waiting game

Well... we found a place

{I am trying not to get too excited about it}

We are now just waiting.....

Waiting for them to hear back from all our references.

They told me to switch all the utilities over to my name

and get rental insurance and a copy as proof to them-

that's a good sign right?

I am getting SO sick and tired of waiting

{I am very impatient.... at times}

Everything is ready to go....

Family is all on standby ready to come move

I'm ready now!

Summer Cuts

We finally got the Dilly's their summer hair cuts- its been so hot in the house with no AC that Nico is shedding like crazy- I finally had enough!

Nico is loving it- I am sure she was burning up all the time before

I have to go buy her a new collar today because she lost so much fur that even on the smallest hole it almost slides off over her head!

(Chris usually monitors me when I buy new stuff for the Dillys- they are both girls so I also go for pink but Chris gets mad because he doesn't want to walk the dogs with pink leashes and collars- I am TOTALLY going to buy a pink one today- and by the time he gets home from work it will be too late because I will throw away the tags- HAHAHA!)

Zira looks so goofy- she had so many mats in her fur

I told them to just shave her

We call this look

Stranger Danger

Because she seriously looks like a completely different dog when she is shaved

Here she is after her haircut

And here is Zira shaggy before the hair cut

Don't tell me that doesn't look like two different dogs!

I prefer the before picture- I vow I will be better at taking them to the groomers so she doesn't get as many mats in her fur and we don't have Stranger Danger roaming around for a month.....

Four

4 years

I really can't believe its been that long

although..... some days it feels like MUCH longer

Despite everything over the years

we've made it this far

Here's to many more.

{ and all of you that who I am sure are wondering-

no we are no having kids anytime soon

so don't worry about it.

You'll know when it happens.

Just thought I'd clear that up :) }

still?

I kind of feel like the universe may have another plan for me other than what I think I am supposed to be doing. Actually I am quite sure of it.

Stay

or leave??

I really wish someone would just tell me already- I am getting SO sick of trying to guess

I always seem to guess wrong

still looking......

the search is still on

(in more ways than one)

I am trying to leave all the boxes intact

but it gets really hard because

EVERYTHING is packed

Clothes, Makeup, Food, Dishes, Cleaning Supplies....

Literally everything- so I have to keep peeking in boxes

the hunt is still on-

Chris goes back to work tomorrow :(

{although it has been somewhat fun being together-

just no fun activities so that really put a damper on things}

We did find one potential place

{I LOVE IT- Chris- not so convinced}

It's at the top of our budget

but good location

{right where I wanted to be actually}

and its

new

CLEAN

for now we are still looking

that unit doesn't come available till Wednesday

so we are going to keep looking today

and hopefully decide by tomorrow

wish us luck.....

Moving Day!

Moving day has come and gone

and

we have not moved.....

All our things are packed in boxes

All our food, clothes- EVERYTHING

You see- we went to go do the final walk through on our new place

and- it was FILTHY, DISGUSTING, SMELLY, DIRTY

NOT somewhere I was going to live

We first walked through the place well over a month ago

somewhere between then and 2 days ago--

EWWWW

The landlord tried to get it cleaned up

its a lost cause- there is no amount of cleaning to get that cleaned

So.......

the search is on (again)

We are entirely packed

Chris has to go back to work Monday

We spent all day yesterday searching

Everything is dirty!

I mean yes I am a fairly clean person

but I mean COME ON!

JUST CLEAN THE PLACE UP!

We went through at least 4 places that we couldn't get out of fast enough!

A few others that just won't work for us.....

and back at square one.....

So we must find a place

(like today!)

So please if you know of somewhere

CLEAN

{ and allows doggies :) }

Please email me!

We are going to be searching all day today

and we really need to find something!

shalane.egbert@gmail.com

May the force be with us.....

{ before we kill something or each other }

feeling tired

Packing/Organizing/Cleaning

takes it out of you.

but I tell you when its 87 degrees in the house

Well.... it sucks

I feel like I am going at a snails pace today

Luckily my mom, mother in law and Lisa (sister in law)

are gracious enough to come over to the hot box

on Thursday and help finish it all up

Poor Dilly's- I think they are dying of heat exhaustion

All they do is lay on the tile

Occasionally I spray them with water to cool them off

they aren't so convinced that I am helping when I do that.....

Good thing I have a week off work-

its going to take that long to recover

KSL

At about 5:00 yesterday it reached 91 degrees in the house

It was seriously unbearable!

Both the dogs were getting over heated and throwing up-

it was so sad!

So me and the Dilly's packed into the car

for a drive with some A/C!

