KNOCK ON WOOD

Okay, Okay so I missed posting the ceiling when it was put up and all nice and textured and sealed up so we could use our heater, but I will share our next step....KITCHEN CABINETS!!! We are finally getting them out of the living room and in the kitchen where they belong. Allen is doing such a great job and being SO meticulous. We have had a few hiccups and found out that some things were not done as ordered, but they are beautiful. Allen has always been a HUGE fan of oak, oak this and oak that, everything has had to be oak! When we walked into the showroom of the cabinet place, I was drawn to some cabinets that looked awesome, Allen looked and moved on, but I kept coming back and he would follow. He ACTUALLY said that he liked these cabinets. We asked our contractor about them and he said they were Hickory, well we fell in love with them. So we are now doing Hickory wood in the kitchen, we have ordered the Hickory hard wood flooring for the Living Room. Our fireplace mantle and the railing and posts on the steps will also be Hickory! I am SO glad that they aren't oak! We should have all of them put in this weekend and get the countertops ordered. We are debating between granite, or Corian which is a solid surface top. I am hopeful to have a kitchen by Christmas---KNOCK ON WOOD!

I added some more pictures since our first post that include the top cabinets! ALSO we are soooo lucky, they are going to put our countertops in on Thursday!! I will have a kitchen for Christmas!!!

THE SKY IS FALLING.....THE SKY IS FALLING....

Well we have finally come to one of the major parts of this renovation. Saturday, November 7th, We tore down the ceiling that goes from the entryway through the upstairs family room and kitchen, to the mudroom and garage door. We moved everything either in the living room (with our new cabinets that arrived a week early :)) or downstairs. We are again holed up in the basement with our fridge and microwave in the living room. We are choosing not to use the kitchen area for reasons I am sure you can guess. I am so grateful that the basement has a furnace because we cannot use the furnace upstairs as it would spread all those fiberglass particles even more through the house. We were hoping that the sheetrocker could come this week and do the sheetrock, but he will not be able to come until Monday, the 16th. So alas, we will live like this for another full week. I was telling Allen the other night, 6 months ago, it seems that my life spiraled out of control and so many things were spinning and I couldn't grab onto them. I think that Heavenly Father did this so that when we decided to take on this adventure, I would be numb. Attached are the pictures of the teardown with the insulation, the teardown after we had cleaned up the insulation, and living room. I am so grateful for our friends and family that showed up to help. We were worried as everyone who said they would come, one by one were backing out.

SLOW GOING.......

Ok so I know this isn't a post about the house and I do need to update all on that adventure. We are FINALLY in our bedroom. It is so nice. Allen is right now taking the subfloor out of Jayson's room so we can replace it. It is amazing at the water damage that has taken place on the floor. Our plan is to finsish is room this weekend. Allen then leaves for Canada again on Monday. I am crossing my fingers that no diasters happen as it will be a very busy week for me also. Once he returns we will be tearing down the ceiling in the great room area through the entry way and the mudroom, fixing the electrical int he ceiling redoing the lights and then we have a gentleman coming in to resheet rock that area. Our cabinets are to arrive here in the next week. We have some of the major projects starting to happen now. I am jsut hoping that we will have some peace so we can decorate for Christmas. I am not sure that we are going to make it. Well we did have some fun the other night cleaning up the leaves in the backyard. Here are some of the latest family photos....

SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A???????

