2013 Goals!

Here's my shiny-new goals for 2013! 

 

 

1.       Do a fun craft with Parker every month.  I'm not much of a "crafter" but there are so many fun toddler crafts I see on pinterest.  Parker is a very hands-on type of kid (as I'm sure most are), so I know he would really enjoy doing a neat project every month. 

2.      Take a daily multi-vitamin.  This really shouldn't have to be a goal, but I have a bottle of Vitamin Code vitamins in my pantry that expired in November.  That's how long I've had them.  I'm horrible at remembering to take vitamins, but considering the fact that I'm a mommy, I really should try to take better care of myself.

3.      Wear a bikini this summer.  Don't get me wrong; I've wore a bikini every summer ever since my parents finally allowed me to do so.  Even while I was pregnant (because being pregnant doesn't equal being fat)!  However, I wore a bikini last summer, and really, someone should have stopped me.  Holy cow!  Literally!  So, while I'm not technically saying I'm going to "diet" I do have several plans to help bring my weight down before I hit my all-time high, which, sadly, I'm very close to hitting.  How will I do this?

A.  Do not eat seconds.  (This was so hard to do last night when I made meatloaf and broccoli, cheese and rice casserole).

B.  Do not finish Parker's meal.  (This was so hard to do when he was sick and didn't eat all of his home made lasagna).

C.  Do not drink soda.  I was in denial by telling myself that I only drink one or two Coke's at home.  However, every time we go out to eat (and if you read my last blog post, you can tell we tend to eat out a lot), I order a soda.  No more!  I am now the queen of water or iced tea.

D.  Work out on my wii.  ( I haven't done much of this, but I LOVE doing the Just Dance game and last weekend I bought a Jillian Michaels cardio workout.  )

E.  Have a friendly little weight loss competition with Greg.  (We started keeping track and weighing in right after Christmas...which was dumb considering we always have a big NYE party and then a week later we were going on vacation)  However, I'm proud to say that today is weigh-in day and I'm already down 4 pounds!  Woot!

F.  Eat more fruit.  (Yesterday the box of brownie mix in my pantry was practically screaming my name.  I ignored it and ate a kiwi instead.  Small victories, people!)

4.      Paint all the doors in my house and bunk house.  Sometimes when you do so much remodeling you tend to just say, "eh...screw it!" when it comes to detail items.  But, it's been a year now, and there are several doors in my house that need a coat (probably two) of paint:  my master bedroom door, Greg's closet door, our back door, and if we install a new door for our hall bathroom, that will need to be painted as well.  Also, there are three doors in our bunk house, none of which have been painted. 

5.      Plant sod in my court yard.  Last spring we rocked most of our front yard, but made a "court yard" in the middle with rail road ties.  The idea was to sod it, but we never did, so instead it's a big octagon of weeds and dirt.  It's pretty ugly.  I'm ready to have a nice pretty patch of green!

6.      Read a piece of classic American literature.  Don't ask me why, but I just want too.  And, if I don't accomplish this measly little goal, then someone needs to slap me.  Why?  Because while at a library book sale a few months ago I bought two classics:  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.  I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, and while I remember enjoying it (mainly because it had a lot of curse words, which made me feel like a little bit of a rebel), I don't remember any of the plot.

7.      Go on a Valentine’s date with my husband.  *ahem*  Since VD (the term we lovingly referred to Valentine's Day as when I worked at a florist) is on a Thursday, I would even settle for a day-after date instead.  Anyone want to baby sit?  Mom?

8.      Re-decorate Parker’s room.  Now that Parker is approaching three, I want to give him a proper little boy room.  His nursery has a star theme, and now I'm going to upgrade it to a rock-star theme!  I'm so excited!  In fact, today I even bought some pictures for the walls!  I have visions in my mind of re-doing his entire room on his birthday while he is at day care, so he has a surprise.  We'll see what happens!

9.      Refurbish our living room furniture.  Our coffee table and two end tables are all pieces of furniture Greg had when I met him.  For several years now we have wanted to refurbish them.  However, now that we are trying to make our house look like a beach house, the idea I had pictured for them has changed.  I'd like to paint the two end tables an antique white and then on the drawer and doors, paint a crackle paint with turquoise blue showing in the cracks.  Then, I'd like to paint the coffee table turquoise and distress it. 

