Friday May 7, 2010:

Busy week. Tuesday I went to the Periodontist for a consultation on my crown lengthening. Apparently this all started back in January when I had pain in my back tooth. The dentist found a big cavity under my crown. When I went to the endodontist to have a root canal he said there was decay in the tooth next to it too, so I had two root canals. Now I need two crowns, but because the decay was below the crown line now I have to have the periodontist grind down the bone between the teeth to fit the crown down far enough to cover the filling area. Pain in the Jaw!!!! and in the pocket book. Double the cost of a root canal and a crown and there goes all the dental insurance max coverage for me. So this jawbone surgery we just have to pay out of pocket. Meh.....! I go in for the surgery next Wednesday. Then it has to heal for six weeks before I can get the permanent crowns on. Started in January ends in June, crazy.
On Thurday afternoon we went to the New Home and met with the guy who is doing the home inspection. He checks everything from the shingles, vents, water pressure, heat and A/C to downsairs all the electrical, plumbing, foundation, cement work, he even has a termite inspector come check. It's only seven years old and just a couple with no kids lived there so the carpets, linoleum, walls, bathrooms, fixtures and cabinets are all like new still. The house is bigger than I initially thought. There is plenty of room in all of the rooms for all of our furniture. Until we get the Family room finished in the basement we will be using one of the bedrooms for our office/library. Everything looked good except the cement driveway right in front of the garage floor. It has sunk maybe three inches so there is this bump to drive into the garage. He said there are several concrete companies that can raise those pads. (Not nearly the cost and mess we had to do inside of our old house.) So now we can order the appraisal with the mortgage company and see how that compares with the purchase price.
Then Thursday evening we were given tickets at the last minute to go to the special three stake combined missionary fireside at our meeting house, put on by the 'Saints Unified Voices' directed by Gladys Knight. To get tickets you had to bring a non-member friend. I asked my friend Wendy but her and her husband were going out of town that day, so we called some of our inactive YSA. Neither one of them would come but their mom said she would love to, so we picked her up to come with us. It was first come first seated so we were in line by 7:00 for the 8:45 performance and my feet were killing me by the time we went in, but we had awesome seats in the first row in the gym on the padded chairs. We had four feet of room in front of us so it wasn't as warm and we were just off the center asile so when the choir entered from the back of the gym up the center aisle then Sister Knight came up the aisle also we were just feet away from her. Yeah, I'm a huge fan, it was awesome to be so close to her! The choir was awesome! It seemed a little strange to have a band in the chapel and it felt almost like a Baptist Gospel meeting, with some audience members shouting "Praise the Lord" and "Amen" and "Sing It" but the point of her firesides is to have all races and cultures feel welcome and become aquainted with the Latter Day Saints. There was a Brother that spoke and talked about all of us being Children of God and then Sister Knight bore her testimony at the last and how she came into the the Church through her children and had all of her questions answered at Last. She told of how the Missionaries never sold her the gospel, but would offer her truths and then ask her to pray to the Lord herself and ask if these things were true. She said to those in the audience that this is a true Christian church. We do worship Jesus Christ and encouraged them to accept invitations from friends to meet with and listen to the missionaries. They are not pushy or threatining, they are sweet and 'crisp' and have a wonderful message to share with them but then it is up to them to find the truth through prayer and then be prepared to do some work. I felt a very strong spirit from her and enjoyed the whole evening immensely.

Monday May 3, 2010:
We have known for the last three weeks now that our Relief Society President was moving to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and we have been waiting to hear the new Presidency announced in Sacrament Meeting. My friend Phyllis was the 1st Counselor and I felt like it would probably be her. Saturday evening I recieved a phone call from the executive secretary asking if I could meet with the Bishop at 11:00 Sunday morning. Kevin imediately started teasing about moving out here was for me and not for him and who would I call as counselors, etc. But I really had no worries that I was going to be called as President, maybe a counselor for Phyllis. I thought I was doing fine with all the move and the new house stuff but when the Bishop asked how I have been feeling lately I had a breakdown and proceeded to tell himm all that has been going on. He just grinned and handed me a kleenex. He first asked where our new house was located to make sure it was still in the ward and then He asked if I knew why I was called in today and I laughed and said of course, everyones has been waiting to hear who's going to fill these positions. He said your name has been submitted and approved and you have been called to fill the position of...and he pauses......and I'm holding my breath..... and he says 1st Counselor in the Relief Society. I exhaled with a grin and said yes, I can do that. I'm assuming it is Phyllis I would be serving with and He said no.... It is Sister Manire. Misty was the 2nd Counselor who I worked with on the RS board as activity chairman. Last Month at our RS evening meeting it was Misty, Myself, Jennifer Griffith and a new Sister that moved in from SLC, Ashlee Mullins. Ashlee was called as the 2nd Counselor. So, now I am serving as the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency and two of us are new to the Ward. What was Misty thinking.
The Missionaries that live in our complex came by tonight and had us watch the Joseph Smith the Prophet movie with them. I had made a choclate cake with cream cheese icing and offered them some. They were both still fasting so just took it home with them. They asked us if we wanted to go to the Gladys Knight Fireside at our stake center on thursday night, they had two tickets that their investigators had given back to them. We told them we would love to go if they couldn't find someone else by then. I'm excited, I have wanted to hear her story since she became a member years ago.

