Hoping Once Again

After sending a selling proposal to our renters a few weeks ago, we finally got word back from them that they are 100% interested in purchasing our house back in Reno. We tried to entice them by reducing our price significantly. Maybe it worked.

The only hang-up is that they have a house in Fernley that needs to sell and they don't think that they will qualify for another home loan as long as they have that house in their name.

They have 66 more days on the lease with their tenants. They said that once the lease is up, they will then put their house on the market. In the meantime, Kenny and I are both praying that they DO qualify for a second home loan and will move forward with our purchase more sooner than later.

Here's to keeping our fingers crossed....

Random Thoughts

For the last week or so, I've had insomnia. A few times this week, I've taken a sleep pill to help out. Normally, one good night of sleep reboots my system and I'm back on track. But not this week. I'm sure it is stress/anxiety related. Note to self: up medication dosage. In the meantime, I figured that I'd better get back to my blogging and purge out some of the random thoughts that I've had over the last few weeks....

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I'm sure that I gained at least 2 pounds. Guess I'd better hit the gym a little harder this week. Anyway, I did reflect on the many blessings that are in my life throughout that day and the days since. I, like most, count my family, friends and health as a blessing and am extremely thankful to have each.

And with the passing of Thanksgiving comes the Christmas season. I could post on how consumer oriented it has become, and probably will do so in the near future. For now, I just want to vent my bitterness toward the Salvation Army for sending out those bell ringers 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. Now, I don't mean to sound bah-humbug....but Thanksgiving, the holiday, gets more and more lost every year. The one day that we can just count our blessings and be thankful is getting snuffed out between Halloween and Christmas. I just want a little separation. Can we please enjoy Thanksgiving without big business shoving their agenda down our throats? I'm all for supporting charity, but PLEASE....keep the bell ringers at bay until we've eaten our turkey! Is that so much to ask?!?

Ok....onto other things that are chapping my backside right now. Umm...I just watched "Sicko" and gave it 2 thumbs up. Very thought provoking and worth checking out. The part the chaps my backside is the greed of HMOs and the lack of dedication that our government has in the matter of taking care of the least of these in our country.

On another note, Kenny and I are shopping for a house. We actually put a bid in this evening on a house in our neighborhood. It's a foreclosed house...bank owned...and about $35k under market value. For that price, we're willing to sacrifice the big yard and spend 2 years living in it. After 2 years, we'll see about selling it along with the Reno house and then buying something a little more suitable...mostly, something with a larger yard. Well, I guess I shouldn't get too ahead of myself. The bank has to accept our offer first. If they do, I'll post progress pictures on the house. Right now, it needs a major clean job and new carpets. We'll probably add new counter tops in the kitchen as well. But like I said, I need not put the carriage before the horse.

I guess that's it for now. Just sitting here bored and AWAKE. I think I'll add some more songs to my myspace play list/jukebox. Either that, or maybe I'll go rearrange the pots and pans in the kitchen cabinets. Good Lord...please let me get drowsy soon!

Blessed

The last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful around our house. In my previous post, I mentioned that my dear friend, Erin had come into town for a visit. As expected, the time went by way too fast. We really didn't do too much as far as tourist attractions. Mostly, we just enjoyed each other's company through the everyday life events like grocery shopping, baseball games, family time and girlfriend conversation. We did visit the Dallas Arboretum, which was nice. It would have been much more fun had the weather cooperated, but it was still nice nonetheless. Anyway, the time spent together was much needed. Even though I hated to see her head back home, I was so grateful that she came.

A couple of days after Erin boarded a plane home, I was back at the airport picking up our next house guests. Kenny's younger brother, Justin and his wife Jessica decided that they would come out for a visit. When Jessica told me that they were thinking about taking vacation out this way, I was a bit surprised. I honestly thought that Texas was the LAST place they'd want to come...especially considering that for the same airfare, they could have gone to Costa Rica. Hmmm...Texas? Costa Rica? I don't get it, but hey...I was very excited that they did decide to come and hang out.

We definitely did more of the tourist type of thing with them. We visited the JFK 6th Floor Museum, Six Flags over Texas, The Fort Worth Stockyards and even spent an afternoon horseback riding along Grapevine Lake. The horseback riding was a blast. It was their idea....and I'm glad that they had it. We were able to take Jason and Dallas both. (Jason got his own horse and Dallas rode with the trail guide.) And had Jason not been yelling at his horse the whole time for snacking, I'm sure we would have seen some white tail deer, coyotes and bobcats. Turns out the only other animal we saw aside from the horses were a couple of dogs and a few goats that hung around the stables.

