A post full of nature...

So we've lived at this apartment complex, Lakeview at the Bay, for almost a year now.  And it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that we realized that it was named that for a reason and that we actually live on lakefront property. Lakefront! Here in Arizona! Who knew?  And so a couple weeks ago, we spent a lazy sunday out at the lake.  See how pretty?:

Josh saw a turtle at the bottom of the lake, which luckily was only about 6 inches deep, so he was able to catch him:

(can you even consider this a lake when it's that shallow?)

The poor turtle was so scared, he wouldn't even eat the tortilla we gave him:

Josh wanted to keep the turtle, but I told him I was allergic to turtles.  And dogs.  And cats.   So we decided to feed the baby ducks:  

Anyway, I decided it was time to post again, so you get a story about ducks and turtles.  

We got our house!

Maybe.  Sort of.  We think?  So our offer on the house was accepted.  And we're supposed to close on May 15th.  But this is a short sale and everyone warned us that short sales could be difficult.  The bank just barely came back with some addendums, or whatever they are, which meant our inspection had to be pushed back.  And they still haven't turned on the water or the electricity for the inspection, which means it could be pushed back even further.  So hopefully everything will work out so that we can start moving by the end of May.  Wahoo!

We've already started looking at carpet and paint and a fridge and a washer/dryer and new cabinets and I'm so excited for some new things!  No more crappy apartment!  So anyone wanna come down and help us paint??  Julie, Heath, Mom, Dad-you know you want to!

Is anyone else kind of disappointed in the new Office episodes?  I think I've laughed like twice.

I have this image of myself as being much stronger than I really am.  For whatever reason, I've always wanted to appear as though I'm really tough--even though I can't lift 50 pounds.  When I was in college, a group of friends and I went on this canoe trip.  60 miles canoeing down the Green River.  They warned me it would be hard, but I just laughed-60 miles on a river?  How hard could that be?  Yeah, so it didn't matter who I was with, my canoe was always in last place.  And by the last day no one wanted to be my canoe buddy because I was such a wimp about it and eventually just stopped paddling all together.  

Some people in our ward take this trip down the Grand Canyon every year.  18 miles.  In one day.  All the way down to the bottom and then straight back up to the top.   My response:  "Wahoo! Sounds like fun!"  See how happy I was before we started:

Here's the whole group.  The leader, Ed, made us all hats that said "Club Ed" on them.  They were awesome:

One hour into the hike and my legs started shaking.  I kept on twisting my ankles, I packed waaay too much stuff in my camelback, and lets face it, I'm just a wimp.  I was pretty much done after the first hour.  And this was all on the downhill part, which was supposed to be easier. Here's how sad I was after twisting my akle for the 50th time: 

(I can't figure out how to rotate this picture, so you're going to have to turn your head)

When we got down to the campground at the bottom, we saw everyone else setting up their tents, getting ready for bed.  And we hurried and ate our hot dogs (I ate PB&J) and then packed up to go right back up the mountain.  It was basically 7 miles of stairs to the top.  My legs have never hurt so bad in my entire life.  When we finally got back to our motel at 1 am, I couldn't even lift my legs to take my shoes off.   It was about three days before I could walk without limping.   

More pics from the trip:

It was definitely pretty, but was it worth it?  Maybe, but I'll never do it again!

Movie Review--Michael Scott Style

We're not much of movie goers, but we have seen a few newish ones lately.  So I though I would share my opinion of them.  Michael Scott style.  And if you watch The Office, then you'll know what I mean.

Juno.

Four gold stars!  We actually really liked this movie.  Ellen Page is hilarious and we laughed through the whole thing.  I had one friend who said she didn't like the whole independent feel of it.  But it is an independent film so...

21

B-.  Not our favorite film, but I have seen worse.  It was like 2 hourse longer than necessary and had lots of bad acting spots.  We loved the part where the teacher called the main guy mean names. Like "infant."  Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

27 Dresses

2 thumbs up!  Probably the best chick flick I've seen in awhile.  Luckily I got to watch it with a bunch of girls who swooned with me, rather than with my husband, who would have made mean comments throughout the entire show.  He always likes to comment on how all chick flicks are the same and they're not realistic, blah, blah, blah.  Of course it's not realistic.  And that's why we like it!

Now I just need to get out a notebook and find a conversion chart...

Dream house!

We've found our dream house. We just hope we can get it. It's in a great neighborhood, just the area we (meaning Lars) wanted. And waaaay cheaper than any other home we've looked at. We're waiting for our realtor to find out if the bank has turned down any other offers, so we can get an idea of how much to offer. I'm so ready to be done with this tiny one-bedroom apartment that has two TV's in the living room, surrounded by a bean bag that takes up half of the room. And don't forget a bedroom that has more RC cars in it than it does pairs of shoes. That's just not right!This house has four bedrooms-plenty of space for people to finally come visit us!

Here it is!


It's a foreclosed home, so the previous owners left in a hurry, and apparently they forgot half of their stuff:


There's alot of work that needs to be done, like new carpet and painting, but I just figure that's what Josh is for, right?

I'm actually thinking I shouldn't get so excited, since we haven't even made an offer, but I'm just so ready to be done with this apartment!