Will You Miss Us?

Since so many of you are going to miss us and be wondering about our adventure we thought we would steal a GREAT idea from my friend Erica and give you a picture itinerary.
May 7th: make our way from Salt Lake City to JFK International Airport (pictured above). We have a lovely 5 hour layover to get us nice and tired for the red-eye flight to Rome.
May 8th: depart JFK at 9:55 pm and land in Rome the next day at noon. We will be picked up by the cruise's shuttle service and taken to port Civitavecchia (pictured above). We will check onto the boat and explore until we leave port at 6:00 pm.
May 9th: explore the ruins of Pompeii (pictured above) near Naples Italy.
May 10th: spend a day at sea relaxing, reading, swimming, eating, eating and eating.
May 11th: spend another day at sea and continue eating.
May 12th: deboard in Alexandria, Egypt where we begin our Grand Cairo (pictured above) overnight adventure. We will visit Egyptian Museum Of Antiquities , Citadel Of Salah El Din, Muhammad Ali Mosque, Khan Khalil Bazaar, and our day will end with a SOUND & LIGHT SHOW AT THE PYRAMIDS (thank goodness we will have a tour guide to explain what some of these place are that I know nothing about and good thing my husband loves history). You have to pay to take pictures during the light show at the pyramids and you have to pay to ride a camel and see scenic views of Giza - but who knows - we might do both!
May 13th: start with a BREAKFAST CRUISE ON THE NILE followed by Step Pyramid of Sakkara, The Great Pyramids (pictured above) and ending with shopping and photo opportunities of the Sphinx. Because Egypt is a primarily muslim country we will be wearing clothes to cover our knees and shoulders and not have anything with loud prints.
May 14th: begin our Grand Overland: Jerusalem (pictured above), Bethlehem & Galilee adventure. We will visit the Garden of Gethsemane, Church of All Nations, Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jewish Quarter, The Western or Wailing Wall, and Bethlehem. We will then have lunch and a shopping break in Bethlehem before travelling northeast from Ashdod on the approximately 60-minute drive to Jerusalem. We will drive along the Road of Courage, traversing the stony hills of Judea and continue north to Bethlehem passing Rachel's Tomb and the spend the night in Jerusalem.
May 15th: we will travel the approximately 100 mile drive to the Sea of Galilee (pictured above). Along the way we will visit the River Jordan, the Mount of the Beatitudes, Tabgha, Nazareth, Capernaum, and have a photo opportunity of the Sea of Galilee. After lunch (which comes with free WINE) we will travel north through the Jordan Valley to Nazareth. We will continue to Capernaum and then travel west through the Sharon and Jezreel Valleys to Haifa. We will then rejoin the ship in the late afternoon following a brief panoramic tour of the port.

May 16th: enjoy a much needed and relaxing day at sea and continue our great eating.
May 17th: spend a day in Ephesus (pictured above).
May 18th: see the highlights of Patmos (pictured above) and enjoy lunch while watching a folkloric show (Greek food is my all time favorite and I am so exicted!
May 19th: see the best Santorini (pictured above) has to offer.
May 20th: begin our stay in Athens. We are deboarding the boat at 6 am where Charity's wonderful mom is picking us up and acting as our wonderful tour guide for the next 4 full days and a little bit. The first day will include the Ancient Agora (pictured above), Agora Musem, Temple of Hephaistus, Roman Agora, Tower of the Wind, the Hadrian Library, the Acropolis and the Plaka.
May 21st: continue seeing Athens by enjoying the National Archaeological Museum, the Temple of Olympian Zeus (pictured above), the Temple of Poseidon and anything we missed the day before.
May 22nd: Epidaurus (pictured above), Mycenae and Corinth.
May 23rd: take a three island cruising excursion including Hydra island (pictured above)
May 24th: leave Athens and fly to Rome with only 1 suitcase per person that can't way more than 44 pounds. Charity's mom is going to send home a box for us because I think that I will have bought 44 pounds of stuff by that point... :) We have rented an apartment in Rome that is right by the Vatican Museum. The first day, after flying to Rome, we are going to enjoy the Borghese Gallery (pictured above) and Gardens and end with a Night Walk Across Rome.
May 25th: begin heavy sighseeing of Rome by enjoying Palantine Hill, Colosseum (pictured above), the Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, Piazza del Campidoglio, Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. May 26th: tour the Vatican (museum steps pictured above), St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza Novona and Campo de Flori.May 27th: enjoy Capitoline Museums, Baths of Dioctetian – Octagonal hall and the Appian Way (pictured above).May 28th: day trip to Tivoli Gardens (pictured above).May 29th: fly from Rome airport (pictured above) to JFK and then home. When we arrive we will be in need of a relaxing - do nothing vacation - because we will most likely look like this...
We decided to come home on Friday so that we would have both Saturday and Sunday to do the following:
and...
We are so excited and hope that you enjoy checking on us every now and again to see what we are up to. We are going communication-less and will not be checking email, making phone calls, or checking in. We are going to just enjoy each other's company and see the world! Have a great May 2009 - we know we will!

