Happy 17th Birthday Savannah!

As many of you know from my last blog post, Ana and the kids were in town this week. Of course that meant most of our week revolved around spending as much time with them as we could!

On Tuesday Ana needed to get an oil change, so the kids and I went to the park. Lauren had been asking me to play some tennis with her since she got to Utah, so we went straight to the tennis courts when we got to the park. I'm pretty sure this was Lauren's first ever attempt at tennis, and I don't really know the rules of tennis either. All I know is hit the ball back and forth... Of course we were awful and neither of us hit much of anything so we resorted to playing on the play ground instead. When Ana got back, she joined us at the park. Ana challenged me to a match of tennis, while the kids were playing, and I accepted. Our match was much better, but I don't think either of us will be competing any time soon. At least we got a good work out, and had a fun time!

The next day Bob and I met the kids at Dani's pool for some swimming. Little did I know the rest of the nieces and nephews would be coming too. It was fun swimming with all the kids, but it seemed like everyone wanted to show me something, wanted me to play a game with them or wanted me to teach them how to swim better. My attention can only stretch so many ways! I ended up having to show Mimi some swim tips and have her practise on her own while I watched the other kids show me their tricks. She was really invested in learning how to swim well, so I may have to give her some one on one time some other day.

 

Ana and the kids had planned to hit the road on Friday afternoon. I wanted to make sure I got some goodbyes in before I went to work so I met them at the Wild West Jordan park for a pizza picnic. Marcie and Wayne were able to make it out, as well as Tessa and a couple of her kids. We all had a good time visiting, until the rain started. It was a light sprinkle at first, but soon it was really coming down. We all packed up and made our way to Dani's condo, which was the closest. I didn't have much time left before work so I said all my goodbyes and begrudgingly took my leave.

Savannah and I continued our streak of Saturday shopping trips this weekend as we hit the stores for more house decorations. Once we tired of looking at stuff for my house, we made our way to the pet store. As soon as Bob and I are in our house, our next big purchase is going to be a dog, so I wanted to get an idea of what I'm going to need and how much it all will cost. We always have a good time shopping together, and it was nice to be able to bond with my youngest sister.

Showing her true colors....

On Sunday we celebrated Savannah's 17th birthday. It was actually last Thursday, but Bob and I had to work, so she kindly delayed her celebration to the weekend when we could come celebrate with her. Once again our family celebrated with a low-key party consisting of my parents, sisters, Bob and I. We all had fun goofing off, wrestling and teasing each other, usually at the birthday girls expense. She's a really good sport though, so she would shrug it off with a laugh or fire back with something as equally mean but hilarious!


 



 



 

 

 

Happy 20th Birthday Kelsey!

Oh, the joys of being an adult! I'm in the process of buying a home for the first time, I'm leaving for California in 2 weeks, My Sister-in-law Ana and her kids are in town this week, and we have 6 birthdays to celebrate within 6 days of each other and what do I get? Jury duty!

I was supposed to appear at 8:15 Tuesday morning. I'm a very punctual person anyway, but I also didn't want to end up in trouble with the courts so I made a conscious effort to get ready and leave myself plenty of time to get there. Note to self - If I don't want to be late, don't take the freeway! Of course there was an accident on the freeway and traffic was at a complete stand still. I got off at the very next exit and rushed to the court house as fast as possible, but I ended up being 20 minutes late! Luckily they checked me in anyway and didn't say anything about my tardiness. I wasn't even the last person to show up! After about an hour they had filled all the juries for the day and they sent me home. All that stress about being late and they didn't even need me! The rest of the week was much better!

Friday was a double birthday. It was my Sister-in-law Ana's birthday (who is in town this week!) and my sister Kelsey's 20th birthday! Can you believe she's not a teenager anymore? That means my parents only have 1 left! I was fortunate enough to work the day shift Friday since both Teresa and Mariah took it off, which meant I could celebrate with the family that night! Since Bob worked later than I did, I went home to relax and wait for him. Ana and the rest of the family hadn't left for her birthday dinner yet, so I was able to wish her a Happy Birthday and visit with them. Once Bob got home they left for dinner and we went to my parents house for Kelsey's party. It was a pretty low-key affair with just my parents, my sisters, Rachel's boyfriend Mac and of course Bob and I. It was still fun though, sitting around visiting and goofing off in between Kelsey opening gifts and eating cake and ice cream. Naturally Kelsey had to have a Frozen cake with Elsa on it, in honor of her new cat Elsa. She couldn't seem to get her cat to pose with the cake though....

