How far is far?

You know when I was in high school far was much farther than it is now. I mean I used to drive 35 minutes to see Mike one way two or three times a week. If I got out there and someone needed me to go get them, SURE. I'll drive back to Milwaukee's East Side pick you up and we'll go back, got gas money? I didn't care that it was 2 hours in the car in one day not leaving Metro Milwaukee area.

Now though, Man sometimes the other side of Cedarburg is too far and it's probably only got a 2 mile radius. The mall? Well that's 20 min one way that's too far.

I think I'm old. I'm not sure when it happened. I mean when did my world get very small? I am a worldy person darn it! I've even been to Canada. So what if I don't own a passport? I have friends all over the world so why is driving a little bit so tough? Time to stack the Ipod with new music and go for it!

This weekend we're heading to Chicago ( just over 2 hours without traffic) to see a dear friend of ours. He's going to be in town on business so that's as close as he's coming to us probably all year. It's worth the drive to see him and really 2 hours is NOT far. Now toll and gas money, that will kill ya but it's worth it.

So I think I'm going to work on my perception of far again. I used to believe that if I could get there in the car and you paid gas I would drive to Alaska to pick you up. Now maybe I'll at least go to the other side of town for you.

Notes

I think I need to keep notes so that by the end of the day when Gabe is in bed and it's quiet (FINALLY) I remember all the interesting things I wanted to talk about.

Gabe has been a sass lately. He definitely gets that if he says please he gets things. So if it's something I say no to he says it again and again and more and more pathetic. He signs it too so the signing gets BIGGER. "Pwease Momma" "Pwease" and the lip sticks out and he gets the puppy dog eyes. It's hard to say no to that.

If you stick to your guns and say no then the balls up his fits and says NO to you and gets angry. Geez that kid has a temper, and he's stubborn too (wonder where he gets that stubborn streak from? :P)

We had a really good weekend though and it was nice outside so we spent lots of it running around getting dirty and scraping knees which need to be kissed several times a day even days after the event, he's such a ham.

Tonight for example, he goes to bed fine, then Mike and I hear him out of bed. Mike goes up and suddenly I hear Mike yell at Gabe. There is lotion ALL over the bathroom (Sugar shortbread a Bath and Body Works discontinued one). So the bathroom smells nice, and the cats got extra water (mostly on the floor). How one 2 year old can do so much damage in 3 minutes amazes the heck out of me.

While he drives me nuts sometimes I love that kid.

Sad

I'm just sad. We lost another house. I know it's not really ours til we're in it but still. I'm frustrated and annoyed.

We have two more houses that have come on the market in the last week that we're going to look at. One is a HUD house so it has to be shown by a HUD agent so hopefully someone is around this weekend. The other one our regular realtor (mom's cousin) can show us.

Please I just want to be done with this and moved into some place. :(

Carseats?

I've thought about this for a bit.  I don't want this to be a carseat blog but I do get lots of questions about carseats.  I'm always happy to help and it is part of who I am.  

If there is something you'd like me to look into for you let me know.  I've put in hundreds of hours now helping people and it feels really good to help.  It's something I can do from my little corner of the world.   I also know that not everyone is going to take advice and I think that's the hardest thing. 

I know what's safest, I know more than the average bear, and yet sometimes I have people look at me like I have three heads.  I mean if my kids knees are bent they won't spontaniously combust?!  That's crazy talk!  What they are so uncomfortable that way?!  Suuure they are, wanna see how uncomfortable they are there are tons of pictures floating around of those "uncomfortable" children sound asleep.  Now I don't know about you but when my son is uncomfortable the LAST thing he's going to do is fall asleep because he's not going to let me forget he's not comfortable.

Gabe is one of the tallest kids I know for his age and he has a really long torso too.  He outgrew the Britax Marathon rear facing by height 3 weeks shy of his 2nd birthday.  Something that if you didn't see many people wouldn't believe.  He'll be 2 1/2 next month (June 23rd) and he's already 40 inches tall.  At least he was when I measured him about 2 weeks ago, the kid grows like a weed.  

So he's forward facing in a Britax Regent that was VERY generously donated to me (brand new) from a mom that I have never met in person.  She wishes to remain anonymous but if she's reading know that I am FOREVER grateful.  Gabe's Marathon is in my mom's car forward facing now since honestly I hated the Cosco Scenera.  It drove me nuts.  He's THIS CLOSE to outgrowing it forward facing by height anyhow.

