Archive for January, 2010
This Boot Is Made For Dancin’
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Yep, this girl is just fine now. We went to the doctor yesterday and she was given a clean bill of…..healthy foot. Now she can continue to dance without than cumbersome thing!
Guess That Drawing And An Update
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Guess That Drawing answer—
Madelyn’s picture is indeed d and Katelyn’s picture is of us, my parents and my inlaws eating Christmas dinner together.
Thanks for playing!
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Before I get into the boring exciting update of my “health” and our moving process I want to present TWO drawings to guess about.
One is Madelyn’s and one is Katelyn’s.
This picture is Madelyn’s (obviously!). I’ll make this one a multiple choice. Is this drawing about..
a) A butterfly?
b) Katelyn?
c)Our birdies Zoe and Chloe?
d) Nana, Papa, Uncle Bob, Daddy and Mommy?
This next drawing is Katelyn’s. What do you think it’s about?
Now on to my health and moving update……..
I got the results back from my blood tests two Friday’s ago. Everything came out fine. The only think my NP said was that my vitamin D levels were low and I’m anemic (which I already knew). So she’s prescribing a stronger Iron pill and wants me to take a vitamin D supplement.
I’m still having dizzy spells. I haven’t heard back about my holter moniter results. When I called last week they were having trouble with the print out so they said they would call as soon as they got the results.
I had an ultrasound last Wednesday to have a little look at my reproductive system. The technician said everything looked fine to her but that I would get a call from my doctor in a couple of days. So, I’m expecting that call any day now. I’ll most likely call today about my heart monitor results and my ultrasound results. I’m thinking that if everything comes back normal on my heart monitor results I’m going to keep taking my iron and vitamin supplements and see if my dizzy spells go away. As for my ultrasound results….I think if those come back fine I won’t pursue any more testing. When I had all the testing done when I was trying to conceive with Katelyn everything came back normal. I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen this time. I really don’t want to waste my time and money with all sorts of testing if everything is going to come back….normal. I’m really starting to think it’s a God thing. I’m trying to focus on packing and moving and keep my mind off the fact that that God is not allowing me to get pregnant right now.
As for our moving…
Our goal is to have our realtor come over this Saturday to look at our house , takes pictures and put it on the market. That’s our goal!! So, hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be on the market.
We found another house we love on Saturday. So now there are two. I love this house more than the other one. The only problem is…it’s also a short sale!!! We’ve found out that we can’t make an offer on a short sale house until we have accepted an offer on our house. The banks won’t accept any contingencies. One of ours would be that we need to sell our house before we can close on one. The banks want us to be ready to close at the drop of a hat although they want to be able to take up to six months to accept an offer. That is so dumb! So we can’t put an offer on the house we saw on Saturday until we have sold our house.
Just to make things easier I’ll name the two houses and compare them for you
H1= Dutch Gambrel, 1600 +sqf , 4 bedrooms 1.5 baths, 1 acre lot, nice deck, full basement with two more rooms,nice neighborhood, close to highway. NO garage. Bathrooms would need updating eventually. Needs new carpet in upstairs and new wall paint. Asking price is very reasonable and would save us a good amount of money each month on our mortgage.
H2= Ranch style house, 2900 + sqf, 4 bedrooms, 2 huge full baths, huge deck, about half an acre lot, full basement but not very high so Mike has to stoop to use it. Not usable for anything other than storage. Close to highway, nice neighborhood, close to highway, Katelyn’s school and elementary school. Needs all new appliances and new flooring in family room. No garage. Asking price is reasonable and would also save us money on our mortgage each month. This house has handicapped features which is why the bathrooms are so big. Bathrooms are newly renovated so they wouldn’t need anything. Some of the house would need repainting.
