Saturday Play

On a recent Saturday morning the three of us were playing in the living room. Shane was having a great time but started crying for no reason just as Josh was trying something new. He stood Shane on a long piece of bubble wrap with the intention of pulling it out from under him causing him to fall backward onto the pillows. Something he would normally love. As shown in video #1 Shane wanted nothing to do with this.

After we took the video we all laughed so hard at the sound of his scream.  Video #2 is of Shane watching the video of himself a few minutes later.

St. John Market Fair

This Friday evening I am a vendor at the St. John Market Fair in New Brighton. There will be over 50 vendors with a wide variety of products. Start your holiday shopping early or just enjoy and evening out! 

 

Whirlwind

Our last two weeks:

After taking Josh’s car to the mechanic for a brake line leak, we learned that the entire brake system was corroded and it would be over $1,000 to fix. We all shared the opinion that his car was no longer worth repairing. 

We shopped for a few days and found a great ‘99 Jetta TDI on craigslist. It’s a car Josh has always wanted to drive and it was within our budget to pay cash for it!

In the midst of car shopping and juggling our schedules with one vehicle, we put our house on the market. Our first showing was that very evening and we proceeded to have 15 more showings in eight days. If you’re ever bored and in need of a challenge, try to maintain a staged and clean home while living with a two-year-old. It’s a whole new ball game.

Thankfully we received an offer on Tuesday of this week! I could give the buyer a huge hug out of thankfulness for not having to maintain that showing schedule another week! We accepted the offer and are currently moving ahead with the bank to figure out the details.

We hope to move closer to Josh’s work and we’re currently looking at the Highland Park area of St. Paul. If any of you locals have a lead on a place to rent, let us know!

In the meantime, my car developed a brake line leak and shortly after the brakes stopped working all together. It’s currently at the mechanic and we’re awaiting the next blow to our checking account. 

So, today I’m sitting in a house that might get dirty because it says online that we’re not available for showings and I’ll pray that the bank has favor on us. And I may cook again, for the first time in a few weeks! Or I may not because we have Josh’s company picnic tonight, to which I’ll be rolling up in style in the hooptie loaner car (which even Shane keeps commenting about the “big car”).

Best Sheets

Josh and I tend to be very brand loyal people. We find something we love; we recommend it to everyone. For various reasons we highly endorse, if you will, a variety of brands for a variety of reasons – Penske (unmatched customer service, Josh actually got a worker a reward and a plaque once because of his customer comments), Apple (no reason needed), badger hair brush shaving for men, Trader Joe’s Ketchup, our bank USAA, Blue Sky Creamery and a couple of things I shouldn’t mention on a blog that my mom reads. 

I think we finally found our sheets! These were actually a recommendation from a couple of blogs I read and I was a little skeptical about how they could be that much better. They totally are! The sheets are unbelievably soft and comfortable to sleep on and they come in an array of fun colors.

If you’re in need of new sheets you should seriously consider these. You’re welcome to stop by our house to take a nap and test drive them first, if needed.

What?

On my way home from a wedding rehearsal tonight I ordered dinner from Applebees Carside To-Go. I think the phone waitress was taking advantage of the advertised margarita special:

Her: What make and color is your car?

Me: I’m driving a Dodge Neon; it’s maroon.

Her: Great! Like a truck?

Me: Umm, no, it’s a sedan.

Her: Okay, so it’s like an SUV then.

Me: No, it’s like a small four door car.

Her: Oh!! Third time’s a charm.

New Things

Shane partook in two new-to-him activities yesterday.

The first was catapulting climbing out of his crib one and a half times. The first time was right after we had set him in the crib, closed the door and walked into the next room. He didn’t seem to enjoy the result of falling out head first. The second time I was able to catch him on the descent. I added “shopping for bed” to my to-do list for the day.

The second was stripping. This is how he looked when he went to bed for the night:

 

This is what I saw at 11:00 before I went to bed.  And, yes, the blanket was placed like that on it’s own and he was sleeping on the pajamas.

 

I was able to stealithly redress him without waking him up (because it’s been in the 40’s here at night).  This is how he greeted us this morning:

 

Maybe I can find a new bed that has attached pajamas.

Answer

The official word from the Air Force is: no.  

We are disappointed, but it was 50% expected so we’re thankfully not dealing with the crushing blow that it was last time around. We both were very much excited about the idea and the prospect of a new adventure. Especially moving and traveling.  And Josh is sad to not have the opportunity to fly along with being able to serve the country in that way. 

Life will be changing soon though. For reasons that are separate from the AF decision and still not fully known or understood by us, Josh has been asked to leave his current job. His boss will soon be choosing a termination date, so the job search has started. Josh is fairly certain that he would like to stay in the web programming field for the time being and is looking into opportunities in that area. We are still open to re-locating too, but it’s looking like we’ll stick around the Twin Cities awhile longer.

Thanks for your prayers and conversations leading up to this time. I trust that God has something bigger and better planned. And hopefully more fun for Josh than flying a fighter jet.

Word from the AF

The only “word” we’ve heard is they moved back the announcement date. It was set for the 18th, last Monday. Now it’s the 29th, a week from yesterday. Perhaps we’ll know something then. Or perhaps they will change their minds again. Happy Memorial Weekend!

Junk in the Trunk

I have a good college friend who is heading up a fundraiser for an orphanage in Costa Rica.  They are getting the word out for participation and families to attend. It sounds like a great time and they have a wide variety of activities. Here is the flyer, or contact me and I’ll give you more info!

 

It’s Official…

…I’m in the dark ages. And you thought it was going to be Air Force news, didn’t you? Nope, just me, stranded sitting at home with no AF news and Shane asking for “moh hot tea.”

Our technology has left us this week. We aren’t using our cell phones due to the family plan being maxed out from family situations this month. The month resets in mid-April. We did add a home phone line, but they can’t come until next Tuesday. Too busy with other people’s technology, I guess.

And now, my car sits in the driveway waiting on the expensive convenient tow truck to come and take it away. From the phone diagnoses with Josh and the car mechanic it sounds like a parking break piece is busted. I can only drive it if I go backwards. Not particularly helpful.

So, we sit. Fittingly, we’re watching the movie Cars. I guess I’ll use my unexpected day off to bake some bread, hand wash some laundry and maybe pluck the chickens so we have dinner. Saddest of all, I lost my excuses for not cleaning the bathtub.