Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Friday to all of our friends and family! Wow this week sure has flown. We have been busy getting settled into our new home. I can't say enough how much we are enjoying living in the Liberty area. How convenient and close we are to everything! My drive to work is much shorter and isn't as frustrating as commuting to and from the south side of Lees Summit.

This weekend will be busy for us. We plan on hanging up all of our window treatments, and bathroom fixtures. We also hope to get our garage emptied and sorted so that Mike can begin to build his shop in the 3rd garage. He has requested a "saw" for his birthday in a few weeks, so I think we will just give it to him a little early.

We are trying to sell our sofa, chair and ottoman too. I posted it on Craigs List last night..and let me tell ya, we have gotten an overwhelming amount of responses in less than a day! I think this thing really works! Hoping to get rid of the pieces by the end of the weekend. Who knows..maybe I will try and sell some of our other items on this website. It seems to work well.

We will also be making one more trip down to the apartment to pack up any remaining items. It will feel good to get that all taken care of.

I hope to get more pictures posted on here soon. I promise! :) We have construction going on beside us at the moment. They have just begun to build the house two doors down from us. I think it will be cool to watch how fast they get it done. Our culdesac will sure be changing.

Hoping everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend!

OH! One more thing. At the bottom of my blog is my "tips" ...I am going to have to try and find a better place for them, but for right now..that is where they are located..hehe!

D

Middle of the day

Hard to believe that I am writing a post in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, but I am not busy at the moment. Since we have moved into our home I have found less time to be on the internet and I haven't watched TV since last Thursday and that is a record for Mike and I!

We have been enjoying our new home so much. Just the peace and quiet we have and to be able to sit outside on our own deck. Wow, does that feel good!

Mike has been doing a great job of watering our lawn at night and taking care of the outdoor projects. I have slowly begun to get our kitchen organized. I finally found the bottom of our kitchen counter last night. Progress is beginning to happen.

This weekend we will spend time putting up window treatments and putting more items away. Mike hopes to get some golfing in too. I hope to get pictures of the inside of our house posted on our blog soon, for those of you who live far away.

Thanks to all of you for all of the great notes, congrats and help that you have sent/given to Mike and I. It is great to have friends and family like you all!

This update is short, just wanted to let everyone know that the unpacking has begun ..more to come later. Have a great day!

D

Welcome to paradise!

This is the greeting we received this evening from our neighbors. What a great welcome for Mike and I! We pulled up in Mike's car, my mom's van and the big yellow Penske truck and the neighbors came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. Forgive me for not remembering their names, I am terrible about that. But they all seemed very nice and told us if we need anything at all to let them know. I love our neighborhood already!

We are sleeping in our house tonight for the first time. We finished closing this afternoon, picked up the moving truck and began loading all of our things. We still have a van load to bring up from Lees Summit, which we will get tomorrow. Mike wanted to spend the night tonight in the new home, so that is where we are.

We have bought a new bed for our bedroom, but it won't be delivered until June 2, so we are sleeping in the guest bedroom for the next couple of weeks...but oh what a difference from an apartment! I LOVE IT! I love having our own place and the privacy...we hung out on the deck this evening and let bella sniff around..she loves it too! She has a new set of rules in our house. She is only allowed in the kitchen/dining area and the basement, garage and backyard. I know....very different...but I think she is adjusting well...she seems happy already.

Tomorrow we will unload the rest of our items from the truck and will put everything in the garage until we figure out where to put everything. My mom, sister, brother in law and nephew will be coming over, my dad will stop by later in the afternoon.

Mike and I plan to go to Lowes first thing tomorrow morning to pick up a few things...like a lawn mower..for instance!

Our subdivision is having a garage sale tomorrow...both of our neighbors are having them...who knows..maybe we will just set some stuff on the curb and see what happens...ha!

That wraps up our night..home sweet home we are...and it feels so good. Good night friends.

D

Closing tomorrow

That's right, we are closing on our first home tomorrow! The punch list has been complete and Mike is meeting with the builder at 6:30 am tomorrow to make sure all is complete. We will close at 3:00 pm and after that it's ours! We can hardly believe it. Mike and I both feel like someone needs to pinch us to make sure it is all happening.

We have been packing what little we have to pack, still have items in the kitchen left, my mom will be here tomorrow night to help us load up again.

Poor Bella is confused again. She has been sulking all night, little does she know that she is going to have so much room to play and run free soon.