10.   Clean out my file cabinet.  This is a task that probably needed to be done a few years ago, but it's one of those "out of sight; out of mind" type of things.  However, with both me and Greg being self-employed, with another business on the horizon (opps, did I just say that?), I think it's time to be a lot more organized, and we need extra filing space!

11.   Organize my kitchen pantry.  It's a little embarrassing right now.  I'm hoping to get some pinspiration real soon!

12.   Become a public notary.  Not only will it be another service I can provide as a Realtor, there are other ways I could use being a notary to make some additional income.  I've toyed with this idea for a few years now and think now is as good a time as ever to become one!

13.   Make a scarf.  Years ago my sister went to some foreign country and bought me some fabric that is a burberry knock off, so I could make a scarf.  However, the scarf has never been made.  I think its been long enough (I can almost see my sister nodding her head!).

14.   Make a facebook page for Texoma Remodeling.  I've been trying (and usually failing) to take before and after pictures of different projects that TR has done.  Now it's time I put those pictures to use! 

15.   Clean my car out at least once a month.  Being a responsible 31 year old woman, I really shouldn't have a car that is always so cluttered.  So, this is my attempt at change (my husband is cheering!).

16.   Have family photos taken by Art and Soul Photography.  I have several amazing talented friends who are photographers.  But there is just something about Art and Soul Photography that I absolutely love, and I have followed her blog for about three or four years now!  I think it's simply that the pictures are always so vibrant and colorful!  I would be proud to hang a family photo on my wall and say it was taken by the amazing Angel Porch.

17.  Yell at Parker less.  I know what you're thinking; HUH?  Before  becoming a mom I knew a mom who constantly yelled at her kids.  I always thought, "I am not going to sound like her when I have a kid".  Now, guess who I sound like?  I feel like since becoming a parent I have lost all patience.  I need to remind myself that the first time I say, "No", I don't have to scream it.  I know that a "no" that is spoken, can still be effective.  I also need to remind myself that I didn't like being yelled at when I was younger, and yelling needs to be reserved for when it's really important or life threatening.

18.  Go to a play.  I have really been having the itch lately to be on stage.  But, since I know that's not going to happen any time soon, this would be the next best thing!

19.  You know.  And although I hate to admit it, this sucker is going to stay on the list every single year until it's done!  I will not give up!

Unexpected Blessings

I've been a little MIA in all things social networking related lately because things in our casa have been CRAZY!!!! 

A few weeks ago we received several answered prayers all within a matter of days.

1.  We sold our truck!  We had passively been trying to sell it on craigslist since August.  There was nothing wrong with it, but it was a diesel and very hard to work on (meaning even an oil change required a trip to the dealership) and since we already had another truck as well...why not sell?  Now that we are both self-employed and have been slowly plowing our way through our savings, this was a nice way to give us a little bit of a financial sigh of relief!

2.  Greg's business is rockin' and rollin'.  Have you ever heard the expression, "from your lips to Gods ears"?  Greg had literally just told me that he wished he had enough jobs lined up to keep him backed up for a month or two.  Within a few days time, he had a handful of different jobs!  To date, he has at least six jobs that I know of waiting for him to tackle.  Again, since we have jumped in head first in having jobs that don't guarantee a bi-weekly paycheck, it is a nice feeling.  Not to mention, he's pretty dang good at what he does!!!

3.  I got a kick-start in my career.  I think I mentioned in one other post that the real estate office I work at is quite small.  In fact, it's just me, my broker, and one other Realtor.  My broker called me at the beginning of January and informed me that the other Realtor was retiring....and that she was giving me all of her listings.  All 60 of them.  No, that wasn't a type-o!  Now, I'm not the type of girl who cries very easily, but this news literally brought me to tears.  I have gone from trying to break into a market where I don't know very many people, to a huge opportunity!  Granted, half of these listings are for individual lots, but the exposure of having my name plastered on signs is incredible!  In fact, I've already gained few new potential buyers.  I'm trying to market these properties better than the other Realtor (not to diss her, I'm just trying to do things differently), so I'm adding each one to websites like facebook, craigslist, and a few others.  It's extremely time consuming and I still haven't made a dent in my list.  I've also been spending a lot of time visiting each property to become familiar with them and am adding more directional arrows towards where the listings are located.  I've even been adding pin-wheels to all of my signs.  I think it makes them stick out and am curious if any other Realtors in the area begin to copy me!  They're metallic, so when the sun catches them they make the signs look like they're blinking!

