House, Brittany Spears, and Other Random Things

Most of you who read my blog know already that we are waiting for the seller's bank to approve the sale of the house that we're trying to buy. Since it's a short sale, the bank has to approve the deal and agree to have the outstanding balance of the loan unpaid. It can take a while to get this approval and so we're just waiting for their decision. This is a good teaching moment in life for me if I'll let it be. I am much too anxious about things in general and feel the need to hurry through life sometimes. I'm very detail oriented, so I think I just like to have "all my ducks in a row" so to speak. But this morning when I started thinking about waiting for the bank's decision, I felt a weight lifted off me and I felt peaceful and calm. More present in my current life than looking ahead. And that felt good. I know that if this deal falls through, there will be other houses that will work for our family. I'm not worried about that. I just need to relax and not get worked up over something I can't control. I'll do my best.

And tonight we decided to go to Sonic for dinner. Reid got the menu up on our computer at home and took all of the orders for everyone. He and I drove over to Sonic and ordered and then the waitress/food bringer-outer came out and she looked just like Brittany Spears. I thought to myself, "I wonder how many times she's heard that?" She was really, really nice when she brought the food out to the car and since I paid with credit card, I was expecting to see a tip line on my receipt, but there wasn't one. I said to her, "I was expecting there to be a tip line." She responded with, "Welcome to my world." Poor girl. I was fortunate to have a couple of dollars in coins, so I gave her that. I always thought you were supposed to tip the food bringer-outers... maybe I'm wrong. I think I'll send an email to Sonic to see what they say.

And the kids went swimming in the neighborhood pool today. We had a high of about 90 degrees. The water was still pretty cold, but not nearly as cold as it was last month when we went out there on an 80 degree day. :) Living in Austin has it's perks.

Family Update - yes... the ENTIRE family...

not just Kira this time. :)

Mike - is doing well at his new job. He has some frustrating days, but, hey, it's work. We are both really glad that he's telecommuting. For instance, on Monday, I went to pick Reid up from school, but he never came out from the building... Since I usually drive straight to get the other kids after picking up Reid, I had to call Mike and ask him to go get them so I could see what was up with Reid. Turns out they were having track tryouts after school. Good thing Mike was around or I would have been really late picking the other kids up.

Reid - is trying out for track. He said he was in the top three kids on the long jump and high jump. And he said he did good at the triple jump, too. I think they do some sprinting today at the tryouts. The good thing about him doing well in a category is that he'll get to be on the "main" team that goes to meets with other schools. Other kids who don't make the "A" team still get to be part of practice, but just don't go to the track meets. It's better than cutting a bunch of kids even though it sounds awful.

Zach - just finished reading a book. That might sound like no big deal, but it's the first book he's ever read at home. I assume he's read some at school, but knowing Zach, he may have found ways to get out of it. It was a smaller chapter book and I had to pull a few teeth to get him to finish it, but he did. He gives a report tomorrow.

Jacob - is growing. I don't know when it happened, but he got big all of a sudden. It's a bit frightening. He's only about 6 inches shorter than me, if that. He's wearing my shoes, too. Has been for a while, so I assume he'll outgrow those soon.

Cole - is just floating through life these days. He seems to be pretty happy in general. He and Jacob play with their Legos a lot and he's rediscovered our Mario DDR game. He's playing on Hard now and does really good. It's fun to watch him jumping around. :)

Kira - has discovered squeaking. She mostly does it when she's unhappy, but it's so funny to hear her squeak. Silly baby!

Me - Well, I've mostly been obsessing over the house that we put an offer on. We're waiting for the bank to approve it and for those of you who know me, I find it difficult to do anything when there's something that's uncertain in my life. So I spend my days trying to figure out how furniture will be arranged, how the moving will happen, how to build a Murphy bed for the downstairs bedroom... Just doing my thing. And if we don't get the house, I'll chalk it all up to good research and move on. :)

Kira is 4 months old!!!!

Here are some recent pictures of her in all of her baby cuteness:

Enjoying a diaper change and her toes!

Waking up her big brother. :) (Mike put her down on Reid who was sleeping on the floor.)

Showing off how much she's growing up! She can support herself upright for a good little while now. She just needs the "wobble" support.

We are enjoying her more and more each day. She gets a little easier to take care of each day. We figure all of that will change once she gets mobile, but we're enjoying it right now. She's just so precious. And as I've said over and over again, she's a well loved baby. :)

Baby Whisperer

The other day Reid was holding Kira and I was wishing that I could have that easy of a time getting her to go to sleep. There was never a fuss. He's a natural baby tend-er. He'll make a great dad one day.


That is one lucky girl!

Another House Offer

So yesterday we put an offer on a house. This house is in McKinney which is north of Dallas. (I know... we moved to Austin.) I've been torn about wanted to get up to be that much closer to my dad and we've talked a lot about it, but we just hadn't come to any real conclusions.

But I kept looking at houses up there. And on Thursday night before our arrival at my dad's for the weekend, so did Darlene. And she found this house that had come on the market that day. It turned out that it was a short sale on a really great house. I was unfamiliar with the details of a short sale, but it's basically a deal that owners work out with their lenders that if they can close on the house by a certain time for a certain amount, they won't get foreclosed on. They'll still have an outstanding loan on their credit report, but it won't be as detrimental to their credit as a foreclosure.

