This was a good week, and an interesting one. I don't have my camera here at my mom's house, so I can't post the cutest picture, but I decided to take a break from the curtains to make something Alisabeth would love.
While she took her nap I sewed together a fun and quick pattern for a new nightgown. I figured she would enjoy it because she's REALLY into dresses right now. I wasn't disappointed. She loved it. Of course, she overfilled her diaper the first night she wore it, and then I didn't get it clean until yesterday, so tonight is her second night in it, and she's loving it.
I used scraps to make it, so I am excited to do it again with materials that will actually work well together. It's supposed to have a frilly bottom fringe to it, however I used a stretchy material for the main part and a patterned cotton for the bottom, so it didn't end up frilling out, it ended up restraining. It still looks cute though.
So on to the reason it took so long to get her nightgown laundered. My washing machine wasn't able to pull enough power to complete the last spin cycle, so all of the clothes have been taking about ten times as long as they should to dry. Why was it not getting enough power you ask? Well, let me explain: I have no idea.
My mom came over and took a look at it (keep in mind that the landlord told us that he would appreciate any improvements we are willing to make and would deduct time and money spent from our rent. . . )
Apparently, (once she'd told me I could see it too) whoever wired the house was on crack. There were 3 small fuses coming into the house. The gauge wire they used is the kind that should be used for heavy machinery in a large production warehouse, and they hadn't used any ground. So for those of you who don't speak electronics this means that our incoming power is being severly limited (not to mention some of it being wasted).
So basically we started to put together a game plan to change out everything. We eventually traced back the power and found out that not only was the wire coming in huge, but the original wire to the house was even larger. Basically the house must have taken it's power from the same source as the tile factory that is further back on the property. Now that the tile factory isn't being used we are the sole users. So we opened up all of the boxes connected to the house ( a total of 3 where we should have 1) and saw that not only was the wire huge, but where they had brought it down to smaller guage wire they had done it both sloppily and wrongly. We weren't getting even half of the power we should have had. . .
Anyway, so the game plan was set (encouraged by the fact that the shower had a nice current for those using it any time they reach out to adjust the hot/cold. . . )
Then yesterday night I happened to go outside for something after dark, I glance toward the fuse box and see a nice red sparkly-like light coming from our power source. So needless to say I turned off as much of the power as I could and Jason went out and electrical taped everything he could touch (while wearing electricians gloves).
Then I called my mom to ask if we could move up the time-line.
She called back this morning, took off work, we shunted Alisabeth over to her cousin's house (I just need to throw out a big THANK YOU STACI to my amazingly wonderful sister-in-law) and started working on it.
We ended up not finishing, thus we are spending the night at my mom's house. We got everything wired into the new box, and turned it on with no problems, but as soon as we tried to turn on the smaller breakers everything popped. A re-wire and another flip of the switch and POP SIZZLE. This time there were no breakers on, so we haven't figured out what the problem is. We decided that 9.5 hours of working on it was quite enough. We'll try again tomorrow.
Luckily we were already planning a barbeque for our "look-we-don't-live-in-carboard-boxes-anymore" party. It would have been sad if we had had to cancel. I just hope we can get it figured out tomorrow. I was really looking forward to living in our new place :)
That was the excitement. We also got a call from the AzCA foster care program and are scheduled to start our classes on Monday. 1 day, 3 hrs, 10 weeks. I am excited. I have a feeling I will be receiving a lot of information and end up with my eyes wide open.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Up and running again.
So we moved to our new place and within a couple of days we were realizing the need for a few modifications in the technology department. We got our latest bill from sprint and had inadvertently doubled our normal cost by going over minutes and text messages. . .
I was shocked. I realized that it was mostly due to the being on the phone with all the people we needed to talk to in order to get new services connected and get everything set up, but even then we were close on our minutes. . . so we decided to get a local phone connection. Of course, somewhere between that point and the time that we actually set everything up internet was also
added, but we won't mention that part too much.
Well, it's been so long since the last update that I realized you still haven't seen the new place! Unfortunately the battery on our camera is dead, and I'm not quite sure where the charger is, so we're just going to include what was already taken, so mentally update these pictures for 2 weeks. :)
Alisabeth's room, the two bedrooms are identical in size, even down to the window dimensions. . . So she has a lot of room, but this will be great if and when we are approved for foster care. . . more on that later.
Our room, Yes, it's basically a bed with a few feet to walk around in, but hey, it's not like we need anything more in there ;)
The kitchen and living room. Apparently I forgot to include a picture of my sewing area so just imagine an extra 4-5 feet behind the couch which is dedicated to sewing and crafts. Jason says that he and Alsiabeth aren't allowed back there. It's for mommy only.
Oh, nevermind, there it is. . . :)
We decided to put up our flags, but we're probably going to move them into the bedroom so that we can hang the GORGEOUS print my mom got for me right after we were married. I'm sure you'll see the final version sometime soon. :)
Lastly our struggle to get connected! Yesterday COX finally installed the connection for our phone/internet. That was the end of a 3 week battle to get them out there. It was also their last straw before we went with a competitor. The problem was that our 50 year old house has never had cable, so they sent out a contractor, but there wasn't a close enough connection point, so he put in the work order to get a connection moved by COX closer so that it could be connected. COX sent out a supervisor instead and the guy must have looked at the wrong house because he canceled the move and said it wasn't needed. So they sent out another contractor who spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out a way, but eventually capitulated and set up another connection move through COX. Apparently they listened this time, but the contractor had said it should be about 3 days to get it done. That was over the weekend, so I figured it would be by about Wednesday, well, when I called on Tuesday just to verify that they were coming I found out we had been pushed out until Thursday of next week because of the holiday. I kicked a HUGE fit and was called back about 10 minutes later with a dig/install date and time for yesterday. (Normally the dig and the install don't happen on the same day).
