what we've been up to this summer!

Graduation pictures

Evan's graduation was awesome!

I made him do it, I confess. This chance only comes once in a lifetime, and I wanted pictures!

Evan with his Prof. Dr. Long

Outside his home away from home

Afterward we all went out to Tepanyaki

Then back to our place to play and visit

Our summer...

Memorial Day we went to Evan's parent's house to help in the yard before they come home from their mission. (T-minus 14 days!)

I was gone from the backyard for 20 seconds (20!) to grab something from the truck. On my way back I was met by my sis-in-law coming toward me hold P. He had a stream of blood running down his face and he was screaming. Panic set in. I threw my spade down, put my hand to my head, and ran back to the front yard, not knowing what to do. Trust me, I'm not the quick, calm thinker you'd want to be with you if there was an emergency. I took Porter from her, cause I didn't know what else to do. My sis-in-law didn't see what happened, but he must have run into the latch that holds the gate closed. We ran across the street to my other sis-in-law's house, and tried to clean it up as best we could. Really we just wanted to see where he was hit. He screamed and screamed, probably from all the panic more from the pain. For "some reason" we had packed tylenol for him that morning. We hadn't used it for months, but for some reason we packed it. Poor kid. The bleeding wasn't bad nor was he sore for long. He went right down for a nap, and woke up happy. He still has a little bump on his head, but he's fine. I better get used to accidents with a family like Evan's!

Pictures of the house

These are just of the outside, the inside still needs a little work before I embarrass myself here:)

Backyard

Here's Evan, contemplating where to plant what. (Day after we moved in)

We moved!

Okay, so it's been a week now, but we just got our internet up and running. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures (I forgot), but I did get a few. We started moving at 5:00 pm last Saturday, and we were done by 8:00. Call it my OCD organizational habits, but we had everything boxed and ready to go by the time people got there. We took 3 truck loads, a van load, and two trailers full of our stuff, and we were done. Mostly due to the fact that we left all our furniture at the condo for the renters. We have beds and a folding table and chairs. It's kinda fun to get to pick out all new stuff now. We still do our laundry at the condo until our washer/dryer comes next month, and we finally got our fridge on Tuesday. We are loving the neighborhood and all the new friends we're making. The ward is awesome and we have felt so welcomed and accepted. Porter loves his new freedom of a yard and neighbor kids to play with. Our culdesac is FULL of boys, and boy toys. It's like a free-for-all with toys and bikes, and he's hated these few rainy days. I'll get more pictures up when I get more unpacked and presentable.

Evan's brother, "watching" P while we finished packing

P, enjoying his push toy

Aahhh, relaxing

My sis-in-law, happy to be done

Dad, after unloading the last of it

Closure

It's DONE! We closed today! We already celebrated but treating ourselves out at the Greene Turtle, here in D.C. Awesome food...thanks to Evan's boss for the credit card! We met a nice man from a title service company who came to us at the hotel and we signed all the papers! He then overnighted them to the title company where they'll be filed tomorrow and our loan will be final! We are relieved to have this behind us. We wired the money to them first thing this morning, and I think the seller's already received the funds on their end so they can close the deal with their new place tomorrow. Poor guys!
If anyone needs a good recommendation for a great loan, we have awesome references!
Pictures to come.

Mortgage Nightmare

Sorry no pics.
Have you ever been in a situation where you've trusted someone else to do something for you when they say they're going to do it? And where you're stressed out about it, even though it's not really in your control? That's where we've been this last month.
I've been waiting ever so patiently to deliver all this news, but I wanted to wait until everything was said and done, and not have to be dissappointed after spilling the beans. We're buying a house! Evan started playing with the idea around Christmas, and we started looking in February, and found something the next week. It's really interesting how guided we've felt about this house. It fell into our hands after a sad experience with an offer we made on another one...long story short, we feel like THIS house is where we belong-it just feels right.
Closing was set for April 22nd. We had our mortgage broker and lender ready long before we needed it, and we set about anxiously awaiting closing. ALL the documents asked of us were provided, and we played the waiting game.
Here's where the nightmare started...
About a week before closing, we were bombarded, every couple of days with something or other. Proof of employment, a paper trail from our credit unions (for the past 3 months), flood insurance purchase, letters from Evan's boss, canceled checks, etc. We kept asking ourselves why all these things were needed at the last minute when we were told up front what we needed to provide. It was literally one thing after another, and we were stuck 2 weeks past closing deadline. We had finally scheduled the closing for the one afternoon, and were so excited. We got the check from the bank, and I was dropping P off at the sitters (mind you 15 minutes from closing). I was running out to my car when Evan called and said they weren't ready. WHAT! (More like *-%^!) They "needed more time to look it over". Our broker called that night with more bologna about some $ that was unaccounted for, and he told us he was dropping the company he went through, and was going with someone else. "We'll close in a week." What? We were supposed to close 2 weeks ago! "We are going with someone else too"! We got in touch with another company highly recommended to us by some friends and family, and I got all the paperwork into them Wednesday. Here we are on "vacation" in D.C., and our new guy called us tonight to tell us it's all ready! We should close from here Thursday! Though we're not counting our chickens yet, we're pretty confident we'll be moving Saturday.
Through all this, we've been packing the house, boxing up everything, going through all our belongings and spring cleaning, getting our place ready to rent, showing it off with our packing mess, and doing the deep-down-dirty cleaning. It looks better than ever, and we have boxes piled up for the day after we return to move on out. I can't believe we're already to this stage in our lives. I always thought we'd be in our condo until kid #3 was coming, and I am sad to leave this stage. Excited at the thought of NOT outgrowing our new home, having a yard, a nice subdivision with other home-owners, a garage, and also the prospect of starting a new chapter, I am sad to leave my friends and neighbors I've known these 2 years. Our ward has been exceptionally good to us, and we'll miss all the friends we've made here.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can, and I'll definately write the "celebration" post when the time comes and it's official!