Reflections of 2012

The year 2012 was a busy one with lots of memorable events. (Some of these may not be the exact month, but they're close).

March:*I chopped off more than 8 inches of my hair that I had been growing out for three years
            *Aunt Judy passed away suddenly
            *Stephen returned home from Georgia after 6 long months of me missing him

April: *Stephen and I celebrated three years of marriage on a romantic getaway to Park City
           *We bought our first house
           *Jaidin Pettingill was born

May: *We attended Scott and Heidi's sealing in the Logan temple
         *We moved into our new house, and the first thing we did was plant a garden full of potatoes, 

             squash, peppers, carrots, onions, and peas

          *We stayed at Grandpa's cabin in Elba and toured the City of Rocks, as well as visited a few
             grave sites of Pettingills past. This was Stephens first time in Elba
           *Grandma Pettingill passed away

June: *We started construction on our living room

          *We brought Toby home from the Stockdale farmstead

          *We attended the Watson family reunion in Boise where I won most creative and overall best

             wizzy for my garden stakes

July: *We attended the Stockdale family reunion in Twin Falls where I dislocated my left thumb
            playing volleyball
       
August: *Stephen went to Las Vegas with his dad and brother for the fantasy football draft
              *Stephen went on the boys trip with all the Pettingill men to Riggins Idaho for a three day
                white water rafting trip. This was another first for Stephen--a boys trip and white water
                rafting
               *Aunt Kathy passed away suddenly
               *Stephen got a pay raise!

September: *Nathan was baptized a member of the church
                   *Ella was baptized a member of the church
                   *We saw Frank Caliendo at the Utah state fair
                   *We finished the remodeling of our living room

October: *We harvested five ping pong ball-sized red potatoes from our 12 potato plants, two
                 hubbard squash, zero peppers, two small onions, zero carrots, and a small handful of peas
                from our garden
               *We enjoyed a wonderful Washburn family vacation at Disneyland for a week. Stephen and
                 I visited some of his old areas from his mission in L.A., and we witnessed a big victory for
                 the Denver Broncos at Qualcomm stadium in San Diego against the Chargers

November: *This is the month our house decided to leak from every nook and cranny-from the
                     bathroom and kitchen sinks upstairs to the roof and the flooding in the basement
                     bathroom.
                   *We saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert
                   *Owen Kettle was born
                   *Stephen and I hosted our first Thanksgiving at our house with both our parents

December: *Stephen, along with a few friends and family members, put a new roof on our house
                   *The main room in our basement flooded due to a clogged outside drain
                   *Grandpa Pettingill moved out of his house off of briarwood and into his duplex
                   *Toby got into a nasty cat fight resulting in a couple of bites taken out of his shoulder
                   *We celebrated Christmas with the Pettingills in Twin Falls
                   *Loren and Josh took Stephen and I snowboarding at Brighton to teach us a thing or two

Looking back on this passed year dispite the trials we faced, there were many more triumphs and we have been and continue to be blessed everyday. Even though not all things have gone our way, I know that our father in heaven has his eye on us and loves us. He knows what in our best interests and looks forward to seeing us overcome our challenges. May this new year of 2013 be as abundant as 2012!

Christmas 2012

 I loved my visit home for Christmas. I really wish I could've stayed longer and made rounds to all my siblings' houses, but this year Stephen and I both got sick with colds a few days before Christmas and Mom and Dad were sick, so we all just laid around the house being sick. I always look forward to Christmas Eve to see the whole family and I especially liked that Grandpa was there with us.

 I didn't get any picture of Christmas at our house when we got home. We stopped by Loren's house for a quick dinner on our way back from Twin. We didn't start opening gifts until about 8:00 that night and boy was I beat, but a great Christmas!

Odds and Ends

A few weeks ago Stephen and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. I had heard about the concert for months and really really wanted to go. I looked up the ticket prices and they were upwards of $75 and higher, so I was disappointed knowing we couldn't afford two tickets. One week before the concert I looked them up again to see if anything had changed, and sure enough, ticket prices plummeted by half of the lowest cost. I got to go to the concert after all. After the first two or three songs started, I almost regretted my decision to come because the songs were starting to sound the same and there were so many laser lights blaring in my eyes.

It turned out to be one of my favorite rock concerts I've ever been to. Its funny because the whole thing was an orchestra meets 80s rock band meets Pink Floyd. We gave them a standing ovation so the encore ended up being another 45+ minutes long! We were there for three hours rocking out to Christmas music. Here's a little taste of what it was like.

 We got our roof all finished two weeks ago before another big winter storm dumped five inches of snow on us. Stephen was so glad to be done with it as were the people who came to help him. I didn't do a whole lot to help out besides pick up trash, nails, and shingles all week in the cold. I believe we were lucky it didn't snow those two weeks they were on the roof--more like blessed, so I decided to bake some goodies for all those who came to help us. I spent hours in the kitchen making caramels, puppy chow, chocolate pretzels, and two kinds of sugar cookies as my meager thank you to our family, friends, and neighbors.