So finally, yesterday they came, dug up our backyard to bury a line, and then the installer came and freaked out because he couldn't find a connection point (the dig wasn't in the system yet), so he thought he couldn't do it, so I kindly walked him to the point his buddies had dug that morning and then waited patiently for 2 hours while the poor man hooked it all up in 115 degree weather. Let's just say if we were making more money all 3 of those installers would have received a tip. I was so delighted.
So we're finally connected again!
The only other neat adventure we're having is the foster care stuff. We got a call back almost 2 weeks ago to come and pick up the paperwork. The only thing we have left to complete is the on-line portion which I will be doing today. After that I just need to get my fingerprinting done and then the paperwork is in. We missed the deadline for the next class (which starts Monday), but we should be able to get started next month and then we'll start the in home licensing and interviews and all the fun stuff. Then we'll have a bunch of costs to get our home up to par with the requirements (double locked medicines/cleaning supplies) and we'll be ready to foster!
We're getting excited.
Well, I can see that I really need to maintain my weekly updates, because there are a lot of more fun stories I could tell, but I don't want to make this too long, so let me know if you want to hear about our shocking shower, or the overloaded electrics. I could also tell about the washer hook-up fun, or Alisabeth's second head injury that she just sustained today, but I won't bore you with details you don't care about :)
I was shocked. I realized that it was mostly due to the being on the phone with all the people we needed to talk to in order to get new services connected and get everything set up, but even then we were close on our minutes. . . so we decided to get a local phone connection. Of course, somewhere between that point and the time that we actually set everything up internet was also
added, but we won't mention that part too much.
Well, it's been so long since the last update that I realized you still haven't seen the new place! Unfortunately the battery on our camera is dead, and I'm not quite sure where the charger is, so we're just going to include what was already taken, so mentally update these pictures for 2 weeks. :)
Alisabeth's room, the two bedrooms are identical in size, even down to the window dimensions. . . So she has a lot of room, but this will be great if and when we are approved for foster care. . . more on that later.
Our room, Yes, it's basically a bed with a few feet to walk around in, but hey, it's not like we need anything more in there ;)
The kitchen and living room. Apparently I forgot to include a picture of my sewing area so just imagine an extra 4-5 feet behind the couch which is dedicated to sewing and crafts. Jason says that he and Alsiabeth aren't allowed back there. It's for mommy only.
Oh, nevermind, there it is. . . :)
We decided to put up our flags, but we're probably going to move them into the bedroom so that we can hang the GORGEOUS print my mom got for me right after we were married. I'm sure you'll see the final version sometime soon. :)
Lastly our struggle to get connected! Yesterday COX finally installed the connection for our phone/internet. That was the end of a 3 week battle to get them out there. It was also their last straw before we went with a competitor. The problem was that our 50 year old house has never had cable, so they sent out a contractor, but there wasn't a close enough connection point, so he put in the work order to get a connection moved by COX closer so that it could be connected. COX sent out a supervisor instead and the guy must have looked at the wrong house because he canceled the move and said it wasn't needed. So they sent out another contractor who spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out a way, but eventually capitulated and set up another connection move through COX. Apparently they listened this time, but the contractor had said it should be about 3 days to get it done. That was over the weekend, so I figured it would be by about Wednesday, well, when I called on Tuesday just to verify that they were coming I found out we had been pushed out until Thursday of next week because of the holiday. I kicked a HUGE fit and was called back about 10 minutes later with a dig/install date and time for yesterday. (Normally the dig and the install don't happen on the same day).
So finally, yesterday they came, dug up our backyard to bury a line, and then the installer came and freaked out because he couldn't find a connection point (the dig wasn't in the system yet), so he thought he couldn't do it, so I kindly walked him to the point his buddies had dug that morning and then waited patiently for 2 hours while the poor man hooked it all up in 115 degree weather. Let's just say if we were making more money all 3 of those installers would have received a tip. I was so delighted.
So we're finally connected again!
The only other neat adventure we're having is the foster care stuff. We got a call back almost 2 weeks ago to come and pick up the paperwork. The only thing we have left to complete is the on-line portion which I will be doing today. After that I just need to get my fingerprinting done and then the paperwork is in. We missed the deadline for the next class (which starts Monday), but we should be able to get started next month and then we'll start the in home licensing and interviews and all the fun stuff. Then we'll have a bunch of costs to get our home up to par with the requirements (double locked medicines/cleaning supplies) and we'll be ready to foster!
We're getting excited.
Well, I can see that I really need to maintain my weekly updates, because there are a lot of more fun stories I could tell, but I don't want to make this too long, so let me know if you want to hear about our shocking shower, or the overloaded electrics. I could also tell about the washer hook-up fun, or Alisabeth's second head injury that she just sustained today, but I won't bore you with details you don't care about :)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Memory Gaps
I have been so busy with wasting my time that I haven't updated, sorry about that :)
So instead of trying to fill in all the blanks I'll just tell you a few of the highlights.
Last week Alisabeth finished her first swim lessons. Day 1: Get in, loving that fact, flips out when we try to do anything, especially in regards to her face getting near water.
