June...The Petes are in Texas!

The first half of June was normal. We had the house listed, so I was trying to keep everything cleaned up...just in case we had a showing- lol. Ashley and the kids moved in on June 15. I was still trying to sell furniture and other items. (having some luck with that on facebook.) Ashley's goal was to try to find a house for them. She spent tons of time looking at listings, researching schools and neighborhoods, and some time out with a realtor actually looking. Ron and I helped with the kids when we could. The Andersons were on a trip to London, to see Mike and Carrie and the boys, when Ashley arrived here. They left on Friday June 14 and returned on Tuesday June 25. The end of June, Daniel loaded up their stuff in a truck and drove alone to Texas. He came to our house and then took their stuff to a storage unit near Sam and Audrey's. The Pete's enjoyed being here with the animals and the pool. (I grabbed a couple of pics from Ashley's fb to post here. And I found one of Andersons in London.)

Misc MAY

Ron is not the only one with memory problems- lol. I am trying to figure out what to blog for May. I spent most of the month cleaning and sorting and purging of the house. We interviewed a couple of realtors and proceeded with listing the house for sale. It went on the market about the first of June. We realized that we were a bit behind what would have been the best listing schedule. We lost a month of preparation while Ron tried to come to the conclusion that we needed to sell. We had originally talked about selling and moving and getting to a better financial situation back in December. I started purging and organizing in January. Then our life went crazy in February, and then we spent March and April trying to recover (plus the two trips that I already posted). My original plan was to have the house ready to list right after we got back from Santa Barbara. Our preparations also included getting a cracked window repaired, repairing some tile and equipment on the pool, trying to get the solar repaired, having someone look at the water softener, power washing the front porch and pool deck, and general cleaning and landscaping. I also began listing and selling extra furniture and other items. The house looked pretty good by the time we listed. We listed with a Keller Williams realtor. They did a great job on photos and video, but after not having any interest in the house at all during June... and we weren't willing to drop the price... they canceled our listing the first part of July. Back to square one.
We also had to make a couple of trips to see the CPA about getting our taxes finished up. We had filed for an extension.
We attended the temple with the Simmons, on Friday May 10 for the endowment and then again on Saturday May 11, for the sealing.
Ron had been released from the stake high council and I had been released fro primary. We began teaching the 12/13 year old Sunday School class. We love that, although it is somewhat of a challenge for us to work on the lesson together. I love the Come Follow Me program for studying the scriptures and preparing lessons. The best part is that the whole church is studying the same lesson each week. I can get extra help from facebook posts and podcasts.
I will post a couple of just random photos here. (the picture of us and Simmons was not this year, it is from last year.)

Easter Trip to Kansas City

The months of March and April were filled with doctor appointments for Ron... except for our Santa Barbara trip in March and a Kansas City trip in April. The temple was closed for for two weeks in April, which included the Friday before Easter. We hoped in the car with Audrey and the boys and headed north on Thursday April 18. We stayed in a motel that night and then drove the rest of the way on Friday. We spent Friday evening, Saturday, and part of Sunday at the Petes, then headed back home. This was one of those trips where we spent a day and half to get there, a day and a half to get back and a couple of days there. (Audrey needed to be back at work on Tuesday morning.) We packed what we could into that time. We had a cute line up of soccer fans on Saturday morning. Followed by egg hunt, egg dying, a bit of shopping, non stop cousin time, and eating out at Joes Bar-B-Que. Sunday was church and get ready to drive again.

  

Random Animal Pics

I haven't been doing as many photos this year... but I still get a few every  now and then. Here are some of the best random ones.

Trip to Santa Barbara

For more than year, Annie was planning on us coming to their house, for a couple of weeks to stay with their kids. Even though Ron had the stroke in February, this trip was still planned and scheduled. We flew out there on Tuesday, March 19, and flew back home on Monday, April 1. The first few days the kids were in school and we tried to stay on the normal school day schedule. The full week that we were there was Spring Break. We tried to plan at least one fun activity for each day that week, without spending too much money- lol. Annie's plan was to fly to South America and meet Alex on his way back from Antarctica, to spend a few vacation days there. My biggest challenge with the kids was trying to figure out meals, and what they would eat. I think, it was a good "visit" for everyone. The outings included the zoo, the Moxi Museum, a movie, basketball hoops, the beach, and the Museum of Natural History. Here is my photo OVERLOAD. I got some great pics and also had fun trying some special effects on some. Don't worry Annie, I will send you a book of some sort ;)