Friday!

Tonight is/was our last night alone so I took the kids to an outside movie at a local church, they have done this every year since we've lived here. The movie they played was Dreamer so because it was a horse movie they had pony rides before the movie started. I could only stand the smell of the ponies for one ride but the kids didn't seem upset! Of course, GG was too old and too cool to ride on a pony. In years past I have never brought money with to these movies. This year I decided that I would bring some. I ended up spending $2. For the great time we had it was money well spent! Peanut was cracking me up tonight. She had run to the garbage to throw some trash away and on her way back she says, "Oh no my pants are falling down." As she hanks them up. Then on the way home Peanut said, "I didn't want a real pony ride I wanted a fake pony ride." That just cracked me up! She is too funny. We sat behind an interesting lady. She felt the need to turn around and glare at any kid who made a noise, which happened to be the family just to our left. At one point Red had dropped the ball he was playing with and it rolled up by them. She turned around glared at him and then looked at me and asked if he was my son. I said, "Yes, why?" She said nothing, he wasn't being loud so I'm not sure what her problem with him was. This lady obviously thought that an outside movie was going to be as quiet as a movie theater, um okay, not going to happen.

So this week was super long but we kept pretty busy that it ended up going by somewhat fast-like. Sunday was spent with my dad, Monday was VBS, nannying, and a friend over, Tuesday was VBS, swimming and National Night Out, Wed was the funeral and then swimming at night, Thursday VBS, swimming and concert in the park! I've already wrote what we did today. I also want to state for the record that at least 3 times Red has said to me..."your the best mom ever" during this week. Thinking that means we had a pretty good week :)

We made it!!!

On Monday morning I was laying in bed and heard the most crazy wind I have ever heard in my life and two seconds later we lost power. Well that changed my plans for the day. No grocery shopping for me. However the kids still had a Vacation Bible School all week to go to. What a life saver that turned out to be! On the way to VBS there were so many trees down. There was actually a tree that was completely uprooted that left a HUGE divot in the ground where grass used to be. Craziest thing I have heard seen. Later that day the city workers were out there cutting the tree up. Once they had all the branches cut off the stood the trunk back up. Never seen that before! It was just a tree trunk with no leaves. Anyways, as Monday went on and I started hearing that other places like Great America had lost power, I realized that we were going to be a long time without power. We kept calling ComEd to see when our power would be back on and learned that over 800,000 customers were without power and the first day they just said restoration could take several days. Yipes! That is A. Lot. of. people! I wish we hadn't been in that number but we were. The whole block across the street had power so by Tuesday there were tons of extension cords going across the street to tap their electricity. We didn't ask our neighbors, though I know they would of said yes. We just really didn't have much food in the fridge to bother with that. The plus side of not tapping in was we were able to clean out the fridge! It looks so nice. Yes, we did end up throwing some food out but, really, it was maybe $30 dollars worth. Tuesday they finally gave us a restoration day Friday at noon. WHAT?!?! How am I going to survive three more powerless days??? Thankfully our electricity came back on at 5:15am on Thursday morning. It was funny Jeff set his alarm for 5:15 to go golfing, I hear the alarm and kept my eyes closed in hopes I could fall back asleep but no go Jeff hits me to tell me we got power! I laid there willing myself back to sleep which was hard because I had so many thoughts running through my head and so happy we didn't have to go two more days without it. The kids and I did make the best out of the bad situation. We did tons of play dates at the pool and park and went to fun places. It will probably be the most interesting week of the summer. One my kids will for sure remember as the summer we lost power for 3 days!!! We survived :)