Elsa refusing to pose for pictures

The Elsa cake

























Rachel trying to steal Kelsey's thunder



... And after Mac put her back in her place!















Our present to Kelsey. Avatar and a
Raphael ninja turtle


















On Saturday we went to a superhero themed birthday party for my cousin Amy's twin boys, Cooper and Carter. Amy and her twins share a birthday this coming Tuesday, but it's easier to celebrate on the weekend. It was a really cute little party. They had the BBQ fired up so we were able to eat good food while visiting with our extended family. I feel like now that I'm an adult, I get so busy that I never see my aunts, uncles and cousins anymore so it was nice to catch up. Everyone was very interested to hear about our (almost) house, and we got to see Amy's newly finished basement for the first time.

Today it was Ana's turn. We had seen her and the kids sporadically throughout the week, but only for brief periods of time, but today was all about her. Marcie, Bob and I met her and the kids at Brick Oven Pizza where we had planned on eating together. Unfortunately we forgot the #1 rule of Utah, always check the restaurant's hours before you go, to make sure they are open on Sundays... Brick Oven was not. We made a quick back-up plan and headed to Chili's instead. After finally getting some food in us, we went to Mulligan's for some good old fashioned mini golf. It's probably a good thing that I don't get competitive at mini golf, since I really suck at it! I tied for last place with my 6 year old niece Lauren, and that was after I cheated rounding my highest scores down to 8... After turning in our clubs I tried to wear the kids out with some tag, but it back fired and they wore me down instead. We all had a really fun day.

David and Jonathon

Lauren taking her turn














David

Jonathon





*Quick House Update* Our due diligence is over and the sellers agreed to all the fixes we requested. They have already completed removal of the graffiti, tree and awning and the appliances are in working order again. They are still working on the electricity and the drain. It is now up to the bank to do their inspections and paperwork. We should be closing on July 3rd! Now it's back to the waiting game...

Happy Father's Day!

This week was our last week to do our due diligence on our new home. Of course we want to be 100% sure this is the house for us before we get locked in, so we got down to business.

Wednesday was the day of our scheduled inspection. Naturally, despite having a noon appointment, our inspector didn't actually show up until almost 2PM! Luckily the guy didn't delay us any further. He started the inspection, meth test and radon test as soon as he arrived. After the inspection was complete, he walked us through everything that needed to be fixed. It was a quick walk through since I had to rush to work, but it seemed like the only thing he found that we weren't already aware of was the electricity not being grounded. My dad has done his fair share of electrical work over the years, so I asked him if he could take a look at it. There were a couple reasons the electricity might not be grounded so my dad agreed to take a look at the outside of the house Thursday morning before he went to work. He wasn't expecting the welcome party he got when he arrived however. It appears some teens got bored on summer break and went on a tagging spree through the neighborhood. Our garage was one of the houses hit, so when my dad arrived he was greeted by one of the neighbors and the cops. My dad was already concerned about the neighborhood, so he talked to the three of them for a while and asked if crime like this was common. The neighbor told my dad that she had lived on the corner for years and never seen anything like this happen before and the cops reassured my dad that our neighborhood got less calls than most of the rest in their jurisdiction and the graffiti wasn't gang related. The graffiti was kind of a blessing in disguise since dad's talk with the cops and the neighbor put his mind at ease that the neighborhood we were moving into was a safe one! Unfortunately he wasn't able to fix the electrical issue from the outside of the house while he was there....