Because of the reasons listed above, my house seems to be in a total disaster mode, I've already given up hope about not eating out more than 75 times in a year, and poor Parker is so sick of his car seat, I haven't bothered to spend time doing anything to my hair other than throw it up in a bun every morning (yay for spin pins!), but I am so thankful for all these blessings that the Lord has showered us with!

And, just so no one reading this wonders why I'm taking time to blog all of this...well, I hinted about this on facebook a long time ago, so I've been bursting to tell my news about my listings!  Once Parker is asleep I like to have "me" time...as in loosing myself in a TV show, book, or movie.  However, my beloved "Revenge" is on re-run tonight so I decided to blog!!

Now, I can't guarantee that Parker's next "month old" posting will be on time.....so don't hold your breath!

And the list keeps getting longer...

I was in such a hurry to post my 2012 goals that I forgot these few that have been weighing heavily on my mind.  To check out my other goals click here.

1. Write a will. I think Greg and I have learned the hard way that a will is a very important document for a parent to have. I think this would just be a responsible thing for us to do.
2. Open a Savings Account for Parker. Sometimes Parker receives money from various family members and I like to put it aside for him to use when he's older. It only makes sense to protect this money in a savings account.
3. Go to a concert. Greg and I love going to concerts but we haven't been to one in years. I'm hoping we can go to a concert that we will both mutually enjoy, and not my husbands beloved Jason Boland *gag*.
4. Begin working on my Brokers license. I really think that this is a goal that most Realtors hope to achieve. I would like to start doing my classes this year.
5. Become active in the community. I don't really know how I'm going to do this yet, but I keep having an urge to give back in some way. Plus, it will be a good way to meet people!
6. Learn CPR. Way back when we owned a home that came with a swimming pool I thought it would be in my best interest to learn how to do CPR. But, I procrastinated and never learned. I also have this weird theory that all parents should know how to do CPR. Am I one of those parents myself? No. Which means I'm a pretty big hypocrite. I don't necessarily care about being "certified", just as long as I would know how to do it in case of an emergency.

