Finally in Our New House

After a lot of trials and heartache we are finally in our new house. There is so much to tell and I have no clue where to start. People keep telling me that I need to write down all the problems that we had I will just have to do a summary because if I wrote everything down it would be a novel.

* The day before we were suppose to close on our old house we got a call saying we wouldn't get $5,000 that we were planning on. We spent most of the day fighting it out with a guy at Provo city offices. He told us he would have to take some time to think. After a family prayer we went back and he gave us the full amount.

* We are packing our big items up and it was time to go to closing. We couldn't find the keys anywhere. We look for two hours with no lucky. Went to closing in another car. Finally we decide to unpack the furniture. The keys are in the couch at the very bottom of the pile.

* EmmaLee and the kids go back to Idaho. One of the boxes with Marks, EmmaLee, and Curtis clothing ended up in storage. No big deal we will be in our house soon. We will make due. (still haven't found that box)

* We have our family vacation in Park City for a long weekend. We had a blast. We will update pictures later.

* We go back to Idaho for a few days. Then go on vacation to Island Park with the Hammon side of our family. We had so much fun and will update with pictures on this too.

* Pack up our stuff in Idaho and start out to Utah. It was Tuesday August 19th. We were so excited we close on our loan today. Get a call from our mortgage guy and there is a problem. We cannot close today, but will close in a few days.

* We stay at Mark's parents house. The next day I go to the new house to get carpets cleaned. I had to get something upstairs. I am holding Curtis and going back down stairs. The carpet guy had put cleaner on the carpet and I have shoes with no traction. I step from the stairs to the tile floor and I fall. Since I am holding Curtis I fall wrong and I am in so much pain. I call Mark and he rushes over. (His office is only five miles away. YEAH for gas.) We go to the doctor and it is only sprained. I have to stay in bed.

* Friday...I get a call from the doctor and he tells me my foot is broken. Then I get a call from our mortgage guy and the underwriter. To make a long story short they decided not to do the loan because of Mark's student loans. Our mortgage guy assured us that he would get the loan done in a few days. He told us to hold tight. I had my doubts.

* Saturday... We have to be out of Mark's parents house. His step mom was having two surgeries. We get a hotel on Price Line.

*Monday... Abby starts Kindergarten. We will update with photos. We send her to the class that would be hers if we get the house.

*Tuesday... We get a call saying the underwriter wants a letter from us explaining how we are going to pay for the house. Very odd, but we would do anything at this point. Mark writes an amazing letter.

*Wednesday... We get a call and we can close on the loan that afternoon. Tears of joy for both of us. We close on our house. The mortgage company got it through a new underwriter and us to closing in 3 days. It was a miracle. On Friday our realtor told us to go with a new mortgage company. She said she knows someone who can get the loan done in 5 days. Well they did it in 3.

* Thursday... We get a call and the sellers never signed papers the night before. Sheer panic went through my body. We went to get socks at Kohl's and Jared runs away from me. I cannot catch him because of my foot. 30 minutes later I find him. I call Mark and Jared goes to work with him. I get Abby to school 45 minutes late. We still don't have a house. We are living in our car. I am ready to check into the nut house. At this point I am sure they would gladly take me. We get a call from our realtor and it was a mix up with the title company. The sellers are going to sign right away, but the home has an HOA that the sellers never disclosed. They are going to let us move in the house even though it wont fund until the next day. We still do this day don't have the HOA settled, but we have a house to live in.

* Later that night we had beds set up and it wasn't in a hotel. We were all so happy. Mark's brother Gary, his dad and my cousin Curtis all helped. We could never have done it without them.

This is the long update. Now we have our computer set up and Internet. We love the house. It has four bedrooms, a great living area, and an unfinished basement. Our back yard opens up to a huge playing area. It has lots of bike paths. The kids love this. Our neighbors seem really nice. There are tuns of kids to play with. Mark is a huge collage football nut. He new he was at home when he saw Christmas lights on someones roof in their sport teams name, another neighbor had another teams flag up, and on Saturday we herd fog horn meaning someones team scored. Mark informed me that he is unpacking his cow bell. I am a little scared.

We have lots of picture to update. Many more fun summer stories. Not all were bad. Now we can do this because we have a home and a computer.

Cosmetic Surgery for Abby

I took Abby to her 5 year old well child check in December. During the question time I asked the doctor what this growth was on her chin. He told me it was a harry nevus. (I don't think I spelled it right.) He said it is a birth mark that shows up later in life. As it grows it will sprout hair. Not just a little hair, about what is on your eyebrows. He told me I should get it removed for cosmetic reasons. At the start of this summer I took Abby to a plastic surgeon. I figured it was best to get it out before she started school. He told me that more important than looks the harry nevus is very has a high chance of turning to melanoma. We decided to have it removed right away. Here are some pictures from her big day.

I know that this is a crazy picture, but it was the best one to show her growth.

Abby and her grandma Lynette right before surgery. Not everyone gets to take their grandma in with her, but since Lynette works for the the doctor she could go in with Abby. It was wonderful.

Abby later in the day.

