Moving Mom

Last week I flew up to Boise to help move my Mom. She found a nice little home about 1 mile from her previous place and decided to make the big move and purchase it. This new home is absolutely perfect for her. She is very happy with her decision and feels like she is finally "home". I have to admit that I was a bit uneasy about the move. I really liked her old place and was not sure how I would like this new one. However, after seeing it, I know too that she made the correct choice. Her new home reminds me of Snow White's cottage :) Very cozy and as Mom says..."You just want to stay home all day in it and nest."

I arrived on Sunday evening and on Monday morning we finished up the packing that she was not able to complete with Pete's help. I was simply amazed at the amount of packing she had completed. My Mom has some serious health issues and I was certain that I would have lots of boxes left to pack. I have no doubt that she was blessed to be able to get as much done as she did. Just another testament to me that she was supposed to move.

Tuesday was the big move and she had hired a moving company to come move all the furniture and leftover boxes. During the past few weeks, Pete would help her take a load over bit by bit. My cousin Carl and his family (who lived close by) also came over and helped transport boxes to the new home. By the time that Tuesday finally came, she pretty much had all the boxes already at the new home.

I spent the remainder of the week unpacking. I was pretty happy that all but two boxes were unpacked when I left on Saturday afternoon. She still has some organizing to do, but everything is in the general area. The picture above is the home we just moved her from. Below is the new one.
The front door is kind of odd on the left side of the picture. However, it is well lit at night and her neighbors are definitely close by :) I jokingly told her that she could lean out her window and give her neighbors a high five :D


She has a nice covered porch in the back that I am sure she will enjoy.
This is her rather small back yard, but she still has a place to plant some tomatoes if she chooses.
When she moved in the shower in the master bedroom was not handicap accessible. She decided to have Re-Bath come install one for her and it was great. They arrived at 7:15 am on Friday morning and were done by 1 pm that very afternoon. I love the little rubber ducky they left in the shower for her.
This is part of the master bedroom. Dayna and I took her shopping and helped her pick out this bed set.
This is the dining area. The rug was actually returned for a different one, but you get the idea. Mom loves the big window that looks out into the street. She told me she will enjoy eating her meals and watching the happenings of the neighborhood.
This is part of the kitchen. She was kind of scared of the gas stove. She has since told me that she is getting used to it. I told her that wants she gets comfortable she will never go back to an electric one.
More kitchen photos. You can clearly see that we were still unpacking.
This is a computer desk we had to purchase. In her last home the desk was built into the wall. This also has a lot of stuff on it that was not put away.
This is the same room with her sewing table. It was really a tight squeeze, but I think it will work just fine.
This is in the mud room right off the garage. I love this little built in cubby.

I also forgot to post a picture of the entertainment center. This has kind of a funny story to it. Mom has a cable box and also a DVD/VCR player. We needed to hook up both of them to her TV and nobody could figure it out. Well...Dayna and I decided that we could do it. I am not sure what were thinking. Both of us would certainly fit into the category of Electronic Illiterate. We started about 9 pm and around 11 pm we decided it was time to call the cable company because we KNEW that it was hooked up correctly, but we still could not get a picture. By this time, all three of us were so tired and laughing uncontrollably at everything. So...I was volunteered to call the cable dude. His name was Juan and he was very helpful. I told him our plight and he told me that he wanted me to check some connections. The first thing he had me check was to see if the actual cable was connected to the right knobby thingy in the back. Well guess what??? Surprise, surprise, we had it in the "out" and not in the "in". We hung up and fixed it thinking that was the end. Not so. We finally gave up until morning and called it a night around 11:30 pm. The next morning the Re-Bath dudes showed up and spotted the cables (they were everywhere) and asked if we needed some help. Did we ever!!! Come to find out we only had one connection on the back of the TV off. Evidently we had an "In" instead of an "Out". I have decided after this entire experience that I will never look at a cable box the same. And I also have a large amount of respect for the Cable Guys out there.

