A Quick (OK, it's pretty long) Update

Things have been HECTIC in our household since I blogged back in March. The biggest event that happened was that we moved! However, the move did not go as we had expected.

When we wrote up our contract with the builder of the new home we would be purchasing in Graham, we told him that we needed to sell and close our house in Colorado before we could close and purchase the new house he was building. He was kind enough to let us rent the house until ours sold so we would only have to move once. We wrote the contract stating those terms and everything was peachy keen.

Unfortunately, two weeks before we were scheduled to move into the house the builder called me and told me we needed to schedule our closing date. I told him our house hadn't sold yet and reminded him that our contract stated that we would rent. He informed me that he couldn't rent it to us because technically the house wasn't his and his bank wouldn't let him, and insurance wouldn't let him, and so on and so on. My response was, "you didn't know all this before we wrote the contract?" His response was no but he continued to pressure me to purchase and close the house even asking if I have ever heard of a bridge loan. I told him we weren't going to do that because we were actively trying to sell our house and that I was confident it would sell. He threw that in my face and said that he was banking on the fact that I told him it would sell fast. I replied that I never said that it would sell the day the sign went in the yard, but that I was still confident that it would sell fast. (At the time it had only been for sale for three weeks. I also didn't tell him that I was doing For Sale By Owner). Long story short, I told him we needed to be released from the contract since he was no longer willing to follow through with his end of the bargain. He said all he had to do was call the title company and the earnest money would be released, but I knew better after selling real estate for a couple of years. I called the title company myself, they faxed me the earnest money release form, Greg and I signed it and faxed it back, and then we waited, and waited, and waited for the builder to go by and sign the paper.

In the meantime I had two weeks to find us a new place to live. Which meant we had to rent and wanted a short term lease or a month to month lease since we really want to buy once our house in Colorado sells. I spent a full day when I should have been packing making phone calls and scouring the internet. Low and behold I finally found an ad online for a furnished cabin in the town of Jacksboro, which is 30 miles away from Graham. I called, and the owner was more than happy to do a month to month lease and we signed the lease the next day. I must admit, I'm LOVING our temporary home. It is on a 90 acre RV ranch with a fully stocked fishing "lake" that Greg loves. There are hiking trails that Parker and I explore and even some swings that I can push him on. The one downfall: the cabin is one big open room. And Parker doesn't sleep through the night. I was afraid it was going to be a bad situation for Greg since he never realized how much Parker was awake during the night since I turn the monitor off in our bedroom when I am taking care of him. But, I began feeding him a bigger snack before bed and amazingly he is sleeping better through the night. Normally only waking around 3:00 for a nursing.

Since we were no longer moving straight into our new home, I was then forced to pack for several different situations. I had to pack boxes for storage. Then I had to pack for the necessities we would need in the cabin. And finally, we were spending a week in Oklahoma before we made our final move to Texas, so I had to pack for Oklahoma. It was crazy and I'll just leave it at that.

During all of the chaos of packing I was still actively trying to sell our house. And by active, I mean active. I had it advertised in the newspaper, online, and even on the local radio stations (One station asked me to come in and read the ad and I was more than happy to do so. I loved getting a chance to flex my theater muscle. After all, radio is the theatre of the mind. At least that's what the Manager of the radio station told me. She was impressed that I nailed the reading in one shot. But she also has DJ's on her radio station who say "Ummm" every two seconds. I'm just sayin'). We had an open house every Saturday and Sunday, and sometimes on Mondays. I don't know if many of you who are reading have ever had an open house before, but let me just say that when you do, you want your house to look a certain way. As in, you want it to be PERFECT and CLEAN. Which meant that half of my week was spent packing, the other half was spent cleaning and staging the house for sale.

