Wednesday January 27, 2010:
Sorry, It's just been a long boring week with nothing noteworthy to write about. It rained for five days straight. I spent those days watching movies on cable and applying for jobs online. The high light of my day was to go down and get the mail. On Sunday we went to church at 11:30 to attend the right ward and found out the ward members are Huggers! Several gave us hugs as we came in welcoming us back from last week. Our records were read into the ward during Sacrament meeting so afterwards we received several more hugs welcoming us into the ward. The Relief Society lesson was on how strong our testimonies are and need to be to endure to the end. Several sisters shared their testimonies and experiences with us during class. I love it when that happens. You get to know each other on a closer level than just "Hi, how are you today?". We met with the Bishop after church and received callings. Kevin is the Gospel Doctrine teacher and I'm on the R.S. board for Enrichment activities. We can do those. Although next week is ward conference and Kevin and I are going to drive over to Elizabethtown to go to church and visit with friends there.
The rain turned to snow on Monday afternoon and it snowed off and on all night. But Tuesday morning the sun was out at 9:00 so I went for a walk around the apartment complex and down the hill and back. The wind was blowing and I was frozen by the time I got back and then the clouds came back and it was overcast the rest of the day. Tuesday I spent the day on the phone talking to insurance agents getting car, home and renters quotes. The car insurance seems a lot less out here which is funny considering the narrow, winding, hilly roads. I also called and got the utilities set up for us to move in to our new apartment on Thursday. We'll be getting a land line phone to have local calls from within the ward. The number will be able to transfer to our new home when we move there. You have to get cable to even watch TV with all the hills around here. But they do offer reasonably priced bundles with high speed internet so I guess that's okay as long as we don't get into a bad habit of watching movies.
Today we are going down to sign the lease and get the keys to our new apartment and we are set to move in tomorrow morning. The storage company will be delivering and setting up our stuff and it should take just one whole day. Then on Friday Kevin and I will spend all day getting out what we'll need and putting stuff away and the utility companies will be hooking up the phone, TV's and the computer. Then Saturday we'll move the rest of the stuff out of our current place to the new apartment. So I won't be on here for another week. It sounds like it should go smoothly, wish us luck!

Monday January 18,2010:
It's Martin Luther King Day and Kevin has the day off, so I'm not alone today. We drove down by Florence Mall and I showed Kevin where the new apartment is and we drove around the area to see what stores are near by. Macy's and JCPenney's are the big stores in the Mall. Kevin found a Harbor Freight Tools. There is a Toys R Us, JoAnns Fabrics, K-mart, Hobby Lobby Craft store, Barnes and Noble just to name a few.
We then met Bob at the home to do a thorough inspection of the premisis. I did remember to take the camera and got a few more pictures. Bob checked everything and explained quite alot to us. I'm glad we got to go thru with him it was very helpful in what things are and what to watch for. There was nothing major wrong with the home only being eight years old but there are a few repairs we'll need to do: a ball valve in one toilet, use plumbers tape to re-attach a dripping shower head, a clamp on the dishwasher drain hose, tuck under and nail down a piece of siding that warped up, just little things like that and routine cleaning and maintenence of vents, carpets and light bulbs. If you can tell in the pictures someone is a decorator or painter with all the different colors and custom paint jobs thru-out the home. We'll probably tone it down a bit with tan walls in the family room, kitchen and the two smaller bedrooms. That was a long day. Now we are home and getting together information to take to the loan officer tomorrow. Bye for now.

Sunday January 17, 2010:
We went to church this morning at nine and Kevin picked up a tithing envelope for the Lakeside Park Ward and said the Bishop's name sounded familiar so we guessed we were in the right place. We found Matt Baker, (the friend of Roger's that we went to church and had dinner with in July when we first visited here) got reaquainted and sat with He and his family for Sacrament Meeting. After the meeting Matt took us to the clerks office to look at bounderies for the ward. We found out that the 9:00 time is actually called the Highland Heights Ward and our apartment and our new home are not in that ward we will be in the Lakeside Park Ward as we've been saying and they meet at 11:30. There's another confirmation that we are being guided by the spirit to be here, as it turns out we are in the Lakeside Park Ward but it is not the name of the one we visited this summer. And so we know nothing of how long this Bishop has been in now! hehehe! So, we stayed and went to sacrament meeting in the right ward this time. The Bishop, Ben Schafer is from Bountiful, Utah and graduated from Woods Cross High in 2009. He knew Lynn Westergard and Mark Earnshaw and Brian Singleton. I asked if he knew Diane but he couldn't remember. Small world huh? This ward was very friendly too, everyone introducing themselves and Kevin said he feels even more comfortable here than in the other ward. So there you have it. I guess we have our new home!