I like H2 better than H1. I love ranch style houses since everything is all one floor!! No more traipsing up and down two or three flights of stairs to do laundry. The floors are brand new in the whole house except the family room. They are beautiful hard wood. The room we would use for the girls is so big that it would be their bedroom AND playroom. We wouldn’t need a separate play area for them. When we were looking at this house we seriously got turned around and confused about how to get back to the front door or which part of the house we were in. I love that the house is that big.
Both houses have been on the market 3+ months and could end up foreclosing. That’s the only thing going in our favor right now. A lot of people don’t want to deal with short sales or foreclosures. I’m really hoping we get a chance to put an offer on the ranch.
So, there you have it!
Oh! Madelyn is doing well with her foot. She has a follow up appointment on Wednesday. She’s been walking around without her boot all morning today and seems to be fine. So, I’m hoping all is well and she can stop wearing the boot.
Please keep us in your prayers!
Of Boots, Heart Monitors and Floods
Monday, January 18th, 2010
If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you know that last Friday and Saturday were not my best days.I promised a post on everything that happened so lets get started, shall we?
Thursday night, right before bed, Madelyn tripped over one of her toys and hurt her foot. Since it was bed time we comforted her and put her to bed. Friday morning she got out of bed and started crying because her foot still hurt and started limping. So I made her an appointment at the pediatrician’s office and the first available appointment wasn’t until 3:00pm. Which was fine because I also had appointments that day for myself. Friday was originally supposed to be a day for me to tackle packing and cleaning to get our house “show worthy” for when we put it on the market. My inlaws were going to watch the girls. Well, that was not meant to be. Let’s get back to Thursday again….
Thursday I had an appointment with my Nurse Practitioner for a physical and to talk about the dizziness I have been experiencing for over a week now and it having been a while now that we’ve been trying to conceive. So, they listened to my heart and said that I have an irregular heart beat so they have put me on a Holter heart monitor for 24 hours. I just got that put on today. My NP isn’t sure if maybe that has something to do with my dizziness. She looked in my ears and saw that I have a hole in my eardrum so wanted me to see an Ear, Nose And Throat doctor. She wasn’t sure if maybe that had something to do with my dizziness. She also scheduled an ultrasound for this Wednesday to check things out “in there”. She wanted me to have lots of bloodwork done.
Now let’s get back to Friday…
I went to have my blood work drawn at 8:30 am, had an oil change appointment at 9:30, then had my ear appointment at 2:15 followed by Madelyn’s pediatrician appointment at 3:00. Well, I had to wait over an hour for my turn in the lab so I had to cancel my oil change appointment. I didn’t get in to have my blood drawn until almost 10:00 am. I then went home got some of the kitchen cleaned and headed out again at 12:45 to meet my inlaws at their house and watch the girls so they could go pick up their van. Then I left for my ear appointment and my mother in law met me at the pediatrician’s office at 3:00 with Madelyn. The ear specialist said he didn’t think that my ears were the cause of my dizziness.
Once at the pediatrician’s office(after waiting 40 minutes to see the doctor) Madelyn’s doctor felt that Madelyn had, indeed, most likely broken something in her foot. I say “most likely” because the x-rays she had taken later on didn’t show anything but her doctor said at this age they have so many tiny bones and muscles in their still growing feet that x-rays don’t always pick up everything. So, off we went to the cast room at our hospital. After another long wait the orthopedist looked at her foot and decided she should have a boot. By this time it was around 6:00 pm. He finds out they have no more small boots to fit Madelyn so he sends us to another local hospital to get one from their cast room. When we get there we have to register(again) and fill out all sorts of paperwork etc before we can go the boot. Finally the boot is put on and we can go home. Thankfully, Mike was able to get out of work and come to the hospital for some of this.
Saturday morning, we get up and Mike takes a shower only to find that it won’t heat up. So he checks the hot water heater in the basement and finds that our basement is flooded and the hot water heater is broken. He stays home to get the basement cleaned up and get a new hot water heater. I take the girls to Katelyn’s dance class and go check out two more houses. Thankfully everything was taken care of and our basement is back to normal again.
