Monday, November 12, 2007

Let the Stress Begin

Ok, with our adventure of looking at possibilities for a new home we are now to the point of putting our house back on the market. We have spent the past few weeks looking at what is out there and we have decided that it is time to see if we can sell our house to move on to another. So, for now, the "fun" is over and now begins the "stress".

We had our house on the market about 6 months ago. It was for sale for about 1 year. With the market being overpriced and saturated nothing happened. In the past 6 months we have been working on remodeling some major "dated" parts of our house. It all looks really good, so far, however we still have a few minor things to finish up. Our Realtor thinks that if we can get it on the market by Thanksgiving then our chances of selling sooner are greater. So hence the stress. (In case you are not aware, Thanksgiving is next week! Yea, that's right, 1 week!!) We have been doing most of the work ourselves so that we can save money. But now that we are pushing the clock, I have been busy on the phone trying to get on peoples calendars to give us a hand with finishing up. I am even hiring a friend of ours who owns her own interior decorating service to come over and give me some advice on rearranging and re-decorating. I am actually looking forward to that meeting. :)

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Thinking of moving

Yes, we are exploring that option again. Making another move. It is exciting and stressful all at the same time. We really feel like we are so post to stay in AZ so here we go again. We had our house for sale about a year ago with the intentions of moving back to the wonderful state of TX, however that never happened. With all the different job offers that my hubby has been getting here in AZ it is pretty obvious that we are meant to stay here. That really is fine with us. We do like AZ and all that it has to offer here.

We have been looking at other homes the past few weeks, some resale and some new. It would be nice to own a new home and be the only owners. The past houses that we have had have been ones that we are constantly doing and redoing from others half-ways jobs. How frustrating for us. I guess being two engineers we are just way too picky. Oh well.

We went house "hunting" again yesterday. This time we looked at some new builds. And of course we found one that we liked. Bad part is that the builder will not accept any contingency offers for our house to sale first. So now we are on the move to try and finish up with the last bit of our remodel so that we can get our house back on the market and see if we can get it sold. This is where the stressful part comes in . Our market here in AZ for sellers is absolutely horrible right now.

This house that we found is really awesome. It is 3 stories (yes 3!!), a 2 story with a basement. We are specifically looking for a basement home so we can build another theater like our last house had. We are basically reducing the amount of outdoor land for indoor "play" space. We would be moving from 1 acre to a 1/4 acre. We figured if we are going to stay in AZ then we need to maximize the amount of indoor space being that it is way to hot to be outside most of the year.

Anyways...here we go again.

Sleep in...what's that like?

Today was the first day in a loonnngggg time that I got to sleep in. Oh it was great! I did get to sleep in a little but when your body is so used to waking up at a certain time it is really hard to truly "sleep in". So I figured since I could not go back to sleep I would just get up and sit around in the PJ's a little while before getting myself ready for the rest of the day.

It is hard to believe, after running non-stop for the past 2-3 months, that we have absolutely nothing that we HAVE to do today. It is so nice!

So now that I do not have any excuses (for today anyway) for not blogging...well here I am. I was doing pretty good with trying to keep up with posting every day but just couldn't do it. Oh well.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Our Halloween...a little late

Admittedly, we are not that big on Halloween around here. However, we do let the kids dress up and have fun with letting them participate in the local Halloween festivities. The past couple of years our town has organized and put on a "Trunk-or-Treat" at the main local park right down the street from us. The biggest draw is, of course, all the candy that you get as you pass from trunk to truck. They also had jumping houses, game booths, food booths and various different contests and live music.

So after getting all dressed up in their costumes we were off to the park. The kids had a lot of fun and since the majority of our town is still mostly agriculture and farm land with houses spread far apart, it was nice not to have to walk forever from house to house and feel like your legs were going to fall off by the end of the night.

We were very fortunate that the kids choice of costumes were ones in which we had all the stuff for. There was no cost involved this year. Very NICE!

