I'll Be Happy When ...

Ah, the famous phrase! I know we're supposed to avoid this phrase, but I'm going to use it to explain my lack of blogging, since I post so frequently you know. :o) Most everyone knows that I've been without parents for 3 years now as of this last Sunday. And over the last 2 of those 3 years we have been "working" on their house in Kearns. We started the same month I got pregnant with Janie. Mark and I have been working full time for most of those two years and Mark has also been in school for about 15 months of that two years and I had the whole pregnancy and nursing mom thing going on too. All of this had led to a lack of time and motivation to get over there and get 'er done. Most of what we've accomplished has been thanks to some help from other very wonderful people along the way, all making contributions that have been VERY appreciated.

Well, Mark and I have decided that we're beyond ready to be done with that place. It's been a thorn in our side and any sentimental value that it might have once held is gone. So we made a commitment two or three weeks ago that it would be FINISHED by February 28th and ready to be placed on the market on March 1st. So that's what I've been using my time on lately as opposed to blogging. I currently can't sleep at the moment (shocking, I know) so I thought I'd provide a little update. We're over there about 2 nights a week and most Saturdays. And while we've only got 3 weeks left until our self-imposed deadline, I think we might come really close to making it. I should post some before and after pictures at some point so you can all appreciate what that house has gone through - a very old, outdated, and cruddy home to practically nothing more than a frame of a house (no floors, walls, or ceilings in half of it at one point) to actually being a livable space. We had our lovely neighbor Ed over there today doing a ton of plumbing work. (If anyone ever needs a plumber, we HIGHLY recommend Ed!!!!!! He's licensed, affordable, and does a FAST and amazing job.) The water has been turned off for a year and a half so it's going to be interesting having running water over there again. We've still got the living room to take care off, but the bathroom is done, the two bedrooms are very close to done, and the kitchen is inching ever so much closer to being done.

As for other highlights in the life of us, Janie is still super cute. She did eventually start walking believe it or not. :o) She's up to 9 teeth now. And she's just generally happy and silly. She's been spending a lot of time with Grandma while we're working on the house so they're just as best of buds as ever. Mark lost his internship that he started in November. They just didn't have the work coming in to justify having the two interns so they reduced their hours to zero. Mark applied for two other jobs last week. He got one the day after he interviewed and then had the other one offer him a position on Monday. He was surprised at the dilemma of having to choose between two jobs since they're not as easy to come by these days, but he/we decided to go with job #2 which will be doing some web programming work for an attorney's office. It would provide a better skill set and force him to learn more than the other job would have. It has the same pay as the other plus benefits which the other didn't have. We're SO grateful for the blessing of him having a better job!! And the commute is a ton better than his internship so he should be a little happier when he gets home now too. :o)

And my life is just the same. No news is good news. :o) Good night everyone!