Ok we knew that things were going to be tough, but I think that I have surpassed tough these last three days. Here is a quick update. Friday we signed papers and we spent the weekend, with my wonderful family, moving out of our old home. We worked until the wee morning hours of Saturday morning, most of Saturday, took time off to see the pathetic BYU game, came back worked until the wee hours of Sunday morning, and then worked all day Sunday. We finally got out at 11:30 Sunday night. Allen, my sweet husband, got on an airplane headed for Canada Monday morning for a week. My wonderful mother stayed until today, Wednesday, to help. She worked her tail off!!! Anyway, Monday night I decided to head to bed about 11:30 and walked downstairs, because that is where we are sleeping, and ran into a flooded basement. My mom and I investigated and discovered that the line was plugged and coming up through the toilet hole in the 1/2 bath, but nothing from the other toilet in the main bathroom downstairs. The water that came up was from the kitchen sink from the dishes that I had just finished doing. I called my Father-in-law and he came early the next morning to look at it. We had several conversations with Allen and the decision was made to call a plumber the plumber couldn't come until he next day at 4. They also wanted me to run a load of laundry to see if that line was connect and would back up, sure enough water again out of the half bath. A few hours later, my mom went into a back bedroom in the basement to start painting and was overwhelmed by a nice aroma. The back bathroom had also flooded, but this wasn't simply water, but was a nice think layer of raw sewage. I called the plumber back and said it was now an emergency I had raw sewage. The plumber came about 7, but didn't have the proper equipment to check the lines. So we sparingly used the bathroom and waited until this morning when he returned. He augered the line and found what looked to be a full container of baby wipes that had been in the line clogging it. He removed it and after a hefty bill, we now can bath and flush the toilet--oh and do the laundry to wash the yucky towels we used to clean up the water. It has been very emotional and to have Allen gone hasn't helped. I was standing on the back porch crying and yelling at him asking him what he wanted me to do, I was swimming in raw sewage. He was patient knowing that I had reached my end. Our living situation is less than desirable, but I hope this will change soon. We have had the first owners of the house come and tell us that they are so happy that we have their home and they know we will take care of it. Some positives, I have cable, Internet, power, natural gas, and my front lights work. My boys have been so patient and so good and it has been fun to watch them run around the back yard and climb the trees. My mother was a painting fool and painted so much so that we can put the carpet back in and move upstairs--hopefully this next week. My dear friends (Shirley and Margaret) have been so willing to help with anything and my co-workers have been so patient! Thanks to all who have helped over the last few days, physically, emotional, and spiritually. I do have some pictures of the move and how things look now, but I can't upload them until Allen sets up our other computer.

OUR NEW ADVENTURE....

It is official Allen and I have gone off the deep end!!!! The end of July we made an offer on a bankowned home around the corner from us. It is the childhood home of Allen's friend Steve. It had been bought by a gentlemen who flipped it and couldn't sell it. Because he knew he was going to lose the home, he sold everything he could out of the house to recoup his money. I mean everything, cabinets, counters, toilets, sinks, bathtubs, light switches, plugs, moldings, doors, everything basically gutted. Well the good news..... we won the bid on the home. So for the last 2 months, we have been trying to close on this house. We have hit every bump possible and then some. We have a closing scheduled for Friday and we are praying that nothing else comes up to cancel this one. With all of this fun, we have to now finish a house and fix a yard, we are also finding that we are going to have to redo sheetrock due to water damage, electrical due to poor and wrong wiring, rip out subfloors due to flooding...... so my blog is going to become my update and journal of our journey. I will try and keep it updated as we accomplish things. The photos attached now are of it in its "gutted" state. Some of the photos don't really give the magnitude of the task at hand. If you talk to our family members who have walked through it, they can back up that there is ALOT of work ahead,but we are hoping that the payoff of having a bigger home and a bigger yard for our boys will make it worth it! Pray for us!!!

AND SO IT BEGINS.........

"It's the most wonderful time of the year......." This is it! I LOVE fall, the smells, the sounds, the BYU games. AWWWWWW yes, beating OU, ranked #9 (hoepfully they can hang onto it and not peak too soon). On Saturday we had our annual flag raising ceremony and sang the fight song, yes me and my 2 boys, Allen was slightly embarassed, singing around the flag. Jayson got a BYU shirt from Sara for his birthday. He didn't like the feeling of the fabric on his skin so we put and orange, yes orange, NOT red shirt under it. He can say BYU Cougars and loves to sIng and is starting to catch on to the tune. Ohhhh my heart sings. Anyway, we had a great time on Satuday and hey I'm building memories...right??

4th GRADE!!

I can't believe it. Justyn is in 4th grade this year. So far he is loving it and I am happy. He has a great teacher and great friends. I just hope that he will be a good boy and a nice friend.

JAYSON IS 2!!!

I can't believe it!! Jayson turned 2 this past weekend. He is growing to fast and I feel like I am missing it. We spent the day at my parents and he had a great time. He got a vacuum from Aunt Sara and Uncle Bev and a baseball bat and ball from Grandma and Grandpa. He is talking so much learning new things every day. As with all things in the Fall he has been trained to say BYU Cougars and frequently walks through the house yelling it. Now on to the fight song!!

