So far 2010 has been anything but uneventful! Ive taken a few pictures here and there with thoughts of posts to make with the only outcome being that I have a bunch of new pictures going nowhere on my hard drive.
In September of last year I decided to start a new store on etsy with children's items, specifically baby booties made from recycled sweater's and fabric. It pretty much took over our lives until the end of the year. I was very flattered and excited by all the attention they received but by the end of December I was ready to take a "Bootie" break. I also put together a jewelry collection for Sundance and a small collection for Soel. I was looking forward to a little down time. ( yes, I realize that doesnt exist when you have two toddlers!)
Then in December, the very day of Brice's last final, he received a job offer with Goldman Sachs. Needless to say we felt super blessed and excited. The job would start in Febuary up at their Salt Lake office. It gave him just a month to tell his old job and get ready.
The first weeks of January went pretty smoothly, just a few booties here and there to make, and then the last week out of nowhere one day my heart started skipping beats. It was pretty frightening at first feeling your heart beat weird. We immediately went to the doctor's and the next day to the hospital for a Holter monitor test. Basically, I was hooked up to a bunch of electrodes and a fanny pack that monitored my heart beats for 24 hours. The results= my heart was skipping every 4th beat. Outcome= more tests with a cardiologist. The blessing= Goldman Sachs did not have a waiting period for insurance and on top of it the insurance was better! No crazy high deductable. So, after waiting a few weeks for an appointment and then a blood, treadmill, and ultrasound I was diagnosed with Mitral valve regurgitation. Which means that the valves in my heart are not closing all the way after the blood passes through. Nothing life threatening. My options= take a medication that regulated my heart beats , or just try to ignore and deal with it. I had been on the medication from the time of the holter test until the diagnosis which was about 3 weeks and although my heart beat better, the rest of me felt like crap! It also brings down your blood pressure which can result in the following side effects, which I had all of them. Fatigue, light headedness or dizziness , cold hands and feets, acheness, crazy dreams (yes, its a real side effect.),hard to catch my breath sometimes. It was a joy, so I have decided to just ignore and put up with it. Basically its mostly a matter of breathing techniques and stress reduction.
Then in March we were on to our next adventure. Buying a house in Salt Lake. Brice's work schedule is 7am to 5pm, and we decided the best for our wallet and our cars was for Brice to take the UTA express bus, which means he leaves the house by 5:30am and gets home at around 6:30-7pm. Not ideal for us.
Luckily I have a wonderful cousin Joye who is a real estate agent in Salt Lake, so I enlisted her help and we were off. I gave her an incredibly hard job of finding us a descent home in a descent neighborhood of a descent size on a very small budget by the April tax deadline! I dont think either of us knew exactly how trying it would be. For the last 5 weeks the kids and I have lived in the car driving all over the Salt Lake valley. We have probably walked through about 40 homes and driven past over 100 properties, and spent and average of 6-7 hours a day 3 to 4 times a week. There is alot of really unlivable houses out there, its pretty sad and at times disgusting. Also, the last week of March Brice went to New York for a week of work training.
Well, 3 unaccepted offers and countless misses later, Joye and I were hitting the "wall". I think I broke down like three times in one week. It felt like I was always " a day late, and a dollar short".
We decided last friday to give it one more look. We went to two houses. The first looked pretty beat up on the outside with the block looking pretty similar but the inside was "clean" and descent in size and layout. Plus+. The next house, was a really cute yellow house with dormer window's on the top floor and the biggest in square footage we had seen in that price range. I braced myself for the ugliness we would find inside. We opened the door with trepidation to find the the house looked beautiful inside! What!!!! This couldn't be. We immediately wrote up an offer and got it into the listing agent who took it the bank right away. With in 2 hours our offer had been accepted! We havent closed yet. I still have the inspection and mortgage to finalize, so everyone cross your fingers, knock on wood, and say a prayer for us! I really dont want to go looking any more.
The last little blessing has been that 2 weeks ago I received and e-mail from the owner of "Pebbles in my Pocket" a scrap book store that has 3 locations in Utah and is starting a boutique section in their shops. They want to sell my jewelry in all 3 locations! Orem, Salt Lake, and St. George. It will be on consignment for 90 days. So, This week instead of house hunting, Ive been working like crazy to put together a jewelry collection in triplet! Im almost done and hope to get it delivered by tomorrow. It's very colorful and summerish. I hope it does well.
I have absolutely no false hopes of "breaks" any time soon but want to say how thankful I am for all the blessings we've received and of having wonderful family and friends who are always there for us. Thank you all!
On to the craziness!!!
Now that all the repairs are finished ( cross your fingers ) Ive been able to get a little more done on the house. So here is just a few little photos.
Downstairs Bathroom
