Final Inspection

The city came over today and inspected the shed! We passed with flying colors. No problems. But it almost was a disaster. We mistakenly thought that as long as we build within the guidelines the city set we did not need a permit. We began digging the foundation and had the floor built and placed when our neighbor came outside to trim his trees in the back yard. We chatted with him about the shed placement and he told us that he read in the newspaper this week that you have to get a permit for everything now! So before doing anything more we went to the city offices and found out that we cannot build in the easement we have in the back yard due to the utility boxes. So we took the floor off and re-dug the foundation again but outside of the easement and the city came by for the initial placement inspection and approved the spot! yeah! So we put the floor back on and found out that the foundation was too big. So we pulled the floor back off again which was no easy task because it weighed close to 200 pounds and was huge and bulky. Then we leveled the ground again for the foundation pillars. I felt like we were going nowhere fast! It had been more than a week. After the floor was properly placed the walls went up in a day and a half and the roof in another day and a half. After the roof went on Grandma, Grandpa showed up to lay landscape fabric in the back yard and spread mulch. Grandma went and bought paint for the shed to match the house and Kayleigh, Anne, and Renae got into the act painting it. Allison found a paint brush and painted herself. Mike Snider helped shingle the roof a little yesterday and his step son Edwin was here today and he and Adam helped me finish putting all the shingles on the roof. His mother showed up just before we were finished and Edwin was excited to put the last shingle on and made his mother wait until he had nailed the last shingle in place! We only have a bit of painting and Grandma and Grandpa are putting lattice work around the foundation pillars to keep the critters out. It looks really nice, too bad we have to leave! As I was on the roof today nailing shingles I was watching the girls play in the newly refurbished back yard. It was then that I realized how wonderful this place is and how much I will miss it when we move to Las Vegas. Kayleigh was so excited, she invited her friend over for a sleep over and they slept in the shed last night.

Vegas job!

Mike has a job in Las Vegas! It should start in 45+/- days. We will not officially know his start date for another month. We have decided to move the first week in August to get established in a house and get the kids enrolled in school.

Anne's thoughts of Las Vegas

I think that going to Las Vegas will change my life a bit because I won't be able to play in the snow a lot. There is snow but on top of the mountains and you cannot play in that snow but you can ski down but I don't know how to ski. It's pretty far but I won't be able to have grass in our yard. You don't have much room for a back yard. If you want to move the Las Vegas think about the soil there around your house instead of grass but I don't want soil around our house. If dad makes the job then I am going to miss snow, grass, and fireworks. Mom said that we might get a tortoise in our house. If someone stops by and says do you want to get a tortoise, you can buy one for.... I don't know how much money you can buy one for....

I bet you the schools will be a lot different and I bet I will have a school that does not wear uniforms and I bet I will have less room in my room. And I bet more of my stuff will be trashed into the garbage. I wish that we could take a plane, I have never rode a plane before and I wonder what it feels like to be in a plane. But if I could see those clouds I would be so amazed at how high up they could go. But if I move to Las Vegas I bet I could meet a lot of new friends, but I will sure miss my other friends, expecially Taylor, Becky, and Katie, and especially my Grandma and Grandpa Arnesen. I hope we get to go to Disney world someday, mommy says its right by Las Vegas. Mommy says it might take 3 or 4 hours to get to Disney World. I might even see snow or grass there. But I hope you enjoyed my little comment and that's all folks.

As dictated by my daughter Anne

The End of Ohio - Begining of Las Vegas

Mike was contacted by a company in Las Vegas today for an interview. He is in the process of getting hired on which he was told could take between 3 to 6 months due to the extensive background checks they have to do. Meanwhile Mike is trying to find another- possible short term - job to pay the bills. It gave us hope and more faith in our decision to move to Las Vegas sooner than later to try to get the kids in school there starting in August. Mike is planning on flying to Las Vegas at the end of July to look for places to live, enroll the kids in school, and look for a job until this other job comes through. We have no guarantees. So we feel very uneasy moving without some sort of a job. There have been many people from the extended family offer their help in Mike's search for a job. It has lifted our spirits and we are very grateful for all the offers we received.