SUMMER REUNIONS

We had 2 family reunions this summer. The first was with the Sitterud family. We went up to my grandpa's property in Joe's Valley and spent the weekend camping. most of my cousins and their kids and my aunts and uncles were there. It was so much fun to see everyone and catch up with each other. The two highlights were when we "the old grand kids" were able to dig in the sawdust for money and playing the Price is Right for food storage. Allen actually won and we came home with a haul. Thanks to Grandpa for footing the bill for the game. We also had a big family dinner and took family pictures of the crew that was there. I am so glad that we have established this reunion and will be having it every year now.

The second reunion was with Allen's family. We went and stayed at a cabin in Schofield that overlooks the lake. We boated and fished and took the 4-wheelers out. It was fun and relaxing. Allen was sick most of the time so we didn't run, run, run like we normally do and it was nice to have some down time.

CALI-FORN-I-A

I had to attend a conference in Los Angeles California last week. We decided to make a family (part family) trip out of it. Allen and Justyn flew out Friday to join me and Jayson spent a week with Grammie Sitterud. I was able to spend Saturday and SUnday with them at Disneyland and California Adventures. Sunday was Justyn's birthday so he got in free. Then Tuesday, I was able to pull away to spend the day with them at Universal Studios. We had so much fun, but we missed Jayson. THe weather was great, not to hot and not to cold. We really didn't have to stand in any long lines, I think the longest was Space Mountain on Sunday afternoon and that was only 30 minutes. We loved the Indiana Jones ride and of course The Mummy Revenge ride. I think that we like Disneyworld and Universal Orlando better, BUT it was good to experience the first Disney park. I can now also say that I have drove in downtown LA and navigated the freeways and we also rode the metro.

BASEBALL SEASON

Well the season has been in full swing now for a month and we have spent, what seems like every night at some field either practicing or playing a game. Justyn has 2 AMAZING coaches. They are so passionate about the game and have already increased Justyn's skills. They told us last night that he will be one of three kids who will be the team pitchers. NO PRESSURE!! Because Justyn's birthday is "late" in baseball terms, we have the option of playing him up and we did this, this year because all of his friends are in the league above him because of the birthday issue. So he is an 8 almost nine year old playing on the nine and ten year old team. He has done well enough and shown enough skill to become an important player (no I am not bragging :). Allen and I get nervous and sometimes have to walk around when he takes the mound, but the coaches are patient and they are grooming him. I am also the score keeper for our team. Allen likes this because I have to focus on the score and stats so I can't yell as much as I normally do. I to have seen a difference. He said that this is better than putting me in rehab. He also wants to know if they will let me keep score at the basketball games. I remind him that it is just my passionate side.

BRUSHING TEETH

The other day we had a great exeperience. Justyn was brushing his teeth and when he does then Jayson has to as well. While Justyn was brushing he kept making these spitting noises--like hacking a luggie (spelling?). I kept telling him to knock it off that was gross. Well for a few minutes it stopped and then it started again and I was really ticked because Justyn hadn't been minding all day, so I yelled at Justyn to stop it now and he said mom it isn't me, it is Jayson. Just then, Jayson wlked down the hall making the same sound perfectly. So now when the teeth brushing starts so does the hacking a luggie sounds! YUCK!!!

EASTER 2009

For Easter we packed up the camper and 4 wheelers and headed for the San Rafael Swell. This has been a family tradition since my dad was little. It was so fun to be camping, we had cool weather and did get rain on Saturday, but it was worth it. It was so nice to be able to take s ome time off work and I actually got to take a nap--can you believe it a real nap! I even read 2 books!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

ALLEN HAS RETURNED

Yes, this posting is a few days late, but we are trying to get back into the groove of every day life and trying to get Allen to sleep some normal hours. He returned healthy and glad to be home on Wednesday. He had an excellent trip and the guys that he manages over there took great care of him. They took him river rafting on the Ghanges River just below Hrisakesh. Thanks to Vimlesh, Shiv, Lalit, and Mandip! I owe you guys!I have attached a few of the pictures that I have gone through so far!

