Farewell old friends...

I got these shoes when I was in 8th grade... that was 10 1/2 years ago. I used them up until about 2 years ago for everything then I finally got new ones so these became yard shoes. Well... the time has come. They are just basically pieces of cloth.

I have great memories with these shoes. They took me through some great times. When I was in 10th grade, my friend wrote little messages on them in math class. The pen marks eventually wore off, but I will just never forget that. Good times.... but I have decided to move past that and get rid of these shoes. Time to make some new memories with my current "running" shoes.

Who really gets this attached to a pair of shoes...?

One More Thing....

I also just have to post about how excited I am. I really hope I'm not jinxing anything by saying this though!

If all goes as planned, we will be back in our house on June 1. I am so excited I could cry. I have so appreciated my in-laws for letting us live with them. There aren't words for how lucky we are to have had them put up with us. But I have to say, there is just nothing like having your own space. I have just been day-dreaming about being back home --- what we will do and everything. And it will be summer time so we can enjoy the backyard and warm summer nights. I can send Chloe outside to play while I am working right next to the back door and I can hang my clothes up to dry on the line (that we will put up) outside.

I hate getting so excited about this since we still have 2 months to go and who knows what shape our house will be in --- but I just can't help it. We have made so much progress with our finances over just the last couple of months! Shane selflessly sold his 4-wheeler and that gave us just the boost we needed. Now, all that is left is his credit card --- that should be paid off by August, if not before. We have been so lucky to have good work for the last two months too.

I really can't explain, but 2009 was a cursed year. Nothing good happened last year. It was terrible - absolutely awful. In just these first 3 months, 2010 is light years better than all of last year combined! We have made some poor decisions and we had to pay for them - literally. Everyone makes mistakes and we will make many more, but I am hoping that we have been given a second chance to be responsible, self-sufficient, completely independent adults.

I don't want to sound ungrateful for what my in-laws have done. I cannot even imagine the sacrifices they have made for us to live here - rent-free. I have really tried to do my part but still, there is nothing that can compensate for letting intruders into your home for a year --- intruders with 2 DOGS! Two dogs that poop a lot..... I can't imagine what kind of situation we would be in now if it weren't for their generosity and kindness. We would have lost our house though, that's for sure. I will spend the rest of my life trying to come up with a way to show my appreciation.

We are still super stressed about moving back into the house. We haven't even thought about the food we will have to buy when we're back there - just to get started!! We've been mooching off the parents all this time so we have nothing!! We will still have to make many sacrifices... So we watch our tv shows on Hulu rather than getting satellite again or we hang-dry all of our clothes rather than use the electricity on the dryer... All the little things add up. I am so looking forward to being the home-maker I always wanted to be and just being grown-ups again.

So you may see us asking for moving help in a couple of months because we need to get it done super-fast so I can get my office set up and working right away. :) Hopefully we can rent a small U-haul or something so we only have to make one trip.

OH -- AND WE REALLY NEED TO START LOOKING INTO SELLING OUR CAR AND GETTING SOMETHING BIGGER BECAUSE MY CAR DOES NOT FIT TWO CARSEATS. TRIED IT... DOESN'T WORK!!!! So if anyone needs a car..... :)

Chloe's 2nd Birthday!!!

I love Blogger..... If you want these events/pictures in chronological order, please start at the bottom of this post :)

Chloe is TWO!!!! Crazy.... Anyway, we went to the zoo on her birthday day. It was actually pretty pleasant in the morning and then at lunch time it got windy so we left (good thing we had already seen everything!!). She got her presents from Mommy and Daddy that day too. She got a new (old) doll. She has loved my Cabbage Patch kid that I got when I was a baby so I tried to find one just like it and guess what!!! eBay is amazing. The mold of the doll is exactly the same - she still thinks it is George, so mission accomplished! We also got her some earrings and the thing she asked for..... fish. Yes, folks - she wanted fishies! So we got her some but I think it turned into more of a present for Shane than Chloe. You should see him..... We went from having just a regular little fish bowl with two tiny 13 cent fish to a 5-gallon tank with a filter, two 28 cent fish and one of those sucker fish who eats the algae. ALL HIS DECISIONS.

Anyway, we had a party on Saturday. The sun was out and it wasn't too bad when the wind was blowing. It was a little chilly, but I was running all over the place so I didn't notice too much. We ate hamburgers, chips, and fruit salad. I was very happy that all the family/friends showed up that did so thank you for coming :) We went inside for cake and ice cream and Chloe actually attempted to blow out the candles herself. It was precious!

Then, for the completion of Chloe turning two, she had her dr. appointment. This is funny people.... She is 2'8" (10th percentile), 25 lbs 9 oz (40th percentile). So like her mommy, she is short and fat! Ok, she's not really fat but she is short and I LOVE IT!!!!! I want my girls to be short :)

Shane's friend got Chloe a big pink bunny because he thought to himself, "what would I want?".... It worked because she loves it!

Showing off her presents from Aunt Nell

She was really so excited to open everything. Really, she loved it all so much!

Blowing out the candles!!

Chloe and cousin Nick - who is just about 2 months older than her.

Everyone came!!!

This is how Chloe looks at her fish.

The baby elephant still looked like a baby!!! I was so excited that it was still small.

eating Corn dogs...

Heartbeats!!

Ok - so you kind of have to know what you're listening for and you have to turn the speakers up really loud, but after the dr. says something about hearing my heartbeat, you can hear the baby's. It was exciting. I was getting pretty anxious about it all so I am just relieved now :)

Playin!

Today, we went up to a birthday party for our niece, Halle. It was at Classic Skating in Draper and Chloe had so much fun! We got the "Sponge Bob" birthday room and there was a bubble machine that she could not get enough of. I don't know how or why, but don't the pictures of the bubbles look cool??

This is Chloe's scared face after I tried to have her ride in one of those little machines things that they have at grocery stores. She did not like it. She literally screamed after I turned it on... Oh well. That's 50 cents I won't have to waste again!

Shane and I spent $15 on arcade games... namely SkeeBall and Galaga. Shane is proud to report that he got a high score of 480,000 points on Galaga. I married a geek. Oh well. I spent about an hour, collectively on Skee Ball. There were a bunch of bounce houses(?) too that we eventually got Chloe in. We took her down the slides and she LOVED them! Good exercise for mom and dad too!

Photo Shoot!

Ok - so my friend, Amanda makes the cutest hair accessories (check out her blog!) and she so kindly asked if I would let Chloe model some for her. Of course I obliged :) I'm sorry, but my baby is just too cute. She did so well too - considering it was 50 degrees and I was changing her clothes right there outside. She even pretended to read a book - she was actually acting for the camera! Hopefully we'll have another nice weather day so we can get out and take her "2 year" pictures...