Here's What I Think

I don't usually talk about anything of much importance on here except for Celine, Pride & Prejudice and my kids. (In that order. Ha, just kidding.) I'm really bad at supporting my arguments. I'm not a great writer or speaker like Ryan. But I have an opinion and feel like talking about it.

We started looking for a house to buy in November. NOVEMBER! We figured that that would give us enough time to find a house and be moved in by the end of this week. We have extended out lease to the end of March, so we've got another month now.

On December 11th we made an offer on a house we liked a lot. It was a short sale, so we knew ahead of time that it might take a little while to go through the process. But we still had plenty of time. We waited 2 weeks, raised our offer because there were 2 other offers, then waited 4 more weeks. Then we found out that the bank had decided to foreclose rather than short sale. So in 6 months to a year that house will be on the marked again.

So we started over. We found another house we liked, but had only seen it once and our Realtor was going out of town for a week so we waited. When she got back we saw it again. We made an offer 2 weeks ago. So now we wait again.

Why am I complaining to you about this? Well I just needed to give you an idea of how it's all going so you can understand my opinion of the "housing crisis" or at least 1 aspect of it. I think existing home sales are down not just because people aren't looking to buy or can't get a loan. I think it's because the banks are RETARDED! The bank (Wells Fargo by the way) had 3 people competing to get that house. They could have had it off their hands. But instead they strung us all along for 2 months and then decided to spend more money to foreclose instead. And I've had a lot of people tell me similar stories.

So now that that is out... we like this house we're waiting on. We really want to move out of our apartment. Ryan really wants a garage. I really want a yard. Zach and Becky really NEED a yard. Cross your fingers or do a dance or whatever you would do help us get this house. This guy in our ward keeps telling Ryan that he is doing a "rain dance" so that we don't get the house and therefore move out of the ward. Very considerate huhh? (I hope he isn't actually doing some dance, cause that would be creepy.) So someone do a dance in our behalf to counteract his weirdness. :)

And if we don't get it, (knock, knock) then as our lovely Realtor Becky says "there is just something better out there for us".

Now I'll go through my daily ritual of looking at the house listings. Have a nice day.

I'm Beginning to Think That is Just How She Is

Last night was probably the third best of my life. (Second best was seeing Celine in Vegas). My friend Lara and I went to see Celine at the Pepsi Center. The concert was actually supposed to happen in November, but because she was very sick, she had to postpone a few concerts.



Here's what I loved about last night:
In person, she sounds exactly like she does in her recordings.

She loves her audience.

She talks-a lot. You really get to know her.

She is so sincere.

She told us how sorry she was that she was 3 months late to Denver.

I'm not a big fan of heals, but she just looks awesome in her 4 inch heals. And apparently she has a shoe fetish-3,000 pairs of shoes!

We sat in the very back row-no joke-and it didn't matter. We could have been in the front and it would have made no difference (well, unless she actually touched me in the front row, then it would have been better, but how likely is that?)



When Ryan took me to see her in Vegas (remember, second best ever) she had been sick and it was her first concert back. Once again she told people how sorry she was that they had made plans and had to change them. I was thinking I was just lucky to get to hear her talk about so much at these concerts, but I'm beginning to think that is just how she is...

Naps All Around

Lately I've had a fascination with my children at zero velocity. Poor kid, looks uncomfortable.

Children Who Aren't Moving & Johnny

An unusual site in our home:

And my pretty pillows I made for the couch we don't own yet to go in the living room of the house we don't own yet...

And something else while I'm thinking about it. We watched Benny & Joon for the first time the other night. Amazing, I know, considering how much I LOVE Johnny Depp. Have I mentioned that before? Anyway, I only saw Edward Sissorhands a few months ago. So I'm behind, whatever. I watched Pirates a million times if that makes you feel better. Johnny Depp is great, he really becomes his character. How does he do it?
Thanks Penny for enlightening me!

One more pic just because... :)

Broken

Zach broke his arm last week. He was climbing on the rail on our porch (a normal activity for him) and when he jumped off he slipped on the ice below. Both bones in his right wrist are broken. We were pretty disappointed when he ended up with a cast that goes above his elbow. We had told him it would not be that big. Apparently little kids try to take their casts off so they go above the elbow to prevent this. I'm sure he would have tried at some point, so I guess we'll just deal with it. I feel really badly for him though, he can't even get his hand to his mouth, and he looked so uncomfortable last night when I was tucking him in. Zach is adapting well and I think he'll get through it ok. But he's not very happy that he can't ride his bike for 6 weeks!

Becky's 2nd Birthday

Becky turned 2 today. She helped me clean the beaters after I made the frosting.

We did all the usual party stuff.

She loved all her new friends.