THE HOUSE

HOUSE VIDEO CLICK HERE

So many of you know that Matt and I have been working on this house that we are buying from Uncle Rondo and intending on selling. To even appreciate where we are at today on the house you have to see what we began with. Many would take a look at this house and probably run. Or you might be like Lamoni and try to have an exorcism. Either way, the state of this house was unbelievable and I finally uploaded the video and will post pics of the update as it looks today. The lady who lived in this house basically abandoned it and as her way of thanking Uncle Rondo for paying no rent for several years, this is what she left for him. It took us as a family about a week to empty it out. 18000lbs of garbage came out of this house. As your watching the video it is 30 degrees Fahrenheit inside the house.(Thats -1.1 Celsius) The gas was turned off so their was no heat in the home which froze and broke 3 water lines and cracked the toilets, hence the reason why you see Ice floating in the toilet at the beginning. As Matt is talking he can't breathe well because he is allergic to cats and the stench is so bad its affecting his breathing. I still can't believe we actually took this on but you will see in my next post the changes that have happened with this house in the short time since we started... Now that we have the house cleared out things are getting exciting and I am remembering what an amazing talented man I married. Anyways take a look and when your done...go clean your house up:) WARNING: Do not eat anything while you are watching this video.

GOODBYE 2011

Like most other years 2011 had its fair share of ups and downs for our family. It kind of shocked me to realize that I have not blogged since April. We did a lot of fun things at the beginning of the year but 2011 was really a year that dealt my emotions a lot of big blows. In July while visiting with her dads family in Salt Lake City my niece and oldest grand daughter on my side of the family, died from injuries sustained in a near drowning accident. Her passing was a tremendous loss for my family and I can not even begin to describe to you the sorrow I felt for my sister and her family being so far away when everything happened. It still makes me cry just thinking about her and only recently I have been able to write a small portion of my feelings regarding it without bawling my eyes out. The only comfort I feel comes from the Gospel and the knowledge we have that this life is not the end and that the relationships we created here will follow us into the eternities. For that knowledge I am truly grateful and it has made her loss bearable. During this time the house we were living in sold so I was unable to go to her funeral or accompany her body home. I really think that Heavenly Father knew my feelings on this one because I had a lot of time on this end to spend with her, talk to her and hold her hand as she left this earth. So many miracles happened and I knew that Heavenly Father was with my family through it all. Technology played a huge part in this experience and if all my knowledge of technology was meant for this one purpose of being able to connect my sister to her daughter through the whole ordeal, then learning all that I have, has been the best thing I ever did. I last saw and spoke with Candy at my sisters house the day before I was flying home from New Zealand on my last trip home. Adam, my nephew, was cutting her hair and Leianne, Sharon and I were chatting with her. She had such an excitement for life and everything in her life she loved. She was cracking us up with all her stories. She told me about her plans to come to America and she promised to contact me when she got here. She kept that promise but her accident happened a few hours later after posting a text to me on Facebook. I still have it on my Facebook page and while I don't enjoy Facebook as much as I use too, I don't want to delete it either because it was her last message to me and means a lot to me that she would think of me. I will miss her vibrant spirit, hugs and loud laughter. I am truly blessed to be her Aunt and over the past year because of her death have come to understand what President Monson meant when he said that the things that matter most in this life have a lot to do with those closest to us. I now realize how important it is to value those relationships more. While I can only wish that I could have been in her life more, I have a lot of gratitude for the little opportunities I did have to spend with my niece. I will truly miss you Candy xox