Homeowners Again!

Well, we received our keys today! We unloaded a van full of stuff and then had another walk through. I am now waiting for 4 different companies to call me to fix some minor things around the house. Then the installers came and hung all our blinds!!! We left and went to wal-mart to pick up a few things we need for tomorrow. My friend Amy is going to take the girls all day tomorrow as the movers are coming, our refrigerator is being delivered and the cabinet touch up lady are all at the house by probably 10 tomorrow morning. We walked up to the apartment and for a notice from UPS that that could not leave our package and another package that was soaked through. It was something I had ordered for the house so hopefully it was not affected by whatever pool it was dropped in. I slept about 2 hours last night and I have a DISASTER in the apartment right now. Tonight I am only organizing, no more packing until I move more out. Keith will be home tomorrow night!!!! Yeah! I am hoping to get alot done in the house tomorrow since I will be without children but they asked me to have 2 people there one to check inventory and one to direct the movers. I am but only one person so we will see how I get along.
The house looks great. I picked up all our lights and our garage door opener today. I was hoping to have them partially assembled for when Keith got home but I think I have my hands pretty full. We will have the day Friday to work around the new house while we wait for other appointments to arrive. Oh, I hope I can sleep tonight. I see a beer in my future....

Two more days!

Well, Friday was busy! We did our final walk-through for 3 hours Friday morning. We took the girls with us and they were so good!!! It was about 20 degrees and a bit windy, so I let Keith check all the exterior things. Then we had about 50 minutes to get the the Denver Tech center for our pre-closing singing of the 10,000 papers. Since, our walk-through lasted so long we did not have time to eat lunch and our appointment is at 2:00. Now, lets think about this. A 4 year old and a 6 year old already having been through a 3 hour meeting are now going to have to wait through another 1 hour meeting before eating lunch at 3:00, at best. We are not setting up a good scene here. Anyway, we walk in to the office and they though we were coming next week which is a no go because Keith is out of town until Thursday night. They said to give them some time to get the documents ready. I said, "How about a whole hour?" They were very happy and so were we. We left and went to this southern home cooking restaurant "Black-eyed Pea". We all had full tummies and were recharged when we arrived back. They had a VCR and tons of movies (Thank the Lord!). We signed our lives away once again and our loan will close on Wednesday morning.

We have appointments on Wed., Thurs., Friday and possibly Sat. at the house. Movers, installers, window treatments, garage door install, cable hook up,. You name it. We are planning on sleeping there Friday night. My hope is to have most of the apartment packed up before Wednesday night. We can make a few trips Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we can pack our necessities and take them over. But, we really do not have to be out of the apartment until the 31st.

I think I purchased my last Christmas gift today. Yeah! I just have to do a count to be sure I am even between the girls. I shipped my last two packages last week! I feel a wrapping binge coming up soon.

I will take final pictures once we get the keys but there are some on our photo site now that you can access from this page. Busy, busy!

Two More Weeks!!!!!

OK, here we are finally getting ready to move again. We are really excited! I have decided that I will start packing tomorrow. We really are using 85% - 90% of what we have here so I do not know how much pre-packing I can do. But, I do have curriculum for a whole year and I can pack our second semester. There are summer/fall clothes that I think I can safely pack away. We just had a 72 degree day yesterday so I may save out a couple pair of capris just in case. I am being fairly creative with menus trying to eat up food that we have so we don't have to move it. I believe I have scheduled any and all installers or movers for the 20th or 21st. This way we can be sure that we will have all that we need during Christmas week when I feel it may be difficult to have people come out. We will not need to rush moving our things out of the apartment since we will have until the 31st.
Keith is traveling a ton these next few weeks. He has just received the list of the dealerships that he will be providing service for and his counterpart is trying to introduce him to as many of the dealers as he can before Keith is on his own. So, he is in Las Vegas and Utah this week, home on Friday. Next week he is in Portland for their quarterly meetings, Monday through Thursday. The following week he is in Phoenix, Monday through Thursday! So by the time he gets home the movers should have come and gone!
We are staying busy working on our school time and playing games. The girls are still doing AWANAs on Tuesday nights and really look forward to it each week. We have discovered a wonderful church that we have been attending regularly for about 6 weeks, the girls love it also. Our church has a community outreach called SECOR and they are providing Christmas gifts and 2 weeks of food to 1300 families this year. The girls and I have been able to do shopping from the wish tree for two children and I think they actually are getting it this year. Sometimes it is hard for our children to understand what life is like for less priveledged families. We can explain it but they just can not conceptualize life without having even your basic needs met. I know someday they will get it.
Well that is it for now. Tomorrow I will try to get to the market, we are expecting snow on Friday and Saturday. -jane

We have a closing date!

