The Joys of Owning a Home and Other Random Stuff

I never really realized how nice it was to call someone else whenever we had home problems. Our house really isn't that old (about 13 years old) but it seems like it has just been one thing after another the last few days. First of all we came home from our vacation and found that we had a leak in our pool cleaner pump thing, so two trips to the pool store and 3 hours later we replaced the part, but we still need to reseal it (hopefully this will get done this weekend.) Then, I got home from having lunch with some girls in my ward on Thursday and found that our a/c unit upstairs stopped working. Luckily for us, our home warranty is still in effect, so we called them up, and someone just came and fixed it the next day for $50 instead of $350. Which brings me to the topic of home warranties. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with them? I keep going back and forth between thinking I need one, and thinking that it is a huge waste of money.

Now, on to some other random stuff. Last week our friends Kristen and Eric came down so that Eric could interview with a law firm in Phoenix. We had a blast! Other than constantly reminding them that they should move back to Arizona when Eric finishes law school, we really enjoyed visiting with them. Kristen introduced me to my new hobby, or I guess a new version of an existing hobby. We made these cute flower bow things. Speaking of hobbies, we just got a new craft store called Hobby Lobby down the street and it is GREAT! Here is a picture of some from our first attempt at flower bows:

Of course, I couldn't stop there, so I made some more that are a little smaller and are Sadie sized. Here are some of them:

And I'm going to post a few more pictures of our trip for my mom.

Sadie's first trip to the beach! Lani's family invited us to the beach for a party the night before the wedding at Manhattan Beach.

I just thought this was too adorable for words. I'm not sure if she is folding her arms because she is cold, or if she is just mimicking Heather (you can see that Heather's arms are folded in the previous picture.)

Disneyland and Club 33

We had a great time at Disneyland this last week, but no, we did not go to Club 33. Never heard of Club 33? Me either until yesterday and am finding the whole thing pretty crazy. I wouldn't have believed it but for a friend who told me she has been there. It is a secret, elite restaurant in New Orleans in Disneyland. Currently it costs $10,400- $27,000 just to become a member and $3,275-$6100 for yearly dues. Wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of money to throw around? My friend said that the waiting list was about a year long to get a reservation, and Club 33 is rumored to have 9-14 year waiting list to become a member. You get into the park for free, but the cost to have dinner or lunch is around the same price as the entrance fee. My friend also said that they got to go to the front of all of the lines (fast passes, I can only assume) which doesn't surprise me because the club was created because Disney wanted to be able to entertain and give them the best Disneyland experience possible. It seems like a fun idea, but an expensive way to be allowed to spend $80 for a meal at Disneyland, but I guess the secrecy and exclusivity add to the intrigue. I'm trying to decide what I would do with the opportunity to become a member (assuming I already waited 9-14 years.) Would it really add at least $3,275 worth of enjoyment to my disneyland experience?

Although we had a good Disneyland experience, I was disappointed that we did not see any of the Disney princesses. Apparently, the week before we went they were arrested, in costume, picketing for higher wages.

Chris and Sadie on Pirates of the Caribbean
I think this is the only picture we have of Chris' mom and dad, ever

Mom and Brian on the teacups. I swear that is one of the best rides, ever. With four adults, we had the teacup spinning!
This picture is taken in California adventures, at the big orange. When we went to Disneyland on our honeymoon we loved the orange ride (similar to the fair rides with the swings) and proceeded to ride it multiple times. We have a similar picture from 4 years ago.

Back to Reality

We are sad to be home from our vacation, but all good things must end. Congratulations to Josh and Lani, who got married on Saturday and gave us the excuse to go to southern California!

Chris, Mom, Dad, Lani, Josh, Heather and Brian

Chris and Sadie waiting on the temple steps for the happy couple to come out.

Family Pic

Grandpa Mickelsen, Mom, and Grandma Mickelsen. We are so lucky to have such great grandparents; we are especially lucky to have Grandpa Mickelsen who has sealed Josh and Lani, Heather and Scott, Brian and Dalene, and us!

That is all I have time for right now, more vacation pictures and Disneyland pictures to come.

Back Behind Bars

As most of you have probably already guessed, the toddler bed experiment did not work out. Sadie is back behind bars, and I think that all three of us will appreciate the extra sleep she gets because she is in a crib.

Toddler Bed

I left Sadie and Chris alone for a couple hours last night and this is what I came home to:



Chris changed Sadie's crib into a toddler bed. I don't know how I feel about that, I kinda liked knowing that Sadie was stuck in her crib during nap time. But then, late this morning I found this:

It's her new favorite play place. At first I thought that it was cute, but then I thought about how she could get the toys out in her room and just play through nap time. So far she is 10 minutes into her afternoon nap and I don't hear anything . . . we will have to wait and see if she falls asleep or not.

We've noticed some other interesting quirks about our daughter. I got this picture of her last week:

Who likes to play in bookcases? Also if you look very carefully you can see that Sadie is holding two markers (she doesn't know that the lids come off yet or how to take them off,) a tape measure, and some chap stick. Sadie is inseparable from that chap stick (which she also can not open.) Some people have key chains to hold their chap stick; I have Sadie. Also, some kids like to sleep with stuffed animals or toys; Sadie likes to sleep with her chap stick.

Pioneer Day and Nursery

A family in our ward put together a pioneer day activity this weekend (a week late) for a couple families in our ward. I'm not sure exactly how we got in the 'in' crowd, but we had a good time. Maybe they just wanted to torture us with the Arizona heat. We met at the Riparian Preserve at 6:30 am and walked around it and stopped to tell pioneer stories, sing pioneer songs, do pioneer crafts, play pioneer games, and in the end we had a pioneer breakfast. It was still 90 degrees at 6:30 and only got hotter.


Another highlight of the week is that Sadie will be turning 18 months this week and is of nursery age. Our nursery has been really great about letting us go hang out there early, and yesterday they let me leave her for both blocks. Sadie did not really need a transition period, she had no problem saying goodbye to me. Yay! Church is enjoyable again!