Sewing, Museum and Sledding

Time is quickly running out for us here. It's going to be bittersweet....we've made a couple really great friends that we don't want to leave, but we're also ready to start anew(more time together as a family, new things to do, new home that is actually ours...etc). We're trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with our friends before we all start to move away. It's been tough with sicknesses and lots of other activities. We were able to finally get us all together for some sewing at my house a couple weeks ago. Thank you, ladies, for teaching me how to sew!!!! I now have two projects done and am hoping to find some time to do more....it's quite rewarding when you see the finished product.

Next up was the Boonshoft Museum. Our membership is going to be expiring very soon so we've got to take advantage of it and the sweet discounts we can get at other area musuems. Our girls LOVE this place!!

Adeline

Jail Time!
Shopaholic


Then yesterday we went sledding. It was fun for the first 10 minutes and then Allie had had enough. We don't have the best gloves for her so I guess I can't blame her. These girls are just so stinkin' cute together...

cute little Norah all bundled up

here you can see Allie was cold...Adeline was content with eating the snow!

JUNK

yeah, the house we have our contract on.....is junk. No wonder I had such a bad feeling about it! Derek is there right now and it would cost us a good $30k for it to even be liveable really. Even then, Derek said it's very apparent the guy is a smoker, from the smell and the wall and ceiling discoloration...we wouldn't be able to tolerate that! We just barely made it within the 12 days to only lose $100 (I thought it was going to be $1500 so I was livid w/ our realtor man for telling us it was by far the best house).... we had 2 days to spare though, thankfully!

I'm done with the idea of getting something to fix up!! Not worth it, plus we NEED to have time together as a family again. It's been a long time :(

Cabin Fever

We finally got out of the house for a little bit yesterday after being stuck inside for the past week. Today, while Avery was napping, Allie and I made a Princess Castle....and now we're freezing so we probably won't be out again for another week!!

San Antonio House

Well, we have a contract on a house. We're supposed to close on it mid March.....Derek is going to fly down this weekend for the inspection to make sure everything looks good with it since it's 18 years old. He'll also be looking at other houses while he's there....just in case.
We've been looking for a house basically ever since we found out we were going to San Antonio. We're so excited to finally own a home (and for the sweet tax return.) This house, like I said earlier, is an older home and could definitely use some updates. The thing that attracted us the most to this house was the fact that it is in a gated community and the schools are the best in this area. We really want our kids to have a great education and want to feel safe so this was perfect for us. It's also in the highly sought after Hill Country, which could be good when we go to try to sell it in four years when it's time to move again. It's within a 20-30 minute drive to EVERYTHING - work (LAckland AFB), Sea World, Six Flags, shopping, downtown. The biggest downfall to it is the fact that it's older and needs the updates. Okay, maybe not needs.....but I want them. I've been really down about the house since we bought it. Just because all of the other houses we were looking out were absolutely gorgeous (granted, a lot that we were looking at were about 100,000 out of our price range)....which brings me to another point about why this house is good for us. We got it for a great price! Derek knows a lot of people that live in San Antonio from work and they are all amazed at the home we got. They say that is an incredible price and the BEST area to live in hands down. They all think the house is really nice too. Now I just need to see it! Which, I really am starting to. We've been watching a lot of the DIY network and so I've started to really see the potenital this home could have. So I'm excited to see what we can do! Anyway, here are the pics of the house. Stay tuned for the updates (which will hopefully be done by the end of the summer). Our main focus will be the kitchen and bathrooms.

Just An Update

Well, there must be some nasty bug going around. Avery was up all night Saturday with projectile vomiting ( I don't remember experiencing anything like this with Allie when she was this age.) I had to change my clothes three times, Derek had to change his once and my Dad had to change his too. I felt so bad for her. She's acting fine now, but has a runny nose. Then Sunday night Derek was up all night doing the same thing.....his was so bad though that we had to end up taking him to the ER because he was so dehydrated and couldn't breathe. Allie has had some diarrhea but luckily no vomiting....I've been lucky so far and am still healthy.

We just found out the other day that Derek has been extended. We'll be here until May now, which is good because Derek is behind on his thesis and this extra time will help him get caught up and hopefully get him a better grade. He also gets to keep his same assignment to Lackland (San Antonio) which was the other reason he didn't want to extend in the first place. The only down side to all of this is that our landlords are wanting to move back into this house and we only have a lease until the end of March! So I don't know what we're going to do about all of that. We'll figure it out eventually I guess. We're still looking for a house down in Texas....the last offer we put on a house wasn't accepted (this time it was exactly the asking price). Oh well, we'll find something eventually.

Had to get out and take stuff back to the library today so I ran some quick errands. I got all of this stuff for........65 cents total! It really pays to use coupons paired with sales!!

Here the girls are enjoying their snack.


Oh, and we have been preparing for our move. Even though it's postponed a little now we'll still continue to slowly pack things up. We've been selling a lot too! So far we've sold a lot of our "bigger" things and we've made exactly $350 on it all. We hope to have a garage sale before we move to help lighten our load some more as well!

Well, I hope everyone else is keeping healthy. Until next time....

Snow Fun!

Wow! It's warming up fast....kind of makes me sad that all of the snow is pretty much gone. Don't get me wrong, I like the warm weather and everything....but I just started thinking that our chances of seeing snow in the next four years are pretty slim. We took what could be our last opportunity in a while and went out and built a snowman with the little snow that we had left. Okay, so I built a snowman and the girls watched in awe at their Mommy's amazing talent. Allie was excited about it and named her Crystal. It was cute because afterwards she was running around in the snow and I watched out of the corner of my eye as she slowly approached Crystal and gave her a hug! Silly girl. Avery wasn't having much fun...she was wearing Allie's old boots which are two sizes too big...she couldn't walk a step without falling!