HOORAY! We are scheduled to close on December 19th. I am so thrilled that we will be in the house for Christmas. Now we do have a lot of work ahead of us as we prepare to move out of our apartment. I keep wondering why we are on the third floor. What caused us to make this decision? Oh well, it will be over before we know it. We will have our walk through and pre-sign our paperwork on Friday the 14th. Keith has a lot of travel planed the next few weeks so we will be busy preparing for our move.
Also, the girls and I have just started the Christmas portion of our curriculum this week and that will continue for 4 weeks and then we will take a week or 2 off. Our Christmas shopping is almost complete so I need to get my act in gear, finish it up and start to ship off our gifts. We will keep updating pictures on the photo site so be sure to check it.

Getting Caught up

OK, we are home from sunny California. This week is about getting caught up on mail, school, laundry, etc. I have finished about half of my grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. I try to do little trips so I do not have to carry 30 bags up to the third floor. This experience of apartment living with a family has been a lesson to me of how much I take for granted in life. Pulling into a garage, running the dishwasher, washer or dryer at any time of day or night (we have thin floors and walls!). Having more than one spot to eat, do school, craft, color, sew. Sending the girls out back to play... and having Internet access! I thought that hopping down to the library would be easy when I needed to go online, it wasn't! So I caved and ordered Internet for the last 2 months (hopefully). As our move in date inches closer I find myself looking forward to these things. However, I feel grateful for how much we have and I know this is temporary. Also, because this is temporary we have not settled in so it does not feel like home to us.

As far as the house goes I am going a bit nuts because we are waiting on a call to tell us when our closing date is. It looks like we will close before Christmas but I have no OFFICIAL word yet. I really would like to start planning our move and can not do it yet and this is really bothering me. Apparently I need a lesson in patience.

We are going low key and staying home for Thanksgiving. Just food, football and movies for us. We are expecting snow tonight and tomorrow but not on Thursday. We went and bought snow boots yesterday. I believe I have completely updated our photo site to check it out if you are interested. We hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Back in Sunny California ( for a visit)

We are in Orange County, CA for a visit. Keith has business meetings this week in LA so he decided to drive so we could tag along. A friend of mine recommended someone in our apartment complex to feed Gipple (our cat) and off we went. The drive is about 17 hours straight so we break it up into two days. The girls do well in the car and we are good with providing lots of things to watch, color and eat! The weather in great. I think it was 80 degrees today. We are staying with Keith's parents and visiting my mom and friends as well. On Friday we plan to go to Disneyland and then leave for home Saturday morning. We are squeezing in school here and there and should end up with a full week of school while we are on a trip. Pretty cool! We finally broke down and ordered Internet for our apartment so I should be able to update more frequently. Our home is scheduled to be finished around the 3rd week of December. I have updated our photos through October on our photo site and hope to be up to speed by the end of the week. The girls are doing well, however, Victoria is struggling with understanding where she lives. We are having many ups and downs with her behavior but we are trying to stay as consistent as we can with a schedule and parenting and praying that this will mellow out with her. I will update soon. Jane

SNOW!!!!!!

Well, I can't believe it but on Sunday it actually snowed already. On Saturday it was 70 degrees at 8:00 pm and by 3 or 4 in the morning is was snowing. We got at least 5 or 6 inches at our apartment. We drove out to the house to see it with its 1st snow and took a few pictures. There was not as much snow there but still enough to take a pictue of.

Keith is off to San Fran area this week for business and it looks like the girls and I will drive with Keith to CA for his meeting in LA the week of Nov. 11th. So we should be there for about a week and we will just bring our books and have school time in the morning as usual.

