Our Little Snowboarder

So, Derek has been talking about getting Allie on the slopes before she was even born and since he had yet another snow day today we took the opportunity to fulfill his dream. We went with two other couples to Mad River Mountain Resort in Bellefontaine, OH and spent the entire day there. It's actually the best midwest resort I've ever been to. I really thought Derek's dreams would be shattered because Allie tends to be quite shy and doesn't usually like to try new things. Boy was I wrong about this though! She had a BLAST! I was so surprised, happy and excited for her.......and Derek. She was absolutely ADORABLE!!




Avery hanging out in the lodge

Allie & Adeline

Riding up the belt to the top of the slope

This was the best video I got of her. I can't believe she actually went by herself! My favorite part about this video is seeing the trust and faith she has in her Daddy by letting go and knowing that he will be there to catch her by just raising her little arm up. I was kind of sad because as I started taking another video the camera died and Allie actually went down the slope by herself for quite a while then. She was absolutely awesome. We LOVE her! She definitely has the snowboarding bug now because she has since said, "I want to go snowboarding again" 5 or 6 times since she turned her board in!

Yes, as you can see from the pics I finally got back out on a snowboard. It's been five years since I was last on one and I broke my wrist the last time I was on one too. So it took a lot of courage on my part, but I did it! I was quite nervous and very slow and cautious. I got frustrated pretty easily, but at least I did it, right!?!

LET IT SNOW!!!!

It's been snowing like crazy yesterday and today. I don't know exactly how much we have, maybe 10 inches. It's hard to tell because there is a layer of ice under the snow and then snow under the ice! At any rate, we decided to take advantage of all the snow and head outside and play!! I was a little apprehensive at first about taking Avery out there, but Derek talked me into it. It really wasn't all that cold out because there wasn't any wind. She fell asleep while we were getting all bundled up to go out so she was wrapped up nice and warm in her carseat for the majority of the time we were out there (which was only really about 20 minutes). But in that time we went sledding, made snow angels, threw some snowballs and attempted to make a snowman........the snow was just too powdery though. Allie really enjoyed being out there and it was so much fun watching her! I think I got some good shots of our fun in the snow......it was so hard to choose which ones to post. Believe me, I have a lot more!!!

Soccer MADNESS

Last night was the start of indoor soccer for Derek. He's been looking forward to it for a couple of months now. He decided to put a team together while they were all playing in the league here on base. Anyway, the games start times are kind of crazy ranging from 8:30 to 11:20. Of course, Derek's team started at 11:20 last night. I would have liked to have gone and I know Derek wanted us to come and watch, but it was just too late for the girls.

Anyway, 10 minutes into the game someone plowed into Derek and left a huge gash in his forehead, broke his nose and messed up his knee. It was really weird because after I was in bed last night I had a feeling that I should come down and get my cell phone in case Derek's truck wouldn't start or something. I woke up at 1:30 knowing that he should be home and went down and saw that I had 4 missed calls on my cell phone and a new voicemail. It was Derek calling on Lauire's phone telling me everything that happened and that they were on the way to the ER. I tried calling Derek, Joe and Laurie and no one would answer so I got the girls up and we headed into the ER to see him. Just as I had pulled on base Laurie called to fill me in on everything and said he was fine and that they would bring him home........but I was practically there so we stayed.

I have a feeling he won't be playing any more soccer for the rest of this league (against his will of course). His nose is pretty bad and he can hardly walk with his knee being so messed up. (I guess it's just a big ball of blood in there.) It was funny because he was crawling up the stairs last night and then this morning little miss Allie was hobbling down the stairs saying her knee hurt!

Derek is going in today to try and get his nose back into place........

The Move

What a trying 4 day weekend!!! It didn't seem like anything was going right.......things surely couldn't get any worse, but it did.........we just kept pushing through all of our trials and tribulations and we have prevailed.........so far. Here's a summary of our move:

Derek got the moving truck on Thursday afternoon, which happened to be the coldest day of the winter so far. My Mom and Dad got to our house around 7 and Derek, my Dad and I all started loading up the truck after dinner while my Mom watched the girls. We decided we would just load the truck all the way up with whatever we could lift and have all of our help unload and then go back and load up all of the really heavy things. I think we got to bed around 2am with an almost packed truck. Derek and I were up by 6 to finish loading the last little bit and then he took off in the truck while I started boxing up a few more things. Not even 5 minutes after he left I got a call.........the truck broke down on the road outside of the subdivision. Someone couldn't come to work on the truck for at least 4 hours!! I tried to start our van to load it up and it wouldn't start........Derek's truck was stuck in the back yard from the night before when we were trying to get the trailer out. The scales to weigh everthing close at 4 and we need to get everything weighed if we want to get paid. Ugh! We call the moving truck place back and they said we could get another truck to use in the mean time. Derek and Joe head over to get that and it dies on the way to the house.........they get another one and it dies, and another one and it dies. Then they are told there is another truck they can use, but they couldn't find the keys! So they waited around for someone to bring another truck back that they knew was working and finally we had a truck.......In the mean time Laurie and I were bringing things up from the basement to load once the truck got there. 4 other guys showed up and helped bring up the heavy stuff. Then 3 more guys showed up and they all got Derek's truck out of the back yard............we got everything loaded, had lunch and then unloaded at the new house. The other truck finally got up and running and we got that one unloaded as well! We had about 13 people show up to help us, which we were so grateful for! Mom and Dad were a HUGE help by watching the girls for us. Dad helped out a lot by going back to the old house a couple times with Derek to load up the truck with the last little bit of junk we have. Joe and Laurie were also a HUGE help by spending the ENTIRE day with us on Friday to help with everything. You guys are the BEST! Our neighbors, at the old house, are letting us keep our trailer and boat in their "parking lot" for as long as we need so that helps out a lot too.
But, anyway, we're finally here. Nothing is organized yet. Our internet is up and running, satellite is up, and we should have phone by Friday. Our TV is junk now, but hopefully will get replaced since it's still under warranty. A lot of our stuff is scratched, cracked or broken but may not be such a bad thing because we need to get rid of a lot of stuff. We've already sold our pool table and shed!
We spoiled ourselves by eating out a lot this weekend.......Cheesecake Factory and El Toro were the best! We even bought Guitar Hero(I know, more junk, but this is good, fun junk...right?!)........it was a great deal since our Circuit City is going out of business. Hopefully we'll have everything organized and taken care of soon and I'll get some pics posted. We really weren't sure if we were going to like this house as much as the other but we really do love it. Even though we just found out that the foreclosure on the previous house has been postponed.........oh well, the move is done now and we are happy. If you ask Allie which house she likes better she'll say, " This one!!" We can definitely tell she does! Should be a great 15 months!

