Last weekend's home improvement project

Last month's gas bill was a big shock. It had jumped from $100 to $278. I know we had some cold spells, but that was about all I could take. I had already bought a fireplace insert a few weeks ago, but had not found the time to install it. After that bill came, I suddenly had plenty of time to install it. A fireplace insert is basically a large cast iron box that go into your existing fireplace. It has it's own metal chimney pipe that simply goes up the inside of the existing chimney. The fireplace insert has a door that seals and also a fan that turns on and blows the heat created from the fire in the insert out into the room. I bought this one from a guy in Atascadero. I sanded it down and re-painted it. Also polished the metal door. We fired it up and man the family room is nice and warm now. Hopefully our gas bill won't be so high next month!!

38 Weeks

38 weeks and only a couple more to go. The doctor is very mean and says that the baby could come any day, but we all know that she probably won't for at least 2 more weeks. Darcy came 3 days late. Darcy is VERY excited for her baby sister to come out of Mommy's tummy. She wants to hold her and give her hugs and kisses. The holding part might have to wait for a little bit though. We have been very busy around here lately. Working around the house, having fun with our friends John and Kari Sinner, and playing a lot.

The Leishman Family had a wonderful Christmas this year. Seth got a new lens for his camera. He has a Canon 40D and decided to buy the Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L lens for his Christmas present this year. Tara let Seth surprise her, sort of. With a big list of possible presents Seth had to find ones to purchase. He ended up getting her 2 new All-Clad pans, a Boos Block cutting board, and a Pepper Grinder. We are trying to outfit Tara's kitchen to the max!!

We have been working on the house lately. The next post I'll post the pictures from my project from last weekend.

I'M DONE

I have officially passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam. I've been waiting to hear back on the last part since I took it before Thanksgiving. It's official now though! Best Christmas present I could have ever asked for!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We wanted to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. We feel so blessed. We live in an amazing country. We have the gospel. We have eachother. We love you all.

I passed!

I just found out that I passed the Auditing portion of the CPA exam. That puts me 3 of 4 exams done. I recently sat for the last one that I haven't passed yet so I won't hear back for a few weeks on that one. Everything is business as usual in the Leishman household. Darcy's birthday on the 1st of November was wonderful. We had our family there, Cameron & Rachael and their kids, and John & Kari Sinner with Berkley. Congrats to the Sinners on their handsome new baby boy. I'm going to post a few photos from the birthday party.

Darcy was a little embarrassed to blow out her candles.



Darcy loves to eat the batter from the beater.



Tara made an Annie from Little Einsteins dress for Darcy. She also has her microphone like Annie and pig-tails. Darcy loved to be Annie for Halloween!!





Darcy showed me her tongue after she ate a big blue sucker for Halloween

Another quiet Sunday

This morning we woke up and ate some breakfast while we waited for Darcy to wake up. After she woke up and got un-groggy we decided to go for a drive as a family. We went out past Sisquoc and out Alisos Canyon Rd until it hit Los Alamos. It was very nice. Then we got home and Darcy wanted to get ready for Church. Darcy loves to go to church. She remembers every Sunday that we get to go church. We got her ready in a dress that she got as a gift from her BFF Berkley Sinner. She looks so adorable so I took a few pics. Here is one of them.

A few thoughts

I feel so glad to be on the side that respects others. During the recent election cycle, opponents to Proposition 8 were completely disrespectful to those that did not agree with them, swearing at them on the street, ripping up signs, spitting on them etc. They talk about respecting their decisions and accepting their beliefs, yet when another person stands up for what they believe in they are met with grotesque slander. The recent commercial from the No on Prop 8 campaign focusing on the LDS Church and portraying our missionaries, who give up 2 years of their lives to serve others, as monsters is a disgrace. What has happened to our society? This Saturday Night Live culture that we have allowed to take over has turned us into classless, arrogant, ignorant people. The idea that I won't tell you that what you say or do is wrong so you don't tell me that what I say or do is wrong is insane. That just perpetuates the idiotic.

