fully committing

I will refrain from talking about busyness. I am feeling ahead of the curve a bit, it's before 11am and I have some red beans and rice simmering in the crock pot. Well, just the red beans part. It's an experiment but hopefully it will turn out well since I sacrificed a very delicious bell pepper from the garden for it. Beans and rice are not our usual fair around here. I used to eat red beans and rice a lot in college and do love the stuff. But have not had much of it in years. We are officially under contract on a house as of now and in anticipation of moving expenses and dumping all our money at closing, we are reigning in spending. Beans and rice are not expensive and we have a frozen ham bone just waiting to be slow cooked for hours to complete the meal.

So, yes, we did make the giant leap into the great unknown (to us) of being home owners. Let me back up, my last post I was admitting to being fearful, still am, but that was over a different house. The first house we put an offer on we saw twice, walked by it, drove by it, talked about it endlessly,  and stared at the pictures on the internet for over two weeks. When I finally was comfortable enough to make an offer, we found out the day before the homeowners had filed for bankruptcy. So we let that house go, for we did not want to wade into those even murkier waters. I have been trying not to think of "what if we had just decided a day sooner". However, we did pray that it would be an obvious yes or no. And we got an obvious no.

We spent a few more weeks looking at houses. The pickings are slim and the good ones go fast. All the cool kids are moving to Salt Lake City. I kid. There was not a whole lot we wanted to afford or could afford. We looked a nice craftsman/bungalow, I need to research the difference, and decided that this house was quite nice, in our price range, and maybe we should go for it. Overall, I like it better than the first house. So, we are under contract. However, nothing is official until it's official. So, I am holding back some excitement until it's all finished. This means we are fully committing to living in Salt Lake City for the foreseeable future, which was also a long prayerful discussion in the Ware house.

What else have we been up to you ask? Well, living life I guess. Our garden is out of control. Davis planted all these squash varieties that think they own the world. We have not bought but maybe ten dollars worth of other vegetables this summer. Majority of our food comes from our yard. Therefore, we eat a lot of zucchini. I am becoming a master at hiding it in everything. Actually, we have spent more than ten dollars on vegetables. We are suckers for cold-pressed veggie juices from the farmers market. Those are special treats :)

our furry shadow as Davis waters the tomatoes with coffee in hand

picking more tomatoes beside one of the squash giants

wall of zucchini, Lebanese squash, and Ute squash

The weather as been warm but not as hot for as long compared to last summer. Still, we spoiled our fur-child with a five dollar kiddie pool from target. She was hesitant at first but now as soon as we are finished with our walk, she jumps right in to cool off.

I mean, it's really adorable. She is a cute pup to begin with, then she plays in her pool and my heart melts. I'd let her eat all my socks. I might be a push over whenever have children. But honestly, I think Davis is way more tenderhearted than me.

playing his new-to-him accordion, audience not impressed

Davis, being as tender hearted as he is, frequently volunteers to play music for church. He has an old accordion acquired during our Ridge Haven days. It is definitely on it's last leg. We took it to an accordion repair shop here in SLC, yes there is a whole place for that here. The guy said it would take about three thousand to fix and then it would be worth less than a thousand once it was fixed. Obviously, that would be dumb to do. Apparently, accordions have finite life regardless of how well they are cared for and it's less than 100 years. Davis had been wanting a new one for awhile and fixing the old one is pointless, so we bought this classy looking used one. He is a quite the happy fellow. It sounds so much better and is much easier to play. Good-bye belt for hand strap!

We have been trying to get out and about to enjoy summer. There is so much going on sometimes we just give up and stay at home to garden. It always blows our mind that we can do a beautiful hike after work and be home before dark. Two weeks ago, we went up on a Friday evening to Little Cottonwood Canyon to take in the wildflowers on a 3+ mile hike.

I like to try to look shorter :)

up to lake Catherine, nestled between Brighton and Alta

Lake Catherine

kept stopping to look at flowers

for the beauty of the earth...

Lord of all to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise

I mean, this is fantastic. The lighting, the temperature, the colors, the scale, the contrasts... everything so wonderfully crafted. The vistas may have helped us be satisfied with living here for longer :)