Day 8: She went underwater 3 times, somewhat voluntarily, and absolutely loves to crab-walk around the pool wall. She is also getting to like the idea of swimming, though her attempts at paddling wouldn't get her very far if mommy wasn't helping. All in all, a huge success.
Also on the agenda for the last few weeks is getting our place ready to move into. We are doing so on Tuesday. :)
We went Saturday and finally were able to do some work on the place. We put in new baseboard where the old ones were broken or rotted. Apparently the last tenants were nephews or relatives of some sort and therefore felt that it was unnecessary to take proper care of the place. A lot of the lower drywall had to be replaced and I think we should probably fix the rest of the baseboards, but we didn't have supplies enough for the, so we focused on the important parts. We still need to paint and caulk them, and there are a few more minor things that need doing.
On Wednesday my mom is going to come over and install the new water heater if our landlord hasn't had the time by then. We also need to put the vent grates and the outlet covers back, but all of that is minor. I am glad that our landlord is willing to exchange work for rent on this place, it was one of the major deciding factors, because it helps lower our bills significantly, and it also helps me keep busy. I love projects.
Next, another project, I don't know if I told you I bought the material for the windows, Jason liked the idea of a Roman Shade, so that's what we're doing. Basically it's material that pulls up similar to blinds. It folds in on itself. Pretty neat. I don't know the difficulty level, but I'll let you know. :)
We were also blessed because Jason's aunt Tricia was doing some spring cleaning and was getting ready to donate her drapes. Luckily she posted something about it on Facebook and I caught her. She was more than happy to ship them to us and now I have the finishing parts for the windows so that they will actually look nice. It's a beautiful deep red material and will go nicely with the cream of the Roman Shades. It will also blend well with the red cement floors. I'll send pictures with the final look when it's all finished.
Other than the house and the swimming lessons for the chunky monkey we aren't doing much around here. Today will be a giant cleaning spree to prepare for the move. 4 loads of laundry, clean up and separate Alisabeth's toys from my moms, pack what I can, clear out our freezer so we can load that up tomorrow. . . lots of fun stuff.
Oh, also on the docket is that I decided to start tutoring again. I'm limiting myself to three clients at a time so that I'm not overwhelmed, but hopefully the little bit of extra cash will pay for most of our food bill. It's really nice to be able to help people again. I'm charging a maximum of $12, which seems like a lot for me, but apparently isn't. The first guy I tutored told me that Econ tutors through the college here charge about $50 an hour. I was shocked, by the time you get done with tutoring for a whole semester you've almost doubled your tuition! Anyway, my goal is not to get rich, but to help people understand. I wouldn't charge anything if we didn't need a little extra to survive on. It is sad to me that tutors would charge such a high rate. I know that most people believe it is right to charge as much as the client will pay, but that mentality is so foreign for me, especially in fields like tutoring. Isn't the goal to help people succeed, but when the financial obligation forces them to strain and stress how is that helping them succeed?
Anyway, needless to say I am glad to be back in the tutoring saddle.
The last exciting thing started last week: Jason and I decided to make foster care a reality and signed ourselves up to begin the 4-6 month process. We went to the orientation on Wednesday evening and filled out the follow-up paperwork. I think the only part that could hold us up would be our financial situation, we're making it, but it's a close thing, and one of the major requirements is to be self-sufficient. We'll see how it goes. I am excited though.
Jason also surprised me, because I know he was adamant about not taking anyone older than Alisabeth's age, but the real need they have is for sibling groups of two or more children and usually one is older and one is younger. After the woman who was doing the introductory class finished he told me he wanted to open our home for any age and especially for sibling groups.
We don't have much room, so they'll take that into account I'm sure, but I felt so strongly that we were meant to be there. It was a very cool experience. Not only that but the miracle of the night was that we didn't have a baby-sitter (because we had only received the email about the orientation that morning), so we took Alisabeth with us. Now, for those of you who know her, I'm sure you matched my cringe at that thought, but she was amazing. She sat quietly and colored for the entire hour and a half. the only time she disrupted at all was when I reached over to tickle her just a little bit. She firmly told me, "Don't! mommy, don't tickle me." The teacher stopped for a second and told us a little about her two year old and then went on. It was so neat to watch her concentrate on coloring every square inch of her papers!
I think that's the extent of our cool stuff. I'll try to keep better postings, but we don't have internet in the new place, so this may be the last one for a while.
So instead of trying to fill in all the blanks I'll just tell you a few of the highlights.
Last week Alisabeth finished her first swim lessons. Day 1: Get in, loving that fact, flips out when we try to do anything, especially in regards to her face getting near water.
Day 8: She went underwater 3 times, somewhat voluntarily, and absolutely loves to crab-walk around the pool wall. She is also getting to like the idea of swimming, though her attempts at paddling wouldn't get her very far if mommy wasn't helping. All in all, a huge success.
Also on the agenda for the last few weeks is getting our place ready to move into. We are doing so on Tuesday. :)
We went Saturday and finally were able to do some work on the place. We put in new baseboard where the old ones were broken or rotted. Apparently the last tenants were nephews or relatives of some sort and therefore felt that it was unnecessary to take proper care of the place. A lot of the lower drywall had to be replaced and I think we should probably fix the rest of the baseboards, but we didn't have supplies enough for the, so we focused on the important parts. We still need to paint and caulk them, and there are a few more minor things that need doing.