Our house is moving along. It has the electrical roughed in and the exterior walls have been insulated. They are waiting for the inspector to come out and certify the insulation, then they can begin to drywall. They are saying Dec 27th for move in and I am saying Dec 17th so we will see what happens.

I am currently sitting outside of a bookstore with free wifi and the girls are watching a Scooby Doo video. I am out of time. I still have to organize the pix on our photo site but most are uploaded to the site now if anyone wants to check it out.

Oh, we also tried a new church this weekend called Southeast Christian. It was pretty big but the music was awesome, the paster seems very up front and approachable and the childrens program seems great.

OK! Got to go now. I will update soon.

Getting Ready for Our Trip

Well, I feel that there is so much to say and no time to say it. After getting here on the 9th we went to see the house, every time we go out there we see something new. It is very exciting. We are adjusting to the area and had some things delivered to the apartment after we got here, so the girls have toys and videos. We have finished about a week and a half of school but now are leaving on a trip tomorrow so that will be on hold for about a week.
Last week we had some friends from CA (The Sernas) visit Denver so we spent a few days with them doing some sightseeing. We went to a candy factory, the Children's Museum and to the Focus on the Family campus in Colorado Springs. We had a fantastic time!! I am hoping to have those pictures posted today on our shutterfly photo site.
For those of you that know about me and baking you know that I have been nervous about baking here at this altitude. My first attempt was our Blum Family Pancake recipe which worked fine and all of us were relieved. My second attempt was my friend Sherri's chocolate chip cookies to which I only added about 2 tsp of water to the recipe and they are out of this world good. My third attempt was chicken and dumplings and they were a bit dried out but I think I may have overcooked the dish a bit. I think I am confident enough now to try a bread or cake next.
We found an AWANA club for the girls and yesterday was their second week. They were so excited last week. I think they were thrilled to be away from me and each other even for a little while. We also tested out a church this week. We have made a commitment to test 3 churches but so far we really did enjoy the first one we attended.
Tomorrow, Thursday was are flying to LA. We are going to give our babies to Keith's parents and my mom for 4 days. Then, Keith and I are continuing on to Hawaii for a business trip. We will pick the girls up on our way home on Tuesday morning.
I am adding pictures to our site now but do not have time to add them all. I will update the rest later. -jane

We're Here

Well we are finally settled in here. As of now I do not have internet access in our apartment so I have a 30 minute session counting down here at the library. I will write a better post later and add some pictures. We can be contacted by cell phones now. I have 13 minutes and email to check so I will post again soon. -jane

6 Days to Go

Well the weekend was pretty much a bust. In case you do not know we are having a heat wave or "heat storm" as our electric company calls it. Let me back up to Wednesday, we packed and once again imposed on Keith's parents for 2 days while the house was fumigated. We came home on Friday afternoon to a 90 degree house and it took about 10 hours to get it down to 78 degrees. While we were at Keith's parents house, I tripped on the stairs and I am pretty sure I broke my toe, OWWWW! Then at 6:30 Saturday night we lost power and it was at least still over 100 degrees. I was in no way prepared to stay here in the heat so I packed us up and took us back to Ed and Kathy's again! Good thing I did because the power was not restored until 2:00 Sunday afternoon. We are so blessed to have family close. It was much worse for our neighbors. Some had no other place to sleep, the people next door had a fuse blow on their AC unit and drove to 10 or 12 stores until they found one that would work and did not get their AC running until about 9:00 last night, and our other neighbor just brought home their new baby boy about 4 days before, they were getting up with him in the night using a flashlight to change diapers. I also had just cleaned out the fridge and freezer so we did not loose that much food either. We had it pretty good.
It is still stifling hot today. I got up to start the wash at 6:00 this morning so I could try to get all my wash finished before the air came on. No luck! It was 80 degrees in the house by 9:00 am. We are trying hard to keep up with our tasks for each day so we are not to stressed out what the movers arrive. I have some special plans with the girls tomorrow so I need to really focus on my chores for today. I will try to post again before we go.

