Flip That House

Darryl and I did something very daring at the end of February. We bought a little house at auction and are having Jesse and Kelly flip it for us. Jesse looked for months to find just the right house, and I want to say that my daughter is a genius! I was so proud of her and the way she handled the auction and bidding! The little house is in Blackfoot, Idaho.

On this kind of auction, you don't get to see the house before you buy it. We had peeked in the windows once, but we weren't really sure how good of shape the little house was in.  All of these photos were taken the day we bought the house, our first time to see what we had purchased.

It is 3 bedroom, 1 bath -

With a pretty nice garage.

Years ago they extended the living room and added the garage to what used to be a carport. You can see where a kitchen window used to be.

In my opinion the kitchen definitely needs some rearranging and updating.

It is a split level house, these stairs lead to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Yep, we'll definitely need to update the bathroom too. 

I was grateful that the stairs to the basement were bright and open, not spooky as some can be.

Don't see the need to do much work here. 

Hmmm.... I guess I spoke too soon. 

The Laundry room will definitely need some work.

But, the rest of the downstairs looks pretty good.

You guessed it, The back door.

This is the small bedroom, I can see the need for new paint and carpet.

With all the snow on the ground we couldn't see the yard very well....

It looks like the trees are trying to take over.

The house sits on a big corner lot, so it will have a lot of yard.

Since the 1st of March Jesse and Kelly have been working hard on our little flip project and we are in the final days of getting it finished. I'll soon be able to show you the 'after' photos! 

Dancing Musings

This evening, May 16th, as I was cooking dinner and listening to the my favorite Pandora station and feeling the rhythm of the beautiful music, I couldn't help but do a "kitchen" pirouette, and je'te into the dining area, and a few other dance moves. It makes me happy to dance, and many, many times, whether I am alone or in a crowd, and sometimes to the embarrassment of my children, when I hear music that 'moves' me, I start doing my own version of interpretive dance, swaying and spinning, hopping, etc. to the beat and the flow of the music. I just can't seem to keep my feet, or for that matter my arms, head, my whole body still.

That got me thinking... Did my grandmothers dance? I mean, if they were humming a tune or heard a song on the radio did they know this singular 'housewife' joy of breaking into dance in the kitchen 'just because'? When did they see their first ballet? When was their first couples dance? I wish now that I had asked them. It would be fun to know.

I am sure that my mom danced in the kitchen, I even saw it a couple of times. I will never be able to thank Mom and Dad enough for spending the money and time to put me in dance classes. I was 3 yrs old in my first dance class and I danced in the recital to a song called "The Polka Pop". I loved my little white dance outfit of silky tulle with the big, shiny blue polka dots. I did the best "skipping" in the class, in my humble opinion. But then, I was only 3.  😊

A few years later I decided I wanted to be a gymnast and took up gymnastics, and quit dance. I missed it and took dance up again in 7th grade and competed in gymnastics in school. I loved everything about gymnastics and tumbling, bars, beam and vault, but "Oh how I love to dance". When the Social Dance club started in High School I was one of the first to sign up! To have a guy waltz me around the floor and do lifts...... That was heaven to me! I was never an excellent dancer, but I was a joyful one! I hope I have passed some of this love onto my children. I hope they don't fear looking a little goofy and just dance to their hearts content.

Several years ago the arthritis in my hips was so bad I could barely walk, let alone dance. Since then I have had a hip resurfacing, a Total Hip Replacement and an ACL repair. Not only can I walk again, but I can dance, and.... I hope that I can dance until the day I die.

The Florida Strawberry Festival

I flew out of Salt Lake City to Tampa, Florida on March 1st. I was so very happy to be back with my darling husband, to see sweet Baby Rachel again and her parents,  and to be back in the warm Florida Sunshine!  