I still wanted to know the extent of our electrical issue so Danyl arranged a trip inside the house Friday morning. Since the dishwasher wasn't hooked up during the inspection we had Bob's dad tag along to fiddle with the dishwasher while my dad fiddled with the electricity. Not feeling like much help, I made myself busy taking room measurements and matching color swatches to the floors and cabinets so I could begin designing my home. I finished before them so I proceeded to draw up a list of fixes I wanted the sellers to take care of before our purchase was finalized. Most of the fixes in the house Bob and I are comfortable tackling ourselves, but this is what we wanted them to do:

1. Electricity should be grounded and in working order
2. The drain in the basement should be cleared of debris and in working order
3. The large dead tree in the backyard should be removed
4. The broken down awning in the backyard should be removed
5. The stove and dishwasher should be hooked up and in working order (both were new, but not working...)
6. The graffiti should be removed from the garage

Now armed with measurements and color swatches, Savannah and I hit the stores for home decorations. My number one mission was to find throw pillows for the living room that incorporated our red couch and the brown carpet. It took several stores, but we finally found the perfect pillows! They not only matched the perfect shade of red and brown but also had yellows, greens, purples and blues that we could use for all the other decorations. My house is going to be much more colorful than our apartment was, but I think these pillows will tie it all together beautifully. Since we were out shopping anyway, Savannah helped me pick out some Father's Day gifts for dad, my father-in-law and Bob. The gifts were kind of last minute, but we have been so preoccupied with our house buying, that we plum forgot about Father's Day! We are not very thoughtful children.... Luckily I was able to find things for everyone!



The pillows together in the store

I bought the pillows but had to test them on the couch before I could
remove the tags!

Today was by far our busiest day this week! With our due diligence coming to an end, and the garage being tagged, Bob and I wanted to make sure our neighborhood wasn't just safe for us, but one we were OK starting a family in. Our first stop that morning was the baptist church around the corner. Unfortunately not many in the congregation actually lived there, so they weren't really a good gage on the neighborhood. It was however a different experience! I had never seen anything like it. The congregation was extremely diverse and came in everything from their Sunday best to jeans and T-Shirts. The music was played by a band with electric guitars and included drum solos and a disco ball that shone crosses across the ceiling and walls. The preacher would ask questions from the pulpit and expect answers in return. If not enough people answered, he would say, "I'm sorry I couldn't hear you!" The audience was encouraged to speak out whenever they felt the need, everything from Amens and hallelujahs to preach it brothers were shouted at random. After the services we were given coffee from the in-church coffee shop and fraternized with the rest of the congregation. There were certainly things I liked and disliked about the service, and although I won't be returning, I'm glad I got to experience something new!

Next we hit the local LDS ward's services. It was night and day from the baptist church we just attended! Everyone was very friendly there, but I think the average age was around 75! Luckily everyone here lived in the area so we were able to really gage the neighborhood this time. Everyone we talked to told us it was a very friendly neighborhood, and crime was rare, violent crime even more so. It was certainly a confidence boost! We had one last test for the neighborhood though, meeting the neighbors on our street! We knocked on a few random doors and were able to meet several of our perspective new neighbors. We asked a variety of questions about the neighborhood, and everyone said the same things. It's a quiet street, with little to no crime and very friendly neighbors who watch out for one another. Our tagged garage was a surprise to everyone, and chalked up to teens on summer break who tagged several vacant houses over night. Not one occupied house was hit, probably for worry of being caught. Everyone we met was so friendly and welcoming, I think these are just the neighbors we have been hoping for! Today was the perfect reassurance for Bob and I.

Today was also Father's Day, so after our adventures checking out our neighborhood it was time to celebrate our dad's at home. We started with Bob's family, eating dinner with them and giving Wayne a new hose for his garden. He was really excited about the new hose since his old one had sprung several leaks. I also surprised Bob with the same hose and a couple different nozzles we can use to water our new yard once we are in the house. Bob didn't expect anything, but had been worrying about all the things we need to get for the house before we move in. He was happy to check this off the list. After a successful Father's Day at Bob's parents, we made our way to my parents to eat another Father's Day dinner and give my dad his gift. My dad has a tendency to use his phone while driving, so we gave him a dashboard phone holder. This way he can still talk on the phone or use the maps function while driving and stay hands free! I think he really liked it. Another successful last minute gift, yay!

Dad and his Fathers Day gift



 



Making Our Offer!