Friday January 15, 2010:
Yeah! I finally found an apartment we both agreed on and I put down a deposit this morning. We will be moving in February first. It is on the ground level, three bedroom, two bath with a screened in porch and a garage right in front of our building that I can see out my front window. It is the same amount in rent as the two bedroom apartments I've looked at. The location is a really easy on, easy off exit for the freeway and I don't know if this will be good or bad, but it is right behind the Florence Mall and next to two different strip malls. I'm sure we'll have everything we need close by. It will be fun doing some more exploring!
We took the truck in to a repair shop today, we'll probably not hear until monday what the problem is. At least it never died on me while I've been driving all over the valley looking at apartments.
The weather has finally gone up to 35* and the sun has been shining for two days now, hope it will last for a couple of more weeks.
We met with our mortgage officer last night, Eric, everything is moving forward on the house. We just need to get him some more paperwork on tuesday. We will meet the home inspector at the house on monday to look over everything, get his assessments of the property and ask any questions we may have. Then it will just be a waiting game with the bank. I hope I remember to take the camera to get pictures this time.

Wednesday January 13, 2010:
I must have called ten complexes looking for a two bed, two bath apartment that said they offered short term leases. Several said no they didn't really offer short term leases. The rest of them I made appointments to go see and again found out why they were only $650 a month (old, small, too far away). So this afternoon I was online again trying to find some more places that offered three month leases. I did find a couple more to go see. The first one was really nice, secluded, large floor plan, nice kitchen, with or without a fire place, w/d hookups and comes with a garage for $1170 a month then you still have to pay electric, phone and internet. The next one looked just like it about five miles closer in to town $975 a month, no garage and they require you to have renter's insurance. I found two more that say they have short term leases so I'll call on those tomorrow. Whew!

Tuesday January 12,2010:
Yesterday I spent most of the day on the internet looking for apartments available with short term leases and health and fitness clubs in the area. I also went thru the mail we recieved from Liz! Yeah! Christmas cards and refund checks, nice!!!
We did go to the Five Seasons Fitness and Tennis club last night. Way too expensive for our class but we do have a ten day pass to use. Better go if it's free. I'm not sore this morning, I guess I didn't push myself hard enough.
This morning we heard back from Marilyn. The couple accepted and signed the offer so now we need to get busy and get the inspector in there and get all the paperwork to the lender and find an apartment and a storage unit asap! No time to dawdle on here for a while. Love You, Bye.

Sunday January 10, 2010:
We were up and ready and drove over to the church in time for the 9:00 meeting this morning. When we pulled into the parking lot there was only one other car there. As Kevin went to try the door the lady rolled her window down and told him it was Stake Conference. That it was here, but wouldn't start until 10:30. It was freezing so we drove the ten minutes back to the apartment to wait. When we came back the parking lot was pretty full and so was the building with chairs set up all the way to the back of the gym. I spotted the Relief Society President and Kevin spotted our Bishop during the meeting, but we weren't able to catch up to them afterwards. The meeting was just like one of ours with two youth speaking on how their faith has made a difference in their lives so far. Then a sister gave a very good talk on raising your family in a way that your children know you love them and they know that you love Jesus Christ. When the choir started to sing is when memories started flooding over me, the singles ward choir and all the fun we would have there, the thirteenth ward choir and how beautiful they always sounded, but when they started singing I know that My Redeemer Lives the tears wouldn't stop and Kevin had to run get tissues for me. The first counselor in the Stake Presidiency spoke on fulfilling his dream of raising a family in the gospel and then the Stake President spoke and on a very interesting and good topic. He was very concerned about the many problems he has recently been dealing with among the members of his stake with pornography, adultery, spiritual decay and wanted us to know what we have in the gospel is what alot of people on this earth are looking for and we shouldn't be taking it for granted. We shouldn't be thinking the signs of the times means in the future. A lot have all ready happened and that we are towards the end of preparing for the second coming and we need to get ourselves on the right track now and help get and keep our families and friends on the right track as well. The message was good but after he had talked for forty five minutes and the time lapse had been two hours and fifteen minutes I noticed people began getting restless, watching the clock, some got up and left, so I think there were a lot of people who forgot the message and didn't take it home with them. Sad.
We're tired of this freezing cold weather and wish it would warm up to 32* so we can go out and do a little bit.