Housing Situation

What to do, what to do.............

We are still up in the air with what we should do about this situation we've been put in. There is a possibility that we could buy this home at the sheriff's auction. We've called around and supposedly there is 146,xxx still owed on the house. I'm sure they (the bank) would at least like to get that much and we've heard that they will be there bidding on it......either to get it themselves and try to resell it or just to up the bid to something reasonable for them. The last appraisal of the house was at 174,xxx, or somewhere around there, and the bid has to start out at a certain percentage of that.........I think it will start out around 116,000. We're going to the auction no matter what so we can at least see what the house sells for. If we do decide to bid on it we won't go over the max we've set for it. We have to pay 10% right there at the auction.

We've been looking at a lot of houses that are for rent. Some are in Xenia, some in Beavercreek, Huber Heights, Tipp City, and Fairborn. They've all been nice, for the most part, and we could definitely deal with it for our last 15 months here. One was exceptionally nice and is making our decision of whether or not to just move now and rent it or wait it out for the auction and take the chance of it possibly getting rented in the mean time. Most of the homes we've been looking at are comparable to the one we're in now but rent is going to go up $150 a month for us no matter what we rent. There was one that was bigger, but a lot older and we would be paying about the same there. I think it's been rented since we've looked at it because I can't find it on the rental site anymore!

We've talked with several different people on what we should do and we've heard pros and cons of both and in the end it almost equals out. We'd just be taking more of a "chance" with buying the house. It's all been so stressful. Of course, we're all sick once again and it seems to be dragging on and on. Probably because of all of the stress, lack of sleep, etc. I finally just went in to the urgent care yesterday to get some antibiotics b/c I just knew I had a really bad sinus infection. The entire right side of my face was throbbing, swollen, tender to the touch, etc and I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I think Allie is pretty much over it now, but she still has a nasty sounding cough. Avery, my poor baby, I think is finally starting to feel better. She has so much phlegm that she is constantly choking on it and spitting up. Every time she sneezes she has tons of snot pouring out and then we get to perform "surgery." Hopefully it's over soon!!! All of it!

Anyway, so there is a new poll for you guys to vote on what you would do in our situation. I'll try and list the pros and cons of our options below so you'll know a little bit more about the situation and options we have..

Buying the house we're in

Pros:

• we won't have to move!
• could get a great deal on it and no matter what our mortgage payments will be even less than our current rent
• we'll get to stay in the same ward at church (9:00 am!) and Allie will get to stay in the nursery that she has FINALLY started to really enjoy
• IF we are able to sell it or rent it out it would be an awesome investment
• We'll definitely try and get a follow on here so we'd be here for 2 - 3 more years

Cons:

• We might not be able to sell or rent it and would have to be paying a mortgage and rent wherever we move to next
• If we rent, we might get stuck with someone who won't take care of the house
• We'll have to pay 10% at the auction
• If we don't win the auction we'll have to wind up moving anyway and now have less time to do it

Renting

*the house we're looking at was built in 2004 (just like the one we're in now), in a nice subdivision, in Fairborn (which is really close to base), two story, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, full unfinished walkout basement, nice big and flat back yard, huge deck, small garage*

Pros:

Won't have to worry about selling or renting a house

We'll be closer to base

Walkout basement would be nice (especially during the move)

I think it's a little bit nicer (maybe) than the home we're in now

We'll be closer to the soccer complex that Derek will be playing in for the next 3 months

We'll be closer to our friends for game night

We'll make about $4,000 in the move (DITY)

Cons:

• We'll be paying more in rent
• We'll have to change wards at church
• Allie may have a hard time in nursery once again
• We'll have to find a place to store our boat and pay whatever that fee would be
• We'll be further from the lake
• We'll have to move and we've only been here 9 months

I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting. Derek is meeting with the JAG today so after that meeting we may be able to find out some more and, if so, I'll post it on here. Anyway, if you feel up to it you can vote. If not, that's fine too. Thanks for all of your prayers and support at this stressful time in our lives!