Many of our kids are getting older, taller, heavier and as they transition to forward facing if they aren't already there is a whole new set of rules and things to consider. 

So anyhow I got side tracked.  If anyone ever has any questions email me, comment, poke me with a stick if you have one long enough and tell me what you NEED and I will do the Googling for you.  I can help and it makes me feel useful.   

Sleeping and cookies

I'd like the thank Heather for her post about Joe falling asleep.  It reminded me that I took the cutest pictures of Gabe last weekend.  

Mike and I went to see a movie and when we came back he was sleeping.  Grandpa was here watching him and Grandpa said "well that's where he fell sleep so I left him".  

This is the first time Gabe has EVER fallen asleep somewhere other then his bed.  He's very picky.  Notice that Grandpa covered him up and put a pillow on the floor so if he fell off the step he was safe.  Thanks Grandpa :D

Grandma gave Gabe and I some really great cookies last weekend too.  They were SOOO big I knew no one would believe me if I told them how big they were unless I took a picture.  Seriously my kid had a cookie the size of his head.  He ate the whole thing too and that's okay.  He's filthy from playing outside like a good boy too.

That's what happens when you spend the day with Grandma or Grandpa.  They let you get dirty and fall asleep in funny places.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend when you're 2. 

Mom's worst fear

I just about had a heart attack today.  

We were at Lowe's getting some flowers for my mom's place that's having an open house tomorrow.  We're in the outside area which is still "in" the store with fences and stuff and we're standing in line.  I turn to my mom say "got him?" and she says yeah.  I walk off to find out a price on a plant and turn back around tell her and then walk back to the cart.  I get there and I look around and go "Mom where's Gabe?"  Super calm figuring he's on the other side of the cart where I can't see. 

She whirls around and says "uhh"  So I holler his name still thinking he's probably right there and get NO answer.  So first I run out into the lot afraid he's in the parking lot with the cars and yell.  You can hear the panic in my voice now.  

He's not there so I run back into the rows of flowers and start yelling his name and I'm really scared now.  I hear someone say "He's here" and a woman had him by the hand.  I scooped him up and kissed him, thanked the woman and turned around before I started to tear up. 

Oh my God.  I was so afraid that he had wandered off.   I was just afraid that he was going to get hit by a car.  I think I aged about 10 years in 10 seconds today.   

He was fine and not scared at all and was smelling flowers crazy kid.  Thank God he was okay and thank you to the woman who knew he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Tick tock, tick tock

I am not a patient person.  In case you didn't know that before I'll tell you some things that prove I'm not a patient person.

• I once tore apart our entire apartment to find a St. Nick's gift because Mike didn't think I could find it.
• Mike hides Christmas/birthday gifts at other people's houses or work so I can't find them
• The FIRST thing I told the U/S tech was that I needed to know if we were having a boy or a girl.  I didn't care if there were 2 arms and 2 legs I NEEDED to know (and I would have loved the baby even without 2 arms and 2 legs).
• Every time the phone rings and it's my mom I assume that she has information about the house!  My heart skips a beat.

Really I know you're sick of hearing about house stuff but right now I'm CONSUMED by house stuff.  I look every single day for new listings.  I wish there was a way that I could find out if a house had an accepted offer without calling the realtor, waiting for her to call them and then call back.   It's a pain in the ass!  

I think I'm giving myself an ulcer and grey hair too.  I'm too young for grey hair.  I mean I'm only 26.  I realize it's down hill from 25 but that would just be too much for me to deal with right now.  

Gabe on the other hand would probably point and laugh (Mike would teach him how to).  He's a smart cookie.  He understands bribes.   Grandma wanted a kiss so she told him if you give me a kiss I'll let you play with my phone.  I've never seen the kid stop in his tracks and turn around so fast before.  He ran right over kissed her on the cheek and then put his hand right out for that phone of hers.  I just about died laughing so hard.  

So when I'm stressed out I just try to remember that little boy making me laugh.  As long as he doesn't break anything today it will be a good day.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down....

Ok I know it's not Monday but it is raining and dreary.  

The nice thing about today is I got to come home from work early.  It was so nice and Mike was surprised to see me too.  I have no exciting plans since it's raining but I do have to vacuum and do laundry. 