The Joys of Home Ownership...

Our dishwasher was installed incorrectly and it has been steadily leaking since the day we moved in - drip, drip, drip, drip - you get the picture. We don't have a lot of need for our basement and the room that it was leaking into is a soundproofed room with extra layers of drywall in insulation. Needless to say, it has been dripping for a little more than two months and we have never noticed. Some friends came to visit on Saturday and commented about the bubble in our ceiling. We'd never seen it but we are really glad that it was discovered before we left on our vacation.
This mess, pulled from our ceiling, is some of the wet drywall and insulation that has been getting more and more wet over the last two months.
This is the "carefully" cut whole made in our ceiling by the plumber in an attempt to find the problem.
Doesn't it look like he was careful?
And this is just some of the mess that he left for us to clean up and also the point that I stopped taking pictures. We had to put the camera away when the ceiling started to rain and pour because at that point it wasn't just about a good story and a little fun - it was a FREAKING disaster.

Several hours of cleaning and re-cleaning have passed and we have given the plumber $240 to fix the problem - too bad that doesn't fix the sopping carpet, the drenched pad, the hole in the ceiling or the insulation.

But it does mean that we can leave on our trip without worrying about a leak in our home and that we will come home to a dry basement. The other stuff will just have to wait...

And we own this...

And now, we own this too! We have now have no car payment which is so exciting and I love that feeling!

Maybe one day we'll own our degrees too...I don't know what we'll do with ourselves when we aren't paying student loans but I can tell you this we will be taking a trip to celebrate! Little by little we're chipping away at that too...

For the first time....I feel....WICKED!

Yep - we saw it!
Yep - it was amazing!
No - it wasn't our first time!
No - I didn't kill mr. wiggles in front of me (even though I really really wanted to)!
Yep - we love Missy for getting our tickets!
Yep - we recommend you see it!

I really think they should have a Wicked sing-a-long that we can all go to because I can barely force myself to sing in my head when I see Wicked! You too, huh?

He's Home

You can bet that we were really excited to pick Elder Hansen up from the airport this past Friday. He served faithfully for two years in South Korea. He is our youngest brother and we love him and are so glad that he is home! Mom was probably the most excited and glad that he was coming home...We picked up these balloons at Granite Bakery when we were picking up all the goodies to have at that house when he got home. We painted, laid new carpet, cleaned and cleaned and cleaned to get ready for his arrival. This was our first glimpse of the cutest missionary ever! Mom and son ran into each other's arms...
Then dad greeted him...
And he was so glad that Grandpa and Grandma made it to welcome him home!
And the brothers have now all finished faithfully serving their missions! The last of the three - home at last.
Mom and Dad with Nick.
We really are so glad that he has returned and he is just the same as he has always been. He is funny, telling jokes and the boys have already been chasing each other through the house like he had never been gone. He is glad to have ice, peanut butter, cereal and ice cream. He is having a hard time sitting on the couches and sleeping in his bed.
Conference weekend is a good weekend for him to come home. He is surrounded by family and friends and will have a spiritual weekend. Also, he met a Korean couple in the airport and it was fun to watch him bow and hear a little Korean.
Welcome Home Nick - we sure are glad you have returned!

Snow Again...

When we lived in our Townhouse, the HOA fee that we paid included our snow removal. So every morning, after at least 2 inches of snow, we could lie in bed and listen to someone else shovel our walks and driveway. This is a lovely sound and became one of my favorite Sunday morning sounds - to hear someone else shoveling my walk. Well - enjoyable sound no longer.

Now that we live in our own home, with no HOA, the snow just lies and waits for us. We got about 6 inches of snow last night and Oliver already packed the shovel away in the shed for Spring...so he needed to go and traipse through the yard and get the shovel and then do our driveway.

