January Farewells

Big changes for the Gowen family this year. We got to meet some family members for breakfast at Virg's to enjoy some more time together before saying farewell to the parents.

We wish we were around to help more with the move, but were grateful for the things we were able to do and help with.

And we look forward to seeing this family soon in Guatemala! See what Karen and Jessica have written about their adventures in their new home.

http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/

http://adventuresinguat.blogspot.com/

Making January Productive

I was feeling a huge need to unclutter our home after Christmas. We talked about it, and it was decided we should rearrange our home!

Here are some before and afters. Mostly befores.

Second Bedroom - This was used as our guest bedroom. Through December, it became the whatever room. The door was closed most of the time. It wasn't a happy place.

First Bedroom - This was used as our bedroom. Slightly more spacious than the other room, and a lot more closet space.

Front Room - Yep. You guessed it. This is the first room you enter when you come over to our house. Please notice the pretty tree and collection of Christmas cards hanging out on the closet door.

Now today, we're only focusing on the First Bedroom. We had fun moving things around.

And it was time for the wall vinyl to come off. It just wasn't going to work between the two bookcases, and it would clash with the theme of the new room.

Now, here is the First Bedroom. It's not completely finished, but it is done enough to share.

 

The First Bedroom is now the t.v. room / library. I love having The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights framed! I also love having page 3 of the Constitution modge podged onto the frame and the picture of us in front of the White House! I never thought I'd love having a rifle displayed on a wall, but I do. (It's a Gowen family ancestor who used it to settle the frontier.) I love being able to display the crystal vase, my first purchase from my days at OC Tanner.

Sean is so patient with my zest for this country. It feels like an actual room now! Hooray!

That's all for now. The move helped January to feel productive.

Things Before and After the Move.....

We moved. And we just had a fun Memorial Day weekend with Cindy. That will get its own post in a day or two, but for now... this is what we've been up the the last few weeks:

I got a new helper for the kitchen....

We went up north for Mother's Day.

We got to spend time with our wonderful mothers! They deserve at least 3 days dedicated to them a year!

See the skunk (by the lattice) ? His name is Eustace. He moved in, and we moved out the next day.

We watched the eclipse!

We're pretty much moved in now, but more to come later this week....after school gets out for the summer....

The Move

Since Sean graduated and I was still working at OCT, he was the one who did the majority of the packing. He made things go a lot easier!

We had a lot of help from family and friends. Whether it was giving us food, boxes, or help moving everything onto the truck.

Salt Lake Box Pile

Clean Apartment!!

Saturday, we decided to caravan to Moab with Sean in the lead. The car had a bulge in the front left tire, and I was not super excited to take the chance of a blowout.... Sean started down with the truck and I headed to the tire place to see if they could help me quickly. Two new tires later, and a record-breaking visit to the tire guys, I attempted to catch up with the truck. No such luck.

We had an hour to clean the house before our new Elder Quorum showed up to unload. There was a great turnout, the truck was emptied, and the house filled quickly. While we went to return the truck, a nice couple dropped off some snow cones for us to enjoy after a long day. Happy! 

Moab Box Pile

All in all it was a full, productive, and tiring day.

Scouting out Moab

 We went down the weekend before our move to find a place to live. Every hotel, motel, and inn was booked. It seemed camping would be our only option. As fun as that would be, we were not eager to camp and look for a place the same trip.

Sean asked around, and we were offered to stay at a vacant one room home with running water and electricity!

After checking out Moab, looking at our housing options (and finding the house we would love to live in one day), we decided on the one room house we stayed in over the weekend. Mission accomplished!


We also tried out a few new places to eat, drove to the big city: Grand Junction, and met some very nice people.