We got the news from our realtor yesterday that our potential home buyer was approved by the underwriters. The last step in selling our home involves gettting FHA to approve our home. I don't forsee any obstacles with this, but as they say "It's never over until the fat lady sings".
It's really strange, but I seem to be more excited for the "little guy", as our realtor calls him, than I am for ourselves. I can't really explain it, but from the first day I met this guy I was rooting for him. Maybe it was because I know what it's like to be a first time home buyer and how exciting the prospect of owning your own home is, or maybe it was just that I knew he would not be getting a house but a home too.
It looks like we will be closing in the middle of Dec. Not exactly a convenient time of the year, but I am definitely grateful that our home even sold as soon as it did with the market like it is. New beginning, here we come!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Back to Work
As with any service business you have your slow times of the year, and with tattooing Nov. and Dec. are the worst. Everyone has Christmas gifts to buy with their extra cash. Normally we have money set aside for these "slack" times of the year, but with our move coming up we have decided that we need to stash away as much as we can for future home purchases.
So, Toby has taken on a second job for some extra cash in addtion to his tattooing job. He has gone back to part time welding and we are all taking a blow from it. It has totally messed up our family routine and Toby, not used to "hard work" anymore, is sore and decrepid. You don't get much excercise sitting on your butt chatting and drawing. :-)
We are very family oriented so this temporary situation has been hard on Summer and I too. We don't get to see him as much as we did before because his hours are different, and when we do see him is either moaning or sleeping. Looking back, I don't know how we ever got through the 6 - 6 kind of job.
Summer misses her daddy, so right when he walks in the door she's like flies on you know what. It's also harder on me because I don't have a helper anymore.....you never really know how much someone helps you until you loose the help.
The only plus to this whole thing is that we will have some extra cash AND that I manage to get school in without any "daddy" interuptions.
So, Toby has taken on a second job for some extra cash in addtion to his tattooing job. He has gone back to part time welding and we are all taking a blow from it. It has totally messed up our family routine and Toby, not used to "hard work" anymore, is sore and decrepid. You don't get much excercise sitting on your butt chatting and drawing. :-)
We are very family oriented so this temporary situation has been hard on Summer and I too. We don't get to see him as much as we did before because his hours are different, and when we do see him is either moaning or sleeping. Looking back, I don't know how we ever got through the 6 - 6 kind of job.
Summer misses her daddy, so right when he walks in the door she's like flies on you know what. It's also harder on me because I don't have a helper anymore.....you never really know how much someone helps you until you loose the help.
The only plus to this whole thing is that we will have some extra cash AND that I manage to get school in without any "daddy" interuptions.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thanksgiving Day
Again this year, I was making Thanksgiving dinner. Not that I mind that much, it's just that Thanksgiving is much better when someone else is doing the cooking and cleaning and all I have to do is bring a dish. :-)
I was a smart girl though, and did most of my cooking the day before. The only thing I had to prepare in the morning was the Turkey and dressing. I'm not one of those kind of people who like to socialize by cooking together with other family members in the kitchen. I don't really like to cook anyway, so I like to get in and out of the kitchen A.S.A.P
Since my dad and his wife were out of town, I ended up having to drive to Saraland and pick my grandmother up from the nursing home, then take her back home after the festivities. Of course, my grandmother is 90 years old and senile so she had no earthly idea who any of us were the whole time she was here.....but I think she still didn't mind getting out for a little while anyway.
Toby's grandmother and Charlie, his brother, were also here. Lucas ended up going to his dad's for Thanksgiving. I was pretty much glad when everything was over so I could sit on my butt and take a rest.
After Charlie took their grandmother home, he came back to the house and we all ended up going to shoot disc golf at the park. Gotta work all that food off somehow!
I was a smart girl though, and did most of my cooking the day before. The only thing I had to prepare in the morning was the Turkey and dressing. I'm not one of those kind of people who like to socialize by cooking together with other family members in the kitchen. I don't really like to cook anyway, so I like to get in and out of the kitchen A.S.A.P
Since my dad and his wife were out of town, I ended up having to drive to Saraland and pick my grandmother up from the nursing home, then take her back home after the festivities. Of course, my grandmother is 90 years old and senile so she had no earthly idea who any of us were the whole time she was here.....but I think she still didn't mind getting out for a little while anyway.
