Ok, I finally have a chance to sit down and update my blog...and I've been getting the guilt trip about it so I better not wait any longer. First of all, we had to give away our puppy. We realized that we just didn't have the time to spend with the little guy and he was locked up in his cage all the time. To me, that is just wrong and mean to the poor puppy. So we counted our losses and found a good family to take care of him. Secondly, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! We got the keys to our new house on Saturday June 26th and were so excited to start moving in...until we walked into the house. The man (who was about 86 years old) that lived there before, hadn't cleaned a THING! The garage was still about half full of his junk, and when I say junk, I mean literally junk. There were empty cans and bottles, and trash and boxes and who knows what else. You could maybe get ONE car in the garage. So we were feeling a little deflated but decided we had no time to waste and started cleaning. Luckily our real estate agent came to look at the garage and after he saw the mess, he made the seller's agent come clean it out! Thank goodness because it saved us a LOT of time. We started on the inside and Kevin spent at least 2 hours just cleaning out the fridge while I dusted, vaccuumed (several times) cleaned toilets, and cleaned out drawers with remnants of Preparation H and old lady waxing kits...hair still intact...yes EWW! I had a goal to have everything moved in and the main room finished by the following Friday...and WE DID IT!! We spent every minute, that we weren't working or sleeping, moving things and cleaning. By the end of the week we were pooped! Our house is 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and has a living room AND family room. We want to remodel the inside of the house because it needs some serious updates. I'm not sure how long I can live with PINK carpet. It's 19 years old so it needs some TLC as far as asthetic beauty goes, but now that it is clean it's starting to feel like home. We live at the end of a very quiet culdasac and yes that IS a mailbox you see in the front. We still get our mail the old fashion way!

Here is Kevin's favorite part of the house. The basketball court. We have huge trees and a covered patio that make for great shade. Now you see...there was a method to all my maddness this past week in trying to finish the house so fast. Kevin is turning 33 on July 7th and has never had a birthday party! So of course I wanted to be a good little wifey and be the first to throw him one. So on Saturday July 3rd most of his family and mine were able to come and join in on the SURPRISE. He had no clue what was going on and it was hard to keep it a secret for a full month! We had a full-blown party with the decorations, party hats, fireworks, and even a pinata!

As you can see from the picture above, Kevin is always thrilled to be the center of attention and stading in the spotlight. (Ha, yeah right)

I thought about making my own cake but had no clue how I would get the house done and keep the cake a secret. Yes, the cake does say "Happy Birthday OLD MAN."

After everyone else tried while blindfolded, the birthday boy got to cheat and smash open the pinata. I didn't realize how much candy those little things can hold! After the pinata we sat out in our driveway and ate cake and ice cream while we watched the older boys light the fireworks. All in all I'm surprised I was able to pull it off without him knowing. This week completely wore us out with the cleaning and moving and partying. We went to bed after all the fun on Saturday at about midnight and slept until 11:30 the next morning, went to church, came home and took a nap, then a few hours later went to bed for the night!!! I felt like a teenager all over again!