A few things happening this week...

I guess we knew this was coming, but thought it might be a little bit later.  A few days ago, we were awakened about 6 with a cock a doodle dooooo!

We just looked at each other like "was that what we think it is?  well now what are we going to do?"  He confirmed our question with about 5 more crows that morning.  I think he was as surprised as we were that he could make that big noise so he just kept doing it.

We were pretty lucky to have ended up with just one rooster out of the  6 chickens Tina had given us.  We could tell pretty early on that he was a boy because he was bigger than the girls  and he started growing the cutest little comb on his head.  

It was funny to see his personality come out too. He would steal food from the older hens and strut around the coop like he was king of the world.  We had a rooster all the time at home when I was growing up and I loved to hear him crow every morning.  It just sounds like home to me 

The crowing doesn't bother me, but some of our neighbors might not be too happy with it and also, we are not zoned to have a rooster. 

 Candice threw out to her internet friends that we had a rooster that needed a new home...crickets.

She checked with Wheeler Farm...we may or may not have dropped off a few animals there...it just seems like a happy place to live! ok?!  Anyway, they said no.  They suggested the Humane Society.  Ha!  I didn't know they even took chickens.  Well for now, I think we will just hold on to him and hope we don't get any complaints from the neighbors.  He really is a cutie and I'd like to continue loving him as a living rooster...not as chicken enchiladas.

Kelley and Katie have been working on some new projects.  Camille wanted some bar stools for her new house so they made the seats for those.  Lynn is going to help them with the legs.  

We are going to redo the family room (Hooray!)  Since we got the lap top, the other computer has not been touched, so we are going to take the big desk out of the room.  That should open up a lot more space down there.  I'm going to get some new carpet, paint and a new couch!  I'm so excited!  So anyway, Kelley and Katie have been working on a big cabinet to put under the TV. It's going to be really beautiful

Katie is getting to be really good with the saw!  She works right along side of Kelley measuring, cutting nailing and sanding.  Today she just busted out this beautiful piece of wood art.   She is so talented and creative and I know it makes her happy when she is creating something.  I feel the same way...I like to always have a project to work on or something to make. When I watch her and Kelley working together, I just feel so grateful they are able to go on this adventure together.

We took the girls to the temple for young women  last week.  I think most everyone in Salt Lake had the same idea.  There were herds of young women and men filing in ahead of us.  We went  what we thought was early too.    When we went in, they asked Stacey and I if we wanted to help the girls with their towels so we said sure. So we got dressed in white too.  

We waited patiently till they took the girls back to be confirmed.  The lady in charge was pretty flustered cause there was so many people in there.  Every row was filled and she was trying to keep all the different groups seated together and in the right order.  At one point she asked if we would do her job!  No thank you!  It is mind boggleing the way they do it!  Well the lady in charge said  they were changing shifts soon, so we should watch for our girls to go in and we should go with them.  By this time (6:30...we had been there since 4:30) the girls had rotated up to the front row and should have been the next group to go in to be baptized.  The lady who was in charge before had left and there was a new lady there.  She brought a big group out of the confirmation room and took them right back to the baptismal font.  We were all like "hey...I think it was our turn!" Our girls were all giving us leaders the look like "do something!"   I couldn't do anything about the group she had already taken back, but I wanted to make sure she knew the girls should have been the next ones to go.  So I went and sat down by her and told her I knew she had just come on this shift and maybe didn't know that our girls were supposed to be the next ones to go. She was so nice and said that the group that she had taken back had had a reservation and they get to go right through without waiting.  She said she felt bad cause she knew we had been waiting so long.  I felt like a real dummy then, and apologized for saying anything.  She was very sweet  and said she understood why I had.  Anyway, we finally got our turn to go back and be baptized.   It was neat being back there with them and getting to watch them be baptized, then putting their towel around them as they come out of the water.  In the past three years I have sure come to love these girls.  We have been through a lot together and have had some pretty special experiences.  

We didn't finish getting everyone dressed till about 7:15 and the cafeteria closed at 7:30 so we really had to hustle to make it there for dinner.  It was nice visiting with Stacey, Tina, Carolee and Charity and that cute bunch of girls.  I dropped McKenzi off at the church so she could talk with the Bishop about going on her mission.  It's weird to think of her going so soon, but she will be 19 in November.  I'm glad she has wanted to keep coming to young women this summer.  She is a great example to the younger girls. I'm just really proud of this girl.  She has gone through a lot of hard things and never wavered.  She will be an amazing missionary.

This is Camille's new house!

She sent me a few pictures and it really turned out beautiful!  

They were supposed to be moving in this week,  but that did not happen.  while we were in California, they got a call from the loan officer saying there was a problem with their loan...with the usda loan, they had a problem with Kellen's student loans.  It showed that they were paying a lot more each month than they really are and it made them look like their debt to income ratio was too big.  They were pretty surprised since they had already been pre approved for the loan before they even started the home.  So they have been battling this for two weeks.  The bigger problem was that they had told their land lord they would be out of the house by August first so he had someone else moving in that day.  So they had to get out of their house and couldn't move into their new home.  They were very lucky though because there are snow birder friends that live next door who are somewhere cooler right now so their houses are sitting empty.  Two of them told Camille they could move their stuff in their house and stay till they could get in their house.  That was a real life saver!

We were planning on going there to help them move, but Camille said it would be better if we came when they are actually moving into their home.

So today they moved all their stuff into the people across the streets garage and  cleaned the house, and are officially out of there.  I was dying to be there to help her...  I know she was just physically and emotionally exhausted...she has been worrying so much about the loan, then having to move their whole house in just a couple days...it's been a lot.  She sent this picture  of her and Emily...trying to clean with Em attached to her is not easy.

I heard from her tonight and they found a different kind of loan that I think they only do in Arizona that looks like it will work out for them.  I'm so relieved for them.  I remember going through these same feelings when we were moving into this house.  We had a big mess when the guy that was supposed to be doing our loan (we found out soon after that he is a  real scoundrel) wasn't doing our loan at all so we had to move in with Kelley's folks till we could get it all worked out.  I thought we were sunk.  We didn't have enough money saved to cover the closing costs so we had to borrow some from Kelley's folks and mine too. They let us put our stuff in the garage of the new house though so at least we didn't have to move our things twice.   I was 8 months pregnant and pretty miserable... after moving boxes all day, I remember just curling up on the floor and crying.  It's funny how things can seem so horrible at the time, but with good family, friends and Gods help, they always have a way of working out.  I wish someone would have told me that when we were going through it...It probably wouldn't have done any good though...somethings you just don't get it till you've gone through it yourself.

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