July

Last month wins the prize for the busiest month of my life. August is looking pretty busy too.

Trips and Activities

Rexburg, Sydney's wedding at the Meridian temple. I've never seen a couple look so happy. We also attended the reception that night.

playing in Ashley Creek at Remember the Maine

a day trip (minus Kenny and me) to see Big Joe off to the MTC for his mission

dinner with the Christensens, Alex

seeing the new Spiderman movie

Birthdays and Holidays

4th of July: concert and breakfast in Firth, parade, cookout and fireworks with the Lees

24th of July: Scout breakfast, parade

Weather

excessively hot, above 90 almost every day

Sickness

NONE!

Repairs

replaced 7 doorknobs, fixed a door hinge, patched a million holes large and small in OUR NEW HOUSE!

Projects

Finally, after 330 days on the market, 53 showings, and 17 house tours, we sold our home and bought a new one. It didn't turn out exactly as I thought. We didn't sell for as much as we originally listed, and the new one is a fixer upper, but it's in Maeser, which means we changed wards but nothing else! We are only 2.5 miles away from the other place!

Moving was a huge pain. I couldn't bring myself to pack till we had the keys because of what we went through last time. It took almost a week to pack, move, and then clean everything in the old house. I did a really thorough job because I knew it would be appreciated. We didn't get the same courtesy at the new house, so we've been scrubbing every surface, ripping out all the carpet, pulling up a million staples, treating dog pee stains on the subfloor with enzyme cleaner and then shellac primer, filling and sanding a million holes both large and small, painting, and now finally getting new carpet installed!

After 17 days of living here, I can't wait to walk on the floors without shoes on! And to move all of our stuff from the garage into the house! We finished painting just in time. James cut trim for our room and the basement and installed it. We finished up at 11 P.M. last night, but everything that's getting carpeted has been painted. By the time I finished painting everything next week, we will have used 18 gallons of paint (a little bit left for touchups on some colors) and 3 different kinds of primer. To say we're tired would be an understatement, but it's also SO GOOD to be out of limbo! My goal is to finish all the big, important stuff by the time people visit for Samantha's baptism in September. 35 days, a million little projects to go!