Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A little bit of everything...

My blogging has been a bit uninspired lately, and I'm okay with that. I don't have any big emotional breakthroughs. Or fantastic news. Or even the depths of despair going on. (Which I'm definitely okay with.) So I'll just update with a little bit of what has been happening here.

1. We headed over to my dad's for the Law family reunion last weekend. I have no pictures because I was chasing Daniel most of the reunion and left the camera in the car. But Dad went with me to the Nature Center there in Boise and helped me wrangle kids around, and took some pictures for me. So at some point I'll get those from him and post my kids ogling fish. :-)

Steph and Jeff were there and it was so nice to spend time with my sister and her sweet kiddos. Thomas's curls really are the awesomest, as is his reaction to her putting some mousse in them! "Wash it off! Wash it off!" Too funny... Audrey and Daniel toddled around after each other, babbling and talking, with Daniel giving some exuberant hugs that weren't so well received at times. At just 6 weeks apart they are hilarious to watch!

2. My house was magically cleaned by little pixies while I was gone. The drive home was so long and tiring, and I kept thinking about all the stuff I hadn't gotten done before we left town for the weekend. My floors were vacuumed, toys were picked up, laundry put away... Of course, I have been finding the laundry in random drawers that belong to the wrong person, but at least it's off the couch! Like a game of "seek and find", it could be lots of fun to figure out where everything is.

3. A neighbor came by yesterday morning to order a cake, and informed me that my kitten was definitely a boy. I thought there was something off about certain bits, but it had looked very female when we got it! We had a good laugh, and are now trying to get used to thinking "he" rather than "she".

4. This neighbor also didn't even flinch when I quoted her a price for the cake she wanted. I told her at the start what I charge per serving, base price for a last minute cake. Maybe that helped? She's supposed to bring me the money today so I can get the supplies I need, I won't turn on my oven without at least 50% of the total. But at least she didn't whine about the cost, she used to do cakes herself and knows how much time they can take, even "simple" ones.

5. Mark is doing finals this week! That means the semester is nearly over! And that we can finally spend some time with him not being grouchy over homework! We can spend time with him period!!!!! He'll be going back to full-time work hours, but that's okay. Better than the 10-14 hour days he's been putting in for school.

6. House-hunting. Not going too well. Our lease is up in October, at which point we could move if we wanted to. It's a year lease that reverts back to a month-to-month, so we don't have to find another place right away. BUT..... I don't know how much longer I can stand apartment living. Cramped and crowded, noisy neighbors, dogs pooping all over the grass my kids play on, tenant drama. We are ready for our own space to call home. This apartment is partially income-based, so it's actually a good deal, but it's still an apartment. Rent for a home in a good location for Mark's work/school commute would be way out of our reach for a long time. The only thing that would be cheaper for us is to actually buy a house if we could get one for a good price.

But on his income we don't even know if that's possible. So we are gathering up the needed paperwork in preparation for seeking out a home loan once he's done with the semester. That little house I was in love with has some pretty big problems that I'm not sure I could live with, and strangely, I'm not as heartbroken about it as I thought I'd be. After getting back from vacation, we talked about the house and decided that we needed to take things in order. Get done with the semester. See if we even qualify for a loan. Then talk to an agent who can keep an eye out for properties that fit our needs. Our lease will likely end before anything would go through, which means we wouldn't have to break our lease.

It feels good to have a plan. And if we can't get a loan, then we'll have something to work towards! And to start saving for. There's nothing wrong with having a goal, and hopefully the idea of what I'd like will help me get through living where I don't want to.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

1. Loved getting to see you at dad's house, and hang out with you.

2. Hooray for magic cleaning pixies! So awesome.

3. What's the cat's name? Did you have to change it?

4. Hooray for a cake order, every little bit helps.

5. Super hooray for almost being done with the semester.

6. I totally understand about the whole apartment living thing. That's one phase of life I will NOT miss. I definitely think you should get a realtor. Ours was great - he found tons of houses for us to look at based on what we told him we wanted and could afford, and we could contact him anytime we had any questions at all. Made the whole process so much easier.

Michelle said...

1. Miss you already!

2. Gotta love Mark's mom. :-)

3. Shadow, so we didn't have to change it. But he needs a new collar since the boys went with ALL pink!

4. Too. Hot. To. Bake.

5. :-) :-) :-)

6. I think we may go with the one we almost bought a house from last year. He was super nice and really tried to get us a great deal on the house we wanted. But Mark got out of the Air Force before we could make it happen and then didn't have a job for a couple months.