Here they are. Tyler was a hockey player and Kyle was a soccer playing ninja (he could not decide if he wanted to dress up as a soccer player or a ninja so he decided to combine the two). HA! He thought it was cool and that is all that mattered. If you look closely at his shoes you can see that he is wearing his soccer cleats.




Saturday, November 3, 2007

Fall Soccer Coming to an End

Today was Kyle's last soccer game of the season. I can't believe how time goes by. We had a great season. They came away with a record of 7 wins and only 1 loss. I really enjoyed coaching the team. Actually, I have already signed up to coach again next season in the winter. That will start towards the end of January. I am looking forward to it even more this time because I have decided to switch leagues. We are moving to a more established league that actually has their own fields and is a little more organized. One of the biggest reasons why I am looking forward to it is because we can use the fields for practices too. There are so many soccer leagues and teams out here that it is hard to find nice convenient places and times to practice as a team. Now all I have to do is sign up for a spot on the fields and reserve my place and that is all. The fields are even lighted so we don't have to worry about it getting dark too early (since we never change times here in AZ).

As for me and my soccer games this season...well we are not doing as well as Kyle's team did. In the adult league we play mixed games for the first half of the season and then at the end we play a mini tournament with the other teams in the league. We did fine and actually won all our games in the first half of the season...but...we played our third game of the tournament last night and lost. We have lost 2 and tied 1. Oh well, it is for fun and somehow we got slotted in with some of the competitive teams (we are only a rec. team). We have 2 games left and then we are done until the winter season starts up in Feb. 08.

We have had a lot of fun with soccer this fall but it will be nice to take a break and enjoy the holiday times coming up.

Tag I'm it....Now who??

I have never been one to do these types of things...I guess because for most things in my life I don't usually think about "favorites"(I like a lot of variety and change)...so keeping that in mind for you...here it goes....

1. Favorite TV show: I don't watch all that much tv. Recently, when I have, it has been Big Brother, The Bachelor, NHL Hockey (I typically like the reality shows), does my computer screen count? lol

2. Favorite music: I like A LOT of different types of music. When I am in my car it is usually KLOVE or country. When I am playing around with the kids or on my computer it is usually hip hop/jam music.

3. Favorite color: Green (ok, favorite color is something that has not changed for me since I was a kid.)

4. Five favorite things to do: play soccer, watching kids in their sports games, dates with my hubby, my Bible studies (Precept studies are the best!) and sleeping in!

5. Favorite ice cream: Chocolate with Peanut Butter from Cold Stone!! (me too...funny story with this one....I guess that is another blog:))

6. Stitches: No

7. Broken bones: Yes, collar bone.

8. States I've been to: California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Nevada, Florida, New York, Massachusetts (drove through others that I can't remember on a road trip when I went to New York and Mass. )

9. Favorite snacks: right now (this is one of those that changes often) cheese and crackers

10. What I'm most proud of: My family

11. Favorite store: Right now...(again this changes often) Kirkland's Home

12. Favorite dog: (My Lady)

So there you have it!

Oh and BTW...this should count for a post on Nov. 2nd (trying maybe to post everyday in Nov.) since I have not even started my day for the 3rd yet! I am a night owl!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

so I'm "tagged"...

Ok so I understand I have been tagged....

Well, Jen, Thanks for the tag...however...I will have to get back to you tomorrow.

Man, it has been a long day. The "to-do" list is just never ending. And to top it all off this was officially the first day of the most homework EVER for Tyler. He had one sheet of math, 4 spelling sheets and had to finish a final copy of a report that he is doing at school. He started at 4pm (after getting home from school at 3:40pm), stopped at 4:30pm to work on some hockey practice skills with dad to get ready for his hockey game tomorrow (he is going to play goalie for the first time ever so he needed to get a little practice in for tomorrow). He stopped for dinner and then was off for KidStuf practice at church (a song and dance team that he is in). He was home by 8:20pm and didn't finish up with ALL his homework until 10pm. Holy Cow! I was NOT thinking nice thoughts about his teachers tonight. HA! Bad mom, I know. At least they were just thoughts so Tyler won't go telling his teachers tomorrow. :}

So anyways...thankfully tomorrow is Friday! Yea.