Victoria's Birthday

Victoria's 3! Time's flying by with this crazy one. We held a small celebration for her at our place with friends and family. She loved all her presents and exclaimed "Cool!" every time she opened one of her gifts.
The next day we took her to "Jump On It," which turns out it all the way in Lindon (I didn't realize it was so far away from us). It is basically a place with a bunch of trampolines right next to each other and a few blow-up slides. Victoria had a lot of fun there and I'm glad we were able to take her.

A Random Mixture of Updates...

John is still busy.

Katrina is still busy.

Victoria will be turning 3 tomorrow! We'll be taking her to "Jump On It" this Saturday.

Mikayla can officially walk, although she mostly chooses to crawl because that mode of transportation is still faster for her.

We're still trying to sell our Provo Duplex. No luck. We fear this means we'll be landlords forever.

And, we're still blessed and have much to be thankful for...including all those that read our blog! So thanks to all our friends!

Just in case you were wondering...

Mikayla says "Mama, Dada, Hey, and Uh-oh!" She also says, "Ah!" Which usually means she's screaming at us to look at her. She can now stand on her own (without holding onto furniture or people). We are waiting for her to take her first step. Should be any day now. So there's Mikayla's update.
Victoria will be 3 December 4. I've been wanting to take her to this place called "Jump on it" because she LOVES to jump and climb everything so we'll probably take her there as the day gets closer. She doesn't do much new, except learn new words and she's getting really funny. The other day we were "knocking on her head" and she looked at us and said "Come on in!" For more of Victoria's funny jokes check out our quote board to the left. We try to keep it updated.

Mikayla's First Birfday

This past Friday, Nov. 6th Mikayla turned the ripe old age of one. Yay! We made it a year with our little bear! And to celebrate we held a small party with the great grandparents, unlce, aunt, cousins, and a few friends. As per tradition, Mikayla had her own cake...and dove in delicately. Mikayla would like to thank all those that provided gifts, those that came to her party, and anyone that's brought her a smile. We can't wait for another year with our precious bear (and Mommy hopes she never stops snuggling...at least until she's 10).

Victoria gave her the gift of throwing an old tape around her. She liked it.

Mikayla eating the present wrappings.
Yay!And of course, the cake!

Halloween Party!

This year we decided to throw a Halloween party. Why? Halloween has become pretty boring. Since when do people stop giving out candy and why do people not trick or treat anymore? In all the years I've been in Utah only a few groups of kids have come to my door each year. Not to mention, there is nothing for us to do. Why not celebrate a holiday that gives out free candy and let's you dress like a complete idiot? It's a great holiday!So anywho, we through a party. We started with Fear Factor. Challenge #1: Dig around blindfolded in our mixture of who knows what in search for a spider ring. We only had one quitter during this one. Challenge #2: Eating Challenge. Challengers ate their slice of mystery meat (SPAM, which I've actually never had myself but have heard that it's not so good) and piece of this fruit called tamarind (which tastes good, but looks like poop). Once again, one quitter during this one. Challenge #3: We were down to 5 people. Challengers started by gulping down their "Jello drink", racing with their cup to fill it up in the well and bring it back to fill a bowl with water above the blue line, and then racing to the finish line where people pelted them with silly string. This was a timed challenge so that their would only be one winner. The winner won a shirt that said "I'm sorry I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" and two king size candy bars. The winner was...Emily Nelson (whom actually dressed the same as me...we didn't plan it!"
During Fear Factor, while we transitioned between challenges, we held a costume contest. People voted for who they thought had the best kid costume (Thing One and Thing Two won),













scariest (Tie between the Pirate and the Construction Killer), and most creative (Shrek and Fiona).
Lastly, we held a haunted house. It was low budget and not really scary except for a few kids were scared. When you first came in spiders fell from the ceiling. I came out of a coffin to scream at people and John chased them out with a chainsaw. Overall, I think it was pretty fun. I hope everyone had an enjoyable time!

How we lost $210 to stupid people...