I have no clue what's for dinner though, I hate deciding dinner.  I need someone to make me about a year's worth of meals in advance and put them in my freezer so all I have to do is stare at it and pick one thing out.  It has to be something I can cook from frozen to because I never remember to defrost things until the last minute.  

I think I'm going to pack most of the dvds and games away tonight and only leave out the few that I know Gabe really loves so we have something to watch once and awhile but the rest can get boxed for now.   I should move the 12 boxes sitting in my kitchen to the garage too so I don't bash my toe on them every time I walk by them too. 

Another bid in...

Bear with me I'm going to post pictures in this one.  SEVERAL.  If someone knows of something I did wrong or something that makes it easier please inform me, I uploaded them one at a time and then drug them through the post to where I wanted them :D

We went to look at house number 1 tonight.  There is a bid in but NOT accepted yet.  One of a few things could happen.

*They could say get bent we don't want to look at another offer

*They could look at the offer and still accept the first offer

*They could accept our offer (and the other people would still have a chance to counter it but we can't go up anymore)

We have no contingencies at all and are not even asking for closing costs.  It's 10k under the asking price but it's the highest we can go and still eat (Anyone want to send us PB&J and Ramen I can give you the address) it's going to be tight for a few months until my mom's place gets rented out, then we can eat again :D

So without further ado:

Living Room, second one with Gabe playing with the windows in the dining room:

  

Dining room and Kitchen area (check out the deck through the patio doors!) there is a dishwasher but we have to get a stove and fridge:

 

Then there are 3 bedrooms and a bath and a half upstairs, I'll just show you one of the bedrooms since it has a cute window bench in it.  My mom would take the "master" on the main level and Gabe would have his room there too. This would be Gabe's:

But the Piece de Resistance is the almost finished basement.  It needs a bathroom but we can deal for awhile until we put that in.  It has a bedroom and a family room already done.  It has a laundry room and a HUGE empty space for my shower and tub bathroom.  I'm dying for a great tub and a separate shower.  

It has a spot for a wood burning stove if we wanted:

   

The bedroom which we will add an easement window in for safety AND light but it's not exciting so I won't post a pic.  I'm sure you're already bored.  So we'll cross our fingers AGAIN and we'll know in a couple days I suspect.  I really am not emotionally attached but I am hopeful.  I think it's just my nature to be hopeful and optimistic.   I also have to get attached to a house to picture myself in it. 

Arrested?

Seriously, sooner or later my mom and I are going to get arrested. Why you ask? Because we wander around Cedarburg and Grafton and look into the windows of empty houses for sale. We boost each other up to look into tall windows, we lay on the ground to look in the basement windows. We even take Gabe with us a lot.

Last night we went to look at a house that's listed for sale and was empty but has no sign out front so we REALLY looked like weirdos I bet. Then three families walk by and we wave like it's no big deal that we're peeping Toms. So far no one has called the cops but I can see it happening. Luckily my mom went to high school with most of the cops so I don't think they would REALLY arrest us but I can see the headline now:

Two local women and a baby were arrested Monday night for trespassing and peeking into windows of empty homes.

We also have an obsession with corner lots. Without knowing ahead of time EIGHT houses we have looked at have been corner lots. We must have a desire to snow blow twice as much as everyone else or something. It's really become a crazy running joke. I don't know how we do it so much without planning it that way.

So we're back to square one and there are two homes that might fit our requirements so we'll go look Saturday. It's hard to keep my spirits up but I'm trying. I know we'll find something.

House number 1 better neighborhood fully finished basement just needs a bathroom downstairs, cute layout and nicely finished kitchen, detached garage which is huge, shed, nice size yard

House number 2 fire place, needs some love, basement not finished so we would have to do all of it ourselves, nice lot looks at a farm, attached garage, busier street doesn't feel like a neighborhood because of the street it's facing but the other street (side yard) is nice and the backyard touches another house we looked at which had an offer accepted.

House 1

House 2

If you pull up the google maps streetview for either you'll see that they are both cuter in person than the pictures.

Oh no!

So my mom and I were going to write the offer tonight and our realtor called us and said there is an offer on the house :(  Now last time we heard this they were wrong so I'm still holding out hope.  It's possible the offer isn't accepted yet and we could still bid and we'd make a strong bid (only a few thousand under the asking price).  

I need major prayers right now.  I'm trying really hard to stay objective but I can't.  This is my house.  It's always been "the one" since the moment we first looked at it.  It's the one I can see us in doing holidays etc.  I know I shouldn't get emotionally attached but I just can't help it. 