Last week, I think, maybe two weeks ago...my memory is horrible nowadays. But, anyway, so we went over to the Huber's and went sledding down their little hill in their backyard. You could tell Abby was already a pro while Allie and Avery shied away at first. Allie ended up doing pretty good and Avery enjoyed it too.

Random Act of Kindness

So, today I was out getting a few groceries. I had both girls in tow, Avery asleep in my arms and Allie walking right along beside me. Since Avery was asleep I really didn't want to do the self check out, but that was pretty much all that was open (at least on the end of the store that I parked). So I went ahead and did it and let Allie scan each item. As we were finally finishing the man at the self checkout next to us ran over and said, "I'd like to pay for your groceries today." I'm sure I stood there in shock for a moment, but then I said, "No thanks, I'm okay." He then went on to say that he really wanted to and that it was a government card that needed to be used up anyway. He was getting ready to swipe his card and I said, well at least let me use my coupons! See, I had everything sort of planned out and I was pretty sure I'd be getting my groceries pretty cheap after I scanned them.......turns out the $25 went down to $6 (should have been $5 though because one of the coupons didn't get scanned). Anyway, he let me scan my coupons and he said, "Well, you're getting it for practically nothing after all of that why don't you go and get some more." I told him that it was okay, I didn't need any more and that he should use it on someone else. So he hurried up and swiped his card to pay for my groceries. I was really taken aback by his thoughtfullness from the get go, but after he actually swiped the card and all was said and done I was fighting back the tears. I really didn't need any help, as far as money goes, but his random act of kindness touched me. That was something I needed. Love and compassion for your fellow man, a complete stranger. I learned a great lesson today from Rick, who is moving to Arizona tomorrow. Something that I need to do a better job of myself. It doesn't even have to be paying for someones groceries, but something as little as letting someone take your cart at Aldi and letting them keep the quarter could even make someone's day. The tears were streaming down my face as I got in the car.
I've been touched today by a random act of kindnenss.

Last Day of Gymnastics

A few weeks ago Allie went to her last gymnastics class. It was either time to move her up to the next class or just stop. We couldn't tell if Allie was really all that interested in it or not. We know she enjoyed seeing her friend Adeline there and dinner with her afterwards every Monday! When we would ask her if she wanted to go in without Mommy or Daddy she said she didn't think so. I think she probably would learn more if we weren't with her and it would definitely have to be more structured than it was in this other class. But in the end, we just decided to take her out of it for now. We have a super busy schedule for the next 3 months with sports and such for Derek......the only nights we don't have anything going on are the weekends. Plus, we will be busy packing up for our upcoming move. All in all, Allie did always have a smile on her face at gymnastics so hopefully we can find something like this out in Texas!

Christmas, NYE & More

We celebrated Christmas here at our house in Ohio this year. Our first year not celebrating in Indiana, kinda sad just because it was so different. We were excited about having it at our own house this year and creating some new traditions, but it crept up on us so quickly we didn't really even do anything (besides opening up new pj's on Christmas eve). It was fun to see how Allie really didn't complain at all about going to bed so that Santa would come. The girls slept in Christmas morning and we took a video of them coming down the stairs. Their faces lit up and the went right over the their new kitchen set and started playing! We were happy to have my Mom and Dad here as well (and Bella & Gage)!! Who knows where we'll be for Christmas next year.



Allie & Bella

The girls and I headed back with my parents on that Sunday to give Derek a break from us so he could concentrate on his thesis. New Years Eve was spent at Grandma's house with lots of family, pizza and Chicken Foot! We let the girls stay up until 10:30.....and then I was in bed at 11:30.

For New Years day we were at my aunt and uncle's house for our Brooks family Christmas. I always love spending time with family and there was a great Purdue basketball game to watch!!
Avery was upset b/c she was told she couldn't open her present yet!

In the mean time, Avery has started going potty on the big girl potty. Not all the time, mainly just after we change her diaper. She rarely goes either....just sits there. But sometimes she will pull at her pants and run to the bathroom. When we get there and put her on the potty she always has a freshly wet diaper so I think she knows when she's went, but doesn't quite understand it all yet. We're not in any hurry to get her potty trained because I'm sure she would just revert back once we move in a couple months. So we're not going to push her until we get to Texas. She is obsessed with wiping, however! We always seem to go through our toilet paper rather quickly or it has been strung out all over the bathroom floor. After she goes potty, or whenever she feels like it really, she'll go grab some tp and wipe her bottom.....she will sometimes then proceed to wipe her nose and then clean the floor! She is such a crack up! She has even been known to go up to other people and try to wipe their bottoms!! So, you better watch out!!


That's about it for now. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a wonderful year!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Last night, after our trip to see the lights at Clifton Mills we decided to come home and have some hot chocolate. We were all pretty cold, but Allie was especially cold. See, we had just come home from gymnastics and so we were in a hurry to get ready to head out with Kevin and Tami. Well, we didn't grab gloves for either of the girls.....Allie had on her lighter winter coat AND crocs for her shoes! It was sooo muddy there and so her feet were wet fast. I know she had to be freezing. I felt so horrible! We finally made it into the "restaurant" part of the mills and we thought about getting hot chocolate. Not gonna happen when it's like $3.00 for a small cup. We promised her some when we got home. I had her go up and get her pj's on while I fixed her hot chocolate........I had to take some pics b/c she just looked so cute! :)