Our Lives in Iowa (July)

With all the moving and unpacking I really didn't take a lot of pictures.  When we moved to Iowa we weren't sure when Ryan would start working due to the fact that he was waiting to get his Iowa Dental License.  We were told that it could take a few months.  We needed Ryan to start working so that we could close on our house.  The owner of the house was really nice and let us move in and rent the house until Ryan started working.  The house that we bought was gutted and redone so it didn't come with any appliances.  So all we had was a mini-fridge and a microwave to use.  We said lots of prayers to help everything work out.  Ryan received his dental license on July 3rd and started working on July 8th. I really wanted to go to Idaho for the 4th of July but with all the chaos we decided that it would be better if we stayed in Iowa.  We ended up going to Ryan's boss's house.  They have a pool and the kids had a blast.
When we looked at our house before we moved in the kitchen was described as an "eat-in" kitchen but it wasn't even big enough to fit a small table so we had them put more cabinets in.  It was worth it. We now have a decent amount of storage in our kitchen, but with this came another snag.  The owner didn't want to order the counter top until we arrived so that we could tell him exactly how we wanted it to be (we wanted an overhang for a bar-type area).  The bank that we were getting our loan through sent an appraiser through to get an appraisal on the home and he said he couldn't finalize the appraisal until the counter was installed.  So we continued to wait.  We really wanted to get appliances but we didn't have enough money to go and buy them and if we opened an account at an appliance store then it would mess up our mortgage application and we didn't want to do that. Finally the counter was installed and the appraiser came back and we were told that we would be closing on our house on Friday, July 26th.
As soon as we were done signing I headed to Home Depot to pick out and order our appliances.  Unfortunately, the earliest delivery date was Thursday, August 1st.  I was a little disappointed but I was also glad to have a date that I knew I would be able to have a washer and dryer, a fridge, a stove, and a dishwasher.  We cooked a lot in the microwave and Crockpot for a month. I had to go grocery shopping everyday because all we had was a minifridge.  And we had to spend a few hours and dollars every week to do our laundry at a laundry mat. I was beyond ready to have appliances.
Thursday arrived and I anxiously awaited for our appliances.  I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.  Although as soon as the delivery guys came into the house to assess the areas my excitement quickly turned into frustration.  They were not able to hook up the water line to the fridge because it did not have the right connector; the dishwasher could not be installed because there wasn't a power source or a water source; the stove could not be installed because the gas pipe was too tall and there wasn't an emergency shut-off valve.  So after all that the only thing that was installed was the washer and dryer.  I was very thankful for at least that much.
We called the contractor who worked on the house and had him come back and fix what he could and then called a plumber to come and fix everything else.  So after another week we were able to use all of our appliances, it was a very happy day!
Also at some point in this mess of things we realized that when we drained the kitchen sink the drain would back-up and cause water to fill the utility room in the basement.  We called the contractor and he came out and fixed it by cutting a hole in the cement basement floor and tearing apart the plumbing.  He found 3 chunks of lead in the pipe that was keeping the water from draining at the speed that it should have.  So for a while we had a hole in our floor and could not use our washer and dryer.  Oh, the joys of buying/owning a home.

Emily playing with bubbles on July 3rd

Kids playing in the storage closet on July 9th

Funny Faces :)

Emily eating corn-on-the-cob on July 10th

Nathanial has an awesome sense of style...

(orange striped polo shirt, blue and red plaid shorts, black tube socks, and blue sandles)

Nathanial had an awesome Primary teacher who gave all the kids a large print triple combination.  Nathanial was so excited to receive this that he started to read it and read a few pages on Monday, July 22nd.

Nathanial reading the Book of Mormon