Happy 4th of July

I love the 4th of July. It's one of my favorite holidays. Wyatt and Charly (one of Mike's good friends from high school) came up to spend some time with the family. Mike's sister Gina and her family also came up for a visit. We had a fun filled week. We were able to go the Lion's Club breakfast in Iona with Mike's parents and grandparents. We played a lot of card games and a few games out in the yard.

The NEW House!!!

Mike and I moved to Idaho Falls the end of April. We had found a house that was in foreclosure. We bought it in March and immediately started working on the house. It was horendous and it quite intimidated me. I almost cried when I realized what we had to work with. We learned that the previous ownder had 13 cats inside the house. One room was dedicated just to the felines. There was hair and pee everywhere piled thick (on the walls and the floor). I would come out of the house with major allergies each day. The guy had blinds on the outside of his windows. The walls were maroon and a burnt orange color. We had to haul 3 big trucks and trailor loads of junk from the upstairs. There was 4 downstairs and the outside was maybe 2 loads. He was the king of starting something and wouldn't finish. Because of his nature, most of the neighbors didn't like him living in his neighborhood. Let's say they are very thankful for having us instead. :)

You wonder why we decided to buy the house...I already mentioned that it was foreclosure so we got a really good deal on it. It was our first home and Mike has visions of doing this to other homes. We had to start somewhere. In reality, I love our little home. I love where we live and the neighbors. Just behind our back yard there is a school. We are in the middle of town and love being minutes away from everything.

Buying the house...Mike had been looking online at homes for about 8-9 months if not more. It was just in March that we started scoping them out. We had a hard time finding the address of our home and had to stop a gas station and look at a map. At first, we didn't find the house all that interesting. One of Mike's dad's friend's was working on a house down the street and mentioned to Mike that this house had potential. Mike looked at it more carefully. The more he kept looking at it the more he fell in love with it. He went and showed his dad who had the most impact of whether or not we were going to buy this house. Well, the auction was only in a couple of days and we had to come up with some cashier checks. His dad stepped up to the plate and loaned us some money.

Auction time...Mike and I were extremely early in fear that we couldn't find where the auction was being held. We went to the greenbelt to kill some time. Either or us hardly talked just due to nerves. We went back and were greeted by two unwelcomed perpetrators. We sat in a big conference room waiting for everyone to arrive. While waiting, I made conversation with the two perpetrators and realized that they weren't going to bid on the house. We felt relieved but that didn't last all that long. In came a lot more people; two more couples. The bank showed up and also the person in charge of the auction. The mood in the room was so very uncomfortable, stoned serious, nerve wrecking, and intense. I looked over at Mike and he didn't seem to be bothered or nervous. He kept under control and showed no sign of fear. I was impressed by how he pulled it off. The auction started and soon realized that we were bidding against the bank. We were ticked!!! What kind of scam was this? When she reached her limit, she stopped. Then another couple starting bidding on it. They asked us questions of what our plans were, etc. We told them we wanted it for our first home. The wife told her husband to stop bidding and to let us have it. He bid one more time and then stopped making us the owners. After all that, the couple claims that the house wasn't worth much and that it wasn't all that great of a deal. Which of course didn't make any sense since they wanted so bad at first. That doens't matter now. We were excited.

My excitement went from 90 to 0 in an instant realizing WE WERE THE OWNERS!!! I had Mike go in the house first to give me a mental picture of something that was totally diasterous so that when I did see it for the first time it hopefully wouldn't be so bad. It worked. It took me a while to get used to the idea of even having a house and for that reason I didn't tell anyone for a while.

Now everyone tells us how nice we made our house and how comfortable it is. We changed so much. Our yard is completely different; more open and clean. I'm so proud of it that if/when Mike decides to sell it, it will be hard to be pulled from it.