Something Kinda Funny

Earlier today Christopher went down to SUU for the night with his friend Cole and Cole's little sister. They were moving Cole's sister back home. Before he left he jokingly mentioned that he hoped to find some cute girls down in good old Cedar City.

Well...just a little bit ago we had a knock at the door. It was President Hatch from the stake presidency. He was looking for Christopher to give him his missionary release certificate. Emma answered the door at which time President Hatch asked if Christopher was home. Emma thought for a minute and very seriously replied "I think he is on the freeway looking for girls." Ha! She must have heard bits and pieces of our conversations. She had the information, but she was a wee mixed up with the details. Aren't kids great? On second thought...maybe she is not too far off :D

A Great Thought From "Mormon Messages"

Tara's Unfortunate Event

This morning Tara wrecked my Expedition about 15 feet from our driveway. I had asked her to run Emma to school. She decided to take my vehicle rather than hers because she did not want to use her gas (okay...it is literally about 1/3 of a mile from our home and her car gets around 30 miles to the gallon...do the math). Anyway...after she pulled out of the driveway, she looked down for a minute and the next thing she knew she had run right into the neighbors unsuspecting trailer parked on the street. Yep...it was not even a moving object :) At first look it did not seem too bad, but when she tried to move it, it would not turn properly. I think that she seriously jacked up something underneath with the wheels. It has been parked at the park across the street all day while I have been dealing with the insurance company and they finally have a tow truck on the way. We have pretty much been giving her a hard time all day. I know that someday we will all look back on this and say "Remember that time Tara hit the neighbors trailer??" Ha! And while I will be without a car for a bit, I can't help but chuckle.

Below are some pictures of the victim...(and I am not talking about Tara).



Here is the unfortunate target.

The above photo shows how close she was to our home. That is our mailbox in the foreground.

Christopher's Homecoming

Today was Christopher's homecoming from his mission. It was a great day! He spoke in church and did a great job. I keep telling Greg that we now have the "new and improved version of Christopher". He was wonderful when he left, but now he is GREAT. It is so amazing to see how much he has grown. We are so lucky to have so many family members close by that were able to attend. Our home was full of family and friends and LOTS of food. I was so busy visiting with people that I did not take many pictures...but you get the idea. Most of the kids were downstairs playing with Emma's toys or watching basketball, so they are not in many of the photos. I did not venture down there to take pictures, so this is just a glimpse of the day. Our home was bursting with humans!

Licking Leaves

The other night Emma came to me and I noticed that her right eye was beginning to swell shut. I also saw that she had a red rash starting to cover the right side of her face. I was a bit alarmed, but because it was so late at night I decided to wait until morning to decide whether or not I needed to take her to the doctor. I kind of thought it might be pink-eye but I could not see anything oozing out of her eye. It had me puzzled.

The next morning she woke up and came into my bedroom and I immediately knew that we were going to be taking a trip to the doctors. The rash had spread considerably and her eye was barely open. It had also started to spread to the other side of her face. I was racking my brain to see if she had eaten any new food or been around some kind of chemicals. Nothing. She could not think of anything. I was pretty sure that it was just an allergic reaction to something and after talking to the doctor, he agreed and put her on multiple medications to clear it up. He also told me that we may never know what caused this.

Well...after we left the doctor's office and we were heading to get our prescriptions, Emma suddenly thought of something. She turned to me and said "I did lick a leaf yesterday." To which I replied "What? Why would you do that?" She then told me in a matter of fact tone, "I wanted to see if it would stick to the window." Aha! Who knows what was on that leaf? Pesticides? Insecticides? Fertilizer?

So, the moral of this story (and Emma has learned this the hard way), is NOT TO LICK LEAVES or you may get a nasty, itchy, red rash.
These pictures do not do the rash justice, but you get the idea. It was even spreading to the other side of her face and behind her ears. This picture was taken a few hours after her initial dose of medicine. I did not think to take pictures for my blog any earlier...bummer. Below is another picture of Emma. I had told Christopher to get out of the way and just as I clicked the picture, he flew through the air behind her to make me mad! That kid!!! (And no, I did not get mad)