Homeless

We are still without a primary residence. Grant and Sandra are being great hosts for us. They house and feed us during the week and we spend the weekends up in Ogden. Lisa treks up to Kaysville a few times a week for cub scouts, guitar lessons, piano lessons, etc. She is becoming a great commuter. (a little empathy for my daily drive!)


We just spent this last weekend with the Halverson Family celebrating the 4th of July. We started the morning bright and early (3:45 am) getting ready to cook for the Hunstville Breakfast in the Park. After breakfast we all enjoyed a nice "small town" parade.

After the parade we enjoyed a nice family barbecue and then went swimming at Ryan and Christy's parents house. We had a great time until Alicia jumped off the diving board and went to the side. She "kissed" the wall. She hit right above her lip and just below her nose. Angelina Jolie has nothing on Alicia's full lips!


The house is coming along slower than we want. We have a punch list of items that we are discussing with them to have them fix. It seems to me that it would make more sense to do it right the first time and not have to incur the hastle of fixing it again. All the same, things are turning out beautifully. We are excited to move in.





We have started attending church in our new ward and really enjoying it. It is huge. There are 694 people in our ward, including the Halversons. They announced today that they are going to split it next week. We had a ward swimming part at the Farmington pool this last week and there were around 600 people in attendance. Everyone is in the same situation we are trying to get to know each other.

It has been a great summer. We are getting more and more excited to move into our new house and start a new life in our new neighborhood.

SOLD!

We are officially homeless. On June 11th Lisa and I signed the papers to sell our home in Kaysville. It was a lot harder than we ever expected to drive away and leave the place that we had dumped so much time, effort and love into. We have been in that home for over 7 years. The kids have all grown up (so far) in that neighborhood. On the 12th when Lisa had to finally pack up the kids and drive away it was harder than we ever imagined. This coupled with the fact that we lost Josh for half an hour on the 11th as we were packing the house made for a tough few days. We were working on finishing up loose ends at the house and Lisa had taken Jake and Izzy to the neighbors for a birthday party and Josh set off to find her. He overshot the neighbors and just kept on going and was two or three blocks away when we finally found him. He was pretty traumatized from being lost and was very happy to be back in Lisa's arms. Overall we know we are making the right decision, but it has been hard.

We have been able to move in with Grant and Sandra. They have been off to Paris for the last week so it gave us a chance to settle in to the house while they were gone. One of the best parts of this is that my commute is now only 8 minutes. Hopefully we should only have to inconvenience Mom and Dad for a month or so before our new house is complete. Things seem to be moving along nicely.

We did run into our first big issue on the house. They finished all the drywall and applied a "Holy Smooth" finish to all the walls. This is apperantly a popular finish that they are doing in all the "High End" homes. The only problem was it wasn't what we wanted. They originally told Lisa that there was nothing they could do. This didn't help since this news came on the 12th just as Lisa was leaving the old house. We were able to pull together all our paperwork and show them that we had indeed opted out of this "upgrade". With a little help from a few friends at Woodside we now have smooth walls. It was a big project for them, but they restored the smooth finish.

This should be a great summer with a lot of adventures!

The house is comming along fast!

We went by the house yesterday while someone came to see the house. They have put in most of the plumbing and both furnaces and Air Conditioners. The roof was finished last week along with the porch being poured and the framing being completed. It is amazing to me how fast it is coming along!

ALOHA!!!

Aloha! This past week Lisa and I had the chance to make it to Hawaii. We had a really nice trip. Sandra and Grant we great enough to come and stay with the kids while we were gone. We really owe them for this one. I worked the entire time we were there, but Lisa had some good time to enjoy the lovely beaches where we stayed and simply relax. That is a luxury that doesn't often appear in the life of a mother of 5 kids. We flew into Oahu on Monday, then went to Maui on Wednesday morning and then took the red-eye flight home on Thursday night. We have picked out a nice time-share complex by Marriott that we are saving up Marriott points for to take the whole family back to some day.