It makes me sad to think that our society has fallen so far that respect is so one-sided; others have to respect what you say and do.

It is so nice to meet people who are genuinely nice, considerate, and respectful. They have class. They would find it shameful to say or do the things that everyday go on today. I hope someday people realize the mud they have stepped in and spread around.

My grandparents would be ashamed to even think about doing or saying the things that so many people do everyday. That generation is not "old-fashioned," they are just right. We need to try to emulate more their sense of self-control and class. I recently read an article that I will post the link to about this exact type of attitude and disrespectful behavior that has been shown to our current President. It is short, so take a moment and check it out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html

We moved in!

Well, we moved in. Finally. There is still no carpet in the master bedroom or the family room, so everything is just sitting in the great room until next week sometime when they come to lay the carpet. Tara and I are camped out in the nursery for now. But, with the carpet basically the only thing left to make it livable, we decided to just go ahead and move in. We love it. It is so cool to come home to the new house. There is still so much to do. Someday there will be the funds available to do bigger projects, ie: cutting down many HUGE trees, etc..but for the time being we are just going to enjoy living in the house and being in our own house. 400sqft to around 3000sqft is a HUGE leap in space. Darcy runs around like crazy! Now she actually can!!! Yeah! Well, I'm supposed to be studying to take the Auditing portion of the CPA exam next Tuesday. I'd better get back to that. Ugh. Now that my computer is set up at the house and internet will be turned on next Thursday I can go ahead and post pictures for the house, before and after.

Just a couple quick photos

Darcy just had some grape juice before this photo, that's why she has a purple mustache!

Almost there!!!

I just thought I would toss out there a quick update on the home-front. We will most likely be finally moving in by next weekend. I'm having the popcorn acoustic ceiling scraped and re-textured so I can then paint. Then all I have to do is finish a couple more rooms of paint, and a little bathroom work and DONE! I'll probably have a few more projects to work on after we move in, but I am finally getting close!

Disclosures about work, my place there, and my Dad

My Dad, Kirk Leishman is the hardest working person I have ever met. No one works harder than he does. My comments in an earlier blog about how he would like me to take over and how I already do most of his work was a huge JOKE. Those statements were completely meant as an exaggeration in a joking manner. I'm sure he would like me to continue working for the company, but in no way have I even remotely taken over even 10% of what he does. He has over 20 years experience in the finance world. He was a controller and CFO for many years before doing what he does now. My Dad is also the smartest person I know. Professionally, he knows more about taxes, investments, estates, economics, and business than anyone I know. He is happy to work many more hours past the normal 5PM. I hope to someday, somehow, absorb even half of what he knows. He also knows so much about all kinds of other things. He can fix just about anything you can imagine, plumbing, electrical, building, etc. He has spent many hundreds of hours working on my new house. I will forever feel indebted to him for his love and never exhausting enthusiasm to get the job done. There is no way I could have bought this house and fixed it up on such a small budget without his help and knowledge. We re-finished the hardwood floors for $650 dollars. 1000 square feet of wood flooring for $650 dollars. The lowest bid I got to do the same thing was $3,200. I had never worked those machines or re-finished any wood of any kind, but since my Dad had he encouraged me to give it a try ourselves. Sure, it isn't perfect. But it doesn't really matter. I'm going to raise my family in that house and I'm sure I will have to re-do those floors many more times just from the wear and tear of living life. I hope to someday become even half the man, father, businessman, church leader, and grandfather my Dad is. I hope to someday be as generous with my time, money, advice, and knowledge as my Dad is. He works so hard without ever saying a word. I can't count the nights he has come home from work at 6,7 or 8PM to eat dinner with the family, get us ready for bed and then go back to the office to work until the middle of the night. My Dad is truly the best man I have ever known and ever will know. I am so grateful to have him as my father, Dad, mentor, boss, and grandpa to my children. For those of you who know my Dad, I'm sure you can agree that he is a incredible person. He is the most unselfish human being I can think of.

