Guilty of not blogging more

This past week we signed the 4th and final (it better be) contract on a house.  After 4 months of looking we never found the perfect house so we are having one built.  Our closing date is September 15th and although it seems a ways off we are excited.  We love the house plan and the neighborhood and it feels like the right place to raise our family.  The hardest part about the wait is living in this apartment.  The dryer doesn't work and the dirty laundry is taking over the place as I get furthur behind.  Adam says that if I string a clothesline outside of the apartment our dryer would probaby get fixed soon.  Our kitchen area has flooded twice and yesterday I opened up a drawer in the bathroom that was full of water.  The plumbing in this place is really old and the maintenance can't keep up with the constant disasters.  Just about everything in this place has a problem and it takes them weeks to even do the little things.  Yes, I feel a little crazy but now that there is an end in sight it will be easier to deal with.   The fact that my eye surgery didn't correct my vision completely is frustrating as well.  Everything is pretty blurry and I go in for my 2nd surgery in June.  After that I should be seeing 20/20 according to the doctor.   Thank goodness Adam got me a GPS for my birthday.  Everytime I go somewhere I haven't been before it acts as my eyes since I can't really read the road signs. 

The other day on the way home from school the kids found a tortoise and she now lives in the boys room in a swimming pool of dirt.  She looks like she has been hit by a lawn mower and her shell has a crack.  It doesn't look like it goes into the flesh but from what I've read on the internet it has the possiblity of getting infected.  The kids keep asking for me to take it to the vet but I'm not sure vets do that sort of thing.  We've had her for 3 days now and she is still very active so she will probably be okay.  I guess tortoises are very common around here and it probably won't be the last one we find.  A man I was talking to told me that during the rain they will crawl out on the road and you can't help but hit them.  The first visual that popped into my head was the Super Mario Bros. but I imagine it is not funny at all.

The kids have another month of school and are gearing up for a fun summer.  They are taking swimming lessons at the YMCA right now and we will probably continue that through the summer.  The boys are playing baseball and all 3 older kids will be going to a week of summer camp.  We are coming back to Idaho for 2 weeks in June and we can hardly wait.   We all got a season pass to a theme park here (kind of like Lagoon) and to a water park.  I'm told it gets really hot here in the summer and there are a lot of fun water parks to try out.  There are quite a few places to go camping and fishing and since we are new here there are a lot of new places for us to explore this summer.  Now that the house is on order we can start checking out the area instead of looking at houses every weekend.   

I hope everyone is well.  We are doing great and the kids have adjusted pretty well.  Just yesterday, speaking for all of us, Naomi said with tears in her eyes that she misses her Grammie Joan.  Our lives right now would be absolutely perfect if all of you lived out here with us.  We miss everyone and are excited to see you in June.  Love you all.  Julie