On Sat., 10/16, Jared and I flew to AZ and stayed a night with one of his sisters, who will live an hour and 1/2 from us, about which we are very happy. We had fun playing basketball with our nephews and taking our nieces on walks. We saw a rainbow while we were playing basketball:
After church on Sunday, we drove to Safford to look around a bit and check into our hotel room. Safford is a little bigger than we thought it would be but it is by no means a big town. It does have a Walmart and Home Depot and several fast food joints, though, ha ha.
Jared had to be in meetings on Monday and Tuesday, so I went and looked at houses with a realtor, then we showed Jared a few of the house on Wed. Jared and were driving around in the evening and happened upon a house with a for sale sign and Jared called the phone # listed and the guy said he had three houses in the area for sale and asked if we wanted to go look at them that evening. We ended up choosing one of those houses. It is awesome and I can't wait to move into it! Here is a virtual tour of it--it has over 2200 sq. feet with four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, and it sits on an acre of land--lots of pics since I know most of you won't be able to ever see it in person:
The front--we'll have to landscape (with rocks and some rugged plants):
To the left of the foyer is a formal dining room (we will probably use it as a sitting room with a couch or two and my piano):
There is and entrance-way from the dining room to the kitchen:
View from the front door; kitchen around the left corner, doors to back porch ahead, and living room around the right corner--
The kitchen bar:
The living room--I like how the part where we'll put the couch is carpeted but the parts where you'd walk to the kitchen or over to the bedrooms is wood:
The foyer and the entertainment closet in the living room:
The inside of the entertainment closet--I guess you're supposed to put your TV in there but I'm not sure we're gonna do that:
Granite counter tops and black appliances, yay! That entrance way leads to the master bedroom (around the corner to the right, the laundry room and 1/2 bathroom (straight ahead), and the food storage room and garage (to the left):
Some neat little extras--a pull-out spice rack next to the stove:
A cutlery/silverware drawer and bread drawer:
A kitchen nook back there:
The master bedroom is about the same size as ours now, which is plenty big enough. I'm not gonna include pics of any of the bedrooms--they look pretty basic without furniture and you can't tell how big they are. Maybe I'll put pictures of it after the stuff is moved in.
The master bathroom--two sinks:
Larger shower than we have now:
Water closet:
Jetted tub with walk-in closets on both sides:
The other sides of the house--the entrance is off the living room:
The 1/2 bath (right outside of the laundry room):
The linen closet in the laundry room (there are also two other linen closets, one in each of the halls of both sides of the house):
Cabinets above the washer and dryer and a small counter:
The food storage room! (notice the stuff for the central vacuum system, as well):
The guest bathroom:
The back porch (or some of it, at least):
The back of the house:
Aview from the back yard:
A view from the front yard:
The town we will actually live in is Thatcher. There are 6 family wards there and four singles wards for the community college (there are 9 wards in Safford, and 4 wards in Pima--both neighboring towns). The temple is less than 10 minutes from our house. We stopped and talked to a neighbor. She is LDS and has six kids 10 and under. She said the ward is very friendly and helpful. When they moved in June, they told the Elder's Quorum that they wouldn't need help until Sat. but the moving truck got there Friday night so they started unloading by themselves and Elders started showing up to help. The Relief Society brought them some meals that first week. Sounds like a great ward. We will move the week after Thanksgiving. Please pray that the house here in Louisiana sells quickly!! We just put it on the market today.
The Christmas tree Mom decorated with baby stuff and the banner Mom ordered:
The 2 Peas in a Pod plates, napkins and cups:
The pink booties corsage I wore:
Mom and me, aaaaw:
Some of the gifts:
