When It Rains, It Pours!

I guess life will happen, but why all at once! Tonight I noticed that my little bunny was being a little lethargic and that his cage needed changed. So Aaron took him out of his cage and we both noticed instantly that something really bad was happening to our pet. Simon couldn't straighten up, his neck was completely twisted. We called the vet right away, who wasn't available. We finally heard from the vet who explained that Simon had an infection that first got into his stomach and then attacked his brain. The doctor said there was nothing we could do, they are really sensitive to it, and they just catch it from something in the air. I held him in a dark room to keep him comfortable until it was time to hand him over to be put down. While I held him he clicked his teeth which is a sign of affection in rabbit language. I just can't believe it! I can't believe how attached I've gotten to the little guy, and just when he really starts to like me, this happens. I'll feel better eventually, I guess that's just life. I sure hope there's a bunny heaven.

Today's Random Teary Moments

Today I had may breath taken away several times:

1. I apologized to my principal for the demands of my personal life interfering with the quality of my teaching. I ended up calling myself inadequate and got all teary eyed. I really do feel inadequate to meet the demands of my life right now. I know if I just say my prayers and keep one spot in my house clean enough that I can think, it will be okay. We made a plan, so it's helped calm me.
   
2. I was doing some work at my desk and I felt something brush against my pant leg, so I started exploring under my desk with my foot, and quickly heard the sincerest child's giggle! Her little smiles and giggles warmed me right up.
3. A friend of a friend, I don't even know this woman, miscarried her baby at 5 months and had to still birth him. How terribly hard would that be! I can't imagine her pain! I kept thinking how the Lord must have needed him for a greater cause, but oh I actually let a tear escape for her.
   
4. I bought this children's book called "Someday". It's about the Mother-Child relationships...totally had to hold back the tears. The kids noticed, "Mrs. Gelter you're sad." They do the same thing when I get teary in the pledge. I love this Country!
   
5. I realized that in a few weeks my Dad will have been gone for one year. It makes missing him a little more difficult, I can't believe it's been that long. I think I might always feel like I got the news just yesterday. Thinking of my love for him makes me think of all of my loved ones and just how precious they are. I hope I always cherish them!
   

NO STEP!

This weekend was filled with "go get this, we need that, Dad we need your help" and "go get all of these supplies, rent these tools, say a prayer that the workers show up, they need something to eat; aren't you going to finish?" The tiling will be finished tonight, but we won't be there to see it. Here are some pictures of the progress we and our helpers made this weekend.

As you can see I was a big help...come to find out the real reason for losing my voice and this sleepiness is a cold! I felt like a nerd when I went to the doctor today..."It's just a cold,you'll get better soon." Me: "Well, I feel Sheepish!"

Where we started
Mario at work in the Master Bath.
Jaime laying the front entry. He's the one that yelled at me, "No Step! No Step!"...sorry...I didn't know.Skipping ahead to the next day, the Master Bath

The Dining Area.And this is some of the only clean tile I could find. We met one of our neighbors this weekend, Jose. He kept coming over because he loved our tile. That and to talk about us in Spanish with our workers j/k. It bugs to not be able to understand what they might be saying about you. I can't wait to show you pictures of clean, grouted tile! Hooray for tile!!

Jazz Pictures

I would like you all to meet Shirley, she's Kaleena's. I borrowed her for the trip down to the game. Shirley and I bonded, she's a good car!

This is before the game! We had just gotten to our seats and snapped a happy shot.
Loudest Arena in the NBA!

This is after the game...sad shot! We Still Love Our JAZZ!!!

I Miss That 80's Beat

Oh So Tired!

I'm ready for bed and it's only 4 o'clock. I feel like the living dead. Now, I know that there are many people that can function quite well on only 4 hours of sleep. For example, my car pooling buddy Don he averages 3 to 4 hours every night because of his three jobs. Well, I'm good on 5 to 6 hours, but not 4! Last night Aaron and I went to the JAZZ game and had lots of Fun! We yelled our celebrations, our disapproval, and just because the Bear was holding up a sign that told us to. But I didn't realize that when you're in a roaring crowd you're actually yelling louder than normal. So today I sound like a chain smoker with a little tiny voice. I might have been okay if my job didn't require loudly calling my 8 year olds to order every 15 minutes. (side note: Man all of the student's are going crazy with spring fever...the worst it's been all year. I still love them, don't worry.)

As I hope you all know, our JAZZ lost last night barely by two points. I so believed they were going to win! When that final buzzer sounded and the score board read 94 to 92 I couldn't smile, I just frowned, letting it all sink in. You know the sadness. :( I'll post the before and after game picture for you to see later.

Anyways, after the game we walked to our car and were stuck there of almost 45 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot. We finally got going and then stopped in Kaysville to pick up my ride at 12:30 AM!!! It was still another hour back to Logan! We pulled into Logan, and we returned my borrowed ride, and finally crawled into bed about 2:00 in the morning. So when the Alarm clock went off at 6:00 AM you can understand why I was thrilled when I remembered that my class was having a Pajama Day! In this small thing, I found enough will power to get out of Bed! Alright, that's the end of my sob story.

