Do it Yourself

Joseph was over at Becca's house a week ago Saturday, and they found this picture.  Joseph said jokingly, "Look, that's probably me refereeing."  And then he said, "Wait, I think that's Josh!"  So fun!

Seeing Becca at this age reminds me of this picture of Hannah and Becca, which I adore:

It was super fun to have everyone here for my birthday last Sunday, and for Memorial day.

Josh, Joseph, Becca, Santi and Peter

Up on the roof! Josh, Santi, Peter and Libby

On the subject of the roof, Peter, Libby and I just saw this:

And here's Peter chillin in his cool chair that he rigged on the rooftop.

On Monday we loaded Mom's Mexican Furniture, the white couches that our neighbors gave us years ago, the rocking chair, the green rocking chair, the table from the ER, an end table and some other stuff, all into Greg and Rachelle's old Uhaul truck, and took off for Rexburg.  Joseph, Mary and two other girls that they picked up went in Frankie, Joseph's car.  (Joseph names his cars. What a hoot).
And in the UHaul, Peter and I were in front, and Josh and Santi were in back, lounging on the couches!  When we got to Mountain Home, Peter went in back too and we picked up Cara and Karen, friends of Santi, who needed a ride back to school.  I told Bishop I could handily drive the UHaul, having driven the loaded 26 foot long UHaul with Mom and Dad's stuff across the state a few years ago,  But what I didn't know was that this was an old Diesel stick shift!  Oh wow!  It was quite an experience driving that thing.  Peter actually helped a lot, and he ended up driving most of the way home on Tuesday afternoon.  He rocked it!  I was really proud of myself for gaining a new skill!  I tried to channel my sister Julie - she would have no problems with that!

Halfway up the hill outside of Mountain Home, I heard some banging from the back, and I just thought it was Peter telling me when to shift down, but in a moment, Josh called Kara and told her they needed me to pull over.  Apparently the strap had broken that was keeping the truck door a little open for air, and they were trying to keep all the furniture from falling out as we went up the hill!  It was a little adventure for them, but everyone survived and no one was hurt, so it was all good!  :)  What I was really impressed about was Kara and Karen - the two returned missionaries that rode with me in the front.  They were such good sports, just enjoying the adventure of it all as we bounced down the road!  Thank goodness for them.

We had our hardwood floors redone this week!  It looks so nice!

 And it was time to take down the Measuring of the Heights Board.  (Gulp - that one took some doing.  Tender moment.)  I love it that they both have on BYS t-shirts.  :)

Painting the trim has been, from the very beginning, the big monster in the room, so to speak, with getting the house ready to sell.  The trim looked terrible.  In fact, when we first discussed it, we both said, "We'll just have to put it up for sale 'as is'."  The thought of getting to the point we are now was so daunting that it seemed impossible.  But when we talked to our realtor, Shelly, and our home teacher, Doug, who is a general contractor, they both said that to get a decent price, and to sell in our price range, we would have to do something about it.  I saw the wisdom in what they were saying but it still seemed overwhelmingly daunting.  Then last Monday our friend Jaylen came in, and being a professional painter in college, he said he would come in and help us spray it and work on it.  That actually gave us a glimmer of hope.  We worked really hard for 2 weeks before that decluttering in every room, and by the time Friday came around, we actually had cleared out a space, both in our minds and in the house to be able to address the painting that needed to be done.  We found a lot of old paint, for one, and then were able to go to the paint store and decide on what we needed and get some supplies.  We started on it Friday afternoon, and by Saturday night, we had completed the trim (and some of the walls) in the yellow room, the boys room, Libby's room and half of her bathroom, and the hallway.  Whew!  It looks fantastic!

Another factor that I haven't mentioned yet is that even when we wanted to pay someone to do this, we couldn't get anyone to come.  There is a huge influx of building going on in our valley right now and the subcontractors are so busy they can't even fill the demand for their most trusted general contractors, so to do a little side job like ours was totally off the radar.  Se literally we had to buckle down and do it ourselves.  But what seemed like a totally insurmountable problem 3 weeks ago, has opened up and we are DOING IT!  And it's turning out great.  Peter and Libby are gaining a skill they didn't have before, which is even better.  I really am so pleased with what is happening, even though it is a TON of work, and we still have a lot to go!  The other funny thing - Jaylen forgot he had father and sons, so he couldn't come anyway.  But we had it figured out, so it was OK.

Before and after shots.  (This is embarassing, but that's really what it looked like!) Upstairs hallway.

Yeah!

This morning I had a profound experience reading Elder F. Enzio Busche's talk from October 1993 General Conference.  It's a long story how I got there, but it was the answer to what I had been searching for all week, and I used it as the basis for my lesson today is Relief Society.  I just love teaching Relief Society, can I say?