April 18, 2007

Hello Everyone,
We're buying a house!
I thought about putting in my subject line "Big News!!" But then I thought that a "Big News" subject line would imply either that I had gotten engaged, or that I was pregnant. I haven't just gotten engaged (already married, thank you!), and I'm not pregnant, so I decided just to be boring and actually write the big news in my subject.
The market is heating up here, I guess because it is springtime. I hope it is heating up equally in South Florida... So we've been thinking about buying a house soon because our lease is up in June, and I want to go to California/Utah in July, so we needed to do something soon so we'd have time to close and then actually move before going on vacation. So we've been looking at houses online for a while and on Saturday we went with our realtor to look at several houses in person. The first one I really liked, but it was quite expensive, Ben thought it was too small, and the yard was just sort of so-so. Then we saw 3 or 4 that I didn't like at all. Then the last one I had sort of written off before we saw it, because it is 2 story. But I ended up liking it a lot once we went inside, and the yard is great, and best of all it was the least expensive of all the houses we had seen (about $90,000 less than the house I really liked but we missed out on a couple weeks ago). We will actually be able to fairly painlessly be able to do a 10-year mortgage, which would be SO great.
So, here's what the house is like. 2 story, 4 bedrooms (3 upstairs, master downstairs, so if we keep toys and clothes downstairs, which I plan to do, I shouldn't have to be climbing up and down stairs too much), 2700 sq ft, more or less, 2.5 bathrooms, a third of an acre, an above-ground pool in the back (but a huge one-- 24 feet, and a really nice large deck built around it), a hot tub (this is the boys' favorite feature of the house-- they call it a "hot bath"), a covered patio that stretches across the back of the house, and close walking distance to school. So, if we dont' change our mind in the next 8 days (Texas has this weird law saying that buyers can retract offers for any reason within 10 days), we will close on May 18, lease back the house to the current owners until June 1, and then have the month of June to paint/move/etc. before our lease is up. I think that's pretty doable. I was/am a little nervous about making a decision like this so fast, but we always seem to be trying to buy a house in very fast-moving markets, and as it was there were 3 other offers in on this house the same day we put in our offer, so I guess that's just the way it goes.
So, what else to report? Here's a couple of funny things. Mosey is getting to be quite a talker, as I've said. Every day he says things I want to remember and write down, and then of course I forget. On Sunday we were going on a walk around the block and Mosey saw a house with the door left open. He said to me, "A cockroach is going to crawl in that house and then they'll have to get the thing that dies the cockroaches and then it will die the cockroach!" I guess you can tell he's spent his formative years in South Florida. Although I hear Austin has roaches, too, I just haven't seen any yet. Probably when summer comes around.
On Tuesday I took the boys to Inflatable Wonderland again for their "reward" for good school and church behavior for the month of March. On the way out, Brigham was talking about the "Lonesome Trail," which I gathered was from a song they're singing in school. He asked me what "lonesome trail" meant, and I told him it was probably a trail that people walked on alone, so they felt lonely on the trail. Brigham then said to me, "But mom, the Holy Ghost is with you even when you're alone, so you don't need to feel lonely." Awwww, sweet kid, huh? And then Joseph said, "Yeah, and also there's lots of germs that live on your body, so that makes you never really alone too!" LOLOLOLOL!!! That is so classically Joseph, I totally cracked up.
The only other news is that I got our taxes done. It actually didn't take as long as I thought, and I got done Monday afternoon, a whole 30-something hours before the deadline! And the other good news is that we are getting a nice refund. I know, I know, ideally we should either not get a refund, or actually have to pay some taxes so that the IRS doesn't get the benefit of interest on all the tax we've been paying over the year, but psychologically it is really nice to get a refund. Especially when we'll be having to put a down payment on a house and closing costs, etc. over the next few weeks.
I will close this letter with a small prayer request. I've been a part of an online support group for women going through infertility for several years now. I've known many women from the infertility/IVF bulletin boards, through pregnancy bulletin boards, and on to parenting bulletin boards. One woman from this group has a daughter the same age as Brigham and Joseph, and boy/girl twins the same age as Mosey. Almost 2 years ago she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer (she was only 36 at the time). She went through several months of chemo and a double mastectomy, and was declared in remission 6 months ago. Well, over the past couple of months her tumor activity levels (I think that's what it is anyway) in her blood have been going up a bit, so she went in for a PET scan last week, and discovered that her cancer has returned, this time all throughout her bones and a suspicious spot on her lung. Two days ago she had a bone biopsy to confirm it was cancer, and what type. She got the results today that it is cancer, but the pathology report on exactly what kind of cancer is not yet in. I guess 2 types are treatable, and one is not. She will not recover from this cancer, a relapse this close to being done with treatment pretty much guarantees that she will someday die of this disease. But she wants so much to live as long as possible to be able to raise her kids and see them grow. So anyway, would each of you please say a quick prayer for Natalie and Tom Trottier, and their kids Gabrielle (great name, huh?), Spencer, and Marissa? Pray that she will get good news about the cancer type (if there can be "good" news about what kind of cancer you have), that her husband and kids will be strong through all of this, that Natalie and her husband can have some peace, and that Natalie can live many more years with her family. Thanks, it means a lot to me, and I do believe in the power of prayer.
Enjoy your Thursdays everyone!