May 22, 2007

Hi Everyone,
Well, yesterday as of about 5 PM we now have the dubious honor of being in possession of three houses. Yes, our house closed yesterday! The former owners will be staying in until the middle of next week, so it'll still be a few days before we can start doing the projects we want to do before moving in.
So right now we own a house in Florida and own and rent 2 houses in Texas! Hmmm... Something wrong with this picture. Our lease is up in this house June 30, so only one month of paying 2 mortgages AND rent.
We're thinking of possibly taking our Florida house off the market and renting it out for 2 or 3 years until the market recovers. I just don't really feel like being one of those sorry souls who has to sell their house AFTER the market has collapsed. Of course this is a little risky because the market may never recover, and even if we do rent it out, that won't cover all of our expenses for that house. We still have a bit of research to do before we decide one way or the other, but things are just not looking good in South Florida and if we can wait a couple of years, it may end up being by far the best move. Or maybe not. That's the risk of investment I guess.
Ok, so on to the far more interesting saga of our weekend! Just kidding, it wasn't that interesting. Saturday afternoon I took the boys to see Spiderman 3. I guess it got poor reviews by the critics, but I loved it! I think it might be my favorite of the three. It was pretty intense, but the boys liked it too and were not too scared. I just like the fact that the spiderman movies have such a strong good moral message, and even if there is violence, it is all good vs. evil violence. Anyway, I'm no movie critic, but I liked it and recommend it.
After the movie we ate dinner at the food court at the mall, and then I was hoping the boys would fall asleep in the car (they had been up late the night before). But they were having none of that, so eventually we made our way to the Deutchfest in Pflugerville. I realized when we got there that I had no cash in my purse, so we didn't end up actually going inside the park to the festival ($4 admission fee). But instead we went to a great little petting zoo they had set up in front of the entrance. Our friend Eddie lent us $6 so the boys and I could go in, and we probably spent 30-40 minutes in there! It was fantastic. There was an area with baby goats, piglets, chickens, and ducks, and then another area with baby rabbits, ducklings and chicks. Also there was a cow and a horse for the boys to pet and feed. My boys loved it! The kids were allowed to pick up any/all the animals, and they were all surprisingly tame and let the kids pick them up without scratching/pecking. Mosey was in heaven. If he could carry Angel around all day, he would. So he just picked up rabbit after rabbit, duckling after duckling, and seriously was in heaven. Have you all read the children's book "Olivia?" There is one page that says something like, "In the morning, after she gets up, and moves the cat, and brushes her teeth, and combs her ears, and moves the cat, Olivia gets dressed." The illustrations are hilarious because they show Olivia (she's a pig) carrying this poor cat around grasped under her front legs, and it just looks EXACTLY like how Mosey carries Angel around the house. So anyway, Mosey had a really wonderful time. Joseph got very good at catching the big chickens and was quite proud of himself. We all wanted to pick up some of the cute little piglets (only 2 weeks old), but those things are SO LOUD AND SO WIGGLY!!! You would never guess how strong those little tiny things are, and how incredibly LOUD they are!! One of the farm workers there told me that they have to be that way because when the 400-500 lb sow lays down to nurse the piglets, if she accidentally lays on one of the piglets, they only way it will survive is if it can VERY vigorously thrash around and squeal at the top of its lungs to get the sow to move off of it. I didn't have my camera with me, and even if I had, it was almost dark when we got there so it would have been too dark for pictures. But they boys had a great time, and 2 out of the 3 fell asleep on the way home. Oh, yeah, and we also saw fireflies for the first time ever!! So cool!! Just these little tiny lights that blink on and off. The boys loved looking for them as we walked back to our van.
After church on Sunday Ben and I played a nail-biting game of Othello. For the first half of the game I was trouncing him-- at one point I think he only had 2 or 3 pieces on the board. But the last half of the game, sadly, was a slow bleed for me, and I ended up losing by like 49 to 15 I think... I'll have to play him again and earn my honor back!
So anyway, that was our weekend. Yesterday was a pretty normal Monday. Today I've got a bunch of stuff to do-- WW meeting in a half hour, then a YW meeting, then I have to fax a few more documents to our loan people, then I have to pay bills, I have tons of laundry to do, and I'm trying to finish up a series of 4 drawings I'm doing for someone. They need to be delivered before Father's Day, but after I come back from D.C. I'll probably be pretty busy proofing pictures, getting invitations made, and then working on our new house, so I really need to finish these up this week.
So anyway, have a great day everyone!