Pictures of the House

Here are the pictures that I've been promising of the house. And yes, I know, the peach walls are hideous! They are being repainted as we speak. The entire house is being repainted, so I will post more pictures once that is done. They have 7 days after we close (which was yesterday, Friday) to paint, and then we'll need to let everything air out - so it looks like we'll be moving on Valentine's Day.

Formal Living Room (this will probably be where we put the computer - it will be our office since we don't need a sitting room)

View from the formal living room into the dining room and kitchen

View into the kitchen

Another view of the kitchen

View from the kitchen into the family room

Bonus Room above the garage

Hall Bath

Laundry Room

Master Bedroom

Good News

Well we've got some good news to share with everyone! We FINALLY found a house. Finally. We did the final walk through today and we sign the paperwork tomorrow. I can't believe that I don't feel more like jumping up and down for joy - but I think that I'm just too damn tired at this point. It's been a long haul looking for houses, doing 2 inspections, getting our hopes up on another house, having that fall through, and getting frustrated that we couldn't find a house that we could both agree on.

The house is basically a one story house with a bonus room above the garage. It is a little over 2700 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and one half bath, separate laundry room (yes!), nice sized kitchen, jetted tub and separate shower in master bath, and it sits on 2.25 acres with views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams! It's pretty nice. We're having them (we bought it from the builder directly) re-paint the inside because the colors are pretty bad. So hopefully they'll get that started this weekend and we can move in by Valentine's Day. Yipee. And probably one of the best parts about the house is that it's only 15 minutes away from Brad's work. Holy crap! That will be the closest Brad will have ever been to home. So instead of getting up and leaving by 6 and getting home at 6, he'll be able to sleep in (and help me in the morning) and leave by 7:30 and be home by 5! Crazy.

I'll be sending/posting pics once we get settled and they re-paint. I can't believe it's finally happening. I can't wait to be in our own space again, but wouldn't have traded this time with Brad's parents for the world. Yes it's been stressful, but it's been worth it. The time that my kids have had to bond with their grandparents is priceless!

Something To Laugh At

Man’s surprising laugh

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25 Things

I posted this on Facebook, but thought it was so fun that I'd post it on here as well. I've made a few modifications though.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you.

1. I have one younger sister, and how we turned out so completely different is beyond me. We are complete 180s of each other.

2. My parents just recently got divorced.

3. I played piano for about 8 years and I wish that I had a piano now, because I would still be playing to this day.

4. My first real job was being an Authenticator for a online training company. Big name for basically someone that makes sure that people are completing their online training. Basically just a babysitter.

5. I've lived in Washington, Oregon and Utah.

6. The furthest that I've ever been away from home was to Aruba. It was so cool to actually see the coast of Venezuela.

7. I've never done any hard core drugs or even smoked pot. I've tried the usual cigarette here and there and I do drink alcohol - but nothing else.

8. I am a very shy person, and sometimes people take that as I'm rude or that I'm being a snob. It takes me a long time to get to know someone and vice versa.

9. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. You'll know exactly what I'm thinking when you see my face because I can't hide anything.

10. Gymnastics used to be my favorite sport. I was a gymnast in high school.

11. I've only had 2 serious relationships in my life.

12. I would like to travel someday. Travel as in, going to Europe and experiencing everything that goes along with that (eat the food, stay in B&Bs, etc). I can't wait until Brad and I can do this together.

13. I've had a miscarriage. It was the hardest thing that I've ever had to deal with so far. It was extremely painful and I will never forget.

14. I get pretty loud after I've had a couple of drinks in me. "Livin' on a Prayer" brings back a lot of memories for me. Don't ask!

15. I never really paid attention to the news or read the newspaper until after I had kids. Same with voting. It never seemed to matter who the president was until after I had kids. Now I want to know what is going on in the world and how it is going to affect my children.

16. I hardly wear any makeup. Maybe mascara and eye liner. I don't even own any lipstick or foundation.

17. I am a Labor and Delivery RN. I graduated from nursing school in 2002 and worked as a L&D nurse for 2 years before having Josh. I'm scared to death to go back to work, especially since it's such an ever changing specialty (and the fact that I haven't worked in almost 4 years) - but I'm excited at the same time. I'm not going back right this minute - but maybe in another 2 years or so.

18. My dream job would be to work in an OBs office. Have weekends and holidays off, but then again I wouldn't have any labors. Trade off I guess.

19. I sleep with a mask over my eyes at night. I haven't been able to break the habit since I worked night shift (um, yeah - 4 years ago!).

20. I had my appendix taken out in the 5th grade. It was the worst feeling and it was about to burst when my parents finally believed me that I was truly in pain, instead of trying to get out of going to church.

