Home Sweet Home :) a finished home and picture overload!

Last Friday and Saturday were the big move days for us!  When we walked in the house friday afternoon to start moving in,  I wanted to cry it was so beautiful! The home was all clean, the floors looked so amazing shinned up, it was PERFECT! Our Realtor put a big bow on the front door and got us the most amazing gift basket ever! It seriously was the icing on the cake! I have secretly always wanted a gift basket, and a Kneaders one...I was in heaven! Jake and I were seriously so lucky with the amazing people we were able to work with to get our home. Our realtor, builder, mortgage broker, everyone was just AMAZING! I feel so blessed this entire process really went so smoothly. 

Dont mind the blue tape on the cabinets. There were a couple of paint touch ups and things that needed to be fixed on them but the cabinet man got sick so he is coming over next week to fix them. We also need to get glass for the cabinets once the doors are fixed!

We are still waiting for the light fixture in the living room to come. Hopefully soon :)

I forgot to take pictures of the mudd room, 2 of the bathrooms and bedrooms. I was just so excited to move in, I was forgetting to take pictures! The move went great, we have all our boxes and furniture in the house! We have been having fun unpacking and getting settled in! Now I just want our furniture we ordered to come be delivered! :) Its probably best to not come all at once so we can enjoy the house, then appreciate the furniture! 

weekly update

This has been a week Jake and I have been looking forward to! Wow, we became home owners, had our first trip to the Pet Hospital, moved, and still moving in to our new home, got to pass out candy to trick or treaters...and ate a lot of food this past week! I am really grateful every night Jake and I got to go out to dinner this week. I feel it was just time to sit and talk about things going on in life, spend some time together and just chill. It was wonderful and just what I needed.

 At the Pet Hospital with Mr. T. You can read about his sad.. painful story here.

Tuesday night Jake and I went to eat at Rubios for Taco Tuesday! I got some tacos and chips and Jake got a lobster burrito. We also saw some old friends of mine from high school Joel and Clarrisa Ragar. It was fun to catch up with them and see their new 3 month baby girl. I feel like every time Jake and I go to Rubios we see someone from Arizona there ;)

After dinner, we just felt like walking around so we went to the mall. Of course we ended up at the Disney store  and ended up coming home with a Winnie the Pooh in a Christmas sweater! He was just so soft, and had beans in his buns.....we had to get him ;) I want to put him on the couch at Christmas time. That means I probably ened to get him a friend to keep him company. The Disney Store also had the cutest ornaments and stalkings in, so I will have to go back and get some once we get settled into our house!

Wednesday was Halloween! I was excited to pass out candy in the evening, so I made sure all the lights were on in our house! I also was so excited for Halloween I made Jake a "Happy Halloween Basket!" He is always surprising me with fun things I thought it was his turn :)

Are you wondering why a pony is in the basket...? Jake loves the show My Little Ponies and Rainbow Dash is his favorite, as well as mine. I saw the pony plush at Walmart and about died! I had to get it! I was going to save it for Jake for Christmas but I couldn't wait any longer to give it to him!

Jake playing with his zombie hex bug while we waited for trick or treaters :)

Wednesday I was a stressful day for me. I went to our house and I was thinking there was no way the house was going to be done! Also, the underwriter working on our paper work was taking a little longer than anticipated, and I was a wreck. In and out burgers for dinner calmed me down :) We also had another little episode with Mr. T so my mind was all over the place.

 Thursday Jake took a half day off work so we could get things finished up with the house, and to start packing up the cars. We ate mcdonalds and went to walmart to buy lots of cleaning supplies to clean out our old home.

 Jake got an eggnog shake at Mcdonalds! He was so excited! He loves eggnog!

 Breakfast of champions! Friday/Saturday was move day! It went so well! Thanks for all those who came and helped :)

Friday morning I also had a boutique in Salt Lake. So Jake and I loaded up all my stuff, and went to the market called SALT.

 I was loving that I could have bags and other items on my shelf! Wahoo! After unloading at the boutique, we drove home to start moving!

Sunday Jake and I had our first homemade dinner at our new home! Roasted tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!

We had fun unpacking, but we were so pooped from the move so we ended up just hanging out watching movies. It was a great relaxing Sunday!

We are all officially moved in now! Now time to unpack and find places for things to go! The fun part!

Halloween Half Marathon

Last Saturday, Jake and I got to run/walk the Halloween Half Marathon! We were so excited to wear our pumpkins and go for a run! We got to meet some really nice people along the way and enjoy seeing some fun costumes! A lady with a cheese head might of been my favorite :) oh and there was an Ezma and Emperor Kuzko! Those were awesome! We woke up bright and early to meet at the mall and take the buses up to Sundance to get ready for the race!

One thing I dont understand when I go to races is all the trash everywhere. I dont get why people dont take there trash...to a trash can? I was laughing so hard at this thing of fruit that was left.

 Walking to the start!

