Best Friends

I spent a lot of time with these two cuties over the summer in Utah. Kaden loves bouncing in his chair and Toby just hangs out underneath him.

Off To Utah

Well, we needed to move into the apartment a little sooner than I really wanted because Jake and Julie hadn't left for school yet and I didn't want to move until they were gone. Our renters needed to move in before school started, so we moved out. Life in a one bedroom/one bath apartment doesn't work so well with four people, so after a week or so Jay had the idea that Julie and I should head out to Utah early. Julie could get settled and find a job before all the other students got back and I could spend more time with Jessica and Justin while they were in Utah for the summer for Justin's internship. Jake had a summer internship with the Army National Guard doing some statistical work, so he needed to stay in Virginia. So Julie and I packed up her little car and made the trek west. We made it in four days. We listened to two Harry Potter books on the way. It was a good trip!

Our New Place

As many of you know, this has been Jay's life for the past 6 years. Up and down I-95 to get to work every day. It is a terrible stretch of freeway going into/out of Washington D.C. When we first moved here we settled in Stafford County because we could afford a large house there and the schools are really good there. So Jay made the sacrifice and commuted to work every day.

We had been talking for a while about having a grand adventure and moving to the city after Jake graduated. I wasn't sure if it would really happen, the housing market being what it is, there were so many houses for rent that I didn't know if we could rent ours. Jay and I made our lists of pros and cons, prayed about it, and decided that we would put our house up for rent, and if it was meant to be, it would all work out. Well, we put our house up for rent at 9 pm on a Wednesday night, and by Thursday we had 4 people come look at it. One man really wanted it for his family moving from Colorado, so we rented it to him that day. The next day we went out looking for apartments and found our new home.

We are loving city life, and our little one-bedroom apartment. Those who know me know that I am very good at purging, I don't hang on to much unless it really means something to me, so I pretty much sold all my furniture except the little that we brought with us. We have a storage unit that is full of our children's belongings that we will keep until they have places of their own to store them. Also, all my Christmas decorations are stored there.

I have never seen Jay so happy as the day he sold his lawn mower and weed-eater! He always worked hard on our yard, and always kept it nice, but it was not something that gave him much pleasure. Now he can spend his Saturdays on the golf course, he's earned it!

We are on the 16th floor, top balcony on the left

The view from our balcony

Jay and Molly on the balcony

Must Finish 2009 !!!

Well... I certainly did not get caught up on my blog like I said I would in my last post! I am trying to think what happened... Jay went golfing and I was going to spend the morning blogging, but it started raining and he came home, so we spent the day together and I didn't get my blog caught up. So here goes another try. I was supposed to work today, but it is a SNOW DAY. School is out, so I think today is a good day to catch up. I am hoping to print off my blog as a type of journal, so that is why I am determined to get everything posted. So, even though it is 2010, I am going back to finish 2009!

Landscaping

Ever since we bought our house here in Stafford, we have had problems with the backyard, mostly because nothing had ever been done with it. This is our backyard when we first bought the house, the deck is in our neighbor's yard. Our house sits level to the backyard, so we decided to put in a patio instead of a deck. Less up keep with a patio and it was a lot cheaper.

The main problem with the yard is that our house sits at the bottom of a hill, and all the water flows down the hill and turns right into our house. There is no good drainage path, so when we have heavy rains, which are frequent in Virginia, the water would just build up by the house.

So, for reasons that I will go into in my next post, Jay decided that after living like this for six years, the time had come to do something about the flooding in the backyard. He worked day and night for about two months, after work and on weekends, and pretty much dug up the whole yard, graded the yard away from the house, put drainage pipes through the yard, and built a beautiful retaining wall with drainage pipes behind it. Then he put sod down and lots of rocks to help with the drainage. He and Jake did all this by themselves, my only contribution was bringing them cold water and helping to carry in the bricks for the wall. It looks beautiful and we have had hard rains since completion, and not a drop of water accumulates by the house. I am so proud of all their hard work!

The finished yard. It's beautiful!

Jake's Graduation

Jake finally reached the end of high school. He graduated from

North Stafford High School

on June 13, 2009. Jake graduated

Summa Cum Laude

meaning he graduated with a 4.0 or better grade point average. We are so proud of him for all the hard work he put into his studies. We are equally as proud of him for being a 4-year seminary graduate (that's 4 years of early morning seminary!)

The seniors in our ward at seminary graduation

Ready for the class of 2009

Jake walking into the stadium

Proud family with our graduate

The Summer of '09

Well, here it is November and I am finally going to blog about my summer. Jay is gone golfing for the day (even though it is rainy, he says that's good because there will be less people on the course) so I have the day to myself inside. Today is a good day to get caught up on my blog. Life is good, and I really want to document my life and share what's going on with all my family and friends. So, read on (I hope someone will read my blog) and enjoy the events of the summer of 2009!