I hope those of you that read this will understand how much I love my Dad. I hope you know and understand that I could in no way replace him in the work we do at his office. Many years from now, maybe he can consider retiring, but I'm sure I will continue to call him often to help with questions and advice.

My Dad is my hero

I passed!

I just logged on to website to check my scores on the two parts of the CPA exam that I recently took. I took Auditing in July and Regulation (which is Business Law, Contracts, and all Tax) in August. Auditing still hasn't posted, but I found out today that I passed the Regulation exam. Ya!!! I'm at least 1/2 way through passing the CPA exam!

Update on the house:

We are living with my parents. I'm done with re-finishing the wood floors, painting the wood ceiling, and a bunch of other painting and baseboard. We are scheduled to be moving in the the next 2 weeks!

Another one bites the dust

Well, I took another part of the CPA exam this morning. Finally. It has been so crazy trying to juggle work, church calling (ward clerk), buying and remodeling the house, and studying for the hardest exam ever! But, now one of those is off the list. And after this Sunday the ward clerk will be off too, since we will be officially moved to Orcutt. We actually have to move in with my parents, a whopping 8 houses down from ours, until I can finish the remodel work. I only need another week or so to get things wrapped up. We already have two coats of the clear polyurethane on the floors, with another couple to go. Then a couple days worth of painting, a couple broken pipes to fix, new carpet and we can move in officially. Thank goodness for the 6 car garage to store all of our stuff while the inside of the house is a mess. I am so excited to kill that commute. Plus Darcy gets to grow up around the corner from one set of grandparents and also around the corner from Cameron and Rachael's kids, her cousins. Rachael is Tara's sister. Well, gotta get going to start loading the truck and trailor. I'll post more info and progress pics later.

Progress!

Well, after starting the painting of the pine covered ceiling in the great room and kitchen last Monday, today it will finally be finished! It took from Monday to Thursday last week just to get 1 coat of primer up there. On Saturday I went down to Frazee and bought some Shellac based primer, real toxic stuff, but highly effective. It will keep the naughts from eventually showing through the paint. An entire coat of that went on in about 3 hours. We got an entire coat of finish paint on in about 2.5 hours too. We ended the day by getting about half way through cutting in the joints. Today we can finish that and paint one more coat of paint. Then comes picking baseboard so we can finish putting together the kids bathroom. Hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday we can start the sanding process for the 1000 square feet of hardwood floors. We are still hopeful of being able to move in at the end of the month. I also found out that we have to replace the septic tank as well before we can move in. But we are making progress. Things are beginning to come together. I painted the two kids bedrooms last week as well, and they look great. I'll get some photos and post them later this week.

We finally bought a house!

We closed escrow on July 31st! After a ton of effort and offers on other houses that fell through, we finally found a great house and were able to get it. It is located in Lake Marie, in Orcutt, about 8 houses down the street from my parents. It needs quite a bit of work, but that is ok. I've already started by ripping down almost all the landscaping that was covering the front of the house in the picture. Behind the pine tree/bush thing on the left hand side of the picture is the front door. I ripped out that tree. It has a newly remodeled kitchen with amazing cabinets, countertops, and Dacor appliances. The house is 3007 square feet, a huge difference from our 400 square feet apartment now. I am finishing remodeling one of the bathrooms and I'm re-finishing the hardwood floors as well. We will try to paint everything, inside and outside too, but that may be after we move in. Luckily we aren't moving out of our apartment until the end of this month, so I have a few weeks to get things done. We are so excited to finally be able to buy our first home. It has been nerve racking and crazy. Many many many headaches, but well worth it now that we have it!!!! We will be posting many more pictures as I get things done. I will take some photos today for some before/after postings for later. Our new address is 2211 Crystal Drive Santa Maria CA 93455. I will keep you posted!! This picture of the house isn't very good, so I will try to take some more later today. I've already started a bunch of demolition, so you may see that in the next pictures.