Toby's grandmother and Charlie, his brother, were also here. Lucas ended up going to his dad's for Thanksgiving. I was pretty much glad when everything was over so I could sit on my butt and take a rest.
After Charlie took their grandmother home, he came back to the house and we all ended up going to shoot disc golf at the park. Gotta work all that food off somehow!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
International Festival
I really thought I was beginning to learn my lesson about attending activities that were held on the weekends, but I guess I'll keep subjecting myself until it finally sinks in. Homeschooling has literally spoiled me to being able to enjoy weekly activities without crowds, plus Toby's "weekends" are Monday and Tuesday. Anything that we do is generally on the weekdays while everyone else is at work or school, leaving us to crowd-free entertainment.
We have been attending the Mobile International Festival for the past 3 years and it seems to me that either (a) the crowd gets worse every year or (b) I just never noticed that it was so crowded before. We really enjoy the whole concept behind this event and it is very educational for Summer, but it was SO crowded today that we couldn't even enjoy any of the exhibits. Between finding our way through the maze of people and trying to keep up with each other it made an otherwise pleasant experience very tiring. Whew! I was glad to get out of there.
We have been attending the Mobile International Festival for the past 3 years and it seems to me that either (a) the crowd gets worse every year or (b) I just never noticed that it was so crowded before. We really enjoy the whole concept behind this event and it is very educational for Summer, but it was SO crowded today that we couldn't even enjoy any of the exhibits. Between finding our way through the maze of people and trying to keep up with each other it made an otherwise pleasant experience very tiring. Whew! I was glad to get out of there.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Scams
This is the second time in the past year that we have been involved in a scam. Thank God we have had enough experience with "people of lesser values" to know when someone is trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
The first time was back in May or June when we received a check in the mail for the amount of $2000.00 and some odd dollars. The letter that accompanied the check told us that we had won a lottery of some sort for a large amount of money ( I can't remember how much now) and that all we had to do was to cash the $2000.00 and send them the money so they could do whatever it was they had to do to get our millions rolling in.
Although the check was a real check, we took our suspicions to the bank. They bank said it was real also, but upon further investigation by the bank it was determined that this check was not a legitimate check. Too bad, we could have used a million dollars. :-)
Well, the scam attempt happened this week. Since we are moving hundreds of miles away, I have decided to purge our home of alot of unwanted/unneeded items. After all, we truly don't need many things to exist....the rest is just baggage in our eyes.
I had inherited a china cabinet that included china from my mom when she died. Although it is very nice and holds alot of memories for me, I had decided to sell it. Since we don't really know where we will be living when we move, or how often we might move before we find our "nesting spot" I really didn't want to risk it getting broken as we toted it across the continent. It is really heavy and it's old and I would love to see someone who could truly enjoy it's beauty as my mother did, buy it.
Anyway, I had posted it on a local list a few weeks ago. Immediately I got a response from a man who wanted to purchase the cabinet for the price I had posted it for. I will make a long story short and tell you by the time I recieved a check from this man, I had high suspisions of him. We did receive his check and it also was a real check...just a forged check. He wasted 3 weeks of my selling time, not to mention he was trying to steal from me. This kind of stuff just really pisses me off because I always think about the poor little old lady on a fixed income that may get this new-aged way of stealing and lose what little she does have to some greedy individual with no conscience.
I had a good bit of contact with this man via internet before I realized he was a scammer. I know he has my address and obviously my phone number, because he had called and left a message on my machine to ask if I had received his check. Hopefully, this man is just a thief and not a psycho too.
The first time was back in May or June when we received a check in the mail for the amount of $2000.00 and some odd dollars. The letter that accompanied the check told us that we had won a lottery of some sort for a large amount of money ( I can't remember how much now) and that all we had to do was to cash the $2000.00 and send them the money so they could do whatever it was they had to do to get our millions rolling in.
Although the check was a real check, we took our suspicions to the bank. They bank said it was real also, but upon further investigation by the bank it was determined that this check was not a legitimate check. Too bad, we could have used a million dollars. :-)
Well, the scam attempt happened this week. Since we are moving hundreds of miles away, I have decided to purge our home of alot of unwanted/unneeded items. After all, we truly don't need many things to exist....the rest is just baggage in our eyes.
