Our House

We've been in the house for a week now, and I'm discovering cool things (and a few not cool things) about it every day.

Some favorite things:

- Mail slot - it makes getting mail exciting :)

- Laundry chute

- Blinds - a pleasant surprise since I thought I hated them before we moved in

- Tree in the front yard

- Street sign - I don't know why I like this...it's not like it's OUR street sign...but I love it

- Basement - not that I would just go hang out down there, but I'm so glad we have a non-scary basement

- Mysterious writing on the wall in the secret bomb/tornado shelter downstairs. Seems some girls had some fun down there in the 40s.

- The overall feeling of the house - it reminds me of my grandparents house (which is full of good memories), and just feels homey...which is a good thing!

Some not so favorite things:

- The light (or lack thereof) in the master bedroom - we need to change some bulbs but it looks like such a hard job neither of us has decided we have the energy to deal with it as of yet

- Tiny bathroom

- Tiny Closets - we realized this before we moved in, but once you start to put clothes in them you realize just how small they are!

- Empty wall in the bathroom - still not thrilled the previous owners took the mirror off the wall, but what do you do?

Undecided things:

- Hardwood floors - I've never had hardwood floors before...and while I think maybe I'll learn to like them for now they just seem cold and hard

- Rose bush - The previous owners clipped all the roses before they left, so it's a little sad looking right now

- Garden in the backyard - I hate it right now, but maybe after I spend some time out there cleaning it up I will have a change of heart

Okay, that's all I can think of off the top of my head...I have a lot of thoughts about the home buying experience...hopefully I'll have the time in the next week or two to write them all down and share them!

Goodbye Bushes!

Today we had a guy come and do an estimate to do some trimming of everything overgrown at our new house. He gave me a quote this morning which was just too good to turn down. He said he would come next week to do the work but called a bit later and said his afternoon had opened up and he could do it today!

I was so happy to see the bushes come down and the tree trimmed up. He even did some extra trimming to other bushes and overall it looks great! There's one part that seems a little "naked," but it will grow and I think it needed to be cut back so much because of how overgrown it was.

Anyway, here are some before and after pics for your enjoyment :)

House Before

House After

Side bushes before

Side bushes after - these are what I think look a little naked...

(sorry for the poor quality of picture...I was losing light fast :))

Tree before...

Tree after!

Auden!

A few weeks ago we got to watch Auden, the son of a friend of ours. We did all the fun stuff like go to McDonald's, swim in the pool, and watch a movie (we started with Cat in the Hat but after 30 seconds he freaked out and wouldn't watch anymore so we put in The Fox and the Hound). It was so much fun!

Mold...

So the other day Kristin was starting to clean out our closet in preparation for the upcoming move. She picked up a suitcase that had been in the corner of the closet for the past two years to find mold growing all over the place - all over the suitcase, the carpet, the wall, clothes...ew.

Drying it all out after the carpet had been pulled up...

A bit blurry, but look at how nasty!

Dory checking it out after the "fix"...this is how the closet currently looks. Yuck

The apartment management didn't seem too concerned about it, but it STUNK. We ended up moving the mattress into the living room for a few nights. Kristin couldn't really smell it as much as I could and eventually she said she wanted to move the mattress back (mostly because it was taking up our entire living room making it difficult to get around and pack). I slept on the couch.

Finally the maintenance guy came in and cut out the carpet and cleaned the wall a bit. He said he would be back to replace the carpet...but that was 4 days ago and he hasn't been back since. I have loved living here...but I can't help but be happy we're moving in 6 days. :)

House!

We bought a house! Most people that read this probably already know this, but I thought I'd say it here anyway. The process has been relatively low stress (to what everyone has always told me the process is supposed to be like). We looked at homes, made an offer on this one that day, and heard back 2 1/2 hours later that our offer had been accepted! The sellers are even replacing the roof for us! The closing date is set for July 17. Here's to hoping the process continues to go as smoothly as it has so far.

Growing Up

So today I had a couple of those "omg I'm so old" moments.

The first came when my sister, Cassi, called to tell me a few things about a family I knew from Nephi, Utah, my hometown. I babysat for them years ago and taught their youngest son in church when he was 3. The "I'm so old" feeling came when she said he is now 10. 10?!? While 7 years may not sound like that long, it was just the last time I lived at home that I taught him...which only seems like a couple of years ago. Their oldest daughter (who I used to babysit) is now married. Gosh, I'm old.