We were scheduled to do the big move on Saturday, April 9th. That meant the previous Sunday was my last open house. As fate would have it, a young couple came to our house and fell in love with it. The following evening they brought their entire family over to look at it as well. The next morning I got a phone call from the potential buyers mother. Apparently her financing wasn't going to work out, which was a bummer, but the good news was that she was interested in purchasing it since her daughter couldn't. By the following Thursday we were under contract and although I wanted to call the builder up and rub it in his face, I kept my cool since he still hadn't released us from our contract. I know that at that point we could have proceeded with the builder but Greg and I just felt that things were happening for a reason and that this would give us the opportunity to look at houses more thoroughly and not rush into something.

Obviously, the few days prior to the move were a whirlwind and were it not for the help from friends who came by to help us load the U-haul or baby sit Parker, I probably would have had a nervous break down.

Now, in the past, any time I drive away for the last time from a house that I'm selling I turn into a big bawling mess. I figured this time would be the same since it was the home I brought Parker home too from the hospital and he spent most of his first year of life there. Maybe I've gotten jaded in my old age, but I didn't shed a single tear as I drove away. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Maybe a good cry would have done me some good. But I had other things to stress over at that point. Like Parker's birthday party and then moving into a place I had never seen before. You know. Just normal things that happen every day.

The week in Oklahoma was great. I got to visit family and friends and had a great time at Parker's first birthday party (blog post coming soon)! The following Friday we drove down to TX and began settling into our "temporary home". The next day we drove into Graham to do some shopping at Wal-Mart and we drove by what would have been our new home. I was pretty surprised to discover a Realtors for sale sign in the yard. He still hadn't released me from the contract yet and since we had wrote a closing date of May 1st I knew he hadn't told the listing Realtor this information. I didn't hesitate a second to call that Realtor and explain the situation. They were very surprised but by Monday they had went to the builder and had him sign the paper work we needed to be released from the contract. The irony of the whole story is that they are now trying to close our house in Colorado by this Friday, which means we could have closed on the house here in TX by the date we established in the contract. If only that builder would have treated us better he could have had a sale. Instead, the house is still not completed. I told Greg things worked out just the way they should have because what would have happened is that even though he told us it would be finished by April 14th, we would have arrived that day ready to move in and would not have been able too.

Instead, now we have the joy of house shopping. I say that sarcastically. Don't get me wrong. I love looking at houses and could tour them all day long. But I don't like it when I'm willing and able to buy a house and the houses that are available for sale are priced at market value, yet we would still have to dump $30,000 into them to bring them up to date. Nor do I like the price of property taxes in the great state of Texas. Holy Moly! $300-$500 a month going to property taxes are ridiculous. Every one has told us that it's OK because Texas doesn't charge state tax. Well, we pulled out Greg's pay stubs and we would happily pay $120 a month in state taxes to not have to pay a larger property tax.

So that's where we are. We have an appointment to look at two properties tonight, but I'm not holding my breath. One I am in love with but it's at the top end of our price range. The other I haven't seen and it says it's updated but most people just throw some white paint on walls and call a home updated which just doesn't fly with me.

Wish us luck, and hopefully soon I'll be able to blog about purchasing a new house. And hopefully this time it wont fall through!

What I'm Lovin' Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie for her Wednesday blog party again!















I'm loving this brown paper bag scrapbook my sister had one of her friends send me! I can't wait to put some of Parker's pictures from his fall photo shoot in it and proudly display it for years to come!


I'm loving that The Elks Lodge is having a chili and dessert bake off on Friday night! (I'm entering a chocolate chip bundt cake!)

I'm loving threadUP.com It's so neat it deserves its own blog post, but there is a link on the right hand side of my blog so you can check it out for yourself!

I'm loving that we are going to Durango this weekend with some friends! What I'm loving even more is that we will be staying in a log cabin for FREE!

I'm loving that this was a MOPS week!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

Kings Chef Diner

I recently blogged about our trip to Colorado Springs. However, I purposely omitted one important part of our trip because I felt it deserved it's own post!

If anyone reads this and happens to go to Colorado Springs, CO, you HAVE to go to the Kings Chef Diner in downtown for breakfast. I promise, you will not be disappointed! In fact, if we ever go to Springs and I'm unable to eat there for whatever reason, I am in a serious piss-poor mood! I'm actually shocked when I meet people who live in Springs and they have never ate there.