We found it! By some miracle we found the house we are going to buy. It's certainly not the perfect house, but it's perfect for us!

Last week I vented my house shopping frustrations about not finding houses I liked. It seems venting worked, because on Monday the right house came along. Our Realtor Danyl took us to see 3 more houses, of course the first couple weren't a fit. However Danyl was smart and saved the best for last! Pulling up we could already see the yard needed some work. No one was taking care of it and it was growing wild. Still there was a fence for a dog, some fruit trees and several beautiful rose bushes so I could already see it coming together. The inside was what really sold us though. The entire home was freshly remodeled, and I couldn't have done it any better if I picked everything out myself! It was exactly what I envisioned. The best part was, Bob loved it even more than I did! Naturally there was already on offer on the table so we had to work fast. We went back to Danyl's office and drew up our own offer right then and there. Then it was welcome to the waiting game....

The best view of the outside of the house we can get
with all the tree's in the way

Some pretty flowers I found in
the front yard

Perfect view of all our roses, and trees

The backyard, where most of
the work needs to be done

Beautiful view of kitchen counters and
cabinets

Another kitchen shot

For what felt like the longest 24+ hours of my life we waited to hear back about our offer. Finally some news, they accepted our offer! We were told the loan officer would contact us soon with more info on our loan. Sure enough, Nicole Ivey called the next day. So far, she kind of sucks! I felt like the entire conversation she was annoyed with my lack of loan knowledge (funny considering this loan is for FIRST TIME home buyers...). She was condescending and rude. I wish we could have used Jason Quinney who did our pre-qualification but unfortunately Nicole is the only loan officer in the state of Utah qualified to do the "American Dream" loan we are using.  To top it off, she told us we needed to pay a $395 application fee! This was the first time we were told about the fee, but she wanted now! Bob looked up loan application fees, and while most banks don't have them, the ones that do charge $20-$50, so we were a little annoyed. Luckily for us once we brought this up, Nicole dropped several other fees that would equal about the same amount. We are still unimpressed with her lack of communication skills.... We can only hope she gets better as we work with her more.

Next we accepted the sellers counter offer, signed the papers and gave them our earnest money. Now our due diligence clock officially started ticking. We made an appointment with an inspector for next Wednesday, but we wanted to take our parents to the house before hand to see what they thought. Both sets of parents were thorough, pointing out little fixes that we didn't notice during our first walk through. At the end of it all, Bob's parents loved the house. My dad said it was a good little starter home and he's willing to help us with the fixes we do need, but he is a little weary of me moving to Kearns. My mom seemed completely unimpressed with the house, the price, the neighborhood, everything! It breaks my heart that she doesn't like it. My mom went home and immediately started looking at other houses for us. The biggest problem is the cheaper houses need a lot more work, and the nicer homes cost a lot more money. We even looked at many of the homes she sent us, and didn't like them. Nonetheless my mom's disappointment in the house led me to start second guessing our decision. It didn't sway Bob though, and after a long hard talk he was able to remind me why I loved the house in the first place.

To take my mind off of my house worries Bob took me to South Jordan Days on Saturday night. We wandered around some of the booths and Bob bought me a beautiful new dress. Finally we got some delicious Polynesian chicken and watched the fireworks while sharing our goals once we are in the house and our excitement at being so close to being home owners!

This morning was gay pride. I haven't missed pride in the last 4 years, but with everything else going on with the house and our vacation next month, I couldn't spare the time or the money to go. I did however meet up with Sarah and Renee at our normal pre-pride brunch at Marketstreet Grill. It was nice to catch up with the girls and tell them all about the house and our plans once we are in it.

After brunch Bob and I went down to Sam and Tessa's house to give Sam the painting we made him for his birthday. While we were down there Sam was nice enough to spend some time going over all our loan documents. He walked us through everything so that we really understood what we were looking at and gave us some advice moving forward with the house. Most important for us, he seemed to approve of the deal we are getting with this loan. It was really important to us that he be impressed with the loan since this is what he does for a living, and we really trust his opinion!