This week has been busy. I can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday. Where does the time go?? Last night I went to my Great Uncle Richard's visitation. He passed away over the weekend. My prayers and love goes out to each member of his family. He was a great man, with a lot of heart. It had been several years since I last saw him, but I will always remember his home that he shared with Aunt Betty and how much he loved to joke with my mom and all of us. He was quite a character and will be missed dearly. It is so comforting knowing that he is now in heaven with Aunt Betty and that they are there visiting with my Grandma. He was welcomed with open arms.

This weekend will be packed full of events. We will be unpacking on Saturday and doing some cleaning. My sister, brother in law, nephew and my mom will be there to assist and my dad will be coming down later in the afternoon. Mike has softball games all day on Sunday afternoon and it is my baby sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Kara! I am so happy that I live closer to you and will be able to celebrate with you..even if it is for an hour or so. :)

Also, I want to congratulate my cousin Robert. He is graduating from Saint Paul's school of theology tomorrow afternoon. He will be the pastor at Appleton City, Missouri. We are all very proud of him and all of his accomplishments and wish for him the best of luck in his new church. We can't wait to visit and hear you preach.

God is good and it is very evident in the lives of my family members and myself. What an awesome feeling!

I think that about wraps it up for the day. One more load of laundry to do. I mentioned to a few of my friends that I am thinking about putting in my "tip" of the day for you all. So...here it goes..the first tip..for you Bare Escentual makeup users..I know who you are. hehe! Take your favorite lip gloss and dip it into your favorite eye shadow/blush (B.E. brand) and brush it on your lips...fantastic new shade! I do this every morning. I love it!

More tips to come...some you may like and others you might not, I will be offering my ideas/thoughts/tips on different things I come across. I plan to try and set it up on this blog somehow as a daily thing, even if I don't update my blog daily.

Anyways, that about wraps it up.

good night all.
D

A few more days

Hoping you all had a wonderful weekend and Mother's day. I drove home on Sunday morning to have lunch and surprise my mom at church. She kind of had a feeling, so the surprise wasn't that big....but it still worked. :) My brother, Jason and sister in law, Aubrey were there for the weekend, so we all made lunch for mom, with the help of dad, doing the grilling. It turned out pretty good and my Grandpa came to have lunch with us too. It is so nice to be able to just drive home for a few hours and then head back to our place. I have missed being able to do that while living in Jersey. Hopefully, I will be able to make many more trips like that in the days, months and years to come.

It is Monday evening and I cannot believe that we are planning to close on our house on Friday, IF all the items on the "to do" list gets done before then, otherwise we may be postponing until Monday. There are several items that need to be fixed such as the garbage disposal needs hooked up, the guest bathroom bathtub needs caulked, the roof needs fixed in one spot (due to the horrible winds they have had the past couple of weeks), and the basement leakage problem needs to be fixed. So we will have to wait to see if all of these items get done in the short amount of time they have to do this.

I am hoping and praying that this all works out, but realize that it might take them a bit longer than usual, which of course just adds more for me to do. As we have our washer and dryer and fridge being delivered on Saturday. And we have our new bed being delivered on Monday. Goodness...another stressful week. At least my job has slowed down a bit.

Tonight I got off of work early enough to go and work out with Michael. I was unable to go last week due to working late, it is nice to get back into the routine.

I should be packing right now, but still can't get motivated to do it. Maybe if we found out that Friday is a go...I would feel more confident that it is going to happen on time. I'll keep you all posted.

I must give a big congratulations to my friend Abby and her husband Frank. She gave birth to their first child, a BOY! :) WOO HOO! So happy for the both of them. Grant Michael, I can't wait to meet you in person. Maybe, I can plan a trip out to Oregon this summer/fall??

Time for bed, it's getting late and another busy day tomorrow. Hoping you all have a wonderful week. :)
D

It's Friday

We made it! It's Friday! And our house has completed it's home inspection. These are pictures our realtor took of us. One more week until closing. All went well with the home inspection, except a few minor things that we plan to have fixed by the builder. The bonus is that we have a home warranty. After being inside the house today taking pictures, I am getting really excited! I can't hardly wait to move in and make it our home. So much room! My mom helped me last night pick out our washer, dryer and fridge. They are going to be delivered next Saturday. THANK YOU MOM for helping me take care of this. I am sure glad it is done. And the bonus is that we were able to use our realtor's builders discount and Nebraska Furniture Mart! It helped..so thank you!

My wonderful husband took me out to dinner tonight to Garazzos. YUMMY! So much pasta we brought it home. I had another busy day at work and so he took me out for a treat and to top it off he had tried to help clean up the apartment before I got home. Boy have our roles changed a bit since Jersey. I truly appreciate his help. You're the best babe!

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Heading out with my sister to do so home shopping stuff. Hoping to find some window treatments and other odds and ends for our house. Also have a few errands to run and odds and end things to take care of. I am sure glad it is the weekend.