We drove around for about an hour

with the A/C on full blast.

By the time Chris got home from work-

both the Dilly's were on the verge of heat exhaustion-

and as for me- well I was in less than a good mood.

(fun site to come home to)

So we took to KSL to get a portable A/C unit-

I know you are probably thinking-

why not just get the A/C fixed?

Well our thinking was-

It's 7:00 on a Saturday night,

chances are we will have to pay extra

for someone to come out and look at it,

(Chris came to the conclusion that the fan was broken??)

Service Call, Parts, Labor- upwards $300 ish?

So we decided if we are going to spend the money-

why not spend it on something that we can take with us?

So we found us an A/C unit on KSL

for half of what we probably would have paid to fix our unit.

So now we are loving the A/C.

We have barricaded ourselves in our Bedroom

with our cold air-it's so nice.

The Dilly's are loving it too.

Thanks KSL for another successful purchase

yuck....

I don't even like being outside when it's 87 degrees.....

a night at the park

Lanie: "Oh good Honey, I put my camera in my bag to take some pictures on our walk."

Chris: "Oh ok"

*click*

*click*

Lanie: "Hmm, I really do not know how to use this camera. I can't ever get a good picutre- there are like 1800 different settings to choose from how am I supposed to know which one is best??"

Chris: "Just try taking the flash off, thats what your problem is"

Lanie: "Oh ok, oh right here ok perfect"

Chris: "And don't zoom in so much"

*click*

Lanie: "Dang- still no good"

Chris: "Try a different setting"

Lanie fiddles with camera, finally finding the "Outdoor" setting

*click*

Chris: "You turned the flash on again- here let me do it"

Lanie hands camera to Chris

Chris proceeds to fiddle with settings for a few minutes.......

Chris gives camera back to Lanie

Chris: "Ok now try it"

*click*

*click*

Lanie: "Its still not working....."

Chris: "Well stop zooming in, and (!?!) the flash is on again- what did you do??"

Lanie: "I don't know- I just want to take pictures"

Chris: "Here, I will do it"

*click*

*click*

*click*

Chris: "Let's just remember our memories ok??"

Lanie: "Ok"

officially done

ITS TOO DANG HOT!

No A/C.

Even when I come home and turn the fans on and open the windows....

its hours before it cools down

Last night I swear even at midnight I was STILL dying....

I keep telling myself

10 more days.....

It's starting to make me have serious anxiety about the whole thing....

eeeks....

I knew the day would always come that we would eventually leave

I guess I just didn't think it would ever really come I guess.

Oh well.... I'm on temporary strike from packing.

I keep looking around the house and thinking

"Oh, now that would look really cool

smashing to the ground if I threw it out the upstairs window-

I wonder what it would really look like...."

stink be gone......

there isn't really a lot I can say about this

a friend told me about it a few months ago- at first I laughed

I couldn't imagine that someone actually thought this up!

seriously- check it out

I got some a few weeks ago

no joke its works!

Benny and the Jets

A while ago I got fish.

I don't really know why- just had a sudden urge to have fish.

It was almost like some sort of weird peer pressure

A lot of people at work have fish on their desks- so I decided I wanted some.

The first batch.... well.... we will leave it at "the first batch"

BUT

the second round has been much better- who knew paying $2 for fish got you a much more resilient fish! I have a little goldfish and a black moor. They seemed to do just great on my desk and they even survived the long weekend with no food (I know! it's sad!) At first it was great- they would just swim around and eat and it was quite entertaining watching them on long phone calls. I hadn't named them in fear their fate would be the same as Fat Fred and Gob their long lost relatives. But one day Telden (my brother) decided they need a name. So after much contemplation (not really- I was shocked even at how quickly he got the idea) the name was decided. My goldfish would be "Benny" and the moor would be "the Jets".

Everything was great at first! But after a while I couldn't stay on top of keeping their bowl clean! I can barely get MOST of my work done in a week let alone clean a fish bowl. So I decided Benny and the Jets needed to move home. My mom and I went to Petsmart and picked them up a fancy new fish tank with a handy cleaning filter (yay!). I have been staring at the tank for, oh, a week now trying to decide how to jazz it up a bit so that they can have a fun new home (since right now they are living in tupperware on the counter)

Well I finally found what I am looking for! Furniture- yes thats right furniture. I just got it ordered. It should be here from Great Britain in 2 weeks (they will just have to live without any furniture for a while). I also got some great "wallpaper" (scrapbook paper) to attach to the back of the tank and some great rocks to liven the place up.

I will post pictures as soon as I get it all together!