I love my little Toby so much. We had to take him back to the vet again last week because he just wasn't getting any better; his poor little bum! Two days after his visit he started to heal right up and he's as good as new. No more going potty on my floor and having to clean it up or locking him in the laundry room and him being mad at us. He would literally attack Stephen and I when we locked him in his room because he hated it so much. He would hiss and bite and scratch us, so I am relieved that is all over with.

This has been one of the busiest holidays I have ever had. I haven't hardly had any time to sit down and rest a bit. I usually have all my Christmas shopping done by the beginning of November because I hate crowds and if I have to shop for Stephen's birthday I might as well do most of Christmas too. This year I finally finished the week before Christmas. We're going to have Christmas in Idaho with Mom and Dad this year. I would've liked to have Christmas at our house Christmas morning, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of being "home" with my parents and family.

We had December craft day this last weekend at Anne's house. I rode up with Aunt Nancy and her girls and had a really nice time talking, and laughing, and catching up with all of them. Craft day was fun, as usual, but very short lived. I don't think I even said hello to everyone it went by so fast. I didn't get any pictures either. I had so much to tell my mom and sisters, but I could hardly get a word in with all the people and food and gifts. That's why I'm excited to go back this weekend for a few days.

We had our ward Christmas party two weeks ago and I was pulled into the middle of it all. I was asked to help decorate and cook, Stephen played his guitar and sang his favorite Christmas song "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and I also helped the primary with their nativity scene. Stephen went on stage right before the primary, but I had to go back stage to help them into their costumes. I was hoping to give my phone to someone to record Stephen singing, but I was too late. I missed the first verse so I just stood there listening to him play. The ward loved him! He and I both got lots of compliments. He sung the first verse in Latin and the rest in English. He had practiced for weeks. The bishop came backstage and found me and said, "Your husband was so good! I will never look at you two the same again." I said, "Why is that?" He said, "Because, you're the wife of the guitarist. He was amazing!"

We are preparing for another winter storm this week. Its supposed to last for several days. I just hope it lightens up enough on the weekend so we can get to Idaho and back!

House Update

Since a few weeks ago when our whole house was leaking, we completely forgot that we purchased a home warranty when we bought it back in April. I actually received a postcard in the mail from our warranty company reminding us not to forget to use it. If I had known about this several months ago I could've saved myself another $600 on plumbing we had done right after we moved in! Lucky for us, all our plumbing, electric, and appliances are all covered, so the leaks in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom sinks are fixed AND we get a new disposal for free. The leak in the downstairs bathroom floor was a bit harder to find out where the source of the leak was coming from. Fortunately for us, it was not the foundation as we had previously thought (thank goodness). The leak was coming through the wall from our furnace. Yes I said furnace; I had no idea a furnace could leak water, but apparently it can, who knew? So that was an easy fix.......however.......

The roof. I had a roofer come out to take a look at the gaping hole in our garage ceiling that had collapsed on our car and our living room leak. He climbed on the roof and came back two minutes later and told me there was no way he could fix it. We would have to redo the entire roof. I mentioned to him earlier that we had just purchased the house eight months ago. He asked if we had an inspector come out, and I replied with a yes. I told him our inspector told us the roof was just fine and had several years left on it. He said, "really? He must have known the sellers because anyone who has looked at this roof could've immediate known that it needs to be redone. If he would've caught that, you could've had the roof paid for by the seller before you bought the house and moved in."

I was in disbelief. Not only were the shingles bad and had holes all over the roof, but there was a whole list of things that needed to be replaced and fixed. He quoted me at $7,300 for the whole thing which actually isn't too bad for all the things we needed done, but there is no way we could pay $7,300 out of pocket right now. I had a second roofer give me a quote and his was $10,000 so that didn't help either.

Well I was curious, so I looked back through our inspection notes to see where the inspector went wrong. Come to find out, the inspector didn't actually GO on top the roof he USED BINOCHULARS from the yard to inspect with!!! I could not believe that, I was, and still am angry about the whole thing. He also put a stipulation in his notes that he is not a licensed roofer and we should not take his word for it about the roof. REALLY?! What about the rest of the inspection on the house, are we not supposed to take your word on it because, although you are a LICENSED inspector you are not an expert in the field of construction, plumbing, electric, or appliances??? Give me a break!!! Grrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, so Stephen decided he'd rather do the roof himself to cut down on costs. We had a bunch of help from his friends, our family, and ward members. We couldn't have done it without all of them. So they started tearing shingles off yesterday afternoon until late in the evening, and they are still working on it tonight. We still have a few more days of this before its all finished, but the hard part is done, and boy am I glad. I hope I never have to do this again. It is hard work! We had to rent a gigantic dumpster, and despite the howling wind and rain Stephen is still working on it. So merry Christmas to me, a new roof!