DRAPER TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

We were able to go through the Draper Temple on Friday. My family came up and so did Bevan and Sara and their boys. It was so fun to take my kids through. I VERY much felt Allen's absence in this experience. Jayson was so good. The minute we entered the Temple, he didn't say a word until we exited. Justyn would ask what every room was and what happened there. This was the first time that I had ever explained some of those things to someone. The Temple is beautiful. Because Friday and Saturday were the last days of the tour, there were tons of people. We had to wait 45 minutes just to get back on the bus to take us to our car. That was the hard part with lots of little kids.

ALLEN IS OFF.......

Allen just left for India---like 10 minutes ago. He is going back to spend three weeks with his team that he manages there. He wasn't very excited to go and if you know me I DEFINITELY wasn't excited fro him to leave. His team is excited for him to come and they are planning out every spare moment to take him to see different sites. They are trying to plan a river rafting trips down the Ganges River. I am so jealous. I have decided that next year, I am going to go again. The team has been waiting for me to come so they can take us on a jungle trip on elephants. So i hope that I can keep it all together the next few weeks. I know that if I can stay busy it will pass quickly.

BACK IN TIME

I wish that I had pictures to share with this post, but I didn't take my camera. Last weekend was the 3A State Basketball Tournament and both the Emery girls and boys teams made it to the tournament. My dad came up with my sisters and brother to go the the games and attend some meetings. We made it a family event and attended all of the games. The girls played in the championship game and lost by one point. It was a heart breaker!! They should have won. They out played Wasatch, but they quit running their offense in the last few minutes of the game. Wasatch played great defense. Anyway, the reason for the post. It took me back in time to be there watching the students, listening to the band, being with the crowds. I saw several people that I went to school with, some had grown up and matured, others still acted like they were in high school and were even found flirting with high school boys--totally hilarious and yet a little disturbing, a 33 year old hitting on a 17 year old. I really enjoyed being there and feeling the school spirit again. It was fun to watch Justyn get into the game. I had to reserve myself to make sure I was setting a good example. :) I have often wondered if I would do anything different if I had the chance to go back. I am not sure that I would. Anyway, reflection is good for the soul!

Echo Virus

So we had another medical issue. Because Jayson's immune system is so low, he is picking up everything and anything. He now has a strain of the Echo Virus that comes with fever, rash, and stomach yuckies. The rash started out as small spots and then proceeded to form blobs. The pictures do not do it justice, but it has been an experience. I told the doctor that I am glad to make sure his family is taken care of but I was tired of coming and paying the doctor bill. :)

We're Playin' Bas...Ket...Bal!!

Justyn is playing in the local Junior Jazz league and it has been so much fun. I have been a wreck at the games, and at times, Allen has suggested I leave. I really need to work on my passion for sports. I don't want to be one of those moms who people feel so embarrassed for because they are---to put it nicely---VERY passionate about their children and sporting events. I will post some pictures of his next game. Their coach is great. he is teaching them fundamentals. Today, we spent some time up at the school practicing and playing, our basketball standard is on the side of the house with lots of snow. I had such a great time playing with Justyn. I am really trying to focus on taking the time to make memories with my kids. I seem to be so busy all the time and stressed about work and home and making sure that everything is just right in both places. I need to concentrate more on the memories and enjoying my kids. I find that I am happier, they are happier and Justyn is more willing to help out. Besides, they may not remember, but I will.

RSV

Well we had a scare. Jayson has been sick off and on since Christmas. He would get better and then a few days later come down sick again--congestion, yucky nose, coughing. We kind of blew it off the last time as all the gunk in the air. On Saturday, he was on his 3rd day of the sickness again and he was having a hard time breathing. We took him to the clinic and it was really bad. His oxygen level was at a 68 and it should be at a 90. Needless to say, we ended up at Primary Children's Hospital. We were there until Sunday night. We had some pretty spiritual experiences. When we got there we were told we would be there a long while because of how severe it was, due to many prayers and blessings, he recovered quickly. It reminds me that there is a higher power involved in our lives and that once we turn our lives and troubles over to him, he can bless us and wrap us in his love. He is doing much much better--back to his old fearless self.

Christmas 2008