Let the Holidays begin
Its so nice to come back from taking "time off" and actually feel refreshed. I had Thursday - Monday off and while we did manage to tackle some small projects I also got lots of needed rest. Even Thanksgiving day was odd because we weren't running late, or scurrying around trying to finish things up before going over to Chad's parents house. It seems like the last few times getting together with his family we are running around the house like made "just in case" someone calls to see it. However we were 99.9% sure no one wanted to see the house on Thursday. Also we order a Thanksgiving meal from
Zehnders, so there was only an appetizer to bring. It was a really good meal...plus setup and cleanup was a breeze! We are going to do the same thing for
Christmas. Split between everyone in his family it doesn't cost that much (we still make a few sides, appetizers and dessert...oh and his family always makes pasta) plus its good food. We are fortunate that his cousin lives close to the restaurant (and his wife works there) so for us its convenient:-)
Daniel had fun watching his cousins play video games and eating.....apparently he stayed hydrated too because he wet 3 outfits which is unusual for him.
Friday we did some Christmas shopping but hung out around the house for the most part. Saturday we went to a birthday party and then up to the storage unit to get Christmas decorations. Sunday we put the tree up, and then my mom came down. we spent Sunday evening with my brother's family and played with my mom's new camera (she is going on a cruise and wanted to be all hi-tech). Daniel had LOTS of fun playing with his
cousing who is only a few months older than him. However she has an older brother and an older sister so she is MUCH more wise and he has so much to learn from her. It was really cute to see them together. She is at the age where she interacts with other kids, but Daniel isn't so much. So she talks to him and he looks all amazed like
"Wait a minute.....we can
talk to other kids.....
really?"
Monday I took a vacation day.....just because I have to use mine up before the end of the year. I have been saving a week so I can use it "when" we move. Plus I had some other time off. Until the end of the year I am off pretty much all Mondays and Fridays (not this Friday though). I normally work from home those days. I would take a week at a time but I would still have to pay for the daycare even if we aren't there. However I have lots of baking planned for those days. Since Daniel loves to help in the kitchen we have a whole bunch of cookies we can make. I am also going to make some meals to freeze for later when I am to tired to cook. We may also work in some craft projects. This past Monday we spent most of it running to a few places to pick up some items for our baking/craft bonanza. One of those stops was
Michaels. Now for some reason Daniel has NEVER liked craft stores. Even as an infant he would get really fussy in them (Home Depot he is pretty good). He had me laughing because not only did he tell me "GO" when we were in there (as in "go! Lets leave!") but apparently he did not like the Christmas music they were playing. In the picture below he is folding his ears over to block out the sound ....so silly.
He was a good boy though no screaming this time....I just hear a lot of "
GOooooo!"
Today I am back at work.....
whooo hooo.....At least I am not swamped. Fortunately at this time of year things slow down a lot which is nice but kind of boring (there is no happy medium for me with work). At least I have LOTS of weekends to look forward too:-)
A weekend of Daniel and his "isues"
The title of this post probably makes it seem like a horrible weekend, but it really wasn't. I wasn't to keen on the idea of me dealing with the "monster" on my own Wednesday - Sunday (I thought it was Monday but they only went until Sunday). However I realized it would give me a great chance to work on a few minor toddler "issues" we had been to busy/lazy/inconsistent to deal with. Nothing major, mostly he would rather point, cry and jump when he wants something and he wanted it done quickly even if he knew the word for what he wanted. It was much easier to work on his manners when it was just me trying to remain consistent in "discipline". We have been using timeouts for a long while and for the most part they work. However we didn't really use it for this type of behavior before. Mostly we stopped what we were doing figured out what he wanted and complied (oh I know but again tired/lazy).
So I got firm with him and when he started in on that I would ask him to use his words and when that lead to more frustration on his part I sent him to his room. When I talked to Chad on Friday night I had lost track of how many timeouts (it was less than a dozen) and but I had already seen a difference. Now you can see he is trying to think of the word and really trying to communicate better. I also used lots of praise when he tried.
Saturday we got out of the house in the morning and did some shoe searching. I was determined not to buy brand new because it is such a waste of money. However I am always missing those mom to mom sales, and I had already looked at my favorite thrift store on Wednesday with no luck.....so I had to widen my net. Luckily the next place I looked I hit jackpot. I got not one but TWO pairs of shoes for 4 bucks! I forgot to actually go and get cash out before I went, so I had to stop with just those. However I was excited to not only find shoes buy boots too! The boots don't even look like they had been worn.
After shoe shopping we did a quick run to the grocery store (I admit my main intent was the free cookies and coffee), then to the library for some new CDs.....oh and all this time we had the dog with us so after the library we walked her around the woods for a bit, but it was cold rainy.....and Belle wanted to go one way and Daniel the other so I gave that up quickly.
We baked and made mashed potatoes on Saturday night for a church thing (Daniel is actually a good helper in the kitchen and it keeps him occupied and entertained).
