Random News

I was recently told that I need to blog more. My blogging usually consists of more photo's than words, but lately I have been forgetting my camera and so I guess I will just have to write about what is new. Right now our life is just kind of random, but here it goes.

We finally got internet, cable, and phone. The internet didn't work for three days after we had it installed, but now we have everything except we can't access our e-mail or any other settings. I can't tell you how much time has been wasted sitting on hold and listening to bad music and annoying announcements. Now we are having problems with our phone and after many more minutes on hold, they are just going to send another technician out to fix it. Add that to the four technicians that have come to the house to "look" at the leak we had in the basement which filled a big Rubbermaid tub every 3 days, and I can tell you that I am over it. They fixed the leak by putting new pipes in.

We went to our new ward. We feel like the Grandpa & Grandma of the ward. There are so many young military couples and probably 50% of the congregation is under age 8. We have met many people from Idaho that are in our ward. We've had quite a few "it's a small world" moments also. People here seem pretty friendly. The kids are getting to know other kids during the youth activities.

I guess the BIG NEWS of the week is that we closed on our house in Virginia Beach. We did okay considering the market that we we were up against. We are just so relieved to be done with the whole process. It was kind of sad Thursday night when we went to the house to get a few items that were left. It was sad, but it also didn't seem like our house without furnishings. It was empty and it echoed. We were lucky that we got to visit with a few friends during our very short trip. It's only been three weeks, but it was like we'd been gone for much longer.

The kids are doing good. Nellysa turned 16 and got a set of wheels. She hopes that she'll get 4 wheels next time. She and Kelby have both been riding their bikes and they both have a pretty good case of road rash. Kelby was also informed by the friendly base police that he has to wear a helmet while riding on base. Now, I'm sure that his Mom didn't tell him anything like that every time that he went to ride.

Well, I think that is about it for random news. Hopefully I'll remember my camera so you don't have to get a library card to read these long books that I end up writing.

Oh, one other thing YEA PHELPS!!!

New House

Well, here are some pictures of our new house. We have been here two weeks now, but were without internet until the other day. These pics are taken before we got our household goods.

We live in Maryland on an Army base. The house is a large 4 bedroom house w/ a two car garage. I have a front porch and I love sitting out there especially during rain storms. It smells so good (fresh air & rain). I will get a picture of the front of the house soon.

This is the living room on the main floor. The house sits on a slope, so from the front it looks like a one story house, but from the back, it is two story. The living room wall on the right is all windows.

This is the kitchen. The dining room is on the left and has windows surrounding it. I have not figured out what to do with all of these cupboards.The front door is on the right of this stairwell. It goes down, turns, and goes down some more.

This is the family room at the bottom of the stairs. The patio doors go out to a nice covered patio.

The hallway downstairs. The two doors on the right are bedrooms, the door at the end of the hall is the bathroom, around the corner is a laundry room, and the door on the left is the storage room. This is the storage room. Behind me is more storage area that goes back under the stairs.

The view along the right side of the house.The back of the house.

The view out back.
There are groundhogs here and they are huge. We also had a bunch of vultures that would sit in that dead tree on the right side of the last picture. It was really erie. I think we are going to enjoy living here.

Goodbye's

Just when I thought that I could trust the young women in our ward (especially MY daughter), they throw a surprise in the picture.

Every time I asked the girls what they were doing for activities, they told me that they were working on their "camp flag". Considering all the time they spent on the "camp flag", I was sure this would be the ultimate flag. On Wednesday night, my daughter reminded me that there was a meeting for the parents after the activity. Hmmm.... I was the only parent besides the leaders in attendance. It turns out, the "meeting" was to present me with a quilt that the young women made. They even had a "camp" sleep-over to sew their squares. They each picked out the background for their square and their picture and names were on it. Nellysa was pretty proud that she had kept this from me for over a month by using "camp" excuses.

Today, friends from our ward had a farwell open house. It was really nice to have a chance to visit with friends that we have known over the 12 years of living in the ward. Thank you to everyone who shared in our lives here in Virginia.

No party could be complete without people being thrown in the pool. Kelby was the first and then Nellysa followed. Of course, there were no "big kids" out there in the middle of it right Shawn?!

Thank you friends & ward family!

Kitchen

Half of the old kitchen. Diego is supervising.
Presenting...... The NEW kitchenOld wall New wall & light

I think it is nice. Wish we could have done this years ago.

Furniture

We decided to get a new bedroom set. All of the pieces match and everything. When it was delivered, I was worried that it wouldn't fit because it was so big compared to what we were used to. I guess you could say that we have "big people" furniture now.

Who's House is This??

We never claimed to be very bright, but this became apparent over the last few weeks. We are getting ready to sell our home. We have done a lot of work on the inside (I still need to show you my kitchen), but we recently got the outside spruced up. Why is it that we do all the nice stuff for other people to enjoy and we are content to live in the state of repair and "we'll do it someday"... not very bright.

Above is our home about a month ago.

A couple of weeks ago with a new roof. On each side of the upper windows is where the rotten shutters used to be. The color of the house under the shutters was a mint green. It was not pretty.

The finished product. Kirk also put in a new wood fence along the side yard to the right. I wouldn't mind living in that house!

Must be Spring!

We seem to be finding all kinds of birds.

Kirk was clearing out the backyard and went to move the grill. He tipped it and the lid came open and there was a Carolina Wren's nest inside with 4 baby wrens. This is their mother with food. She goes in under the back of the lid.

Here are the babies all snuggled in their nest.

Close up!
The BRAVE one of the bunch.

We were able to watch them for a few days. Now they are hopping through the bushes and trying their wings. You can hear them once in a while.