Piece of Dirt

Lance and I have been trying to keep things on the down low since nothing is finalized, but last night with the help of our friends and their great interrogating skills I guess we are good now to share our news.....

Lance and I had been toying with the idea of beginning the building process but was hesitant because we hadn't found a lot we loved yet.  The beginning of November I spotted a DREAMY lot.  It's located in the heart of Draper right off of 300 East.  A flat, .54 acre, grassy, lot in a cul-de-sac.  EVERYTHING we've wanted and have looked for.  A little worried the lot would sell we contacted our friend who is a real estate agent and she informed us that the lot had two interested buyers, but no offers in as of yet.  Nervous that our dream lot would sell, we began our search for a builder. 

We scheduled an appointment to meet with Candlelight, and found that the cost of building was going to be too expensive and it wouldn't be the custom, personalized home that we've been wanting. So I turned to another company that I met back in 2011 at a home show and liked a few of their floorplans.


I called them impulsively on a Saturday when all Lance wanted to do was sleep and relax at home and dragged Lance out of bed to drive the journey to South Jordan (Daybreak) to see a model home. We loved the attention to detail the builder put into his home and the quality of his craftsmanship.  We also fell in love with his personality and began to be excited to build with him.  Dave, the builder and owner of Stone Brook Homes, is a contracted builder through Smart Choice and would most likely be our guy.

So a few days later, following a doctors appointment at the fertility clinic I ventured down to Orem, UT to talk with a company, Smart Choice Communities, about the possibility of building on a lot we found in Draper.  During our meeting we were going to discuss the cost associated with building and the procedure and plan for the next couple of months should we choose to build with them.    About ten minutes into the conversation we found out that the lot, our dream lot, was under contract... with us!   They had spoken to Dave the builder and had put in an offer to secure the lot should we choose to build!  I was dumbfounded and now the concept of having our own lot and building our own house was real.  This is happening!   We talked for two hours about the floorplan and cost and financing and decided to let it soak in over the holiday weekend.  The Monday after Thanksgiving we were able to speak with the lender and get our pre-approval process started and by the end of the day our financing was all aligned to build our home. 

front of the lot.  there is an additional one lane street behind the lot that we have access to.

somewhere in the middle of the lot.

the large piece of dead grass is from the barn that was recently torn down.

street view looking into the cul-de-sac from 300 east.

the lot is right below the letter A sharing a cul-de-sac with 3 other homes
you can also see the one lane road behind the house that we can use.

my favorite part is how close the lot is to a park with little baseball field and tennis courts (with an AWESOME running path around the entire park YES!!

The next week we were scheduled to meet with the architect, but hit a road block. The floorplan that I loved was going to be too expensive to build and out of our price range. They had missed 1000 square feet of the home when giving us our estimate. Super bummed I started over and began searching for smaller floor plans that would still fit our life style. With hopeful spirits we met with the architect, only to be entirely disappointed. Our agent wasn't able to meet us and show us floorplans due to a family emergency, and the architect didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. He began to tell us that any drawing up of floor plans he would do for us would cost $3000 out of pocket. He also slightly insulted us by telling us each and every room in our floor plan was small. "I mean..the dining room is small. You couldn't fit many people in there. The living room is just barely big enough to be comfy. The bedrooms are all small, ect..." We left extremely frustrated. How could a plan that was now out of our budget be classified as too small for comfort.

I immediately called our builder and we ventured back up to Salt Lake to meet with him and his architect, who wasn't going to charge us (yay!). We agreed on a floor plan where we loved the 4 bedrooms up stairs, but I was still unhappy with the downstairs layout. Over the next week Steve, the architect redesigned the main floor.

We received the updated down stairs floor plan just last week, but there were still things we wanted to tweak. We went to dinner at Su-Casa and talked all about the things we wanted to change or update and Lance says, "you know what would be awesome? if we could increase the height of the 3rd car garage to fit in a basketball hoop!" hahah!! I thought Lance was crazy and that there was no way we could do that, but a few hours later I mentioned it to the builder and he said that wouldn't be a problem! haha!  Oh the little things that make your husband happy!