As I type this I’m wearing my monitor and having to write every single thing I do that makes my heart pound, cause shortness of breath, dizziness or any other kind of symptom. The little booklet also indicates that I should write any bowel movements that cause any of those things! I thought that was funny. I have already had to write that “yelling at my kids” caused my heart to pound. I’m afraid that’s going to happen a lot within the next 24 hours….
I’ve included some pictures of Madelyn in her Wee Walker. It actually looks really cute on her! She has to wear it for a week and then we’ll follow up with the orthopedist. She’s been doing fine with it and has come close to running in it. Nothing stops her!!
January Photo Flashback
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
I’ve seen many bloggers posting favorite pictures from 2009 in their first few January 2010 blog posts. Since it would take forever for me to find my favorites to put in one post I’m going to do a post each month dedicated to my favorite pictures from one year ago.I might do a MckLinky link up over the next few months so you can link up with your favorite pictures from one year ago.
Here are my favorites from around this time last year. Katelyn was 3 years and 3 months and Madelyn was 1 year and 5 months.
This picture just makes me laugh!
Madelyn was just discovering snow and tried to eat it every chance she got!
Katelyn is definitely our snow bunny and is so silly and happy when playing in the snow
Madelyn had gotten into the dishwasher when I had stepped out of the kitchen for a second. Thankfully all she grabbed was a spoon and not a sharp knife out of the utensil basket!!
* If someone is already doing a meme like this with this name please let me know.
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Books (so far….)
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Today’s Top Ten is going to be difficult for me because it’s going to force me to narrow down my favorite books (so far) to ten for this post. Next year at this time I would probably have a slightly different top ten if I were to make this book list again. I LOVE to read. I probably have a Top 50. But I digress…
Top Ten Favorite Books (so far…)
1. Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
3. Power Of A Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian
3. How To Make Children Mind Without Losing Yours -Dr. Kevin Leman
4. The Phantom Toll Booth (read this in my tweens and loved it. Still do!) by Norton Juster
5. The Jester by James Patterson (you’ll find a lot of James in my favorite books lists)
6. Almost Paradise By Susan Isaacs
7. A Bend In The Road by Nicholas Sparks
8. Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas by James Patterson
9. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S Lewis
10. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Wait! Wait! Can I do another Top Ten for books….? I have so many more!!
Now go check out more Top Ten Tuesday at the lovely host Amanda’s blog.
House Hunting Update
Monday, January 11th, 2010
I’ve been kinda blogging apathetic here lately. No, I don’t have a fever! lol Losing my camera with all those great pictures that made for several great blog posts really threw me for a loop. House hunting and packing has also taken up a lot of my mental energy and time. The good news is I did buy a new camera. I returned my Kodak and bought a better one. And I’m not telling what it is! I like it and I don’t want to know if it’s crap this time or not! I haven’t taken good pictures with it yet, other than just to play around with it. I’m still sooo flipping dissapointed that I don’t have any of our 2009 Christmas pictures or some cute ones I took before that and during my parents visit. Anyway, I must move on and not dwell on that anymore.
So… for an update!!
We looked at 6 houses this past Saturday and I have two more scheduled to look at myself this coming week. One of the houses was the very first one that we liked that started this whole moving process. It’s also still the one we really like and the one we’ll most likely put an offer on. It’s in a great location and in a nice neighborhood. A neighborhood!!! If you don’t understand why that’s exciting to me, let me explain. Right now, I live on a main road. There’s a busy street in front of my house with lots of cars, honking and sirens going by constantly. We’ve gotten used to it for the most part. But we’ve had to be very safety cautious with bike riding and the girls playing outside. The street the house we like is on is quiet and has an acre of land. Part of it is “wooded” and Mike is having dreams of playing paint ball in the woods in our backyard. It’s also close to the highway which will cut Mike’s hour long commute to about 40 minutes. It’s a short sale which means the house is heading towards foreclosure but the seller and the bank is trying to get rid of it before that happens. The problem with short sales is that getting the house takes much longer, lots of tedious paper work and kind of a pain in the butt!! It can take anywhere from four to six months for everything to go through. And sometimes, even then, the buyer ends up walking away from the house. The seller can ask for a price that the bank ends up not accepting. The bank can take forever to approve your offer. So…we’re trying to not get our hopes up. A couple of the positive things about it though is:
a) We are not in a rush to get out of this house. Having to wait awhile will give us plenty of time to pack and get our house in order.