Our laundry is piled up and we are out of dishwashing soap, I just can't bring myself to hand wash the dishes...so I will wait until tomorrow to pick some up. The dishes are beginning to pile up in the sink. Still need to pack some things, maybe tomorrow I can get a few things put away. Not too worried about it though.

Life is good. And I am so blessed. Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend.

Until next time, D

Short tonight

I am up later than usual tonight and still feel like I didn't accomplish much. I did get a few Mother's Day gifts ordered though...so be on the lookout in IDAHO! :)

I am going to be short and sweet tonight. Many have asked how Bella, our puggle is doing. She is a really well behave puppy for only being 9 months old. Everywhere she goes everyone thinks she is the cutest thing ever! I dropped her off at the animal clinic this morning. They have daytime boarding there and she needed an updated vaccine for kennel cough. Oh and she got a bath..boy did she need it! She was hyper though when she got home which leads me to believe she didn't play a whole lot today. She is asleep now. She is 20 lbs and hopefully not getting any bigger. We had her spade a few weeks ago and I am glad that is over. She was so DRAMATIC after that happened. Quite the Miss Princess...needing both my attention and daddy's!

Tonight we beat Mike home and she knew that he had been home already and wasn't there. (he had gone to workout). She about went nuts sniffing around our place looking for him and she stood at our bedroom window and kept watch until he arrived safely back home.

I will post a picture of her...of course! I don't have any recent ones, but one from when we first moved back. I sure hope she enjoys having a big yard and basement to hang out in. Mommy and Daddy will be glad to have a little more space too.

I often wonder what she thinks about. Tonight we have been watching her sleep and realizing that she is dreaming. (or at least that is our guess) So funny.

Ok...I must get to bed. Another early morning tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get a good night of rest. Until tomorrow..D

So much to remember

Who knew buying a home would make me feel like I am losing my mind. Between starting a new job and the home buying process, the stress load has been high. I feel like there is so much to remember and I am hoping that I don't forget anything. I am sure it won't be the end of the world if I do, but there is only so many checklists that I can make to double check. We are to set up a home orientation this week...who knows excactly what that is..all I know is that we will be meeting with the builder to discuss the home and view it's "features". I didn't realize it had that many features! I know that I love the kitchen, the bathroom, and the big closet and backyard...what else do I need to know! HA!

Today was another busy day at work. Not a lot new there. I am feeling confident that I will be able to reach my goal by end of week..hoping so. Each day is becoming a little easier. Thankfully, I have similar experience from working at Vollers. See, RWR was right, I gained great experience there that I took with me! :) No, seriously, I am very thankful for the job that I had in Jersey and the wonderful group of friends that I had there. They became my family and I do miss them all! They made living/working in Jersey easier. I honestly can say I looked forward to going to work to see my friends and catching up on their lives. (and of course finding out the latest shopping deals!)

At this moment, my hubby is watching the first Lord of the Rings movie while I sit and type. He LOVES this movie. We have the entire collection and I think we must have watched it at least 50 times. NOT KIDDING! We watched a lot of movies in Jersey. It was what we would do on the weekends, Mike was normally on call, and that was our little retreat and get away from life..even if for a brief moment . We have quite the movie collection, some of you already know. We decided a few years back to collect DVDs to have one day in "movie room" that we will make one day in our basement. We have held back buying so many since moving here to Missouri, not as much time at home on the weekends, so not as many movies are watched. I believe we are over 200 Dvds now though! We need to write them all down again, we had once, but the list got longer and I am not sure what happened to it. I need to make a spreadsheet like my friend Stacy and her hubby Ant! Perhaps, one day.

My mom is in town this week staying with my sister and nephew. My bro in law is out of town on business and it was going to be my turn to watch Isaac for the week, while Kara worked, but I started a new job, so I missed my week with my little frog! Disappointed to say the least. Auntie Dana plans to make it up to him soon. I may just have to take him for the day and let mommy and daddy have a day to themselves. He is growing and growing. Such a proud Auntie I am. I had to put a picture of him on my blog!

I wish I had more exciting things to write. I must spend some time checking out window treatments, narrowing down a washer, dryer and fridge, reserving a moving truck, changing our mailing address, pricing lawnmowers, finishing laundry (even though it never is over!) etc. Goodness. It's going to be a busy week and a half. Hoping to get a few more things checked off the list.

Have a good night.