Birthday Gift List

I really had a nice birthday, despite the fact that we were working on the house. Everyone was fussing because I was working instead of celebrating, but it was a great gift to be in our house. Anyways, thanks to everyone who made it extra special.

1. Hollie: Thanks for the movie and blouse. I love that it has room for growth, when/if I get pregnant! I've gotten so many compliments on it, you have great taste.
   
2. Aaron: I'm way excited to go to Dave Matthews with you, but I can't help but think you're more excited than me. It's will be tremendous!
   
3. Kaleena and Couper: You know I love anything from Down East! I can't wait to sport that new outfit! Thank you!
   
4. Baylee: Wow! You're a sweetheart! Thanks, I'm still not sure if I should open Juno or not...I think I'll give it a try.
   
5. Megan (and Tim, although he takes no credit) : I love the Kitchen attire! All these years I've never had my own apron. I'm almost nervous to use it because it's so beautiful. Thanks.
   
6. Mommy: I love the Roaster! I can't wait to learn how to cook with a cast iron roaster and make gravy like my Great Grandmother's, you'll have to help me in that department. So excited, silly, but mostly for the gravy potential! Yummy!
7. Aaron's Family: The Jeans are great! Very comfortable, and they look good. Thanks for keeping me in good jeans!
   
8. Heidi: Thanks for the House Warming/B-day gift, the block welcome sign is adorable.
   
9. BreAnn: You're so thoughtful! Thanks for the cute kitchen towels!
10. My student's: (they don't read this, but some of the best stuff came from them) fleece blanket with doggy foot prints, homemade and painted turtles, candy boxes, cards, and the best of all Lexi made me a Cake with purple frosting! Each gift made me teary eyed. I love these children!
    

New House=Money Pit

I took Friday off so Aaron and I could dig into the mess of our new home, and we certainty worked our tails off. Thursday Aaron hauled most of the stuff out of the house into the 20 foot dumpster we had delivered for the project. We started off thinking there was no way we could fill a dumpster that big...think again. These people left so much stuff behind that we filled it halfway, and then we threw all of the carpet in there and we were to capacity. After getting all of the junk out we started vacuuming, because I don't think they ever vacuumed in the two years they lived there. I'm glad we did because there was still a ton of gunk in it when we pulled up the carpet... I can't imagine if we hadn't vacuumed. Ripping carpet out now makes my list of most favorite things to do! We had so much fun during our mini demolition. After we got the carpet up we discovered that although the carpet was totally trashed the pad was in good condition and we can use it, which saves us quite a bit of $$$. Yay for saving money! We made so many trips to Home Depot that we may have spent just as much as we saved. We quickly discovered that Lowe's is about 15 minutes closer to our home, so I'm sorry Russell, but we're converting purely for convenience purposes.

I spilled first blood while I was picking up stuff, a tack went all the way into my thumb. Ouch, but not much blood. Aaron wins for the best bleeder, while he was pulling up tack strip a nail ripped him open a bit, but still not actually serious. Kinda' cool though... now we can both say we've put sweat and blood into that house! Really the best battle for me was the toilets...gross. I gloved up and equipped myself with my weaponry: toilet brush, scrub brush, and crevice brush. I had to call Aaron in for back-up, because there was a hard candy stuck to the toilet bowl that I wasn't strong enough to remove. That and he got to scrub the ick off of the master bathroom floor; it came right up though...gross! Anyways, I came out triumphant! You can now use our toilets without feeling like you're using an outhouse! By the way, those weapons promptly were thrown into the dumpster, to insure no further contamination. It was great to actually get in and get to work! Yes, we look terrible in these pictures, but it's worth the embarrassment to let you see how our lovely home is progressing!

Finally!

We finally closed today! We started working on our house and it looks much cleaner after a long day and lots of running around. Long story short, we changed our strategy and now we will (hopefully) be paying someone to tile for us, so we have enough time to paint with Aaron's father's help because soft ball season is coming up and soft ball trumps everything. Because, softball is Awesome! :) Pictures to come!

Okay, this will take you back

I don't know how many of you remember this, but this totally brought me back to the good ol' days of basketball and McDonald's commercials. Enjoy.

I HEART the Guitar!

SPOILED

The title is in reference to myself. I've really been fighting hard to believe that things will just go according to the schedule that I have in my head for our home improvement projects. However, that schedule is already one week behind because of our lender, and it's becoming very obvious that my schedule is unrealistic. It would be realistic if I were willing to pay someone else lots of money to come and do the labor for me, but I just can't justify it. We will save so much money if we just do it ourselves. So now I'm trying to let go of my hopes and expectations. I'm not so good at this. I feel like it has to be my way or the world just might end... yes, this is behavior of a spoiled child. The whole point of finding a home before we went off gallivanting in Europe was so my mind would be at ease and I wouldn't be preoccupied with the stresses and awaiting projects of home. It's time to adapt. Europe should be distracting enough to keep my mind off of the fact that all my stuff is sitting in a garage and that the only piece of furniture in the house is a mattress. Wish I could just relax and not put myself through this stress.

