Water Balloons

The kids are water balloon fighting as I write this. Jason seems to be losing this battle, although he did duck in time to escape this one! Click the picture to see a larger version and look to the far left and you'll see a purple balloon mid-air.

Soccer musings

The World Cup is the big deal around our house this month. We've watched almost every game and I'm considering taking off Thursday morning to watch USA's game. If USA loses they go home. We are all into soccer except for Jessica; but she tolerates it (and us) with good humor.

Football was the thing when I was growing up. I HATED it and, to make matters worse, it seemed like it was on all the time. I don't want Jessica to become bitter about soccer the way I am about football. So far she's indifferent. She'll just go do something else.

Jason began playing soccer when he was 7 or 8. Before that, I never really payed attention to the game. Soccer is definitely in Jason's blood. He has incredible talent and potential. Jessica has the talent too, but she doesn't have the interest. She played for one season and did very well. And, when playing around the house, she'll take the ball from Jason every time. It's so funny to watch him do all these fancy footwork moves with the ball and then Jessica will just stick her foot out and take the ball from him.

My "Mac Daddy" Bathroom

Our master bath has finally been reformed. It's not complete yet but it's getting there. One of the previous owners thought that green and brown checked wallpaper, along with black wrought iron hardware and gold light fixtures, would look good. I hated it from the minute we moved in.

After living with this decor for a couple years, I decided to remove the wallpaper and paint the walls or do something creative with them. The wallpaper was not installed correctly anyway and portions had begun to peel. And it didn't help that Jessica had ripped off some of the loose portions exposing the white wallboard underneath which made it look even uglier (if that was possible).

Jessica was eager to help and I figured we could remove the wallpaper in a weekend, tops. Boy was I wrong. The paper came off in 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Some areas had no glue and others had tons of glue. We got about half the room done over a month-long period; Jessica doing most of it.

When we began getting the house ready to sell, David suggested we just pay someone to come remove the paper and then install new paper rather than trying to smooth out the walls (remember this is mobile home and the walls are not like in a house). It ended up costing almost $500 but it was worth it! We also replaced the mirrors and light fixtures (which I also hated). I still want to replace the flooring and install new cabinet pulls and towel bars. It's going to be a "mac daddy" bathroom when it's complete!

Here are before/after shots (yes, I know there's a light out in the last picture, we ran out of lightbulbs).

Inconceivable

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

This is too funny! I love this guy, he's been on a lot of shows. Well actually he gets on my nerves, but I do love him.

Home Sweet Home

I've always wanted to live in a "house" rather than a "manufactured" home, but we've never been able to afford the payments that my kind of house would require (I confess I have expensive taste). Recently, I got a raise and figured out that we actually could afford a house now. Plus, the property value in our area is on the rise and we could make enough off the sale of our place to pay off our bills and thus be able to afford a higher mortgage payment. So we began getting our place ready to sell. We cleaned, organized, and downsized items we didn't even remember we had. I donated carloads of items to charity and threw away tons of stuff. The house, as a result, looks fantastic! What a difference decluttering makes!

In the meantime, I began look around our target areas for houses. House hunting is so exciting to me. I could do it all day. But the more I looked, the more I was dismayed. The problem is that the housing market here in Tallahassee is absolutely through the roof. It's ridiculously overpriced. Houses that cost $150,000 four years ago are now selling for over $260,000. NO JOKE. So, basically, to get a house in our price range, in the school districts we want, we would have downsize from our current 1836 square feet to around 1200 for a newer home, or around 1500 for an older home (translation: dump).

I found some possibilities and David and I went to look at them. It was depressing. The houses were either too small, too close to (or on) a busy street, didn't have a yard, needed major repairs, or were just plain dumps. And all of these were in the price range of $199,000-220,000. A $220,000 house sounds like it would be a mansion but not so in Tallahassee. After talking to our banker we found out that our mortgage payment would be around $1800 a month on a $220,000 house. That's more than double what we pay now!!!

As a result, I've realized we actually have it really good where we are. We have a nice home with lots of space and storage, with nice big yard, on a quiet street, in an excellent neighborhood, in an excellent school district. And, best of all, sprucing up the house and yard makes it feel like we're in a new home. Eventually I would like build or buy a house. Hopefully the housing market here will crash -- or the maybe interest rates will go back down. But, until then we are staying put.

I'm back

We've had a crazy, busy time during the last month: end of the school year for the kids, end of soccer season (party planning, etc.), beginning of summer school for me, fixing up the house and yard, and the usual daily grind.

I've had a gentle reminder from my cousin Cathy that I've haven't posted anything in awhile. I didn't think anyone read my blog except my other cousin Sarah. I confess I've been remiss in writing, justifying to myself that I'm either too busy or have nothing interesting to say. So, from now on, I will be more diligent and resolve to post something every day.