21. I pick my lips. Constantly. My lips are always dry and instead of putting chapstick on, I pick them. Gross, I know.

22. I am a type A personality. I have to have things go my way. I'm a perfectionist too. Dry erase boards are not my friend. Virgo here!

23. I used to be a nanny for triplets. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had and would do it all over again if I could.

24. I am a decent crocheter. I wish that I was better, but so far it's only scarves, oven mitts, pot holders and hats.

25. I only own 5 pairs of shoes at the moment. Sorry - couldn't think of anything else.

Tag

TAGGED RULES:
1. Post Rules on your blog
2. Answer the six '8' items

8 favorite shows
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. Brothers and Sisters
4. Top Chef
5. Burn Notice
6. The Office
7. Sons of Anarchy
8. Jon & Kate Plus 8

8 things I did yesterday
1. went grocery shopping
2. played outside with Josh
3. texted Brad
4. talked with our Realtor
5. made dinner
6. cried
7. ate some ice cream (yum, chocolate chip cookie dough)
8. went to bed

8 things I look forward to (not necessarily in any order)
1. Buying a house
2. Being able to have our own space again
3. DirecTV and my DVR (yes, I might be a little shallow)
4. Being able to use my laptop again
5. Going to the movies with Brad
6. Going out to dinner with Brad
7. Spring
8. Bed

8 favorite restaurants
1. Red Robin
2. Outback
3. Red Lobster
4. Chao Praya (not really considered a restaurant I guess)
5. Ivar's
6. Don't get to
7. eat out
8. very often

8 things on my wish list
1. A house
2. All the things that go into owning a home
3. More time to spend with my hubby
4. Warmer weather
5. Going on a family vacation this year!
6. More sleep
7. To start working out again
8. Being a better mom

8 people to tag
Who ever wants to play!

House Hunting - Part II

So we went up again to look at houses last weekend, and again last night. I'm getting pretty tired of driving back and forth to go and look at houses - I can't imagine that Brad does that drive every day!! Crazy.

Well there was another house that we liked, but who knows. I'm so leery about finding a house, getting interested in it, and all of that. I just don't want to get my hopes up again. And it's so frustrating when our realtor makes an appointment to go look at a house, and the day that we drive up there to look at it, the people call and say "well we don't really want our house shown today, it doesn't fit into our schedule". Umm...what? It doesn't fit into your schedule?!? Do they really want to sell there house or not? Why it is even on the market? We had to make time to do that when we were selling our house. Yeah, sometimes it can be inconvenient, but you gotta do it.

So far we've looked at 10 houses and haven't been able to look at 4 others, so that's 14 houses total! Yikes. I'm exhausted, I know Brad is. And all of the houses are running together now. I can't keep them straight even from the pictures. I just hope something comes up soon. I mean, now is really the time to buy a house! Well keep your fingers crossed, we need a little luck to come our way.

Maddie

Well I forgot all about posting Maddie's one year appointment. Not much to tell I guess, but I need to write a few things anyways. She weighed 18 lbs, 12 oz - which is more than what Josh weighed when he was a year old! I can't believe she finally weighs more than what he did. She is in the 30th percentile for her height and she now has 4 teeth. We just bought her a toothbrush and she loves to brush her teeth. She just starts giggling whenever I start brushing. It's so cute and she's such a good little girl. She is started to get a little attitude, which I'm not liking in the least - but hopefully it's just a phase (I know - yeah right!). She had to get four shots at this appointment and her finger pricked again to check for anemia. No word back on that yet, so maybe she's finally not anemic. So she's getting older now and hopefully we can turn her around in her car seat very soon. Which reminds me that we need to buy her a new car seat like now!

House Hunting

Dun, dun, dun...well there hasn't really been too much of it happening. Brad has been working a TON lately (and when I say ton - I mean he just worked 40 hours straight over the weekend!!!), so there hasn't been too many opportunities for us to go and look. We've been looking a lot online and finding some, but you just don't know until you actually look at the house in person.

We thought we had found a great house, it was a rambler, 2200 sq. ft. on 2 acres. It had 4 bedrooms plus an office/den. It had all hardwood floors and was brand new, but after we got the inspection done we changed our minds! We actually did put an offer in and it was accepted, but the inspection and just plain thinking things through kind of changed our minds a little. Today, we decided to retract our offer and start from square one again. But it's ok, and we feel that we've made the right decision. The inspector found a lot of stuff wrong underneath the house, it was just a bad drywall job, and the jetted tub in the master bath and the kitchen sink were just set in the space and not anchored down! Oh well. It was well worth the $300 to have the inspection done. Better to be safe than sorry!

So now the hunting begins again. I think we're (and when I say that I mean Brad) going to have to compromise a little bit more than we thought. It just hard to find a house with a lot of property any more these days in our price range. And the houses that we have found that have property just need a lot of work (i.e. new carpet, new kitchen etc). But I have found a few more promising houses, so we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed!