Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Meet Miriam & Leo!

Two weeks ago we visited an adoption event through the Best Friends Animal Society and we got two kitties!

Anthony loooooves cats, and I love cats, and now that we own a home, we can do whatever we want. I figured we'd wait a little while longer, but Anthony was ready. And then he told me we should get two. Which makes total sense, because they can play with each other while we're away, and cats are so low maintenance, that two isn't that much harder than one. Cats are underrated. They're so easy. 

Anyway, this is Miriam!

And this is her brother, Leo!

They both love laptops, laying on or biting the edge of.

Miriam is very sweet, quiet, and has been hiding a little more than Leo.

They love climbing and always want to go up. Except they're a little too small to jump on things, so I put a chair next to bookshelves and desks for levels.

They are good nappers. Sometimes they snuggle with us, and sometimes they don't.



Leo is more adventurous and takes the lead on exploring the whole house. We kept them locked in the family room for a few days to acclimate, but when we opened the doors, he was off and sniffing around.

They are quite playful with each other and with us.


We love these kitties. Plus, the internet is for cat photos, so I can contribute to that now.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Archives - March 2019

March stuff. Has anyone else seen anything like this? I know American Express merchants love to complain about higher swipe fees, but Visa? So weird/funny. This is at our Kroger grocery chain.


Through the magic of social media, I was able to get plugged into UWLP and participate in a panel on the impact Young Women leaders from church can have on Utah girls and teens. The outcome of our brainstorming session is found here. It's good stuff.

Meghan was in town for a dress fitting. And yes, the wedding has already happened and she's posted photos, so I'm not ruining anything. Her dress is amazing.

Qualtrics has their big customer conference, and Erin invited me to pop into the Imagine Dragons concert. They are quite entertaining and have so many hits.

It snowed again.

More house touring. Weird basement stuff.

This house is around the corner from our old place and had some potential. Needed some work and only had 1 bathroom, which is a deal breaker for me. But the neighborhood! We could've stayed in our ward which we love!


Another charmer closer to downtown and the ballfield. We almost put an offer on this. And didn't, so we felt like we missed it. And then it came back on the market a couple weeks later, but we'd already moved on. No garage/covered parking, and an absolutely gigantic backyward, which is more than I wanted to maintain. Plus potentially loud/annoying game day traffic?

With new nephew around, we took the nieces for a play date to exhaust their energy.


Trampoline park! And obstacle courses.






Anthony was way into it.


Got emails one day about a power outage in our neighborhood. Came home to find them working in our yard.

Back to Laziz. Always solid food.

Cleaning out my closet for a hopeful move. Said goodbye to this cute umbrella.

Niece Macie had a birthday!

She loved her backpack.

Here's the first house we "bought." Had an offer accepted and we pulled out after the inspection. We knew it would have work, it was just too much work. So much character here though. Great neighborhood near 15th and 15th. And unique floorplan. Oh well. Not meant to be.







Another house we really, really liked. Good location, very updated, but overpriced, said our agent. We put in an offer, but there were multiple, and didn't want to be in a bidding war.




The Black Queen show - tickets I'd gotten Anthony for Christmas. I really like their first album, but I found the live show quite boring. And it was a way more goth crowd than I expected. Anthony liked it though, so good present on my part.

March Madness time - the time of year where you have to figure out how to watch games without a cable subscription and when NCAA websites limit your time.

Another trip to AZ - this time for a reunion with Grandma Kleck's people. Anthony and I plus my parents are the only ones that made it from our family. We started out with a drive west of Phoenix to see some land the family is selling.

Then to find the graves of my great-grandparents.

Lunch at La Pinata - the best since 1970.

Back at Grandma's, helping prepare for cousin Shelby's bridal shower that evening.



Saturday - reunion day! We met at a park in Casa Grande for lunch and story-telling.

Cousins.


Then we headed out to the middle of nowhere south of Casa Grande to some land that my great-grandpa owned. It's an old mining area filled with cactus and surrounded by an Indian reservation now. Apparently we were supposed to get permission from the tribe to use their roads to get out there, but we didn't so.....


There's one concrete slab outside, but otherwise no structures or anything. And you need a four-wheel drive vehicle to manage getting out here. My mom remembers coming here with her cousins when she was a kid.


My grandma is the last of her siblings.

Anthony went treasure hunting.






So green and colorful this time of year. It was getting warm so we didn't stay too long, but I'm so glad I got to visit this place for probably the last time anyone in the family will see it.

Now on to dad's parents' house in Coolidge. Mexican food for dinner, always.

Right after arriving home, I had a meet up with college friend Stephen and his family. They'd been in town for spring break and were exploring Utah.


Pretty poke bowl.

More house hunting. More weird basements.

I tried out the new brownie place, and they are awesome!

Another house contender - not as great location, but lower priced, mostly updated, with some updates we could do to make it our own.

Would have to deal with a hole in the yard. They had chickens.

And destroy the bathroom.

But probably no way to easily get rid of this fireplace downstairs.

Found that in the garage.

And then the house we would buy! It sorta showed weird online. But seeing it in person made it a contender. And our agent really liked it. And the price was great.




All updated except for this magic room downstairs.

We quickly put an offer in once we heard about potential multiples, so we jumped and said yes to full price listing (which had just dropped a bunch) and soon the place would be ours.

FabFitFun - always a nice surprise of stuff.

More snow.

Two more house - this one is adorable with nice updates, but in a slightly not so great neighborhood.

But look at those floors! And the light!

And mom loved this one online and wanted me to see it, even if it was above our price range. It wasn't great in person. The basement is finished, but all chopped up and I don't know how we would use it. Plus they took away the garage to make the basement bigger.



Upstairs was pretty though.

Neighborhood cat.

Gross Buffalo Wild Wings.

But they have NCAA basketball so...

New boss has season tickets to RSL and couldn't use them one night, so she offered them to me. So nice.

Adios, March.

2023 Recap

Oh, hey there. It's been awhile. I disappeared for a bit. Everyone's doing their 2023 year in review today, and I figured I'd ju...

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