Christmas Cards 2012

Lance and I debated back and forth about how our Christmas cards would go.  We had them all planned out then last minute decided we weren't going to do any at all.  With Christmas just two weeks away we decided extremely spur the moment to take some.  We planned them for Sunday dinner at Lance's mom's house.  Sunday rolled around and so did a HUGE snow storm.  We were bombarded with tons and tons of snow.  We decided that the snow wasn't ever going to stop so we might as well hurry and take them... and 15 minutes after we took them and had changed out of our wet clothes it stopped snowing. Here's a preview.

 Merry Christmas!!

Sunday: Animal Puppets

Whenever I watch Lance with kids all I think is... you'd make an awesome/fun/cool/hip dad.
Here's proof.

This is our primary class.  We have 3 kids and a guest and he had all 4 of them giggling and LOVING the bear and puppy puppets he just found towards the end of the lesson.

23.

I am officially the WORST gift receiver I know. A few days before we left for California I was bored at work and was wondering what Lance got me for my birthday (since he had implied that my presents were off my wish list.. which I thought was fill with things that were all too expensive).  During my boredom session I decided to pull up Lance's bank account and see just where my gift was from and I stumbled upon a purchase at bath and body works (which wasn't on my list, but I had mentioned I wanted some body scrub).  I just went on to assume all he got me was that and I was content with its simplicity (since he had purchased a purse for me back in August claiming it would be for my birthday).  The night before we left for California Lance asked if I wanted to bring my presents to California, open them now, or open them when we got home.  Since I secretly knew what the present was I said we could open when we got home.  Lance decided to give me one gift that night which was a lotion from Bath and Body Works.  

We ventured to California and spent the weekend indulging in the 40 mangoes my mom bought for us (yes... 40. Literally).  Every few hours Lance would grab a mango or two and devour its deliciousness. Our black Friday consisted of going to Wal-mart and Target and buying a few DVD's that were on sale..

 We went out one night to shop with my mom, but didn't find much- new makeup, shampoo and hair products, and new socks!! (I LOVE NEW SOCKS).  We ventured up to Santa Monica for an afternoon with my step sister, her boyfriend, and my brother.  It was nice having my brother around for the weekend even though we didn't do much, just ate and talked.  We also spent a good portion of our mornings helping my mom make lollipops for her company. 

my mom... working away.

On the morning of my birthday I decided to treat myself to a mani/pedi.  I am officially in LOVE with shellac and will be purchasing a UV light sometime in the near future.  I'm sure it isn't the healthiest thing for your nails, but it is so amazing to have your manicure look great for longer than 3 days. 

 When we arrived back home on Monday night Lance asked if I wanted to open the rest of my presents.  He presented me with a bath and body works git bag filled with more lotions and after smelling them all and thanking him for his thoughtful gift picking he tossed me another bag...

 I have been coveting this watch for the last couple of months and Lance went above and beyond and got it for me!  I am in LOVE with it. 

Happy First Winston.

I know I'm super late, but my beloved Winston celebrated his first birthday on 11/11/12.  He has been a joy and a pain over the past year.  His hyper nature tends to be a bit overwhelming and I'm pretty positive he doesn't realize how bulky he is because he tends to attach your face rather quickly with his teeth chomping in your direction. He's slowly getting used to being around people his own size (example below with little Minnie Collard).

 As you can see Ellie has already mastered the art befriending little people.   Winston has continued to pursue his cat-like side by always wanting to sit in a dining room chair... and hover over your shoulder on the couch. 

He has definitely brought a lot of excitement to our home, we love this furry chunk.

Almost not busy

Just to let those know who were wondering. Lance didn't get the Corner Canyon Head Coach position, but congrats to the guy who did get it!  He's a great guy and thank you to him for fighting for our country.

In other news, I just learned today two big things in regards to school.

 #1  Graduation will be on April 30th which is Less than 6 months (5 months 3 weeks and 3 days away!)

#2 My capstone on Labor and Delivery is scheduled for January and I just got my preceptors schedule!!!  One bummer to the schedule is the fact that she will be working on Wednesday and that is also the day that I have class, but hopefully missing 1 or 2 classes won't hinder things too much. 

