The Great Condo Remodel of 2011

Finished.

We are finally finished.

For the last 4 months (YEAR really, but mostly the last 4 months) we have been attempting to get our condo "rent ready".

We decided to add laminate wood flooring in the kitchen, hall, laundry and storage rooms and tile to the bathrooms and to build a "tub" for the laundry area (instead of the disgusting fiber glass tub that was there).

We didn't know what was a head of us.

We thought the project wouldn't take too long - maybe a couple of weekends - then we could rent it out quickly and not worry about it. Yet due to work and school getting in the way (Husband finished a 6 month statistics course in 7 weeks) our "quick-two-weekend-project" took well over 4 months.

But it is finished.

AND our renter is all moved in. We are starting the new year on the right foot.

We had my brothers; Bryce, Tom and Kurtis as well as my dad, Bryce, help tear up and put in flooring. My brother, Eric, and my mom, Maxine, came and helped as well. They all put in many hours! And boy are we thankful!













Husband put in many many hours. He is a hard worker and I am sooo thankful for him!

I didn't get as many pictures of the "finished project" as I wanted, but our renter moved in pretty much the second we were done, so I didn't get much of an opportunity to take pictures, but here are a few:



One of the women that came to help our renter move in was quite vocal about how much she loved the condo. She walked in and said, "oh this is beautiful!!" "Oh wow! That is so beautiful!" "Oh the laundry room! (GASP) This is soooo beautiful!!" I am not exaggerating. She literally kept commenting on how beautiful the condo was - at least 15 times when she first arrived and about 10 other times in the next 2 hours I was there. You'd think she never saw a decent home before. But it made me feel good.

And she wanted me to make sure to tell my husband how beautiful the laundry room was.

I agree. It is beautiful. And part of me is sad to not be enjoying our hard work - but I know that renting while Husband is completing his nursing program is the right thing to do.

Thank you again to everyone who helped!

Randomness

Posts on this blog happen few and far between. Husband and I have been so busy as of late (always it seems) that my blog isn't really my priority. I will truly try to be better at documenting our going ons.


Around Thanksgiving of last year, my sister, Teresa, convinced my brother, Tom, and me to participate in the Utah Grand Slam in 2011. In which you run 4 Utah marathons in one year and get an extra medal. For some reason I'm a sucker for extra medals (Disney World Goofy Challenge & Coast to Coast Challenge is exhibit A. See 5 Medals, 3 Races and 2 States).

So this year has been a busy year. It began with running the Thanksgiving Point 1/2 Marathon in which it SNOWED (uh...should I say blizzard-ed) on us. We ran that race with our other brother, Kurtis, and my friend, Kara. Note: Kurtis ran the Grand Slam 1/2 Marathons this year...he caught the running bug, but didn't want to commit to the 104.8 marathon miles. And Kara also ran the Utah Valley Marathon with us.

We then spent the remainder of the summer running long runs together every Saturday morning. We ran the Utah Valley Marathon in June, the Park City Marathon in July, the Top of Utah Marathon in September and the St. George Marathon in October. I kept track of all my miles (training and races) and I ran 419.9 miles (give or take a few). That is A LOT of miles. Next year I will not be running nearly as many. Probably some. I'll keep you posted.


We adopted a puppy in July. He is a Shorkie (a Yorkie/Shih-tzu mix). We named him Teddy Roosevelt, because he has such a teddy bear face. We are commonly calling him Teddy, Roosevelt, Mr. President, President Roosevelt, Commander in Chief, etc. It's fun. He is a good dog, and we love him.
The cats feel quite differently.
Surprisingly Peter Parker doesn't mind him, the two of them will actually play a bit here and there. Bruce Wayne (who is usually the more-friendly-toward-other-animals cat is ornery toward him. ESPECIALLY in the mornings. I think Bruce Wayne is like me, and is very impatient and not in the best of mood when I first wake up. But he is warming up to him each day - I hope.


On September 11, my sister in law's mother, Sherri Winder, was killed in a car accident just north of St. George. It has been a very emotional last month. With the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and the sealing powers in the temple, the Winder Family is holding together, supporting one another and are comforted in the knowledge that they will see Sherri again. She was (and still is) a wonderful, kind, loving, thoughtful, lovely and classy woman.


Husband will begin his Nursing Program at the University of Southern Nevada (they have a campus in Sandy) (it is now called Roseman University) in January. Once school starts he will be in class and studying full time and may possibly only work 10-15 hours a week. Because of this, my wonderful parents have agreed to take us in while he is in school. And we will rent out our condo because if we were to sell it right now we would be out a great deal of money, thanks to the housing market being what it is.

Husband has been VERY busy getting everything ready for us to move in with my parents. He put up a wall in one evening (by himself), has rewired most of the lighting for the two rooms, put a mantle on the fireplace, put up some lights/fan, replaced the sheet rock in another room, then spackled (thank you Tom for your help) and painted. He also tore out the old carpet and put in some nice laminate wood flooring (thank you Michael for your help). We are also trying to pack up everything in our condo so we can move quickly once everything is ready. He's done all of this while working 2 jobs and finishing up 2 classes.

I am married to Superman.