Ok so here's the story and yet another reason why we no longer desire to be landlords. Every year we usually need to find new tenants for one of our places. This one is for a couple that wanted to move into our Riley house basement. They saw the place, signed a contract, and paid their $400 deposit about mid-July and were to move in in September. Mid-August comes around and they come over to get keys and let us know if they want anything moved out (i.e. couches that we provide). They say they'd like one couch removed.
Fast forward to one day before they are supposed to move in. We get a phone call from them saying they are no longer comfortable with the place and would not like to rent from us anymore. They promise to find replacements and to meet all our conditions as laid out in our sublet clause of the contract. This clause also clearly states that $200 will be charged for subletting. They are aware of this and in fact bring it up. They find replacements and everything goes smoothly until we return the remainder of their deposit ($400-$200). We can't be entirely sure, but we think the husband was not aware of the required charge and the wife was because we only spoke to her during the transition. Needless to say, the husband was angry that we would charge them for subletting because "they never moved in." Arguments continue...blah blah blah.

Ok, break in the story to explain why we charge this fee: 1) We have to deal with BS like this (excuse my french). 2) We need to make copies of new contracts, have an interview with new people, approve new people to make sure they are sane, travel back and forth from Salt Lake to Provo to show new people the place, continue to talk to old people about this and that, get old people's new address to send security deposit back, move couches AGAIN, etc. You get the point! We did a lot of stuff because someone changed their mind.

A few days later we get another phone call from them saying "We're going to take you to small claims court for not giving us the money back." Frankly, we think this is a bluff and also do not care either way because the contract says in black and white that we charge it. They have no argument in court. So we don't mind either way.
It turns out they weren't bluffing. Ok fine. We will win no problem. Our pre-paid attorney agrees. But we lost money right?...
Court was today. In small claims court you can mediate or wait for endless hours to litigate. John, with our attorney, decides to mediate to see if they could work this out because this is a waste of time really. Basically, the attorney calls him an idiot (by calling him kid over and over...i thought that was humorous because he was acting childish) and wants to go forward with the case. John, on the other hand, does not want to be there all night waiting for his turn with the judge so he continues to mediate with them. After being called kid over and over they probably realized they would lose if they went forward with their argument and so they agreed to accept $225.
How this happened...they were suing us for $360 total. The original $200 from their deposit plus $160 in court fees. Back and forth arguing with dumb people doesn't get you far... everyone was getting frustrated and just wanted to go home. John and the couple decided on $210, but the husband would not get over a measly $15 more dollars. So the attorney, so fed up with everything, pulls out $15 and ends it. Now everyone can go home. We could have won the case and gone home owing them nothing, but our time is valuable and we just wanted them to leave us alone. Sometimes I wonder why they let retards reproduce. It's really not fair to the rest of us. So, here's to paying people to shut up. Cheerio. Now I can play my video games in peace.

Jace's Birthday

This past Monday we were all able to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law to celebrate my nephew Jace's birthday at Jungle Jim's Playland. We took Victoria there last year for her celebration just with us and she had fun and so she had fun again! Jace and Victoria were able to go on a lot of rides together. Mikayla and Ellie were able to have some fun too though. In fact, they had a crawl race and never finished...thanks to the many distractions, but it was still cute. And they're off...

Peekaboo! We're on the market!

We finished! Sort of. We have finished most of the exterior paint. There is about one days of work more to completely finish, but nonetheless, we decided it was presentable enough to put the P Duplex on the market. We hope that we can sell it soon and that some of our troubles will alleviate. We are asking $229,000, which may be a bit high. Truthfully, we're not sure. The housing market is not good right now, but we have made it look really nice and we think based on the rents people can charge that it is worth that. If not, then we'll either keep it with renters or accept a lower offer. It's kind of just a waiting game now. Wish us luck.

In other ados about nothing, Mikayla plays peekaboo all by herself and it's really cute. She holds the blanket up, waits a few seconds, and then drops it down awaiting my response. It's so cute! Maybe all babies can do this...I don't know, but I thought it was pretty unique since I don't recall Victoria doing this. Here it is...enjoy.