12 more days

The days are so full of appointments, phone calls and paperwork it seems almost impossible to me that we will be on a plane to Denver in 12 days! This week we are having some home repairs completed and making sure that we have changed our address with everyone, mail forwarded, and the movers scheduled. The girls and I will be out of the house for a few days while we have another home repair taken care of, termites. We have to bag up all of our food and medications, even what is in the refrigerators. I have a good head start on this so now I will pack what we need for a few days while we stay with Keith's parents. The movers arrive a week from tomorrow to start packing so between now and then we need to decide what goes to the apartment and what goes into storage for 3 months (hopefully only 3 months).

Sunday, a few of my friends took me out to tea! It was such a wonderful, relaxing afternoon with no schedules or time limits. Thank you so much again girls for a fantastic afternoon!

Keith, is off to Salt Lake City for a few days this week but he was able to go out to visit the home site yesterday and said that some lumber had been delivered to the site over the weekend. Hopefully, that means framing will begin this week. The forecast says rain all week and I do not know if that will impede progress on the house. We feel like it is really taking a long time for them to get to this step but we keep hearing that this builder works hard to stay on schedule. It will be fun when the girls and I are out there to go and watch the progress every week.

It is time to get back to work. I will update again soon!

A Fantastic Disney Day!

Well, yesterday I took the girls to Disneyland. I had a very special surprise for them for lunch so we started our day inside Disney's California Adventure which is their other theme park in Anaheim. Our lunch reservations were not for an hour and a half so we started the day with the Monsters, Inc. ride. I classify this ride as a typical fantasyland ride like Peter Pan or Pinocchio. The girls loved and I think it is boring. We still have time to kill and we walk up to "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" I have always wanted to go on this ride but I never have anyone to ride with and now we are moving away, oh well. But then I notice that Tori is tall enough for this ride (never mind that she may not be emotionally ready for this ride) so I ask the cast member what it is like inside. He (easily) convinces us that she will be fine on this ride. So off we go. The special effects on this ride are amazing. The premise is that this very old famous Hollywood hotel gets struck by lightning and a family gets stuck in another dimension. The ride is a group of us sitting in what appears to be a service elevator for the hotel, it takes us up to the top and then we free fall, totally out of our seats, stop, then go up again and down again over and over. Meanwhile while we are going up and down the elevator doors are opening and closing on different floors, some open to the outside looking over Anaheim. It was fantastic!!! Madison and I loved it!!!! Poor, poor Tori. Bad, bad Mommy! She was trembling. I held her sooo tight. When we got off she said, "Maybe I will go on that ride never, ever again forever."

We then walked over to Ariel's Grotto, a special restaurant where you dine with the Disney Princesses. The girls were on their best behavior and we were served a three course meal on china with linen napkins. While we were eating a page came in and announced each of 5 princesses which, after being introduced, visited with each table in the restaurant. The girls were so exctied they could barely eat as they anticipated each princess that was coming closer to our table. He are some of the pictures.

The rest of the day was spent mostly in the Disneyland park and finally we went back to California Adventure to watch the Disney Electric Parade which was retired from Disneyland many years ago and was one of my favorites. After the parade we walked out of the park and watched the fireworks and then headed home. We are all a bit tired and groggy this morning but it was worth it. The rest of our photos are on our photo site, just click on the link.

Moving Right Along

Well things are certainly busy for us here. I am glad I am waiting to start school until after we are in the apartment. In the last week and a half we have had 12 different house events....3appraisals, 2 home inspections, 4 termite inspections (you don't want to know!), one moving survey appointment, one open house and one offer. Whew!!!
We did set up our official move date. The movers will come and pack on September 5th and 6th and load the truck on the 7th. We did find out that they will take some of our things to our apartment for us while putting the rest into storage. This is really great because we thought that whatever we wanted to take to our apartment had to be brought with us on the airplane or shipped by us. Now I don't have to figure out how many clothes I can fit into the suitcases. So now I just have to separate what goes to storage, to the apartment, or with us. Which will take some time but will allow us to live a bit easier while we are in our apartment. The newest prediction on our move-in date for the house is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It looks like we will fly out to Colorado on September 9th for our final move. It seems so far away still but I know it will come before I know it.