On Wednesday my mom is going to come over and install the new water heater if our landlord hasn't had the time by then. We also need to put the vent grates and the outlet covers back, but all of that is minor. I am glad that our landlord is willing to exchange work for rent on this place, it was one of the major deciding factors, because it helps lower our bills significantly, and it also helps me keep busy. I love projects.
Next, another project, I don't know if I told you I bought the material for the windows, Jason liked the idea of a Roman Shade, so that's what we're doing. Basically it's material that pulls up similar to blinds. It folds in on itself. Pretty neat. I don't know the difficulty level, but I'll let you know. :)
We were also blessed because Jason's aunt Tricia was doing some spring cleaning and was getting ready to donate her drapes. Luckily she posted something about it on Facebook and I caught her. She was more than happy to ship them to us and now I have the finishing parts for the windows so that they will actually look nice. It's a beautiful deep red material and will go nicely with the cream of the Roman Shades. It will also blend well with the red cement floors. I'll send pictures with the final look when it's all finished.
Other than the house and the swimming lessons for the chunky monkey we aren't doing much around here. Today will be a giant cleaning spree to prepare for the move. 4 loads of laundry, clean up and separate Alisabeth's toys from my moms, pack what I can, clear out our freezer so we can load that up tomorrow. . . lots of fun stuff.
Oh, also on the docket is that I decided to start tutoring again. I'm limiting myself to three clients at a time so that I'm not overwhelmed, but hopefully the little bit of extra cash will pay for most of our food bill. It's really nice to be able to help people again. I'm charging a maximum of $12, which seems like a lot for me, but apparently isn't. The first guy I tutored told me that Econ tutors through the college here charge about $50 an hour. I was shocked, by the time you get done with tutoring for a whole semester you've almost doubled your tuition! Anyway, my goal is not to get rich, but to help people understand. I wouldn't charge anything if we didn't need a little extra to survive on. It is sad to me that tutors would charge such a high rate. I know that most people believe it is right to charge as much as the client will pay, but that mentality is so foreign for me, especially in fields like tutoring. Isn't the goal to help people succeed, but when the financial obligation forces them to strain and stress how is that helping them succeed?
Anyway, needless to say I am glad to be back in the tutoring saddle.
The last exciting thing started last week: Jason and I decided to make foster care a reality and signed ourselves up to begin the 4-6 month process. We went to the orientation on Wednesday evening and filled out the follow-up paperwork. I think the only part that could hold us up would be our financial situation, we're making it, but it's a close thing, and one of the major requirements is to be self-sufficient. We'll see how it goes. I am excited though.
Jason also surprised me, because I know he was adamant about not taking anyone older than Alisabeth's age, but the real need they have is for sibling groups of two or more children and usually one is older and one is younger. After the woman who was doing the introductory class finished he told me he wanted to open our home for any age and especially for sibling groups.
We don't have much room, so they'll take that into account I'm sure, but I felt so strongly that we were meant to be there. It was a very cool experience. Not only that but the miracle of the night was that we didn't have a baby-sitter (because we had only received the email about the orientation that morning), so we took Alisabeth with us. Now, for those of you who know her, I'm sure you matched my cringe at that thought, but she was amazing. She sat quietly and colored for the entire hour and a half. the only time she disrupted at all was when I reached over to tickle her just a little bit. She firmly told me, "Don't! mommy, don't tickle me." The teacher stopped for a second and told us a little about her two year old and then went on. It was so neat to watch her concentrate on coloring every square inch of her papers!
I think that's the extent of our cool stuff. I'll try to keep better postings, but we don't have internet in the new place, so this may be the last one for a while.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The good the bad and the ugly.
What you're about to see is my week in reverse because the stupid picture loader loaded them backwards :)
So to end up this week I had mad gastrointestinal problems. This condition is aggrevated by eating greasy foods and stress. . . So I know what you're asking yourselves, what on earth would cause this problem for me? I eat perfectly healthy foods (like a bowl of ice cream on Wednesday night, and Mac & Cheese with Nuggets and Corn on Saturday)
Plus, what have I got to stress about? (Like the financial worry of whether or not my husband will get enough hours to make our rent payment every month, or where we're going to live . . .)
Well, despite all of those things probably helping to build the mountain, the straw that broke the camel's back was on Thursday evening. My mom needed to work from home so Alisabeth and I decided to meet Jason at the Mall to play in their kid's area. . . and if we happened to pick up a Cinnabon on the way, well that would just make it all better :)
We got almost there when we decided not to go the last 100 feet. :)
This is a Saturn advertisement by the way. . . even though they're going out of business.
This is the other guy
They moved my car so that traffic could get through and put it in a nearby parking lot.
Both airbags deployed, much to my annoyance. It was gone before I even realized I'd been hit :)
Not only that but I got out, got my baby out, and limped away. As always I was worried about explosions, but there wasn't even anything leaking from her!
Poor baby. I have a strong feeling she's not coming back from this one.
For those of you on facebook you've probably had a chance to read my poem, for the many of you that see this but not that I'll repost it:
Ode to my baby:
You have carried my family for a long time,
To see you thus seems such a crime.
In serving: you were the example most fair,
It's hard to see you with such a tear.
You gave us your all, your everything!
Even when in mud you were wreathing.
Over hills, dams, streets, ice, snow and dirt roads,
Always you returned us to our humble abodes.
We can't thank you enough for giving your life,
Your loss will forever cut me as with a knife.
This marks the 4th accident in 4 years of marriage. . . Can we please be done now?