House Hunting

I have noticed for many people, especially the ones my age, Memorial Day is simply a free day off of work. Maybe a day to throw a BBQ, or a long weekend to go camping, but rarely do I hear them remembering people they have lost. I would be lying if I said my family never camped or had BBQ's over Memorial Day weekends too, we've enjoyed the benefits of holiday weekends many times. However we also have a long standing tradition of putting flowers on the graves of those we have lost. Of course this includes my own grandparents now, but even before that we always made a point of visiting my parents grandparents, my mother's twin sisters, and an assortment of their Aunts, Uncles, cousins and friends. This past Monday was Memorial Day. Since I had the day off of work, I decided to join my parents in putting flowers on the graves again this year. Bob was feeling under the weather, and my sisters had work or other plans, so it ended up being just me, my mom and dad. This year my mother had an extra project up her sleeve. She has recently been putting together some "Ancestry Books" that include our genealogy, as well as pictures and stories she has gathered about each of our ancestors. In these books she wanted to include a picture and location of each of their gravestones for anyone who wanted to visit in the future. The problem was, we had never been to many of these graves ourselves. My mom did her research online about which ancestors were buried at which graveyards, and which plots if it was available, and then we began our search. It took all day long, but we were surprisingly able to find most of them! As a thanks for helping them find all the graves, my parents took me to dinner at Taco Bell and later ice cream at Granny's up in Heber.

Grandma and Grandpa Graham's grave

Grandma and Grandpa Bell's grave

Then it was down to business for Bob and I. On Tuesday Bob and I sat down with a financial advisor. We discussed our assets, and investments, how to make a realistic budget, how to properly save for emergencies and retirement and most importantly what we should be looking for in a home from the financial standpoint. We learned a lot in that meeting so we set up a second meeting to go over our pre-qualification documents next week.

Wednesday was our pre-qualification interview with Jason Quinney of US Bank. It was a little nerve-wracking. We had been preparing for this moment for nearly 2 years, but I felt like they might still find a reason to deny us... Finally Jason came back to give us the news. We were APPROVED! I was so relieved to hear that! Bob and I went straight to Firehouse Subs for a celebratory lunch. Before we even made it inside, Jen was calling us to congratulate us. She sent us a house-hunting survey to discuss all our likes and dislikes and let us know that Danyl would be the associate doing most of the house shopping with us.

By Friday we were out looking at houses. We looked at 3 houses that morning but none of them felt like the right one. This morning we hit the streets again, and again none of the houses felt right. It's still early in the search process but I'm already feeling discouraged. It seems like the houses I looked at online last fall were better than the options we have now. The good ones that do come on the market now are scooped up faster than we can make appointments to look at them! The houses we do get to see just don't fit what I envisioned for our home. Maybe I'm being too picky as well, but we are about to invest a lot of time and money into this thing, I just want it to be the right one! We are going back out tomorrow, so fingers crossed we find the one!

House shopping didn't completely dominate our weekend this week! On Saturday we had more movie tickets from work, this time to see Maleficent. The movie was not as good as I thought it was going to be, and I hate to say I was disappointed in it but hey, at least it was free! After the movie we met up with our friends Shane and Channing at Red Robin to do some catching up!

This weekend, some idiot also broke into our Suzuki! Luckily there was nothing valuable in the car so nothing was missing but they sure made a mess!

Taking The First Step

What a busy, busy week we have had! Bob and I are on the verge of some very big changes in our lives and this was the week we got the ball rolling!

For the last month or so Bob and I have been seriously shopping for a realtor and loan officer we trust to help get us into our first home. I have interviewed several Realtors with the same 10 or so questions every time. It seems the Realtors with experience are real downers. They are always trying to convince us we want something different than what we are telling them. You'll be more comfortable in a condo than in a house... you would like this split entry more than any rambler I can show you... etc! The ones who listen to what we want and are excited to help us no matter how picky we are, have little to no experience! In the middle are all the sleaze balls and jerks just in it for the money who try to bully and push us into using them without answering any of the questions we present.

