Hello!

WOW.  Where did the month go?!  

This month has been crazy.  So my last post was about Rachel and I moving into our new house out in Purdy.  So we've been going crazy trying to fix things up while we have the energy!  

The house is sitting on nearly an acre with a gigantic front yard full of fruit trees (and a lawn that will require us to buy a riding lawn mower!).  It's 1730 sq. feet with a 480 sq foot shop (or "Man Cave").  It has three bedrooms, 1.75 baths and a deep 1 car garage.  It also has a cool covered patio out back which will be handy if the sun ever comes back...

We started by painting the master bedroom, office and entry/hallway.  The house also had those old dark brown doors and molding so we replaced the doors with white 6 panel ones and are painting the molding white.  While we were at it we also replaced all the door hardware with brushed nickel ones.  We're also replacing all the old outlets from beige to white ones as we go.  

The big project was a few weeks ago when we had some friends over to tear down the wood paneling in our living room.  We ended up mudding and texturing the whole thing because the glue from the paneling did so much damage to the wall.  Now with a fresh coat of paint, it looks huge!  We still need to replace the molding in that room but that did a whole bunch towards bringing the house into this decade!

We also replaced the thermostat with a more modern programable one and replaced the old doorbell as well.  The other day I even put up our new mailbox with our name on it!  We've also have done a bunch of work on the outside with all the plants and I cut down 5 stray fir and holly trees that were crowding our fruit trees and rhodi's.  

We have some pictures of when we first moved in and we will be taking a few more of all the work that has been done to it.  When we do, I'll let you all know of course.  

The next giant project is that we ordered a new kitchen last week!  The cabinets should be delivered in about three weeks and later this summer we will be tearing out the old one and replacing it.  That is going to be a huge job so if anyone wants to lend a hand for an afternoon, just let us know!

Anyhoo, that's been the big thing on my plate this last month.  Stuff at work is also shifting around a little as well as some family stuff.

Hopfully I can start updating this more regularly, we've just been waiting for our internet guy to finally hook us up!  It's been close to a month now and we're hoping to have internet by this next week.  Pretty please Comcast?

Thank You!

There are few things more humbling then asking for help and having friends and family drop what they're doing to lend a hand...backs and trucks!  

I so appreciate everyone that came out today to help us move.  I felt very blessed and it made the day fly by to be around you all.

I also can't believe how much was moved!  Only a few truckloads remain and then all we'll have left is the unpacking, sorting and throwing outing!  And I know that Iven probably doesn't want this info out there but he is a packing guru!

We'll be trying to finish moving the last of our stuff today and hopefully be installing some new interior doors to brighten the hallway and bring the place one step closer to the present.  

It's looking like Saturday, April 18th is shaping up to be a workday if you still want to help out!  Either finishing getting our rooms feng shui'd, trimming some overgrown plants, painting or tearing down some wood paneling!  Or just come over for some tea and check out our new digs (that's right, we won't put you to work just for stopping by -  so don't be scared)!  

Alright I'm exhausted!  Night all!

We have a house!..kind of...

Just 76 signatures and initials later, we are just one step away from owning a house!  Our papers should be headed to escrow tonight and we should close and have the house keys by Friday!  And the crazy part was that we are just a week shy of one year of looking.  Has it really been that long?  Rachel started blogging about it here.  

All those signatures reminded me of a sermon that our new Pastor, Michael White, preached last month on being truthful and having our yes mean yes and our no mean no.  He talked about all those papers he had to sign to buy their house up here and how much our society is based on us not telling the truth.  It makes even more sense to me now!  I linked to it above and they have tons of sermons online if you wanted to check them out on the churches website.  

We'll be moving our stuff over and doing some painting Friday and Saturday if anyone is able to help or lend a vehicle, just let us know!  

Ninja Parade!

Happy April 1st!

Week in Review

So my buddy Dave and I donated blood this afternoon.  We've been donating together since Dave dragged me there back in High School.  After that first time donating I realized how ridiculous it was for me to say that I didn't donate because I was scared of needles.  That and a half hour prevented me from saving a few lives?  Seemed a little silly.

Did you know that 37% of the United States can donate but only 5% do?  That's crazy!

So what's your excuse?

How about this, the next time I can donate is on May 29th and my birthday is that week!  If anyone wants to give me an awesome present, you can come with!  And then maybe we can all go get some food afterwards or something.  I'm not asking you to donate every 2 months (though that would be sweet!) just this once.  And if you find that it's not for you, that's alright because you already saved a few lives.  Just a thought.

Speaking of birthdays...My sister Maya has one tomorrow!  So give her a call or drop her an electronic note to tell her how awesome she is.  And did I mention that my niece Lily was baptised last week?  We don't have those photos up on our picture site just yet so you'll just have to settle with these pictures of Lily and Spencer in the park with the Blaisdell's bunny, Cadbury.

Anyhoo, not much has changed on the soon-to-be-home front.  We are still in the midst of buying a house in Purdy off of Danforth.  If all goes well, we should be closing within 2 weeks!

We'll be sure to let everyone know when we have a firm move in date.  

And finally, the cool news I mentioned earlier was that my buddy Matt Cox let me know that he just got engaged to his girlfriend Whitney!  And he's letting me be the best man!  Pretty sweet.  

Long Time, No Type!

Whew!

A lot going on lately, sorry to leave all you wonderful people who take an interest in my life, hanging.

One, It was Zakeyo's 10th Bday today! Rachel and I sponsor a child from Zambia. Actually he's from the same town that has one of Brian's wells (which is another story in itself). If you've been considering making a huge difference in someone's life...what are you waiting for?! There's a link to World Vision down on the right hand side of this blog, just click away and I promise you won't regret it.

Two, it's looking good with Rachel and I buying a house! If you haven't heard about it yet it's because we've been burnt so many times (This is our 8th home offer?) that I expected something to go horribly wrong so I didn't want to tell everyone until we got over most of the hurdles. But today we got over one of the last ones! After the inspection on Thursday we found a few things we wanted the owner to fix and today he agreed! The house is off of Danforth just a few minutes past the Purdy Bridge. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath sitting on almost an acre. Now if our finances goes smoothly, we should be in by the end of the month.

Three, Rachel and I spent last weekend at our Middle School Winter Retreat. It was a lot of fun and for those of you wondering why we can call a March retreat "Winter" just remember that we came home to SNOW in Gig Harbor...That's just wrong...

Four, I've been hanging out at my buddy Blake's flyfishing shop in downtown Gig Harbor a lot this week. I'm still fairly new to the whole flyfishing thing but it's still a lot of fun just milling about down there. So you should come by and check it out! They are currently open from 3-6pm Sundays-Fridays and all day on Saturdays.

Five, Rachel and I are headed to a Remodeling Expo in Tacoma tomorrow (it's like they knew!) so if you have nothing to do and want to hang out with us, come on down!

Six, less then an hour ago I got some exciting news from one of my buddies. I'll tell you what later but wanted to give him a few hours head start telling people.

I think I got most of the major things...Anyhoo, I'm tired so I'm going to bed - I got work in the morning!

cakewrecks

Man...I've been pretty lazy about updating this!  Sorry all...

Rachel and I have been putting offers on houses left and right and I'm getting tired of being rejected...getting better at bouncing back though.  

Anyhoo, since it's my sister's bday tomorrow (Amy's) I thought I'd share with you all a hilarious website I came across a few weeks ago called Cakewrecks.

Enjoy.