A Quick visit to Corinne's

We made a quick trip up to see Corinne and family in Layton this weekend.

They are currently living in limbo - waiting for their home in Caldwell, ID to sell.

They have made an offer on a home in Layton contingent upon the sale of their ID home. It is taking longer than expected. Currently they are renting a pretty small place that in mid-renovation. They are definitely roughing it, but are making the most of the small space and doing without.

On Saturday morning Fred and I went along with Corinne and Ben and Clara to RC Wiley's to buy appliances for their new place. I took Clara for a walk around while they did the important stuff.  

She liked this video game quite a bit.

After appliance shopping,  Richard met us at a KIA dealership for a school fundraiser for free pizza. They donated school supplies for the cause. There was a parrot, huge tarantula and snake for the kids to look at. 

For each family that donated they gave a prize. Clara got a Dory!! 

She was happy for that. 

From the fundraiser, I took Corinne clothes shopping for her new job. We bought a lot and she actually enjoyed the shopping. I was pooped. Fred took Garrett, Spencer and Henry back to the hotel to swim. Richard had homework. We played the card game Golf and I won. Took everyone to Chick Fil A for dinner. 

Sunday we met at their house and left early for church so we could go see the home they have an offer on. It's a big corner lot and would be so perfect for them if all works out. There has been a lot of prayers going up on their behalf. 

Corinne got a new job at the church administration building. She will travel to all the new temples to help and give support as they set up their laundry facilities. She will be a world traveler. It's a big promotion and we are so excited to see what adventures she has ahead. 

It was a very nice visit - short - but sweet. 

Now it's back to getting ready to move. We sold the house and sign paper on October 1st. Then it's hit the road to Aurora Colorado.

 

Scott and Evan's visit

Evan and I walked down to the neighborhood park. 

There was this other little boy there the same age as Evan 

and his name was Evan too.

They played together just great. Evan had to come to terms with sharing his name with someone else. It was kind of hard for him to wrap his head around that. 

Evan wanted to go to the Dinosaur Park and ride the train. That we did!

This is about the last toy we saved for little grandkids. 

We may need to readdress that decision once we move.

 

Farewell little piano

Scott and Evan made the journey to pick up my piano and take it back to Phoenix.

Mikel Poulsen a good friend from Bremerton Days came to help.

These three hefted that piano into the back of the pickup.

Ready to hit the road.

Fred did check it over before we let it go.

Look how beautiful she looks at Scott and Jess's home. 

 

More stuff August Colorado

As we have been preparing to make this move, we have been downsizing our furniture. I offered up my piano. I've been wanting a new shiny paino for years. 

Well this is the year. Shannon and I went shopping to two piano stores. 

This is the new piano I choose. 
It has already been delivered to our new home and is waiting to be played.

On one of our days out and about we went to Costco and took this picture to send to Scott. He is not happy with us that we got a Sam's Club membership card. He is totally loyal to Costco. We wanted him to know we aren't total losers. 

Shannon and I also took a trip to IKEA and found this new dining room

 table for her new house.It matches her flooring. It looks perfect. 

 

64th Birthday Day

Shannon got tickets for us to go to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

I was expecting antique quilts, but these quilts were made by 

The National Association of Certified Quilt Judges.

I've seen lots of quilts and never anything as intricate as these. 

The docent took at least a 1/2 walking us through and talking about each quilt.

I didn't take many pictures because she said I couldn't post them on social media.

I don't feel like my blog gets much traffic so I'm posting them here for memory's sake.

These are the birthday cards that the kids made for me.

I think you can tell which one each child made. 

 For my birthday dinner we went to a Mexican Restaurant with Shannon and Brian. We stopped at Village Inn and bought two pies. It was pretty much about food.

Kitchen progress

This is a view of what was the kitchen before Fred started ripping it out.

Carpet has been pulled up.

The process of ripping out the old cabinets.

Getting tools staged.

Painters paint marking studs and cabinet placement and countertop height.

We asked the missionaries to come and help bring in the cabinets from the garage. 

Old cabinets in the livingroom now.

Here are most of the upper cabinets and our new motorized kitchen window blind.

I have to admit I quit taking pictures. The progress was just so stilted and slow. Very discouraging for me to watch. It felt that each step was fraught with complications. We didn't accomplish as much as we had hoped during the month we spent there. I admit I probably added to it by wanting to get new bedroom furniture. But in my defense, that means less big pieces of furniture to move here. Not that the new furniture arrived, but it did require a trip to IKEA and Fred putting together a couple pieces so we could see if they would work out. 

Fred was busy the entire time. I was pretty engaged during the 10 days that Shannon and Brian were on their cruise and I was a full time mom again, but after I didn't feel like I had much to do. Shannon and I did get out to stores and she took me to a quilt museum and lunch on my birthday. I did get a haircut with a new gal and I think she will work out great. I watched a lot of tv and read books which is pretty normal for me, but when not in your own home it just feels different. I walked almost every morning through the neighborhood. It's a great place for walking. I think because I knew the progress downstairs was going slow it made me want to go home and wait until Fred was done. With the sale of the house in the back of our minds and knowing that the market is slowing down, it creates another facet of stress.

Knowing that there is still so much to do when we move there puts a damper on my mood about everything. I just want to be done with all this work and begin the next phase of our lives. You know, retirement where we can enjoy doing stuff together that is, I don't know, recreational and enjoyable instead of work work work worry worry and work some more.

I've been up since 4 am - so I'm not in the best of moods. I'm discouraged and anxious about selling our house. What if no one wants it? I have to admit it doesn't look great. We still have two bedrooms that are a mess. Filled with stuff. Our master closet is a mess of stuff. It seems like our prep work in Bremerton was so much more efficient. We were ready to show the house. Here we are not ready. Well we will know this weekend because we are putting out the For Sale sign no matter what. Good Luck to us.

 

Our road to remodel

I suggested to Fred that we drive both cars to Colorado so we can leave one there and trailer the other one when we move. I said I could do the drive in two days, not one. I'm good for about 5 hours driving long distance. We decided that was a good idea. It also gave us more room for hauling tools, materials and stuff we need for a month at Shannon's. 

We made it to our hotel in pretty good time, but we parked under a tree. The next morning Fred wanted to get both cars washed to get the tree sap off.

There was a mudslide along I-70 so we had to divert our course. It added on hours. I didn't sign up for a 7 or 8 hour day which it turned into. It was pretty miserable. We drove up through beautiful scenery, but at one point the road was two lane, no barriers on the roadway and the drop off. I was kind of freaking out. I couldn't look to the right of the lane. I kept my vision stuck on the center lane lines. 

It was just pouring rain. We got to one length of road that just came to a halt for what seemed miles to me, but later found out it was only a couple. I was so tired by then and it felt like we were never going to get there. Fred had us pull off for gas not knowing how long we were going to be stuck. Well just up ahead the road jam opened up and off we went.

This Welcome Sign was posted on their garage door It was very sweet

Lots of cars parked here for now.

This is the cause of the detour off on I70. Mudslide near Glenwood Canyon. Rotten timing for our trip. I think we will find an alternate route when we go back home.

What is the best detour route? 

CDOT recommends taking a combination of state highways north through Meeker, Craig, Steamboat Springs and Kremmling. That adds about two-and-a-half hours to a trip from Grand Junction to Denver. A southern route through Montrose and Gunnison is now viable after a construction project there was suspended until I-70 is open again.