D

PS- Rach..I think that is a great idea...off to the Roloff farms for a visit!! Must be during pumpkin season! :)

Busy day

Oh my goodness is my new job keeping me busy. I must admit the first week, I was a bit worried. But now...watch out! I am so swamped the entire day. I actually got up early this morning and left the house before Mike...that is a 1st! I dropped Bella off at daycare and was at work by 7:15. Worked till about 5;15 tonight without taking a lunch. So different than my work life at Vollers. Grant it, I probably could have worked that hard there, but the motivation that HNTB provides versus Vollers is so much greater. We strive to earn a monthly bonus. The goal is to get over 87% of our monthly bills out in the first two weeks of the month and be at least 95% accurate. Each of my invoices go through a whole process before being audited by our internal auditor. I am billing for the Great Lakes region. The contacts I work with are based in Indianapolis, however my bills are from anywhere in Indiana, Ohio, Chicago area, or Wisconsin area. It is definitely interesting and I must be on my toes at all times. I am really enjoying it! And I am loving working in downtown KCity, even if I don't get out much. The first two weeks of each month are so busy, and the final two weeks are dead...so lots of flexibility. Which I know I will enjoy!



Mondays are my favorite night for television. I must confess that I am a Little People Big World addict! I love this show!! And I can't even tell you really why I do.. Mike and I are hooked...we dvr the shows whenever they are on! We can't get enough. I love it! My friend Abby lives in Beaverton, OR, which is where they are located...I wonder if she knows where the Roloff farm is!? I think they are just an amazing family and I love to hear about what their family does and how they accomplish so much...they are truly an inspiration.



About 10 days and we will own a home. OMG! So much to do and not a lot of time. I am not really getting very stressed about it though. Maybe I should..but moving across town seems easy compared to moving across the country. There is a lot to get though, things you take for grant it when living in an apartment, window treatments, toilet paper holders, lawn care maintenance, trash, etc. I need to sit down and make a list of all we need. We have begun a list...but I need more details! Setting up all of our utilities, etc. The list goes on and on.

I think that about wraps up the day for me. A big hi to Rae Rae! I can't believe you blog too! I love knowing that you do!! The secret is out!! And I am so glad!

sleep tight friends. :)
Dana

why blog?

I have decided to begin a blog of our life here in Missouri. I know....why blog? Well, I must admit that there are times where I am just terrible about keeping in touch. And so many ask how Mike and I are getting along since moving back to Kansas City. I figure this can be a diary of our journey here in Missouri.

My Grandma Bradfield always wrote down everything that happened each day...and then years later she would read back to us what each of our family members were doing on each day. I am terrible about writing things down in a journal, but I am great with computers and typing. So I decided to try this out.

Hopefully, my writings won't be too terribly boring. Just a log of our day to day activities. And of course some pictures too.

So here it goes...let me try and catch you up to speed.

As many of you probably already know, Mike and I have moved back to the Kansas City area! YEA! Mike began his new job the first part of March and I just began a new job two weeks ago. So far everything is going good. We aren't really settled yet though, because we are in the process of buying a home!!! We close on the 16th of May. I will post a picture of it..don't worry.
We are so excited and can't wait to officially become home owners! At this moment we are living out of boxes in a 1 bedroom apartment in Lees Summit. Our new home is located up near Liberty. It is going to be about the same travel time for me into the city every day and a little less for Mike to his office.

We have been busy researching washers, dryers and fridges. So much fun~! Mike wants to sleep in our house the day we close. So we are hoping to have everything packed the night before closing.

My job is going good. I am super busy right now as it is the first of the month. Everyone that I work with is nice and it is a very laid back atmosphere. I still miss the group of friends I worked with in New Jersey. They were awesome! But, I am really enjoying this new company and all of the opportunities that it offers! A huge difference between working for a small privately owned company and working for a big corporation.

Mike's job is going well too. He is staying busy, but it is much slower paced than Aggreko in Jersey. I am enjoying seeing him more relaxed and having him around more. And I am especially enjoying no late nights or on calls! He is ready to own a home and get a shop set up. He deserves it and will now have time to work on things.

Bella, our puggle, is doing good as well. She was "fixed" about two weeks ago and seems to be getting along good. I have found a daycare for her to attend a couple of times a week. She was giving us some problems at home and I think a lot of it had to do with me going back to work after being home for a month. She is adjusting though and having a big yard for her to play in should help too.

I think that just about does it for my first blog. It is so great to be back closer to my family and friends! I had a chance to hang out with my sister, Kara, yesterday! We went shopping! It is so nice to be able to go with her and do things like that now. I really missed her! And of course Auntie Dana stole some kisses from Isaac. He is growing so fast. Already in 9 month old clothes. I call him my little frog...his smiles melt my heart!

Till next time.
Dana