Just as an update - there were no serious injuries. Alisabeth came out with a slight burn from the car seat's straps and I came out with a jammed thumb and some cuts and bruises, but that's it. The other side seemed to fair the same. The little boy's hand was a little sore, but he was tired of the ice by the time the police reports were finally written.
As for the gastrointestinal issues, I'll let you know if it gets any worse. Worse would mean the need for surgery . . . Let's hope not.
Now, backtrack more in time: I feel like I already told you about Lissa's new swim suit, so I'll just post this picture. . . If I didn't say anything then I'll post a comment :)
Previous to this: We made the deal with our new LandLord. We'll be moving in the 3rd week of June. That gives him enough time to do the major repairs and then we'll be finishing up the minor ones. It's a large place. I forgot the camera last time we went to look at it, so maybe next time I go :)
On the up side, if they do end up totaling the car it could be an answer to an unspoken prayer. The money for the car would allow us to pay off some of our student loans and lower our monthly payment a significant amount. Meaning that Jason wouldn't have to stress about getting tons of hours each week. The other benefit would be that the insurance and gas reduction would also help us significantly. Besides that I could take a little bit of the money and get material for curtains, a new shower curtain cover and a couple other minor decoration items for the new place. I'm really excited about the new house. It's pretty big and the yard will give me a project to keep my busy while Alisabeth plays outside. :)
It's been a good week. Sunday topped it all off when we were able to go to the dedication of the newest temple. It is located in the Gila Valley, which is still 2 hours from us, but it is nice to have another temple so close. President Monson was here as well as President Eyring and they spoke, along with a few others.
It was a very cool experience.
So to end up this week I had mad gastrointestinal problems. This condition is aggrevated by eating greasy foods and stress. . . So I know what you're asking yourselves, what on earth would cause this problem for me? I eat perfectly healthy foods (like a bowl of ice cream on Wednesday night, and Mac & Cheese with Nuggets and Corn on Saturday)
Plus, what have I got to stress about? (Like the financial worry of whether or not my husband will get enough hours to make our rent payment every month, or where we're going to live . . .)
Well, despite all of those things probably helping to build the mountain, the straw that broke the camel's back was on Thursday evening. My mom needed to work from home so Alisabeth and I decided to meet Jason at the Mall to play in their kid's area. . . and if we happened to pick up a Cinnabon on the way, well that would just make it all better :)
We got almost there when we decided not to go the last 100 feet. :)
This is a Saturn advertisement by the way. . . even though they're going out of business.
This is the other guy
They moved my car so that traffic could get through and put it in a nearby parking lot.
Both airbags deployed, much to my annoyance. It was gone before I even realized I'd been hit :)
Not only that but I got out, got my baby out, and limped away. As always I was worried about explosions, but there wasn't even anything leaking from her!
Poor baby. I have a strong feeling she's not coming back from this one.
For those of you on facebook you've probably had a chance to read my poem, for the many of you that see this but not that I'll repost it:
Ode to my baby:
You have carried my family for a long time,
To see you thus seems such a crime.
In serving: you were the example most fair,
It's hard to see you with such a tear.
You gave us your all, your everything!
Even when in mud you were wreathing.
Over hills, dams, streets, ice, snow and dirt roads,
Always you returned us to our humble abodes.
We can't thank you enough for giving your life,
Your loss will forever cut me as with a knife.
This marks the 4th accident in 4 years of marriage. . . Can we please be done now?
Just as an update - there were no serious injuries. Alisabeth came out with a slight burn from the car seat's straps and I came out with a jammed thumb and some cuts and bruises, but that's it. The other side seemed to fair the same. The little boy's hand was a little sore, but he was tired of the ice by the time the police reports were finally written.
As for the gastrointestinal issues, I'll let you know if it gets any worse. Worse would mean the need for surgery . . . Let's hope not.
Now, backtrack more in time: I feel like I already told you about Lissa's new swim suit, so I'll just post this picture. . . If I didn't say anything then I'll post a comment :)
Previous to this: We made the deal with our new LandLord. We'll be moving in the 3rd week of June. That gives him enough time to do the major repairs and then we'll be finishing up the minor ones. It's a large place. I forgot the camera last time we went to look at it, so maybe next time I go :)
On the up side, if they do end up totaling the car it could be an answer to an unspoken prayer. The money for the car would allow us to pay off some of our student loans and lower our monthly payment a significant amount. Meaning that Jason wouldn't have to stress about getting tons of hours each week. The other benefit would be that the insurance and gas reduction would also help us significantly. Besides that I could take a little bit of the money and get material for curtains, a new shower curtain cover and a couple other minor decoration items for the new place. I'm really excited about the new house. It's pretty big and the yard will give me a project to keep my busy while Alisabeth plays outside. :)
It's been a good week. Sunday topped it all off when we were able to go to the dedication of the newest temple. It is located in the Gila Valley, which is still 2 hours from us, but it is nice to have another temple so close. President Monson was here as well as President Eyring and they spoke, along with a few others.
It was a very cool experience.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Craziness
This week has been a busy one, but at the same time I don't feel like I accomplished anything!
Alisabeth and I spent two full days looking for houses/apartments. I hated them all. No backyard, and no washer dryer, both things that I can't live without. So we bumped up the price range, thanks to a generous monthly donation from my mom and looked again. . .
Finally on Friday my mom suggested that we "have some fun" and go look at apartments/houses.