I had inherited a china cabinet that included china from my mom when she died. Although it is very nice and holds alot of memories for me, I had decided to sell it. Since we don't really know where we will be living when we move, or how often we might move before we find our "nesting spot" I really didn't want to risk it getting broken as we toted it across the continent. It is really heavy and it's old and I would love to see someone who could truly enjoy it's beauty as my mother did, buy it.
Anyway, I had posted it on a local list a few weeks ago. Immediately I got a response from a man who wanted to purchase the cabinet for the price I had posted it for. I will make a long story short and tell you by the time I recieved a check from this man, I had high suspisions of him. We did receive his check and it also was a real check...just a forged check. He wasted 3 weeks of my selling time, not to mention he was trying to steal from me. This kind of stuff just really pisses me off because I always think about the poor little old lady on a fixed income that may get this new-aged way of stealing and lose what little she does have to some greedy individual with no conscience.
I had a good bit of contact with this man via internet before I realized he was a scammer. I know he has my address and obviously my phone number, because he had called and left a message on my machine to ask if I had received his check. Hopefully, this man is just a thief and not a psycho too.
Friday, November 9, 2007
A Needle in a Haystack
I have never been on a road trip as long as the trip to Austin. Although not as horrible as I had imagined, it was still tiring for us all. Strange how sitting down all day can be tiring....but it was. Summer did alot better than what I thought she would. I guess after being tortured for a few hours you get used to the pain, right?
Here we are at a rest stop at the Texas line (Thanks Jennifer, this was a cool place with alot of info).
We left around 7:00 a.m Sunday morning and didn't roll into Austin until 8:00p.m or so. It was dark when we got there. Toby was tired from driving and it was too dark to try and manuever our way around a new city so we grabbed the first hotel we saw......which ended up being, by Austinite standards, the worst part of the city. It's really strange to me what some people's idea of a "bad area" is. Austin's worst part of town is comparable to the area we live in now, in Mobile. Where as, Mobile's worst part of town would be considered Prichard, a much, much bad part of town. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
Anyway, we ended up staying in the same hotel the whole time we were there because we didn't see anything "scary" in the area and plus we had our grounding point where we could find our way around. "A needle in a haystack" is what I felt like while we were there. The city is 5x Mobile's size and it was a bit overwhelming at first.
Most of our days were spent visiting tattoo shops and checking out the very large downtown area. Toby found a few shops that he liked, and that liked him, so we now know for a fact that there is a job waiting for him when we finally arrive there.
With the city being so big, we only saw a small portion of it, but what we saw we really liked. There were no dissappointments.
We did manage to visit the Capitol, which was really cool because it wasn't like a real secured area like I thought it would be. You could come and go as you please and even hang out on the grounds if you wished. Here is a few pics of the grounds and the capitol.
We also managed to visit Zilker Park and accidentally found the Nature and Science Center while we were there.
There are concrete biking/walking trails EVERYWHERE in the city, even special places marked out on the sides of all the streets for pedestrians.....and there were alot of people taking advantage of this comodity. Here is a pic of the view from one of the trails.
Here is a pic of Summer on a archeological dig in the Nature Center. We like to never have got her out of the Nature Center there was so much to do.
This one is of a tunnel/path downtown. Summer and I walked a little bit of it and from what I could tell it ran all through the downtown area.
Here we are at a rest stop at the Texas line (Thanks Jennifer, this was a cool place with alot of info).
We left around 7:00 a.m Sunday morning and didn't roll into Austin until 8:00p.m or so. It was dark when we got there. Toby was tired from driving and it was too dark to try and manuever our way around a new city so we grabbed the first hotel we saw......which ended up being, by Austinite standards, the worst part of the city. It's really strange to me what some people's idea of a "bad area" is. Austin's worst part of town is comparable to the area we live in now, in Mobile. Where as, Mobile's worst part of town would be considered Prichard, a much, much bad part of town. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
Anyway, we ended up staying in the same hotel the whole time we were there because we didn't see anything "scary" in the area and plus we had our grounding point where we could find our way around. "A needle in a haystack" is what I felt like while we were there. The city is 5x Mobile's size and it was a bit overwhelming at first.
Most of our days were spent visiting tattoo shops and checking out the very large downtown area. Toby found a few shops that he liked, and that liked him, so we now know for a fact that there is a job waiting for him when we finally arrive there.
With the city being so big, we only saw a small portion of it, but what we saw we really liked. There were no dissappointments.