Another new job

I'm starting another new job. I quit my other job in February and have been taking some time off. The Children Center closed down their partial care and I wasn't interested in working for them doing PSR. I haven't been impressed with the company. Ever since I've started there have been rumors of them closing altogether, and then closing just partial care, and then.... It's seems like it's never ending. I don't have faith or the feeling of security there. I agreed to stay only until partial care officially closes. We'll see how this new job goes. So far I'm still in training. I'm kind of nervous of having crappy hours that I only work evenings.

In my spare time I'll be working on my house. We just bought it today. I'm still not used to the idea of owning a house and honestly feel kind of uneasy about it. I know it will all work out. I haven't seen the inside of it yet. It was a foreclosed house. Apparently the previous owners moved to North Dakota.

Blackers

Mike started up at Blackers again. He was feeling anxious after graduating and not having a job. He only took a few weeks off but still that was too long for him. Blackers is only a temporary thing until he can find something else.

He teases that I no longer have a "housewife" to take care of me. I guess we'll need to find a replacement. "Me" I don't mind.

New job

I just started a new job in Idaho Falls. I work in a partial care with lots of kids. I am a social worker but in the setting I work in the kids call me a teacher. I'm known as Ms. Angie. It's kind of like a daycare but it's known as a behavior modification program. Basically, the objective is to create a bubble where the kids can learn necessary skills to live in the real world.

I'm really scared to start a new job after what happened at Journeys. I'm trying to make the best of it. I'm not liking the idea of working but feel this is something that I need to do. For some reason, I feel uneasy about not being home as much and I'm really scared to drive to Idaho Falls everyday.

Mike stealing a duck

One of Mike's and I favorite place to go is the duck ponds in Rexburg. We have spent a lot of time there. We'll go for picnics, walks, to feed the ducks, to talk, etc. Mike for some reason also has an obsession with ducks. He will try to catch them for fun. He has even jumped in after them. One particular evening, Mike decided that he would keep the duck that he caught. No one was around and so it wasn't hard to stuff him in the car. Mike fed him some of our leftovers which was mainly noodles. He even went across the walk way to look in the trash for something more to feed this duck. At first I thought he was kidding but then I realized that he was actually driving away. I was so angry with Mike. I didn't want a pesty bird inside of my apartment and especially not in my bathtub. If anyone found out where we got this duck we probably could have been in a lot of trouble. I didn't talk to Mike for a few days because I felt like my space was being crowded and the aroma in the apartment just stunk. Well, he finally got sick of the duck and returned him to his home.

He wanted to see if he fed and cared for this duck if it could be bigger than his brothers and sisters. In reality, when we returned the duck he was quite a bit smaller. He also felt for the young ducklings since it was just starting to turn into winter weather. He didn't think that they could make it through the season. We went back the next year and they did just fine.

Going to Las Vegas

Mike and I briefly talked about how cool it would be to be able to go somewhere during our break. We talked about it was if we were really going to go. It was two days before that Mike asked me, "What if I could make it happen?" Well of course I got super excited and thought about all the things that we would need to do. I suggested that we could go camping or do something that wasn't so far away and that wasn't so expensive. He then commented on that this is our opportunity to do things before parenthood. I agreed and off we went. Mike drove almost the entire way except for when the weather decided to turn and it was snowing really hard. It was so bad that we couldn't see anything in front of us and had no idea where the road was. Mike happened to sleeping waking suddenly and jerking the car off the road to help prevent someone running into us. Oh. I almost forgot...there was another incident where I was also driving. Apparently I was going to fast for what the car could handle over the hills and bumps and stuff. I almost overheated the car and we were stuck for some time. Eventually the car started, we took it easy, and found the next gas station. All it needed was some water and oil.

While in Las Vegas we did a lot of sight seeing. We stopped at almost all the free shows. We ate at a hotel buffet and the best breakfast we found was on the outskirts of town in a bar. We stopped there before going home. On of the rememberable tourist attraction was observing the rides on top of a tower thing. I can't remember the hotel it's on top of or what it's called. But that was my favorite.