I'm surprised I haven't been fired

I began working at my real estate office in the middle of October. That means after four years of not being a member of the normal "work force" that fuels the economy, I had to scour through my closet and try on all my (old) work clothes. That was not a fun day. I sold real estate back in 2006-2007 and now that we have moved back to our home-state of Oklahoma I decided to get back in the game. My office is extremely small: there are three Realtors in the office, including me. What's common in a real estate office is a term called "floor time". This means if a phone call comes in about a property, or someone is wanting to list their home for sale, that particular phone call goes to the Realtor who is on floor time. In my office, we do not have a secretary. Instead, each of us stays at the office two days a week and works the floor. Since we just moved to the area, and since I don't know a lot of people, the days that I am on floor duty are spent scouring the internet and wasting time. Just kidding...I do try to make my days away from home and my toddler count! However, after only two weeks in the office, I was sure my broker was going to fire me. My second day on floor duty was on a Saturday. Saturday's are short days and we are open from 9:00 to 12:00. Greg had already agreed to do a job for someone that day and that meant I had to take Parker to work with me. On my second day. I had told the broker that I may have to bring him with me to the office occasionally but that I didn't want to make it a habit. She was totally cool with it, but I felt a little twinge of guilt for taking him to the office on my second day. Halfway during the job that Greg was doing he relized he needed to go to Lowes for supplies. He drove right by the office so figured he'd stop in and check on me. He was there maybe five minutes and wouldn't you know my broker walks in the door. There we were: me, my husband, and little Parker sitting down in the middle of a room strewn with plastic food. I groaned inwardly because I did not want her to get the wrong impression of me and I didn't want her to think that I didn't take my job seriously. Eventually Greg made the comment that he was getting hungry and when was I leaving. My broker over heard and said, "You can leave early if there's nothing going on." At this point it was 11:00 so I said, "Ok, thank you." She left prior to us and I quickly gathered up everything and the three of us headed out the door. I left my vehicle there and we made a trip to Lowes and then to Chili's for lunch. While eating my phone suddenly rings. It was my broker and the first thing she says is, "Are you alright?!" My response was, "I'm at Chili's in Durant eating lunch, so yup, I'm pretty good." Her follow up to that was, "Oh, well, I had to stop back at the office and your car is here, the office was unlocked, and there are a set of keys in the door. I thought you had been abducted." CRAP! My heart sank! I forgot to lock the door? I left the keys in the door? It was all rushing back to me. I had put the keys in the door (to save time) while Greg used the rest room. As I was loading Parker into his car seat I realised he needed a diaper change. I rushed back into the office, quickly changed his diaper, then went back to the truck to load him up. Apparently in my haste I forgot to lock the office door!! My broker said she was glad I was safe, but I couldn't help feeling horrible that on my second day I had done such a major blooper. However, my mistakes didn't end there. The following week I was rushing around the house before I went to the office for floor duty. I was running late (which stresses me out to no end) and I could not find my sentri card for the life of me. A sentri card is a credit card-looking device that Realtors in this area use to open lock boxes on properties. I didn't have any appointments to show properties, but I wanted to have it on me in case someone called the office and wanted to see a property. I finally convinced myself that I wouldn't get any phone calls from people wanting to see properties so I dashed out the door. Wouldn't you know, an hour after I arrived at the office my broker called and asked me if I could do her a favour and show one of her customers a property she had listed. My reply was, "sure if I can find my card." I'm not sure she realised what I meant, but I dashed off to my house first (luckily the house I was showing was only a mile away from my house) to search for the card....again. Ten minutes after I was supposed to be at the property to meet my brokers client, I still had not found my sentri card. Dejectedly, I called her to admit my fault. She sounded disappointed but told me to call her buyer to let her know the situation. I called the buyer...and received no answer. I decided to drive to the property with hopes that they were still there and I could explain what was going on. I pulled up, and saw a van a few houses down that was parked in front of another home that was listed for sale by another office. The lady in the van waved at me when she saw me pulling into the drive way, so I walked over to where she was. I explained that I had lost my card that would have given me access to the lock box and she said that I could ask the other Realtor to open the door for me. That sneaky little buyer had called the Realtor from the other sign and was planning at looking at two different properties with two different Realtors (that irriates me to no end, but she wasn't my buyer so I kept my cool)! Now, this is a small town, so word had already spread that a new Realtor was in my office. Believe me when I say that it was not a highlight of my career when I had to introduce myself to a Realtor from a different office and tell her that I had lost my sentri card, and could she please unlock the door so I could show the property to my broker's client. Luckily after that incident, things began running a lot smoother. Until a few days ago. I was in the office along with my broker. The Fed-Ex guy showed up to deliver a package and asked if the recipiant worked at our office. I looked at the name and told him that I didn't know who the person was and that it didn't belong there. So, he took it and left. My broker was on the phone when he came in. About twenty minutes later she asked if Fed-Ex was dropping off the package for her brother-in-law. Of course I knew nothing about it and had sent him off on his merry way. She said a few swear words and then set off on trying to track the fed-ex guy down. I have to admit, I didn't feel too bad about that since I had no idea she received mail for family members at the office, and the package didn't have our offices name on it. Like I said in the title, I'm surprised I haven't been fired. Luckily, today I had my first closing. I'm hoping that has redemed myself and now my slate can be wiped clean!

A Leap of Faith

I know it's been awhile since my last post and that's because life for our little family has been nothing short of hectic! We have totally begun a new chapter in our lives. Here's the scoop: we won the lottery!!! Nope, just kidding, but that would be awesome, huh? OK, now this other stuff probably isn't going to sound as cool and exciting, but that's alright. Here we go.....