****

The Florida Strawberry Festival is a 10 day long affair and it is the largest festival in the United States. It is a music festival that celebrates the end of the Strawberry season. The Redhead Express played 3 shows a day on the Publix Stage and the Walker Boys played two shows a day on the TruWhip Stage.
****
Now I want to tell you something you may find shocking. If you were a fan of the early 70's TV show, The Partridge Family, I want you to know that Shirley Jones lied to us. This traveling band/ music business is so much more work than they made it seem like. Five shows a day for ten days, 12 adults and three small children living in a motor home and tents, set up, take down, merchandise sales, baby sitting!!! It was exhausting, exhilarating, and so, so much fun!

Both bands would pack the house for their shows, and watching the people watch the bands was exciting, and an eye opener! 

I brought with me Alisa's birthday present from Cali. Not wanting to wait until her birthday on the 22nd, she and Rachel just had to open it.

"Comfortable pajamas! Just what I always wanted!"
 Rachel just wants the paper.

There was strawberry everything at this 10 day party, but the highlight for everyone is all of the strawberry shortcake booths. I think we probably had at least one strawberry shortcake to share each day. We had to find out which booth had the best. 

Rachel and Grandpa shared a lot of these desserts.

She is very good at sharing!

We spent a lot of time with little Rachel while her mom was onstage. She didn't call us Grandma and Grandpa, but had her own names for us. Darryl is "Dah-woh" and I am "Dindy". 

She loves her grandpa so much that even now, the first words out of her mouth when she phones or video calls me are "Where's Dah-woh?" Grandpa would take her on walks through the different exhibition halls. The queen and her court knew her after seeing her day after day and they all thought she was so cute.

We loved to take her through the tents and halls and look at all things Strawberry. All the local high school FHA clubs had a strawberry exhibit.

Darryl and I found a new favorite entertainer, Dennis Lee. If you ever have a chance to see his show don't miss it.

Part comedian, part Elvis impersonator, a wonderful singer and all Talent!

His shows were always full and his love for all  of his audience, the veterans, the elderly, the disabled, the children, makes him a favorite of the festival. He has been performing at this festival for 30 years and we were blessed to see his 1,000th Strawberry Festival performance!

The nice thing about this 'vagabond life' I lead is that I get to visit with old friends from school. My dear friend and gymnastics teammate, Susan Rose lives about 45 minutes away and I was grateful that she would take the time to come and see me.

It was so much fun to visit and catch up on life since high school. I introduced her not only to the Redhead Express and the Walker Boys, but to the Strawberry Festival! Isn't it funny how we sometimes never know what is right in our own backyard? (Metaphorically speaking)

We realized that we had not seen each other since my wedding reception in July of 1976. That's a long, long time. Hopefully it won't be that long until the next visit.

Just some cute photos of our little girl having fun at the 'Green Room' trailer they provided for the band. 

She would let me fix her hair in ponytails and pigtails each morning.

On the last day of the show the entire Redhead Express family paid tribute to Dennis Lee by wearing his T-shirts during their performances. Dennis was so surprised. We were just as surprised when his band came out and they were all sporting Redhead Express T-shirts. 

Grandma Cindy, or Dindy as Rachel would call me, decided the last day of the festival was a good time to take the three little ones to get their faces painted. Cody held Rachel and I can't believe she was so still. And I just want to tell you, this face painting artist is fast at her work!

Our beautiful little strawberry princess!

Hyrum and Ryan decided they needed to be "Dwagons". They spent the rest of the day roaring at everyone.

Of course face painting doesn't last forever, especially after a nap and some food.

This being a music festival they had entertainment and bands playing all day and all night until 10:00 p.m. everyday. They had 5 stage venues and the grandstand concert stage with probably over 100 performers and bands in all. It was great!

The day after the festival came and it was time for Darryl and I to leave the road life and get back to our real life of Dome building. Little miss Rachel did not want her "Dah-woh" to leave and was quite sad about it.

We were a little sad too, but as we packed all of our belongings back in the mini-van we cheered up, because we know..... 

It's time for a new adventure together!