So it's been over a month since I last updated my blog. I have gotten several complaints from friends wondering why I haven't updated it. (I guess people are actually reading this!) Winter is upon us and that has brought cold weather and snow. The snow fall here isn't such a big deal as we are use to Michigan winters. (and we are very glad we aren't battling this Michigan winter!) But the cold temperatures are outrageous! We have had days of actual temp in the -11 (yes that is negative 11!) Add the windchill on top and we have seen -25! It has been very hard to adjust to such cold temps. The kids don't understand why they can't go out to play and why they have to be driven to school when we only live a block away. We also are finding that our 1300 sq. ft. of apartment space has become even smaller when there is no escape to the outside.

Christmas was yesterday. This Christmas season has been interesting. It was hard to decide which traditions we do just to do and which traditions we do because it has meaning. I waited for the kids to ask, when do we get to do gingerbread houses? When do we get to bake? When do we get to celebrate Jesus' birthday with cake? None of which were ever asked of me. So that lead me to ponder, what is important during the Christmas season? I also struggled with the feeling that we weren't in a place that is home. We are living in this townhouse on a temporary basis. I don't know how long temporary is, but in my mind, this is a stepping stone and I don't feel settled. I struggled with having traditions and feeling like home when I don't really feel like I am home. In the end, we did bake cookies for Santa, we did have cake yesterday to celebrate Jesus' birthday. The kids seemed to enjoy Christmas just like every other year and we were together as a family.

An update on our house. We officially took the house off the market in December. Our contract with the realtor had expired and we decided that since we weren't there to keep the driveway and sidewalk clean and since there aren't a lot of houses sold in the winter we would not renew the contract at this time. Our hope is to do some painting in the spring to make it seem new again and relist in the spring. I am not optimistic that it will sell even after relisting. The economy is so bad right now and houses are a dime a dozen, but I also know that if we don't try it will never be sold. So we will get back on the house selling band wagon this spring and hope and pray that someone will think our house is the best house for them. And if not, the contingency plan is to use it as a vacation home until the market is better in a couple of years and sell it then.

RacObama Wins ~ Part 2

This morning we told the kids that Barack Obama won the election. Evan told us "I know, I voted for him."

Enough said.

RacObama wins

As Evan and I were driving home after picking him up from preschool today, he precedes to tell me that "RacObama won in our class today" Really. I asked him who he voted for. He told me "RacObama", "but in the other class (the other PreK class) NcCain won" He then asked me, "so who really won RacObama or NcCain" I told him we would have to wait to see.........

St. Joseph

So we went home to winterize the "beach house" this weekend. While we were there, we finally buried St. Joe. We have had the statue for several months, but he has been sitting on top of the cupboard in the kitchen. So we decided in a last ditch effort to get the house sold before winter sets in, we would bury the statue. I got a call today from our realtor that we had a showing scheduled for today. We haven't had a showing for several weeks now so I wonder is St. Joe going to work now that we have accepted the idea of having this property for a long period of time? Stay tuned.........

The Beach House

We have emotionally come to terms with the fact that we might not sell our house anytime soon. We have been lovingly referring to it as the "beach house". We have decided that really there are worse places in the world to have a property that you can't get rid of. At least it is a place that is a great place to visit in the summer. Living in a land locked state it is nice to have a place you can go to that is minutes from the lake. Of course, it isn't a property that we would have purchase as a vacation home, but we have it so we might as well enjoy it. So ideas of summer vacation plans are now revolving around the
"beach house"

Now what?

We had a lead on a potential renter for our house. Long story short, she just emailed me to tell me that after telling me how wonderful my house was and how excited they were to rent it that they have found another place to rent that is furnished and "inexpensive" We are not really interested in renting the place, we would rather just sell it, but since that hasn't worked for us as of yet, and this opportunity kind of fell into our lap, we decided it couldn't hurt. We don't want to advertise the house as a rental and we don't want to put just anyone into the house, so when a friend connected us with this family, I thought for sure it was a perfect temporary solution to help us ride out this crazy market. So I sit here now and wonder, how many tests are we going to be put through with this house before something happens in our favor? At the rate we are going, we will never own another home because we can't get this one sold and even if we do get it sold, we will walk away with little to no equity which means we will have no money for a down payment on a home here. And as times goes on, all of our savings will be sucked up by the double housing that we are currently paying, the mortgage payment there and the rent here. It is amazing how many people tell us to just foreclose on the house, "let it go", "give it back to the bank" I don't see how that solves the problem. All that does is make us people who don't keep their word and people with bad credit who really won't ever own another home considering the new tighter conditions to qualify for a mortgage. Moving back isn't going to solve the problem either. Now what?

Riding a bike

Ok, so here is a proud moment. Evan who just turned 5 has been trying to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels. We have tried a couple of times to take the training wheels off and work with him to ride the bike and each time he just wasn't quite ready. Most of the time it is the older two kids who are encouraging Evan to ask dad to help him. Evan is interested in learning, but it is mostly Aaron who is encouraging Evan to try again. Well, this last weekend, we were at a festival all day on Saturday. Bill and I were tired from a long day of walking and standing in line for important things like face painting and moon walks. Got home late in the afternoon and of course I didn't plan ahead for dinner so I ran to the store to get some food for dinner. I drive into the driveway and immediately hear Aaron and Jenna calling to me saying "Mom, come here and see this" I turn the corner and to my surprise, here comes Aaron running along side Evan riding his bike without the training wheels! Aaron took it upon himself to train his brother to ride his bike and apparently Evan was ready because he was riding like he had been riding for years! I went inside and asked Bill if he knew what was going on. He said yeah, they asked and I told Aaron if he was careful with his brother he could help him. I told him he better go look because he was riding his bike. Aaron was doing such a great job of sticking with his brother to make sure he was safe and Evan was doing a great job of balancing. He even within minutes was able to start the bike himself without any help from Aaron. Apparently all it took was a moment when dad was too tired to run beside a bike and Aaron willing to help to get Evan to learn how to ride his bike! Go figure.