Master x 2 = One Happy Family

So, it has been a while since we sent a little love note to the fam. Well, here it is. We love you!

We have been working hard to make our home a little more "homey". However, we are quickly learning that it is going to have to come a little at a time. We just don't have the energy or the money to do it all at once. But, we just completed one of the biggest projects on our list. A garage door opener.

We realize that one of the joys of owning a home is not having to scrape the ice from your windows in the morning. Living in Idaho, we are thankful for our little one car garage. It is quite perfect for us. It just needed a garage door opener. That is where Ryan the Builder comes in (Yes he can!!). He can do anything. Seriously, I would have just paid the $160 fee for installation. Putting in a garage door opener sounds a little intimidating. On the other hand, I am proud to say that he accomplished his task and we now can open our garage without removing a screwdriver from the track first. But, perhaps we should have just paid the installation fee. It may have been cheaper. Lets just say that Ryan had a mishap with the bolt he was trying to tighten. Halfway through the project we ended up at the doctors office where Ryan received four wonderful stitches.


But he came home, finished the project and is happy as a camper to be able to park his car in the garage. Yeah!

Now, I am sure all of you are waiting in anticipation. I would like to proudly announce that we are now (Master)^2 (that is master squared for all you non geeks!) Ryan successfully passed his thesis defense today! Despite being sick and having a sewed up finger he went in and showed his professors who is boss. AND he did it all with his zipper down. Yup, he went through his entire presentation showing a little bit of xyz. Don't worry, the lights were dimmed for his powerpoint presentation and he was wearing a suit jacket. All the same, I feel I can publicly laugh at him! Ha! On a more serious note, I am super proud of him. I am amazed at what he has accomplished. He is the smartest man I know and I love him so much. We are happy to finally be finished with such a large task. We have had so many blessings from above and couldn't have done it without all of your support and the blessings of a loving Father in Heaven.

Thanks for everything. We love you all

Patricia

Here's Your Two Cents

We received a refund check in the mail. We have been getting a lot of those little checks. Moving does have it's perks. We have been refunded for Comcast cable payments, insurance payments, etc. Yesterdays refund was from the Title Company where we closed our house. Apparently we overpaid . . .

I can't believe they actually wrote out a check for 2 cents! It cost them more to mail the check than the check is even worth! I'm don't know if we'll cash this baby.

Ryan and Patricia

The Latest and Greatest

So, I thought it was time I updated everyone on the latest and greatest of the Davis household. Enjoy!

We finally closed on our home here in Idaho Falls. Wahoo! Just so you get a picture of what we are getting ourselves into, here is a picture of the house before any love. . .

Since this was taken we have faithfully watered the lawn, trimmed bushes, and cleaned everything. It has taken a lot of work, and will continue to need more work, but we are having fun. It is exciting to own our own home, and the work seems more like an investment than a terrible task.

For those of you who don't know anything of the closing process we went through, I'll fill you in. We bought the home on a short sale, meaning that the seller was trying to dump the house before it was foreclosed on. Thus, we got a great deal. However, we ran into a few road blocks along the way. Most notably, new lending rules for mortgages required that we have thirty days of pay stubs. Because we didn't live in Idaho Falls, nor work in Idaho Falls, we did not have any pay stubs. The bad news was that we had already put in an offer on the house by the time we found out about the new rules and were in the middle of house buying proceedings. So, we had to extend our closing date, move into the house, rent it, and hope that everything would work out so we would not have to move again. Stressful! But everything worked out beautifully. We were able to close two days ago and are now the official owners of the home. It is good we closed when we did too. We received a note on our door yesterday (it was for the previous owner) notifying us that the house was to be foreclosed on and sold in an auction in January. Apparently not everything from the sale had been recorded yet and so certain parties were not notified of the sale. Just so you know, everything is good. It did make us realize how close we were to not closing on the house at all. Hmmm. . .

Our first official act of making the house our own started with our shower. The shower head was super short and Ryan kept hitting his head. Even at 5'6" I had to scrunch my body to fit under the short head. Here is a lovely before:
Don't you love Ryan's sad face. Sorry for the blurry/side picture. And, here is the after!

Again, sorry for the blur picture!

In addition to having a short showerhead, the furnace on the house was shot. So, we have been living with a very cold house the past few days while we were waiting for the furnace men to come and replace the old original furnace (from 1961, wowza!) We have been sleeping with multiple blankets, here is proof! It is a good thing we are getting a new furnace today! No more ice feet!

Lastly, I thought I would add a little bit about what I have been doing the past month. As you know, when we first moved to Idaho Falls I was looking for a job. Most of the jobs here were low paying or quickly filled. Even with a master's degree I was struggling to find something that was good. As I was doing this I was also trying my hand a freelance writing on the internet. I worked my way through college writing my little buns off and so I have been able to transition nicely to writing for myself. A few weeks ago I actually stopped looking for a job because I thought I could make a go at this as a career. However, I haven't wanted to tell everyone because I wanted to make sure it was something I could really do. So this is my official shout out. I am a freelance writer! I have been and will be successful and I am excited. In addition, I really feel like this is what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I love writing and I will be able to continue writing from home if I want even after we have kids. I hope you all are excited too, thank you for being supportive.

We love you all so much. Stay tuned for more updates on the house and our lives.

Love

Ryan and Patricia