Life as it is now

It's been over a month since I've posted on our blog because we've been so busy. Thus, here's a very breif update of what's been going on with us:

We've decided as a family that we're tired of being landlords. The last straw was after an incident where our LDS neighbors gave us two days notice and then left us with an entire month of no renters. And the chaos never ends. People argue the contract, complain when things don't go there way, bail on the last month of rent, etc. Not to mention how much time it takes to maintain all the properties. We know it's not the best time to sell our houses, but the remainder of this year and next year we will continue to be really busy trying to get the properties ready to sell. We plan on keeping the Riley house for the time being while we decide where we should be and where our business ventures will lead us. Our first goal is to put the Provo Duplex on the market...so we've been giving up most of our Saturdays (and Labor Day) trying to get the exterior finished painting. Here's the before picture of the Provo Duplex.












And the progress...we're painting it brown and blue, with accent white.

A few months ago we bull dozed our backyard...attempting to level it. I don't have a before picture, but just imagine a forest. Ok, it wasn't really a big forest...but there were about 4 or 5 huge trees in the middle, plus everything was unlevel.

Also, we believe it was last night...we were robbed. We stupidly keep some of our power tools lying right in the back yard. Anyone in our neighborhood could easily see what we have and come and take stuff in the middle of the night. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen until now. What was stolen was a power washer (thank goodness we were done using it), a compressor, and a gas powered chainsaw. We are most dissapointed about the chainsaw because we had just got it this year to finish cutting down more trees in our backyard and we weren't done with it. So now, it's probably sitting in a pawn shop and without a serial number we can't do anything according to the cops. My tax dollars at work...doing nothing!

So that's the brief summary. We'll continue to be busy working to get our houses presentable for the market. We really want to be out of this business. It's taking a toll on our family and so we've shifted focus. Please keep us in your prayers...we need it. If you want details feel free to ask.

A Trained Monkey or Two

So about a week or so ago I declared Victoria officially potty-trained! Yay! No more diapers...for her anyway. She does have a few accidents every once and a while, but I'd say she's pretty good. What did it take? Lots and LOTS of stickers. Particularly the green ones. She has taken a liking to green and always wants a green sticker.
And, Mikayla is now crawling! She's not crawling on her knees all the time, but she does sometimes. She mostly drags herself everywhere, but I don't care. I'm just glad to see her moving about finally. Now she can at least try to get the stuff she's not supposed to. :)

4 years

Tomorrow will be John and I's 4th anniversary. Yay! We made it! I guess 4 years isn't really that long, but when you consider that 41% of first marriages end in divorce in the US I'd say we're doing pretty good. :) We will be going to eat somewhere (ask John where) and then we're going to watch Harry Potter! I'm way too excited for this movie seeing as I'm 24 and probably shouldn't be dressing up like I'm going to Hogwarts, but you're only as old as you feel I suppose. So let's just pretend that tomorrow I'm really 11. Besides, I've been waiting way too long for this movie.
Anywho, I have discovered that 60% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages end in divorce in the US. So, basically...if you don't get it right the first time your screwed. I think people just expect to marry the perfect person and well, I hate to break it to you guys, but that guy doesn't exist! John and I have had our fair share of good fights, but I think we both realize that everyone makes mistakes and that helps. If only everyone could do the same, maybe we'd all have better relationships...so, here's to marriages! Mazeltov! And here's to Harry Potter finally coming out...cheerio!

Poker Face and frogs

Victoria's favorite song right now is "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa. Whenever it's on the radio she sings it and at home she dances to it. Here's a video of her dancing to it and if I can get a good one of her singing it I'll post that too. We think it's funny.


Also, Victoria is still learning to pronounce things correctly (of course) so things come out a little wrong sometimes. The other day she was watching her Baby Einstein DVD and saw a frog on there. She started screaming "Frog! Frog!" Not a big deal usually, but when Victoria says "frog" it comes out sounding a lot like a vulgarity that I'm sure you can figure out. Well, for some odd reason instead of just saying "Frog!" she was saying "Frog me!" So of course we all turn to look at her like "What did you just say?" And well, yeah. Oh the joys of motherhood and translating for your daughter.