b) The seller is already asking a good price for the house and we will probably try to get an even better one. Many times you can get a good price on a nice house with short sales since the bank is just trying to get rid of the house without a complete loss.
c)Once the seller accepts an offer and the buyer starts the whole process no one else can put an offer on the house until the bank accepts,or doesn’t accept as the case may be, and the buyer decides whether to keep going or walk away.
However are continuing to look at other houses and not putting all our eggs in one basket.
I tried to copy some pictures from the listing but they won’t save! So, I have no pictures to show.
Basic stats: Dutch Gambrel style, 4 bedrooms and one bath upstairs, 1 bath, living room, formal dining room, eat in kitchen, office on first floor and basement with two more rooms in it. Unfortunately, no garage but we would look into building an attached garage to the side of the house. Especially if we could get a good price on it!
I’ll be updating more as we keep looking. Our house should be ready to put on the market within the next couple of weeks. We’re very positive about the selling of our house. We’ve put a lot of work into it and it has a lot to offer.
I apologize for how boring my blog has been lately. I’ll have some more “fun” stuff in the near future.
Have a great day!
Top Ten Tuesday
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Welcome to another week of Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Amanda at Oh Amanda. My top ten this week is all about my resolutions goals this year. If you’re like me your resolutions turn into attempts which turn into….nothing. I don’t think we should give up on resolutions just because we may not achieve all, or in some cases, any(!) of them. It’s still good to have goals.
Simpy Mel’s Top Ten Resolutions Goals for 2010
1. Stop Lessen Yelling.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but, I’m a YELLER. I yell when I’m angry,stressed or frustrated. I yell at my kids and my hubby. I want to stop doing that.
2. Make a new friend. And possibly a close, real relationship.
Sounds easy doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s not.
3. Not lose any weight whatsoever.
See what I just did there? I’m trying to psyche myself out. If I put that I don’t want to lose any weight maybe my body will rebel!!
4. Laugh more. Stress less
5. Get pregnant
No explanation needed for that, right?
6. Declutter my house and my life
I truly believe what Niece on “Clean House” always says ” Clutter on the outside is an expression of clutter on the inside” (or something like that!) Not only do I have too much clutter in my house I have too much clutter in my life. Needless worry and attention on stupid stuff . Needless frustration with relationships I don’t need or want in my life! Be gone!!
7. Not exercising at all. Ever.
Another psyche out…..
8. Become a prayer warrior.
I want to pray more! I do pray and I do trust God with my life but I know I don’t take near enough advantage of the power and privilege I have of being able to come before the throne of God and put my praises and requests before Him.
9. Have dinner at our dinner table more and include family devotional time.
With Mike not usually here for dinner the girls and I all too frequently sit in the living room and have dinner in front of the t.v. I can’t change the fact that Mike isn’t home for dinner but I can certainly make dinner more of a family affair. Right now I”m going to shoot for having dinner at our dining room table at least 3 times a week. Once I get that down I’ll shoot for 5 nights a week. During dinner I want to read a couple of Bible stories and go over Katelyn’s Awana verses. It’s the perfect time to do it. And maybe during that time I can teach them good manners! Or is that a lost cause right now….?