At that point I had given up on life, but I scrounged up some potentials and made some phone calls and set up 5 places to go look. Jeeze I should have started by taking her.
Every place we went to had a yard or great amenities. The worst, at the top of our price range was a town-home, all utilities included with a wading pool and covered play area. The only thing lacking from them was an in-unit washer/dryer, but that was easily overcome by everything else they had to offer. The other three potentials included a secluded little red-brick place behind a 1st Chiropractor. My mom and I felt a little nervous about that because there were at least 10 "Private Property" signs and all the makings of an abandoned trash yard behind it, however the yard was amazing, they had naturally growing grass, shade from some huge trees and enough room that my little girl would get exercise.
The next was another small home set FAR back from the street and surrounded by a few quiet neighbors. This one sported an even larger yard which wrapped almost all the way around the house. It also had the largest kitchen/living area, but the rooms were a bit small.
Finally we came to a young woman's house. She appeared to be a graduate student who was going overseas for a research assignment and needed to rent out her place for a year. The best part besides a yard: she had chickens. I was in love, however there was a lot of cactus and the yard wasn't really well maintained so there would be a bit of work involved.
Mixed in with all the house hunting was taking a friend's dog to the pound for their free spaying/neutering clinic and falling in love with the little homeless kittens. I want one so bad! Jason's mean though and says we can't afford a kitten. . . but a puppy would be nice.
Finally on Saturday I took Jason out to see the top three choices and we narrowed it down to 2.
Monday night we went and took Alisabeth to one of the two and met the owner. Apparently the junk area we were nervous about used to be an old tile factory that they were slowly working on, but kind of gave up on. There is no one else on the property and only one entrance, so we don't need to worry about anyone coming from the back side of the property (about 3 acres in total). The other house that they are going to be renting was in need of a few more repairs and we worked out a deal which will get us into the bigger of the two units with the same rent cost overall. Plus he has some other projects he wanted to get done, but hasn't had time to do. He seemed quite willing to negotiate for rent or payment, whichever we preferred.
Yesterday I called the other place to schedule a showing and it was already rented, so it looks like our decision was made for us :)
The best part is that the rent for this place is within our lower bracket, so we don't have to kill ourselves to pay rent. It will be tight, but it's doable, especially if Jason keeps improving in speed and the company can get him enough work to keep him busy!
That was my week. Jason's was a bit different.
He's still getting the ropes down at his new job. He enjoys it a lot, but apparently they don't have a lot of work and he's been struggling to find projects to keep himself busy. Not only that, but because he's on flat-rate he only gets paid for what it SHOULD take regardless of how long it DOES take, so he's lost a little bit of time when things haven't gone smoothly. He also found out yesterday that they have some rules that don't work in his favor.
He inspected a used vehicle and made suggestions for work that needs to be done. The policy he was told is that if you do the inspection the work comes to you, however, there was one part that he couldn't do, so instead of splitting the jobs and letting him have what he could do they shipped the whole thing over to a main-line tech. Then on top of that they don't pay him for the inspection time, so he basically spent an hour of his time and got nothing for it. That frustrates me a little bit. I think it's better that he's the one working there instead of me, because I wouldn't put up with cr** like that.
As for Alisabeth, the world still revolves around her. We are going to be starting swim lessons the first week of June, so we had to get her a new bathing suit (I looked at the tag and hers was a 24month tag, but most of her clothes are already 4T.)
And, I had to get a new suit too, because I don't know where mine is packed and it was 12 years old anyway. So we went SHOPPING!!
Can I just say that I was highly disappointed with the selection? I swear there were 10 racks of two piece things that didn't look big enough to wrap around me much less cover the important parts, and only 2 of real bathing suits! Not only that but the real ones were questionable as well, as if they were trying to save of fabric and weren't sure of the best way, so they just cut as many gaping holes in the suit as possible. Finally I found a couple of cute ones and we headed to the toddler section where I was astonished to find the same predicament. My two year old already had the option of a two-piece bathing suit, or one that had holes everywhere. It really made me shudder.
Jason also grabbed a kiddie pool that has been the delight of our little girl from that day forward.
Last but not least I was able to attend a Pampered Chef party this last week. Let's just say if we cook in Heaven, I know what kind of pans I'm using.
We also set ourselves (my mom and I) up to be hosts for a "Death by Chocolate" party in a few weeks, it's going to be a blast. My mom wants to dip anything we can find in chocolate, and really, how can that go wrong?
That's our week in a nutshell. I'm glad I finally got all this up here, I felt bad that I hadn't done it yet!
Alisabeth and I spent two full days looking for houses/apartments. I hated them all. No backyard, and no washer dryer, both things that I can't live without. So we bumped up the price range, thanks to a generous monthly donation from my mom and looked again. . .
Finally on Friday my mom suggested that we "have some fun" and go look at apartments/houses.
At that point I had given up on life, but I scrounged up some potentials and made some phone calls and set up 5 places to go look. Jeeze I should have started by taking her.
Every place we went to had a yard or great amenities. The worst, at the top of our price range was a town-home, all utilities included with a wading pool and covered play area. The only thing lacking from them was an in-unit washer/dryer, but that was easily overcome by everything else they had to offer. The other three potentials included a secluded little red-brick place behind a 1st Chiropractor. My mom and I felt a little nervous about that because there were at least 10 "Private Property" signs and all the makings of an abandoned trash yard behind it, however the yard was amazing, they had naturally growing grass, shade from some huge trees and enough room that my little girl would get exercise.
