Maybe we WILL be in the close building

On second thought, I might have been underestimating the block on the map...it may be that we are in the Durango Ward...so we will wait and see.

Some updates...and ward boundaries are weird

So...after church we went to the house and we actually had to get teh keys, as the house is now secured. Here are the latest pics, with captions this time (WOW!!):

http://picasaweb.google.com/senorroot/MoreOfTheHouseToday

We also went to the ward building next to our development/neighorhood to know where we will be going. I talked to a member who showed me a ward map. It turns out that the entire development, except for the area we and the newest homes are being built are in the Durango ward. We will be in the Pioneer Ward, which attends the building on Guadalupe between Higley and Greenfield- almost a 2 mile distance, instead of a half mile. Another thing is that the whole rest of the ward is west of Higley...that is, except for the area where we live.

This seems to be a pattern in my life in wards. In the 17th/Barkley Ward, we were 'across Broadway'. In Tempe, we lived in 'the apartments'. In the condo, the ward was split between basically the super nice and expensive homes in the Rancho del Mar development and the 2 condo complexes. We were in the lesser of the two. Here, we are across Gilbert. In the new house, we will be on the other side of Higley. Also, it is another case of not attending the ward building closest to us. Here's to changes!!!

Latest house pics

We now have doors, a garage door, the roof tile has been laid, there is paint inside and partly outside. There also are cabinets, counters and bathroom sinks.

Here you can see the latest pics.

We are going to move...it's real!

We just found out our closing date. YEAH! 8-29-08 is when we close, which means we plan on moving in on Sept 1- Labor Day. If you are in town, we would love the help. We seem to have acquired an awful lot of stuff. I hope it all fits!

Awesome game!

Went to the D'Backs game today with Joseph. Jared couldn't go, so Joseph got to. I hoped that it would be fun for him since he doesn't get pro baseball in southern Utah...well in all Utah they only have one AAA team.

The game for 8 1/2 innings was horrible. I was very unhappy except for the two innings I had an old classmate from high school come chat w/me. That was cool. Andy Clement was never a good friend in high school, but always nice. We had classes in high school together, then in a class @ ASU, then I worked with him before my mission. Then I ran into him a few times @ ASU in the gym after the mission. Now at the game. It was cool.

Anyway, the awful game turned awesome in the bottom of the ninth with seven straight batters reaching base, scoring 6 runs with no outs to win 6-5. It was incredible. Last year I saw the Snakes come back from six down to win the game, but it was little by little and from about the 5th inning you could feel that there was a rally coming. Today, nothing said that this would happen. It was just sweet. I am hoping for excitement for all the kids' sake at the next 2 games. That way they make it to the fireworks without whining.

Only a month left of summer...and the house is moving along

So...I waited too long to post, but no problem. I just finished my two classes online. They were 12 and 14 week courses. I got them done in less than 5 weeks. I learned web design skills and how to use html code. It is kind of fun. These two classes will get me a raise at work (45 credits beyond a master's). So now officially my summer is play time- movies and video games.

We had our pre-drywall walk through last week and it looks like we will be moving in early to mid September. Believe it or not, that would be within a couple of weeks fo the 5 months they said it woudl take. There were a couple of things to adjust, and all but one were taken care of. We took a ton of pictures. We expect the stucco and drywall to be done in the next week or two.

Here are some pics...

This last one is my TV room in the back (the 'family' room). We all know the family room is upstairs. Downstairs is the front quiet room (above), the kitchen, and the TV room. In the TV room, they had put the in ceiling speaker mounts on the walls and not the ceiling. They needed to scoot my reading canister light about a foot forward, and we needed a light switch to be moved so that the piano doesn't cover it up or get in its way. The back yard is big...bigger than I thought it would be.

In other stuff...the kids are still adjusting to being around one another ALL DAY LONG. They fight over the computer for play time, they argue about the TV, they bother each other and cry. FUN!!!

This week is week of baseball. I had a game on Monday, I have one today, and the whole family is going for the 4th and 5th. Next post should be after the games to show pics of the kids and the fireworks for the 4th...and hopefully there will be a bunch of wins.

Anniversary and other stuff

So, I get a call this morning from Brad (the entrepreneur who is hiring me to teach the English class) and he says that a funny thing happened and that of the 18 people he had sign up, only 2 were going to attend the class. So I get a 2 week reprieve while he recruits more. I am mildly excited about the course because I have never taught English, and while I know i can do it, I am stressing out about setting up the course curriculum in scope and sequence. If the class is going to be successful, it is basically up to me. That is pressure. I am a little skeptical as to the success of the course just because Hispanics can be, uh..., unreliable. I wonder just how many will pay for an class to learn English when there are many areas that do it for free. They are not terribly effective and don't teach much, but in the end it usually is up to the learner how much of a language is learned. It could be successful, but from a business standpoint, you would have to get the money up front. Otherwise, they will back out, like most people. We will see...

Our anniversary came and went, and we spent a lovely evening in Scottsdale. TJ and Suzanne got us for Christmas a gift card for the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale to use for a nice dinner. We tried to use it for Valentine's day, but they were booked for months, so we set it up for our anniversary. We went to Alto, an Italian place in the resort, and we barely understood anything on the menu. We ordered some nice food- I got a penne pasta with bacon and carmelized onions and then bacon wrapped veal in grilled veggies. Cami got a ravioli dish and then a chicken portobello. the food was really good, but different. We ordered non alcoholic drinks (she got a strawberry daquiri and i got a pina colada). When our server brought them out (we were seated outside), as she opened the door...CRASH! She dropped the drinks. We felt horrible for her. Luckily it was just at opening so she could change and there weren't many people there. She ended taking off one of the dishes, apparently as an apology, so she got an extra large tip. They gave us a dessert on the house because of our anniversary, a wafer gondola with fresh berries in a creme brulee. Very good. Here is a pic:

After dinner, we got a complimentary gondola ride and did so with another couple on their anniversary (their 20th). The weather was perfect and just at sunset...very nice.

9 years...a long time. I hope that we can bottle up the best times and have them the rest of forever.

Until next time...oh...our house has a slab now. Let's hope the framing gets up quickly.