'd love to have all the baseboards done, but I REALLY need them done before we put the washer and dryer in there.
The outlet covers changed over. We are going from the Almond cover to WHITE...
New Sconces picked out for the hall... Matt and I can't agree on what we really like yet...
And I need to order the area rug I want...
Matt just called and told me he ordered the new door handles...

MAN WHAT AN OVERHAUL!!
PRAY for us! ~

ANDERSEN CHRISTMAS ~

It's THAT time of the year again... My family "Pull's Names" for Christmas.
It was just easier to put the list on my blog to announce it to all my siblings... here you go...

KIDS
Kim- Hailey
Logan- Landon
Hailey- Logan
Katelyn- Kim
Owen- John
Landon- Owen
John- Evan
Evan- Katelyn
($20.00 Limit for Kids Presents)

ADULTS
Dad- Matt
Mom- Tiffany
Steven- Preston
Matt- Dad
Tiffany- Nicole
Melissa- Crystal
Brian- Steven
Nicole- Sharon
Crystal- Melissa
Sharon- Mom
Preston- Brian
($30.00 Limit for Adults Presents)

HAPPY SHOPPING~

Random Thoughts Today

Hailey has been a "hard child" for me.
I think it is because she had a hard time communicating with us.
Just recently she has become an "easier child".
~She listens to me, and does the things I ask her to do.
~She has few potty accidents, and is able to let me know when she needs to go.
~She gives her brother loves when he is crying and says "It's OK brother."

~Instead of crying and throwing a fit she tells me, or shows me what she wants.

Sure we have bad days, but overall my parenting experience it getting better.

I think that is REALLY WHY it is called the Terrible Twos... they can't quite yet communicate their wants and needs... so it is a HORRIBLE experience for everyone involved.

I am SO glad she is growing up but SO worried for Landon to hit the Terrible Two's ...

UPDATE

The CONDO is Officially RENTED . . . they move in October 1st 2010 (happy early birthday to me)

THE LOAN DOC'S for the new house are signed . . . we move in NEXT WEEK!!

And I am ONE happy momma...

OFF to Lowe's, Home Depot, Restore, and Flooring Liquidators...

 I've got to get some "stuff" I've gotta get! :)

FRESNO STATE FOOTBALL

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!???

THE Home Opener this year was SOOOOO good!

We played Cincinnati... they were favored to win, but guess what???

FRESNO STATE WON!!

We did not look too hot the first quarter, but after we got into the groove, we STOLE the game from them! Our usual buddies The Bakers watched the kids and Matt and I got to enjoy a "Date Night" out . . .

and we got season tickets with our other buddy Brent Cutts (and his brother Jordan).

Here we are ALL ready for the game

(YES my FRESNO STATE GEAR IS PINK)

And here is the view we get of the game . . .

GOTTA LOVE those "WAC" Wins!!

GIRLS NIGHT OUT EPIPHANY ~

I let myself get SO worked up about what other people think about me...
I get hurt when people see me for someone I am not, and I want to change their idea of who I am...

WHY DO I DO THIS??

If someone wants to pass judgement on me before even getting to know me, then WHY would I care what they think about me??
I know... I know...

What other people think about me does not matter...

BLAH BLAH BLAH... but easier said than done...

LATE LAST NIGHT... and I mean LATE... my girlfriends and I (SHOUTOUT to: AMY, AMBER, and MEGAN... HOLLA) were just hanging out, eating bonbon's (literally, I made bonbon's because that is what I tease Megan I do all day is eat bonbon's and watch TV) and just talking. Most of our conversations are about our kids, or our husbands or lack thereof... we laugh about something stupid that happened that week, or re-hash something dumb we put on facebook back and forth. We just hang out and have fun. We can be ourselves because there REALLY is no judgement being passed. I know I can open up to these girls and they truly care about me and we all want to help each other get better...

Well, last night I was telling the girls how much it bothers me when people don't like me, or judge me because of something stupid. It makes me angry because I don't have the happy go lucky life they think I have. And that it also makes me angry that when people say mean things to me, I don't say what I want to say back to them. Anyway, I asked HOW do I get over what other people think or say about me?
I got the usual answer "It does not matter what other people think."
In my mind I kept thinking "yes it does."
Then Amber said "WHY do you care what other people think?" "They don't matter, why let them matter." and it HIT me...
WHY DO THEY MATTER...
Why do I make room in my life for "mean people"
Why do I let RUDE comments get under my skin...
Before my conversation with my girlfriends I wanted to buy THIS t-shirt...

NOW I want to buy this one, and LIVE by its words...

When I got home from Girls Night Out I wrote a few things down for me to read and remind myself of my new found EPIPHANY... (I am a visual person)

If THAT is what you think of me,
 then you don't even know me.

And that is a shame because you can keep on thinking that. . . my life will go on. . .

I am a COOL person. I am a GOOD friend. I am SO FUN to have around.

If you don't want to get to know me, then it really is your loss...

I am going to TRY to get over my worries about what "other people think" WHY would I really care anyways. I know who I am.

it's MINE!!

WE GOT THE LOAN!

WE GOT THE HOUSE!

WE SIGN NEXT WEEK!

WE GET THE KEYS ON FRIDAY!

(September 10th, 2010 that is)

SOONER than EXPECTED...

I'M A LITTLE EXCITED...

CAN YOU TELL??

We have a CONDO for Rent ~

So... YEAH... Just wanted to get the word out so people can let me know if they have anyone interested. Matt and I bought a condo at Palm Lakes Homes 6 years ago. It has been a rental for almost 3 years now, and we are ONCE again looking for some GREAT people to rent to... We just painted the WHOLE place and had the flooring cleaned too. It is READY to move into TODAY!!

DETAILS:
Two Story Unit
Two Bedrooms
One Full and One Half Bath
Full Kitchen
Inside Laundry
(all appliances included)
just under 1200 sq. feet
LOTS of Storage
Landscaping taken care of by HOA, NO YARD WORK!!

PICTURES...

Front of Condo

View from Living Room

View of Dinning Area and STORAGE...

View of Kitchen

View of Living Room from Kitchen Area

UPSTAIRS PICTURES:

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom view of Closet

Second Bedroom

View of Full Bathroom

We are looking for some nice people to rent it. Perfect for Fresno State Students or a Small Family. PLEASE let me know if you have anyone interested!!

We are asking $850.00 for a 12 months lease. That includes Rent, HOA dues, Water, Sewer & Garbage. You are only responsible for PG&E...