But, as I lay in bed this morning, I heard that all too familiar and comfortable sound of driveways being shoveled. And, sure enough, when we left for work this morning, this is what we had found! Our neighbor shoveled our driveway! YEAH! What a blessing!

Under Construction

The truth is...

But our lives have been...

We have been really busy...

and...
We have been trying to balance both...

But we finally have...And this is happening at 5 pm today...

So hopefully our...
Will get more attention next week!

Something Fun!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It will be done this year.

4- You will have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be photography or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who follow the directions. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

My Rant

I have written my congressmen and my senator today and I am so angry that I am using my blog as a venting outlet. If you aren't interested in this kind of rant then check back another day for more moving pictures.

I find it offensive that Oliver and I do not qualify for the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit because we have chosen to be married. Before we were married I bought our townhouse and now, in my husband’s name only (and he has never owned a home), we are buying our first single family home. We have been married a year and because we chose to be married and not just co-habitate, we are being punished. Similarly, this is unfair in that lesbian and gay couples qualify for the credit and we don't. Why are we being punished for choosing marriage? Why are we being punished for choosing to love and marry as spouses? What is wrong with our society and what it values?

I also think that the tax-credit should have to be repaid! How does it benefit the majority of people that I know who bought homes when they could afford them and love where they live and don't need to move or don't want to and wouldn't qualify even if they did. Oliver and I would love the tax credit to be able to buy the appliances, finish the yard, put in the carpet and paint but we also feel that we should repay the money borrowed from the government because why should my unborn children pay for people to buy a home? And why are our children paying for years and years and years to come to make bad choices?

I also find it maddening that some people we know bought their home and then a few years later re-financed, took out more than $150,000 cash to buy a boat, car, furniture, finish the basement, etc and spent it all. Then, the government came in to save them from their poor choices and living in a home they couldn't afford and forgave more than $100,000 of their principle balance. They didn't have to give back any of their toys, and my tax dollars are paying for their fun toys and for all the cash they spent and their bad choice. Is that what the law is designed to do? Ridiculous!

Here is the quote of the description of the bill answering the question what is a first-time home buyer: For example, if you have not owned a home in the past three years but your spouse has owned a principal residence, neither you nor your spouse qualifies for the first-time home buyer tax credit. However, unmarried joint purchasers may allocate the credit amount to any buyer who qualifies as a first-time buyer, such as may occur if a parent jointly purchases a home with a son or daughter. Ownership of a vacation home or rental property not used as a principal residence does not disqualify a buyer as a first-time home buyer.

And here is the website for more information: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/home2.html

Packing the Townhouse

Oliver and I spent much of our Saturday boxing and labelling stuff! We decided if we pack one room a week it will make the last week go a little more smoothly. This weekend we packed most of the office and the garage. We own more books then the Herriman Library! (Those of you that have been know this isn't an amazing accomplishment - and they definitely have more videos and CDs then us.)
Here's a picture of the garage which is being loaded with all our boxes and furniture in preparation for the moving truck.

And this is our labelling station. Every box and piece of furniture has a colored piece of paper taped to it which corresponds to a room assignment at the new house. This way, the people that help us move don't have to try to guess which room is the office or the guest bedroom or the whatever - they just look at the colored paper and make sure it matches the color that will be taped in the rooms at the new house. Pretty slick - this makes you all want to help and haul boxes huh?

And this is the main man behind the madness. I helped pack the boxes but he was good enough to carry them all downstairs (and the empty ones upstairs for that matter). I only hauled one box of books downstairs - what a great guy! He sure was raised right...

Duvet Cover - opinions PLEASE!

We are replacing our old duvet cover and desperately need your opinions! The last one got lost and it was white with patch quilt blocks in bright bright colors on the front. This will be the cover in our guest bedroom and I want something loud because we already own a sea foam green one that has stripes on one side and flowers on the other - I want something with a little more personality for my cheerier moods! I am keeping the one that we have right now but I want something a little more happy and fun - I have the one that goes on for traditional guests! Please post a comment and vote on which one you like - THINK LOUD!

Reminiscent

I have been feeling reminiscent today. It has something to do with the fact that Oliver and I finally picked out our wedding pictures that we want published in our book. We don't have any of our wedding pictures from the photographer because we had to finalize our book selection first. It has been really fun to look through all the pictures but it also makes me wonder, how does a girl go from this...
To this...

I feel like the time has just flown - it's no wonder my mom thinks so too!