We're in Escrow

Well, the housing market out here is pretty slow. We have had our home listed for about a month and it has been very slow. However, we have accepted on offer on our home and opened escrow on Thursday. Things will probably move pretty quick from here on. They are trying to have a 3 week escrow. So, we will be busy with inspections, etc. Then it will be sorting out what we will bring with us to the apartment, we are flying, and what will go into storage until we can move into our house (hopefully) in December. If we are truly going to close on September 7th the girls and I will probably stay here an extra week so we can be here when the movers come. We feel very blessed that we received an offer this week and that we are in escrow.
Keith has been in Colorado now for 5 days and it feels like forever already. We miss him so much. The evenings are really dragging without him home. Well we know it is not forever so we just have to keep our chins up.

The Next Step

Well, Keith is off. He is on his way to Denver right now and has to be in the office first thing in the morning (Monday). It is still a bit up in the air as to when the girls and I go. Most likely the first week of September. We will really miss Keith and we need to get started on school. The next few weeks will be filled with going over appraisal reports, inspection reports and figuring out what if anything needs repair before we can sell our home. The girls and I want to try to do a few some trips to Disneyland and the beach also. No big news on the California home yet. We held another open house today but I do not think many people came. We have a new picture of the new "house"that I will add. That is all the news for now. -jane

WE ARE BACK

WOW! What a trip we had.

SATURDAY. We drove 750 miles and took 12 hours to drive all the way to Grand Junction, CO. It was a long day for all of us but we were excited to be in Colorado already and to have a shorter trip on Sunday. Most of that part of the trip was 75 MPH speed limit so that helped us a lot. I have to say that Utah is probably the most dramatic state I have seen. The drive was absolutely breathtaking, that really helped pass the time for us. Well, for the girls it was watching movies, coloring and poking each other. They were VERY good in the car and when they learned they received quarters for every stretch that they did not ask "are we there yet?" It was even better.

SUNDAY. We left Grand Junction and drove through the mountains and Vail to get to Denver. This part of the trip was quite a bit slower driving through the mountains but we were amazed at the number of bikers (on bicycles not motorcycles) that were riding up and down trails along the highway through the mountains. Some of these people looked to be a part of a race but on the way there we must have seen at least 300 people and children riding bikes around. This leads me to altitude. We were finding that we were experiencing shortness of breath just walking up steps at the rest stop and these people were riding their bikes UPHILL! We just did not get it. We got into town ate lunch and then went to our apartment where we signed our lease and dropped off all of Keith's work clothes that we being wrinkled by the second. Then we went directly to the Denver Mattress Co. to buy two bed sets which they were gracious enough to deliver the next day. Then off to Costco to buy hangers and and ironing board for the same wrinkled work clothes. Then off to the Texas Roadhouse (one of our old favorites from Tennessee) for dinner and to check into a hotel for one more night. Our girls were amazing troopers through all of this. They have not had any run around or "play" time now in two days.

The front of our model, same color but a bit different in the style

MONDAY. Another crazy day. After breakfast we took the girls swimming in the hotel pool while we reviewed all the options and decisions we were going to make with our builder that afternoon. We have been very focused on our budget and worked hard to choose only options that would be more expensive later on or very difficult to do after the home is complete. After swimming, off the eat lunch and finally see a model of our home. We were a bit nervous that we might not like it but rest assured we found it to look just as we had expected, only to me some of the rooms seemed larger. After that visit we drove off to see our lot and new neighborhood where we had our first options appointment. Once again we were not disappointed. We will be living in the "sticks" (which we love!) we will have a very nice view. After a 3 1/2 hour visit/meeting (once again kudos to the girls) we were finished with one of our two house appointments for the week. We were then treated with a thunder storm with lots of lightning, they girls do not remember thunder storms so this was a treat for us. Then off for dinner and to see if our mattresses had arrived. The beds had been delivered and we were off to the market for a few groceries, pots, plates, cups, etc. Phew!

