Flagstaff Real Estate

The good news is that I'm feeling pretty good other than being dry from Flagstaff winter. My allergies and sinuses seem to have cleared up and my appetite is back and I'm almost sleeping through the night - I'm basically a functioning human again. I played volleyball with 2 full teams, went swimming at my gym's indoor pool (one of the few perks of changing gyms), and even hit the weights.  

Rog has been subbing for a few teams for city league since his boss - who planned on running a team - forgot to sign up in time. But he's had fun with that and one of the team captains is a mortgage lender and let him in on a house for sale, off market, in a great area. 

We went and visited the house on Thursday. It's currently owned by someone graduating from the PT program and would make an awesome rental. However, it is around 900 sq feet and costs almost $400K and they're taking the washer/dryer. The nice parts would be a ton of extra storage space in the garage and shed, a dishwasher, and more room than we have now - with a small yard even. We met with the mortgage lender on Friday just to crunch some numbers and it's probably not going to happen unless he drops the price a good chunk, but at least we know where we're at. Maybe if he's desperate enough, he'll drop it $50K. Thoughts?

Apparently the well got disturbed and I thought I was
washing my hands in my own pee for a minute. 

Normal water for reference
(in a dirty sink)

Rog is getting antsy here, but mostly because he feels weird about taking up space and doesn't have a sturdy table to hammer away on projects. And has to stop hammering when the downstairs kiddos go to bed. I have a few other ideas about how to find a little more space, but it's definitely cramped up in here. But also Flagstaff real estate is insane, so I'm not holding out hope for buying anything here.

I had another appointment this week with some blood work required. The good news on that is that the Chick fil A app offered a free 8 piece nugget box, so I picked that up on the way to give about 10 hefty vials. Yeesh. 

Rog got his truck back from the shop and was able to take it hunting and drive it to work this week. It had a few issues starting until he cleaned the battery ports off real good and we're hoping that's all it needed, but we'll see. He also was complaining all last week that he couldn't go hunting because it was in the shop, and then slept in on Saturday! I told him he had to get out and hunt because I was sick of him whining about it. 

That left me some time to do some cleaning of our fridge and pantry, put some groceries away, and collect a bunch of boxes that Rog has been keeping for no reason and expired things to get rid of. And I did laundry. And organized a bunch of papers I was collecting into the files they go in. In between all of this, I've also been working on a few book projects - 2 of my own and 1 for Hannah. Hopefully hers gets published and finalized soon because I'll need her artistic abilities for my book projects. (They always need illustrations or covers or something that I don't trust myself with). 

YW will hopefully go better now that we've had a meeting (that actually seemed to accomplish some things). And now our tasks seem more equally distributed. I would not be mad, however, if we did move and it took us to the other stake, where that house is. 

I'm Reactivating Myself

Rog had a rough week last week, and although I had the bulk of my turn over the weekend, I've still spent the last week recovering and trying to get rid of all my symptoms - my sleepiness, my congestion, and that nausea-inducing post nasal drip. Ugh. A lot of hot showers and meds and I even ordered a modernized netti pot. I haven't committed to it yet, but it's there. And I did miss church and volleyball for that mess. 

It's largely been a week of making sure leaders are leading. One of my coworkers had a spouse unexpectedly pass, so we were a bit concerned about other people stepping up. After a quick chat with some higher ups, we feel a little better about the support they will provide to make sure stuff gets done - and gets done well. 

The other side of this is church. A lot of our YW (and leaders) have been having a hard time. The last president provided so much communication and support and it's hard to replace that. But we had a meeting today, so I made sure that was addressed. And I convinced myself and Bree to attend the combined youth breakfast on Saturday. 

Which was good, because that was the only thing we did that day. I was a little antsy, but probably needed the rest. Rog was sad that his truck was still in the shop and he couldn't make it quail hunting - but we actually feel like the problem is being addressed this time, which will make it possible to do so next week. And he just wanted a lazy day. 

The other news is that we bought a new freezer that Doug is letting us keep outside his shop (since we can't fit anything else in our apt). And we have SO much room. So we made a hefty shopping trip and Rog has been meal prepping. He already has several pans of lasagna and enchiladas in there. I'm not sure what suddenly spurred this on - other than having the room to actually do it - but he says he's trying to keep me alive when he goes on his work fishing trips lol. 

I did make curry. And grilled cheese. And a few smoothies this week. I can actually access the fruit portion of my stand up freezer to do that now, which is really nice for me. 

