Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody!

I wasn't sure the kids would be able to trick or treat this year. They missed the church trunk or treat. I thought they'd be too sick to trick or treat down Main Street here as well. I decided since Mason's fever hadn't come back since Monday night, also we have been pretty bummed about daddy being gone for a week for training at work, I let them go today. We only trick or treated for about an hour. I'm glad that was all.

All three kids were just exhausted. Recouping from being sick takes a lot of energy. Even the excitement of getting candy didn't help. Both Brooklyn and Mason were so slow and Dallas fell asleep not even half way through. We decided to go home and relax instead of do any more treating tonight. There is always next year!

Tough Week...

This past week has been a tough one for the kiddos. Brooklyn started it all by getting a sore throat and runny nose. Dallas caught the runny nose but I don't believe his throat ever hurt. Poor Mason got it the worst since he had fevers, throat ache and the head cold. It was especially hard on them because they knew Halloween was coming up.

We had them rest up over the weekend. So far they are acting well enough to go trick or treat this afternoon on Main Street. So far we have been fever free for almost two days. The side effects are: Mason lost weight, tired and a little cranky.

Dad left today for a week. He went to Nebraska for a business training. That will not help the little one's attitudes much. *sigh*

Pray I make it this week with my head still attached!?

Jack o lanterns!

It is that time of year again. Even though the kids have been feeling under the whether, we still wanted to carve pumpkins.

Jer made a cowboy, Mason and I made Frankenstein and Brook made a vampire jack o lantern.

Afterwards I roasted some pumpkin seeds. One batch was seasoned with Cajun, seasoned salt and pepper and the other batch was sugar and cinnamon. I think the kids liked the salty ones better since they were more crunchy. The sugar made the other seeds softer.

I just love my goof ball family!



1st snow fall!

The first snow fall of the year! We got done with school and the kids wanted to go outside to make a snowman.

Dallas wasn't too sure about the hat and gloves but eventually became fascinated with the white stuff.

I was pretty impressed with Brooklyn and Mason's snow man. They pretty much made it all by themselves. :-)

Afterwards, I bribed the kids to shovel off the driveway by promising to have caramel apples and hot chocolate ready when they got done. Yay! Worked like a charm. 

And life goes on...

I've been avoiding this post for a few days now because it is hard to talk about. The short and sweet version is that we wont be able to build our house. We got news from the bank stating that the house needed to appraise for a certain amount to get a full coverage building loan and it didn't. We'd needed quite a bit of a down payment to continue. That was money we just didn't have.

I was feeling quite sorry for myself these past couple weeks. It is funny to me how the Lord teaches us through the times you really don't want to hear it. I was especially down and even though I was sad, I kept getting these thoughts that maybe there is a good reason why it didn't work out. Maybe in the long run, we wouldn't be able to afford a brand new house. Maybe I just needed to learn to be happy with what I have and not covet the things I can't have.

All of these thoughts kept running through my mind. Jer and I decided to once again go house hunting for something that is already here. We came upon a home that has been on the market since we moved here (about 4 years ago). At the time, they were asking more than we could afford. Now, four years later the house price has dropped enough that it was worth taking a look at. What we found was a home that is rough around the edges but with a little love and care, has the potential to be our dream home.

Jer and I mulled it over and prayed about it and decided to put in an offer! We were countered and ultimately accepted their counter.

Now the hard part, waiting and hoping all the inspections and appraisals turn out okay.

Here is to hoping!

Well folks, after months and months of  planning, phone calls and face to face meetings, we have finally decided on a bid and contractor. We now have everything into the bank.

All that is left to do is wait and pray.

We should know within a couple weeks if our estimate is accepted and the loan is approved. Once that is through, the excavation on the land will start! I am so excited I can hardly breathe!

Poor Jer is so nervous. I don't blame him. He did most of the hard work. I can't even think of the appraisal not matching up to the estimate.

Hopefully soon I will have some of our first pictures to post!

Busy busy busy!

This past week, we have been crazy busy. It seems like everyone in town is dog sick and I got it. Jer caught it from me a couple days later. Luckily, the kids stayed healthy.
Sometimes, it seems like its worse for the parents to be sick than the kids because we still have to teach school, clean, cook and keep on working. The week passed in a haze to me. I know we worked on school. I spent a couple days of school teaching from my couch and snuggled in a blanket. Jer actually ended up taking a day off of work to help me and then when he got sick, he took another day off for himself.

SATURDAY~
Jer ended up taking Brooklyn to her volleyball game on Saturday. I was too sick to go. Her team won! She sure enjoyed that time with dad alone.

Sunday~
 We watched General Conference. I had the big kids sit down with paper and crayons. Brooklyn took notes and Mason drew pictures of what they thought was important. I was pretty impressed with how well the kids listened.
There were a few talks that I loved on Sunday but the main over all message I got out of conference this year was to be bold, make a choice, be an example in these times and follow our Savior. I counted several times that the speakers said to fear not, and stressed that we need to Choose for ourselves. I kinda felt like they were trying to say okay brothers and sisters, its the last days, you've had plenty of time. Now its your turn to show us if you believe what you say you believe. I love the spirit that always comes into our home when we listen to Conference. I guess it helps that we are reading about King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon right now. It really helped me get ready to listen to the Prophet and Apostles.

Monday~
Jer and I got back our contractor's bids for the house we are building and they were higher than we expected. The next day I made an appointment to look at a few houses for sale here in town. That way we'd have options and weren't limiting our choices. Only one property looked descent but we still felt like we would be sacrificing so much space for the money.
That realization brought us back to the drawing board with the building project and after many phone calls, we were able to knock quite a bit off of our end price. I just realized it's better to do without some of those end finishes for now and still get the house than it would be to give up the whole project altogether. On top of that, there were ways to put some sweat equity into it and keep the cost down.

Thursday~
Jeremiah talked with the bank today and by Monday, if everything goes smoothly, we should be signing an agreement for the land and after we sign an agreement with our contractor we will be on our way to actually starting our dream home. If the bank goes well, we will be hopefully starting the house the last week of this month!

I have learned so much with this experience. Most of all, I've learned that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy.
In the grand scheme of things, building or buying a house isn't all that important, but because he is my Father and he loves me, I know that he cares what happens to me. I know that if we work hard enough and keep him involved with the decisions, things will work out.