Saturday January 9, 2010:
So, we went out with the Real Estate Agent again this morning. There were about four homes we had been looking at on the internet since we sold ours so we went to those first. They had stated that there was some TLC needed and we are not opposed to some fixer upper repairs to get a good deal on a home, but these were bad.... I mean gut the whole house bad.... sheetrock subfloors, everything to the bare frame and start over. We finally got to one that was in a good location, all brick, no visible repairs or paint to the outside, lots of storage closets even though it didn't have a basement. nice inside with just a paint job in one or two rooms. We could live there, but for the same price if we could get the other house I liked there's a lot more value and could turn it for a good profit with no more than painting a couple of rooms and not even that, really, it is fine the way it is.
When we finally got to the nice house Kevin was sold immediately. We even cancelled looking at the next two homes. We went straight back to the office and signed an offer and Marilyn sent it right over. It is on a short sale so she told us to prepare for a long wait. It could take three to six months before it is all settled. So now we need to look for an apartment with a short term or month to month lease option and move twice. But it will be worth it.
We went to Carabba's Italian Grill for dinner. Not as good as Johnny Carinos!!!

Wednesday January 6, 2010:

I signed up with a couple of temporary services today although there were no jobs avaiable in my field. It's going to be as hard finding a job as it is finding a house. I met with our real estate agent today. Nice lady, she reminds me of Tyson's mom. We drove around all afternoon and looked at about eight homes. There was one I really liked. We've been looking for one with a flat lot, this one was mostly flat but sloped up hill at the back instead of dropping off. Yeah! Then I've also been concerned about the small bathrooms (if you remember ours). This one had a nice long counter, double sinks, a big soaking tub, a private throne room and a big walk-in closet. Yeah! The Family room was really big with a fireplace and a cement patio out the back door. Sounds pretty close to our house doesn't it. The price was just reduced 10,000 on this one too and it's right down interstate 17 about ten minutes from Kevin's work and the walmart shopping center. Anything I looked at after this one just seemed small, old or did not compare in value. So, I think we'll probably make the offer on this one as soon as we get financing. I'm checking on that tomorrow.

I went to make pepper steak for dinner tonight and didn't realize till after I had already started the meat that we didn't have all the ingredients like flour, ketchup and bouillon so it didn't turn out too well with just tomato sauce. I need to make another run to the grocery store tomorrow too if it is not snowing.

Apparently there is a big snow storm coming in the morning and they have delayed opening of schools and businesses until the snow plows can get out and plow. I guess I can see their concern with all the hilly roads around here. Kevin wouldn't be able to get in or out of our complex or his work if they hadn't plowed. Those are both pretty steep hills and if they were icy at all you would just be sliding into each other.

Monday January 4, 2010:

I had to drive Kevin to work this morning so I could have the truck to get around today. I went to the post office and rented a post office box so now we have a kind of permanent mailing address. It is: P.O. Box 176757

Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017-6757.

I went to the Bank to open a checking/savings account. I went to Staples to pick up some ink for the printer so I can print off resumes. And I drove around and looked at some more of the homes we had liked off the internet. I checked with the Condo Sales here and there is only one three bedroom avaiable for sale and it is on the top floor and has no garage with it. Same with the rentals. So, I guess we are not going to buy or rent here. We looked on the internet for others to buy and they are cheap if you want to live by the airport and just as expensive as homes if you live over this way. So we are back to home hunting.

I went online and found a couple of jobs that I applied for today. One just says "small office in Erlanger" it was clerical with patient customer relations. That sounds like me doesn't it? The other one is a 'Field Office Administrator" for UPS in Indepenence. That' s the city we are looking for homes in so I'm kind of hoping for that one. It took me three hours to fill out the online application! But after I submitted it read "You are being considered for this position". Yeah!

Saturday January 2, 2010
We have spent most of the day looking at homes for sale on the internet. We made a list of several we would like to go see then we went driving around looking at the neighborhoods they were in. Shoot, a lot of these neighborhoods were built on ridges so the backyards all go down hill. If we're going to get a house Kevin wants a flat back yard so he can grow a garden! Some neighborhoods are old, some the homes and yards are not kept up, some are way out of our price range and some are just too far away...... this is going to be difficult. Condo here is looking better and better.

Friday January 1, 2010
We went to the Florence Mall today to find the theaters. We saw Avatar 3D it was awesome!
Then we drove around some exploring the area. We found a back road out of the apartments that goes around the hill and ends up at this shopping area that has a Walmart, a payless shoes, a hair salon, a bank and a Texas Roadhouse. Yeah! We are happy. Across the street is the entrance to Kevins Work place so it will only take him about eight minutes to get to work. Now we are liking this apartment complex we are in and they do offer three bedrooms units for sale. If we can get one here with a garage we might just go condo here. We'll be checking that out on Monday. We also found that this backroad out of here can get us over to Buttermilk Pkway where the Church is at and there is a post office across from the church. We will be going there on Monday also to get a PO Box and will post our new address then.