The house finally looks like a house. They are moving along quickly. The framing is probably about 75% to 80% complete. There are a few minor items that Lisa and I are working with the builder on to fix, but it is amazing to me how they can build something so big from just a simple set of plans. I guess that's why I am more of the numbers and operations guy and not in the family business of construction.


We had a couple see the house last week that let our Realtor know that they were pretty interested. If they end up buying it then we will have to share a commission with Sandra and Grant for showing the house when we were gone.


Other than these few large items, things are moving along for the Halverson family. Life is never dull. We love the energy the kids bring to life and all the excitement. We were really ready to come home after being away for a week. We have a great group of kids!!!

Arches Trip

I am spending a few days with our Sr.Operations Team in Moab this week. We are working on our strategy for 2008/2009(I know really exciting). We did break away today to do the quick hike to Delicate Arch. Here are a few pics of my trip.

They are starting to Frame the house!!

Monday, as I drove by the house they were smoothing the cement in the garage. I ment to go back and take a picture but life got crazy and I was not even able to make it by the house yesterday. So after I dropped Isaac off at preschool this morning I stopped by the house and they have started framing! I did not want to get in their way so I just took some pictures from the street. I'm hoping to go back by this evening with the kids and take some pictures of them,and some more detailed ones as well. I bet it will also look a lot different this evening. They frame houses really quickly.

House, Easter and Much More

Well, after a blazing week of blogging we had a bit of a slow down. So, we will try and catch up in this blog. The house is coming along. Early this week the excavator came and filled all the dirt in around the house. They put gravel all around the foundation, seal the foundation and put in the window wells. Late last week the plumbers came and put in all the below ground plumbing such as floor drains, the water main, and all the main drains for the entire house. Here are a few pictures of the house. Next step is concrete on the basement floor and in the garage and then framing. They are estimating that by the first week in May we will have all the framing, electrical, and plumbing done. The roof will also be on. We will see if they can keep to the timeline.




On Saturday of last week we went up to the Halverson's for a late Easter celebration in between the afternoon session and Priesthood session. It was great to have the entire family together for a nice afternoon. Everyone was there except for Tina. Her boys were able to come. The goal was to find all of your eggs. The kids got candies, trinkets and a little money in their eggs. The adults all had a chance to choose three eggs from a large basket. Then each individual got to decide if and how the group would switch their eggs. After everyone had a turn to decide the switching everyone opened their eggs and there was money ranging from one dollar to one egg that had $100 bill. It was fun to see everyone open the eggs and see what they had given away to other people and what they had received. Here are a few pictures of the party.







Then last Sunday we were able to have the Cannon family up to our house for Conference Crepes and a great day together. Sandra and Grant were planning on having us all to their house for the gathering, but unfortunately Sandra's dad unexpectedly passed away. Grandma passed away from a graceful battle with cancer about three months ago. It was a surprise to have him pass away, but it is great that he is together with Grandma again. My sister-in-law Chris has a great tribute to them on her blog. The link to her page is on the right. Here are a few pictures of our conference day.




We also celebrated Karen's 24th Birthday while everyone was here. WOW, that is a lot of candles.



Lisa and I had scheduled to go to Hawaii for a work trip this last week, but with Grandpa's funeral we rescheduled for the week of April 21st. Grant and Sandra are reshuffling their schedules to help us get away for a few days. Thanks!!!

On Wednesday we packed up the family and went up to Aberdeen, ID for the viewing and funeral. It was an amazing service and really made me think of what a great example Grandpa was of having your priorities straight. He didn't need a lot of material things, but he definitely loved the Lord and served Him with all his might. It was a great service.

Today has been a great Sunday. We enjoyed a wonderful fast day. Lisa shared her testimony with the ward today. I was outside with Josh and missed it, but all the sisters in the ward made a point to tell me how absolutely beautiful it was. She is a great example to our family. Her trust in the Lord and ability to hear his counsel and then follow it is an example to us all.

We enjoyed a nice spring day out in front of the house with the neighbors. We are definitely going to miss the neighborhood.