I'm super excited to finally say that I will be graduated in less than 6 months.  It feels like I have been in school for eternity, but now things are winding down and I am so grateful for the skills and knowledge I have gained over the past 5 years of my higher education. 

Thanks to BYU for teaching me that being perfect isn't everything and faith is everything.  Thanks for giving me wonderful professors who enjoyed teaching and brought out the passion from within me.  Thanks for the dreadful testing center and having the agency to choose when I was ready to take a test instead of marking it with a set time and place.  Thanks for the big stairs and spacious campus... my legs looked wonderful and toned thanks to you.  Thanks for accepting me as a student and giving me numerous scholarships to provide me with essentially a free college experience.  Thanks for my bachelors degree, and although I'll never use it for what it is, I'm grateful to have it.

Thanks to Eagle Gate College for accepting me into the nursing program literally a week before classes began.  Thanks for the flexibility of working with students and their busy work and personal lives.  Thanks for being close-ish to my house.  Thanks for providing me with adequate knowledge to make it in the nursing profession. 

Less than 6 more months and my signature will officially be Christine Gummersall RN.

:)

new news

update on trying to conceive blog.

wishing and hoping.

Lance has been the head sophomore coach at Jordan high for the last 5 years.  He has loved getting to grow and mold these young boys into mature, polite, determined, and wonderful men, and from what I've seen he has done an amazing job.  We love the players and parents of Jordan High and have been so blessed with wonderful friendships through this basketball program.  Opening next fall will be a new high school in Canyons School District, Corner Canyon High (Draper High).  From the looks of things this high school is massive and beautiful, just like the city itself.  There has been speculation as to who will get the head coach position at Corner Canyon and while Lance feels its a long shot he applied for the position.  We were hoping for an interview to at least allow him to practice his interviewing skills, but wishing for the long shot of getting the position.

Here's to more interview experience!!

A summer full of fun

Over the last couple months we have taken numerous trips with our group of lovely friends.  We have had so many hilarious moments from truth or dare to made up games with massages, and fun children.  We are so very blessed to have such amazing friends and I am truly grateful to my hubby for keeping his friends from middle and high school so close because their wives are awesome!  It's so fun to know that regardless of the trip everyone is going to come and we are bound to have an incredible time.

Chubbuck, ID 2012

cousin wedding

10k 1st place age group

tubing with cousins

Farewell

Bear Lake 2012

little minnie

fall photos

mia

mia liam and minnie

so darling!  Liam and Mia

Everyone- The Greens, The Gummersalls, The Larsons, The Masons, The Collards (not pictured)

Saint George 2012

the boys

the girls

fitting 3 sets of clubs in our new trunk

dinner date night

we LOVE texas roadhouse

always goofy

great tennis form

school and play.. robert trying to see his computer

saint george.

Just a few of our many journeys this summer.

No Life

I was superstoked to have a free weekend over September 22-23rd... if only I would have realized that a fun weekend up in bear lake would be followed by these two weeks.   

Yes. from Sept 27th -October 8th I will have worked EVERY SINGLE DAY.. 

Yes. that is 12 days in a row. Crazy? I think yes.   Luckily after 12 days of straight working I get to go to St. George for a weekend of R&R with my husband and good friends.

 Hopefully my midterms will turn out okay after a weekend of relaxation and sun.

TTC

For those following my blog in regards to our fertility journey click on the above TTC on the menu bar and it will link you to our other blog.

I wanted to separate the two so i had all of the fertility stuff in one place.

Stranded. Cali Bound.

