Budgeting

This is a story about budgeting.

After observing myself in the mirror a few days ago I realized that I needed to take action. I noticed that my highlighted hair was way grown out, and it was time to do something about it. Seeing that we are buying a house soon, I came to grips with the fact that we are going to be a little tight and I can't waste money on my hair all the time getting my roots touched up. So as much as I've loved the blond in my hair I came to a difficult decision . . . Go to beauty school, let Lamon do it, or dye my hair back dark. I decided to do the latter.

I might have gone overboard on the budgeting idea. I decided to go to the hair college (The same one that three years ago created the lovely shade of red . . . after two long four hour sessions . . . for those of you who remember). Anyways, before I went in Lamon said, "What ever happens, just don't cry when you come out." Well, I didn't cry . . . but I was in their for six hours with a poor girl who looked like it may have been her first day doing hair. And of course in came the thick haired scarred monster! Poor thing. The ordeal took six hours. It was passed closing when she finished, Lamon had to bring in Ada in the middle so I could nurse her . . . and my hair? Well, I will wait a while to post a photo! :) Let's just say I was going to title this post . . . "The Dark Knight." I will let your imaginations run wild! J/K. I actually really like it. But it is very dark. My neighbor made a comment about me dying my hair black. . . . It really isn't black, but it is pretty much dark.

Our Junior Ranger Cowboy Drew

I had to save the best for last. This is something that I am sure I will remember for a long time. While at Frying Pan Flats each day Grandma (Jane) Mack set up Grandma's Store for the kids. Throughout the day the kids could earn pennies from their parents doing good deeds and helping etc. and at the end of the day they could give these pennies to Grandpa to buy little things like coloring books, toys, and vhs movies from Grandma's store. Well Drew really got into this. He was super stoked about all the treasures he purchased from Grandmas store. Well, on the day that we went to Capitol Reef Lamon took the boys in to the Visitors Center so that we could get our traditional magnet for our fridge (we try to get one where ever we go). When they came out they got into the car and for the whole drive to the little Nature Center Drew kept talking about getting something at the store. I assumed he was rattling on about Grandma's store, but when we stopped at the Nature Center and got out of the car out popped two keychains from his pockets. He said, "Look at what I got at the store Mom?" I was just like, "Oh boy . . . " I then went on to explain to him that we couldn't take things from the store without paying for them. We made Drew go back to the Visitor's Center to give them back. He waited patiently in line and then handed the keychains to the clerk and said, "I didn't actually pay for these." Then the employee said, "Thank you Drew. Here, come with me Drew. I have something for you." He then pulled out a Junior Ranger Badge and handed it to Drew and said, "This is for being Honest!" Drew was Stoked. When he got outside he said, "I got this for being "Spanished!" We laughed at that. But he now knows after some explaining what being "Honest" means. He was so proud of that Junior Ranger Badge, he wore it for the rest of the vacation along with his white sailor hat, and kept saying, "I'm a cowboy!" So their you go. Drew is our Junior Ranger Cowboy fully equipped with a badge and a sailor/cowboy hat!

Gooseberry

After our little reunion with the Spencer F. Mack Family we went directly to the big Mack reunion. It was so fun. I love Lamon's family. I spend a lot of time wondering how in the world I married into such an amazing family! It was so fun to listen to them talk about past reunions and all of their memories. It made me want to carry on the tradition, and always make the effort to keep family ties strong!


Here is a little video of one of my favorite parts of the trip. This is a game the Macks have been playing at reunions for years and years. It's called Sorry to Passe? Anyhow, here it is:

Fish Lake

Of course one of the days we had to spend at Fish Lake! We split our time relaxing on the shore reading, or going out on the Kayaks. Spencer was the only one who caught a fish. It was a nice big 16 incher.