Roughin' it

This past weekend we took our first family vacation (that wasn't visiting other people) to Yellowstone National Park. We had so much fun. We left Friday morning and 6 stops (it takes a lot of stops when you've got a 2 year and 8 month old) and 9 hours later we arrived only to be rained on. Nooooo! The rain was not supposed to happen, but we hoped that Saturday and Sunday would be better. We set up camp and cooked our first tin foil dinner in the rain. Then, of course, we made s'mores.

Later on, we went to bed and it was freezing cold. I had a hard time sleeping because it was so cold, but luck was on our side and Saturday was a bright and sunny day. We ate some granola bars and fruit and set of for a day of exploring. We saw a lot of awesome things, including animals walking right on the street with us. Need a ride? My best picture I took was of a grizzly bear. We were driving along and saw all these people pulled over and looking at something. We asked what they were looking at and well, here it is: the grizzly bear. It was so awesome to see one up close like that. The ranger, however, was getting mad because there were so many people that the road was being blocked. Plus, I'm sure he was worried about our safety.













John enjoyed seeing the hot springs the most and was disappointed that we didn't get to swim. They wouldn't let us because the water was too high and too cold. :( That night we had another tin foil dinner, but unfortunately I got food poisoning. I threw up that night, but I still had fun. We drove home Sunday and hopefully we'll get to have another vacation soon.

Best Buy...no place for kids

Last night we all went to Best Buy. John was looking around for a surround sound system. Victoria was bored of course. So she resulted back to her running around and jumping off of things. I found these chairs we could sit in. They were black leather. Inbetween the two chairs was a coffee table. Victoria climbs the coffee table and jumps into the empty chair. She does this a few times. No harm done. And then...CATASTROPHE. Victoria lands her face on the arm of the chair. At first I thought she was laughing. She's always jumping off things. But then I realized she was crying. I lift her up to find that her eye had been cut. It's pretty bad. John and I then debate for the next 5 minutes whether or not we should take her to the hospital. We decide it's not bad enough to take her because she stops bleeding, but now she has this huge cut eye. Sad, but she's truly a pirate now!On a happier note, Victoria is potty training herself! :) A few days ago she asked to go and she's been in underwear ever since. She's had a few accidents, but she's learning and she pretty much takes herself. If she has to go she just jumps on the potty and then asks me to come wipe her. Yay for me! Unfortunately the toilet at Best Buy scared Victoria by flushing while she was on it. Scary for a child! So I couldn't get her to go there even though she said she had to, but at least she didn't have an accident in her pants. The true test will be night training. Anyone have tips for nighttime training?

Victoria's "New" Bike

Victoria likes riding bikes. Ok, most kids do. So we wanted to get her a tricycle she could ride around on. Or at least try to reach the peddles on. I was at the store and saw one that was really cute. It had a little bucket on the back to put stuff in too. I didn't see a price tag anywhere indicating the price, but I figured it couldn't possibly be more than $25 so I bought it for her. However, to my surprise it rung up as $45! What?!!!! That is expensive for a little tricycle. So I brought it home and asked John what he thought. He thought it was nice, but agreed with me that $45 was a lot for it. So, being the resourceful people that we are...we returned the bike and I bought a can of purple spray paint instead. John went to DI and bought a used, but nice bike for $5. I then spent the next few weeks cleaning and spray painting what is now Victoria's new bike. Yay! I think I did ok. It doesn't look brand new by any means, but it does it's job and for the short time Victoria will be using it she doesn't know the difference, which is one of the reasons why kids are so awesome! Total investment = $10. Which means I saved $35. Booyah!

Reading

9 days. That's how many days until I'm the ripe old age of 24. In my ward here I'm still really young, but of course like every year that passes I feel as if I'm getting "old." Every year people ask me what I want for my birthday and I usually say "I don't know," because well, I don't. I never can remember exactly what I want when people ask. It's not like when I was a kid and I could tell you loads of things I wanted. Perhaps, it's the realization that it costs money for others to buy you things and you don't want to ask for a car, which is what you really want, but it just so happens to cost a bajillion dollars. I think this happens to all of us, but I'm realizing that even at 23 I'm still figuring out who I am. So the point I'm making? When I figure it out I'll let you know.

