Some new photos of the house.

Computer/den area.

Living room to dining room.

Living room to other areas.

Living/entry.

Kitchen/dining.

Kitchen.

Den, where we spend most of our time.

We've just done the bathroom, so updated pictures to follow. And I still need to take pictures of the upstairs.

House stuff.

So, I don't want to get too excited yet, but promising things are happening with the house.

About three weeks ago, my realtor called me out of the blue (we hadn't had anyone look at the apartment for at least a month). He wanted to let me know he wasn't giving up and eventually we would get our apartment sold. In that same phone conversation, he mentioned a house he just listed for someone that he thought we might like. He said it was extremely well cared for, reasonably priced, the right size for us and had a large lot.

I told him that I didn't want to look at any more houses until we had someone interested in our apartment, because we have technically lost two houses. The first in Warwood, where we had the contract, the close date, the inspection, appraisal, etc. I had even bought some new curtains. Then our buyer backed out. The second was not so involved. We made the offer, she accepted, and then changed her mind because she wasn't comfortable with the contingencies.

So, by complete coincidence, my realtor called again a few days later saying someone wanted to look at our apartment on Sunday. We said fine, if someone was looking at ours, we would look at a few as well. (We have looked at maybe 25 houses by now...)

Long story short, the first house we looked at that day, the house he had told me about, is, in a word, perfect. As soon as we got out of the car, Clint loved it, which is rather aggressive for Clint, as he is the mild mannered and reserved one of the two of us. It's a newer house, (built in 1969, which is about 50-60 years newer than houses I typically like) it's in North Park, where we have lived before (renting when we first got married), three bedrooms, two bathrooms, rec room/play room, remodled kitchen, two car garage, covered back porch, adjacent lot included in the purchase, beautiful refinished hardwood floors, lots of closet space, it's on a flat cul de sac with only two other houses, it has a large driveway, perfect for a basketball hoop in a few years... I think Clint was ready to sign that day. Of course, we were reserved, waiting to find out about our apartment.

Apparently, the couple looking at our apartment really liked what they saw, had spoken with the co-op president, and wanted to come back with their contractor to price a new kitchen. We were thrilled. It had been so long since anyone was interested, and this happens right out of the blue. So, they planned to come look at it again on Black Friday. The requested parking information, and the bylaws of the co-op association. They told my realtor they would get back to him soon. My realtor is convinced they are extremely serious. Which made me feel comfortable with the following.

Last Sunday, anticipating this couple making an offer on our house, and us wanting to make an offer on the North Park house, we drafted a contract to be submitted once we had an offer on the apartment. We wanted to be prepared, and catching us through the week can be tricky. Tuesday my realtor told me that someone had looked at the same house on Sunday and then were planning to go back Tuesday afternoon. We agreed we didn't want to take any risks, and were willing to lose the front end money over losing the house to someone else, this close to getting an offer on our apartment. I told my realtor to submit our offer, and then held my breath. The next day, he told me our offer was accepted. No counter offer or anything. He agreed to our terms, no questions asked. We have a close date at the end of January. I'm meeting with the bank people on Tuesday, have received preapproval and been provided a good faith estimate. Everything looks great.

Of course, we are still going crazy over whether or not these people are going to make an offer on our apartment. I think at this point, we will accept any offer within reason, as long as it covers our expenses of getting the new house (realtor fees, down payment, etc.). Like I said, my realtor is very confident, and he knows the seller pretty well. He said that if we needed to extend the close date, he feels confident that the seller would be comfortable with that. He feels the couple interested in our apartment is just taking their time (you mean people don't rush through buying a house?) and reviewing the bylaws and all that. My realtor said someone else contacted him about the apartment, someone moving to the area mid December (which is already very close).

We are still nervous as hell, but this all feels right. The house is literally perfect for us. The finance end of it looks good. I'm not going to worry yet.

Here's a couple of pictures from the realtor's website. Everyone cross your fingers and keep us in your prayers. We deserve a break!

Great success!

Clint got the job in Washington!! It's for http://www.ferro.com/ and he is super thrilled. He had the interview not this past Friday, but the Friday before. They told him they were doing interviews through Wednesday. They called him on Thursday and offered him the job!!! For the same schedule (m-f 8-5) and MORE money than he was making at Touchstone. Things are finally coming together! We are so excited!

And I get to get a new car soon, yeah!!!

Only one person looked at the house this week, but that's OK. We are going to take our time looking for a house (in a better price range!). And, if it takes a while for someone to buy our house, that will give us more time and options. There isn't a whole lot on the market right now.

