Diana, Ryan, Zander and Moose all came to visit. We had so much fun! Bill and Ryan went golfing while Diana, Zander and I went swimming. Z is soooo brave around dogs that are three times his size and sticks his face right up to the dogs, just hoping to get kisses. We all agreed that he actually thinks he is a dog.

It's that time of year!

All I want to cook lately is soup! I made veggie soup last week and potato soup tonight... so delicious!!! A couple people asked for my recipe and I truly take after my mom in that I don't follow recipes very well. I usually don't measure and I add whatever I think sounds good so here's basically what I do:

I saute chopped onions and celery.

Add chicken broth and cheddar cheese soup and wait til it boils.

Add potato flakes.

Add baked, chopped red potatoes (I leave the skins on) and some cheddar cheese.

Make sure it's warm through.

Serve it with fat free sour cream, turkey bacon, and a little more cheddar on top.

I made some Tastefully Simple beer bread with it.

If you look on allrecipes.com, you'd probably find a better recipe (if you're into measuring and all that nonsense)

Better yet, just come over some time and I'll make it for you:-)

I love all the beautiful deer around here!

I found Bill's camera, which I was using about a year ago and wanted to post some old pictures.

Nieces and nephews...

fun fall festival last year

These are from the night we got engaged :-)

Shan and me

dog pictures...

Palmer loves to snuggle...

especially with Brin in the car

on Palmer's first birthday

We went to the Centerburg Old Time Farming Festival and saw lots of tractors, animals, and good food! It was fun!

They were just sitting, looking at me so cute... and yes, Brin is wearing a lei...

Our new house!
I took these pics the night we closed... I know the pics are a little excessive, but I'm so excited and maybe can get some good decorating ideas from my creative friends! We have tons of boxes in now (scattered everywhere and driving my crazy!). This weekend, I hope to get a ton of the organizing done!

Garage

Office

Guest bedroom

Kitchen

Eating area

Can you tell I love the kitchen???

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

Laundry room (right next to MB!)

Living Room

Deer in our front yard:-)

When we started moving things in- can you tell I don't feel good? :-)

We finally closed on buying and selling the houses!!!!!!

My dad came down yesterday and helped Bill move a bunch of stuff and they're moving more today. Bill's family came up last night to help us get a few more things too (I've had a death cold for the past few days and have NOT been doing as much as I'd like to be)! We have to be out by Saturday night- The lady that sold us her house didn't have to be out until Wednesday, but she handed us the keys at closing (which was SO exciting!). Thanks to everyone that has helped!!! We appreciate you more than you will ever know!

We spent the night at the new house last night- it's so quiet and it was a great night to sleep with the windows open and listen to the night sounds! The dogs seem to like it- Palmer was kind of nervous last night, but seemed to be back to his old self by this morning. We still need to get a fence up, but Apple Valley has all sorts of restrictions on the kind of fence you can put up, so that might be a challenge.

Anyway, if you can't tell, I'm really excited. I took pictures that first night we went to the house and will post them as soon as I can. I can't wait to get organized and have people over!!!

Kristin (Bill's sister), Raymie (nephew), Bill and I went to the Clipper's game tonight and had so much fun! We had great seats and the weather was beautiful!















dance-off

So far, everything is still a go with the house situation- I'm getting really excited, but was very sad when I was packing up my craft room. I've been packing and trying to get ready to go back to school. I went into school today and got about a foot away from hitting a deer on the way. Very scary! I got a lot done, but am going back on Monday. Shannon came over and brought me boxes and helped me pack and Sharon is coming tomorrow. Thank goodness for great friends :-)

We visited my grandparents while I was home. They're such amazing people! My 92 year old grandpa has a garden twice the size of mine and is WAY more weed-free than mine is :-) and my grandma just finished caining (caning?) this chair for my aunt.

More house drama...
Okay, so last we left off, the buyer had backed out. The seller that we were buying our house from was also in contract on another house, so it was the trickle down effect. She called our realtor the next day and said that she'd take money off her price so we could put it toward the fixes that our buyer wanted. So we contacted the buyer (who was still very wishy-washy"I have to talk to my parents" or "I need another 50 people to come inspect everything") and had another basement guy out to tell us if we really needed I beams put in the basement. He said he wouldn't if it was his house, but if you were to be extra cautious, he'd put in 6 at the most (the buyer had requested 11). So, we contacted the buyer AGAIN and told him that we'd have a structural engineer out and we'd to whatever he said we should do to the basement. The seller shoots back with a quick "no, want 11 I beams installed" (which just tells me he wants the $ and knows the I beam talk is crap.) so we tell him that we'll stick to the original offer, and include the money from our seller... He wants to have someone come out and inspect the roof again (the flashing around the chimney is questionable) and get an estimate of how much that'll be to fix. Keep in mind that this guy is getting a steal on this house to begin with... So anyway, he agreed to that, so we're in contract again... I'm not holding my breath or anything but here's hoping!!! I might've missed something, so I hope this all makes sense.