Father's Day and today

We had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday on the boat with my dad, step-mom, sister and brother plus my family. We met at 11:30am and got some food from taco bell, so NOT my first choice but I made the best choice of food I could. Then we headed out on the boat. We tooled around a bit, took the lock (never did that before), docked so the kids could swim and then pulled them on the tube. It was a very peaceful Father's Day but it was also not an uneventful one. While the kids were swimming GG cut her toe on a rock or something in the water and it took awhile to get it to stop bleeding. Oh the drama that went with that. Then on our way back to park the boat we ran out of gas. I had Peanut on my lap napping but all the chaos woke her up pretty quickly. We got to boat to the side of the river and the guy who lived in the house took my dad to get some gas. Then we were on our way. Then we went out to eat dinner with my dad. It was a really great day. Until I got home and had to lay down to sleep. My stomach was NOT happy with me one bit. I tossed and turned for a long time last night not feeling good. I even got up a few times to try and make myself throw up the food I had eaten that was causing me so much tummy pain. It wouldn't come up. I finally fell asleep around 1:45ish. Then this morning the kids and I had a chiropractor appointment, run Monkey to basketball camp, get groceries, pay a bill and un-register Red for he Tae Kwon Do class. He was pretty bummed but it just wasn't at a good time or day for the summer. We are going to sign him up in the fall. Then the kids and I went to nanny this afternoon. I really love this job. The baby is 8 weeks old and he is smiling a lot, so sweet. GlamorGirl loves to hold him and actually says she has first dibs on holding him when we go there. Now I am laying in bed not very hopeful that tonight will be any better as my tummy is still not happy with me. I didn't really eat much today. I had an apple for breakfast, some baby carrots and a granola bar for lunch and a piece of toast for dinner. I am very tired from only sleeping 5 hours last night. If you think of it please pray that I can get a good nights sleep tonight and wake up feeling a 100% better! Thanks

Hello Blog it's been awhile!

Sometimes life seems so crazy and busy and then it stops and you look back and think, what in the world have I been doing lately? Yeah well that is how I feel. Let's see what are the highlights or low lights since the last time I updated...
* organized the family room closet and now the kids toys have a place to go and be concealed, love that!
*we got our taxes done and have received the refund.
*we can now start the bath remodel with said funds.
*GlamorGirl got a new dresser and Peanut is now using her old one minus the top broken drawer. It will have to do until we can afford to get her a new one too. Red doesn't even have a dresser he has the elfa drawers in the closet. It works for now.
*picked the kids teachers for next year. Monkey doesn't have any of his best buds in his class but I think he will still have a wonderful year. He will have a male teacher. GG has her best friend in her class next year. Red has one of my favorite teachers so I'm really excited about that.
*Red made the Sparks-A-Rama team for the Awana Games, he is super excited about that as am I.
*the diamond in my wedding ring fell out. We can't find it and it isn't insured. UGH!
*took Peanut and myself to get a blood draw a recheck on the c4a levels. Poor girl had to get stuck twice because the first vein burst. So sad.
*Monkey had a friend over after school to play. I am really enjoying having play dates because I get to know his friends better.
*my tummy didn't feel the greatest at dinner and I decided not to go to JAM just in case.
*my dad came to watch the kids and they scratched his head, with a purpose, of donating their earnings (yes he pays them to scratch his head) to help pay for a clean water well in Africa.

Our church is doing a fund raiser and there are three levels. I was going to try and type this all out but I think this video would do a better job explaining the levels and how you can contribute even if you don't attend our church or know me in person.

This LINK should take you right to the giving page for Bethel or you can type in The Water Project in google, once you get to the page click the fundraiser tab, click find a friend then type in Bethel Community Church. All donations are tax deductible and you receive an email immediately after donating. I would love to see us reach our goal and then surpass it immeasurably. There are also other video clips on the fund raising page and the guy talking in this video is our youth pastor at our church, my kids love him!

Busy Busy...