The first time we ventured inside the "little purple castle" we weren't quite sure what to expect. First of all, the place is tiny. I don't even think it seats ten people. Then, virtually every available inch of wall space is covered in awards. That was when I knew we hit the jack-pot! The first thing I ever ordered from there was "The Grump". Oh my goodness. It was heaven in my mouth! I'm sure the other entrees are pretty good as well, but I've never been able to get past the yummy Grump goodness and I order it every time we go!

Greg on the other hand has tried a little of this and a little of that and I know for a fact he has never been disappointed. Not only is the food to-die-for...the portions are monstrous! I have always ordered a half-order and literally have to remind myself to stop eating before I get sick. I would hate to see what a full size Grump looks like!

The Kings Chef Diner has recently opened another venue in downtown Springs. That's where Greg and I decided to go during this particular visit. It has the same great menu so I knew we'd be safe. It's a much bigger facility and the staff is just as friendly as they are at "the castle" so we were pretty satisfied! And to my surprise, they added a new item to the menu! A 1/4 order of The Grump! That's what I ordered. As soon as my last bite was gone I immediately wanted more but after I sat there for a minute I realized that I was full.

Greg ordered a breakfast burrito on this particular visit. One interesting thing we learned when we first arrived in Colorado is that green chili is a staple food. Being the Okies that we are, we had no clue what it was. Basically it's almost like a salsa but it's made with green chili's and it usually has pieces of pork in it. I'm slowly starting to like green chili, but Greg has fully embraced it. I had noticed on other visits to my favorite diner that there were always awards for "The Best Green Chili" but neither Greg nor I had ever tried it. Lucky for Greg, it came with his meal. Let's just say, he fell in love! It's a little different than traditional green chili in the sense that it is vegetarian and it's habanero based. I took one bite and my lips were burning for a good ten minutes. I don't see how Greg has acquired a taste for food that is so spicy, but needless to say, he bought two jars of the stuff to bring home (one for him and another for a friend).

Last night we had leftovers for dinner, which for Greg included a hamburger. He said it was starting to taste "microwaved" so next thing I knew, he was running to the fridge and came back with the jar of green chili. He claimed that the magical green sauce "saved" his burger. I just took his word for it! There is now less than half an inch of green chili left in the jar and I'm pretty sure Greg is wondering if he can buy the stuff in bulk!

Here is a clip from The King Chef's website when they were featured on The Food Network. Enjoy! And remember, next time you're in Springs to check 'em out. I promise you won't regret it!

Where is my inner snowbunny?

I'm writing this from a hotel room in Salida while my husband is at Monarch happily snowboarding the day away. We arrived here on Wednesday evening, along with our friend Travis and his son Mason, who came up from Oklahoma. Greg has been bitten by the snowboarding bug....bad! And he is desperately trying to convince all of his Oklahoma wakeboarding buddies that they "have" to come to Colorado and try snowboarding. Today marks the seventh day that Greg has ever snowboarded, but he picked up on the sport so quickly that he is the one teaching Travis how to do it as well!

I, on the other hand, absolutely suck at both skiing and snowboarding. After two different ski lessons I decided this week to try snowboarding. Greg was going to teach me. For those of you who don't know my husband; he's not very patient. And I'm not a daredevil. At all. So I really wanted him to hold my hand the whole time I kept trying to master turning and stopping on the snowboard. Which isn't feasible. He finally said (after maybe thirty minutes) that the three of us (me, Greg and Travis) were going to take the lift to the top of the bunny slope and just practice going down. I freaked out and said NO! Which was the beginning of my hubby aggravation with me. I promised him I would continue walking a fourth of the way up and practicing by myself so he finally gave up and off they went up the lift. I did practice. But I just couldn't get the hang of it without Greg holding my hand. So after Greg came back to help me some more I told him I wasn't enjoying it and that I just don't know where my inner snowbunny has disappeared too. We both decided not to waste his time by trying to teach me when I wasn't having fun anyway. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day in the lounge, book in one hand, Starbucks cup in the other.