A view from the top of our neighborhood

A mama deer near our new home

TUESDAY. Keith has his first day of work and it is month end. We drove him to work and he got home about 10:30 that night. They gave him a loaner car for the month so we will not have to drive to work everyday. The girls and I however took the day off! The three off us all had a bit of altitude sickness. It affects people in many different ways. In Tori it made her very tired. With Madison it was gas and diarrhea and with me it was nasal dryness and migraine-like headaches. I spent the morning deleting my headache and then we spent the afternoon swimming in the pool. The girls and I found a Chic-Fil-A for dinner and I let them play on the playground for about an hour after dinner.

WEDNESDAY. Pretty much the same as Tuesday, giving the girls a chance to play and ran a few errands. That evening we went out to dinner with Keith's new boss Dave and his counterpart Rob and his family. It was really nice to be out and meet some people and have a nice dinner. We ate at Ted's which serves Bison and Keith actually ordered a Bison burger. Very impressive. The girls were great and made a new friend Andrew who is two and absolutely adores the girls.


THURSDAY. Keith off to work, more errands for us, back to the model for measuring and off to home depot for some comparison shopping before our appointment at the design center on Friday.

S'more S'mores Please!

FRIDAY. Another crazy day. We packed up the car for the trip back and then headed off to the design center for a 10:00 appointment. This is where we pick out carpet, cabinets, flooring, tile and counter tops. If you are not careful you could EASILY drop $50,000 in this place. We were VERY careful, We did upgrade a few things but we stayed within our budget!!!! I am so proud of us. Also, the design center had a playroom (HOORAY) and that helped a lot during our 3 hour appointment. After that lunch and off to drive up to Keystone Resort for a company picnic/overnight. What a fun time! We were able to meet a bunch of people from Keith's office. The girls had a blast on pony rides, roping a mechanical calf, making s'mores around the campfire and of coarse dancing to the country band playing in the barn. We stayed in a beautiful condo at the base of the ski runs and the girls even slept in a bunk bed that night and had a TV in their room! Thanks Toyota!

SATURDAY. Another long drive today but first we decided to take a chair lift to the summit of the mountain and explore a bit. There were tons of mountain bikers taking their bikes to the top and riding the switchback trails all the way down. There were even some hikers who hiked all the way down the mountainside. We rode down! Then off to the car for a 570 mile trip to St. George, Utah.


SUNDAY. 350 miles and home at last. Keith will work here for one more week and then Sunday he will fly back to Denver. The girls and I will join him around the first week of September. Now we are back to keeping the house "show ready" and trying to eat up all our food in the pantry. I think I will need to get a bit creative with my menus. No offers on our CA home yet so keep praying. I will add more as I have news. -jane

Our first trip to Colorado

It is Thursday and we are getting ready for our first trip out to Denver. We have a busy week planned. We will leave Saturday and arrive Sunday. Sunday we hope to get familiar with the area and go to see our lot as well as the model of our home. Monday we will have an appointment with our builder and sign a lease for an apartment. Our plan is to live bare bones in this apartment to save money on moving twice. We will bring a few things with us on our trip that are essential, ie. TV, espresso machine, coffee maker, laptop, and the ipod clock radio. The rest we will buy when we get there or do without. Keith is working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we have another appointment with our builder and then we will be off to Keystone, CO for Keith's company picnic/BBQ. We will stay overnight in Keystone and leave there sometime Saturday to head for home. We plan to be home Sunday afternoon and Keith will work his last week here in CA before flying out on Sunday, August 12th to officially start in his new position.
As far as our home here goes we are on the market 5 days with no showings. Some pictures were posted on the MLS this morning so this may help. We are still waiting for the "virtual tour" photographers to come out to take their pix with the wide angle lens which helps show whole rooms but at least people know the home is not trashed. Here is a link to the mls -http://www.tarbell.com/f-property-search.html listing # I07107114.

