July 2019

 Oh.  My.  July.  This was the LONGEST month of my entire life.  We did our final walkthrough for our new house on July 5th and that feels like a lifetime ago.  SO much has happened.  So much hard work has been faithfully performed.

We started off the month finishing up our projects in our HOT garage.  We finished every last item on our list.  And it was a very long list.  I cannot believe that we accomplished that.  We furnished half a house at a fraction of the cost.  There is something so satisfying about creating your own custom furniture and actually having it turn out and then putting it where it was envisioned to go and have it look... well.... utterly amazing.  The happiness that we both felt when we moved our creations over to the new house was indescribable.  I know Raleigh is so proud and he should be.  He worked so hard.  And he had the best attitude.  He never got upset.  He was agreeable to every cockamamie idea I came up with.  Only a couple of times, did he say, that won't work.  I will try it, but I don't think it will work. 

A few weeks before we moved, a cute little hummingbird built this cute little nest on our party lights on our patio.  She was SO protective of that nest, almost to the point of pecking us if we went anywhere near it.  The problem is...  she built it in OUR living space and at a very untimely time.  

She diligently sat on her eggs.

About 2 weeks before the move, her two eggs hatched.  We watched her bring food to her babies and feed them carefully.  One of them got brave one day and flew out of the nest, leaving the second one behind.  For days he just sat there all alone.  And it was starting to appear like he was never going to go.  We didn't know what we were going to do because the lights needed to come down. 

Finally,  one very moving day, he left.  It was perfect timing.  It was like he knew he had to go.

So darling.

Peyton has always wanted to do a Home Depot project.  She has loved helping Raleigh build the furniture and she saw an ad in the store while she was there with Raleigh buying paint.  And she called Papa and asked him if he would be her partner.  They had the best time making dump trucks for their new rooms. #mytwosons

We continued popping over to the house after church on Sundays to check the progress.
Our new ward is about to split.  It's fine with us, we don't really know anyone anyway.
They just better not call me to primary.
I will have a come apart.
That is the very last thing I need in my life right now.

Ryker's baseball season finally ended and not a moment too soon.

It is too hot.

Baseball is way too boring.

Blahhhhh....  I am just NOT a sports mom.

At least not this kind of sports mom.

Landscaping day marks the very last day of the build.

That is how everyone knows the home is complete. 

We were so happy when we came around the corner and saw our trees in the street.

Kami and Brent live 3 streets away from our new house. 

We were so excited to live so close to them.  

We were going to borrow milk from them and see them in church on Sunday during the blocks.

BUT...  Kami decided that it was time for a job change.

And accepted a new position in the town of Bagdad, Arizona.

Where?  you say?  

I don't even know.

I don't know why anyone in their right mind would move to a town with a population of 1500 and one stop light and one restaurant and one gas station with only 2 pumps.

But when both of your children have moved on to new and exciting adventures, you are in a position to have an adventure of your own and I guess you move.  11 days before us.

I am so sad that they aren't here.

We said goodbye to them at a dinner at Sukura.

We drove down to Las Vegas for the 4th of July to shop.

We bought some last minute items at Hobby Lobby, Ikea and Home Goods.

I found THE BEST deals.

I found things that I had been looking for, for months

The big girls were in Park City with Papa and Nana on the 4th.

Here is Raleigh opening the front door with our NEW KEYS

And we moved Hobby Lobby from our old house...

To our NEW house

 I love going into our living room to "shop" for decor that we have purchased and stored for over a year.  I had forgotten that I have so many darling things that are going to look SO fabulous on shelves and on benches and here and there.   I shopped for deals, waited for things to go on sale, saved, stored.  I was gifted a few things.  I recycled a few things.  Some treasures simply fell into my lap.
I love my collection.  I have gadgets and gizmos a plenty. 

MOVING DAY

Day One of projects began with a new paint booth in the new garage

Raleigh got to work painting the kitchen cupboards "peppercorn"
The world's very best color.  We arranged to have the builders leave some of the items in our house "undone"  so that we could do some sweat equity.  The lower kitchen cupboards were left unfinished.  About 20 minutes after we got keys, the paint booth went up and Raleigh started painting.  I was ALL too happy to be at work this day.  This little project made me SO nervous.  I couldn't watch.  

It was SO scary because the bulk of our kitchen is white and there was potential for catastrophe all around us.  But, as always, he was meticulous and very careful and he did a perfectly professional job.  I couldn't believe the end result.  His cupboards look 1000% better than the ones the builders painted.  I LOVE this color.  

JUST LOOK AT THE RESULTS.

I don't have adequate words to describe the happiness I feel when I walk into this kitchen especially at night with the counters all lit up and the pendant lights on.  I absolutely LOVE it.  And I love
our pendant lights.
It wasn't easy to acquire them and it took a village... thanks to Sam who went above and beyond the call of friendship duty...
but we got them for $17.99 each... they look like we spent $250.  Our pendant lights are two of our greatest treasures by far.

Also...  that chandelier is to die for when it is lit up at night.

Day Two:  Hanging all of the TVs.

This particular TV is gigantic and weighs 200 pounds.

This was no small job by any means.

