What did we move into?

Utah's housing market is insane (like most of the country right now.).  Trek's new job is a unique one where we won't actually be living on or near a base so we knew we needed to find a home somewhat close to his work, but that proved to be impossible thanks to the inflated price of rentals in the Salt Lake Area.  There was NO WAY we could afford anything we looked at.

When we found the place we are currently renting online, I was surprised at how low the rent was considering the neighborhood it was in.   We immediately put in an offer to rent it, & I knew the price tag was a little too good to be true, but I was hopeful it would be the right house for us.  Deep down inside I kind of knew & expected it was going to be work, but nothing prepared me for what we actually moved into.

After we moved in, neighbors began to tell us the horror stories about the previous tenants living there.  Junked cars in the driveway, yard never taken care of & completely overgrown, windows broken, & they just knew it was trashed.  It was!

Everywhere we looked, something was broken, dirty, or completely unusable.  You all know I have serious OCD issues & am a VERY clean person, so this house gave me panic attacks the first few weeks we lived here.  Anytime I touched something sticky or greasy or just gross, I'd have to wash my hands over & over & over & over again.  The yard was a mudhole filled with weeds, the back fence was broken & refuses to close, there isn't a single screen in the house that doesn't have several holes in it, the A/C was blowing hot air, the water to the sprinkler system wasn't even turned on & hadn't been for several years, the storage shed was filled floor to ceiling with garbage, the garage was full of trash, the fireplace was burned newpaper & magazine clippings all over the living room, there was an inch of grease on every cupboard/counter/appliance in the kitchen. . . the list goes on & on.  It was my worst nightmare. . . 

but as in all nightmares, 

we eventually wake up & move on with life.

Trek & I found the opportunity to spend the summer repairing, building, growing, & improving our new house & we loved doing it.  We did it together.  We worked hard & we are loving the outcomes we are getting from our hard work.

We reinstalled the sprinkler system & after 3 main water breaks this summer, it's finally up & running beautifully.  Our lawn is coming in beautifully now.  We cleared out the front  flower garden & it's clean & now growing grass as well.

The boys have all learned how to make custom screens for our windows so we can open our windows at night & let in the fresh air (like we learned & grew accustomed to in Germany).  Seeing us build this house together is making it home for us.  It makes me happy, & I love that we are all gaining life skills in the process.

It's coming along really well. . . we've had several more hiccups in the last 2 months (more water lines breaking, the A/C shutting down, & a water leak that caused our ceiling to fall down), (we feel like we're living in the movie: "The Money Pit". . . but the landlord has to pay for everything which is nice), but we're taking it a day at a time & loving the adventure & life lessons we're learning along the way.

I know a lot of this sounds horrible & it has been, but the house itself has good bones, is big & beautiful, & is going to be perfect for us.  We absolutely love our neighborhood, the schools, our church group here, & the location is the best in the valley.  The pros completely outweigh the cons & we feel like we were meant to be here at this time.  We wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

July Happenings

July was full of family reunions, getting the house ready to move into, school prep, & other "must-do" items, but it was also just a chill summer for us & we were able to do a lot of fun things together as a family.

Our best friends, the Monson's, were in UT (from Germany) taking their kids to soccer camps at BYU & needed a place to stay for the week they were here.  We were still living with my parents because our stuff hadn't arrived yet, but we were able to borrow some mattresses from our wonderful bishop until our stuff arrived so the Monson's were able to stay at our house while they were here.  It was SO wonderful to play board games every night they were here.  Oh how I miss my dear friends.

We enjoyed the different fairs & carnivals throughout the summer here in UT.  There was always good food & good fun.

Here in our new ward (church congregation) the deacons (boys ages 11-13) get to help make the sacrament bread so I've taught Craiger how to make our famous "holy bread" for the sacrament.  He's getting better & better each time he makes it & he's enjoying the process of learning how to do it correctly.  His bread is always delicious.

While we were still waiting for our things to arrive (at the end of August), we were able to put together a few puzzles which was fun for the kids.

And of course, we kept up with our friends from Germany all summer via text & facetime.

Our UAB (fast shipment) goods arrived in mid-july & we had a few things we could finally use like sleeping bags, air mattresses, bikes, a pot, & a few other things (including a bag full of girl's bows!  I have no idea how those got in that shipment or why we even have those still).

Once that UAB shipment came, we were able to move into our new rental & somewhat start getting settled here in Utah.

We're loving exploring all the fun dessert & fast food places we've been missing for 4 years.  There's some REALLY fun shops here.

And then I took the older kids to see the Barbie movie in July as well.  We laughed & laughed & laughed.  They got a kick out of it & it was fun to dress up in pink & all go together.

So those were our smaller July happenings.  We enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Splash Summit

In July we got the opportunity to meet up with some of our best friends from Germany for a day at Splash Summit.  We spent 7 hours in the sunshine swimming, eating, & just having a great time together.

My favorite part was the DOLE WHIP!

Cari & her kids (my kids' cousins) were there that day too, so it wound up being a big party all around.  We had so much fun.  The kids loved racing each other down the slides while the older kids dared each other to go down the BIG SCARY SLIDES.

They completely wore themselves out to the point that some even took naps.  (Yes, Lorien is hiding in that white towel so she doesn't get sunburned)

I love this "after the nap" photo.

The hardest part for the kids was saying goodbye.  These friends have been their best friends for the last 4 years of their lives.  We did EVERYTHING together.  We knew we'd see them one more time before they flew home to Germany, but it was still hard knowing the final goodbyes were soon.

It was such a fun day with family & friends.

 

Tooth Excitement

The 2nd week after we arrived back in UT, I got all three of my boys into an orthodontist.  They have all needed braces for SO long but because we move every 2-3 years, nobody will put braces on them unless we can promise to stay put for 3+ years.  FINALLY, we'll be in one place for 3+ years!

Bladen's braces were coming first.  His teeth are so bad (poor kid) that he'll be in braces for 3.5 years.  

Craiger needs braces, but they need a few more teeth to fall out before they start him.  He's got another check up in 6 months to see how his teeth are progressing.

Canyon needs braces too.  They went back & forth on his teeth.  He technically could wait a few more years until more teeth fall out, but his front teeth jut out at such an angle that they worry about him falling & sending those 2 front teeth directly into his skull, crushing his jaw.  The orthodontist was so funny.  "We can wait on Canyon's braces. . . .well, unless he's pretty accident prone."  I rolled my eyes at that.  Canyon is my most accident prone kid.  So we decided to just take care of it now & do phase 1 of braces to prevent permanent damage to his jaw in case he DOES have an accident where he lands on his face.  (And of course he flies off the playground equipment at school AGAIN 2 weeks later & breaks his back!  Insert face palm emoji here)

For Craiger & Bladen, they did need some problematic baby teeth pulled.  Bladen couldn't get his braces on until an upper tooth got pulled because it was making his adult tooth grow out of his gums sideways because there was no room for it to come down.

And Craiger got one pulled to prevent an adult tooth from growing sideways through his jawbone.

Both kiddos were NOT happy about having teeth pulled, but a little bit of laughing gas & it was over before they could even know what was going on.

We were glad that was over with.

Two days later I got all 4 kiddos into the dentist for teeth cleanings.  I love getting things established & DONE as soon as we move to a new area.