(I know random- I get bored at night while Chris is at work and lets face it decorating a fish tank- AWESOME)

cake pops- addendum

OK- so I pretty much have problems with the whole getting my hands dirty. No really, I avoid it at all costs. I approach pretty much any "finger food" with the two finger approach, only using the 2nd hand when absolutely necessary. I don't know why- I just do. And (as most of the Egbert's I'm sure have learned by now) I ALWAYS have to have a napkin- I also do not know why but it's like my security blanket- JUST in case my fingers get dirty.

Any who- I have made cake pops twice now and both times I have just dug right in and used my hands. Yes- it works. But I am also wondering if any one else knows of a different method? I just use my hands to mix them all up and then form them together.

I was pretty much hating it the entire time- yes they are good and yes it's worth it in the end.

BUT- there has got to be another way!

cake pops and plastic totes

Its another exciting evening in the Egbert house.....

Making cake pops for a bridal shower tomorrow

and thinking about packing more totes

I am starting to get to the point where I just want to throw everything into s stupid box

BUT- I am determined to be organized and not be kicking myself once we move

Honestly, I am starting to get REAL tired of it. I don't think that it has really been till like this week that I have really started to get tired of the boxes- I mean that pile has been in there since NOVEMBER. For real.

But for the sake of my OCD I will continue to sort, clean and pack my totes.

13 more days.....

I keep getting more and more excited to move which I am glad because I was worried that at this point is when the like depression would kick in- thank goodness it's summer or else I don't know how I would feel about it if it was dreary winter.

In the end it is still pretty sucky though, I keep seeing all these people buying houses or looking around for new houses and THAT makes me a little bummed- seeing we had/have a perfectly great house......

I haven't really gone into the details too much around here (mostly because I don't think that Chris would be very happy with it, because it....sucks) but I kind of feel like who cares anymore you know? Crap happens AND it wasn't our fault.

Wrong place at the wrong time.

Wrong industry to have a job in at the wrong time.

Bad timing.

BAD economy.

BAD.BAD.BAD.

Just bad all around.....

Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't.

But you know, despite the fact that after 3 1/2 years of fighting and giving up (nearly) everything we have for a house (a THING) that we really could/can live without.

I literally cannot imagine life without these experiences.

Someone once told me-

"most people say Trials Build Character- but thats really not how it goes-

Trials actually REVEAL the character that we didn't know we had"

That has really stuck with me.

As many times as we wanted to give up and stop fighting we really didn't.

I would never go back and change the past, I never would trade it for anything. It's been hard, DON'T get me wrong- but I am happy for what we have become together and all the many experiences we have gained from this.

It will take along time for us for this to finally be all behind us and I honestly can't imagine life without that added stress.

Most importantly I take away from all of this-

I have learned everything that I can live my life without and finally learned what was most important to me- and what I really needed.

the buzzer is ringing- time to cake pop it up.....

4th

I will start by saying

I AM AWFUL AT TAKING PICTURES

I think it stems from the fact that my (wonderful) husband

has a seriously inability to take a "decent" picture

We had a good 4th (5th) though! Chris was able to get the day off which was great!

We did the usual parade with the Wisemans- which is always fun! Even though I must say this year- the parade- not so great. But we still had fun!

The 4th was also Zira's birthday!

Oh our little Dilly is getting so old- 4 years now!

I cannot believe that we have had her that long now!

Happy Birthday Dilly

Little Zira in our first apartment- 6 months old!

How cute! I miss this little puppy!

speaking of......

speaking of goodies

I just found this recipe

I am a sucker for cupcakes

I think I will try these out next week

S'mores Cupcakes

cake pops

My sister in law introduced me to these

I am in the process of making my first ones right now

I got my recipe from this site-

which is now one of my favorites

for all sorts of great goodies!

I am using Devils Food Cake mix

and Cream Cheese frosting

and dip in chocolate

Yummy!

lonely little blog

I feel like our blog is probably pretty lonely. Some people may stop by and see it but for the most part its pretty quiet around here. Thats just how we are I guess. The last while has been challenging and we haven't had a lot of time to socialize with old friends and unfortunately some of them have probably gone. Truth be told I think we've just been waiting and time keeps passing by. I am feeling better and better as the move approaches and this beautiful house that we have lived in (enjoyed MOST of the time) has been such an incredible learning experience. I will share have to share the story another time as it is quite long and I know many of you do not know the details but I am sure many could guess just by reading back a while.

So for those of you who visit thanks! let us know so we can come visit you :)

3 weeks

in 3 weeks from now

we will be moving

I am really getting excited now

and I am ready for the next chapter