Yesterday the guys ventured off to the mountain again and I spent the day by myself. But, I had a great day! I took Shady for a walk downtown (which, if any of you reading ever visit Salida, CO, that is the cool thing to do. Everyone walks their dogs or rides their bikes with their dogs following behind.) and moseyed into a few art galleries, which is one of my favorite things to do. After I dropped Shady back off at the hotel, I went back downtown to a yummy cafe next to the Arkansas River and had a delicious salad! Then, off I went to Mt. Princeton to the Hot Springs! We had visited there this past summer, but at the time the river was so high that no one was able to use the natural river side hot springs. But now that's a different story! I was in absolute heaven soaking up the rays and watching a light snow fall as I relaxed in a natural hot springs with my head resting on a rock. That is, until a group of about seven gabbing women decided to take over the hot springs next to me. So off I went to the hot pools and did some light water aerobics and then spent some time in the sauna. It was fabulous! I left feeling so relaxed, refreshed, and my skin looked great! Another neat thing about this town is that none of the local women wear make-up. And they all have fabulous skin! I think it's because they must all go visit the hot springs and sauna's at least once a week! I made it back to the hotel in time to go with the guys for dinner at the boathouse cantina, which is one of our favorite pubs here in town!

Today is another day to myself while the guys hit the slopes for the last day. I have to check out of the hotel room in an hour and once I do I'm hitting a local vineyard and cafe so I'm looking forward to that! Afterwards I may take Shady for a walk somewhere or I may just head up to the lodge and read and relax there. Greg has had no mercy on Travis and forgets that some people get sore when it's their first time. Travis could barely make it out of bed this morning so I know he'll probably be hanging out in the lodge quite a bit today as well! Luckily for Greg, Mason took ski lessons his first day and has been going down the blue trails with Greg ever since. They basically leave Travis in the dust. So now not only is my husband wanting to live in Colorado permanently once we settle down, he also thinks we should adopt a 7 year old boy so he can have a snowboarding partner! I feel bad that it's not an activity that we can both enjoy together, but skiing and snowboarding are just such expensive sports to keep "trying" and not liking.

So, for now, I'm signing off from Salida!

A Weekend in Colorado

Greg and I had the perfect Colorado weekend! We went to Pueblo on Friday night. We ate at Red Lobster (yum!) and then took in the movie "Eagle Eye", which quite frankly, I wasn't all that impressed with. But, it was fun to have a date night! Then on Saturday we ventured West to stay with our friends Nell and Warren in Canon City. Warren works with Greg, so we haven't known them for very long, but they are such a neat couple to spend time with. And I cannot tell you how excited I was to pull up to such a cute "gingerbread" Victorian home!


Shortly after we arrived we went for a ride to check out the land that they own on top of a mountain! Have I ever mentioned that I'm not always the best passenger to have in a vehicle? My hubby likes to check things out, even when we're driving on the edge of a mountain that I think reaches 9,000+ feet! So I was a very happy camper when we arrived at Warren and Nell's land. And it was so gorgeous!!!! They own around 35 acres (mol) and it has beautiful aspen trees on it. We had a nice picnic lunch and then did some brief hiking and picture taking on their land.

Even Shady had a blast!

Those gorgeous colors on the mountain are actually aspen leaves! My new official favorite tree!

From there we took a drive on what I would call a "country road" to check out the scenery!


We saw several deer, including this smart duo that took shelter in a small "cave" during a light rain shower.

Remember that rain shower I mentioned? Guess what followed shortly after?

If I had a dollar for every rainbow I've seen since we've been in Colorado I would be a rich woman! They are one thing I never grow tired of seeing! Proof that there is a God!