When I was growing up I didn't like to read because I didn't want to be coined a bookworm/nerd. But you know what? I like reading. So there! The problem is that if I start reading a series I have to finish it...which is kind of annoying to be honest. I wonder if there is ever an ending to these stories. For example, I just finished reading "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld only to find out that I have to go buy "Pretties" now to find out what happens next. Complete cliffhanger! It's a great book and I do recommend it, but can't authors just write one huge book and get it over with? I can't stand the waiting! And also, I believe there is another book after "Pretties." Also, the Harry Potter series. I know it's supposedly over, but I still want to know what happens next! On top of that, I'm told I should read the Twilight series. Ok, the movie was good. I'll admit it. But I'm not all that into vampires. Just like I wasn't that much into magic when I started HP, but now I'll be wanting more info until I get it. And what's even worse these characters aren't even real!

The Start of Solids

I know I haven't been keeping up by posting, but Mikayla finally started solids a few weeks ago. The doctor told me to wait until she was 6 months old so I tried, but she really REALLY wanted to try what we were eating and who can deny such a beautiful baby her desires? We started with baby cereal and she took it well. This week I started her with some vegetables and a fruit. So far, she dislikes green beans and likes peas, carrots, baby cereal, and prunes. I am so amazed at how much she eats. She eats an entire jar in a sitting and still wants more. For Victoria to have ever accomplished this feat would have been incredible. Sadly, at Mikayla's 6th month check-up she dropped to the 5th percentile in weight. Victoria is in the 2nd percentile. Because of this I'm convinced that other babies are just too fat. Seriously, I know my babies are small, but 5th percentile, really? Ridiculous.
Victoria loves helping me feed Mikayla. She sometimes likes to act like the mommy and other times likes to act like the baby. She's 2. I'd give her a break, but her mood swings are killing me. I swear she has bipolar disorder. Here's her in her "mommy moment."

And a little "not-so-mommy moment." (Look at her head). She did this when Mikayla's mouth was full and she wouldn't take anymore.

My Little Angel(s)

Victoria has always been such a well-behaved monkey. They say that if your first one is good your next one will be a "monster." So naturally Mikayla was destined to be a colicky nightmare. I was preparing myself for this. I expected myself to be begging for sleep and silence. Well, I'd like to know who "they" is because Mikayla is even more well-behaved than Victoria. She hardly ever crys and is always contempt to just look around if I'm unable to play with her. I must be lucky. I love these babies. Happy Mother's Day to me...everyday!

Snowboarding and Easter Galore

I've always wanted to try snowboarding and I finally got my chance this past weekend. The old Elder's Quorum President (John is the new one by the way) got us these free lift passes. Generally, they are pretty expensive and we thought we better take advantage and go. John had been a few times before so he had a lot of fun. I fell a lot, as to be expected since it was my first time, but it was still awesome. I hope I get the chance to go again sometime. My second run down was a lot less falling and more boarding. So yippie!
For Easter, Victoria got to go on an Easter egg hunt this year. We were going to take her to the one they have in the park every year, but of course we were snowboarding. So we did one for just her. She liked it. Here's a video.

V in bib

I have not done a post in a while and thought it's about time I should. A few weeks ago John and I were playing video games. While another game was loading we looked over into the kitchen and bust out laughing. Victoria was nude except for a bib she had tried to use as pants and a towel she was covering the rest of herself with. This is the result.As for an update on Mikayla, there is none! Just kidding. She's doing great. She's continuing to grow and will soon share clothes with Victoria. She's much better on her stomach than Victoria was so perhaps she'll learn to crawl sooner. She hasn't started solids yet because the doctor wants to hold it off at least until 6 months due to the benefits of breast milk. This was not good news for Mama who looks forward to the days when she won't have to have a baby on her all the time. Future updates for us include: Easter and snowboarding (something Katrina has always wanted to do). Until then...a message from Michael Scott of the Office: "They say you should never hire your friends, which is true. So I hire my best friends and this is what I get?"