But of course, as the trend with us has been lately, with the highs, there are also the lows. Last weekend I had a pretty sore throat. It kind of went away through the week, but I felt tired and sluggish all week. Wednesday, Owen had a 102 fever when he woke up. Clint gave him some Motrin to bring it down. It got higher. I called the doctor around 12:30, they got us in at 2:00pm (love the pediatricians). He has Hand, Foot and Mouth. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a children's virus that causes blisters to form in the throat, on the hands and feet, in addition to a steep fever and irritability. The virus has been running rampant recently in the Ohio Valley. The ped said a few weeks ago, probably 25 kids a day came in with it. The fever has passed. He still has some irritability, but his appetite has increased, so he must be feeling better.

SO... Sunday night at work, I'm trying to put it out of my mind that my sore throat has come back. Amy, my fellow supervisor tells me that Strep Throat is going around. I put it out of my head. Around 11:45pm, I start to ache. The whole night, I had been freezing. It's always cold in there anyway, but I mean freezing with a shirt and sweater on, with a small space heater pointing directly at me and FREEZING. I feel like I'm starting to check out. It was hard to focus, the aching was getting worse and I was starting to worry. I ended up going home around 1am, because I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

All night long, I tossed and turned, alternating between being so cold that I was shaking and sweating so much that my clothes were wet. My arms hurt. My legs hurt. My hips hurt. My shoulders hurt. My head was thumping. I felt like I was dying. Several times in the night I contemplated going to the emergency room, but settled for going to Med Express when they opened at 9am. The doctor initially thought I had Strep, but it ended up being negative. He says that I likely have a variation of the Hand Foot and Mouth virus. He gave me a really strong antibiotic and said I shouldn't be contagious in about 24 hours. I can't wait until I feel better, this is freaking miserable. I don't think I've ever felt worse.

And of course, my little monkey picks today to want to start kissing me unprovoked, when I can't kiss him. He was relentless though, and would not settle for my cheeks, so I had to tuck my lips into my mouth and let him give me a big smacker.

It's been such a shitty day. Thank God this happened before Clint went back to work, otherwise I would have needed some help today. Clint is so amazing in situations like this, taking care of Owen all by himself. He is such an amazing daddy.

Currently, it's 11:20pm, and I've been up for four hours. That's the longest stretch I have been awake and out of bed today. The chills/sweats is still annoyingly a major issue. I have taken two showers today and I think I will need to change my shirt before bed. Boo to being a sweaty disaster.

I have to start feeling better soon! I'm having Aunt Karen over for dinner on Wednesday!!! I'm making a delicious pork loin, couscous and steamed broccoli. Yum.

Ups and downs.

So, when one thing is going well in my life, something else will most certainly start to crap out.

As everyone knows, some dude made an offer on our apartment about a month ago. A week after that we put an offer on a house that we pretty much love. I get the mortgage set up... I set up the inspection. Pay for the appraisal. Drop a pretty penny on the earnest money for the house.

We found out today that the guy buying the apartment can't get his financing in order and cannot buy the apartment. Fortunately we set up a contingency clause in case something like this happened. I'm not going to be stuck with two mortgages or anything like that, but this still 100% sucks.

This means, the apartment goes back on the market. I have to get it ready to show again. We pray with all our hearts that we get another offer in time to close on the house by September 24 (or that we get a new buyer and the sellers on the house will give us an extension on the close...) OR, we totally lose the house.

I'm devestated by this. We got attached to that house, the neighborhood, the school district, the local park, the local pool, the walking trail, the pinkish pit bull in the yard next door, (I like to call her Pinky). The "dream" is gone.

I'm praying. I'm praying that if this is NOT our house, that the person who does eventually buy our apartment will do so at a time when OUR REAL HOUSE is on the market, at an affordable price, in a great location. It's just hard to accept that there is nothing I can do about it.

It felt like it was all too good to be true, because it was. Everything went so smoothly on my end. The offer and counter offer happened within hours of each other and we ended up settling way under what I thought we would be paying. The mortgage got set up without a hitch. The inspection was pretty decent. I'm counting on my faith and patience to take us through this. It could always be worse.


The good news... Clint finally got a job offer at a mental health facility in St. Clairsville, OH. He has accepted for now. Last friday he had two interviews, one at this job and another at a company in Washington, PA (about 30 minutes away) that would be almost his EXACT job from Touchstone, same salaray, same hours, everything. Perfect. He said the interview went very well, and they even said that if he wasn't selected for the job he was interviewed for, there was another position he could be considered for. Cross your fingers.