Today we are getting ready for the party tomorrow to celebrate GlamorGirl turning 10!!!! I still can't believe she is going to be this old. She has asked for homemade ice cream sandwiches to take to school so we are making them today. They are so yummy but very time consuming. First you make chocolate chip cookies and then you put ice cream in between two of them, smooth out the edges, wrap, and then freeze. I have 14 made so far. She has 18 kids in her class. Since Monkey has a summer birthday he said he wanted to have ice cream sandwiches for his half birthday. He and GG are 18 months apart which puts his half birthday a few days after her real birthday! I figured if I'm already making them for her class I will just do it for his class too. Yeah I'm crazy! The house is pretty much cleaned just have some laundry to put away, but no big deal. Then tomorrow I will make the food we are having baked pasta, salad, homemade apple sauce (because it is so much better then store bought!), french bread and cake! Right now Jeff and Red are at a birthday party for his friend from school. So glad he choose Jeff to go as I feel like I need to be doing stuff at home for tomorrow even though I am sitting at the computer updating my blog :) Tonight my dad and step mom are picking up the girl and taking her shopping for her birthday. Can't wait to see what she comes home with it is always interesting! Also tonight Jeff is taking the two boys to the motorcade which they have no idea about. They should have tons of fun. Which means it will just be me and Peanut at home tonight. Love it!

Enjoyment

I am rather enjoying this little blogging challenge. I really forgot how much I enjoy putting word to screen. I know that not all my posts are riveting but they are me and our life. I love being able to look back at some of my older posts, I have been blogging since Jan of 2003 almost 8 years. When I first started this blog I was just writing to chronicle our happenings. After all this time I have learned a lot about myself through this journal. I'm boring :) But you know what? I don't care that is who I am, I'm pretty proud (in a humble way) of my boring little life. I have always loved the simply things in life and usually simple is equated with boring, so be it.

This post has been sponsored by the world's most uninteresting person

Been Awhile...

Today is the 4th of July and I am sitting in bed at 9:40am. I am the only adult home and extremely exhausted from yesterdays activities. We got up at 7am to pick our oldest up from camp, I missed her so much, then we went to "The Fest" until 11 something and got home around 11:45 last night and I'm tired! J is already at work and he won't be getting home until late again tonight. The kids and I always enjoy "The Fest" but the biggest down part is that J is there but working so he can't go on rides with us or anything else. We do stop in and see him about every hour or so. Last night was really fun. At about 6:30pm some friends (Beth and Matt R) met us there and we went on rides with them. Then they left to go watch the fireworks and our other group of friends came. I say group because it was Jason and Kristy with their 4, Amanda and her daughter, Aaron (Kristy and Amanda's brother) and his girlfriend and Sue, the grandma. You put all of them with us 5 and you got a BIG group of people. It was fun Aaron took GG on some of the bigger rides I can't do with her because I have the other kids. When we weren't on rides Aaron was being the "ride" himself for the kids and throwing them all over the place. Which of course, made all the kids jump on him for more. In the end his shorts got ripped. Still not sure how but the funniest part was that he was underwear-less. His naked butt cheek was hanging out of his pants. He only realized it when he noticed one of the carnival workers laughing at him. We went over to J's booth and repaired his shorts with a police badge and stickers. It was so funny because with the shiny badge holding the shorts together it drew more attention to that area!!!

Other then the Holiday activities we have been busy doing work outside in the yard. I have pictures of before and after that I will hopefully get up soon. We got some new neighbors who moved in to the house that is kitty corner to us with 3 kids. 7 yr old boy, 5 yr old boy, and 3 yr old girl. The only thing that would make it prefect is if they had an older girl for GG :) The kids have been hoping the fence and having a good ole time playing with each other. Almost everyday this week they have gotten to play together. I do think it is quite funny that the neighbor kids stand at the gate when we aren't outside and yell "DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?" over and over until someone comes out to play with them. And we are outside A LOT so it happens usually when we are eating.

Summer Vacation!