Lamon was so cute though. When we were rowing back to shore after our turn on the Kayak, Lamon got this cute look on his face and he said, "I've got an idea!" He said, "I think I know something the kids can do that will be fun!"
So when we got back, he rounded up the kids and had them walk with him down the shore line. He then preceded to help the children build a raft out of logs! The kids loved it! Lamon pulled them around the lake on it, and even little Mack, who up to that point was not enjoying himself too much, had an absolute blast!!

Capitol Reef

One of the days (Saturday) we went to Capitol Reef. It was a lot of fun. We did a little hike, and somehow in it's duration all of the children ended up on our shoulders!

While at Capitol Reef we also went to a little Nature play place with the kids. They had a lot of fun there too.
Here are all of the pics from our day at Capitol Reef:

Dirt Dirt Dirt

The best part about camping is by far the dirt. All of the children were constantly dirty. They were so cute. How can kids go camping and not be covered in dirt? Dirt is so fun! Throwing it, kicking it,tripping in it, eating it, rolling around in it, sleeping on it, putting it in dump trucks, getting it on your hands and then wiping it on your face . . . the possibilities are endless. I told Lamon that I wanted a picture where all of us adults smeared dirt all over our faces. I thought it would be funny, but he looked at me like I was a psycho woman. I can't help it if I'm fun!

Family Reunion Time

This was our year to organize the Spencer F. Mack Reunion, and we decided to go camping (of course)! We are pretty spontaneous ourselves, and usually we decide to go have fun the moment the thought crosses our minds to go and have fun . . . so planning a reunion for an entire family is not really something we are especially talented at. Basically we finally decided to get things moving with the whole planning thing when everyone in the family started panicking and were begging us to give them an itinerary. This was like two weeks before we were supposed to go. Not that we hadn't thought about it before hand. We basically knew what we were wanting to do, we just hadn't actually pounded out the details yet.
Anyhows, we decided to camp at Frying Pan Flats near Fish Lake. We came up with a very loose itinerary where we laid out the main activities we would be doing, and the basic food assignments. We felt good about ourselves that we were being so responsible like, and actually planning something. All I can say is good thing we have people in our family who are less relaxed than we are, and who can help us remember all the little important things we may forget. I'm sure we will get better and better at it as time goes on. Anyways it was a blast and I will tell ya all about it.

Fourth of July Pics

Independance Day

O.K. it has been way too long since I have posted anything on here. We have just been busy having way too much fun!

I have some pictures on here from the Fourth of July. In case you were wondering why most of them are pictures of our messy kitchen and random pics of food, it is because these pictures sum up the highlights of the day.

Lamon woke up in the morning and made some red blue and white waffles for all of us. I tried to make a flag with mine so I could take a cool picture, but it didn't quite work out.I tried for quite awhile but finally I just ate them.

Lamon later made a huge dinner for us which included some yummy chicken, rolls, jello, salad, and juice. How did I get this guy anyway? He is way too wonderful. The other night he even gave me a pedicure and painted my toe nails!! Not that he would want me telling the whole world that . . . but honestly, Lamon is amazing . . . have I ever mentioned that?

Our New House Minus the Disco Ball

Things I learned at Kanarraville Falls

1. Don't believe the online map. Even though it says that you can drive up to the trailhead . . . you really can't! You have to hike about .6 miles to the trailhead, which is quite an added climb seeing that the trail takes 4 hours. But that's O.K. because we are all tough!


2. I am tough! I carried Miss plump Ada ( along with all the water) almost the entire time!



3. Lamon is tougher.






4. Drew takes the prize! He is the toughest of us all! Our little Drew boy is such a good hiker. He hiked the whole hike (more than 5 hours worth) without complaining, and insisting on doing everything himself. He is so awesome!




5. Hayden may be a lightweight, but he still gets heavy when you have to carry him for hours and hours on your shoulders . . . and . . . he does not like long hikes much . . .






6. Kanarraville is my new favorite hike! It is soooo beautiful, and we had so much fun. We loved it!

Kanarraville Falls

A House!!!