Maybe the reason this isn't working out is because Clint might get the job in Wash, PA and Warwood would be a little too far to drive every day. Maybe Elm Grove or Bethlehem would be a better fit for us. My friend Terry said to me today, "Just wait to see what God has in store for you."

So, the future is again uncertain. I'm just thankful the immediate future contains an employed husband. And extremely happy that Rpatz and Kstew were finally photographed kissing, in real life, in public, for real. THAT made my day.

And, I'm also very intrigued by Google Analytics. I can check to see who is actually looking at my blog. Meguro, Japan, Pelotas, Brazil, Bogota, Colombia, Brno, Czech Republic... I don't know who you are, but thanks for visiting! My blog has been visited by 16 countries and 21 states. I don't know who in Blairsville or Carnegie, PA is looking at the blog with such regularity. But I know those 20-some visits a month in Morgantown are from Virginia! And Mt. Vernon, IA is Krista K. So thanks friends, and loyal strangers! Identify yourselves and say hello!

More house pictures!

We went today for the inspection, which did not show anything major, so it looks like this is really happening! It should be official September 24~~!!

After the inspection, I snapped a bunch of pictures and measured all the windows so I can start buying window coverings!!! Upstairs hallway. Excuse the creepy guy to the right who didn't get out of the picture in time.Third bedroom, likely to be used as a spare bedroom/office area until the second and final baby shows up in a couple of years.

Staircase heading down.

Owen's room facing the back of the house.

Our bedroom.

Our bedroom door.

Living room to foyer <3

Kitchen into dining room.

Kitchen.

Foyer into the other rooms.

Entrance to bathroom.

Dining room to kitchen.

Bathroom.

Pictures

A couple people have requested pictures. I haven't taken any myself yet, (but it's me, you know there will be tons once we move in), but these are the pictures from the realtor's website.

Living room. I wish they had picked a more neutral color for the carpet, but it's brand new, so I can live with it... The brand new kitchen. No room for a dishwasher, but it's all good. There is an apple tree right outside the kitchen window.

French doors in the living room that lead to the foyer.

Finished third floor, perfect for a playroom! I'm sure when Owen is 13, he's going to want to move up here full time. The three bedrooms on the second floor all have this carpet and paint color as well.

Dining room, leading to back yard. There is also a pass-through to the kitchen.

That's it! I will take a ton of pictures come September 25!!!!!!

The house I had a dream about.

So, I think I already mentioned that we listed our apartment with a realtor. We figured it was time to get serious, start trying to make things happen.

We were a little unsure of what we were going to do if the house sold. Do we buy a new house? Do we try to save money and rent? We even tossed around the idea of moving out of the area. But, since I have such a good job, we figured staying in Wheeling and being close to our families was the best bet for us.

We figured it would be wise to start looking at houses as well. When the time came that our house sold, we would have to decide quickly what the plan would be. If we did end up buying a house, I wanted to know what all was on the market, so we would be prepared and be familiar with all the houses in our price range.

Last week, we had looked at one house in Bethlehem that was decent, but overpriced and needed a little work. I told our realtor, Bob, (who I love), that I wanted to see a few more houses later in the week. I gave him a list and he said we could look at two that Friday, one in Warwood and one in St. Clairsville. Meanwhile, we have had probably 3 or 4 groups come through our house, which even though that's a small number, I was surprised we had even that many. Someone came to look at it last Wednesday.

Thursday night, I had a dream that we bought the first house we planned to look at the next day. I had looked at SO many houses on all of the real estate websites in the past few weeks. This particular house didn't really interest me, except that it was in our price range and had the right number of bedrooms in a decent neighborhood. So, I was surprised it made an appearance in my subconscious.

Friday morning, a lot of stuff happened. We went to look at the house I had a dream about. It was built in 1920, it's pretty big, and it has been recently been flipped. Everything in the house is new. New kitchen, new bathroom, new paint, new carpet, new windows, new furnace, new air conditioner, new water heater. There are a couple of drawbacks. There is not a single appliance in the house. While the majority of the house has either a caramel color carpeting or ceramic tile, the living room has bright blue carpet... The most important thing was that Clint and I both really liked it. We have looked at 8 houses total now, and that was the first time where we were completely on the same page.