Thursday December 31,2009:
We put stuff away today and set up the computer to the internet. We are back online. I took pictures of the apartment and posted on Facebook today. We set up the webcam and skype so we can see our kids when we talk to them. And I started this blog!
We went to get lunch and found this great little sandwich shop in the Crestview Hills Mall then went to the grocery store, drove around a little bit and decided we did not like all the traffic around this area so we will definetly not look for a home in Crestview or Edgewood.
We bought a pizza for dinner and just decided to stay in for New Years.
Jessica and Kyle skyped us about 11:30 our time. It was fun seeing them while we were talking to them. We did the countdown together our time so it was only ten their time. Weird! Time for bed.

Monday December 28,29,30, 2009:
We did get away by seven in the morning. Seemed odd not saying goodbye to anyone then. Just got in the truck and drove away like we were going to work or something although we had the cab stuffed full to the roof with bags, pillows, food and the four plants we picked to go with us. Two of them were from Wanda's funeral eight years ago, the christmas cactus from Phyllis' friend and one from Wendy Merrill that Kevin has nutured for the last five years. Hope they survive the journey.
I normally hate driving in Wyoming. It's dry, barren, there are no road markers for miles and the wind always blows. Today was a good drive through Wyoming thou. There were blue skies, dry roads and no wind in the middle of winter. It takes eight hours to get to Denver. We decided to take I-70 as it is lower maybe less chance of bad weather and more of a straight shot over to Kentucky. We made it to the border of Colorado before we stopped to eat and then just decided to stay there for the night.
It is one long, straight, flat drive thru Kansas. We had to keep switching off driving to take naps. There was a great big beautiful building off on the right hand side somewhere along the route. It looked like a big old castle. I told Kevin that's what I wanted my house to look like. As we went by we saw it was a church! Then we started noticing other big churches along the drive. I thought I should have been taking pictures and making notes so I could put together a 'Watch for Landmarks' game for anyone who drives out to visit us.
We made it all the way to St. Louis this time. It was already dark when we drove thru. I tried to get pictures of the arch but it being dark, reaching across to the driver's side and then trying to be navigator to get to the right interstate made it impossible. We decided to stop at the next hotel out of town. Well it took us to Okawville, Illinois which was about forty miles past St Louis. Oh well, a better start for tomorrow.
The weather turned out to be just a light snow today. We're just glad it's not heavy or even raining. The landscape is beginning to change. Sloping up and down with trees here and there.
The truck is starting to make some funny grinding noises when we turn to the left and when we start out from a stop light. Once we are going on the freeway it is running just fine. It reminded Kevin of the time we were moving from Kentucky to Illinois twenty years ago. We had our big white van that I was driving with all the kids in it. Kevin drove the oldsmobile. After we got moved in we took the van to get new tires put on it and the guy said, "I don't know how you made it here. One of the tires was bulging on the inside and could have blown at anytime". Kevin thinks that they will say something similar about the transmission in this truck.
We made it to our apartment with no mishaps by about three in the afternoon on Wednesday. Not too bad of a trip. We had to unload the truck and carry everything up one flight of stairs.
The apartment is furnished, not too big, but there is just the two of us so it is fine for now. I don't think it is big enough for all of our stuff to fit in so we're going to have to find a different place and soon. The forty-five days of storage will be up by the fifteenth of January and then we have to start paying $36. a day for storage. "OUCH". We are exhausted. We are going to veg for a few days. Bye

Sunday December 27th, 2009
For all the tears that have been shed since the notification of our move in July, the last day has finally come and as we said our goodbyes not one tear would fall. We spent the day at Liz's house eating, putting together a puzzle and visiting with family and friends who stopped by. We had loaded up the truck earlier in the day so we are set to leave at 7:00 am Monday morning.
We finished painting the two bedrooms in Liz's basement on Tuesday this week, Mark came and finished up all the electrical fixtures. Liz and I got the beds and dressers all set up, cleaned and put together and we laid room rugs down so it is not the bare cement. Jessica got to stay in her new room over Christmas.
We have done all we could to leave our children and their families with all they could need for a while. We have all the computers hooked up with Skype to keep in touch and they are all settled into homes for the time being. It is now up to them to watch over and care for each other. And should anything happen to us we have our Family trust all put in place. So if you have one of our previous wills you can destroy those as this new trust will be the one in effect.