O.K., has it been long enough since we added anything to our blog? It has been a crazy month to say the least. We have been back and forth to Orem looking for a house, and it has been quite an experience!
The first house we found was over by our Aunt Nan's house. It was a cute little three bedroom house that had been remodeled inside, added on to, and had a basement. It was in a cute neighborhood where all the houses were older, but the yards were all kept up really nice. Anyway, we decided to make an offer. We decided not to use an agent, and have a lawyer help us. We thought this would give us more bargaining power because we would be saving the owner those real estate agent fees. Well, The house was going for 189,000, and we decided that we would offer 180,000 plus closing costs. After giving our offer, we went back to St. George, and all the way back we were so excited. We talked about the house the whole way, thinking for sure that we would get it. Well the next day the owners made a counter offer. They offered us 187,000 without our closing costs being paid. We thought this was a ridiculous counter offer! It seems like everyone is getting their closing costs paid for in this market, and we would be saving them money by not using an agent (at least we thought so.) Well we both prayed about it, and we both separately came up with 185,000 plus closing costs being paid as the best offer that we would give them. Well, we countered their counter offer and . . . they countered our counter! In their counter offer they raised the price back up to 189,000 and would include closing costs! What a joke! I felt sick inside! I wanted the house, but I knew that we had to stick to our guns! We told them that we would reject it as soon as Lamon came home, and that's exactly what we did. Interestingly enough, the owner called me that night and said, "We have decided to accept your last counter offer." Well, I told him that that was great, but we had already sent the rejection, so we would have to redo the entire offer. Well as if the whole experience hadn't been totally crazy up to this point, it would get even crazier the next day! The next day we sent the whole offer again, and later in the afternoon the sellers agent called and said, "I have some bad news . . . are you sitting down?" I was just thinking . . . "Oh brother . . . now what?!" The agent then proceeded to tell me that the owners had thought about it, and they realized that they just wouldn't be coming out ahead if they accepted our offer, so they were going to take the house off the market until next year. "O.k. then!"
Well, we were back to square one. We decided to go back to Orem the next day and look for houses again for the next three days. Well, we found a couple houses that we thought we might be able to put offers on, but that would need some definite work! We were still wishing the other house would have gone through, but were accepting it. Well, at the end of our last full day in Orem we were waiting for an appointment, and we were just sitting around, and I said to Lamon, "Hey, lets call one of these houses on my list and just look at it instead of sitting around doing nothing!" So we called one of the numbers on my list, and set up an appointment. We went to go see it, and when we got there we weren't even sure that we were at the right house. There wasn't a sign. When the agent got there he said, "How did you even find this house? I haven't even put it on the MLS listing yet." I didn't want to admit that I was somewhat obsessive compulsive, and had looked up every possible listing there ever was on the internet. I was actually looking up a different house on Zillow.com and came across this dudes website and found it on there. Anyway, from the time we walked in the house we were questioning whether the price tag on the house was wrong. It was all older inside (wallpapered, and old carpet) but it was as clean as could be! The back yard was huge, and absolutelyl beautiful, and behind the garage was a workshop. Lamon was convinced at this point for sure! The house is in a neighborhood where down the street a few houses are half million dollar homes, and across the street on the other side are more huge beautiful homes, so the location is perfect! We decided to work on an offer right away. The home was priced at 195,000, and we decided to offer 185,000 plus closing costs (the same offer we had ended offering on the other house) We thought the house was definitely worth 195,000 and we were half expecting them the reject our offer outright. All the way back to St. George we were talking about how there was no way that we were going to get the house, and how we had wished that we had gotten it (speaking in the past tense the whole time as if the whole thing was done already, and they had already rejected it)! But just the opposite happened! They didn't even counter! They accepted our offer in it's entirety! We were shocked! Our closing date is August 8th, and we are not even going to completely believe that we have gotten the house until all the papers are signed! But when that happens I will be sure to put plenty of pictures on the blog!!
Has this post been long enough? Is anyone even still reading it???