Want to hear about our own special hole in the ground?

Drumroll... GREAT NEWS!!!

Due to the unacceptable delay in getting the city permit to begin construction, and due to the ever-approaching November 30th deadline to close on our mortgage and be eligible for the federal tax return... our developer, Bishop Homes, is now telling us that the standard home-building time frame of 60 days is now being girded up to 45 days!!!! 45 DAYS!!!

(I love that word. Girded. It makes me think of girding one's loins. Which is what the builders are doing at this point, essentially. And me and Clint are girding, as well! Ha ha! Girding! We are girding ourselves with furnishings.)

We could be in a brand new home by Thanksgiving, people! WOOP WOOP!

DAY 0

This is what our lot looked like up until this Monday - an impressively expensive spread of weeds.

Below is where Clint, scrutinizing the orange-painted house-plan lines, realizes that they have flipped the floor plans opposite of the way we originally wanted. Without giving us a heads-up. I am still feeling pretty fiesty about it, despite the fact that I probably would not have even noticed but for Clint. We called on it, and sure enough, they had to mirror-reflex the house plan in order to align with the sewage system. Brilliant, wonderful sewage. Ah, well. So be it.

To the north of the lot, there was a promising, waiting figure on the horizon, just waiting to go to work...

DAY 1 (This Tuesday)

Bring in the troops!

Just like that, we have a hole.

DAY 2 (Yesterday)

It begins to look more and more like something special will belong here...

So yeah...we now have our own bank-breaking HIG (hole in the ground.) I will keep the play-by-play updated. Dirt is never so exciting, eh?

Party Weekend

Disclaimer: Be assured that I do realize these pictures are less-than-great. Clint and I are in a fight with our camera , and I am ready to dump the camera officially. I am ready to reach closure and find a great rebound-camera.

These pictures were taken with my cell phone camera.

I only have a few snapshots of the fun-filled and busy weekend, and they certainly don't do justice to all the highlights. It was the first time in 2 years that the Karren family was all together. We had Shelly for the weekend, and Tyler arrived from Argentina just in time for the festivities!

Airport rendezvous:

This is one of my spunky neices, Avie, with my new favorite nephew!!! Love love love them. :) It was so fun to play with them all weekend. I got lots of Baby Tate time and even some Pretend Primary time!

I was unable to capture my other neice, Lizey, as she rarely ever stands in one place long enough for pictures. Especially group family pictures. I don't blame her, but I don't have the excuse of being an irresponsible toddler. Her busy-ness is what we love about her.

(picture courtesy of Annie - thank you so much! instant fav.)

We had a football extravaganza on Saturday night just after Ty arrived, which found most of us who wanted to be there, at Rice-Eccles stadium. Ty sat with Clint, me, Shelly, and Jeff in the MUSS. (So glad it was a mild night in the MUSS!) One of our funnest MUSS memories, I have to say.


Sunday we spent all day gorging ourselves on goodies together, with minor breaks for oggling Ty at church and again for family pictures. Oh well. I left my phone at home on this day, so... yeah. No pics.


Welcome home, Tyler! Clint is super excited to catch you up on Utah football games you've missed as well as any movies he can think of. I'll watch movies with you too, but, I'm sorry, I don't feel a pressing need to re-watch football games.

round i go

I've started running again.

I'm up to 2 X a week, which, believe me, is an extraordinary accomplishment at this point.

Cheerleading? Encouragement?

I think it's time to sign up for another race to get my butt going.

may all my dreams come true!

I opened up my "Fall" storage bin the other day to grab a wreath for my door and the heavenly, invigorating scent of my apple-cider-spice candles surged into the room like a blooming flower on super-fast-forward time-warp. I breathed it in & promised myself: by next Monday the house will decked out in Autumness!

Autumn is in the air...

This means I'm totally stoked about a few things:

*surfing costume websites

*indulging in movies like Van Helsing & Hellboy

*picking up some sort of irresistible Autumnal decoration every time I'm shopping, even if it's just a pumpkin spice candle

*Autumn sight-seeing trips up the canyons

*reading something that encourages the "mood." This year it's a re-read of Twilight

*the lead-in to the whole holiday season: my Birthday

And, what the heck. Just in case a particular someone may be looking for ideas for what his woman could possibly be thrilled about for a certain upcoming day on Magical October the 1st... here's a few tidbitties...

Check this: the new i-pod Nano now comes complete w/ FM radio:

And most selfishly important of all, me-only time with:RRAARRRRR!

Grateful on Labor Day

I must always remember how fortunate Clint & I am.

It's like this, see.

When I was a Single Woman (rest her soul), me and my BFF would raise our eyebrows at all the gorgeous young couples who seemed to be not far from our own age, but somehow in possession of every material thing they could want. Clearly, this encompassed the very fact that said couples were MARRIED and thus OBVIOUSLY did have everything that we thought anyone could possibly be lacking. Given this emotional & unavoidable bias, I do still believe that we were justified in wondering how young couples could be newly-weds, with a baby or two, with only 1 income, with a mortgage on a pretty new house, & with 2 shiny new luxury cards to cruise around in. We were hard-working single girls with part-time jobs & full-time student responsibilities. We were not entirely naive as to the cost of living.

I now find myself in the unbelievably magical position of being able to afford a brand new home with my Ultimate Man. We are building a house in South Jordan. We are newly-weds. We both work full-time. The economy fall-out has produced some unbelievable mortgage rates as well as a motivating tax incentive of $8000 in tax returns. We have many factors allowing us to buy a house right now.

Although... I can't help feeling somewhat guilty at my remarkable good fortune. The blessing must be in Clint's favor, because I'm SURE I've never done anything to deserve this placement.

This last Labor Day weekend brought many additional gifts to our inventory. 3 words (or would it count as 4?): R.C. Willey SALES!!!

Fortunately, we did NOT have to pay the entire cost up front at R.C. Willey. For 20% down, they hold it all on lay-away. However, we did spend, well... a lot. Enter: a little bit of guilt.

But also enter: Gratitude Extroardinaire!

We are sooo lucky. And so excited about our new house. And very relieved to have many of the necessities to fill our new house. This is a huge weight off my chest, since it makes it much less daunting to move into a new, big, empty house, and in a relatively short time frame. The contractor should have the bank loan/permit any day now. Estimated time frame to build: 60 days.

Cuberant Lakes

Here was our getaway to the Cuberant Lakes in the Uintahs. This trip was Walden Pond for me. Needed it. First catch of the trip:

Not so lucky (yet):

Day hike to the upper/main Cuberant Lake

Perfect nature chair for reading

Reaction to my first & only catch

Best reading spot in the world

Who says only guys can make campfires?

Hiking home in the rain

A favorite tradition - one of Dick's fantasic ice cream shakes after a weekend in the mountains

Followed promptly by a cup of hot chocolate. It was cold hiking in the rain!