Considering that Justin and Jessica were here during Halloween, we also took in a Pumpkin Patch and enjoyed our first Trick or Treating adventure around the neighborhood.

Aside from a nasty bug that worked its way around the boys and Jessica, the time spent together was really nice. We were able to show them around town and take them to some of our favorite places to eat. Jessica even told me that Texas wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Yeah, that's what I think too. Once you get use to it, it starts to grow on you. Mind you, you'll never hear me say that Texas is my dream location....but it's turning out to be alright.

On one final note, we have taken our house in Reno off the market and rented it out. We're still not able to charge enough rent to cover our payment, but it's a lot easier to fork out an additional $150 bucks a month vs $1500. I just hope that these tenants work out better than our last set. And in another year or two, maybe the market will have rebounded. In the meantime, we'll rent out the house in Reno and then try to find something for us to buy around here. In fact, we've already got our eyes on a house around the corner from us that is bank owned. Let's just hope that they bank is willing to get it off their books for the price we want to pay.

Well, I must say that it feels great to finally have the house off of our back and to have been filled up with the love that our house guests brought. It makes the upcoming Thanksgiving season more meaningful. We certainly are a blessed family.

Happy Birthday To Me

Yesterday, I celebrated my 29th birthday for the 7th time. I don't know why I just said that. I really don't have issues with my age. Let me start again...Yesterday, I celebrated my 35th birthday. Seeing that I promised to be transparent in this blog, let me just say, IT SUCKED! Not because I turned 35....like I said, I don't have issues with my age. It sucked because my husband, who has known me for 13 years, STILL doesn't know that when I say I don't want a gift, I don't mean it!!!

As you can guess, I didn't receive anything from him for my birthday. And I guess I am at fault, at least partly. I tell him every year that I don't want anything. And when the words leave my mouth, I really do mean them. I'm not trying to trick him or set him up for failure. However, when my birthday rolls around and "nothing" is exactly what I get from him....I GET PISSED!!! And you would think that after 13 years with the man, he would have caught on to my pattern. BUT NOOOOOO. So instead of blogging yesterday on how wonderful it was to celebrate another year on this earth, I pouted like a 4 year old. I'm not above poutting....and I can admit it.

It wasn't like I didn't give him plenty of ideas. I've been asking for a pressure washer for a couple of months now. I've show interest in golf clubs. I have mentioned that a carpet cleaner would be a helpful tool in keeping the house looking nice. I even let him know that I needed some work out clothes since I'm hitting the gym again. Nevermind the fact that we can't afford much of anything because the house in Reno is still for sale which means we're forking out an additional $1550 a month that we never know from where it will come. And yes, he is completely right in pointing that fact out and telling me that he holds off on gifts because he knows that I'm stressed about the house. But that didn't make me feel any better. I was acting like a four year old...I knew it...and I was not going to let up. I wanted a stinking gift to open on my birthday. Waa...

I don't know why I get this way. I really don't care about the actual gift. I think I just want to know that he is paying attention to the things that I tell him. Producing a gift proves that he has been paying attention. I guess I'd be fine with a note from him detailing out everything that he wanted to do, but didn't because of the house. At least I would know that he had something planned. And he did say exactly that. He had plans, but didn't execute them because of the financial strain we're under. My first thought was, "Bullsh*t....if it were a baseball game, we'd have tickets in hand." But I didn't say that. And I'm sure that I'll get the cold shoulder once he reads this...but hey, I promised to be transparent and I'm writting from the heart.

Ok, enough about how disappointed/hurt/angry I was yesterday. After I took a nice long nap, I spent the rest of my day with the boys and that was fun. We really didn't do much. Just hung out and spent time together. In the evening, we headed out to the front yard to play a little catch. However, that didn't last too long before ANOTHER rainstorm hit us. But instead of going inside, the boys asked if they could play in the rain. My kneejerk reaction was to say no, but then I thought, "Why not?" So play in the rain they did. They had a blast too, as I'm sure you can see from the pictures. It wasn't until Keegan slipped twice on some sort of gooey slippery fungus thing in the gutter did the fun stop. After that incident, we headed inside and dried off.

I capped off the evening by watching a bad movie (Stomp the Yard) while sipping on a nice mixture of iced Starbucks liquer and milk. I guess it made the movie a little more tolerable. After that, I turned in and read for a while. The boys decided that they "needed" to sleep with me, so I let them. And I guess all in all, they are the best gifts that I could ever receive. They give me life and inspire me to be a better person. Yeah, they are definitely the best gifts ever....although a pressure washer would have been nice.