Since July of 2010 I have been working as a part time manager at Macy's department store. I have thoroughly enjoyed working there. The people are pretty fun, and it has worked perfectly with my full time job schedule. However, with everything that has been going on in getting ready to move, training and running marathons, school and the increase in hours at my full time job, Husband and I have decided that it be best if I end my employment at Macy's. I will miss it as it has been a great blessing, monetarily, and because of the friends that I enjoy working with.

I will completely enjoy having my weekends and evenings off! I will finally have time to concentrate on my homework, help out at my parents and at home, exercise more, go to church!, sleep in and see my family and friends more often. Aww, it will be grand.


Husband and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary this year! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown! I love being married, and I truly have the best husband. I look forward to MANY years to come!

There you have it folks...some of the tidbits of our life!

Oh boy am I glad the semester is over.

I'm Done

I'm sure that Tim feels the same.

Though I'm done with classes for the semester.

Tim still has more to finish.

Poor guy.

Broken

Last weekend, Husband and I went with my brother and his wife, Tom and Tami, their cute little family and our other brother, Kurtis, to Capital Reef. Its this beautiful national park, made mostly of sandstone. You should go. It's beautiful. Even my 2 year old nephew kept pointing at the rocks saying "ooooohhhh!"

We all made the trip down south-east to celebrate the 7th birthday of my niece, Lily. We stayed in a town called Teasedale at The Laforborn Ranch. It's this cute barn/hotel (it's literally a barn with some rooms and a kitchen attached...though these are definitely not you basic country bumpkin rooms/barn). It was quite nice. Check it out!

As part of the celebration festivities, we went down to ride some of Tami's aunt's horses. Tami's Aunt JaNae lives in Torrey, UT, and houses her horse at The Laforborn Ranch, so it was easy access to her horse, Old Oxbow.

Saturday morning we got all "cowboyed up" and went out to ride the horses. Husband was THRILLED. He grew up with horses and couldn't wait to ride one. Lily got to ride first as she was the birthday girl. Then Tami got on Old Oxbow just as we saddled up another horse to ride. Kurtis was going to ride first, but the horse was stubborn and refused to move. So, Husband, with all his horse-riding wisdom, got on the horse, determined to make her do what he wanted. Well, after several minutes of a battle of stubborn wills the horse lost her footing and down she went, right on Husband's left leg, and SNAP.

We immediately got Husband in the car and Aunt JaNae and I took him to the small clinic in the nearby town. No one was there when we got there, due to the clinic being closed because the county fair taking place. We had to dispatch the doctor....it took him about 20 minutes to get there.

They took an x-ray and confirmed it was broken. They put a splint on it and told us to go to a doctor in Salt Lake to get it completely taken care of.

Poor Husband. No more horse riding for the weekend...and for awhile.

Husband didn't want his broken bone to ruin the weekend for the rest of us, so he was content to stay back and sleep while we hiked in Capital Reef and then ate at this fun pizza place.

Overall it was a fun weekend, even if there was an injury involved.

Monday morning I took Husband to see an orthopedic doctor. He took new x-rays as the ones from the clinic were quite fuzzy. And again confirmed the ankle was broken. The medial malleolus was broken clean through and had turned and with where it is sitting, if we just put a cast on, it would not heal properly. Therefore, surgery is necessary.

Due to the ankle being swollen, we scheduled the surgery for this Wednesday as they have to give the ankle time to reduce the swelling or they won't be able to close the incision after the surgery.

Husband must stay off his foot for 6 weeks after the surgery. We are in for a long recovery. Which will be interesting with work and school. But we'll get through the semester just fine, Husband is strong and will be able to do it all.

PS - If you want to see more photos from the weekend, just check out Tom and Tami's blog.

The New Job

Husband and I decided that we want pay off our debt faster than we currently are. And as I cannot work overtime because I am on salary at my current job, and we want Husband to finish his degree as quickly as possible, we decided that I would find a part time job to help us get to where we want to be while Husband finishes his schooling.

For the last several months I have been applying everywhere, I mean, EVERYWHERE.

Finally, I found an add for an "on call associate" for Macy's. I didn't know how well that type of a position would work with my schedule, but I opted to apply anyway.

I went in for the interview and no more than 5 minutes into the interview (which was not your typical interview, mind you) the store manager said that he had a position for me that was not the position that I applied for.

I was a little surprised but happy. He said that he'd had a supervisor position open for 3 months that he had not found anyone to fill until now.

Happy day!

So now I am the Sales Floor Supervisor at Macy's at the Valley Fair. I work 20 hours a week, mostly 3 nights and Saturdays. The people are fun, and the job is great.

Life is pretty busy (working a full time, and a part time job...with school starting the end of the month). We'll be lucky if I can find time to blog. Don't miss me too much. Ha ha.

But overall, we feel this is the best thing for us right now, and yes, yes, I'm going to say it, but I can't deny it, we have truly been blessed.

Backgrounds

A few days ago I chose a new background for my blog, just to discover today that it was the same background as my brother and sister inlaw's blog. So of course I had to change my background. So I did. Just to find out as I looked at my friend's blog that she had the same background I'd just changed it to! So I changed my blog background again.

I'm just hoping that no one that my blog is linked to has the same background as myself.
Because that is lame.