It's Finally Out of Our Hands!

Well, 1 year, 5 months, 8 days, 3 contractors, 2 lawyers, 1 lawsuit & 16 mortgage payments later...our house in Millcreek is finally out of our hands! The closing was official on Monday, and the money came through yesterday--so we are officially DONE with it! Yay!!! It has been quite the experience...to say the least, but we DID learn quite a bit about the business of real estate & a lot about the laws that govern the business of real estate! But, overall, we are very proud of how the house turned out & we are happy that such a nice couple fell in love with it & bought it! A big thank you to Mike's dad for being our "go-to guy" and all around mentor in this situation! So, here are the before and after shots. I wish I had some better before's, but all I took were a few pictures for the insurance company. Let me just tell you though, this house was in bad shape...in fact, I would dare to say that it wasn't even livable. It was originally built in 1939. Then, another person attempted a remodel in the 70s and it was BAD!!! Anyway, our end product ended up being pretty dang nice & we are pretty proud of "our little baby". I was almost kind of sad to see it go the other day...then I remembered the months of pure HELL that it had put us through, and decided I COULD live without it. :) And, I am proud to say that the Storrs are officially OUT of the real estate business for awhile! Woo hoo! Okay, on to the before-and-after pictures...

BEFORE

AFTER

My Memories of President Hinckley

We've all known that President Hinckley couldn't live forever, but--in some way--it seemed like he always would. He was like the energizer bunny...he never seemed to slow down...even at the age of 97. So, when I got a text message last night from my sister telling me that he had passed away, I almost couldn't...and didn't want to...believe it. He was the 4th prophet during my lifetime, but it kind of seems like he's been the only one. Let me explain...I remember the last two or three years of Spencer W. Kimball's presidency, but by that point in his life, he was sick a lot...so we didn't get to see him very much. President Hinckley, as one of his counselors, picked up a lot of his duties and responsibilities at that time. Then, President Kimball passed away and Ezra Taft Benson became prophet. He was well for a few years, but then became very ill as well. President Hinckley once again filled the gap. Howard W. Hunter became prophet in 1994, but became sick very quickly and, yet again, President Hinckley stepped in to pick up some of his duties. So, when President Hinckley became prophet in 1995, it seemed so natural to me. It just seemed like he had kind of been the prophet all along in a way.

During his presidency, I had the opportunity to meet him and shake his hand twice...both times I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The first time, I was at work at KBYU when President Hinckley just showed up unexpectedly to see our new studio and facilities. We were all able to shake his hand and talk to him for a few minutes. He talked to us about how he had originally planned to be a journalist & how important that career is in a free society. He talked about the country's need for honest journalist who have integrity in everything they report on. It was an amazing experience to sit in a room with only 20-25 other people, listening to the prophet. I will never forget the feeling & spirit that he brought with him.

The second time I met him was about six months later on my graduation day from BYU. Three of my friends & I were walking through campus in our caps & gowns on our way to the Marriott Center. All the sudden, a parade of golf carts started passing us. Then, one of the golf carts stopped just a few feet ahead of us & President Hinckley jumped out. He walked back to us, shook our hands and talked to us for several minutes. He asked each of us what we were graduating in & congratulated us. He once again reminded me of the importance of the career path I had chosen & how we needed more journalists that had integrity. After we had talked to him for a few minutes, he invited us over to his golf cart where he introduced us to his wife, Marjorie. She was so sweet to us and congratulated us. Then, he hopped back in his golf cart and waved good bye to us as he headed over to the Marriott Center. The four of us were in awe that he had taken time out of his day to stop and talk to four college students! I think that's what made President Hinckley such a beloved prophet. Everyone felt like he was their best friend because that's exactly how he made you feel!

So those are my memories of President Hinckley. I will miss him very much, but I am glad that he is back with his wife and, hopefully, getting to rest a little bit...that is, if he even knows the meaning of the word! --Lindsay

Girls Game Night

When the weather outside is frightful...
meaning it's about 10 degrees and there's over a foot of snow on the ground...there's nothing better to do than to gather a bunch of friends together in someones warm house to play games and eat lots of chocolate, sugar & carbs! Wow...I think that was the longest sentence in the history of blogging. Anyway, that's exactly what we did last night for our monthly girls night. We all showed up at Christa's house with our favorite games & snacky foods. It was such a fun night!