"The Office" is back Party

I really think it's funny I called a group of friends coming over for sandwiches and the new office episode a party. It was actually really nice to just have friends over and enjoy laughing together. After the show we finished the jazz game, what a roller coaster ride. Alas we lost by a split second three pointer...grrr. I hate Dirk Nowitzki! So, things died down a bit then we watched some stuff on you tube, and I have a couple of new favorite thanks to Kaleena.

I just love it when he starts to tip and tumble backwards! What a pick me up!
and

It's been a few days so just a quick update. We probably wont close on the house tomorrow like we were suppose to, so we'll have to wait until Monday. I know that things happen for a reason, but apparently I'm not learning my lesson, because this thing just keeps getting postponed. I guess our lender is swamped because they've had the lowest rates the last two weeks...sigh. The time line is really stressing me out, but I'm having lots of fun picking flooring and putting things together.

I'm a Little Giddy

My Goodest (she'll appreciate that) friend Jesi helped me tweak the color scheme for our house, tonight. I really am so excited and in love with these colors. Front to back: 1) Main Natural Color Through Out the Home 2) Ceiling and Trim Color with different finishes of course 3) Our Accent Color which I absolutely Love! We'll use this in the office with a high chair rail, and I'm thinking about some accent walls in the front formal living room. I'm so thrilled with how they turned out, and how well they all blend together! THANKS JESI!!!

Home Improvement Blog

We're apparently closing on our house this upcoming Tuesday!!! Seriously, it's freaking me out that it's really going to happen... way nervous. I'm not sure why, maybe it's all the excitement. Anyways, our place is nice (at least I think so) but in need of a makeover, and we're going to give it one. Aaron and I talked about how we want to document the process on our blog. We talked about starting a whole new blog for it, but this will only be like a 8 week process, so you get to enjoy our house renovation documentation. We're really doing this so we can look back and say, "Look at what we did?!" Aaron is so excited to get to work. I didn't realize I married a Do It Yourself Joe, he's awesome!

I took some picture of the place when it seemed like we would probably get the house, because I wanted them for reference when planning colors and different design elements. They aren't great but you can kind of get the feel for the home, and the junk all over the place. The previous owners were evicted and were kind enough to leave us some presents!
It has this cute front porch. We want to put up a swing and some hanging flower pots.

My very own kitchen with a gas range! I'm overly excited about that.

This is the first bedroom and it looks just like the second bedroom. I can tell them apart by the chocolate milk chug in the window sill of bedroom #2. Yummy...

The Master Bedroom. Shoes anyone?


This is the master bath. I couldn't really capture it's grodiness. When Aaron convinced me to clean this place up ourselves, I said, "As long you clean around that toilet!" Gross!If you click on this one, you might be able to see the dirty whity tighties overflowing from that bag in the front room. My favorite is all the dust on the ledge, that's going to be a stinker to clean.


Really, we went for this place for the free vacuum. Aaron's soon to be sanctuary.

We're organizing a big cleaning party for April 12th so we can start painting the next week. I really don't think it will be that bad because we don't have to worry about destroying carpets, etc, because we're replacing everything. Wish us luck in our endeavors. Please, we need it.

Puppy Plans

You read correctly...we've got puppy fever. Aaron and I have always wanted doggies, but since we're renters we haven't been able to have pets. Well, except for our bunny Simon that we hide from the Land Lord, shhh...don't tell. Well now that we are going to have our very own home we can finally start to make this dream come true.

My Dog will be a West Highland Terrier. They aren't the cutest puppies but look how cute they are when they grow up. I really had a hard time deciding between a Westie or a Yorkie. I went with a Westie because they are suppose to be more patient with small children, and easier to potty train.

Aaron's dog will be a Pug. I never thought that I would let him have one, but then I decided that was selfish. So, yeah he's actually starting to make me kinda' fond of the wrinkly things.

We're super excited!

Your Shoe Is Untied

APRIL FOOLS!!! This is the first thing I heard this morning...I can't wait to see what else they come up with.

Continued:

"Mrs. Gelter you aren't wearing blue! April Fool's!"

"There's a spider on the Wall!!! April Fools!"

"One of my students just passed out!" I wasn't believing anything at this point, but no for reals one of Mr. Vincent's kid's had passed out! Kinda' scary...he's okay.

Then my favorite so far, "Mrs. Gelter, I hate School! April Fool's!" Ahh... I love it, even if she is just sucking up, I still love it!

Ending Note:

"Rockies Rock and Red Socks Suck!!!! April Fools!!!" C (One of my red heads... so cute! Don't tell him that) loudly announces at the top of his lungs. We had a small dispute back during the world series. Later today C was being checked out and as he walked out the door I quietly said, "Red Socks Rock. April Fools!" Bad idea! He turned on his heal and looked right at me and started yelling at me like that crazy fan at every sporting event. I just had to smile at him and say, "Your mother is waiting for you in the hall." He got this "OH NO, NOT MOM!" look on his face, and mild child returned. "Bye, Mrs. Gelter." As he dashed out the door. The kid makes me smile, but I will never disagree with him again when it comes to sports. Good thing he's an Aggie and BYU fan!