I need all the prayers that you guys have to send our way.  If this falls through we'll have no idea what to look at because all the other houses in the area are much smaller and need a ton of work and yet aren't that much less in price.  (sigh)  I NEED this to work out.  I NEED this to go our way.  Don't we deserve some GOOD luck once and awhile?   I don't even know what to think if this doesn't work out.  I swear the universe is laughing at us.  

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day.  A day to remember how important (and neurotic) our mothers' really are. 

I got to sleep in today.  Something that is a true rarity with Mike working 3rd shift.  I definitely enjoyed it.   

Other than that we did some running around and I got a Furminator from Petsmart.  OMG it took so much hair off of Moses I was shocked!  She's a short haired tabby who weighs about 25lbs (yea she's fat).  I couldn't believe it.  I can't wait to try it on Mango who's a long haired domestic with a mat problem.  I might have to take pictures of that fur.    

Anyhow if you have a pet that needs some grooming try it, it's amazing!  That was my exciting Mother's Day.  Hope yours was good too. 

YEOW!

Holy cow!  I stepped on something on the stairs in the dark and now my foot is throbbing and bleeding :(  It looks like a piece to an Ace bandage but it's not.  Who knows how it got there but at least I "found" it and not Gabe or Mike. 

We have some halfway exciting weekend plans.   We have a bonfire at a friend's house tomorrow and my mom is keeping Gabe so we can go and have fun.  I think that's a pretty good Mother's Day gift!  We're also doing a lunch with my Aunt and Uncle tomorrow (yes we know Mother's day is Sunday).  

Sunday I have to organize and pack some stuff.  Yes really.  I'm not just talking about it.  I have to organize the garage so I can start stacking things out there.   I can't forget to leave a path for the garbage can to get out though (lol) that would be bad.  

I swear there was something else but I've obviously forgotten so you can see it must have been really important and funny right?  

Now what to do to nurse my foot?  I wonder if I can get a sympathy present out of this :P

And the house saga continues...

Today my mom calls and says that the house we put an offer in with the contingency has an offer with no contingency so we're losing the house :(   Well I'm a little bummed but really not as bad as I thought I would be. 

THEN my mom gets a call to find out she was approved for the amount we expected to be and she does NOT have to sell her condo and they are going to take what she paid for it for the equity so they aren't going to even bother sending an appraiser out.  So that's VERY good news.

Sooooo what house are we going to look at now?  Remember that huge 3000 sq foot house I first thought was OURS?  Yup it's still on the market and FORTY THOUSAND dollars cheaper than it was then.  It's down to $175,000.  It's a foreclosure so we're going to bid $140,000 and see where they come back at.   

I have had a few dreams about that house.  I feel like it has always been the one and yet I didn't want Mike to feel like he was giving into me (again) so I really would have been okay with the other house, but that's out of our hands now.   

So my mom is going to try and put an offer in today or tomorrow but it might not be til Monday.  NOW I'm really going to be nerve wracked (is that even a word?).    So pray really really really really hard that there isn't an offer on it yet that we haven't heard about or I WILL be crushed. 

Want to see pictures of the UGLY but beautiful house?  It has a swing set in the back already and a 6 foot high fence.  The level where the fireplace is has a bath with a shower only but we'll put a BIG tub in soon and a bedroom for Mike and I.  Gabe will be in one of the bedrooms upstairs closer to my mom.  

The counter in the kitchen needs to go.  You can't tell in the pictures but EVERY tile is on a different plane and not level at all.    So here's to hoping (crosses the crossables). 

Here it is!

Stressed out

UGH! I just want to scream!

I think we forgot to pay the electric bill last month and now we owe $350 bucks.  Crap where am I going to come up with that.  I'm hoping if we pay half they won't cut us off.   I THOUGHT we paid it.    

Ok I went away and did the check book.  Bad news :(  Crap.  I close to $100 short on the utility bill, and that's if I use all the gas money.  I have no idea where we went wrong either.  Nothing has changed.   Just when I think I have it figured out then something like this happens.  I was supposed to be putting away $50 off this check too, guess that's not happening.    

Add that stuff on top of trying to organize and pack and general work/life stress I'm not a happy camper today.  I just need a break once and awhile.  I wish I could just veg out for a bit but that never seems to happen.    I just feel a little overwhelmed right not and I can't quite put my finger on why.  I hate that.  

