Resolutions Revisited

This weekend I was able to finally finish one of my UFOs (Unfinished Objects)! Hooray! This tablecloth was originally started by my Grandmother McArthur and she finished about half of it. She passed away when I was about fifteen so let's just say I have had this in my project pile for awhile. As I was thinking about how excited I was to finally finish a UFO I started to think about my New Years' Resolutions. I am always really good about setting them but, I have to admit, I usually forget them by about February so I decided now is a good time to review how I am doing.
Here they are:

1. Not kill my husband (the never ending battle) :)
   
2. Lose weight (my goal is a size six, I am almost there)
3. Finish some UFOs (hopefully by this time next year I will be ahead)
4. Be a better budgeter (I really like to go shopping)
5. Focus on spending more time with my husband (I have a tendency, a bad one, to schedule him last into my schedule when I should be putting him first)

So far:

1. I have not killed Colby
   
2. I have not lost any weight but I have not gained any and I am one week into the P90X program (let's just say every muscle in my body has hurt for the last week)
   
3. I have one UFO done and one almost completed (hopefully finished by next weekend)
4. I am a better budgeter since I have quit my job and we are living on a much smaller income, it is amazing what necessity will do for the learning curve ;)
5. I spend a lot of time with Colby now because he works from home and I am home studying more (and I don't have the huge group of friends and events I had in SLC to take me away)

I would have to say over all I am not doing too bad but I am resolved to work a little harder on some of them so I can have a good report come New Years next year.

New Home Foibles

One fun (or not so fun) aspect of moving into a new home is adjusting to all its foibles. Our house is great for the most part but for the first three weeks we had a problem with the power in the back room that we are using as Colby's office. For those of you who don't know, we have been blessed to have Colby be able to telecommute from Phoenix, keeping the same job he had in Salt Lake City. This means that having the computer up and running is vital. We discovered that if we have the computer on in the room and the printer, it would cause a brown-out in the room and shut the computer down. This was a major problem for me with school going. Our temporary solution to the problem, while we waited for the landlord to come take a look at it, was to run an extension cord from the printer to another room in the house. The problem has now been resolved but it was funny to see for the first couple of weeks.

Poor Smokey Joe is having a hard time adjusting to the heat. Our living room is carpeted (our last house was hardwood floor) and he has not been happy with it, as a result he has taken over the bottom shelf of the bookcase in my living room and I haven't been able to convince myself make him stop. So my bookcase looks funny with all the other shelves completely full and the bottom left empty.

Jojo really struggled when we first got down here, he is getting old (he is now 17 years old) and doesn't handle change well anymore. About two weeks after we moved in I opened the blinds in the livingroom so he could look out by sitting on the back of the futon. This was the first time he had looked outside since we moved. He took one look out the window, looked at me in panic, meowed and then ran to spend the rest of the day under the bed. He's doing better now and tries to get outside to roll in the dirt everytime a door opens.

My laundry room is a room that was added onto the house later and is not insulated or air conditioned, this means that in this heat the tempature is about 100 degrees (without me running the machines). I have to keep reminding myself that I can't leave any food in it (even though it is right off the kitchen and would be very convenient for my Costco shopping), it is too hot and even canned goods will go bad in that heat. Oh well, at least I won't have to worry about scraping snow and ice off my car when winter comes.

Star Wars

Last weekend Colby and I watched the boys so Riley and Erika could go out for their anniversary. Haydn, as those who know him are aware, is a HUGE Star Wars fan. The boys love it when Colby comes over because he plays light sabers with them.

At one point I looked over and Taite was laying down on the ground, dead from the fight, Colby had one arm up his sleeve, having "lost it in the fight" and Haydn was jumping up and down attacking Colby. Luckily, I am not expected to play and just get to cheer on whoever happens to be winning. (I have to admit, I usually can't tell who is winning but that doesn't stop me from cheering everyone on.)

Eighth Anniversary

Today Colby and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. Hard to believe it was eight years ago today that I married my sweetheart.

There have been good times and trying times but he has always been there beside me (or behind me because I am dragging him to something he doesn't want to go to). ;)

Jillian kindly pointed out that Colby and I have been married for half her life. Nothing like a sister to make you feel old. :) It's been a great trip so far. I was going to post a wonderful slide show and music about my hubby but since I have done that the last couple of years I decided to just post some photos of the two of us instead.

And Here We Are. A posting by the Editor.

We made it to Phoenix. We are here. The Eagle has landed, etc. Jessica is busy unpacking, making me move furniture, and worrying about law school so I am taking one more task off her shoulders and providing you, our Audience, with a brief update.

We did not get any photos of packing up the SLC house due to the failure of the truck rental company (okay, to be fair, the real fail belongs to the previous renter of the truck) and the resultant bad feelings. The reservation for the all-too-small 24' truck was for 0900 MDT Friday, 31 July 2009. We did not get the truck until 1400 MDT. Let's see, 14 - 9 = 5. Five hours wasted. Five hours we could have been loading the truck. We could have been on the road by 1400 MDT. Needless to say, there were some very angry customers. However, we do thank the members of the ward--you know who you are--who showed up to assist us, even if we couldn't find much for you to do.

Once we had the truck in our possession we wasted no time loading it. The two of us, my brother and his wife, and Jillian did the bulk of the loading in four hours. The Elders Quorum president and his wife showed up at just the right time to help us load our deep freeze full of meat and our washer and dryer. I was afraid my brother and I wouldn't be able to handle the freezer by ourselves, especially after busting our butts to get everything else loaded. The EQ president's timing was impecable, thank you.

Some time between 1800 and 1900 MDT we finally got on the road and headed south to St. George. I was by myself in the truck with Jessica and Jillian following in Excursion. The truck was governed at 70 MPH so the drive wasn't spectaculary fast, particularly when it could barely manage going up the mountain passes at 30 MPH. We finally arrived in St. George at 0100 MDT Saturday. We. Were. Tired.

And we slept.

Sometime around 1000 MDT Saturday (maybe later), we finally got our vehicles gassed up, volunteers from St. George loaded (we picked up my dad, Jordanne, and the strong man Matt to help out in Phoenix), and headed south. We arrived in Phoenix at 1800 MST (1900 MDT for you folks who need the conversion) and to the house at around 1840 MST. Yes, that's about nine hours of driving. Stewie showed up as well as Riley, Erika, and their two boys to help us unload the truck. With everyone's help we had the bulk of our junk unloaded and piled haphazardly in the house, behind the house, and some left in the truck for the next day. We. Were. Tired.

And we slept.

We finished unloading everything and got started organizing it all on Sunday. Monday morning we thanked everyone who came down from St. George and bid them farewell. Now it is Wednesday; most of the boxes are unpacked, furniture is where it will be for a while, and life is starting to settle down again.

The new chapter in our life has officially begun.

Now, some photos of the house that my dad took (we haven't taken any yet).