10. Create a better daily routine.
I want to work on creating a good, solid daily and weekly routine(housekeeping chores, menu planning, better attention to our finances) that will help me be more disciplined with my time. In doing so I want to be able to get to bed earlier so I can get up before the girls to take back my morning quiet time! Oh, how I’ve missed it…..
Wish me luck and throw in some prayer for me if you think about it.
Join the Top Ten fun over at Oh Amanda!!
New Year-Changes And Goals
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Happy 2010! I never thought there would be a debate going around on whether you should say “two-thousand-and-ten” or “twenty-ten”. I personally prefer “twenty-ten”.
Anyway…now that we got that business out of the way…..
I’ve obviously been on blogging hiatus for two weeks and it was actually nice! My parents were here for ten days visiting and it was a great visit. Christmas was great! I’ll post a summary of our activities as soon as I post our Christmas pictures. Which will be as soon as I find my camera! Yes, I seem to have lost my camera!! If you know me at all you know I am constantly taking pictures and posting them on my blog. So, I’ll be lost without my camera. And I’m not so sure my hubby will be too keen on buying a new one right after Christmas. Not to mention the pictures I’ve lost that are on my camera! We’re changing our playroom around today and I’m hoping I’ll find it in there somewhere. If you think about it please pray that I find it!!
We do have some goals and changes we would like you to keep in your prayers for us:
1. After two years of prayer and keeping our eyes open we’ve finally decided to move! We have been casually looking at neighboring towns and the housing market for the past two years but the houses have just been way out of our price range. The housing market has come down since then and we have been able to find several houses we like and can afford in the two towns we’re looking at. One of the biggest advantages is location. If we move to either of these towns it will shave off 40 minutes a day off Mike’s commute. He’s usually on the road two hours a day so this will be a nice bonus. One is the town Mike grew up in and the other is a town we like and know pretty well. We’ve started “sprucing up” our house so we can put it on the market and have started packing some stuff away. I’m excited! And a little….sad. Maybe nostalgic? We’ve been in this house for six years.It was our first house. I had both my girls here. We had church cookouts and other social events here. There are a lot of memories in this house. But, after this past Christmas we realized it is waaaayyy too small for us!! The next few months are going to be stressful, but worth it. We’re going to hold a garage sale (in the winter!) to get rid of a lot of stuff. I’m looking at our backyard and wondering how we’re going to get all those toys and backyard climbing toys out from under all that snow!
So if you’ll specifically keep these things in your prayers we’d appreciate it:
a) That we’ll find a house that is perfect for our family size wise and price wise.
b) That selling our house will go smoothly and with no complications
c)That the packing and other details will also go smoothly.
I’m going to cut down on my blogging (gasp! Say it isn’t so!!) while we are in the packing and moving process. I’m going to try to cut down to three times a week unless I post something that’s quick and easy. I’ll keep everyone updated on our moving.
2. My other huge prayer request that you all know about now is us having another baby. Please pray that the Lord will allow us to conceive this year. It’s now been 18 months of TTC ( Trying To Conceive to you fertile folk ;o) ). I’m making an appointment with my doctor in the near future to talk about this matter. I didn’t think I’d have to do that again but here I am. I’m sure there will be blood tests and all the other stuff I went through with trying to conceive Katelyn coming up. Again. Maybe there will be some answers. Maybe there won’t. I know that ultimately it’s a God thing and I have to wait on Him. And I have to be ok with whatever His answers are.
I do have somewhat of a resolutions list but you’ll have to wait for Top Ten Tuesday tomorrow to see what they are! I do have to say, I like my cousin Lydia’s goal of losing 5 pounds a month until June. That’s very do-able!!
Here is my 2010 Bible verse for this new year. It says it all for me right now!
Psalms 71:14-16(NKJV)
But I will hope continually and I will praise you yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and your salvation all the day. For I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of Your righteousness of Yours only.
Well, there you have it. My first blog of 2010!
Happy New Year! Many blessings to you and yours this year!