The second one came when I called the local optometry place in Nephi. I order my contacts from them because if I order them from my eye doctor here I have to pay $100 for a contact lens appoitment and the contacts are expensive. If I order them from the place in Nephi I just have to send my current prescription and they ship me way cheaper contacts with no contact lens appointment. Anyway, so the people who own the optometry place were our neighbors growing up. The guy answers and I say "Hi Clint, it's Danette how are you?" At that moment I had this strange 'living in two worlds' feeling. It's strange talking to people you knew when you were young and calling them by their first name...and talking to them as an adult...It was a bizarre feeling for a moment...Talking to this man who had always been "Brother so and so" (all adults are called brothers and sisters in the Mormon Church) who was now Clint...a man who I am now somewhat equal to. Bizarre.

Let the decluttering begin...

Sympathy...

I have always had sympathy for people with chronic pain, but now I REALLY get it.

Over the past year I've had pain in my joints.  Usually it's just a dull achey sort of pain with intermittent periods of sharp pain.  It never bothered me enough to go to the doctor, though.  I hate the doctor.  It takes A LOT to get me in to a doctor's office.  Over the past several months it's gotten worse, though, and now my muscles are giving me trouble.  It's pretty much constant pain all the time, and if I sit, stand, lay down, walk, lift, bend, or stretch too much I'm in tons of pain.  

I have tried going to the chiropractor (who has helped my neck, but not the muscle pain in my back), frequent visits to the hot tub, and massage...none of which has done anything long term.  So finally I relented and went in to see my doctor last week.  She thinks it may be a side effect of a medication I'm on, but just in case she took 10 (yes TEN) vials of blood to test for various things.  She doubts those will show anything and told me to go off the medication and wait for six weeks.  SIX WEEKS?!?  Ugh.  I'm hoping that's what it is because I don't think I could deal with this for the rest of my life.  It sucks.  So to everyone out there who is living with chronic pain?  Kudos to you. 

Sunday Adventures

Okay, so once everyone flaked out on me for the May Day Parade I decided I needed to get out of the house and figured I would just start driving and see where I ended up.  I got on 94E and found myself crossing the border into Wisconsin (I'm going to apologize for the quality of photos right now...they were taken with my phone while traveling 55-75 mph).

After awhile I saw signs for Crystal Cave and decided I needed to see what that was all about, so I exited.  Another sign, off the exit, told me to go 6 miles.  I did.  And then 7 and 8 and 9.  No other signs, no directions as to where to turn to find the mysterious cave...so I turned around and went back to where 6 miles was and turn down a road.  After awhile I turned down another road and another.  Eventually I decided that I wasn't going to find the cave and turned around again...except I must have missed a turn somewhere because I wasn't finding the main road again, and I had no idea where 94 was.  I did see lots of trees, though...

And I saw (and smelled!) lots of cows...unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them.  They moved too fast ;)

**Photo Comment**  Kristin sees a smiley face in the clouds in the photo above.  I see a monkey.  Either way it makes me happy.

Eventually I found myself back on 94 and decided to continue the adventure by heading even further east.  Next I saw a sign for a bison meat store and gift shop and figured I needed to stop there.  I was all set to buy some bison meat for a good ol' bison burger until I saw how cute they were...

So I left the bison ranch empty handed.  I figured I needed a little more adventure, so I headed east again until I reached Menomonie.  I'd never been there, so I decided to take a drive around town.  I promptly got lost which up until this trip has never really been an issue for me...

Eventually I found my way back to 94 and decided I should probably head home (although a trip to Eau Claire and Madison seemed tempting).  The ride back home went quickly and was quite uneventual...but I did learn a few things:

1.  Bison are cute.

2.  I'm addicted to Diet Coke.

3.  Either I don't have as good of sense of direction as I thought or Wisconsin roads and signs are screwy.

4.  Next time bring the good camera.

5.  I need to do this more often.  

School Update

Well, I finished the second trimester of the year about a month ago.  Yay!  That trimester seemed a little rough compared to others - part of it was the classes themselves and part of it was just me being completely unmotivated.

I am all done with my fieldwork classes for this year, although I am still doing the fieldwork.  The internship at CPA continues to go well, but I find myeslf wishing I could just be done with my 200 hour commitment.  I have about 165 hours, so I'm well on my way to finishing, but still have another month or so before I'll be done.  

My Communication and Interviewing class was a good one, but I didn't feel like I got a whole lot out of it.  Mostly it just felt like a lot of writing without much learning.  I'm not sure if this was my fault or if it really just wasn't helpful.

This semester I'm taking a Working with Groups class as well as a Social Policy for Social Change class.  Initially I was certain I would love the groups class and hate the policy one.  Now that I've gone to three sessions of each I've decided I hate the groups class and love the policy class - go figure.  

I can't believe a year from now I'll be done!  Granted I'll most likely be starting grad school soon after, but after 13 years and 7 colleges I will finally have my BSW!  Yippee!