We have just finished the second week of the kids being on summer break. I would like to think that so far they have had a really fun, activity filled break. So why are they bouncing off the walls??? Since they have been out of school we have had 2 play dates at our new house, gone swimming at least 5 times, went to a Flyers Baseball game, watched J play softball two weeks, gone to Great America, went to the Arboretum and just had house guests (my mom and 2 of my siblings) for the last two nights. In a few days GG is leaving for sleep away camp. I just can't believe it is already that time for her to leave for camp. I feel like this summer is going to slip away from us if I don't slow it down. But when we are home they bounce off the walls! We have had a LOT of change in the last few weeks so I am hoping once it all settles down things will get back to normal. Here's to hoping ;) Also we get internet tomorrow. We have been without it for 8 months and we are looking forward to actually having it again!!!

update

Well this will be the 3rd consecutive night we have stayed at the house. We are far from being unpacked but we are functional in all the rooms! Tonight is the first night that we are J and I are sleeping on a bed and not an air mattress. I LOVE our new bed and pillows. It would be nice to have couches but we don’t have the living room painted yet so there is no rush. It works for us at this point because we don’t really ever sit down unless we are eating and we have a table for that. We have been so blessed by my parents housewarming gifts. Yes I said GIFTS. They got the kids each a mattress and they bought the girls bedding (the boys already had some), a lamp for our bedroom, and a dining room table (it seats 10 with the leaf). I wanted to get a big table that sat 12 but I really think we could probably squeeze 12 in this table if we needed too. I am very happy with the table size. I am just very happy to be home. I can see us living here, Lord willing for at least 30 years if not longer. I shouldn’t gain weight with all the stairs I will be doing...laundry is in the basement and the bedrooms are on the second floor! Let’s see this afternoon I was able to pull J away from working to go to a wedding. It was a really beautiful outside wedding. Afterward, we went out with a few couples for dinner. Tomorrow we are going to the other house and grab the last of our things and clean. We hope to hand over the keys and move on. The couple who own the house are just the sweetest people and we have really enjoyed being their neighbors, I’m actually kinda sad to leave but the commute was killer. Plus, it was only a 2 bedroom house so we were a little cramped. In other news the kids finish school next week I believe their last day is the 9th but it could be the 10th not sure?!

Life right now...

is totally and utterly crazy. In trying to prepare myself for all the work that was going to ensue after we bought our new home I fell sort. BIG. TIME. My feet ache like never before and all the muscles in my body are sore. Since closing on this home we have ripped out carpet (J), put in hardwood (J and his dad), painted the girls room and boys room (J and I). Put together our new table (J, Red and I), vacuumed the 4 bedrooms, stairs, living room, dining room, kitchen and family room (me), mopped all the above rooms except dining room and living room (me), wiped down all the kitchen cabinets etc. (me). We hope to get a truck on Friday night at get all the stuff out of storage and into the house. We have our bed coming on Saturday so we will be sleeping on the air mattress one final night. Throw in the mix that my cousin (20yrs old) passed away and going to the funeral for that this week life has just been BUSY. Even through all this busy-ness I still feel so blessed. There have been times where J has said to me, "This house will either make us stronger or brake us."

This just keeps getting better!