Then came Jen Mascaro. She's a realtor with more than a decade of experience in real estate, owns her own firm, and teaches at one of the local real estate schools. However she was excited to answer all our questions and let us know that the most important thing she could do for us was put us in a home we would love for years down the road and could afford comfortably. Even if it took a long time to find "the one". Finally we found a realtor that meets our needs! After letting Jen know she was hired, she told us about a special loan called "The American Dream" loan only offered through US Bank. This special loan allows us as first time home buyers to get a home for only a $1,000 down payment and no mortgage insurance! It's an elite loan with an extensive qualification process. We called US Bank and made an appointment for pre-qualification next week!

On Tuesday after a quick check up with my doctor, we rushed home to watch my nephew Ryan for a couple of hours. I don't know if I'm just getting old, or if he has limitless energy but boy did he wear us both out! He is always on the go!

The only time he was holding still long
enough to snap a picture!

On Thursday the reception team decided to do a team building activity together as an unofficial farewell to Shamae since she won't be our boss much longer. We decided we wanted to get away from the office, so we stopped at Kneaders and picked up some bagged lunches to take up the canyon. We did a short but beautiful hike up to Lisa Falls and ate our lunches at the foot of the waterfall. It really was a wonderful spot that I had never been to before but am excited to bring Bob back to! That night after Shamae left, Teresa and I decorated her desk for her birthday. We wanted her to know how loved and appreciated she is by the team, even if her manager doesn't feel the same way.

Our view at lunch

Our view on the other side

Shamae's desk all decorated



After such an exciting and eventful week, Bob and I just wanted to relax this weekend. On Saturday we had 6 tickets to the new X-Men movie from work, so we took Kelsey, Savannah, Ricky and Dani with us. The movie was fantastic! It's definitely one Bob and I will have to add to our movie collection when it comes out on DVD. After the movie my sisters and I began planning out X-Men Cosplay costumes we could get or make for Comic Con in September. We all wanted to be Phoenix, so don't be surprised if one day you see us all in different color phoenix costumes... I will be in red! After all the discussion of cosplay costumes, Bob and I decided we better get our Comic Con tickets purchased since the prices are so low right now.  We went home and purchased them that night. We are so excited for September!

This morning Marcie needed to go check on Grandma Malan down at Kirt's house. Bob and I haven't seen grandma in quite a while so we decided we would go down with her and visit. We had lunch with grandma and talked to her about all the plans Bob and I have for our future house. While at Kirt's, I discovered an in-ground trampoline in the backyard. I had to show off to my husband by throwing out a couple flips. I forgot how much of a work out trampolines are. Maybe we can get one at our future house!

After saying our goodbyes to grandma we made our way to my parents house. We are going to California with them in July so we needed to hammer out some details. My dad thought, what better way to plan a vacation, than over BBQ? So he BBQ'd for us while we discussed who wanted to go where on what days, where we were going to stay and what transportation we would need. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I think we are going to have a lot of fun this summer!

Threatening Phone Calls

Wow! What a roller coaster of a week I've had!

The week took it's first downward turn when I got to work one day only to discover that my new boss may be leaving us already. I have to mention that Shamae is the 6th manager I've had in 3 years and she is easily the best one. She is the first manager who could break the news that I was doing something the wrong way in a kind and professional manner, the first one to give me real feedback on how I was doing, the first one to give me honest expectations and the first one to listen to my concerns and actually do something about them. In her short time as my manager I have grown to trust and respect her fully. Unfortunately her boss Jason sees things differently and doesn't like the way she is doing her job. He gave her the option to be demoted to her old position in the company or be fired the next time he didn't like something she did. Since she has a family to support, she had to take the safer option. She will be here until either Jason changes his mind or a replacement is found and trained. I really hope the next manager I get is as good as she has been, because the boss I had just before her had me on the verge of quitting!

Luckily as the week went on, things slowly improved even with the thought of losing Shamae weighing heavily on my mind. We had a fun event at work called "Grow Together" where everyone in the warehouse came together to plant flowers in front of our building, paint hand prints on a canvas and eat cookies. Shamae even seemed to be making some headway with Jason! That's when I got "The Call"....

