Yeah, I know.  I did so well for like a week.  But then stuff happened and I didn't want to blog.  I wasn't ready to.  Then we got busy and didn't have time.  Then we didn't have internet, which greatly hinders the blogging process.  But now, I find myself with nothing better to do (k, not true, but I don't want to do it right now), a computer, super speedy internet, no husband, and a strong realization I should probably put a post up.

Well, for the bad news... you know, the one that I couldn't blog about for awhile.  Our cutest little bundle of feathers, Bhuvan, got sick and passed away . . . goodness, 3.5 weeks ago now.

I believe he contracted psittacosis, after all of my reading after his passing.  It was tragic.  Bhuvan was Matt and I's first baby together...  I still feel horrible.  We didn't take him to the vet (it's treatable).  You see, birds are super good at hiding their illnesses so predators won't pick them.  There were a couple signs, but I didn't think much of it because he'd gone through similar things before and been fine.  Another sign that should have been so obvious, I didn't know what it was.  After reading all of the symptoms of the common cockatiel illnesses, I found out.  I feel horrible that we had at least a day or two that we could have gotten him into the vet and maybe still have our little birdie-boo with us.  Friday night (June 11) we knew he wasn't doing well.  When we got home from the tattoo, we just hung out with him and tried to keep him warm.  Poor little guy.  We didn't call the vet at that point because afterhours visits are super expensive.  In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't at that point either because I doubt there would have been anything he could have done for our little bird. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, June 12th, our little Bhuvan passed away.  I awoke to find our little bird on his back on the bottom of his cage.  I bawled and bawled.  For like three days.  It was hard because we had to leave so early in the morning for the Scottish festival, but in some ways, I think it helped me to still go do something all day.  It was hard to come home and not have a little bird squeeking at us, happy dancing to get out of his cage.  The next day, I still broke off a corner of my toast for him... it was habit.  We sure miss our little guy.  He was only about 2 1/2 years old.  (Average lifespan of a cockatiel is 12-15 years.)  Matt buried him in my dad's garden Sunday afternoon.

Shortly thereafter, we finally got word we would be able to close on our house.  Huzzah!  The builder let us move some stuff in and paint while we waited for our closing date to be set.  The whole mortgage process was a pain.  From what I hear, worse than normal.  It refused to give up the fight right through to the end, too.  Setting a closing date was a pain.  Then we finally got that figured, and had to close again.  (The papers were dated for the next day - June 25, when we though we were going to have to move the closing date to, but then the title lady was able to meet with us at 8:30 Thursday night . . .so we signed the 24th and had to go back to her office Friday after work to re-sign everything.)  However, we finally got it all done and signed and paid for on June 25th.  On Tuesday, June 29th, the loan funded, and we were officially homeowners (which was a good thing because we already had most everything moved in and had spent our first night there Saturday, June 26th :))

Already (being about a week since moving in), the kitchen and dining room is put away and clean.  Oh how I love having a dishwasher! The living room is mostly done.  The office has made good progress.  The laundry room is done.  The bedroom is pretty good . . . just have to finish finding where I'm putting all of our clothes :)  And the storage bedroom doesn't really have a whole lot of stuff in it.  The bathrooms are another story.  Not looking forward to them.  We painted the kitchen/dining, living room, hall, and 3/4 of the master bedroom.  I quite like the color.  My gift card finally arrived so I can buy the paint for the accent wall in the bedroom and the hall bath color.  Those should be painted by the end of next week. It's quite exciting to have our own place. 

It's super spacious . . . granted, it's like twice the square footage as our apartment, plus has 2 extra bedrooms, and extra bathroom, and a laundry room.  I love being able to do laundry at my own house too.  Even better is being able to do dishes, laundry, and shower at the same time :)  Or do anything else, really, but we have enough hot water to accommodate all three simulatenously.  It's swell.  The internet is super fast.  We have TV (which I will now insert a complaint about . . . with the HOA, we get the first 2 tiers of programing from PrimeTime Communications . . . and BBC America is in the 3rd tier.  I wanted to cry . . not really, but I was super bummed.  No Top Gear for Amber . . . oh, that's my new obsession . . especially since Vampire Diaries doesn't start until August :) )  Back to the pros...we have Cinco with us - the laundry room holds all of his necessities so nicely :)  We have a fun little patio.  We know some of our neighbors, so we have friends in the neighborhood :).

Cons, aside from the lack of BBC America: The kitchen cabinets and the dishwasher are a bit small.  They look normal, but the cabinets are just a bit skinny.  Oh well, we've managed to put everything away.  Tiny tiny coat closet.  Build issues that have to be taken care of... we had to have the heating guy come put a valve on at the dryer so we could use it already.  Stan had to fix the door to the lazy susan cabinet so we could actually open it enough to put things in it.  We are missing 7 pegs for various shelves through the house's cabinets.  We are missing 15 dots that go on the corners of the cabinet doors and drawers.  The plumber still needs to come fix the shower head in the hall bath so it doesn't just drizzle on you.  And I need to ask the plumber or builder about the sprayer at the kitchen sink.  Oh! and we have no idea where the mailbox is..... we finally got the keys to it (funny story), but don't know where to put the key to get our mail.  I did drive around today when I got home and found some mailboxes, but they were for the first five buildings....ours is number 6 . . . so I still don't know what to do about our mail. 

Anyway, back to the keys.... we went, I think Saturday, to the post office to change our address and pick up the keys.  We changed our address just fine, but they couldn't give us the mailbox key without some proof we were moving into the unit...... We had to bring the HUD back that had our name and the address on it before we could get the keys.  We thought it amusing that we could get our mail sent there with no problem, but we couldn't get keys to access said mail without proof of moving there. :)  Matt found it even more interesting that neither transaction required any ID.  Ah, the government :)

Sorry this is long.  You're not obligated to read it :)  Last week, after missing having a feathered baby, Matt got me to consent to get a budgie.  We purchased him at Petco in Orem.  He/she/it is awfully cute, and quite a little stinker now that he has gotten comfortable with our bedroom.  He wasn't hand-fed, so we had to work a bit to tame him to come to our hand, but he does a pretty good job now.  We are accepting applications for names.... I think he looks like a half and half dipped Easter egg, but we haven't found anything to go with that idea that would work for a name.  We though of calling him Squirt (like from Nemo), and today, Matt is set on Turkleton (from Scrubs) because he is turquoise, and that's like Turkleton.  Then when we get a second, it will be white, and we will name it JD.  (He was begging me via text today to let us name it Turkleton...sigh).

So, if you read this far, here are couple of pictures (yeah, not good, I know) of our new family member.  Feel free to comment and let us know what you think it should be named.