We had our closing this morning. The sellers were there which is unusual. We had some small talk before everything began and then all the signing began. Once the signing was done we were waiting for the bank wire to go through. During that time (about 25 minutes) we talked to the couple who are in their 80's. They have been married for 57 years and have 3 kids but no grandkids. They were just the sweetest, nicest people. Red was wearing one of our church shirts and the wife asked about it so we told her about our church. Since they have moved they haven't been able to find a church. We invited them to come to our church since it is only about 15 minutes from their new home. I think it would be really cool to have them attend our church. The husband gave J his business card, yes he is still working at 80, and told him to give him a call and he would come over and show him everything about the house. I am hoping that when he does come his wife will come too and she can tell me about the flowers in more detail. We did talk plant/flower/trees but it would be nice for her to point them out. Anyways, the reason it was taking so long was that the money wire got messed up and they sent the money to the right bank but wrong account. They told us it could take up to 6 hours to straighten it out. Which meant we wouldn't own the house for 6 more hours. Also during that 25 minute period they handed over the keys and garage door things. Their attorney told them that they didn't have to hand over the keys because it wasn't ours yet but they said we could have the keys anyway. It wasn't like they didn't know where we lived :) About 2 hours later we got the call that everything went through and it was officially our house!!! After the closing we didn't waste any time, we went and got stuff out of the storage, dropped Red off at school, and went to the house. I cleaned the entire upstairs. I wiped down the windows, vacuumed the floors and then mopped them. J went to get the hardwood floors we had ordered. When he got back a man pulled into the driveway. It was the son of the sellers. He welcomed us home and talked to J for quite awhile. He was a really nice man and he was so happy that we were moving in with our 4 kiddos. We didn't end up getting as much stuff as we wanted to get done but we made a pretty good dent in the things that have to get done before we move in. J ripped up the carpet in the living room and I helped get the staples out. We picked the kids up from school and got more stuff from storage, came home, kids did homework, we had dinner, cleaned up the kitchen and out the door we went. J had a surprise for us. We went to see a women's basketball game. It was pretty cool. We didn't stay until the end because it was getting late but we watched 3 quarters. Now the kids are sleeping and J is taking another load of stuff over to the house. I need to go make lunches then I am going to back another long day tomorrow. We are painting the white walls. I need color in my life!

Holy Hot-ness Batman!!!

It isn't even June yet and we have had to turn the a/c on. This is going to be a hot summer and I am so glad that I decided to go ahead and buy the pool passes for this year. We are actually putting them to good use today. The kids and I are meeting some friends at the pool after school. It is going to feel so good to be in that cool water. This morning we went to some other friends house and the two littlest played on their slip and slide. Anyways J and I decided that we were going to drive together today and J doesn't get off of work until 7:30 tonight so we are swimming to kill time.

Tomorrow is the BIG day. You know the one where you sign on the dotted line that you are going to pay X amount of money for a house which you end up spending double that amount when all is said and done. Don't let that above sentence fool you. I am so excited. It is almost like it is too good to be true. The kids are really excited about it too. They have been such great troopers through this whole thing. They have been sleeping on air mattresses for almost a year now, 8 months to be exact. They are really looking forward to having a real bed again just like J and I are. Over the last few days it is cool to hear them talk about the new house and the things they are looking forward to about it and the things they like about it. Now I just have to wait an hour for school to be over so I can get in the pool :)

Busy Busy...

I feel like my world is spinning around but I’m not getting sick! We have so much going on right now that I am so glad that I am able to keep it all straight. The craziness really started last weekend. My hubby left town for a training camp Friday night and got back Saturday at dinner time. Monday was Red's birthday so we celebrated with a dinner. Wednesday was a field trip for Red's class that I went on, his teacher was hospitalized on Monday afternoon she we had a sub, but everything went smoothly. Today was the day we were suppose to have our financing squared away for the new house which we have been working on getting all the stuff the bank has wanted so hopefully everything is a go. I also got all the supplies for tomorrows party. Friday is the three oldest kids birthday party. It is a combined one so there will be lots of kiddos running around. Should be fun. I also have my last Bible study but I don't think I am going to make it with all the craziness that the day will bring. Though I think I got everything I need for the party taken care of. Saturday J and I are going out to look at mattresses for our beds and then out to dinner. Sunday is a Ladies Tea at church. Monday is our final walk through. Tuesday we need to make some calls to get utilities set up in our name. Thursday we close. Then it just gets crazier from there with house improvements and moving!!! See we have been BUSY and we are going to stay that way for a few more weeks. Then school will be out and we can have some pool/park/summer/friend fun!!!! Do you feel as tired as I do by reading that?!?