We did manage to visit the Capitol, which was really cool because it wasn't like a real secured area like I thought it would be. You could come and go as you please and even hang out on the grounds if you wished. Here is a few pics of the grounds and the capitol.
We also managed to visit Zilker Park and accidentally found the Nature and Science Center while we were there.
There are concrete biking/walking trails EVERYWHERE in the city, even special places marked out on the sides of all the streets for pedestrians.....and there were alot of people taking advantage of this comodity. Here is a pic of the view from one of the trails.
Here is a pic of Summer on a archeological dig in the Nature Center. We like to never have got her out of the Nature Center there was so much to do.
This one is of a tunnel/path downtown. Summer and I walked a little bit of it and from what I could tell it ran all through the downtown area.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Open House
For a few years now we have been attending the Environmental Centers open house. They have it twice a year, and we always mark it on our calendar so we don't forget. Even though it's not really a big attraction, we always end of having a great time. Maybe it's because it's an outside/naturistic event with plenty of animals and kid's activities. It was a perfect day for it too......the temps were in the mid 70's and the sky was crystal clear.
I saw on CNN news this afternoon where Austin was voted one of America's top favorite cities. Well, I guess I'll be finding out for myself if this is true. We will be leaving for Austin early tommorrow morning and I can't wait! I am so excited to be finally seeing the city that we have chosen to be our new home.
I saw on CNN news this afternoon where Austin was voted one of America's top favorite cities. Well, I guess I'll be finding out for myself if this is true. We will be leaving for Austin early tommorrow morning and I can't wait! I am so excited to be finally seeing the city that we have chosen to be our new home.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Happy Halloween!
Today just happened to be one of the best Halloweens we have ever had! Even though we did nothing all that exciting, we had a perfect day.
Around 11:00 a.m we took off to downtown Mobile and ate at 'our church" as we call it. They have a lunch that they sell every Wed for $5 a plate. We have been doing our Wed. church lunch thing for a couple of years now. The lunches are made by little old church ladies so the food is real "old fashioned". We always go inside in the fellowship hall and eat our meal and the little old ladies just love us to death. I really don't know why, because they know wer'e not religious and that Toby is a tattooist, but they always welcome us like we are family anyway.
After our meal we checked out the downtown library. We decided since it was such a beautiful day we would walk to Bienville Square. We figured we could catch the MODA bus back to the car if we got tired walking back to the car.
Our original plan was to check out the new RSA Battle House Hotel, but somehow after visiting the Square and some art galleries it got a little late, and it slipped our mind. Oh well, maybe next time.
Since time was creeping up on us and we wanted to get home and eat before we went trick or treating, we decided to catch the MODA back to the car, only to discover that the MODA had obviously took Halloween off! So we trekked all the way back to the car. Great excercise for the day
Although we had planned to just go around our neighborhood and trick or treat plans changed and we ended up being invited to go trick or treating with some homeschool friends. I was glad we did because Summer had so much more fun with her friends than she would have by herself......and plus I got in some adult chat time.
Summer really racked up on the candy this year. She had so much candy this year, she didn't even mind sharing with Lucas.
Around 11:00 a.m we took off to downtown Mobile and ate at 'our church" as we call it. They have a lunch that they sell every Wed for $5 a plate. We have been doing our Wed. church lunch thing for a couple of years now. The lunches are made by little old church ladies so the food is real "old fashioned". We always go inside in the fellowship hall and eat our meal and the little old ladies just love us to death. I really don't know why, because they know wer'e not religious and that Toby is a tattooist, but they always welcome us like we are family anyway.
After our meal we checked out the downtown library. We decided since it was such a beautiful day we would walk to Bienville Square. We figured we could catch the MODA bus back to the car if we got tired walking back to the car.
Our original plan was to check out the new RSA Battle House Hotel, but somehow after visiting the Square and some art galleries it got a little late, and it slipped our mind. Oh well, maybe next time.
Since time was creeping up on us and we wanted to get home and eat before we went trick or treating, we decided to catch the MODA back to the car, only to discover that the MODA had obviously took Halloween off! So we trekked all the way back to the car. Great excercise for the day
Although we had planned to just go around our neighborhood and trick or treat plans changed and we ended up being invited to go trick or treating with some homeschool friends. I was glad we did because Summer had so much more fun with her friends than she would have by herself......and plus I got in some adult chat time.
Summer really racked up on the candy this year. She had so much candy this year, she didn't even mind sharing with Lucas.
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