Ground Breaking

Summer is actually starting to wind down for us. Not summer the season. But summer break. The kids start school on July 25th so we've been trying to cram as much into our remaining weeks as humanly possible.

Since Mike works from home and doesn't have to get up and ready to go to the office at any particular time we have also taken the opportunity to sleep in. Sure I get up early a few days a week to do the shopping before it gets too hot, or to just to enjoy the quiet time before the kids get up. But I don't HAVE to get up. And that has been a lovely thing. Something I will surely miss once schools starts again.

And so it begins

Monday, July 11, 2011
Day 43

Zoey went this morning for her Pre-K assessment at the school, which literally took less then 10 minutes. I like to believe it is because she is so stinking smart that she flew right through all the questions. But since they didn't let me in the room with her while they did the assessment we'll never know.

But, since our homesite is so close to the school (less then a block, yea for walking to school!) and since we were a little early before heading to the school we drove past our lot and were met by this happy surprise!

After her test we drove back past hoping to get a better picture of the backhoe but he is FAST and was already gone.

So excited that actual work has begun I can hardly stand it! Was getting tired of all the paperwork.

Priceless

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Day 44

I don't want to get too bogged down in the details, but the past few weeks we have been in a little dispute with our builder. Our floorplan has an option for a walkout deck upstairs off the master bedroom. And we opted for said deck. Only to get paperwork back later with pricing we didn't agree with.

Long story short, our agent is awesome and totally went to bat for us, but in the end we were pretty much roped into the deck at a price we didn't love because everything was already signed.

So-we drove back out to see if anything new had happened at the home site today. (This has actually turned into a night ritual now. It's our first build and we're just a tad bit excited.)

They had added rebar to the big holes in preparation for the concrete. Not so exciting visually.

But we were there just late enough to witness this amazing view of the sun going down as the moon was coming up.

And as I realized that this amazing view would be what I would see EVERY NIGHT sitting on my deck suddenly all the angst over the pricing and such disappeared. A view like this is priceless.

(No houses are going to be built behind us because it is a designated flood washout area. Score!)

Expect Great Things

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Day 45

That's Kohl's catchphrase, right?

Anyway, I have been having anxiety over what to wear on my upcoming trip to Vegas so I decided to trade in my AMEX points for a Kohl's gift card and use it to get something new.

I waited impatiently for days for it to arrive. I couldn't wait to go shopping!

I shopped till I dropped, and then completely forgot to use my gift card!

Put your best footing forward

Thursday, July 14, 2011
Day 46

Today was great! I finally found the library book that went missing just before we moved (which is perfect timing because I had run out of renewals and it is due next week.)

AND on our nightly pilgrimage to our home site we were thrilled to discover that the footings had been poured!

I'm wishing.....

Friday, July 15, 2011
Day 47

Zoey is my child who wants to BUY BUY BUY. She earns a quarter for something and immediately wants to find something to spend it on.

Adam is my saver. We practically had to force him to spend his hard earned money on a souvenir at Disneyland, even though he had been saving it all year SPECIFICALLY for our trip to Disneyland!

You're feeling that I'm not about the tell you a story to illustrate this point, right?

Tonight we went to dinner and ate outside by the fountain. So of course the kids asked for pennies to make a wish.

I gave each child 3 cents. Adam encouraged each of his siblings to throw theirs in first. And then he promptly pocketed his 3 to put in his bank at home.

Closed for the Season

Saturday, July 16, 2011
Day 48

For no particular reason we decided to drive South today and visit the little town of Florence, AZ. On the 4th of July when we were at the pool one of the ladies there was talking about how she had made some pastries to sell at their main street festival and the way she talked it just sounded like the kind of little town I wanted to visit. And it's only 20 minutes away so why not.

We arrived to find it was more like a ghost town, at least during this time of year. Apparently the historical museum and several of the cool old buildings close down for the summer. Who knew?

Luckily we were able to go into the first Pinal County Courthouse, so the drive wasn't a total waste.

Mike gave the kids their first lesson on the judicial system.

Ironically, the county prison is also in Florence. In fact you can't leave town without driving right past it. It's close enough to the road that you can see the inmates out in the yard in their orange jumpsuits. What a way to round out our lesson on the judicial system!

On a sidenote here-we ended up leaving Florence and driving to Tuscon. It's only another hour and a half so we figured why not. Once in Tuscon we ate at Chick-Fil-A, then the kids played in the play area for way too long and then we drove back home. Yup, drove clear to Tuscon for fried chicken! Now THAT is an effective use of time and resources.

Little Bunny Foo-foo

Sunday, July 17, 2011
Day 49

Sundays are always the hardest day to get a picture because we usually go to church then just chill at home the rest of the day.

But today, during dinner, the kids spotted this out the window.

Okay, it's a crappy picture through the screen, and he jumped away before I had a chance to actually go outside. So in case you can't tell, it's a little jack rabbit!