8 TVs.  8 TVs is way too many TVs for one family.  And fortunately, THE ONLY casualty in our whole move was the TV that goes above our mantle which shattered in the trailer on the 5 mile drive over.  We will need to replace that one before football starts in August

Day Three was the barn door in our bedroom.

Which is massive and weighs 400 pounds.

I was a wreck over this...  I still am.

It is SO heavy.

And I am worried that the weight will cause our house to cave in the middle.

I just can not wrap my head around the monstrosity of this door not causing some long term destruction.

How can something that heavy just hang there freely for 10 years without causing damage to something?  I literally keep having dreams that our house is going to fall to pieces.  OR worse...  that the door is going to slide off the rails in the middle of the night and crush us in our bed.

Until one of these "irrational fears" occurs, the door will just hang there looking darling and will block out the blaring bathroom lights that go on every morning at 5:00 when Raleigh gets up to go to the gym.

But hanging a barn door is SO hard and takes SO much mental focus as well as brute strength

Day Four:  Shiplap in the nooks of the family room went up flawlessly and seemed so easy.

I am sure it wasn't, but it looked like it.

He still has to build benches in there.  I am so excited for those.  It will almost complete the room.

I think I can talk him into finishing them the last weekend in July. (fingers crossed)

He'll most likely say something like... "what do I get?"

And I will have to come up with some really appealing offer

Here is some of the partially decorated sections of the house that will probably change 100 times.

But, I am giddy over everything and am going to have SO much fun over the next month trying new things and making this house ours.

When this door is painted black... this little area will be perfection

Super cool faucet for our pedestal sink that we found on Amazon for $20.00

The beginnings of Morgan's room.

The last Saturday of the month was SO great!!

We were finally free from the other house. We finished up everything there and felt good about it.

And we were able to focus our attention on only ONE house for the first time in 7 months.
So we got busy.
We started by building the nook benches.  It was not super easy.  There were times when I had to step in and help.  I had to put my back into it and give it all I had.  It was worth it.  I am so pleased with the results.

This is not the final decor.  This is me messing around with the stuff from the Hobby Lobby living room

 Can't Stop.

Won't Stop.

I'll be messing with this for a month before it is really done

We still have to hang the Barn Door Shutters in this room.

I have to be honest....  we don't really want to.   The barn door in our room made us nervous.

It's okay to mess around with projects like that in rooms that no one will see, it's another thing to try and do it in a room that every one will see.  Raleigh doesn't want to do it...  I will be nearly NO help to him and he knows that.  I think he is going to ask a friend to come over and help him when it's time because two heads are better than one and also friend muscles are way better than wimpy wife muscles.  But when they are FINALLY hung up, this room will be SO amazing.  I cannot wait!!

 We also hung one set of the shutters....  only because I wouldn't let him hang the others. 

I don't see how he will be able to do it.  He needs me to help him and I will NEVER go up that high.  I don't know how we'll pull it off without renting some sort of contraption.  However, they must go up.  It looks SO undone with only one set.  Don't tell Ral I said that.  I can see him tying to shimmy himself over the roof ledge or something dangerous like that.  One time at Best Buy I watched him raise a scissor lift to its highest point and put a chair on a box and stand on that to change a lightbulb.  He's insane.  No telling what he will try to do when I am not there to stop him.  

 We also finished up the genealogy wall.

I love the way it turned out.  I love telling the stories about all of these people too.

 We also got a couple of coupons to various stores when we switched our mail over.  And one of them was to Lowes.  We never go to Lowes.  So we ventured over there to see what we could find.  And there, leaning up on the back wall,  were boxes of custom blinds that were the exact sizes of blinds that we needed for several of our windows and they were part of a custom order that didn't work for someone else, but were perfect for us and each of them were $5.00.  I consider this another one of the many blessings that we have been blessed with during this whole adventure. They just keep happening to us over and over.  We don't deserve them, but they keep happening.

We still have at least a month of work.  And that is okay with us.  We have come to LOVE projects.  I wouldn't know what to do with a Saturday that wasn't filled with projects to do.  I suspect that we will create a Saturday Project every week.  There will always be a corner that we can add to.

What a month...  It has been exhausting so say the very least.  Moving Sucks!!  I don't want to do this again for a decade at least.  We are mentally and emotionally and physically over-exerted.  I truly am feeling so happy that we are really in and now all we have to focus on is where all of the crap that is in our garage is going to go in the house.  AND if our cars are ever going to be able to go in the garage.  It's SO hot here.  Who moves during the hottest two weeks of the year?  WE DO!!  We did it seven years ago this very same time.

When we pulled out of the driveway of our other house for the very last time,  I had such bitter sweet emotions.  I didn't love that house,  but I LOVED the memories that we made there.  Ryker was 6 months old when we moved into that house.  Peyton wasn't even three.  I had 7 children living with me full time.  We both worked full time.  7 Christmases.  7 different jobs.  Raleigh only had one calling the entire time we lived there.  We had one set of stitches.  2 visits to the ER...  one in an ambulance.  3 children graduated.  2 children moved out.  I still drive the same car.  We matured a ton.  We learned some really valuable life lessons.  We have a grip on what is and what is not important in this life.  We grew closer as a couple and are more in love today than we were when we moved in.

Life is crazy.  We are a little crazy.  Nevertheless,  we are ready for some new adventures in a new place.  Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.  What do you say we make the most of it?