Popularity

The other night I was talking to a mom whose son is in Monkey's grade. One of the subjects that came up was popularity. I never given much thought of this since my kids are only in 3rd and 2nd grade but I guess that notion starts that early. One of the things I realized in thinking about this was that this subject to me seems so high schoolish. I feel like the kids don't really care about their popularity as much as their parents. For example, there is a kid at school who is pretty hard to get along with, he kind of has a temper issue along with some other social issues. The mom knows this to be the case with her son so she sets up tons of play dates with kids in the school trying to get people to like him, at least that is the goal I think she has! Monkey has never been in class with him so he has escaped the whole aspect of "let's have our boys play together so he can have friends" issue but I have seen it/heard about it. I actually just met and started talking to the mom this school year through a mutual friend. That is a bit awkward for me, especially since her son kick Monkey in the face the first week of school out on the playground. I just try not to think who her kids are...is that bad? Anyways, I would be lying if I didn't admit I would like my kids to be well liked (popular). But it really got me thinking about what I want my kids to really be...and the main goal isn't popularity. It maybe a by-product of their personalities but I don't want it to be their goal. I want them to put others needs above their own and to be kind to the unlikable. Pretty much I want Christ to shine through their words and actions. They really are good kids and as far as I can tell they have good solid friends at school and at church. All I can do is teach them at home how to care for others and befriend people the rest is up to them.

Mother Daughter Retreat and Chaos

I feel like the last few days have been total and complete chaos. Friday GlamorGirl and I headed to a mother daughter retreat with another mom and daughter from church. Once we got there we unpacked and made our beds. Then it was time to start with the first session. The lady who spoke at the retreat is a friend of mine from H.S.'s mother in law and I went to college with her two oldest kids. I hope that makes sense. Anyways, my friend ended up being there which was a nice surprise but I felt torn because the weekend was about GG and I getting to spend time together but I wanted to catch up with my friend too. In the end I think I balanced it all pretty good. That night we stayed up talking until about 11:30pm when we finally rounded up the girls and headed to our rooms. Each mother daughter had a room with two beds and a toilet. There were community showers but so nice to have our own toilet :) By the time I got GG settled and into bed it was after midnight. The next morning came fast. The first noise I heard was at 7am! The day started with this HUGE breakfast totally not apart of our diet but we needed to eat something. We had our second session after that and then what they called "girl power" which is what we did after all 3 of the sessions. I took GG and we went to a place outside and talked over the sheets we were given. Then we came back and played a game. The game was really cute it was played like the newlywed game but made into a mother daughter version. Then it was lunch time. The afternoon was "free time" we could canoe, bike ride, paint, go into town or do whatever. We decided it was too windy to canoe or bike ride. We painted the flower pots they had for us. GG and her friend made sand castles at the beach for awhile until we went to the snack shop and got ice cream! We had about an hour left before it was time for dinner so we started packing up our room and getting dressed up for the fancy dinner. We had our last session after that then we left. It went by way too fast. All the moms and daughters said they wished it was another night and day. We always have next year! We got home Saturday night a little before 10pm. Since being back it has been chaos! Sunday it was up for church, home eat lunch, go grocery shopping, unpack, make dinner, go back to church, home, get kids to bed, make lunches and go to sleep. Then today we all got up and ready and left together. J called to say we had to go home without him because he was going to be working late. Love the overtime hate him being gone it's what I call a double edge sword. I got home did homework, made dinner, cleaned up, bathed everyone (more like supervised), did bedtime, did dishes, made lunches, and now I'm blogging. J got home a few minutes ago so I'm going to go talk to him.