One morning a restricted phone number called my phone. I don't normally answer these calls but purely out of curiosity I decided to answer this one. As soon as I said Hello a male voice on the other end told me "I need you to listen very carefully. If you comply with all our demands, no one needs to get hurt." I didn't say anything. I just hung up immediately and called my dad. He assured me that it was probably a sick joke and nothing more, so I didn't need to worry about anything. While I was on the phone with him though, the mysterious caller called back and left me a voicemail. The voicemail went something like this:

"Listen you f**cking b**ch, you think you can just hang up on us? Do you want to live, or do you want to die? We know who you are. We know where you work. We know where you live. We have been following you for weeks. You will be given 2 hours to comply with all our demands. You will answer the phone when we call back. You will regret ever f**cking messing with us if you don't"

After listening to this message, my stomach dropped and my heart started pounding. I felt like I was stuck in a bad movie and I didn't know what to do. I ran upstairs and played the voicemail for my Father-in-law. He wanted to make a call to his son Ryan, who's a lawyer before we did anything. While he and Ryan spoke about what to do, I called my dad back. Both my dad and Ryan said that with a threat like this I needed to call the police right away. As soon as we hung up, that's what we did, called the police! The dispatch office took the threat very seriously and said they were sending an officer right away. While waiting for the officer to come, I called work. I wanted to let them know what was happening in case I was late to work. As soon as I hung up with the office, the police officer showed up. The officer took my statement and listened to the voicemail. She gave me a case number and a direct line to the dispatch office. She told me to watch for any suspicious activity over the next few days whether it be a car following me, vandalism to my car or home or anything else out of the ordinary. She then told me that they had heard of similar phone calls being part of a phone scam to scare people into wiring money. Since they didn't actually describe my home, work place or car she was fairly certain that the scammers didn't actually know me. She said I could go about my day as normal and then she proceeded to sit outside my house in her cruiser until I left for work. When I got to work I found out that Jason was worried about me and my safety so he hired a security officer to be my personal body guard at work that night. While the guard that came was old, slow moving and carrying an oxygen tank and therefore probably useless in the event that something actually happened, I was grateful to have the company that night. So far nothing more has come of the phone call. I never heard back from the mysterious caller, nothing out of the ordinary has happened and I have had time to calm down but it was still terrifying at the time!

This weekend had me back on the up and up! It started Saturday with my amazing niece Katie's end of school ballroom recital. She is in the social dance class this year so she only had the one dance but she has liked it so much that she tried out for the JV Ballroom Team for next year. Right after the recital she found out that SHE MADE IT!! It was so much fun watching her dance and watching how excited she was to make the team. I'm proud of the beautiful young lady she is turning into, and selfishly happy she has taken an interest in ballroom since I did ballroom in high school as well. After her recital I stopped by the new RC Willey by Ikea and entered all their drawings. Keep your fingers crossed I win something good! They just so happened to be having a puppy adoption event as well so I had to browse the puppies while I was there. I can't wait for the day I can take one home! Finally I saw an open house sign and followed it to a cute little rambler in Riverton. I loved the house, but it will be out of our price range for sure. I did however talk to the owner and discover that his realtor "is amazing" and can "work miracles" to get Bob and I into a home we love. I took down all her information and Bob and I will be calling her next week! Hopefully this guy was right and she really does help us find our perfect starter home!


 

Later that night Chelsea brought Benton over for us to watch while her and Garrett enjoyed a much needed date night. This is the first time we have seen the little squirt since we watched him for a full week during their vacation 2 weeks ago and it's amazing to see how much has already changed. We played with some of the same toys and puzzles we played with before but now he has mastered them! He has also learned all his shapes! We could just ask him which one of his blocks was the triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, circle, oval or star and he would hold up the right one EVERY time! He is such a smart little bugger! Finally we made him some spaghetti for dinner, which was of course fun to feed him, and put a movie on so he would relax and fall asleep. He was such a little cuddle bug and fell asleep right away!





































































This morning Bob and I struggled waking up and getting ready for the day, but we finally did just in time to make our way to Shelby's house to help her and Tyson move. They have decided to move out of the town home they are leasing and into her parents basement while they save up money for the down payment on a house. They didn't have anyone else to help them move, so Bob and I agreed to help. After all, with any luck, we will be needing help moving soon too!