See all those portapotties to the right...well right before the race I wanted to pee, and just walking by the portapotties, and they smelled so bad...and I mean bad. I have never smelled such a strong rank smell, it made me throw up on the spot it was so nasty. Maybe because I thought..."How can all this human poo smell this horrible?" But yes, I really threw up and didn't go pee it was so bad. Next time I will go pee in a bush even though it was freezing out!

Let the race begin! It was so beautiful out! It was nice and cool out the entire time, so it was nice that we didn't have to take our layers off! I liked that! It was also fun to see the leaves falling and some snow on the sides of the ground. It was lovely.

Its crazy how a week later the Provo Canyon looks so different than it did! Lots of leaves fallen, colors changing...pretty neat. I think its safe to say..winter is here! 

During the race my phone battery died, so we didn't get a picture of us at the end of the race. But here is our end picture! We had so much fun! Training would of for sure helped and been a good thing to do, but I am glad we still went and ran. It was fun! I would do it again! Jake and I are super sore, and feel like we are 90 and cant walk, but nothing some ice packs and hot baths cant fix :)

Our cool metals we got! I think I would do races just for the metals...... :)

Heres some pictures I got from the race off of zazoosh.com.

Can you tell we were pooped from running? haha a nice power walk works!

My Lovely Grandma Bang :)

This past week on October 24th, my beautiful 93 year old Grandma Bang passed. Today is her funeral and I wish I could be there. (I could not miss sighing papers on the new house). I really wanted to go see Grandma and Grandpas cute house one last time to. They have been in the same house my grandpa built when they were first married. My sweet grandma has always been so healthy and strong till this past year of her life. I seriously feel she has had such an amazing life from choosing to eat healthy foods, be active, and kept her mind mentally strong. I also loved that she got ready every morning. She always put on a little makeup and got dressed for the day. She even made dinner every night, and cleaned the house till the last year of her life. She is such an amazing example to me in so many ways. She also has been a huge example to me as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have always admired how she is always willing to serve the Lord at any age, and serve those around her. She always took the time to tell you she loved you, spend time with you, and listen. I have so many wonderful memories with my grandma and so sad to see her gone. I think the thing I am most sad about is that my grandpa is now alone. He is still so strong at 93. He is now moving to Arizona to be close to my family and to have company. I am so happy about that! I wish I lived in Arizona so I could go visit him daily :) Good thing we have telephones these days!

Here is my cute grandma and grandpa together! They were married for 72 years. I would say that is an amazing accomplishment! They were always so loving and sweet to each other  They really were those kind of people always working on being sweeter to each other and wanting to make each other happy. This was the first time Jake met my grandparents :) We were still dating at the time!

Some of my favorite times with my grandma was watching old movies and "I Love Lucy." When I was younger and would get to stay in Ohio with my grandparents, grandpa would go to bed around 9, and grandma would always be up for a party! We would stay up till midnight watching episodes of "I Love Lucy." It still to this day is my favorite show, and if I have a little girl someday, her name will be Lucy :) My grandma was always so sweet to me. I remember she would always ask me to play what I was learning on the piano for her. I was never great at the piano but I remember her asking me to play over and over the songs I knew. She was so kind.

I love this picture. Grandma and Grandpa didn't know I took it. They kept saying, "stop taking pictures of me." haha I couldn't stop though. They are just to dang cute! I remember one time I went to visit my grandparents all by myself  They are such healthy eaters ( and I mean healthy)  I remember grandma taking me to the grocery store and buying me Oreos and cereal and treats while I was with them for the week. Every morning at that time my grandparents would go to the mall at 6am while there were cleaners there and walk around. They would do laps around the mall to get some excersize in. How cute is that?! Well there was a shop that had cute music boxes, and my grandma wanted one so bad. Little did I know that she had bought me the one she loved so much. I still have it to this day. Its Noahs Arc with a real water fall and a beautiful song that played.

When my father was a little boy, my dad needed some new shoes really bad for the new school year. My grandma took the soles off her shoes and sewed them onto his shoes, so he could have some shoes for school. She sewed fabric onto the bottom of her shoes. Every time I think of that it makes me cry. My grandma doing that is such an example to me of love and sacrifice. She is such an amazing woman. I know she will be so happy in heaven and bless all the other people on that side. Also, I bet she is having a wonderful time spending time with her daughter Sandra that died many years ago.

Grandma and Grandpa with 3 of their 4 kids. Linda, Dave, Steve (Sandra who passed away). My Grandma has 20 grandchildren and 46 great grandchildren. She was an amazing woman who will really be missed.

I was trying to think of some words or things that reminded me of my grandma. Here are some things I came up with:
-Tic Tacs (she always had a little zip pouch with tic tacs in them.)
-Coins (every time I visited she let me pick coins from her coin collection to add to mine she helped me start)
-Jesus Christ (she always shinned the love of Christ everywhere she went. She always tried to be like him)
-Jeopardy (never missed watching it everyday)
-Annie Get Your Gun (one of her favorite shows)
-Comedy (she always loved to laugh and be positive)
-Piano (she loved to hear anyone play the piano, and she played the organ at an LDS temple for years)
-Beauty (always looked beautiful inside and out)
-Trooper (never complained)
-Lazy Boy (she always loved her lazy boy recliner chair)
-Homeaker (always kept a clean house, made meals with a smile on her face)
-Amazing parent (she has amazing children :)
-Service (always willing to serve and do things for others)
-Hard Worker (she married a very handy man, and was always helpful to him, her family and those around her)
-Sweet smile (she can make me melt)

There are so many other words and things that remind me of my grandma, but these are just a few that popped into my head on this special day ;)

Turtle Talk with Mr. T.