Rog and I had a great CFM discussion this week (although Rich did spoil the surprises for us haha) and I went to a stake YW training. The irritating thing I learned there was that our SPy has banned all stake activities for kids ages 11-13. So stake primary activities are ok. Stake activities for 14+ are ok. But this group is banned. Obviously, I schemed with the YWPy's that showed up to make my own "joint ward" activities for this age group. What a freaking joke though. 

We also had Rog's parents in town, so I picked up some grub from Asia Station and we enjoyed some quality cuisine at our apartment with them and Stu. We had a good time chatting and eating and chilling. 

Down with the Sickness

Turns out the new car purchase was just in time for our first big winter storm. (We had a little one last week, and there was really only one address I couldn't get to.) Church was even cancelled. And then later that same week, the second big winter storm. 

It's been weird at work still trying to figure out a groove of things and communication being extremely poor. Jade went to do a fall screen at an ALF and was surprised to find out they expected an official hour-long presentation. Luckily, most of the people invited couldn't come due to the storm, but still. We're hoping things get running smoother soon. 

On a similar note, we had a planning meeting for YW and things should hopefully be running better soon. We'll also have a meeting next week to discuss some things that should be going differently. 

Rog has been sick all week with snot clogging up his head and a sore throat, but we got him some drugs and he's been sleeping better on the couch in a more upright position. He improved just in time for the weekend and to pass it along to me, so thanks for that. This is the first time I understand 'postnasal drip' and it is vomit-inducing frankly. 

On the one night that we were both marginally well, we spent a gift card at Texas Roadhouse on some fried pickles, salads, and shrimp. It was a good snack date, and we did some window shopping and price gauging at Sportsman's and Home Depot before going home. 

Saturday, I did our shopping and took a bath. Rog visited his parents in town, snagged some food from their family party, and went coyote hunting with Stu. They were not successful, but they had fun. 

2024 New Years

 We ended up going to Rog's friend Collin's house for New Years. They had a few other families over. We ate smoked ribs, beans, pig back strap, jalapeño poppers, applesauce, and of course our favorite deviled eggs. The guys had fun setting off little fireworks and half the kids were terrified. It was a good night, which ended early due to Sheriff schedules and kids' bedtimes - so we were in bed easily by 9.

Rog spent NY day going hunting with his dad and brother and a few other guys, shooting quail in Sedona. I finished off some YT videos, went for a jog, and read some books. These holidays off have been really nice as I've been trying to figure out my digestion again (since every 3 months everything is drastically different) so I kind of have it managed again. 

The real worry for us has been impending storms and a lack of a vehicle for me to drive. The Escape needs a new engine, Rog's truck needs some work done as well, and our little Mazda has been doing great for me as long as the roads have been clear - which, luckily, they have. We did take the Escape to a new guy with the same verdict, so now it's in limbo until we find someone to rebuild the engine. 

We've been doing a lot of research and debating about the type of new vehicle to drive and how much to spend on it. We also did our annual financial review and discussed some other goals etc for the upcoming year. New Years is a milestone, but also so is every month, week, and day, so resolutions don't seem as monumental to me as they do to some people. 

So I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday thinking that we would drive to Vegas this weekend to look at and buy a Rav4 up there. It's a little pricier than we wanted, but that was the best option we were finding. So at 2am, I switched money to different accounts knowing that it could take a few days to get there. 

When I woke up for work, I had a few moments to check one more time for vehicles and found a newly posted Rav4 right here in town at a better price. A little older, a few more miles, but it was worth looking into, so we drove through a snowstorm to check it out. Rog wasn't convinced at first, but quickly became a fan. We met up on Friday to buy it and picked up some Chick Fil A and BWW apps for a dinner in celebration. 

There she is.

2024

Flashback to Christmas time in Page. We went to the Knight's annual party and had great food, I got to catch up with Kelsey, and we played some fun games like opening wrapping with oven mitts and unwrapping gifts out of a giant ball of saran wrap. It was a good time.

We had a nice late Christmas (other than Roger nearly having an accident due to dreaming we were at home). We ate toast and hot chocolate. And we opened a few gifts. SO to the Sandalls for a nice hoodie and cast iron set, to the Hutchins for life jackets and slipper (which Rog has already stubbed his toes on a few times), to Hannah S for the painting, and to anyone that got me books. 10 days in and I've already checked 4 hefty tomes off.

We came home after lunch and brought home the extra lasagna and our new freezer. The 'sag lasted 3 days maybe. And that's mostly because Rog held off and let me eat it. 

Rog had an extra day off of work and went hunting, while I tried to cover for our other PT. Unfortunately, a lot of the patients I was scheduled to visit for her did not have ways to contact them -which she overcame by having a set day/time (which I didn't know about). So I did my best even if it was a little hairy.