Moving along, we go to look at a second house in St. Clairsville that was built in 1995. On paper, it should have been the better house, but we kept thinking about the first house in Warwood. We started talking hypothetically about the profit we will make from the sale of our house to be the down payment on a new house. (Not new of course, but new for us...) Our realtor, after having spent at least an hour with us, comes out of nowhere and says, "Well, that's something we will need to think about, because you have an offer." WHAT? The house had only been on the market for 23 days. We were thinking it would take at least six months to sell. I was talking about what it would be like to spend another winter in this apartment, and the freaking house gets an offer after Twenty. Three. Days.

He low-balled us, of course, but we countered back, and the next morning he accepted our counter. We are moving out of this house on September 24. (If all goes as planned, and please pray that it does.)

So... now what?

We tell Bob we want to look at more houses. We looked at three more on Monday and hated every single one of them. They were overpriced, they were old and outdated, they were remodeled poorly... they were... weird....

Meanwhile, in conversation, we start referring to the house in Warwood as "The House." We went to look at it again. And again with my mom and our handy man.

This morning, on the third visit, we take our handy man and tell him everything we want to change. Get everyone's opinion.

We made an offer.

Now, we are waiting. We fully expect them to counter. How much will they counter? Will they accept our terms? Will they cover our closing costs? Let's hope. The whole process makes me giddy and nauseous all at the same time. I'm not sleeping... like at all...

Please keep us in your prayers and cross your fingers for us. I'm hoping to hear back from the seller this evening.

We really want this:

Mother of three, for three days only.

We finally planned a trip to Columbus that involved bringing additional children with us home to Wheeling. We went up on Tuesday and brought Andrew and Allie back home with us for three nights.



They were jam-packed days, and not everything went according to plan, but we still had an awesome time.

Early morning piano shenanigans.

Three hot kids on a chair.

Approximately 10 minutes after arriving back in Wheeling, our power goes out as I am making grilled cheese sandwiches for all the kids. I think it's important to note that it was exactly 96 degrees that day. The kids were uncomfortable. We went and rented a movie, and by the time we came home, the power was back on and we enjoyed a dinner of chicken enchiladas.

What I did not realize, was that something happened to the refrigerator during the power outage. The light was still on, the freezer was still cold, but by Thursday morning, the fridge was getting less cold than it should have been. I was thinking it may have had something to do with the excessive heat.

So, Thursday we packed up Andrew and Allie (Grandma stayed with Owen at our house) and went to Sandcastle. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures while at Sandcastle, because my phone was stored in a locker while we ran around the waterpark.

We first hit up the wave pool (always a favorite). The kids weren't sure what to expect, but once the waves started churning, and the kids started getting bounced around, we knew they were having an awesome time. Then Clint and I both got a double innertube to go down the Blue Tubalooba with each of the kids, the most awesome water slide in the history of water slides. After going down it once the kids immediate screamed, "Let's do that again!!!!!" The lazy river was not quite as big a hit, so we went back to the wave pool before lunch.

After lunch, Allie and I went to the kids' pool, which even as an adult, was awesome. I can't wait until Owen gets a little bigger so he can enjoy that. After the little pool, we tried to see if Allie could go down some slides in a single tube. Thankfully she was tall enough, so we each went down two more slides side by side. She was having a blast. Meanwhile, Andrew and Clint were going down the terrifying really tall slides. We met back up to go in the wave pool one more time before heading home.

We left Sandcastle at 5:30, and didn't reach the Fort Pitt Tunnel until 6:45... It's approximately 10 miles, maybe less. There was so much traffic. It was disastrous. The kids were exhausted and both took a nap in the car, but woke up before we even left Pittsburgh.

Below is Allie passed out in the car on the way home from Sandcastle.

When we got home, my mom says, "Kara, I don't think your fridge is keeping things cold..." The refrigerator that I bought 2.5 years ago when we first moved into our apartment is now ruined. Friday morning brought stress and refrigerator estimates. One company told me it would cost between $200-400 to fix it. Another company was going to charge me $80 just to come look at it, and they couldn't come look at it until the 20th (I called on the 9th)...

New refrigerator it is! I got a pretty sweet deal on a Whirpool brand (bottom freezer) refrigerator that was half off!!!! It was a good day to buy a fridge.

The rest of Friday was spent at the park, Andrew and Clint hitting up Cabela's, and Allie, Owen and me going shopping at Target where Allie got some cute new outfits and I got some new sunglasses to replace the ones broken at Sandcastle. (I cannot be without sunglasses on sunny days.)

Owey was also a fan of the shades.