Stranded.
Last Saturday on my way to work my battery light turned on.  I wasn't quite sure what it meant so I headed towards two different shops only to discover they were closed on Saturdays.  Ignoring the light I continued to drive towards work.  On 1300 East and 100 North my car decided to literally DIE.  Stuck on the beginning of a hill I was in panic mode.  I had to be to work in ten minutes and driving wise I was only 2 minutes away, but I knew I would never make it in time.  I popped my hood and grabbed jumper cables and tried to wave down a cop who just waved back and drove away... (a hole), and then finally got a nice guy to pull over and give me a jump.  After numerous tries with one set of cables my car wouldn't take a charge.  Finally after changing the jumper cables (luckily I had two sets in my trunk) we were able to get the car started.  The nice gentleman began to drive away, I switched my car into Drive and DEAD.. again!  The guy pulled back around and tried to give me a second jump. Same thing happened with dead being the final result.  Luckily Debi was close enough by that she was able to pick me up and drive me up the huge hill to work.  Lance and Russell came by later to deal with the car and get it back to my house. 
Monday we drove the car to the shop and learned that the alternator had given out.  Half a day and 400 dollars later the car was drivable and was taken back to my house.  Later that night we drove the car to discover an awful screeching sound that got progressively louder the faster you drove.  With us leaving for California at 6am, there was NO way we were going to make it 800 miles with the car not falling apart.  We post-poned our trip to take the car back into the shop.  The alternator's belt was broken (I still don't understand why they didn't know that from the day before) and after 2 hours and 50 more dollars we were headed south....

Cali Bound.
Last Tuesday Lance and I hit the road and headed south.  By 1:30 we arrived in the heat of Las Vegas (I'm still unsure how I lived in that heat for 15 years of my life).  We met up with my dad and had a nice lunch that consisted of Tropical Smoothie and Raising Canes before we hit the road once again to make it to California before dark.  It was a long ten hours in the car filled with movies, great conversation, and sleeping.
Getting to California safely was such a relief.  We were tired and just enjoyed the remainder of our night catching up with my family and watching netflix (Lance's new addiction). 
Wednesday we headed towards Newport where we enjoyed a lovely meal of seafood at the Crab Cooker followed by an afternoon and evening of shopping with my mom.  It's pretty hilarious to see the difference in Lance's mood and attitude towards shopping with my mom verses just with me.  Because of my mom's stubbornness she refuses for us to buy anything when we are with her.  This really spoils us because the second we go to a mall without her neither of us wants to look at anything...
We spent the night on our computers looking up new cars.  We never intended to get a new car, but to see what our options were...
Thursday we enjoyed some more family time in the morning and then headed out solo to test drive some cars.  Not really wanting to commit to anything we went to Lexus and test drove the IS 250.  It was a bit on the smaller side with an impractical trunk so we then headed to Acura.  Once at Acura we test drove their newest model the ILX.  It was perfect! 4 cylinder so it was decent on gas mileage, but with enough pep. White with tan leather. Classy and sleek.  After numerous hours of negotiation we decided to lease a new car instead of continue the road of nickle and diming with the Acura TL that we currently owned.  After the number crunching it was a better "investment" to lease a new acura with a decent monthly payment and take the equity that was in our TL and put it towards Lance's student loans.  It also has given us a little peace of mind knowning it isn't going to break down anytime soon. 
Friday we went to Sushi with my family and spent the afternoon swimming and shopping.
Saturday we woke up at 6am and went to IHOP with my mom (she insisted) and hit the road to Vegas to make it in just enough time to greet everyone at my cousin's baby shower (we just barely missed Elder Hollands son.. dang it).  Another afternoon swimming and shopping was concluded with a lovely dinner with my dad, brother, and brother's girlfriend at my favorite restaurant Lucille's Smokehouse!
Sunday was another early day of driving with us leaving Las Vegas at 5:30am and Lance driving the entire way to Salt Lake- bless him and his ability to be alert and functioning in the mornings!

Overall our trip consisted of a lot of driving with equal amounts of shopping and eating! My mom is hilarous when it comes to food and insisted on taking us to nice restaurants every day and filling us with snacks and other treats what felt like every 2 hours.  We are so blessed to have my mom so willing to help us and give us advise on a lot of things shes experienced that we have yet to stumble upon.  She is a very wise and generous woman whom we LOVE to death!



local grocery store grand opening. Can't even walk with all the people and carts!!



Outlets at Orange- Enjoying some kettlecorn as we shopped around

Driving home.. Finally. Lance spent the entire drive from LV to SLC with one head-phone in listening to movies so I could sleep with just the music on!

At the Sushi Buffet



Test driving the new car



Buffet Time