I just went for a walk this morning and it is beautiful outside. It had rained all weekend but this morning the sun is shining and everything looks and smells so clean and green. There is a slight breeze and it felt good to get outside, breath in some fresh air and relax. I didn't feel like I was hot while walking but when I came back and opened the front door it was not cool in the Apartment is was warm and muggy and didn't take long till I was just pouring with sweat so I had to turn the AC on for an hour or so till everyting cooled down.

Saturday May 1, 2010:
It's raining out today, actually it's pouring, thundering and lighting quite the storm! We started to do laundry this morning but the apartment is getting to muggy inside so we'll have to for go any more work today.
Rachael and Tyson and Grady skyped with us this morning. He is so healthy and big and happy and bright eyed. Rachael says he just loves to goo and talk to her all morning long that's why they skyped us so early. Of course, he wouldn't do it for us but we did get one cute smile from him. He is going to be giving his parents the run around before he turns a year old for sure.
We went shopping for a little while looking for a new bedframe for our new mattress we will be getting after we move in. Saw a nice one at the unfinished furniture store.
We were supposed to meet our loan officer at our apartment to get updates on our paperwork for the new loan but he called and said he couldn't make it so we rescheduled.
We sat around and watched the Kentucky Derby late in the afternoon. My pick, the gray, came in third. Other than that we are just boring.

Wednesday April 28, 2010:
Okay, we have just been through a few crazy days. Our Real Estate agent, Marilyn called us Monday morning to let us know the Bank was going to be sending us out a counter offer on the house. We didn't know what that meant and couldn't get the other RE Agent to tell us anything, in fact he hadn't even had our last extended offered signed by the seller's so we really weren't under contract at that point. We looked online for answers to our questions and figured out we could make a counter offer back to the bank but could still take a while for a response and then still not accept it and we would be out of luck anyway. When the Bank's offer finally came through it was way higher than we expected so we made the best counter offer we felt we could manage and waited. By Tuesday morning we began getting nervous because we knew it was close to the deadline for the tax credit so we started looking for other homes out there in our price range. On Wednesday morning I had Marilyn line up three homes for us to go see. The first one was a bank owned property and Marilyn said not to be too hopeful because sometimes with foreclosures people just take what they can when they leave. This one was missing carpets, light fixtures and all the appliances from the kitchen, we didn't even dare go up stairs there was too much repair in this one.
The next one didn't have a backyard just a downhill run. The third one looked like the backyard just dropped off but when we walked out the basement door the backyard was flat all the way back to the wooded area and there was this huge nice deck built back there in the trees. There was plenty of room for a good sized garden!
The home is not as big as the last one but has a full unfinished basement that we could finish and expand in to and maybe will give us some extra equity for resale value in five to ten years.
We still had not heard back anything on our last offer to the seller's or the bank so we made the decision to sign a release of the first home offer so we could write up an offer on this new one. Marilyn called us back at 6:00 and told us there was a second offer made on this new home, so I started looking again just incase ours wasn't accepted.
On Thursday by noon Marilyn called and told us our offer had been accepted and to come to the office for a final signature and we could start the paper work with the mortgage company. Our closing date for this new home is May 24th and we will be moving in over Memorial day weekend!!! Yeah!!! I'm sad that we didn't get the other home, it was bigger and reminded me of the one we sold in Utah, but I'm am also relieved that this whole house hunting thing is over and we are finally getting out of this apartment and into a home soon.

Friday April 24, 2010:
Okay it's been way too long since I wrote anything on here and for Hannah, who doesn't FaceBook, that's way too long to go without hearing what we've been up to.
After we got home from Utah we we're supposed to close on our home, but we still hadn't heard from the bank so we extended our offer for two more weeks giving us some time to look for another home. We have driven by at least fifty homes looking for a flat backyard for a garden and the few we have found with that were too close to the neighbors or had no fenced yard or was more than we want to spend. At least we now have narrowed it down to we want to stay in the Independence area. Other places like Florence, Burlington, Hebron, Walton were too far away or in the path of the airport.
On Saturday April 17th I attented 'Time Out For Women' with my friend Phyllis and two of her Daughters. We met and left from the church parking lot at 6:15 in the morning for the two and a half hour drive to Indianapolis. This was the first time I have attended one and what a great day it was. This years theme is "We hope all things.." The speakers were very inspirational and motivational as they shared their experiences of hope and faith during their trials. It made my trials seem very trivial, and I am very grateful for my Family from Grandparents to Grandchildren. I love and appreciate all they do and have done to stay strong in the gospel and raise their families with those same great values.
On April 23rd we went and took one more look at our home since the owners have moved out to check for any damage or leaking water. Everything looked good so we decided to wait it out to get this house and hope we can close before June 31st to get the tax credit. We extended our offer out to June 15th with a closing date of June 20th. The last email we recieved said it was "pending service release" so we think we will be hearing something soon.
Since We have been back home, I have gone to a job fair and signed up with four different staffing agencies trying to get a job. That's the way they advertise jobs out here. There are no classified ads in the paper, it's all done online through these agencies. All positions are temporary to hire after a 60 day trial period.
So, I have heard from one of those agencies for a temporary 3 week position which my resume was faxed to the employer along with several others and they choose one. I didn't get that job. I think this is going to be a long process to get a job.