Crazy Kids

If we are friends on facebook you might have seen this already but it was just to crazy not to share. Last night the kids and I were in the living room and I'm not really sure how this conversation started but it was crazy! Monkey stated that he wanted me to have another baby. This is a weird comment from him but that can of worms was then opened. All the kids chimed in saying they wanted another baby. Oh heavens crazy kids. I asked the kids if they really wanted me to get big, fat, and sick again, it was a resounding YES. Then I told them that they would be old enough to have to change diapers and that even made them happy. What is wrong with these kids?!? I said a new baby would cry and need mommy ALL. THE. TIME. they didn't care. They really have no idea what adding another baby to our family would be like and it is a good thing they don't have any say in it! At one point GG said she wanted me to have another baby because her best friend has 5 kids in her family and she wanted to be the same and then Monkey said he wanted me to have two more babies so that we could beat their family with more people. To which sparked GG's twin comment. It was just a silly and crazy topic that actually made me nervous even thinking about adding another baby. I started sweating and my body starting hurting thinking about carrying another baby in my stomach. I love the 4 kids I have with all my heart but I really am truly content to leave it with only having the 4 of them :) My body has been through way too much stuff in the last few years it is too old to have another baby. Even though I am only 31 my body is not.

I can't sleep...

I need to get some things out of my head so that I can fall asleep without thinking about them. I am planning a fun day with the kids tomorrow and the last thing I need is to be TIRED! It is the one fun thing we are doing during break, I don’t want insomnia to rob of us the joy the would bring. Today marked the first day of physically looking at houses. We have looked online for about 2 months. We saw 5 houses, one was a last minute idea. I will go in order. I brought my camera and a notebook with. I took notes but didn’t take any pictures. Sorry!

#1 Was a 3 bedroom 2 bath with full unfinished basement. The house was really outdated but had some really nice qualities about it too. The 3rd bedroom was really small. Though the master was a great size and had a huge glass sliding door to the patio. It had a shared master bath which is really nice, we could close it off so it wasn’t shared. It has a really nice size mud room with laundry and a HUGE pantry. J and I started talking about our kids probably not wanting to be in bunk beds through high school. The basement was really big but we would probably never finish it so would that space really be the deciding factor? The living space on the main floor was just not big enough in my opinion. Another down side is that it backs to a little lake. Our Realtor didn’t believe we could put a fence up since none of the other houses had one up. I just don’t know if I would feel good about that. Not that I ever leave my kids outside alone but things happen fast, you know? In my head this house is out, not so sure what J thinks.

#2 Just down the street was a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a partially finished basement. This house was AS IS. It had a newly done kitchen with stainless steel appliances. I really liked the layout of this house. The bedroom sizes weren’t bad and it had hardwood in the bedrooms and carpet in the living room and family room. As we were walking around J noticed the ceiling in the kitchen was boiling. He touched it and it was moist. The second time he touched to make sure it was really moist he poked is finger through it. We went to see what could be causing the wetness but aren’t sure which bathroom it could be coming from. This house being AS IS with our issues with mold. We both without really talked about it said this house was out completely.

#3 We were on our way to another house when we asked our Realtor if we could check out a house in the same neighborhood. She called and we were able to go in. It was a 4 bedroom with 2 1/2 bathrooms. Master had it’s own full bathroom. Though it was pretty small. Most everything in this house was old but livable. It had a HUGE (20x20) family room off of the kitchen. The living was a verily good size too. The dining room was pretty small though. The kitchen was old but we could make do for awhile in it. The rooms were not very big. The master with the bath was only 12x10 not sure if we would be able to fit our bed and dressers in it. There was a 14x10 room that would probably work better for us and we would give the other room to GG. This house has a lot of potential but we would have to spend a lot of money to make it the way we would want it. The yard on this house was nice. It had a spot already laid out for a garden and it was fenced. The garage was an extra deep one so tons of storage. It also had a full unfinished basement. This house is up in the air. If we could get it at a good price and could save enough money within a few years to update it.

#4 The was a 4 bedroom 1 1/2 bath house. It only had a living room no family room. It also had a full unfinished basement that was very big but these people had SO much stuff in it it was really hard to get a feel for the size. Actually the whole house had a TON of stuff in it. The garage wasn’t attached to the house which was a big negative for me. I just wasn’t very impressed with the inside. The yard was pretty descent. Oh yeah and our Realtor asked that no one was home and there were 3 people there. When she went to look at it she said there was like 15 people in it so I guess that is an improvement. It was just weird to be looking around with the people there. I think J and I are on the same page that this house is not as big as we want.