The next was another small home set FAR back from the street and surrounded by a few quiet neighbors. This one sported an even larger yard which wrapped almost all the way around the house. It also had the largest kitchen/living area, but the rooms were a bit small.
Finally we came to a young woman's house. She appeared to be a graduate student who was going overseas for a research assignment and needed to rent out her place for a year. The best part besides a yard: she had chickens. I was in love, however there was a lot of cactus and the yard wasn't really well maintained so there would be a bit of work involved.
Mixed in with all the house hunting was taking a friend's dog to the pound for their free spaying/neutering clinic and falling in love with the little homeless kittens. I want one so bad! Jason's mean though and says we can't afford a kitten. . . but a puppy would be nice.
Finally on Saturday I took Jason out to see the top three choices and we narrowed it down to 2.
Monday night we went and took Alisabeth to one of the two and met the owner. Apparently the junk area we were nervous about used to be an old tile factory that they were slowly working on, but kind of gave up on. There is no one else on the property and only one entrance, so we don't need to worry about anyone coming from the back side of the property (about 3 acres in total). The other house that they are going to be renting was in need of a few more repairs and we worked out a deal which will get us into the bigger of the two units with the same rent cost overall. Plus he has some other projects he wanted to get done, but hasn't had time to do. He seemed quite willing to negotiate for rent or payment, whichever we preferred.
Yesterday I called the other place to schedule a showing and it was already rented, so it looks like our decision was made for us :)
The best part is that the rent for this place is within our lower bracket, so we don't have to kill ourselves to pay rent. It will be tight, but it's doable, especially if Jason keeps improving in speed and the company can get him enough work to keep him busy!
That was my week. Jason's was a bit different.
He's still getting the ropes down at his new job. He enjoys it a lot, but apparently they don't have a lot of work and he's been struggling to find projects to keep himself busy. Not only that, but because he's on flat-rate he only gets paid for what it SHOULD take regardless of how long it DOES take, so he's lost a little bit of time when things haven't gone smoothly. He also found out yesterday that they have some rules that don't work in his favor.
He inspected a used vehicle and made suggestions for work that needs to be done. The policy he was told is that if you do the inspection the work comes to you, however, there was one part that he couldn't do, so instead of splitting the jobs and letting him have what he could do they shipped the whole thing over to a main-line tech. Then on top of that they don't pay him for the inspection time, so he basically spent an hour of his time and got nothing for it. That frustrates me a little bit. I think it's better that he's the one working there instead of me, because I wouldn't put up with cr** like that.
As for Alisabeth, the world still revolves around her. We are going to be starting swim lessons the first week of June, so we had to get her a new bathing suit (I looked at the tag and hers was a 24month tag, but most of her clothes are already 4T.)
And, I had to get a new suit too, because I don't know where mine is packed and it was 12 years old anyway. So we went SHOPPING!!
Can I just say that I was highly disappointed with the selection? I swear there were 10 racks of two piece things that didn't look big enough to wrap around me much less cover the important parts, and only 2 of real bathing suits! Not only that but the real ones were questionable as well, as if they were trying to save of fabric and weren't sure of the best way, so they just cut as many gaping holes in the suit as possible. Finally I found a couple of cute ones and we headed to the toddler section where I was astonished to find the same predicament. My two year old already had the option of a two-piece bathing suit, or one that had holes everywhere. It really made me shudder.
Jason also grabbed a kiddie pool that has been the delight of our little girl from that day forward.
Last but not least I was able to attend a Pampered Chef party this last week. Let's just say if we cook in Heaven, I know what kind of pans I'm using.
We also set ourselves (my mom and I) up to be hosts for a "Death by Chocolate" party in a few weeks, it's going to be a blast. My mom wants to dip anything we can find in chocolate, and really, how can that go wrong?
That's our week in a nutshell. I'm glad I finally got all this up here, I felt bad that I hadn't done it yet!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Fun Pictures
As a follow-up to the last post I figured I'd add in all the fun pictures Jason has been taking these last few weeks: Isn't she gorgeous?
She loves wearing daddy's hats. . . and she looks so grown up in them!
She has just started this recently, they go in color order and all of the holes have to be filled. Silly girl.
Daddy told her to make a frowny face.
She has Jason's smile. Big and all teeth.
Jason's idea
She did this without any prompting! She was just sitting in the bath and got bored with playing I guess.
We painted toes this week. Now when she sees new people she sticks out her feet and says "I have toes!"
Normally she's got socks and or shoes on so they have no idea what she's talking about and simply nod their heads and reply "Yes you do!"
She's almost a pro at her bike now. She's even learned what it means to coast and not have to pedal downhill . . . lazy little slacker.
Gotta love the cute girl with the baseball cap.
She loves wearing daddy's hats. . . and she looks so grown up in them!
She has just started this recently, they go in color order and all of the holes have to be filled. Silly girl.
Daddy told her to make a frowny face.
She has Jason's smile. Big and all teeth.
Jason's idea
She did this without any prompting! She was just sitting in the bath and got bored with playing I guess.
We painted toes this week. Now when she sees new people she sticks out her feet and says "I have toes!"
Normally she's got socks and or shoes on so they have no idea what she's talking about and simply nod their heads and reply "Yes you do!"
She's almost a pro at her bike now. She's even learned what it means to coast and not have to pedal downhill . . . lazy little slacker.
Gotta love the cute girl with the baseball cap.
