Going Out With a Bang!

I can't believe that summer is already almost over! This has been the fastest summer I have ever had as a teacher. We spent all of June getting the house ready and all of July with Matt's ankle surgery/recovery and now that things have calmed down, summer is over! Ah! I even had to send Matt down to Salt Lake with his mom and dad for a few days so I could actually get some work done! They were great babysitters- they took him fishing at Strawberry for a couple days and he didn't miss me one bit.

Before I get back to work, we wanted to spend some time with friends and family. One night, Jenny and Kamie called me for a girl's night! We went to see "Maleficent" and got yummy dessert at Kneaders.

Matt and I went down to Salt Lake for Erika's wedding (no pictures unfortunately) and got to spend time visiting! On Saturday, we met up with my dad and Laurie and went to lunch and then saw Ninja Turtles 3D! Matt (my adult child) LOVED it! I didn't watch the cartoons as a child, so I don't know a lot about the turtles, but Matt was an avid TMNT watcher and just loved the movie. The funniest part was that they gave us "3D glasses accessories" that were turtle masks! Dad is Donatello, Laurie is Leonardo, I am Michelangeno and Matt is Raphael.

On Saturday night, we met up with some friends from our ward in Cottonwood Heights for dinner. Dustin and Emily Wallis are our friends who are Utah football fans so we have a bit of a friendly rivalry going on!

On Sunday, Cassie, my mom and I all went to see WICKED! My mom and I went a couple years ago and it was so much fun! I love seeing plays, and this one is amazing! Cassie had never seen it and thought it was great. After the show, we picked up Matt and went to grab some food at Red Robin!

I wish we had time to visit all our friends and family when we are in Salt Lake! We are lucky to have so many people that we still keep in touch with. I wish I could convince everyone to move up to Cache valley with us! What a great way to spend my last weekend before starting to go back to work.

Our First Camping Trip of the Summer

It is so sad that Matt and I have only been camping once this year, but we have been so swamped with the house and Matt has been a gimp! Once he got put in his walking boot, we went camping that very first weekend! We definitely needed some camping time and family!

We went up Logan Canyon to a spot we've been to a few times with a ton of stuff to do. Randy brought up his Can Am and it was way fun to go for rides. One afternoon, Nate, Todd, Matt and I wanted to go see Old Ephraim's grave and I'm glad we did! It was a fun ride and a fun place to stop. Everyone seems to know about the grave and it was so cool! The monument is the same height as Old Ephraim was! I would be terrified to ever see a bear that big.

Selfie!

The best part of camping is always the campfire! The kids got to sit out with us for a little while, so I snapped a couple pics. I haven't been awesome with taking pictures lately...

I could not get the boys to sit by each other for this picture, but at least they are both smiling!

Matt Can Walk Again!

Matt had the soft cast on for two weeks. We went to see Dr. Rigby about getting Matt in a walking boot (he was going crazy on his crutches) and he said that he needed more time in a cast! Matt did get to pick his color. He couldn't pick between bright pink or bright yellow. The deciding factor was that the yellow was much more obnoxious than the pink.

After a week of being in the obnoxious yellow cast (he still was non-weight-bearing so he had to hang on to his crutches), Matt went to the doctor again who decided it was finally time for the walking boot. They also decided it was time to take the staples out! Matt was more worried about getting the staples out than he was to actually have surgery. He did have 17 staples and some of them were dug in there quite a bit and it hurt just watching some of them get pulled out!

The doctor put in a few stitches on top of his ankle too. Those came out way easier than the staples did.

Matt had the joy of being in the walking boot for two weeks. He limped around a lot, and even still needed his crutches a little bit. After three weeks with zero weight/pressure on his ankle, it was hard for him to trust his ankle at all, even in the boot. We still did a lot of sitting around because he would get really swollen and hurt when he walked on it too much. Two weeks in the walking boot was plenty. At this last appointment, Matt traded his walking boot for his ankle brace and a shoe. It was so funny to watch him try to walk. It was like he couldn't remember how!

His incision looks way good! Those staples gave him some nasty little cuts though!

Matt has to wear his ankle brace for three weeks, and is now starting physical therapy. Hopefully after three weeks his ankle will strengthen enough to just need the brace when he's working. He will start going back to work really slowly, which is going to be crazy because I'm going back to work this week! Matt is going to have to take care of himself for a little while! Not sure if he's going to make it...

Poor Matt

On July 3, Matt had to have ankle surgery on his left ankle. Dr. Rigby (who is amazing, by the way) scraped out all the scar tissue in the ankle, of which there was a lot, and tightened up the tendon that he said was nearly nonexistent. We went into the hospital at 8:00 and they got Matt right in. He went into surgery just before 9:00 and was back in recover just before 11:00. The surgery itself was only about an hour long, but they did a block from the knee down and had to wait for that to full take effect before starting. Matt said that when the doctor was getting ready to do the block, he had to use electricity to find the right nerves and Matt said his leg was flopping all over the place from being electrocuted! Anyway, he came out of surgery and did really well. Now he gets to spend a couple weeks keeping all his weight off his ankle until he is ready for a walking boot!

