Charles and I met in Ogden, UT. We were both attending Weber State University, and we were both renting apartments in the East Ridge Apartment complex, right below the Dee Events Center. I lived on ground level, and he lived upstairs on the 3rd level. I would watch him walk to the mail room, and his parking spot was right out our kitchen window. Proximity brought us together, and it was all downhill from there. Our history began right here...
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| East Ridge Apartments. It looks like they painted, must be under new management. ;) The landlord, Lenny, used to call Charles "bishop" because he wore a shirt and tie to work every day. He was one-of-a-kind. |
When I moved home for the summer (2001), Charles moved into Christopher Village, also on Harrison Boulevard in Ogden, and proposed to me at a park nearby. When we got married, in August, we made this our very first home as a family.
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| They also painted these apartments, they were blue when we lived there. |
While we were living there, Charles got a job in Brigham City. We started apartment shopping there and the pickings were slim. We were no longer in a college town. We ended up renting the upstairs of an old house in the middle of town. It had a huge deck, and was very cozy. And hot. The downstairs neighbors fought a lot, and we were able to hear all of their disagreements through the heat vents. This is where we lived when Brielle was born. We drove past the other day and were remembering our time spent here, and how Charles used to walk around on the deck talking on the phone.
We spent the summer of 2003 driving around Ogden house shopping. Charles had been transferred back to Ogden, and we were ready to buy. We found our "first house" and it had been foreclosed. The realtor told us to place a bid, and whoever bid the highest got the house. We offered a little above asking price and the house was ours! We moved in on October 17, 2003. Brooke was born while we lived here.
In the spring of 2005 Charles got offered a job in Orem, and our first home went up for sale. We put it up "for sale by owner" on a Tuesday and had on offer on Friday. And we made money on it! Charles didn't start his job until August 1st, and we had to be out of our house at the end of May, so we ended up renting a one bedroom apartment in the heart of Ogden right down the street from a 7-Eleven. Very convenient. We have fond memories of that apartment. Especially of Brielle yelling every night from her bed (which was against the wall we shared with the neighbor) "Don't spank me!!" I was sure DCFS would show up at our door.
Charles finally started his new job, and we were off to Heber. We had started building a house, and it wasn't completely finished, so we moved in with my dad from August 1st until September 21st. Which was move in day here:
We loved, loved this house. We had our boys while living here, my kids all learned to ride their bikes here, and best of all, we had awesome neighbors here.
We finished the basement ourselves, and absolutely loved it.
Our kids spent many hours on their "park" in the backyard.
We have so many great memories that we made here, our 2nd home. In March we started getting antsy. We were back and forth on whether or not we wanted to put money into this house to make some improvements, or put it up for sale. Interest rates were low, and things that we couldn't change, such as the size of the yard, and the size of the garage, kept coming into play. In the end, we made the decision to list it. I was officially listed on March 29th, and the chaos began. We didn't put a sign in our yard because we didn't want to draw any attention. We just wanted to see what would happen. Well, stuff happened. We had showing after showing. My kids were so incredibly tired of cleaning the house because "people were coming." Brielle kept saying, "Why can't you just tell them no?!" and "I'm not going to clean it, because if it's dirty they won't want it, then we won't have to move." They had a hard time with it all. We got our first offer on May 5th, it fell through because of finances 4 days later. Then we were back to showing it. Well, the first week of July both Charles and I had decided we were done. We were going to tell our realtor that weekend to take it off the market. That's when it happened, an offer we couldn't refuse. I got the call while were were on the lake teaching our kids to water ski, July 6th. We accepted the next day, and that was the end of it.
We spent the next month packing and hauling stuff to Midway, the storage unit, and my dads.
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| Here we are having lunch on the floor during a packing/cleaning break. |
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| Hot dogs on the floor. |
Brielle was probably the most heartbroken. She took pictures of every nook and cranny of that house. I'm talking inside the cupboards, holes in the wall where her earring hanger hung, and the inside of the empty storage rooms. She was not happy about it. At all.
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| Such a sad, empty house. |
Our house was officially someone elses on August 13th, 2012, one month shy of 7 years. Once everything was finally out, and we had said our goodbyes, we headed to grandpa Carlile's. We are living back in Valley Hills again.
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| Our first night at Grandpa's |
We are so appreciative of them letting us stay. I know it's a lot to take in 6 extra people, especially when 2 of those people are crazy boys. My kids seem to have adjusted well, they love being there.
And now, for the next chapter...we are building again...
Hopefully in December all of these samples will be full size in my new house...
which will sit right here...
And, rumor has it they are building a park right here...
The house behind the tractor is all that is separating us from this hopefully-soon-to-be park! Needless to say, we are very excited, and very anxious to get going.
Now for another big change, our St. George Vacation Home a.k.a Grandma and Grandpa's house, is also up for sale. We are so, so sad, but also happy for them and the new things in their future.
We will sure miss the pool, the shopping, and the golfing, but we will hopefully see more of Grandma and Grandpa up in our neck of the woods. Maybe they can help us put in our yard...hint, hint.
P.S. Everyone pray this house doesn't sell. ;)
Here's to a fall of new adventures!