Sunday I decided not to go to church because I was going to a dinner and service in the afternoon (seriously you should know where this is headed if you have kept up with the whole home selling thing). My mom called and told me Chad had just left her house (where they kept the 1 doe they did get... good job sweetie), I put Daniel down for a nap. I cleaned up for a bit (thank goodness) and thought.....hey I can take a nap, everything is done, the house is "ok" if someone wanted to come for a showing they would have called already, don't worry about the dishes in the sink, the laundry needing to be done, or counters needing to be wiped........so at 3 the phone woke me up....someone wanted to see the house at 3:30. I ran around putting little things away and basically doing the things I should have been doing instead of napping. The realtor showed up early, I got out of the house and couldn't get back in until after 4.....which is when the church thing started. I could have still went just been a little late but I was so out sorts at that point I just wanted to wait for Chad to get home.
Chad is home today which is nice for a Monday because I don't have to do 2 jobs at once. Its also cute because he wants to be as consistent in our routine as I was; so he is asking things like "ok, what should I tell him now"....Our little guy is actually really good just a normal toddler but we need to remain consistent....however, he is in for a rude awaking in a few months:-)
Oh and we picked up a copy of the paper yesterday and you wanna know what about half of it consisted of?
That is the list of foreclosures in just 1 county (mine) in Michigan. Crazy, and I hear this is only the beginning and with each month there will just be more and more.
It is really hard to compete with the foreclosures in the area. When we bought this house there was ONE foreclosure that went up in the area we were looking at. We couldn't even get in to look at it because there were 6 bids on it the morning it was listed. Before foreclosures usually meant the house was trashed and needed a lot of work. However now so many people in everyday normal situations have to foreclose and their houses are fine they just can't sell. When the banks list these homes they can take afford a bigger loss (sometimes half of their taxable value). While it makes it impossible to compete, those houses also do sit for a while, a few of them have been on the market almost as long as us.
Seeing this in the paper just confirmed what we already knew. We are still praying for some direction, but I for one have been a little more at ease with this whole situation.
Update and such
I feel like I should post some kind of update, but there really isn't much to report on. We are pretty much in the same situation and we probably won't know what is going on for a few more weeks. Until then bullets!
- We went to church on Sunday and Daniel stayed in the nursery the whole time! He hasn't done that before. Going to church has been really rough on us. If someone is in the nursery to watch him, he doesn't stay long. However there isn't always an attendant anyway so its hard to be consistent to get him used to it. Most of our time in church is spent walking around with him, playing in the nursery with him ourselves and not getting a thing from the experience except aggravation. Then afterward we have to try and avoid conversations about selling our house because that just leads to more aggravation ("oh we are so glad you are still here, we don't want you to leave".....geez thanks we have been going through hell the past 2 years and you are happy about it)......However this week he stayed in and we actually enjoyed the service.
- I also got to dust off some of my Stephen Ministry training and help with the healing service which is always moving.
- We may not have moved out of our house, but I did get a desk move at work. At first I thought I was going to be in front of my boss. Which isn't all that horrible since I was so far removed from my team before. However after I read the move notice I realized I was actually getting a window seat.......well not a full window seat I am next to an elevator shaft, but its still a view:
- Chad has left to go deer hunting with his dad. Since daddy is the beat all end all in Daniel's world my goal is to not disrupt his schedule as much as possible. Last year I went and visited my mom with him while they were hunting. While that was nice it was somewhat more hassle than it was worth. This week we might go the the thrift store to buy him shoes.....but that is all the plans I am willing to make until Daddy gets home Monday:-)
That's all for now, have a good one everybody!
Prayer request
This past week Chad and I have come to the realization that we need to make some major decisions regarding this whole move. The whole reason we are trying to sell is for a "good" job Chad had landed. We have sacrificed a lot thinking that it will only be for "a little while longer". We realized at some point something was going to have to give. We kept saying that not exactly knowing what that "something" would be. While I don't want to pin the "something" on money, that is pretty much what it comes to. When you have to contemplate if you can afford to gas up your car just to go to work, things become much clearer.
We have actually been fairly good with money. So for the past 2o months we have been getting by fairly well considering how much is spent just to get Chad to this "good" job, making updates on the house so it sells, oh and having a child. Again it wasn't supposed to last long and we kept getting indications that Chad's salary would increase more since he was still making a similar salary than the intern before him.
However now with a second child due soon, no interest on the house, our savings tapped out, gas prices still rising, and not to mention the extreme stress we have been under for over 2 years......that "something" is here.
As far as options, well there is few but we are considering the few options we do have very seriously.
So please keep us in your prayers we are looking for an answer soon.
Jamie thank you by the way for your message on Monday. I saw it Tuesday morning and it was such a blessing to me that morning.
A Real CrapHole
I haven't had much to update lately (Daniel updated his blog about Halloween). However I do have a "realty funny'.....Often you can see the craziest typos in Realty listings. I constantly check out our "competition" to compare pictures and features. The other day I ran across
this one.......it has 3 bedrooms, and 5.5 baths all in 865 square feet.....FIVE and a HALF bathrooms......When you look closer it says it has 1 full and 9 half baths......I think someone meant to enter a zero but hit the 9 instead. You see there is funny stuff in real estate;-)
