Things at the house are going pretty well, especially because I have a lot more time. I still have occasional trainings for work and appointments, but it’s been great not having so much to do every day. Summer break is one of the greatest creations ever! We even are going to be going to Utah next week- woo hoo! Gonna visit the families and maybe some friends too- we are so excited. We’re even thinking about stopping by Moab on the way up to do some hiking and what not- I love Arches National Park.

On another positive note, my headaches are slowly improving. Nothing had been working, really, so on the suggestion of my grandma, I have been trying a chiropractor. I’ve done several appointments now, and overall, I have noticed a significant difference in the headaches and their intensity! (Thanks for the suggestion, Grandma!) I learned that my neck is too straight and the vertebrae aren’t all exactly aligned correctly, so we’ve been working on that. I am just hoping  it’s not a fluke and the pain keeps going down and away!

Now we are battling the house. The biggest problem so far is BUGS! All over. We’ve found several interesting varieties of bugs inside and outside the house, including but not limited to: spiders, pill bugs (roly-polies), fire ants, and roaches! Some really, really big roaches. *shudder* We even have a hive of bees that recently took up resident in the knothole at the base of the great big tree.

Apparently, the weatherstripping of at least the doors really STINKS and lets lots of buggies into the house through the cracks (big enough to see light from the outside through!), so we’ve been trying to play around with fixing that. We also have gotten some quotes on trying to eliminate bugs, but so far, they are all pretty dang expensive.  Jared was thinking about taking the hive on by himself, but fortunately he’s changed his mind about that. A lot of it can be DIY projects, but some of them (the bees) probably should be handled by people who really know what they are doing and have the proper protection from a zillion bee stings. We’ll figure it out though.

We’ve also been cleaning up the inside of the house; it was vacant for several months before we got in there, so things like the tile and carpets needed some deep cleaning (especially thanks to those bugs). In fact, they could even use some more, despite my on-my-hands-and-knees-for-several-hours cleaning efforts. heh. I also spent a couple hours scrubbing down the used fridge we bought off of craigslist.com. It’s a pretty new fridge, but the previous owners didn’t clean it out very well, so it was stinky, dirty, and even had some bugs inside it.

The only serious mishap that has occurred was trying to figure out the awning that goes over the back patio. It’s tricky- it’s a lot lik the awnings that go over camping trailers. Jared was struggling to figure it out and so I offered to help him. (My mistake, I am clumsy and not good with hardware stuff anyways). Somehow, the awning rolled up while I was holding the bars, and snapped my fingers between two of the metal supports of the awning. OUCH! We seriously thought my fingers were broken for a few days, but they look normal and are only a bit stiff and sore now, and I have full mobility, so we figure it magically only bruised the bones.

You can sort of see the evil awning right above the window here:

So overall, Operation: Take over the House is  in full swing and progressing quite well! I can’t wait til it’s ready enough for us to start really living in it…. I get so excited to think of that. 🙂 Life is good, we’re working hard at the house and job stuff, so we have a lot to be thankful for!