House Watch - Part Two

Ok, I know you all are sick of hearing about this house, but here's the latest. Life is good because we've locked in our interest rate at 5% which drops our monthly mortgage by almost $100, so happiness all around. Now we're just waiting for the appraiser to do his job so the paperwork can get going. If he doesn't do his thing by the end of this week, closing will be postponed. Sigh.

And Now I Know

When you have trials everyone tells you the same thing...you'll look back on this and be grateful. I know what you're thinking - that I'm going to say they were wrong. Nope. Not at all.

Rick left this morning for a week long work trip to Texas. He left me with Tatiana on meds for a big ear infection and vomitting all over place. Although I'm definitely not skipping around the house singing "Count Your Many Blessings", I am able to see the situation for what it is and it's not that big of a deal.

It wasn't that long ago that Rick would leave not for a week at a time, but months at a time, and I wasn't left with one child who had an ear infection, I was left with two children who were in the hospital more than they were at home. I hated every minute of those times. I hated trying to do it all by myself and knowing that Rick wanted to help but all he could do was call. Now when Rick is gone, I am so grateful that I had those times to grow some thick skin. I can handle him gone for a week - my life goes on and I don't skip a beat. Sure I miss him, but I am able to function without him and I fully believe that's a good thing.

So to all you people who ever told me I'd look back on a crappy situation and one day be grateful, you were right. Just don't get used to me admitting it all that often.

Amazing Deal!

So I guess Nordstrom sells a brand of makeup called e.l.f. I wouldn't know being as I live in the middle of nowhere and have for the past five years. Apparently Nordstrom is buying out the company so the company is now getting rid of all their makeup with the e.l.f. name on it. Bad for them, GREAT for you!

Go to this site

http://www.eyeslipsface.com/default.asp

and witness the amazing deals going on. Almost everything is only $1.00...yup. A buck! That's everything including brushes, eye shadows, eyeliner, mascarra, you name it. Some of their mineral makeup is a little more expensive, but it's still ridiculous.

As a side note, if you punch in the code CAROLINA at check out, you'll get %50 off your order up to $15.00 and shipping is around $7.00, but even then I paid less than twenty dollars and got way too much make up. Have fun!

Cheerios Anyone?

Apparently bowls and untensils are highly over-rated with my daughter.

That or all the dishes were dirty and this was her only option.

House Watch

Today was our home inspection and things went well. The inspection part was way less fun than the "accepting our offer" part. I mean, all we got to hear was what was wrong with the place, which wasn't very much. I kind of tuned out and just told Melissa, our awesome realtor, to tell me where to sign. I'm pretty sure Rick was listening to what was said.

So, inspection - check. Now we have the appraisal some time this week along with waiting to hear back from the seller to see if they'll do what we've asked them to. Then it's just a few weeks of waiting time. Sighs.

Welcome Home!

House hunting is a pain in the butt...unless you have the best realtor in the world! Monday morning she sent me a link and said, "You need to check this house out. It was just put on the market today." Tuesday morning we looked at it, loved it, and put in an offer, hoping we could beat the offer already on the table. This morning she called and said, "I have some bad news...you need to start packing!"

Barring any dramatic events, Rick and I will be the owners of a home that fits are needs, is in our budget and doesn't need one daggone thing done to it. Life just keeps getting better and better!

http://tinyurl.com/d2quom

See, It's Ok!

Thank you Scrubs for validating me!

It's Potty Time

Tatiana has been obsessed with the toilet lately. Rick and I figured it was time to show her how little girls use the potty when she started walking up to the toilet, lifting up her shirt then sticking her belly out and saying, "Potty!". I'm thinking Rick and Aren need to start shutting the door while they do their business.

So back to Tatiana. She loves the toilet and is excited to sit on it any chance she gets. The other day she insisted on sitting on the toilet then looked at me and said, "Book?" Once again Rick, shut the door.

My Easter Epiphany

I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to step up my game in the scripture department and so a friend of mine and I decided to read the Book of Mormon and New Testament together. It had been way too long since I've read the New Testament cover to cover...probably the last time I did was as a missionary in Bulgaria so I was looking forward to it. I enjoyed reading about the Savior in Matthew but I must admit by the time I got to Luke it was sounding like a little bit of a re-run and at the end of that book I was a little miffed they were killing my Savior yet again. I kept thinking, "Seriously you guys? Give Him a break!"

Yesterday while reading and looking forward to today a different thought crept into my mind. I was reminded the New Testament isn't a book about the killing of our Savior but of His resurrection. I began thinking how wonderful it was to be able to read of this not once, but four times in row, and how grateful I was, not annoyed or bothered, to be reading this story yet again.

As I write this I can't help but think of my daughter Lily who died over four years ago and would have celebrated her seventh birthday last month. I think of all the times that all I can do is cry and wonder why, but this morning none of that seems to matter because I have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who lived, then died for each of us, and lives again. Because of Him death doesn't seem to matter this morning. This morning the thing that matters is He lives.

Springtime

I'm really sorry to rub this in the faces of everyone still experiencing horrible winter, but down here in Arizona, well, it's freaking beautiful. This past Sunday Rick and I took the kids up to Phoenix and spent the day with my sister and her family. We decided to do a little Easter egg hunt for Tatiana and Thomas, my nephew, and we asked Aren to hide the eggs. We told him not to make it hard because we were dealing with a 22 month old and a 13 month old.

Here is Aren's response to our request...
And here are my nephew's sausage fingers...
And Tatiana discovering the chocolate in the egg...
And Aren hiding from the little thieving toddler fingers...
And finally, a picture of Tatiana just because...

Home Sweet Forclosed Home

Most of you know that Rick and I were shockingly and amazingly approved for a house loan last week. We qualified for a decent for us amount at 5.5% which made us happy. What made us even happier was we found the perfect house for us last Saturday...1900 square feet, two car garage, and only cosmetic fixing up with the exception of a fence we want to put up to keep Tatiana contained (although there is a dog run and we're pretty content with that for her). Even better our house payment would be less than $200 more than what we're paying for rent right now. I KNOW!!!

Like so many tmes in our life, the bubble burst rather quickly. Our realtor called and it turned out the house was under contract. The only ray of hope we have is the fact that the house was mere days from going into forclosure and it's possible the bank will refuse the offer given that fact. If the bank does forclose on the house then we'll have the opportunity to scoop it up at a lower cost, which is good for us, but how awful that in order to get what we want we need to hope for financial harm to another family.

This sucks.

April Fool's According to a Third Grader

April Fool's never really bothered me. It was just another day to go to school or work or whatever. I think the best trick I ever saw was when I was 21 and working in downtown DC and right there in the Washington Post was a full page add saying that because of the economy Taco Bell had purchased the Liberty Bell and it would now be called the "Taco Liberty Bell". The calls the government got that day were out of control. Pretty good.

But spending April Fool's with a third grader is much less exciting. Aren woke up before six o'clock and hasn't stopped trying to "fool" us. Here are some of the things we've gotten so far...

- There's a tarantula on your head!
- There's a daddy long leg on your head!
- There's a black widow on your head! (noticing a theme yet?)
- Mom look! It's a monster!
- Mom, I don't feel well.
- Mom, I have a thousand dollars!

Seriously, it just keeps going. I think this has turned into my least favorite day of the year...even more so than the day after Halloween when Aren is on his sugar low and the first day of summer break. Serenity now!