This is when we had to change her bandage. When they cut her open the nevus was huge. I guess they grow until you take them out. The doctor said it was like a huge balloon inside her chin. I was really happy we took it out right away.

Abby now. The scar is fading really fast. Much better than a big harry thing sprouting on her face.

Mark's Graduation

The biggest event for us this summer was that Mark graduated. I was so happy for him and us. The big chapter in our married life is over. YEAH!!!! I don't think many people could do what he did. He graduated with great grades, had three kids, and worked full time. I am so proud of him. Hence there are a lot of pictures.

The Graduate.

Mark with his diploma

Mark and his two Grandma's

Mrs. Robinson and The Graduate

Me, Mark, and Curtis

Mark with Curtis and his brother Dave, Jack, Casie, and Lauren.

Pictures after Graduation

I really need to do the cool slide show, but I am slow with computers. Here are the pictures we took after graduation.

My Sexy Graduate

Mark and Abby

Mark and Jared. They look so much alike.

Mark, Abby, Curtis, and Jared

Our Family. Daphnee our baby sister and friend got the kids ready and brought them to graduation. They didn't have to sit through a long ceremony and they were cute and happy for pictures.

Mark with his Dad and Lynette.

Abby possing for another picture. She is getting so big.

Abby and Jared walking up the hill.

Abby and Jared running down the hill.

Mark's Graduation Lunch

After graduation we all went to dinner at Chefs Table. Here are some pictures.

Here is the group starting with me and going around the table. Me, Abby, Grandma Berniece, Grandma Erika, Dave, Jack, Baby Lauren, Casie, Lynette, Gordon, Jared, and Mark. Curtis didn't make it for the picture. He was at the head of the table.

Jared has had enough with sitting. This is too much for him.

Casie, baby Lauren, Lynette, Gordon, and Jared

Curtis and the only time he has taken a binkie.

Update

I have a lot to update everyone from our events of the summer. The most important is that we sold our house in Provo. We were sad to leave our home of five years, but we are really excited to move into our new house. After the stress of everything I think it is going to work out. It is in Lehi Utah and most important, it has four bedrooms. It is five miles from Mark's work. The basement is unfinished so we have room to grow. We are hoping to move in on the 20th of August. Here are some pictures.


Here is the back yard. It is easy to see where our yard ends. They turned off the water. The back yard is perfect. It has a huge field and bike paths throughout.


Abby posing on the stairs.

Here is the front. I think our car looks great in the driveway. When I saw this picture I knew it was our home.

The Potty Day

Mark here.  EmmaLee is too embarrassed to tell the story so it's up to me.  Think of the most embarrassing moment in your entire life.  Does it include bodily functions?  This is the moment to top them all.  EmmaLee's uncle Kay invited us up to his Salt Lake City condo for lunch and visiting with Jeff and Katie and their respective families.  It was in a nice part of Sugar House and we could tell they spent a lot of time working on the food.  We were just getting ready for lunch when I noticed Jared was wet.  He had conquered number 1 but we were struggling with number 2.  This was a complete surprise.  Katie's husband Jason noticed the looks on our faces and figured out what was going on.  He offered a pair of Dallin, his son, shorts.  We gratefully accepted.  Only problem was we didn't bring any spare pairs of underwear.  Oh well, he'll just have to go commando we thought.  After a quick eat Jared headed back for the bedroom to play with the toys Kay has for his grandkids.  Shortly later Abigail came out and said one of the worst things we could have imagined at that moment: "Jared pooped!"  We were mortified.  We ran back to the bedroom to begin the clean up process.  We got paper towels from the kitchen and began picking up the chunks and dropping them into the toilet.  We Jason immediately picked up on what was happening and went to prepare a cleaning solution of water and dish soap (Kay doesn't spend more than a week or two in the place).  After we had picked up all the feces and scrubbed  the floor with the paper towels and soapy water we flushed the toilet.  That's when the horror began.  It didn't flush.  We had a bowl full of crap and no where to go.  EmmaLee looked at me and said "let's go."  I told her it would be more embarrassing if we left without cleaning up.  We grabbed Jason, Mr. Fixit, and explained the problem with the toilet.  He fiddled with the measure and the water began to fill the bowl to its normal level.  We tried flushing again.  This time the water not only rose but didn't stop.  We tried frantically to shut the water off but not until a couple of inches covered the floor.  To make matter worse, there was carpet in the bathroom.  What do we do?  EmmaLee was already horrified and too ashamed to go out and let others know what was going on so it was my duty.  Again, I went out to the rest of the party.  This time I asked Kay for towels he wouldn't mind never seeing again.  For the next 20 minutes we sopped up the floor.  After putting the towels into a plastic bag we went back out.  We were going to put them straight into the washing machine but as luck would have it, there was already a wet load in.  It was that kind of day.

The rest of the afternoon we spent playing ping-pong and pool.  For some reason we really weren't into playing.  When the time came for everyone to leave we made record time and got out of there.  When EmmaLee finally had the courage to tell Kay about it we offered to pay for the carpet cleaning.  Kay, being the gentleman that he is, declined but did say the situation sounded much worse than he was lead to believe.  It could be a while before we have the nerve to go to his house again.