Update

So things are continuing to roll along in the Siddoway household. Ivory came to look at our lot and hopefully the rest of it will be leveled out and graded soon. I still haven't heard back on the garage situation. I found out yesterday that Tim lost his job. That means we are looking at 325 less a month until he finds a job, and Idaho Child Services finds out about that job. The stress of all this is my fault really. I have become dependent on this money and with profit sharing two weeks away I am in panic mode. At least it will accumulate, and until he is up to date, I don't have to drive half way to meet him. He doesn't even think he will have the money to get Brock in March like he was planning. I feel bad for Brock who looks forward to the visits, but I am grateful to not have to share my little boy. I just have to keep the faith that we will be ok.

Jeff is gone in Sandy doing inventory and so I am looking at a long night alone with the kids. Jeff is the knight in Shinning Armor when he gets home at 5:30 everday. He saves me from the horrible dragon Blake becomes around 5:00 everynight. How is the maiden suppose to slay the beast tonight? Speaking of the little beast... he just had me put the kiddy spiderman boxing gloves on him. Now he is off to attack Brock.

I hate Ivory

After the contractor comming to look at our steps, it was determined nothing can be done without building out of code. So Ivory screwed us. The warranty man Ryan made it sound like it was a favor and I was lucky they even sent anyone out to look at it in the first place. I told him I demand him discuss this with the"powers that be" and get us compensation in some way. He gave a half %#&*# reply that he would try.

I assumed this would be the outcome, but it doesnt make it any easier to take. I feel it was fraud on thier part to sell us a two car garage. Ryan said that though they cant do anything out of code for liability, that we could. SOOOO they want me to pay for someone to fix it and make my stairs out of code. And even with that, our garage isnt big enough, and we have to buy a smaller car. So Ivory's solution thus far... fork out tons of your own money to deal with this situation after you spent a fortune on this home that was not what we contracted for.

I dont know if I should give up, or write state newspaper, radio, tv stations, and Stake President Ivory. I could even make a stink on thier facebook page. If the stink is to be the case- I might even put a sign in my front yard for all those going to the model home to see. So what do you think- give it up and relax, or put up a fight?

Garage Update

So Ivory called and said that they can skim about 10 inches off the stairs and still be under code. That helps alittle. They car Jeff will probably get-for a slammin' deal- thanks to his Dad who practically stole it at the auction- will be about 8 inches or so smaller then the Alero. So that gives us 19 inches in the garage we dont have right now. Granted Ivory hasn't done it yet- so we dont know how well it will work out, and it isnt the car Jeff wanted. It is probably better all the same. It is a cheaper car, with a better warrenty, and better gas milage. We should be able to keep the payments around $100 a month.

I'll let you know how it went once they come and deal with it.

Valentines Day

Well we all got up early and headed out to the Draper Temple open house. We thought it would be good for Brock to walk through the Temple so he would never grow up with any "fear" or anything about it. The weather worked for us which was a blessing (it was suppose to be a doozy of a storm). Well the whole Temple experience took 2.5 hours- way too long for Blake and me. Blake wanted to sit in every chair or couch he saw, which wasnt allowed. Whenever we put him down he ran for it. Brock was great and followed the tour with the pictured brochure they gave us. He would point to the picture and say "This is the room we are now". The temple is surrounded by probably 2-3 million dollar homes and it was almost boring in comparasion. I know it is the temple, and a beautiful place, but it was all in tan and lacked the normal bling I am used to. The chandalier in the Celestrial room was amazing. We also ran into Val White at the very end of it. Always a Petaluma connection here in Utah.

After the Temple we went to John and Sandy's and ditched the kids (Thank you soooo much). Jeff took me to Tacanos, which was amazing. OH it was oooooh sooooo yummy. After being so full- and not have eaten much during the day before then- the baby, for the first real time, made itself know and blooped around alot while at the Sprint store. Since Dad has finally cut me off from his cell phone plan (Apparently thinks I am an adult-whatever) Jeff and I got our own. We spent too much on the phones we wanted and got a big plan. We will probably lower our plan in a month to something a bit more realistic. We had researched like crazy and the guy at Sprint beat out everyone with free stuff, activation, and even gave us 25% off our monthly bill... aparently he gave us an employee discount. ATT and Verizon wouldnt budge at all on price and T-mobile didnt have realiable service down here in the middle of no where. We are very happy with our new toys and now feel like the rest of stupid America. AHHH well.

Happy Valentines day.

Garage

So, after finally empting the garage of all boxes and the eliptical, Jeff tried to pull his car into his spot. Low and behold.... it doesnt fit. After some manuvering. Having scewed it abit and having his car touch the stairs railing we were able to close the garage door.... with a half inch to spare. The only way he can do that is if I sit there and guide him every day after work. And if he tried to pull in straight at all the garage door would hit the car. Obviously this is not ok for us, especially as we are looking at getting a new car to replace Jeff's slightly oil leaking, 120,000 miled Alero. Jeff really wants the Mazda 6 or a Chevy Malibu, but there is NO WAY either of those would fit.

When we had the four way inspection before we closed, Ron the super said that the house was placed higher then expected so they had to add two more steps (that is 20 inches of space). He even said "Your car should fit", but with the driveway still wet we couldnt try it.

So Ivory's warrenty department is comming tomorrow at 12:30 to look at the garage. So tonight we are going to do the research of all the standard cars ie Accord, Camery etc that wont fit. Jeff will probably take my car to work and leave his so we can have the Ivory guy try to put it in the garage and make it fit himself. SOOOO everyone please pray that the warrenty guy will find the situation as rediculous as we do and that they will try and do something about it. Wether it is changing the steps, giving us a third car garage, tearing off the front of the garage and expanding it a foot, or giving us some kind of cash compensation for the fact we only have a one car garage. So, Ivory, the number one homebuilder in Utah seems to have given us a whole lot of problems. Dont get me wrong, I love my house, I love the town, I love Brocks school, I love the ward, I love my lot.... I just dont love my garage and the HOA (another story entirely). I just hope the guy is reasonable.

What lives here?

So while at play group yesterday, the women there decided I needed to know what creatures are part of the local wildlife. Rattlesnakes (but they only see like 2 a year), giant snakes that are all "puffy like" (but they are good- they eat rattlesnake eggs), Tarantulas (only one lady saw two last year in a friends sprinkler box), wolf spiders that can get the size of a kindergardners hand and who carry their babies on their back (they all have only seen one or two a year- and they "supposely" arent dangerous), and black widows that plague the area and require monthly spraying. Needless to say I tried with all my might to convince Jeff to put the house for sale and he refused. The ladies, upon seeing they really freaked me out, told me that with all the building- I probably wont see any. I think it just gives the suckers reason to enter my house!

On a side note we still dont know what is wrong with Jeff's car. It is leaking oil (all over my driveway since you cant park on the street in the winter) and one mechanic said that he thought it was a certain problem, but he couldnt fix it. So we took it to another more real mechanic and he told us it would be about 300 to fix it. Well he called and told us the leak wasnt where they thought and he doesnt have the capability to remove the transmission to find the leak, and that would require another mechanic. So... Monday we will have to take it in. How much will it cost... we dont have the quote yet, but if the easy problem was going to be 300 what is the hard one going to give? Just pray for us. I am suddenly freaking out because I realized that somehow my tithing calc for the year was messed up and we are really down 1500 less on our budget on the year. Ok not a big deal, except we are still a month from profit sharing (and scared silly) and we have less then we thought as a backup.

Also my ultrasound will be March 2nd at 9:30ish. The peanut should be around the size of a large avacado now.

Brock Rocks