1. Greg quit his job. Yup, my husband is no longer a wind turbine technician. To catch some of you up; we packed up and moved from Colorado to Texas back in April so that we could be closer to our lake house. As you'll recall, we were not having any luck finding a new house to purchase. Perhaps this was fate, because a few weeks into his "new" job (which was with the exact same company that he worked for in Colorado) he began to hate it. I will spare you the gory details, but lets just say that poor management can really make or break a work place.

Ever since I've met Greg he has talked about being his own boss and having his own business. But, we all know that having your own business is a little scary. OK, it's REALLY scary! Once Greg began loathing his job, we started plotting a way to change our lives. It kind of happened faster than we anticipated, so things are kind of a crazy mess right now....read on.

2. We moved back to Oklahoma!!! To our lake house, that is. This happened just under two weeks ago when Greg quit his job. Don't get me wrong...we had been plotting a move so it wasn't completely sporadic. All of our stuff that we had in storage when we moved to Texas was slowly moved into the shop here at our lake place. This past week has involved unpacking and trying to attempt to fit all of our stuff into a house that is smaller than any of the other homes we've ever lived in. To add a little more confusion to the mess.......

3. We are remodeling our house! This began almost a month prior to Greg quitting his job. The living room and dining room are finished, the kitchen just lacks the backsplash being tiled and a little trim work, and Parkers room was just finished on Tuesday. We plan on remodeling both bathrooms soon as well, but they will have to wait. I want the house to look "beachy" so it has a little different feel than any of our other houses. I think my decor will make it more beachy and I haven't had time to shop for un-tacky beach accessories yet, but it's on my never ending to-do list! Don't worry, I will post before and after pictures in a future post. Now I mentioned that this is the smallest house we've lived in; it only has two bedrooms. Our last two houses both had four bedrooms. Are you starting to understand why I said unpacking is slightly difficult. Because of this, Greg is currently building a guest room/hobby room in our shop that's next to the house. If everything goes according to plan that space will be finished by next weekend. (I'm telling you our list never ends). Everyone who knows me well, knows that Greg and I always finish remodeling and then sell a house. We are busting our butts so we can have this house finished so we can actually live in, and ENJOY, our remodel! We are also trying to work quickly because....

4. Greg is starting his own handy-man/remodeling business! The guy has skill, let me tell ya! Although a few people have not been very encouraging about this move because of the economy, Greg is optimistic enough to believe that he will be able to stay so busy with work that people will hire him to do that he won't have enough time to work on our house. With that thought in mind, we are doing every thing we can to quickly make this "house" feel like a "home". Finally, this whole "new chapter in our lives" wouldn't be complete if we didn't also throw in the fact that...

5. I have re-activated my Oklahoma real estate license and will begin working full time next week! I hung my license with a broker in town back in July (told ya we'd been plotting) with hopes to buy up a couple of rental properties before Greg quit his job and we were both self employed (ie: no lender will probably touch us for a loan for the next few years). Unfortunately, I forgot how long it actually takes to get the ball rolling when you first hang your license with an office and by the time I was able to start scoping out properties, there weren't any we were interested in and we weren't willing to wait around for them to pop up either. Things have changed since 2007 when I put my license on in-active to travel around the country with Greg, but I'm excited to jump right back in! My office is extremely small: just me and two other ladies. In a weird twist of fate, one of the ladies who used to work there just quit to work in another aspect of real estate, and they said I could have her office!! This is a bonus for me, because if I ever have to take Parker to work with me, I can somewhat corral him! And, since I know you're wondering, no, I don't plan on putting Parker in a day care just yet. Greg will watch him on the days that I'm at the office answering phones (which is two days a week) and if I'm showing properties and Greg is off on a job, I'll just take him with me. However, we are both prepared that if both of our businesses take off, we will have no other choice but to put him in day care.

Whew! I feel like I can breath better now that I'm able to tell the world what we've been plotting/scheming/dreaming about for the last several months. What is odd about our whole situation is that I'm not stressed out about it at all. And let me say, I can get stressed out pretty easily! I know that we're taking a leap of faith by Greg quitting a job that more than provided for our family, only for us both to begin working without a guaranteed steady pay check. I was more stressed out when I couldn't find a house I wanted to purchase in Texas. Maybe I'm being completely naive, but I know that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. And I have faith that we are exactly where we need to be, doing exactly what we need to be doing.

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!