Mission Objective

We are making great progress on getting the house ready. Here are our project priorities....

Making sure everything works... Tomm is such a handy man. We are soo lucky that he understands all the utilities of a house. He has been working on the things that can be fixed and replacing the things that are on their last leg.
The old pool filter of awfulness! It smelled sooo bad! I thought there was a dead body somewhere. YUCK! Now we have a shiny new one.
Landscaping... This one's a biggie! As you can see there is much to do. We plan to clear everything away from the house so we can clean it up and paint it. We also are going to have about 6 pine trees removed away from the house.
A future gardening site
There is grass under there, believe it or not.
Get the pool cleaned up and running...
Wow! Yikes! Icheewawa!
My manly man getting it done!

Wash and paint the exterior house and patio...

Paint the inside...
I am exited to see the end of this color scheme: peanut butter and honey nightmare. We are going to go with neutrals. I can't wait to see it finished!
As soon as the painting is done I will bring my crew (myself and vacuum) in for the cleaning. It is needing my attention to detail!
In the kitchen we are going to put in granite counter tops and stainless appliances. I can't wait!
Maybe we'll go back to pink and purple some day... then again we could have only boys.

SOME OF THE OPPOSITIONS:
Our water is now well water so it has created some rusty-ness around this toilet and inside the toilets. I ran the water the other day and it was greenish. So we also need to have some water specialists come out and help us with the purification... so we don't grow third eyeballs or anything.
BUGS! We're in the country now so I have explained to all the creepies if they come inside there are consequences.
Dirt, grime and pine needles, these will cover the roof and totally ruin it because they hold so much moisture. By removing some trees we can prevent them getting on there in such large deposits.

Latest update:
We have pretty much gotten ALL of these things done! I am soooooooooo exited about the way things are looking! I will post some before and after pics when we get everything done. YAY!

This little lemon tree was under a bunch of rubbish. I was so exited about it. It smells SO good! Hopefully we can get it growing now.

3- 2- 1 Blast Off!

Mom, Dad and Shel were all here visiting us a couple weeks ago. We had the time of our lives! This was the first time my Parents and Shel were able to come out and see us since Tomm and I moved down here. It was very special to have them come stay with us. We were able to cover a lot of ground in the week that they were here.
One of the things we did was go up to The Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canavril, FL and watch the shuttle Atlantis launch on May 11th. It was so AWESOME!, and surprisingly touching (I cried a few proud tears) for me to see that happen. I don't know why it is so hard for me to appreciate some things without seeing and experiencing. Well after that day, we put a big check next to Space Shuttle Launch on our bucket lists....
I think Dad's check mark was especially big and exited.


The launch was scheduled for 2:01 (eastern time)... We had to be there no later that 9am ...
I still don't know why but I think it is so while you are waiting you will buy drinks (It was sooo hot) and everything in the gift shops.
This is us waiting patiently in a long @$$ line. I hate lines!

Cool pic of some rockets. I dont know all the names of these rockets... I think the stripey one is Gemini.

We look the part!

Blast OFF! We were standing 6 miles away and it was still huge and the sound was incredible even over the crowd of people. They said that if you were within a 2 mile range of the blast that the explosion would kill you and if you were within 4 miles the SOUND would kill you... I didn't think sound could kill!???

My fav shuttle fact:The three space shuttle main engines generate the maximum equivalent of about 37 million horsepower! The fuel pump alone puts out 71,000, the same horsepower as 28 locomotives and with power of the oxygen pump is 23,000, that adds 11 more locomotives!
That really blows my skirt up! WOOHOO!

I had binoculars and I saw the tank separate from the orbiter and fall back to earth. It was amazing!

Nothing left but the contrails.

We didn't expect to see a sign like this at the center. Well, we never saw or fed any of them.

I wanted to post this turtle because he had cute eyes. He had quite a dramatic blink. It was sweet!

Look at those talons!

Getting ready for the 3D Shuttle show. Dad's expression is priceless!

The shuttle exhibit. You can go inside there and check it out. There was a huge line so we didn't go up.

It looks so small and innocent from here.

HUGE!

That is one big behind!

What did Whitney buy at the gift shops while waiting 5 hours for the launch?
NASA cooking gear alright.
An apron, oven mitts and a shuttle cookie cutter. My apron reads "NASA... I need my space" I couldn't leave without buying one.

Shuttle cookies! CUTE!!!

Sold!

We bought a house!!!

Our searching has come to an end. It's been one heck of a process REALLY!, but we finally closed on our new house last Friday.

It is quite a twisty turny story how we ended up getting this house. From the moment I first saw the picture online I loved it (but you never know what you'll think after seeing it in person) so Tomm and I went to drive by and check it out. When I saw it I was so exited (I got a tingly feeling that this home was the one) and we just both really liked it. It had everything we were looking for and the location was perfect.
Well, when we called our realtor and told her we'd like to go look at it she called us back with bad news that the home was already under contract and was set to close on March 31st. We were both disappointed but especially me because I had already been dreaming and moving us in and putting all our things away. Well needless to say after a few tries the previous "almost" buyers didn't close on it and so we finally got our chance. We went to look at it and again it did not disappoint us. I swear it feels like it was meant to be. It is such a gorgeous and COZY home! We are so thrilled!

Let me introduce you a little bit:
Built in 1997
4 Bedrooms
2.5 Baths
Huge awesome kitchen!( I can't wait to cook our first meal)
Stacked Stone Fireplace
NO formal living or dining areas... we are exited about this!(Ours was the only house we saw that didn't have them... Coincidence? Heck no!)
3 car garage (Yay! Tomm's exited)
Awesome pool
Screened back patio (to keep Creepies out and Kitties in)
Glass french doors (So pretty!)
We have about 1 1/2 acres of land

All in all the house needs a lot of attention and hard work. It has been unoccupied for 2 years so the yard is really overgrown and the house needs some major cleaning. And, we plan to paint inside and outside.

We've got our work cut out for us. Let the games begin! YAY!

Hello Sunshine

Here are some other cute pics we took when Natty and Grant were visiting. So fun! I miss you guys!

Disney World

While Natalie and Grant and the BoYs were out visiting us, we went to Disney World!!! It was such a fun time. I am really glad they got the chance to go and take the kids. I have been there twice now and I am always so touched by all the happy kids and how fun the park is for them. I can't wait to take our kids some day!

A couple of my favorite moments:
1. We were walking through the park and Drake saw some ducks over on a grassy area. He was SO exited! He was watching them and was wanting all of us to watch them... meanwhile a little girl came over and started to feed them. Well Drake gets so exited and (his Mom and Dad are trying to find something for the ducks to eat in the backpack and they were just not moving fast enough) he took his binky out of his mouth and threw it over the fence to the ducks. It was SO precious! We were all laughing about it.

2. Logan was getting the biggest kick out of the character Stitch! He started laughing at him when we were getting a picture with him. It was so cute!