10 things I've learned from Snow White
So my daughter's favorite and only movie is Snow White right now. We watch at least part of it daily. Here's what I've learned by watching it over 50 times:
1) Animals can sense evil, even in disguise . . . but they're also willing to break into people's homes, so can they really be trusted?
2) Raccoons are really good at washing clothes, but squirrels and turtles aren't.
3) Even at a young age a woman will boss around any men she can find.
4) Animals will allow, and even encourage you to ride them as long as there is a young maiden in trouble.
5) Talking mirrors will say whatever it takes to cause contention.
6) It doesn't matter how long your wish is: if it's your time to go, it's your time to go.
7) It's okay for animals to walk all over your food as long as they're making it look prettier.
8) Hard labor will always bring excessive wealth, and a lot of jewelery.
9) If you're the most beautiful one in the land you can break whatever laws you like and no one will mind.
10) When going up against mythical creatures, never go where they excel. The queen would have never died if she had stayed away from rocks. They're DWARFS for heaven's sake!
These last two weeks have been a bit rough for me. We battled hard to find a good job and ended up with one that didn't pay near what I was hoping for. So I scaled back our home search and focused on cheap foreclosures. We finally found one this last week that was 33K. That right, 33K for the whole home. I set up an appointment to go look at it, and I also started contacting a few more loan officers to prepare and ask questions (the one we had been working with was giving a lot of restrictions that I didn't understand and I wanted a different opinion). While asking questions the loan officer happened to ask how Jason was being paid and upon being told that he was paid flat-rate (similar to commissions) she let us know that their company would need 2 years worth of income at flat-rate so that they could average it out and see an average amount of monthly income to verify the loan. I called the other loan officer back and asked if the process would be the same for him. After looking it up he said they might be able to do it on as little as six months, but yes, they also needed to average income.
So in frustration our home search ended. Now, instead of a $350/month payment for mortgage, fees and taxes, we're looking at a rental fee of about $575/month. Needless to say I was quite depressed.
I still am really bothered by it, but we're going to give ourselves another few months and then see where we're at. Jason is also looking for a second job or a better job because the company he's working for has failed to keep him busy for 6 out of the last 7 days, so even if he works as hard as he can he won't be getting enough work to get what we need to pay rent. All in all this graduation thing isn't working as well as I expected it to.
On the other hand Alisabeth is doing great. For some reason she's still really clingy and we spend part of every night convincing her that shadows aren't moving unless you move the light that is causing them. She is learning a lot more phrases and we've stepped it up on the counting side. We still haven't quite figured out letter sounds, but I want to get some flash cards to put up and hopefully that will help. We also went out ans splurged on some clearance dresses at Sears. (All of Alisabeth's are getting too small).
Here they are:
I'm going to put up a few more fun pictures from this week in a seperate post because I hate trying to get the pictures in order on this thing. :)
1) Animals can sense evil, even in disguise . . . but they're also willing to break into people's homes, so can they really be trusted?
2) Raccoons are really good at washing clothes, but squirrels and turtles aren't.
3) Even at a young age a woman will boss around any men she can find.
4) Animals will allow, and even encourage you to ride them as long as there is a young maiden in trouble.
5) Talking mirrors will say whatever it takes to cause contention.
6) It doesn't matter how long your wish is: if it's your time to go, it's your time to go.
7) It's okay for animals to walk all over your food as long as they're making it look prettier.
8) Hard labor will always bring excessive wealth, and a lot of jewelery.
9) If you're the most beautiful one in the land you can break whatever laws you like and no one will mind.
10) When going up against mythical creatures, never go where they excel. The queen would have never died if she had stayed away from rocks. They're DWARFS for heaven's sake!
These last two weeks have been a bit rough for me. We battled hard to find a good job and ended up with one that didn't pay near what I was hoping for. So I scaled back our home search and focused on cheap foreclosures. We finally found one this last week that was 33K. That right, 33K for the whole home. I set up an appointment to go look at it, and I also started contacting a few more loan officers to prepare and ask questions (the one we had been working with was giving a lot of restrictions that I didn't understand and I wanted a different opinion). While asking questions the loan officer happened to ask how Jason was being paid and upon being told that he was paid flat-rate (similar to commissions) she let us know that their company would need 2 years worth of income at flat-rate so that they could average it out and see an average amount of monthly income to verify the loan. I called the other loan officer back and asked if the process would be the same for him. After looking it up he said they might be able to do it on as little as six months, but yes, they also needed to average income.
So in frustration our home search ended. Now, instead of a $350/month payment for mortgage, fees and taxes, we're looking at a rental fee of about $575/month. Needless to say I was quite depressed.
I still am really bothered by it, but we're going to give ourselves another few months and then see where we're at. Jason is also looking for a second job or a better job because the company he's working for has failed to keep him busy for 6 out of the last 7 days, so even if he works as hard as he can he won't be getting enough work to get what we need to pay rent. All in all this graduation thing isn't working as well as I expected it to.
On the other hand Alisabeth is doing great. For some reason she's still really clingy and we spend part of every night convincing her that shadows aren't moving unless you move the light that is causing them. She is learning a lot more phrases and we've stepped it up on the counting side. We still haven't quite figured out letter sounds, but I want to get some flash cards to put up and hopefully that will help. We also went out ans splurged on some clearance dresses at Sears. (All of Alisabeth's are getting too small).
Here they are:
I'm going to put up a few more fun pictures from this week in a seperate post because I hate trying to get the pictures in order on this thing. :)
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