As a side note I would like to ask my friends and family to pray for two special people. The first is for Max Kakuk who is 8 months old and having surgery in a few weeks on his brain/skull. His skull fused in utero and they have to go in and make some more room. He has a twin sister Tilly who I am sure is going to miss her brother while he is in the hospital. So please pray for this family and the surgeons and staff at the hospital. The second is an old friend of ours from the Arrowhead Pond (Honda Center) Mike O'Donnell. He is fighting a very hard fight with cancer right now and it is preventing him from eating or drinking and causing him to feel very sick. He is tired and has been fighting a long time but is still wanting to fight this fight. Please pray for complete healing as well as the strength and courage he and his family needs.
Thanks to all of you! -jane

We are on the market

Well... we have finally listed our home on the market. Today is day 1. It seems the more we work on this home the more there is to be done. Our agent is coming on Tuesday to take pictures and once the pictures are online I will try to include a link to the web page. We hope and are priced for a quick sale. We will be driving to Colorado next Saturday for a weeks trip but in mid-August Keith will be there full time and so we will start renting an apartment at that time. We figure the girls and I will go out around the beginning of September and then the girls and I at least will come back one more time to supervise the packing as all of our things will go to storage until we are able to move in to our home. That will hopefully be mid to end November.
The girls and I just finished a week of VBS and we are all wiped out. Keith rebuilt our deck this week and just finished painting it tonight. That's about it for now. -jane

WE HAVE A START DATE

Well we finally have some new information. I looks like Keith will be starting in Denver on July 31st. He is going to recieve a loner car for August until his company truck comes in so we do not have to worry about driving his car out to Denver. I am hoping that Keith will take a few days off before he starts and then the girls and I can take him out there. We have some housing details we need to take care of together for our new home.
This week we need to find an apartment to rent on a short term lease. It looks like we are closing on our new home in November but we have alot to do here in CA before we can go and live with Keith in Denver. Our home is still at least a week away from listing. But little by little things are coming along. Only a few more projects and a good amount of cleaning and yard work and we will be ready. This is really starting to sink in now. Well off to cross some chores off the list. -jane

No Start Date Set

Well, it looks like they would like to hang on to Keith for a while longer out here. So there is some uncertainty as to when he will begin in his new department. Professionally, this is a little frustrating because he would like to go and start his new position. On the other hand, personally, this is giving us a little more time to work on the house and figure out the details of housing in Denver which will most likely be temporary while we build a new home. I will add an update when we have more info to share.

It is Official

Keith recieved the "official offer" for the Denver position on Thursday afternoon and he accepted. We are not tied down yet as to the "when" but most likely he will begin in his new department on July 16th, however, he will begin his training on his current campus for hopefully two weeks. After that we are not sure yet. We will be contacted by a relocation company in a week or two and they will guide us through the process of having our home appraised and then listing our home for sale. We will hopefully go to Denver soon for a looksy since we already have our sights on a new home. More on that later. The girls are excited, they can not wait for snow. I am excited, because it is something new and exciting I guess. Although, Keith has warned me the we will be living at 6400 feet above sea level and I may have to adjust my cooking. That scares me a little.
In case anyone is curious Denver is about a15 hour drive from Chino Hills, CA , a 17 hour drive from Hebron, KY and a 19 hour drive from Knoxville, TN. If you follow the speed limit which I know all of you would. Thats all for now. Any thoughts?

On the road again....

Well, here we are again. Faced with a decision. Stay here in California with our family and friends (old and new) or take an opportunity to try something new. Keith has interviewed with a regional department within his current employer for a postion based out of Denver, Colorado. This position we feel would allow us more family time even though he will be traveling on average 3 days a week. That does not seem possible does it? That he could be gone 2 nights a week and still see us more? Oh, yes it is possible considering he commutes for at least 3 1/2 hours each day to get home in time to eat a late dinner and tuck the girls in. Not really enough time to go for a walk or a bike ride or to the park. So we are going to try something new, again. This will be our fourth out-of-state move since we were married 10 years ago. So we are used to it right? Wrong!

Moving will be a big challenge. Once again Keith will most likely be working in his new position well before our home here is sold, so the girls and I will be here in California for a few more months and Keith will be here a few more weeks. For those of you who remember our last move, that time apart was really difficult on all of us. However, Denver is a 14 hour drive from here so we will have opportunities to visit occasionally.

We still are not sure of how our living situation will work but most likley we we get an apartment near Denver for a few months and possibly build a new home in Elizabeth, Colorado. So if anyone knows of any good churches or homeschool groups in this area, please let me know.

Please keep us in your prayers as we have some major decisions to make.

I am going to try to keep this blog updated as we have new information on the job, move and a new home.