What's new, well a lot............

I am sorry that I haven't been doing much blogging lately I have been pretty preoccupied. Back in March Cory and I found our dream home and put in an offer contingent upon us selling our current home. This was VERY sudden as we were not looking to move for another 3 years or so, however, I just happen to stumble upon this house and fell in love with it. You see my sister has been looking for a house since March as well and told me to get online and check out this house that just came on the market in this neighborhood that we both LOVE. The houses are gorgeous and the lots are huge! After I was finished looking at the house she had asked me to, I continued to scroll down the page to see what else was for sale in that neighborhood when I saw "the house". It had been on the market for awhile and had just recently lowered it's price and was now kind of in the price bracket that we could actually maybe go for it. I looked at the pictures on line and was like wow this looks really nice, so I called Cory in to take a look. He immediately was like "yes it is nice, but we said we weren't going to move until Paige was in school full time and you are back at work." I told him I knew that but to look at the price it is about $200,000 less than most houses in that neighborhood are listed for and that we should just take a look. Well we got in the car and drove by it and he agreed that if I called the realtor and got her to take us through, he would go and see it. I should probably tell you that this is all happening on a Sunday and Cory leaves the next day for a week long business trip. So I called the listing agent and explain our situation to her and she got us in that evening at 5pm. To make a long story a little less long we loved it and ended up putting an offer on it that Friday when Cory got back in town.

First bump in the road we have to now finish up some projects around our current house to get it ready to be put on the market and we have one week to get them all done and our house "listed". It was only a few days after we had our house ready and "listed" that we hit the second bump in the road.

Second bump, we got the dreaded call from our agent there was a couple that was relocating from Texas that has put an offer on the house. So Cory and I start freaking out, we now have to either drop the contingency and the house is ours or bow out and let the other couple have the house. We don't want to lose the house but we didn't want to get ourselves in the situation that we couldn't sell our house and our closing date arrives and we now have two house payments! What to do, what to do! We were lucky that our agent was also the listing agent so she really wanted us to get the house so we all win, especially her! She works something out with the seller and the contract now reads "contingent upon us closing on our house, not selling" and the closing date of June 25th. If we don't close by June 25th we pay her a penalty and she extends our closing date to August 6th.

Cue third bump in the road, here we are June 18th and no contract. Back in April when the market was doing really well due to the tax credit we had several second showings and almost 3 offers. However, for one reason or another, backyard isn't big enough, not enough cabinets in the kitchen etc they went with another house. Obviously we will not be closing by the 25th which we were hoping for and now we have until August 6th. Talk about STRESSFUL!!! I kid you not when I tell you that I have gotten so many grey hairs over the last month it is ridiculous! I should take a picture and let you all see, thank goodness I am blond or you would really be seeing some unwanted hairs.

With everything that is going on in the world today I feel terrible praying to God and asking him to help us on this journey. However, I truly feel this is the path that we are suppose to take. I feel like he guided me to find the new house and he definitely helped us to get everything worked out so we wouldn't lose the house to the Texas couple. All we need now is for the right family to come and see themselves in our current home. We have some wonderful memories in this house from the day we brought Claire home from the hospital and started our family to both the girls crawling and taking their first steps in our living room. Watching them grow into the little girls they are today, we are ready to move on and make new memories in our new home and let another couple or family make some wonderful memories in this home. If you wouldn't mind keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue on this journey we sure would appreciate it. I will keep you all posted and hopefully have some GREAT news to share with you all VERY soon!!

Questions answered by my 5 year old.......

If you have a kiddo old enough to answer, do this...it was really worth it for the laughs!!
Cut and paste these questions and ask your kids their answers....

Answered by Claire, age 5

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Clean up your room

2. What makes mom happy?
When I give her hugs

3. What makes mom sad?
When I cry

4. What does your mom do to make you laugh?
Tickle me

5. What was your mom like as a child?
I don't know

6. How old is your mom?
33

7. How tall is your mom?
Taller than daddy

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Snuggle with me and watch t.v.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
I don't know because I'm not around

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Singing

11. What is your mom really good at?
Teaching me stuff

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Singing

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Helps students

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Mulligan's

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
I don't know

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Sleeping Beauty

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Go to the grocery store

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have yellow hair

19. How are you and your mom different?
Mom has green eyes and I have blue eyes

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because she shows me and asks me "who loves you this much?"

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
That he helps around the house and does things like laundry or cleaning up the dishes every night.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Our new house!

Recents Pics

It was a cloudy/overcast day here yesterday so I decided to take the girls outside and get a couple recent pictures of them. Most of them turned out pretty good, however, Claire is at the age now where she is having a hard time with her smile. It is like she has forgotten how to be natural with it and she loves to strike a pose. Paige is finally at the point where she is keeping her eyes open and giving me a good smile, oh well someday we will get to the point where they both give me good smiles. :)

To go or not to go

I am sure there are many of you out there that are having the same conversation in your house lately, "do we go on our family vacation to Florida as planned or cancel due to the unknown"? I am so upset about the oil spill for so many reasons and even more upset that Obama hasn't gotten another group involved and tell BP see you later. It is so upsetting to see what the oil is doing to the water, animals, environment etc. I am obsessed with what they are doing, their latest attempts, if they have been able to get the spill under control, how it is affecting the coast etc. It reminds me of back over a year and a half ago when I broke my foot and was obsessed with gas prices. I couldn't go out anywhere by myself due to two little ones and the crutches, but I could at least get in the car and drive myself around, thus becoming obsessed with gas prices. Anyway, Cory and I have been going back and forth as to whether or not to keep our plans to visit Siesta Key, Florida the beginning of August or not. I hate to cancel as we are all looking forward to the get away, however, we have to let the resort know by Monday the 7th if we are canceling or not. After another talk last night and seeing on the news how the oil is beginning to wash up on the Pensacola Beaches, we have decided to cancel our trip! Even if they get the oil spill under control the damage is already done and in the water and the oil that is already in the water is going to have to run it's course which will probably take itself through all of Florida. The news crew also interviewed a local doctor about the risks of taking your family to the Florida beaches even if the oil hasn't reached the beaches yet or if you still go and just swim in the pools not the ocean. The doctor said that just by being in the area and breathing the air that has fumes from the oil is dangerous. He also said that you may not go into the contaminated ocean water and keep your kids in the pools, however, if anybody else gets into the ocean and then gets into the pool the water in the pool is now contaminated as well. I am sorry but that did it for me, there is no way that I am putting my children's health at risk just for some sun and sand. If it works out that BP is able to get the spill stopped and under control before August then maybe it won't be as bad as they are saying and we can then rebook our trip. I don't see anyone else booking the weekend that we cancel. We talked last night about maybe going North to Wisconsin or Michigan or even to the East coast N. Carolina or Hilton Head. We will see how everything turns out, what about all of you, any plans to head to the beach this summer? If so what beach?