AUGUST is AWESOME!!

August was so much fun, I am sad to see it go. We have gone camping to the Uintas. Burrrr! Just thinking about it makes my teeth chatter. It was absolutely beautiful and green, but no one told me that we would be camping at the very top of a mountain. We weren't prepared for 29 degree nights. We all slept in every piece of clothing that we had and still we froze. Opal had to sleep way down in my sleeping bag with me because it was so cold, so I spent most of the night awake to make sure I didn't roll on her or smother her. Diamond had only packed one pair of pants, it was August for crying out loud, he had planned on wearing shorts. He ended up wearing the same pants for three days. But we survived and spent the lovely warm days fishing and hiking. The boys were so disappointed that they didn't catch anything. Diamond tried his hand at fly-fishing and was able to catch quite a few brook trout. Then he lost his only fly in a willow tree and had to come back to camp.
We also went camping up in Logan canyon. It was terrific, the nights were perfect. We tried our hands at fishing again but all we caught were weeds! Emerald and Onyx "accidently" fell in the stream even though I told them not to get wet. They had to ride home in their underwear.
We spent Labor Day at Grandma Christy's House. I spent my time trying to trim Grandma Christy's ponies' hooves. It is a mean, ornery little pony. All I got for my time was a bite on shoulder and a big bruise on the inside of my right arm where she kicked me. But we did have fun BBQ after all.
The boys have now started school. Emerald loves his new teacher. She is very fun and always gives out treats for completed homework. Onyx loves being big enough for school. The first time the bus came to pick him up, he jumped up and said, "Sorry Mom But I have to go." and took off running so fast I had to chase him to the bus to try to get his picture. All I got was his back as he was climbing up the steps. The bus driver laughed and made him get back off the bus so I could take his picture properly.
We are still living in one room in the basement. I have been trying to get a rental but everyone wants a six month contract. I have no idea how much longer this farm financing thing is going to take so I really don't want to sign a contract. The only place we have found willing to do month to month is a very old one bedroom house in an awful place. They also want way to much for it. So we are still stuck. It is rather depressing prospects and whenever I think about that fact that we haven't lived like a normal family since the end of December, I feel even worse. But we are surviving and Earl's parents really love having us here.

Hot Summer Days!

Hi everybody! This has been a fun month so far! We have been tubing with our cousins. Swimming at Twin Lakes. Had a huge party at the park for all of the people in the family who have August birthdays and we will be going to the rodeo this weekend. Diamond has to judge the crops entered in the county fair. It should be pretty interesting.
Emerald and Onyx start school on the 26th. They are both very excited. Emerald is excited because his cousin is going to be in the same class. Onyx is excited because he gets to ride the bus!
Ruby loves living at Grandma's farm because she is spoiled rotten. Also because she loves all of the animals. Each of the kids has gotten to pick a kitten that lives in Grandma's barn. Ruby has a cute little black kitten that has one orange paw. She didn't understand the naming thing, so I named the kitten Buttercup for her. She ended up naming it in her own way anyhow, her interpretation of the name Buttercup is Buttercat. Everyone calls it Buttercat now.
Opal is getting so big! She is nine months old now. She has just had her nine month appointment. She weighs in at 17 pounds. She crawls everywhere and makes a beeline for the outside whenever there is an open door. She has learned how to wave and play pat-a-cake and walks around all of the furniture. She makes us all laugh with her copycat actions. She saw me put a tissue to my face and blow my nose so she put her hands over her nose and made a similar sound. Diamond was playing patty-cake with her today and when he was done he patted her little bottom. She began to play patty-cake all by herself and ended by patting her own bottom. What a cute girl!!
Diamond and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary last week. I can hardly believe it has been ten years. We are still living in the basement. We are still working on purchasing a farm. I never realized how long it takes to apply for financing on a farm. I tell you it is not for the faint of heart. I am doing my best to be patient but I usually just feel disgruntled and grumpy about it. Here is hoping it will be over by the end of the month!!!

Utah Happenings

Hi everybody! We are STILL living in the basement of Diamond's parents' home. We are STILL looking for our own home. I would really like to be settled before school starts for the boys' sake. Our focus for home buying has changed drastically. A neighbor of Diamonds' parents approached them as potential buyers for their farm. Diamond's parents really have enough farm work without purchasing more. They sent this seller our way. We have waited a month for an appraisal to be made of the land, homes, buildings, corrals, etc. We have finally received the appraisal and are attempting to finance this latest adventure. I really wish that I could find our camera cable amongst all the boxes so that I could send pictures to you all. I consider the entire farm a fixer-upper, especially the houses. I would love to send you all pictures so that you could recoil in horror at the shape of things.

Last Week's Activities

Wow! I don't even have a house and I still keep very busy. Emerald and Onyx play soccer Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturday. Diamond and I have looked at houses Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. (Still no luck there). Every one of them seems to have one major flaw. One is too far from work, a beautiful one is right on a busy road with a 65 mph speed limit, One needs a ton of work etc. Diamond and I went with a realtor on Friday to look at 4 homes. The third one we went to the home owner was there, he stepped out on the porch and yelled at us for being 10 minutes late. Then he allowed us inside and Holy Smokes! The house was absolutely trashed! It was gross and it smelled like cat pee. We walked around for a little bit, I kept trying to catch Diamond's eye and mouth "Let's Go!" but he didn't catch on. I couldn't speak out loud because the home owner was following us around and ranting. Our realtor is very proper and never says what he thinks until we say something. I think that he doesn't want to influence us. But I merely handed everyone anti-bacterial wipes as we got back into our cars, He took one and just laughed and said, "Believe it or not that as not the worst one I have been in." Diamond's comment was "Not a chance!". House hunting has been fun though. We went to look at a For Sale By Owner on Wednesday. He turned out to be the Bishop of that ward. He was very funny and really wants us to be his neighbors. He has a fair bit of land and had built a newer house next to the one we were looking at. Our house in Nevada still has not closed and is still owned by us. We know that it will close but we have no idea when. The bank has all of the paper work but nobody at the bank seems to be doing anything about it. It is extremely aggravating because we really can't buy another home until then. Until next time everybody!

Just Starting!