Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A Smile at the End of a Crappy Day

Okay, so the day probably wasn't THAT crappy. Just one of those days. Couldn't get out of bed to save my life, then got stuck in American Legion/Condolezza Rice/Donald Rumsfeld traffic, couldn't get into the building parking lot because of all the LDS business college students who don't understand the "No Student Parking" signs (or maybe they just haven't gotten to the reading semester yet) and had to back out of the driveway, 40 gajillion errands to run today, including getting the massively stupid hair fubar fixed by a professional (I'll never dye my hair myself again), and then I got this:

http://www.chriscummins.com/like/I_like_you.swf

Laughed so hard I nearly wet my pants, so I thought I'd share it with the group!

Monday, August 14, 2006

One week in!


This is what I call progress! After months of meetings, approvals and permits, we've come leaps and bounds in only a week! This is a picture my brother in law took about an hour ago of the cement truck pumping the concrete to pour our foundation. One short week ago they were just breaking ground. Less than a week ago we were getting footings poured. Then it was a bit of a waiting game to get the foundation forms put up. Apparently the crew that was scheduled to install the forms got busted drinking on another job and got fired. A bit of a set back, yes, but thank goodness they got caught before they came to the old Tabbal house!

It's so exciting to see our home being built bit by bit! I've always known that one day I would build a house in Herriman on the family ground, but to actually see it happening and to have such a wonderful husband by my side makes it so much different. And I haven't missed the symbolism of Travis and I watching our home being built as we continue to build our lives together. Such a lovely metaphor. I just hope that in the end, both the house and our lives are everything we've hoped they would be. So far so good, though, right?

On a more wistful note, Travis and I drove by our old house in Salt Lake Saturday night. It was dark and somewhat hard to see, but all in all everything looked pretty much the same. The Albanians seem to be keeping up on the yard and taking really good care of our first home. It did make me somewhat sad, I'll admit, but seeing the potted plants that Mrs. Albanian put on the front porch and the care being given to the old place made me feel so happy that our house was being loved as much as we loved it. Now I can breathe easier as we watch our new home come to life.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

A "hole" lotta shakin' goin' on!


On the way home from work on Friday I drove past the house (well, big empty field, really, but you get the picture) to find a backhoe parked, bucket poised, ready to dig the first scoop and begin our home. Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I took pictures. After 4 gruelling months, seeing ANY progress was exciting. Monday morning, though, the backhoe broke down before the first bucketful, but, luckily (for them), they got another one in and dug our pretty little hole. Tuesday the footings went in and it's only a matter of time before the foundation is poured.


So on Monday, August 7th the construction on our home officially began! We now own a big gaping hole in a field! I never thought I'd ever be so excited about something like that, but there you have it. I've taken anyone willing to be dragged over there and exclaimed proudly "yep...that's my hole!" Sounds dirty, I know, but I promise it's not. Well, there is a lot of dirt but...

Now we're looking (VERY optimistically) at moving into our new home around Christmas time. On one hand I think that having our new house be a Christmas present to us would be AWESOME, but then again, moving at during all the hussle and the bussle of Christmas can't be very fun. Of course, when is moving EVER fun, right? That's provided nothing at all goes wrong, which would suck. But even if it does, it's going wrong while we can SEE something happening. That I can live with.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Babies On My Mind

Here are a few pictures of Trav with my friends' babies.


This one is the son of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Emily (Travis is the one making the baby smile and smile). They waited 9 years to get little Miles, and I think we can all agree it was worth the wait! Their experience with trying to get pregnant makes me feel pretty guilty for getting frustrated with no pregnancy after only 4 months of trying.


This tiny one is the daughter of another of my dear friend's, Rachel. Madeline is getting so chubby it makes you smile just to look at her.

Seeing how wonderful Travis is with babies only reaffirms my love for him. Not only is he the best husband I could have ever hoped for, but I know he's going to be the perfect father for our children. I can't wait to give him babies and watch him care for them, though I know I'll need to cherish the nine-month pregnancy, since, after they're born, I won't be able to get them away from their Daddy long enough to hold them again. :)

My boss' son is in Vietnam right now adopting a beautiful little girl. I know that, in the even that we can't get pregnant (yes, I know I'm jumping the gun after only four months, but I like to have plans for every situation...better to be safe than sorry...that's my policy), there are millions of little ones out there that need good parents. Hell, we could even get a little brown one to match Trav!! They'd be lucky to get a daddy like Trav!

Four Months And Nary a Hole Was Dug

Well, we're getting ready to enter month four of the Great Building Project and I am still the proud owner of an empty field. No hole in the ground. No foundation poured. No busy sound of saws sawing and hammers hammering. What we DO have is a whole lot of run around from the city. I think that between my builder (who is a lovely man, but definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed) and the city engineer (who seems to be a lazy forgetful moron), we're barely getting to the phase of the project where we're having final meetings and picking up building permits. The big plan is to dig on Monday, but we'll see. They did, however, go out and stake off where on the lot the digging guys need to dig, so we were happy to see SOMETHING being done.

On a happier note, Travis got a new job! WOO HOO!!! He's doing more software development, but it's totally different from Dentrix, so he's excited to be challenged again. He's working as a contractor and we're hoping that the company will do well, become a full fledged company with benefits and everything and he can become a real employee. But until then, we'll just sock away the extra money and keep our eyes out for other jobs, just in case.