Mikayla laughing

Mikayla is a ridiculously happy baby. We love how happy she is all the time. If we ever want to hear her laugh we just let her jump on our bed with her sister (yes, we allow our kids to jump on the bed). Hopefully you can hear her laughing. It's so cute. Enjoy.

Again! Again! The first day of "Fake Summer"

Yesterday was what I considered to be the First day of Fake Summer. Fake Summer is when it looks really bright and sunny outside and a great day to go to the park, but when you step outside the wind is blowing freezing cold air in your face. I did not realize this until after I had packed everyone up and got everything together to go to the park. So we head out despite the fact that it's a little too cold for Mikayla. Sure enough we're only at the park for about 5 minutes and Mikayla starts crying because it's too cold. I felt so bad because Victoria was having so much fun going down the slide and saying "Again! Again!" I tried to keep Mikayla warm, but I ended up having to leave and Victoria was not happy with that. So what I have to say is..."Curse you Fake Summer!"

I have some good news. Our memory card saved some of Mikayla's photos that I thought were lost. So really, except for most of the ones from her birth we have all the pictures we've taken of her. Yay!

Sad news

About a month ago John's laptop all of a sudden stopped working. We had no idea why. It was sudden. This saddened us because we had a lot of stuff on there. We mostly wanted the pictures back because we had no prints or a backup copy of them. So we took it to PC laptops to get fixed. After a week they finally got back to us and informed us that we needed a new hard drive. The tech tried to get the old information off, but he couldn't. John's laptop had all of Mikayla's pictures on there and some of Victoria too. I'm so sad that we lost all Mikayla's birth pictures. We now only have about 5 or 6 photos of Mikayla since her birth. This is one...she's sad because we lost her pictures.

Vintage Photos of Victoria

I guess it really can't be "vintage" since Victoria is only two, but I found some old photos of Victoria that I thought were cute so I'm going to post them. I have photos of Mikayla as well, but they are on John's laptop which is being repaired right now. I haven't forgot about Mikayla don't worry. As soon as we get the other laptop back I'll post some of Mikayla.The story behind these two photos is that I went upstairs I believe to take some garbage out. Victoria who is probably 6 months or so starts crying and climbs into her car seat. When I get back downstairs she is crying and looks at me like "Don't leave me. Take me with you." I thought it was so cute and smart of her to think to get into her car seat because she thought we were going so I took the camera out to take some photos. She immediately stops crying and does what I call "the model pose."

This one is of Victoria just hanging out on the couch. I thought it was cute.

We hate plumbing!

The worst part about having homes is taking care of the plumbing. So far this year we've had a busted pipe at the Provo duplex, all the plumbing to do so that their are no leaks there as well, a leaky faucet at the Riley house, a clogged drain and broken pipe at the Salt Lake house, and a clogged drain in our laundry room. John usually tries to take care of these so we can save money, but we gave up on a few of them and just called plumbers. Apparently, the problem in our laundry room here took care of itself so that saved some money. Yippie! We're taking care of the Riley house faucet tonight and the last thing will be to fix the pipe at the SL house and then hopefully NO MORE because we quit! We hate plumbing!

Some tips for buying products

Ok to be honest I'm a little bored...and tired...but I don't really want to take a nap so instead I thought I'd leave some hopefully helpful tips for things that I recommend buying and some I do not. We'll start with the things not to buy since it's fresh in my mind.

5 hour energy
Never ever buy this. It does not work! I like energy drinks ok and have drank them in the past (mostly because they taste good and give me a good boost) and yes they do kind of poop you out by the end of the day so it would be great if a product didn't make you "crash" after drinking it. So John decides he will try it. It costs us I think 3 or 4 dollars for a shot sized drink. John drinks it one morning and I think that perhaps we'll get a lot done. Do you know what he did for 5 hours? He sat in front of a laptop and browsed the internet. I'm not even kidding you. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, "It's a piece of crap. It doesn't work."

