Our New Home

 For the last three years, Josh's job has had him working out of town, just about every week in the spring, summer and fall. The first year, he stayed at his grandparents each week. But then the next year, the company made room for him in their company house they own in Vernal.

 

Last year, we started talking about buying a home that would be more central for our jobs. I had been making a 40 minute commute for my work. We wanted to cut that down and also be able to get close enough to Vernal that he would be able to come home each night.

 

We looked at several houses, and even put an offer on one, but nothing worked out. Then hunting season came, followed by winter and the holidays, and house buying got pushed to the back burner.

 

Then this spring, our landlord told us he had a family member that needed to move into his rental. So we started house hunting again. We looked at a few, but everything in our price range was a serious fixer upper, which we had no desire to get ourselves into.

 

We kept looking online at this town home. But Josh is a country boy and we just didn't know how we would fit there. My cousin lives in one of the units, so we had seen them up close before and always thought it was cute, but never pictures ourselves in one.

 

In the end, we had two homes we wanted to look at. The town house in Roosevelt and a home in Lapoint. But because we were using the first time home buyers program, we couldn't qualify for the Lapoint one because it had too much acreage. We decided to look at the townhouse and quickly feel in love.

 

It was built in 2008 or 2009 ( I can't remember now) and had no serious needs like anything else we had looked at. All the other homes needed new carpet, paint, holes patched, etc. But this place was in great condition.

 

So we put in an offer and then road the rocky roller coaster of approval and closing for the next 40ish days. I won't get into it, but our banker was very disappointing and there was times I thought this move would never happen.

 

I started boxing stuff the first weekend after we made our offer; and when the big day came, we moved everything (but the freezer) by ourselves.

 

We've been here two weeks and its starting to feel like home.

The down stairs has a half bath. As I was unpacking, I found the owl tucks I sewed last year and decided to use them to decorate the down stairs bathroom. I found some cute décor on Amazon. Then I also plan to print out some pictures of burrowing owls that Josh has taken while he's working.

 The kitchen was one of the things we feel in love with. We've never had a decent kitchen. Just this weekend, I used several things I've never used before. I joked its because I'm still in the "honeymoon" stage, but really its because there is so much more storage room that things are easy to find.

 

 And it has a pantry!

 

Just this morning we hung Josh's elk. He declared it is now officially home.

 

A week after we put in our offer, our washing machine broke. We decided to limp along by doing laundry at our mom's and just buy a new set when we moved. This way, the furniture store would deliver & set up for free. It was kind of a pain, but well worth the wait! The laundry closet is at the top of the stairs and I'm glad we didn't have to pack them up there.

 

Upstairs is a full bath.

 

It also has a walk in closet!

 

The spare bedroom is still a work in progress. It will be our work room. I will craft in one corner and Josh will reload in the other.

 

Josh has had to work out of state a few times, so he's not been home at night as much as we hoped, but still, he will be able to come home more often then he used to. I love that my job is literally 2 miles up the road. So far, we've adjusted to town life pretty well. I LOVE my kitchen. The cats seem to be adjusting well. We've decided they will be indoor pets from now on. Sage has loved the move. We let her come inside each night and we are working on house training her. I also get up every morning and walk her. After years and years of renting, it is exciting to be home owners.

Roosevelt Redmud Run & July 4th

This year, Roosevelt decided to do a mud run on the Fourth of July. I seesawed back and forth, but in the end, I decided to just watch this year.

 

The run wasn't until 11, but we were told to be there at 9:30 for registration. It wasn't busy yet, so we were done after just a few minutes. We decided to use the time to walk around the course and get in idea of what to expect. I took a picture of all the obstacles (for blogging purposes). I even made Josh stand in front of the one with the pole you had to walk across.

Right at the beginning of the race, there was a spot where I thought I could get pictures of at least 3 of the obstacles. We decided I would stand there for some pictures, then run to a spot about 3/4 of the way through and hopefully I would still beat him to the finish line. But I wasn't too worried about the finish line since it was a straight run. I was after the muddy action shots.

 

They ran a few waves. The first wave was the teams event. The single runs were to start 15 minutes later. While we were there, we ran into our friends Todd & Randi. Todd was running with a team. Randi and I walked up to the spot I had picked out. Then she followed Todd along after that and I stayed to wait for Josh. I did get a picture of Todd right as he started down the slip & slide. 

 

 After watching he team race at the slide part, I decided I might be able to get a few more pictures then I originally planned. When the groups would get to certain points, it would bottle neck up as they each waited for their turn. So I decided to get in a few extra stops. I ended up getting about 2/3 of the race in pictures! Its almost like I ran the race too, but was able to stay clean.

 

I've numbered the list of all the obstacles they went through.

1. Picnic Tables - Run/jump up and over each table.

 

2. Large Culvert - jump, slide, hurdle over the culvert.

 

Then the next wave began. Josh is wearing a green shirt and black shorts. He is in the right side of the picture.



 

3. Big O Tire Run - high step through each row of tires.



 

4. Military Crawl - army crawl under net. Josh went through the 2nd row from the right. 

 

5. L&L Motor Water Slide - Slide down. (They made it extra slippery by adding a few gallons of dish soap.) 

 

6. TJ's Tires Hay Bales - Run up & over the hay bales.

 

7. Trash Cans - Jump, hurdle, slide over the trashcans. No one ended up doing that since the first set of runners seemed to leave a trail of weaving through them instead. 

 

8. UBATC Climbing Wall - Use rope to climb over the 2 walls.

I got a picture of Josh going up the first wall and then booked it past the second wall. Just as he came over the top, I snapped my camera, just as some people walked right into the shot. He can just see his leg behind the guy in the hat. But I was also trying to get to the next stop so I could get a picture there.

 

9. Large Mud Pit - run  up mound, then down into pit. Run through to the end.

 

10. K&K Straw Dumpsters - run/climb up into large dumpster, then out the other side.



11. Mud Hole  - Use pole for balance beam, through mud pit. Don't fall in!

 

12. Hollow - run down and up the other side of the hollow. (This is another thing every one seemed to skip. It was hard to tell where the markers where leading you.)

 

13. Dan's Tire Obstacle - Crawl/squeeze through giant row of tires. 

 

This is the point where I broke off from the group for a little bit. I wanted to be able to get the last few obstacles and was starting to fall behind, so I decided to skip ahead instead.

 

14. Paragon Pipe Crawl - Crawl through the pipe.

 

15. Hill & Mud Pit - Run through mud pit and up the hill.

 

16. Soccer Goals - Run under soccer goals.

 

17. Hill & Mud Pit - Run over the hill and into the mud pit. I decided I needed a picture of me on the course too.

18. Hill Obstacle - Run over the hill.

19. Mud Pit & Hill - Run through the mud pit and over the hill.

They had lots of photographers scattered along the course, but they also had someone with a video camera. He kept asking groups to give him good action shots of playing in the mud. So Josh decided to stop and pretend to take a bath. 

20. Pipe Hurdles -Jump over pipe.

21. Bleach Obstacle - Run up and over bleachers. 

 

Just after he crossed the finish line. I actually wasn't there for that part because I was still running from the bleachers. But I got there right behind him. 

 

After the finish line, we found a quick drink of water and then went to look for Todd so Josh could finish the race with him. 

 

It was a lot of fun and we can't wait for next year. 

After the run, we spent some time with Josh's family for a BBQ. I made a Red White & Blueberry Pie.

To finish off the 4th of July holiday, we went to Todd & Randi's for fireworks. It was a perfect ending to a great day!