Pizza & Pumpkins

The Meikle clan brought Pizza over the other night. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and had a nice visit. Drew rode AJ's three-wheeler around the house. Travertine tile and maple floors make a great roadway! I guess we know what we have to look forward to when AJ can reach the pedals!

After dinner we went over to Lyle Dabb's and picked out a few pumpkins. The kids had a fun time exploring. AJ loved throwing a little pumpkin...he thought he was in Heaven---Lot's of balls!

Kim picked out some Indian corn to put in a vase---what a great idea! She is sure creative and GREAT at home decorating. I'm still hoping we can work out a deal and she will decorate (or at least give SIGNIFICANT guidance) our new home.

Thank you Meikle's for a wonderful relaxing evening!

Cutest Triceretops EVER!

I tried AJ's Halloween costume on today...what do you think?

Bits and pieces

We are now in our new home. We closed on October 1st. We are loving the space, but it still seems we are living out of boxes. Unpacking takes awhile!

Our shed at the old house was broken into. The perpetrator cut the lock with bolt cutters and was making a haul, but lucky for us, we have alert neighbors. Some of the neighbors noticed something fishy and called the cops. The police caught one of the guys, the others got away on bikes, but we also got all of our stuff back! YEAH! The policeman told us that doesn't happen very often! We feel blessed!

Kurt's Dad had knee replacement surgery and has moved in with us. He is doing better every day. AJ thinks it is a lot of fun to be able to see Opa whenever he wants.

Our Custer house was on the market for one week when we got an offer, it has taken a few repairs and quite a bit of time, but (cross our fingers) it is suppose to close on Wednesday! Our other house went on the market last week, but no one has even been to look at it yet. We are hoping for the best. If you know of anyone who wants a home...go to www.utahrealestate.com and enter the MLS# 920655 and you'll see our house!

Toot Toot X2

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news I found out I am one of four finalists for the Teacher of the Year for the State of Utah. The bad news is that on the same day I found this out... I found 4 grey hairs!!! UGH!

Good news, I went down for the interview and its over! It was a good experience for me. I was interviewed by a committee of eight ( I think it was eight, they were all sitting around a table and I was quite nervous) and I answered the questions the best I could. A couple of them caught me off guard... such as, "If you are selected as teacher of the year for the state of Utah, you will be be speaking to teachers all over the state. What message will you share?" I felt like I was Miss America being asked about her platform. :) The interview was a great opportunity and I feel privileged to have had that honor.

Bad news I didn't win the state competition; although I still think being one of the top 4 in the state of Utah is something to be proud of. I received a call from the chair of the interview committee and was told they could not decide between the other 3 so they decided to give all of us $3,000! YEAH! Kurt and I go down for a banquet on the 6th of November.

I received a very nice letter from our district superintendent. In part he said, "You are a credit to the education profession. You represent your fellow teachers in an extraordinary way." Yes, after the reading the letter I had lot's of warm fuzzies!

Okay, that's enough of me tooting. Thanks for indulging my wanting to note this for history sake.

Good-bye WSU 16th Ward

My last official duty in my calling was to go on a field trip down to the general RS meeting in SLC at the Conference Center. We had an adventure! One of the buses broke down so we had to squish together for half the ride. The meeting itself was great! The feeling is always amazing, Heavenly Father's spirit is so strong when you are in the presence of a Prophet of God.

I did not know it was my last official duty because we did this on Saturday evening and then I was release on Sunday morning. I have LOVED my calling and will miss it dearly. I will miss my girls and the other stake leaders I had the privilege of serving with. It's not often one looks forward to a monthly meeting, but I certainly looked forward to my stake meetings. They were true spiritual highs.

I am looking forward to going to church with Kurt again. Our new ward won't think he is a single father! :)

Update to this post... We went to our new ward for the first time. Everyone seemed nice and friendly. I don't think I made a very good impression in RS, AJ wanted to be on the move. At one point he got away from me and when I got up to get him he thought it was a game of chase so he started to RUN and GIGGLE. Good thing he's so dang cute! It may be a long 2 months until he can go to nursery! :)

Sallie's Creation

Sallie made Kurt a birthday cake on October 4th. It wasn't your ordinary birthday cake, it was special and DELICIOUS! She knows Kurt loves pineapple and coconut and made a super moist yummy cake with the above ingredients and more. I have asked her to write down the recipe, it was a keeper!

A Grown-up home

We have been house hunting pretty much all summer. We have seen some wonderful homes and some I will not ever enter again! In July Dad Hislop introduced us to a home close to them that we really liked, but we didn't like the price and the owners were not ready to come down so we kept looking. About 2 weeks ago we went and looked at a home we had actually looked at in June, but it had come down in price since then. We REALLY liked both homes and had a VERY difficult time trying to decide. We went over and talked to the owners by my parents and they still did not want to come down very far, so after much thought and prayer we decided to put an offer in the home in Farr West. We put a low offer in thinking we would get a counter back and then we could take it to the owners of the other property and see if that made them a little more willing to come down in price. Well, they only upped our offer $5, 000! That made the house in Farr West VERY pleasing. We knew the other owners of the other property would not come down that low (Yes, I did go talk to them). So we thought and prayed some more and decided to accept their counter offer. We set the closing for October 12th.

This is both exciting and scary, this is DEFINITELY the most we have EVER spent on a home... this is a GROWN-UP home... you know the type you will raise your family in. It is beautiful and has many amenities. It has six bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a large room downstairs where I could run a pre-school. It has a 3 car garage, but one bay is double deep so I guess it's really a four car garage. It sits on .61 of an acre. It was built in 2007 and has sat empty for almost two years. The owner/builder got a can't pass up job offer in CA so it was only lived in for 6 weeks, so everything is basically brand new. We will be selling our rental and the home we currently live in so our payments won't be too horrendous. We will need to put in a yard, but the home is move-in ready.

So here's to buying a grown-up home! :)