We started out the night by playing the Friends edition of Scene It. I thought I would be at least decent at this game...but boy was I wrong!!! I'm just glad Alicia and I were on a team together because her obvious "friends intelligence" was able to pull our team to victory! I don't think I answered a single question correctly the entire time...except when it was the other team's turn. Boy, I'm a helpful teammate, eh? Anyway, so not only is Alicia the official "bunko queen" of girls night, but now she is official "Friends scene it master" as well! Alicia, is there anything you're not good at? Because if there is something...we're doing it next Girls Night! Haha! Just kidding!

After Alicia gave us all a "Friends butt-whoppin", we decided to try our hand at Apples to Apples. We had so much fun. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a LONG time! I learned that "Europe" is a very "European" thing (imagine that) & that when the adjective is "Nasty", you'll win with Bill Clinton every time. It was a fierce fight between Karin & Alicia for most of the game...but guess who caught up at the end??? Yep, yours truly. I'm not sure who ended up winning...I think it was a tie between Alicia & I, but I'm really not sure. It was a bizarre ending...

We ended the evening with a rousing game of Catch Phrase. SOME people had to leave because of stupid things like children & boyfriends...but I'm not naming any names or anything (Karin & Alicia)...and I'm not bitter either--I promise. Anyway, the rest of us stayed and played Catch Phrase. It was a lot of fun...although I began to notice a trend...whatever team I was on always seemed to lose. I don't understand that...it just doesn't make any sense! :) We had a lot of fun and played until almost 10:30. At that point, most the girls left...but a few of us stayed and talked until 11:30! I couldn't believe the time!!! Where did it go? Overall, it was a really fun night! See y'all next month! Not sure what we're doing yet, but Chantele is in charge. --Lindsay

Boys Day Out

Saturday was Mike's favorite day of the year! The Utah International Auto Expo!!! What more could a car-lover like Mike ask for? Hundreds of very expensive cars that you can touch & feel & even sit in...all in one location! Connor, following in his father's footsteps, wanted to go along again this year. Mike invited our friend, Cameron, & his son Tait to come along with them. Then, the four of them met Greg, Ashlee's husband, up there. Apparently the five of them had a blast because they were gone ALL AFTERNOON! They left around noon and didn't get back until 5:00 pm! I didn't mind though ..Aiden took a long nap so I got a ton of things done! So, overall, it was a good day for everyone involved I guess! --Lindsay

Two Going on Twelve

I knew that teenagers loved to talk on the phone, but two-year-olds??? That one I had never heard of... Well, Aiden is absolutely obsessed with talking on the phone. At least once or twice a day, he will bring a phone to me and say, "Mom! Call Nana (or Tata, or Poppy, or Daddy, etc.)!" If I tell him "no" or say something like, "Maybe later...", he will follow me around the house with the phone until I give in. He is absolutely persistent about it! Eventually, I give in and call the requested person. But, every time without fail, when the person says "Hello?", Aiden doesn't know what to say so he just sits there saying, "Ummmm....ummmmm...." until the person on the other end asks him a question or says something to him. After that, you can't get him to shut up! Finally after a minute or two, I try to save the person on the other side of the line and tell Aiden that it's time to say "Bye, bye". Luckily, everyone has been pretty nice about the whole situation & is happy to talk to him...even though it's usually in the middle of the day & they are usually all at work. So, a big thank you to all of you for having multiple conversations with a toddler about things you could probably care less about...like cars, transformers, Bean's car & Diego! You have made the day of a two-going-on-twelve-year-old! --Lindsay

The Final Celebrity Look-Alike Post...I Promise!

So did you think that I was done with celebrity look-alikes? So did I, but a few weeks ago, an old bishop of mine came up to me and told me that he had found my twin (only she was about 15 years younger than me). He had just seen the new Harry Potter movie & he thought I looked just like the character "Luna Lovegood". Not being a Harry Potter fan myself, I had no clue who he was talking about. I told him that I would google her & tell him what I thought. Well, I finally got around to doing that and this is the picture I found...