#5 This house was beautiful. It had 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. It had a very nice open floor plan that we like. The negatives were it had a detached garage, the kitchen was really small, the dishwasher was in the basement (weird), the coat closet was in the 1/2 bathroom and you had to go into the bathroom and shut the door to open the closet. Other than that it was nice but too high priced.

I feel discouraged that we aren’t going to find a house we can afford. I just keep praying and asking God that J and I agree on the houses and that He would lead us to the right one. I think this process is going to be a long one.

Want to be a Kid

We close on our house tomorrow making us homeless. But not really we have a place to stay but it isn't ours. I just want someone to pick a house for me. There are so many houses out there. I just want to be a kid and have someone else do the grow up stuff. Don't get me wrong it is very exciting going to pick a new house the only problem is it is very scary at the same time. Because of my health issues we have to be very careful what house we choose. I pray that the people we encounter in this journey will be very honest with us about the questions we have about their home. There are A LOT of dishonest people in this world and that is what makes this SO scary. I don't want to end up where I was 8 months ago. I need a safe place to heal my body and the kids' bodies so that we are completely healthy again. Over the next few weeks or months however long it takes we will be in search of a new residence. Which means that most of my computer time will be spend looking at houses online. Please pray for us as we start this journey all over again. Though it is nice to know that the other house is (almost) sold and that we can look without having a mortgage hanging over our heads. Also I pray this time will strengthen our marriage and not drive a wedge between us. This is STRESSFUL people and when you have this kind of stress you need to be covered in PRAYER. Thanks I will try to update as we go along but don't hold me to it. I will still try and keep up the menus as I like to go back and see all the different things we have been eating and trying!

White Chicken Chili

Today I have spent the morning making 2 batches of White Chicken Chili for the freezer. I have used all my frozen meals I made over Christmas break and I need to start replenishing them so today I did two. Next weekend will be too busy but maybe Wednesday I will have a chance to make a few more. Anyways, I cooked the chicken and taken it off the bone. I am making some chicken broth to freeze as well. It is so much cheaper this way then buying it from the store! I use it in my asparagus soup as well as the broccoli soup. I wanted to leave you with this recipe for the White Chicken Chili. This is the first time I am making it but my friend made it a few weeks ago and it was YUMMY! This is my version because I shouldn’t eat everything she put in hers.

1 lb Skinless chicken breast ( I used the whole chicken so it isn’t ALL white meat)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/4 tsp garlic
1 T oil
1 can chicken broth (I used homemade)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
14 tsp cayenne pepper
8 oz sour cream
4 oz heavy whipping cream
Saute chicken, onion and garlic in oil. Drain. Add other ingredients except the creams. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add creams. I took out 2 cans great northern beans (can’t have) and 2 cans of chopped green chilis (she didn’t use them and it was spicy enough!)

This afternoon the kids and I are going over to a friend's house who has 4 kids (the wife is at church) and I will be watching all 8 so the husband can help J move my dresser and his the only two big things we own.

Two things...

First thing is that the guy buying our house wants to close 6 days earlier. That is so GREAT. That means we can actively start looking sooner and maybe we could get in on that $65oo credit for home buyers. We shall see. We know that we absolutely don't want to rush into buying anything that we aren't completely sold on. With that excitement it means that we have 9 days to pack up the rest of the house and garage and get it into a storage unit. That is a BIG task. At least it is getting warmer outside so that I can pack without freezing my little tushy off ;)

The second thing is just plain maddening. We got home from a nice dinner out where all the kids ate free. To find on the credit card statement that someone stole our card number and charged $495 to an online lego store. This is the part that I am very grateful that I am married to a police officer. He just took over. Called who needed to be called and he just handled it. AWESOMELY. Though I will say that the company that charged our card would not tell us where the products where being sent so annoying. I guess they have to protect the criminals, so stupid. That is really all I feel like writing.