Unfortunately, there was one small detour that I wish we hadn't decided to take. If someone enters Canon City from the West, there is a road called "Skyline Drive" that one can take into town instead of the interstate. Warren knew how nervous I was getting driving on the side of the mountain and he assured me that it wasn't that big of a deal. Yeah. Right. It's a one way road (if it can even be called that) and we did start off with a nice big chunk of mountain on our left hand side, with the drop off on our right. But, as we kept climbing, eventually, there is a drop off on both sides. Did I mention that my sweet, precious hubby likes to look around when he's driving? And we have a HUGE truck. It's really a beast. To put it mildly, apparently I have a fear of heights. Especially on a road that is not quite wider than the four wheels of our truck, there is a drop off on both sides, and NO GUARD RAILS! Whew! My hands are sweating and my heart is racing as I'm typing this!!! Even Warren commented that it didn't seem that dangerous when he rides his bike on it. Obviously we didn't die, but I am considering this pretty darn close to a near-death experience!

We topped off our great day (minus the near death experience) with dinner at an Irish pub, which was delicious!!!! Afterwards we drove around Canon City and checked out some of the older historic homes! Unfortunately it was too dark for pictures. On Sunday we went to a cute mom and pop cafe and I had another wonderful meal! This time a vegetarian version of an eggs benedict. Yummy! Before we left town, we drove past another old home (we all know I'm obsessed with them!). This one even has a website! I haven't had a chance to visit yet, but the address is www.robisonmansion.com (If anyone knows how I can make these have actual links please feel free to clue me in as to how to do it!)


After that we headed back to Lamar! I wonder what we'll do this weekend.......

Weekend in Pueblo!

Greg and I are celebrating our 4 year anniversary tomorrow! To celebrate, we went to Pueblo for the weekend. We have gone to Colorado Springs several different times, and decided to stay in Pueblo for a change. And I am so glad that we did!

First off, we arrived there around noon so we ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday. Then we checked into our hotel. After which I was finally able to convince Greg that we needed to go to the Rosemount Museum. The museum is actually a 24,000 square foot mansion built in the 1890's. The tour was absolutely fantastic! Mainly because I have an obsession with older homes. The home is three stories tall and has ten Tiffany chandeliers which I thought was pretty cool.

After we left the museum we drove around downtown and discovered that Pueblo has a cool riverwalk complete with cute little boutiques and cafe's. I was dying to just walk around and scope things out, but that is just not my hubby's cup of tea. Instead we went to the movie theatre to see if any movies were about to play. The only one that was about to start was Death Race so that's what we watched. (Of course, the theatre didn't hold a candle to the Warren Theatre!) From there we went back to the hotel to change clothes before going to Red Lobster for dinner. The dinner was quite interesting. Greg is slowly beginning to acquire a taste for seafood, so it really surprised me when he said he wanted a couple crab legs. I love crab legs, so I ordered those and Greg went even further out on a limb and ordered a meal that had lobster tail, shrimp scampi, and grilled shrimp. I had never had lobster before, so it was pretty ironic that I didn't like it, and Greg really did.

We capped the night off by going to the hot tub at the hotel. We met another couple in the hotel and one thing led to another and somehow we found out that the guy surfed. Of course one of Greg's life long goals is to learn to surf. And, believe it or not, the guy (Sam) had his surf board with him at the hotel. He decided it was the perfect chance for Greg to have his first lesson. In the hotel pool. I of course was wondering how one could have a surfing lesson in a pool and when I voiced that concern Sam said that learning how to actually sit on the board was the first thing someone would have to learn. He also said it was pretty hard. Well, I thought that this sounded like it would be a Kodak Moment so I rushed off to our hotel room to grab my camera. By the time I got back (it couldn't have taken more than seven minutes), Greg was sitting on the surf board in the pool as if he was totally used to it. He said that he got on first try. I told him to proove it and he did. I completely missed out on being able to take loads of what I assumed would be hillarious pictures of Greg attempting to get on a surf board in a hotel pool. I was really proud of him for doing so well! Hopefully one day he will be able to put that first surfing lesson to actual use!

And that about sums up our early anniversary celebration! Below is a picture of the Rosemount Museum and one from our wedding day! Cheers!

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