When I saw it, I couldn't believe it! That is EXACTLY what I looked like as a little girl. I had long, fine stringy platinum blonde hair & HUGE blue eyes (I had to grow into them I guess. I also had big dumbo ears that I had to grow into as well, but I don't think "Ms. Lovegood" has those--lucky girl). Anyway, I was shocked at how much she really did look like me! That's why I had to do one more look-alike post. I promise I'll stop now! --Lindsay

Just One of Those Days

Today has just been one of those days where it would have been better if I had never gotten out of bed! My mom told me that bad things happen in threes. Well, if that's true, then two of the three bad things have happened to me today.

Bad Thing #1: I got rear-ended!!! Today was my day to drive carpool to preschool. Everything goes fine...kids are even happy...it's snowing pretty good, but that's okay...I just put the car in 4x4. I drop the kids off at school and go to the grocery store with Aiden. Everything goes well at the grocery store. Still snowing outside...coming down pretty good. I load up the groceries & put Aiden in his car seat with some M&Ms and then proceed to drive home. I turn onto Ranches Parkway and start driving towards my house. All the sudden, a suburban that was two cars in front of me takes a turn too fast and spins out of control. The car behind him skids off to the right shoulder to avoid him, the car in front of me skids off onto the center median. I had quite a bit of room in front of me, so I stopped without much of a problem right in the middle of my lane. I had been stopped for about a 1/2 second and was watching the chaos unfold in front of me when I feel it...BOOM! My head jolted forward and I felt the seat belt lock on my shoulder. It scared me to death & I screamed. To tell you the truth, I was so focused on what was going on in front of me that I didn't even think about cars behind me...so when I felt the impact, I didn't really know what had happened at first. Then it registered that I must have been rear-ended. I turned around to check on Aiden. He was just enjoying his M&Ms like nothing had even happened. I told him that a car had crashed into us and that mommy would be right back. I jumped out of the car and walked back to the car that hit me. It was a brand-spanken' new land rover and the front end was destroyed! I could see part of the engine because it was so ripped up. When I saw that, I was scared to look at my car, but when I finally got a good look, I was relieved to see that there really wasn't that much damage. The bumper was beat up a little here and there, but that's it. Tough little Tahoe!!! The lady that was driving the land rover got out & apologized up and down. I felt really bad for her because it really wasn't her fault...it was the stupid weather and the chaos that had occurred in front of us. She was seriously about ready to burst into tears as she explained to me that they had just bought the car yesterday! I felt so bad for her...I just gave her a hug & told her I was sorry it had happened. I didn't know what else to do! Anyway, we called the police and they came to help us fill out an accident report. The policeman decided that, because he couldn't see anything leaking from her engine, that we should drive to a near-by parking lot to fill out the paperwork. When we pulled into the parking lot, the policeman pulled up right by Aiden's door...with lights still flashing. As you can imagine, this was pretty dang cool for a two-year-old boy. He just sat there, eating his M&Ms, staring out the window at the flashing lights and saying, "Mom...cars crash...police car comes...cool!" He was in seventh heaven. Well, at least some good came out of it...a little boy got quite the show! p.s. to this story...I just heard on Channel Two that there were 8 crashes in Utah County today. I was one of those crashes...woo hoo! Not really...

Bad Thing #2: My cell phone broke. Here's a little background, I bought a new phone last February. Then, two weeks later, I dropped it in the toilet. Yes, I dropped it in the toilet. I won't go into that story so that I can keep at least some of my pride. Anyway, after it was dropped in the toilet, we pulled it apart and blow dried it. Luckily, it's worked fine ever since...but the "toilet incident" DID void the warranty. That's where the problem comes in. Today, I went to charge it & it wouldn't charge. I tried everything I could think of, but it wouldn't charge. So, I called tech support. They had me try a few things, but still no luck. The girl said that since I had owned it for less than a year, they would just send me a new phone. She told me to pull the battery out and look for a little sticker so that I could tell her what color it was. She said it would either be white or red. I told her it was red. At that point, she told me that she could no longer help me because my phone had experienced water damage and so the warranty was void. That's when I remembered the "toilet incident". I told the girl about it and said that the phone had worked fine for almost a year. She said that it didn't matter if the phone had worked fine for a year or not, she still couldn't help me. Grrrr... So, I made a couple more phone calls to my trusty cell phone "sources" ...aka my sister, Kristin, & my brother-in-law, Greg, who both work for T-mobile. Together, they were able to help me get a decent deal on another phone. It still stinks that I have to pay big bucks to get a phone exactly like the one that worked yesterday, but they did save me almost $100...so that's good. And, it IS good that it happened today instead of a week from now because Greg's last day is this week. (He got a new job a few weeks ago and I think his last day at T-mobile is tomorrow.) So, if there is a silver lining to this story...that is it. So, a big thank you to both Greg & Kristin. Thanks for being so creative in your money-saving ways! You guys rock!!!