Wow. This has been quite a week thus far with the turtles. I thought it was quite a week with packing up the house and moving (I have been a stress case), but the turtles were the icing on the cake. I feel like I can somewhat understand how a parent feels. Well, Monday evening, Jake and I were getting ready to go to dinner. I heard lots of noise coming from the turtle tank so I ran to the tank. Then I saw the saddest thing in my life....

So, Its mating season right now. Mr. T is a boy. He got "worked up" and boy turtles dont have room for their "stuff" inside them, so they stick it outside of their body. Sadly this is something they cant help, or fix really quick. It takes time for the blood flow to go down and the big ball that looks like poop to go back in the males body. Well...normally out in the wild the male can run away till this ball goes back in them. In a tank...they are limited. Well, one of the girls in the tank Alfredo, bit Mr. T on this ball (they eat poop all the time). Right when I walked in the room, I saw Mr. T trying to get away, and Alfredo chasing him and bit the ball. Wow.....lets talk about blood everywhere (turtle blood is red), I was screaming...yes this was really scary.

I have never felt so horrible in my life. My cute helpless turtle literally got bitten on his "privates" and blood was everywhere. I cant imagine the pain. Poor little guy. I was so grateful Jake was home. I was also so grateful we were home when this all happened so we could get Mr. T out of the tank from everyone. Jake called the pet hospital right away. They told us what to do to get him through the night, and made an appointment with the doctor for the morning. This was my first experience with a pet doctor so I was nervous. This was new to us all. I mean..what do you do for a hurt turtle?

Well, the Vet said to keep Mr. T out of the tank with his tank mates (for sure!). They also said to help stop the bleeding, make a bath of 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water and keep the turtle in it for 30 minutes. Poor Mt. T did NOT like this at all! Jake was so sweet and held Mr. T the entire 30 minutes and just held his bum in the water so it wasn't to horrible for him. Then we were supposed to keep him dry all night, but have a wet warm rag for his bum to sit on during the night. Mr. T I think was in shock, and hurt so he was running around all over the big tub we put him in. We wrapped him in blankets and turned the lights off and he calmed down. That was good. He was peaceful the rest of the night. We checked on him all night, and he did just fine.

Bright and early, we went to the pet hospital. It was kinda funny filling out paper work for my turtle :) I was shocked at how brave Mr. T was. Normally he only lets Jake and I hold him, and he tries to bite anyone else, but he was so good for the doctor. He also was walking around his tub and hanging out, and the doctor said that was so good.  She also said it was good bleeding stopped pretty quick. She said there is nothing you can do for a hurt pee pee unless he sticks it out again. If it happens again where he gets bit, it would be surgery time. Wow, now thats a lot to think about. I loved the pet doctor! She was a specialist for turtles and wow she was a hoot! She was so fun to be around to. I would like to be friends with her in real life :) She gave some great advice about the turtles and helped me feel better that Mr. T would be ok.

So for now, Mr T. is super vulnerable  He is in a tank by himself. I also took out Max our other boy and put him in his own tub. I dont like them to be separated  from everyone because I think they feel like they have been bad if they are alone, but its good for them. The boys finally are not hiding their tales for the vicious girls. I know its just a defense mechanism but its hard when the turtles are in a tank and not in the wild.

The turtles and their environment was weighing heavy on my mind before, and now even more so. Jake and I are just so concerned and what do we do? I mean, this whole incident can happen again, and I dont want it to. I never realized turtles could be mean pets. Not intentionally, but they just are feisty little guys. Some times is hard for me to watch. So, Jake and I were already planning on getting a bigger tank, but we are thinking thats not going to cut it. We either need to separate the turtles, or get 4 tanks, or something till we can build a pond in our back yard.

With moving it will be great because now we can build a big pond in the back yard. I talked to the vet about it, and turtles can surprisingly live in the snow just fine! If there is running water, the water will not freeze. So, we just need to heat the water and have a serious filter and the turtles will be totally great outside. But that means a huge money chuck again. I dont think people realize how expensive turtles can be. (I never did....I feel I am going broke to turtles) They are quite the task and commitment.

I thought about giving them away, but the same thing would happen again. Or the turtles would be split up. And I would feel horrible giving them away. I have had them for 3 years, and would feel bad giving them away to someone else that might not care for them super well.

I have been monitoring Mr. T to see if he is eating. If he doesn't, then I will need to call the doctor and get some medication for him for pain and healing. Poor little guy. I hope he starts to eat. Hes only eating a little and I hope he gets his appetite back.

For now the turtles are all in separate tanks, the house is a mess and I cant wait to move :) What a week! PS. Lifes great! We are all happy and well. Its just been intense!