Anyway... we didn't know any of this when we headed out on Saturday to look at the houses that Darlene had printed out from her search. (We were just driving by all of them.) And the last one on our stop was this house. We were driving up when apparently the owners drove up and they saw us looking and invited us in to see the house. It was clear that they loved their home. Once they told us it was a short sale (and the fact that they got a call while we were there that another showing was scheduled and they had just come back from leaving for a showing) we knew we would have to act fast.

So we thought a lot about it that evening and decided that we would put in an offer. There are really lots of great things about this house. So we called their realtor and told her we would just like to use her as our realtor (since there's really no negotiations that are going to happen). And we met her the next morning and put in the offer.

We should hopefully know tomorrow whether or not they've chosen ours, but the realtor said that the owners really liked us and want us to have it. Of course, it may be that the bank is the one who choses between all of the offers, so maybe it will just come down to that.

We'll let you know how it goes.

$100 Dinner

So I told you about how Kira has started rolling over every time you put her down? Well. The bad thing about this new development is that I used to could lay her on her back on the floor and she would lay there quite happily for some time. Particularly in the mornings (her happy time). But now she rolls over and starts getting really fussy.

While I was at Kristin's, I borrowed her fancy Ergo sling to see if Kira would like it. See... before Kira was born, I had this fantasy that she would be a sling baby. I'd just keep her in the sling during the day while I did what needed to be done. However, she has hated every sling I've tried. My homemade ring sling: no way. The $20 Bjorn: tolerable, but not for long. Even the stroller: No way, man! So when I tried this Ergo, I was hopeful, but didn't have high expectations. However, she seemed to like it. So today, after dealing with a needy baby with a stuffy nose who needed to be held all day and a mommy who's wrist is starting to notice that it's carrying a big baby around all the time, Mike and I went during his lunch hour and got an Ergo. They are quite pricey, but I knew that it was a nice carrier that felt good on my back, so we took the plunge.

And Kira rode in it happily on my back the entire time I made dinner. I figure it's just about paid for itself right there. Okay... not really, but having a happy baby on my back while making dinner is SO much better than having a crying baby in the living room or a baby on my hip the whole time! Hopefully we'll enjoy many more meal preparations thanks to the Ergo.

And in case you want details, I got the Organic Cranberry Ergo (no, you can't eat it) with Mocha Sucking Pads (you can't eat those, either). It's so pretty!

Fancy Baby

I was just about to post about the fact that Kira now rolls over any time you put her down and I was wondering what to use as a title of the post when Jacob went over to her and started saying, "Fancy Baby", "Fancy Baby". :)

So this all started at John and Kristin's. She rolled over once while no one saw. Then last night she worked SO hard and rolled over. Then she did it again. Now it's like it's no trouble at all! But she's doing the fairly typical thing of rolling over onto her tummy and then getting mad and not always being able to get back over to her back. Silly baby.

I used to lay her down on little baby blankets. Now we've got one of the sleeping bags on the floor. Once she outgrows that, she'll have to deal with the plain carpet. :)

There's No Place Like Home

After a week of traveling with a three and a half month old baby, I am soooo glad to be home.

I am really glad that I went to my granddad's funeral, though. It's probably the last time I'll go to his house before it's sold.

I got to see the old barn that my cousins and I used to jump out of. We all laughed about how we used to think the window was about 20 feet high. But really it's 5 feet. :) And I got to look one last time at the little window that my parents used to push me through so I could get into the house and unlock the door. Maybe that happened only twice, but it seemed like it happened a lot. I liked it that my littleness was useful (as opposed to just frustrating like when my brother could drive the bumper cars, but I couldn't).

And I got to see my dad with all his brothers. That was really nice. I can't think of the last time they were all together. Those boys have some crazy stories. I need to try to get them all together again soon so I can record all of their shenanigans.

Tom Jones

That's my granddad. He died yesterday. He was a really great guy. His life wasn't easy. He was in charge of running the family farm as a young teenager. Then he went to the war. He was a gunner in a B29 (?). I'm not 100% sure of the type of plane he rode in. But they ran missions over Japan and that area every other day. He said he was never in any danger of being shot down because his plane flew so high, but it was still highly stressful. After the war, he married my grandmother, Jo, who I have the privilege of being named after. They had five sons together before she died at the much too young age of 39. That was almost 47 years ago.

So when I think of him now, I think of the reunion between two lovers separated for much too long. I know he's happy. He will be missed, but I know he's glad to be able to rest and enjoy the company of those gone before him.

Sick

Almost all of us are sick. Mike and I both woke up this morning feeling pretty icky. I have now developed a horrible sore throat. I'm hoping it isn't strep. I think the only one who's not feeling somewhat sick right now is Reid. And now that I think about it, he's the only one who avoided the awful flu that we all got about 8 years ago, too. Hmmmm... must have a good immune system.

Well now... look at me ignoring Kira... she's not sick right now. I certainly hope it stays that way.

Hope you are fairing better.