Looking for jobs in Nevada now

Yesterday I got the permit from the city to build the shed and found out that I cannot build on the easement. There are two utility boxes in the back yard near where we want to build the shed. So we moved it up 10 feet out of the easement. We are working on getting the foundation pillars in place to set the floor on.

We also found out that DP&L decided not to fill the position Mike interviewed for this week. So he is still looking for a job. We have decided to start applying for jobs in Nevada. I think we have pretty much given up the idea of finding a job in Ohio and realize it is time to move.

Our trip to Minnesota - Fourth of July 2008

We just got back from visiting my sister Andrea and her family in Minnesota over the Fourth of July. We went to the Mall of America and had a scavenger hunt then ordered two whole pizzas to feed 14 and no one got lost. We spent two days at the swim pond. It is a man made lake that is cleaned and treated. They loved playing in the sand. They also had a huge playground for younger kids a little ways away from the beach. On the fourth of July we went camping at Jonathan's sisters house. The girls had a great time playing in their huge yard. We saw the fireworks from the grounds of a golf course and Kayleigh and Leah had the sprinkler turn on them twice during the show. All the kids pitched in weeded the garden in less than two hours, and the kids had fun while they were doing it. Andrea told them that for every icecream bucket they filled with weeds she would give them a dollar and a dime for every grub they killed. When all the weeds were gone the kids began digging for grubs. I have never seen kids so excited over grubs before. Haans earned 4 dollars just for the grubs he found. We didn't imagine that they would find so many. Later that day Jonathan sprayed for grubs. Andrea was super brave and took 9 kids shopping at the super target all by herself so they could spend their money. It was a wonderful visit. Mostly we were glad to have been able to spend time with family and that the kids were healthy.

Mike did not go with us to Minnesota because of his new job at AIDA. We left Saturday at noon and drove all day and arrived at 1:30 am Sunday. Monday morning Mike woke up to find out that the woman who had quit and made the position available for Mike decided she wanted her job back. They let her come back and gave Mike the boot. He immediately called unemployment and reinstated his benefits and found a lead for another job at DP&L. He spent the whole week studying while he was home alone. Yesterday he interviewed and they liked him. They liked him so much that they are going to hire him on directly with benefits and more pay than he was getting at AIDA. At AIDA he was employed through the placement agency and recieved no benefits. The only down side, he has to travel to Dryden road for work every day, where AIDA was in Huber he is thinking about taking the bus, but it is an hour and a half bus ride each way. A bus pass would cost 45 dollars a month and gas probably would cost him that much in a week. UD is close to there and he is thinking of going to school there where he could just take the bus to campus after work. He could spend his time on the bus studying. This is all just ideas right now.

We got home to find that someone had stolen 2 more bikes from our yard. We called the police and made a report. One of our bikes was returned two days later, but we are still missing Edwin and Mike's bike. Mike's bike has been missing since before we left. We did not call the police about Mike's bike because we are really not sure if it was stolen or borrowed and we just cannot remember who borrowed it. The week before our vacation to Minnesota someone got into our van and took out a watermelon I had left in there by mistake. They smashed it in the road in front of our house. A few days before that someone egged our house and spread ketchup on Mike's car. Our tree in the pot in front of our house was uprooted and snaped in half. Then our cars began running awful. We were afraid that someone had done something to our cars. We bought a kit to build our own shed at Lowes. When we get all the lawn equipment out of the garage and into the shed we are going to try to park the cars in the garage. We are also hoping to be able to fit the bikes in the shed. If not we are going to buy locks for each bike and keep them locked to the fence each night. We took the cars into the shop and found out that they both just needed spark plugs and new wires. They are running just fine now, whew!

I am now going to venture to put together the shed in the back yard and will let you know how that turns out.