This Is The Place, Jefferson Place

Tomorrow will be our 1 year anniversary living here and it's gotten me thinking, and hoping that those 3 extremely nice men in our old ward don't still hate us for helping us move on the hottest day ever into a place on the 3rd floor.
Although she's not a beauty from the outside and being that she was last on our list of homes to see, we were pleasantly surprised when we came in. It's the most spacious condo I've ever seen with vaulted ceilings and tons of storage.
Here are a few reasons why we love our condo:
3. Your Standard Communal Amenities- We pretty much go swimming every day in the summer, there's a killer sledding hill for the winter (with a bunny or a death slope) and a newly updated clubhouse with a pool and ping pong tables we could reserve for parties. Eli would consider all the friendly neighborhood cats to play with to be the most important, plus, we don't have to feel bad about not getting him one. And I might just be the only one enthused about the new dumpster for paper recyclables, at least those I won't have to collect and drive across town to dump anymore.
2. It Is A Blank Slate-I don't know how the people before us survived 3 years with stark white walls, mini blinds in all windows, and carpet in their master bathroom, but we have changed all that. Being a first home and not too expensive we've been able to take some DIY risks with decorating and tiling (More on this to come). Luckily the place is new, 2001, so the plumbing and electrical systems that I have had to deal with during our beautification have been simple to handle, even for someone reading out of a how-to book as they go. Thanks to Eli's napping we have 5 rooms painted colors like tan, grey, sky blue, and even Kermit the Frog green. Tiling has happened on the fireplace, back splash, and master bathroom-Thank you Anna and Joe.
1. Location, Location, Location- We are seriously 1 minute off the freeway, so you must come see us when driving pas the 9000 S. exit on I-15. Especially exciting to me is the fact that we are two blocks to an entrance to the Jordan River Parkway where we can ride our bike (Eli has a kid seat on my bike) for like 10 miles past animals, a historical little shopping village, under bridges, and stop at playgrounds. We even ride out bike about a mile away to the closest mall and great shopping center across from it.
If this sounds like the place for you, I know of a few units for sale.

Idaho, As Far As We Travel These Days

In Mid June we went to Idaho for Brian's best friend, Amanda's wedding. When we are with Brian's family, Challis is all I hear about, mostly it's remoteness and the crazy people. But since his parents moved there hasn't been much reason to go a town that isn't on your way to anywhere and boasts a population of 900 or so. I could tell Brian loved it. He was always smiling and telling stories on the 5 hour drive. We saw the house he grew up in, where his Karate studio used to be on Main St.(now a computer parts store), ate at the two restaurants in town(one of which is the bowling alley), and even tried to go fishing until the utter cold drove us away.
It was good to see where Brian came from, the places that hold most of his memories. He ran into plenty of people around town and at Lavender Days. Amanda's outdoor wedding was picturesque and I finally saw part of what makes my husband who he is-outdoorsy, sentimental, hardworking and much more.

Boy

So we went shopping at our favorite market this morning and we've discovered a trick. Usually I have to go quickly before the boy gets tired of sitting in the grocery cart, but now we just give him his stroller and he walks along with us. It keeps his hands full and mind occupied. He gets lots of smiles from strangers, too. With or without the stroller and no matter of how much blue he wears, we always have one issue. People say things like, "She's so cute," or "How old is she?". Brian says he needs a hair cut and I think they're just confused because he's beautiful, so I don't mind.
Brian was gone last week in Hailey, ID to do martial arts and I thought it would be a nice surprise to get Eli a regular, conservative boy hair cut, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I just couldn't do it. This goes all the way back to when he was born and how all parents think their children are perfect. I just figure he's flawless naturally, just a trim to keep it out of his eyes. The only way I was able to go make it through the first haircut back in January was the fact that a recent photo shoot captured him in his unspoiled state(a photo from which you can see below). If you saw this child in the grocery store, what would you think, boy or girl?

Will I Have Anything Good to Say

I sure hope so, and Eli had better take some long naps if I'm going to end up posting anything with all my revisions and indecisiveness. Besides, friends and family, I want you to have something more exciting to read than Brian's meager and dull computer programming blog. I was just wondering-since motherhood and graduation- how long it had been since I created anything more substantial than a quickly jotted grocery list or email. Hopefully after all my toil at the keyboard a few of you important people may leave some comments so I don't feel so alone in this office during nap time. It seems we're all benefiting (Yikes, an inadvertent thesis) .