A few days after Matt's surgery, cute Harrison had to have some surgery of his own. Matt and I got him a big book of stickers and went over to visit. He spent probably over 30 minutes putting stickers on everything, and everyone, in sight. I had stickers all over my face, and Matt's splint was completely covered! We were happy to get covered in stickers to make that boy smile!

Home Sweet Home

Once we had our final inspection, the inspector had a few things we needed to fix, but nothing that he said would stop us from moving in! So on the last Saturday in June, we had some friends and family help us move the last of our stuff over to the house! I have spent the past couple weeks unpacking everything and we finally have the house set up the way we want it!

Dining room and kitchen... We didn't think we'd like the pantry where it is, or that we'd be able to fit the table in the tiny little dining space, but we are happy with how it all turned out!

Entry

Stairs to basement and desk. The first thing Matt hung on the wall was Spike. He wanted to make sure it was hung up before he had his surgery.

Living room. Again, we were really pleased with how well all the furniture fit. We are lucky to have enough furniture to fill the house! We also made sure that the Comcast was all set up before Matt's surgery, as well as took time to mount the TV and run all the wires up through the wall so the Xbox, Wii, Comcast box, and Nintendo would be connected without having to see all the dumb wires!

The master bedroom was the perfect size for our bed and dresser. We LOVE the picture window and also love the views from the other windows in our room. I wouldn't change anything!

Master closet! Yep, the master closet is all full! I couldn't be happier with the design. Everything fits perfectly and there is absolutely no wasted space. 

Master bath. We ran into some problems hanging mirrors- we wanted to center the mirrors over the sink, but couldn't because of the space on the wall between the outlet and light switch- but it turned out ok. One of the things we need to think about for next time. The counter space is so nice! We were worried we'd be squished when we were at the sinks at the same time, but we're not.

We've turned the little bedroom into an office/library/craft room for now. Eventually it will be a nursery and all the bookshelves (there are four) will go downstairs. I wonder if I could convince Matt to put two of them in our room...

Our larger bedroom is a guest room and storage for blankets and coats. Luckily we have a second bed frame, however, we don't have a mattress yet! Just a box spring for now.

Guest bath. We still don't have a shower door in the master bathroom so we are using our shower curtain in there. Eventually the shower curtain will come into the guest bathroom. It is nice to have two bathrooms again! We loved that about our Logan apartment.

More living room. I am a fan of the collage wall, and I have some favorite pictures of Matt and I that I want to display. Eventually (when Matt can move around again to build it) there will be a long crown-molding shelf above all the pictures.

I even went through all the stuff that goes in storage and organized it all. We bought these shelves when we lived in the Logan apartment, and now we don't really need them! I set them up and am using them for toilet paper storage and to keep my current craft stuff in reach, but as you can see, they aren't really needed.

Storage room. This is all our camping, hunting, fishing, and decorating stuff.

These are all Matt's tools, high school/mission stuff, and electronics.

The cold storage is another amazing place to keep stuff. All the stuff that is too big for the shelves can stand up behind the door in the cold storage, plus I have places to hang some of my larger decorations.

We are so happy to be moved in. It really feels like our home now that all our things are put away. People keep asking us if it feels like our house yet, and the answer is yes. It has felt like our house since the moment we stepped onto the lot. It felt like our house when we shoveled snow off the basement foundation floor, when we built the basement walls, when we (and five other people) stood the exterior walls, when we put in windows and set doors, pulled wires, nailed trim, laid tile and hardwood, put up siding, built shelves (oh so many shelves!), and all the other million things we have done over the past ten months. Will we do things differently when we build again? Yes. Do we regret building? Absolutely not. It has been an amazing experience, and amazing to work so closely with Matt. I just couldn't be happier.

Jackets

Last night, I got to go to a bridal shower for Erika! We have been friends since junior high when she invited me to a Skyline football game with all these girls, and the rest is history! Now, 11 years later, we don't see each other as often as we should, but things always go back to the way they were when we were all 15!

In high school, our group grew to include other girls, and many boys, but we always were the "JACKETS"
J- JENN
A- AMY
C- 'COCARINA' (Amie's nickname)
K- KASI
E- ERIKA
T- TORI
S- SARAH

We still have to stand in "Jackets" order when we take pictures... Ohhhh good times. Every single memory I have from the age of 14-19 involves these girls. It's hard to believe that we are all grown up.

Now, some of us are married, some have babies, some are graduated from college, or pursuing more education, some have traveled the world and some have moved away, but we'll always be these girls...

Garage Door

On Friday, Tim's friend came up to Richmond to install our garage door! The garage door is a little bigger than the standard size, so it was another upgrade, but again, it was worth it! Not only does it look great, but it is belt-operated and super quiet, and insulated so the garage stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter. You've got to appreciate the little things when you pay so much money for something... :)

Now it looks finished! There is nothing left to do outside except for landscaping, which we will do next spring!