Happenings

As the summer comes, so does the chaos. And it's my intention to not let these added distractions take me away from my blogging. I desperately do not want this to be another venture that gets abandoned due to less important tasks calling for action...such things as housecleaning, groceries, etc. Hey, who needs to eat when you've got blogging to do? Besides, I've still got those extra pounds to lose, so I guess it's a win-win.

There has been so much going on in the last few weeks. I've been to Reno twice to work on the house and to hire a new realtor. After having renters in our house even for the short amount of time that we did, it was in need of some paint and a good scrubbing. And based on the recommendation of our new realtor, I laid down some playground bark in the backyard around the playset. Hopefully, this in conjunction with yet ANOTHER price reduction will get it sold.

Spring baseball has ended for Jason and Dallas. They had their team party this last Saturday to celebrate their all-defeated record. Poor little guys...they tried so hard and came close to a win on soooo many occassions. They just couldn't pull it off in the end. Their hitting was always phenomenal; their fielding...umm, not so much. Anyway, the good news is that Jason made the 1st team in his league's All-Stars. However, he wanted to play with his Red Sox teammates who also made All-Stars (Carter, Boston & Jonas), so he asked to be moved down to the 2nd team. I think over the next month, he'll have a few tournaments to play and based on Coach Bobby's opinion, this 2nd team is pretty decent. Should be exciting!

Sandwiched in between my Reno trips and the Red Sox team party, we spent a few days hanging out with Dave and Emily & Zachary. He is on leave right now and decided to make a road trip out here. That was especially nice. It's always great to get the boys together with their Uncle Dave, his tickle bugs, and their cousins. Anyway, I enjoyed watching Emily, Zachary and the boys all play together knowing that they were creating memories. We even managed to squeez in a trip to Six Flags. Not that that should be a surprise...I don't know of many occassions where Dave and I get together near a theme park and not take in a roller coaster or ten. All in all, it was a nice visit....a bit short, but there will be more opportunities for summer visits in the years to come.

I think that about covers what has been going on over the past few weeks. I know that this post just glosses over the details, and I'm going to try to get back to posting at least once a week so that I can better record this crazy life of mine. Until then, bring on the summer.

Stuck in a funk

I've been in a funk for the last month and can't seem to snap out of it. I can't pinpoint one exact reason for the foul mood. I know that the house still not selling is a major stress point in my life. That combined with the fact that I am extremely home sick are probably the major contributing factors. Anyway, I'm tired of being in this funk and wish that I would just snap out of it.

Our house in Reno is still on the market and we still have the same potential buyers on the line. Apparently they are very interested in submitting an offer, but can't do so until another offer that they submitted on a foreclosure gets cancelled by the bank holding the note. All the while, we wait on pins and needles wondering if these are the people who will actually purchase it.

I don't know how much longer we can ride this out. Kenny, on average, is working 60-70 hours a week. The ripple effect is that by the end of his day, he is exhausted and I am at the end of my rope from handling the boys and the house. He comes home and tries to help out...he's such a good husband and father. And I repay him by either withdrawing emotionally from him or by lashing out over piddly items that aren't worth bickering over in the grand scheme of things.

Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fullfilled is the tree of lfe." Right now, I can completely embrace this truth as absolute. My heart is sick...very very sick. Hope for us has been deferred for over a year now. And I feel like everything hinges on the selling of our house.

I don't really go out and make attempts to foster new friendships. That fact alone has been poison for my attitude. For my sanity's sake, I need the fellowship of friends. However, I have no desire to make new ones here. I feel myself holding back....almost in fear of cheating on my friends in Reno. I think somewhere deep down, I feel as though if I make new friends here in Texas, I will be lessening the value of their friendships. Ironically, one of my best friends (I have four: Raquel, Cyndi, Kristen and Erin) sent me a beautiful and uplifting card telling me how much she longs to hear that I have made new friends. That thought alone brings tears to my eyes....she is so selfless.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm lonely here and have been throwing my own little pity party. When I take a step back and look at what God has blessed us with here in Texas, I just want to kick myself for complaining......We are sitting at the cusp of having the opportunity to buy a home close to outright. The schools that my children will and are attending are top notch. I now have family in the same city...something that I have desperately wanted for years. Kenny has a great job with fantastic benefits. I have the opportunity to open my own photography business. This area is culturally rich. We still fly for free and can always go back home to visit our friends. There are so many blessings sitting in my lap.....so why am I so miserable? Someone, please slap me!