Swiffer Mop
I had the opportunity to try this a few months ago because an old tenant left their's behind. I place the wet napkin thing where it's supposed to go and it doesn't hold very good, but I try mopping the floor anyway. I get a little done and what do you know it's covered in filth and I already have to change out the napkin for a new one. I finally finish cleaning the floor after replacing the napkin about ten times, which aren't cheap. Not only that but it doesn't pick up very well. I end up pushing things around the floor rather than picking it up. Not to mention it's hard to manuever.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
This is the most flemsy sponge ever. Sure it eventually gets some stuff off, but it's only because I'm scrubbing so hard I feel as if my fingers are actually the thing cleaning it. Plus, it breaks itself apart so easily you'd have to buy a new sponge each time you clean something.

Now for some things I do recommend buying:

Samsung Appliances/TVs
Did you know Samsung makes appliances? I thought they only did TV's. Well they do both and I must say they do a great job. Our nice TV is Samsung and we love it. I think I like my Samsung microwave even more though. My favorite is the 1 minute button. All you have to do is put your food in the microwave, press the 1 minute button, and leave the room. It's awesome. There's also the popcorn button which NEVER burns my popcorn...EVER! I used to hate guessing how long to place my popcorn in for, but Samsung has solved my problem. Also, the potato button cooks potatoes perfectly. So buy Samsung stuff.

Easy Off Oven Cleaner
Do you remember looking at commercials of cleaners and saying "yeah right! Nothing cleans that well." And you're right, most products advertised do not do that well, but Easy Off really does clean well. In fact, when I used it on an oven that an old tenant left sooooo dirty I thought it would never look good, it cleaned it so well it looked like new. So I took it home and used it on another dirty oven and it looked virtually new as well. Trust me, just follow the directions and use it.

Oxi Clean
As much as I hate Billy Mays always yelling at me through the television set to buy his product I've been informed by John that Oxi Clean works really well on carpet stains. I haven't seen it for myself, but John says we're to use it where Victoria spilled hot sauce on our carpet. So, we'll see.

Well that's all I can think of for now. If there's more I discover I'll pass it on.

Three cheers for us!

We have officially finished the duplex remodel...except for a few minor things, but it was enough to sell a contract. Here are some after pictures. The new kitchen has new tile floors, updated cabinets, brand new dishwasher, brand new plumbing, new paint, and a one-year old fridge.

The new living room has brand new carpet, new heating element, and new paint. It used to have this hideous green carpet and was all white (pretty boring). The bedroom also had new carpet, but we didn't have time to paint it.The bathroom received brand new tile floor, new vanity, and a brand new window (the old tenants broke it and decided not to tell us). All in all, it was a long and tiring process and took way longer than expected, but we're happy to be done with it. Our kids were with us while we were remodeling and poor Victoria was bored out of her mind. We tried to keep her entertained while we worked, but it was hard to do. I can't believe she puts up with us...although I guess she doesn't have much of a choice.

December 2008 Challenge

December's challenge ended up being a disappointment. For the longest time we've been trying to get our laundry room finished. Before it had this hideous red carpet, was painted all white, and things were EVERYWHERE! All of the stuff when we first moved in wasn't even ours. So December was it. We were going to finish the laundry room and get organized because to be honest the laundry room is sort of our storage space. The laundry room has been painted and most of the flooring is done. Unfortunately, we had to order more tiles before we could finish, which took two weeks to get in (I ordered in the middle of the month). And so of course, the floor did not get finished in December, which means that everything isn't organized and put away either. Not only that, but the tenants on the right side of our Provo duplex decided to bail on us about the 4th of the month. We thought, "Well, it's ok. We'll just find new tenants." It turns out it's hard to find tenants when the place is over a hundred years old and doesn't look so up to date. So about mid-month we decide it's just time to remodel that side. We hope to sell the duplex this year and so it was now or never for a remodel. So the challenge officially got switched in the middle of the month to the remodel. Well, with it being such a big undertaking and with the holidays we were unable to finish before January. To this day we're still working on it, but we hope to be done with everything today and we have some interest so we're hoping to sell a contract as well. Wish us luck!