So, that's my day in a nutshell. Tons of fun, eh? Now I can just sit around and wait for Bad Thing #3. It's almost like I'm tempting fate...it's actually kind of fun ("kind of" being the key words there). If/when #3 happens, I'll let you know! --Lindsay

Connor's Celebrity Look-Alikes

I was reminded the other day that I still have not done Connor's "celebrity look-alikes" yet. Heaven forbid Connor read this blog someday and say "You never did my look-alikes! That means you don't love me!". So, more for my sake than anyone else's, here are the celebrities that a few of us think Connor kind of looks like. Take a good look & tell us who YOU think he resembles:

Rick Schroder: This is my pick. I saw him on some entertainment show the other night, & he really looked like Connor to me.

Jude Law: This is my Dad's pick. I guess I can kind of see it.

Brad Pitt: This is Mike's pick. I guess their eyes are kind of the same, but other than that, I don't see it.

David Beckham: Okay, I don't really think Connor looks like him...I just wanted to put a picture of him on my blog because, let's just admit it, he's freakin' hot!

So, who do you think Connor looks like? --Lindsay

Viva Giardino Verde Oliva

Translation: Long live Olive Garden. (It's so much easier to say in English, but sounds WAY cooler in Italian!) What is it about Olive Garden that is so delicious & kind of addicting? Is it the secret spices they sprinkle on their breadsticks, or could it be the top secret ingredient in their house dressing, or maybe it's just all the delicious carbs they stuff into their pasta??? Whatever it is, I love it...and so do the other gals that went out to our last girls night of 2007 (although it was held in 2008 due to the holiday hurry). We had a blast! Amanda wrote about the night on her blog, so if you're interested in finding out about all the fine (and not so fine) points of the evening, you can read about it there. It was a great night...and I'm looking forward to many others in 2008. Just FYI to the girls, Alicia posted the schedule for the upcoming year on the Facebook Girls Night group page & I emailed it out to all of you as well, so check one of those two places and put all the dates on your calendar now. (Put them on your husband's calendar too while you're at it). --Lindsay

Bye Bye 2007!

It's hard to believe, but 2007 is history now. Where did the time go??? To say goodbye to the year, my parents held a little New Years Eve party at their house with the family. I guess everyone had a great time...I say "I guess" because I wasn't there. I got the "privilege" of working for Roland. Woo hoo! I'm such a lucky girl! It's okay though because, in my business, if you get Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve & Christmas off...like I did...you don't complain about working New Years Eve! So, while I was trying to remind myself of that at work, the family had a fun little party. They ate, played legos, watched some movies, etc. waiting until midnight.

I showed up to the party around 11:30 and this picture is what I found. My mom and sister along with all the kids were upstairs watching--what else?--"Mr. Bean's Holiday" (my apologies to my mom and sister). And, the men were downstairs watching something else. Connor was asleep, but the other little boys were still awake...and fairly happy considering the time. Mr. Bean got over right before midnight and we did the traditional countdown to midnight. I tried to wake Connor up to tell him "Happy New Year", but he was zonked! He didn't budge!

Those of us who were still awake broke open the

"Mormon bubbly" and celebrated. As you can see by the picture, the smallest party guest had had his feel of the new year and was ready for some shut-eye. So, around 12:30 am, we packed everything up and headed home. It was a fun night to end a fun year! Hope your New Year was good and that 2008 is a great year for everyone! --Lindsay