Maybe I need a drink and a bath if I had a good bathtub that might be a good solution (lol).  

Blarg

Ever have a house call to you? And then have a second one that's close to being perfect? That's where I am. I have a house that really calls to me, but Mike thinks it's too big. I really like the second option so it really would be fine but I think I might always wonder about that other one, the first one that I thought was ours when we first started looking. It's still there. Will it be there in 20 days when it matters? Will they go down enough for it to matter? I have no idea but I know what I want the answers to be.

I can see us in the kitchen having breakfast and playing in the yard on the swing set that's already there. I can see us having people over for Christmas and Thanksgiving and it being HOME.

Have I mentioned I need to pack? It's so hard to pack when you don't know where you're going. I need a good kick in the rear though. Today I HAVE to do some packing or at least laundry so that the winter stuff can be packed away. So when I get home from work I MUST do work. Someone kick me and remind me of that this afternoon when I'm tired from work or think something else would be fun.

More house hunting

Today we went and looked through two more open houses.  One was exactly the same footprint/layout as a previous house but $13,000 more so that doesn't make any sense to even consider. 

The second was in a GREAT location, just blocks from downtown Cedarburg.  It's a corner lot (we seem to look at a lot of those) with a smallish yard though.  We know we have to do renovations so having a yard to take from to use for more house would be ideal.  It was SUPER cute and had a big enough basement with a toilet already in it to convert to a bed/bath suite and still have real basement space left over though so there was potential.  It's only been on the market a week though and at the top of our price range so the likely hood that they would come down far enough for us to put the amount of money into it that we would need to make it what we want is doubtful but it went on the list.   

We have one more that we want to look at right in Cedarburg that's priced at $159,900 which is DIRT cheap here but for that price we could put in the amount of money we need.  

So another week goes by with no idea what we're doing but I'm packing anyhow.  I SUCK at packing and I'm not a good organizer either so it takes me FOREVER to pack.  I really need a weekend alone at home to do it but that's not going to happen.  

In other news it was gorgeous outside today and we had friends stop by so we played outside with Gabe which makes me want a real yard even more.  That kid is such a ham for people.  He was showing off spinning in circles and jumping and driving his car around.   Darn he's a cute kid. 

Gymnastics today

So today I got to do a rare thing, take Gabe to tumbling class.  Usually it's a daddy and Gabe thing but daddy wasn't feeling great.  So I went.  It made me a little late to work but was worth it. 

They had this roller coaster thing out today and Gabe LOVED it.  He must have gone down it 50 times in a half hour.  I had seen them online and thought they were kind of neat but I had no idea how much Gabe would really like it.   

I was surprised he was really good at sharing it too.  He even signed please and thank you to the other kids who wanted to ride.  I had one mom pretty impressed that he signed those and shared.  I told her since he doesn't talk that much the signing helps my sanity some.   

He did jump on the trampoline some with me, they are built right into the floor and we can both be on it.  I held his hands and I really got him bouncing pretty good even though my feet weren't leaving the trampoline.  As a kid we had a trampoline, one of those huge round ones you buy at Sam's and LOVED it.  So it's on my list of things we HAVE to have in our yard when we have one.  I guess that means that I have to have a fence too though (lol).  

All in all it was a fun morning.  Work was dead so I only worked 2 hours and I can't complain about going home early on a Friday.  

A new plan

We have a new plan now for the house situation.  We think that we'll be most likely to move near the end of June if all things go well. 

We tried to stay local for a loan but turns out the big guys (countrywide/bank of america) have much better deals and are going to allow us to do what we want with LESS money down.   So while we have a contract on a house it only runs til May 22 and in Wisconsin it takes 21 days to close on a house.  We have to wait til May 23rd before deciding if we are going to rebid on that house or choose another one (since a few have popped up) but technically after today there is no way we could buy that house with this particular contract.  

Now of course the question comes down to location, location, location, price and size.  We have a very specific target area and there are a couple houses suddenly on the market in our perfect target area but they are small and would need more work to make them into what we want.  One is only 3 blocks from my Aunt and Uncle though (sigh).  There is still that really huge house for sale who's price has dropped 40,000 bucks from it's original asking price which is REALLY tempting but it's in the 2nd target area.  

So all in all we have a lot of options I think which is a good thing and at the end of May I think we'll have officially found a house and know where we'll be moving.   

Anyone want to help pack or move? ;)