Owey and his best friend (substitute polar bear), Andrew.

If the polar bear is not near, and Andrew is, Owey is happy! I have an almost identical shot of these two from our trip to the Columbus zoo.

The night in Columbus consisted of Bananagrams with my gutter-brained husband, Scott and Cristie, and two defunct dictionaries that couldn't keep up with my vocabulary. Thank God for Scott's iPhone. Good times, friends.

I just want to say how adorable Allie is with all her little dresses. I have known this little lady since she was nine days old, and in the past five years, I don't remember ever seeing her wear anything other than dresses (except for pajamas). Cristie says it doesn't happen too often.

Allie is very good at making Owey giggle.

Especially when she acts like she is biting his hands. The expression on Owen's face is his deliriously happy face.

And Allie can fly!

Action shot of Allie~!

Bubbles! Allie was blowing bubbles and Owey was chasing them.

Down the tubes.

Saturday morning, the entire Kimmins fam had breakfast in the Amie abode. I don't do it very often, but when there is a special occasion, I love to cook up a big breakfast. Cristie always prepares a huge breakfast for us the last day of our visits to Columbus, so I thought it only fair I return the favor. It was awesome having them all over! I'm looking forward to having a house with more livable areas so that I can do more entertaining (without having people climb three flights of stairs)... I'm pretty sure Owey was very sad to see his friends leave, and I'm sure he is looking forward to another visit soon.

Back to the fridge drama. Because it was considered an "emergency fridge," they did not give me a time window on when the fridge was going to be delivered, only that it would be Saturday. Clint went and got a few breakfast essentials this morning, and more ice. I had everything from the fridge within a cooler and a huge freezer bag.

I figured it would be delivered midday. Nope.

At 4:00pm, I called Lowes to find out where the fridge was. They took my number and told me they would call me back. At 6:00pm, with no word from Lowes, I called back. This new girl I talked to contacted the driver while on the phone with me, only to find out that they were "backed up" but it would definitely be today. I was upset. By this point, all the ice had melted from everywhere, and everything in the cooler and freezer bag was ruined. I told them I had kids in my house and needed to be able to have essential food items. I had planned on going shopping as soon as the fridge was delivered to replace everything that was ruined. Luckily, I stored all of our meat from the freezer with our upstairs neighbor, who was very accommodating, even though she is vegan!!! I relayed this to the girl on the phone, who promptly transferred me to a manager.

I'm kind of surprised at this. I wasn't really angry, I just wanted to know when the damn fridge was going to be delivered. I am not one to hold back a complaint at places like restaurants and retail stores. I worked as a waitress and a sales associate before. I know the deal. Customer's are paying you for a service, and if that service is not delivered as expected, the customer should benefit. But in this case, I wasn't even that mad when on the phone. Clint said it sounded like I was going to cry, but I think I was just really tired. This phone call resulted in the darling manager from Lowes leaving $15o dollars at the customer service desk for me to replace my groceries. I'm still ticked that I had to replace a 2.5 year old fridge, but that was a huge help, especially with Clint being laid off and all that. Thanks Ashley the manager!

The fridge was finally in place in my kitchen at 8:15pm.

After the crazy week I have had, I made some plans with my dear Natalie for sushi and secret-spilling. The sweet-potato rolls were sweet-ass. After sushi-fest, I hightailed it to the grocery store to replace all my perishables, courtesy of Lowes.

Tonight, the house is quiet after three days of being a family of five. While I know our family will likely only ever be a family of four, having Andrew and Allie with us made me look forward to giving Owen a sibling in a few years. He was clearly sad when he woke up from his nap and realized that the big kids were not there anymore.

Kids are awesome. One of Clint's highlights from the week: Listening to Andrew and Allie giggle while watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." It was infectious. Love it.

Random thoughts

• Summer has gone from non-existent to horribly persistent in a matter of days. I hate when the air is heavy and hot, makes me feel sticky, and the only solution is a pool.
• I love swimming. I think Owey is going to love it as well. We were at a barbecue for Memorial Day, and he took it upon himself to climb into the kiddie pool. With his shoes on.
• Clint is thinking about taking coal-mining classes. Yes the job market is that bad. He has had a couple of mental health positions he's been interested in, but they pay next to nothing. Is it worth it?
• I have been looking for houses online. At first it's exciting, but then it just gets depressing.
• In order for us to buy a house, things need to happen in this order: Clint needs to get a job, we need to get a realtor, we need to sell this house, and find the house we want to buy. Ugh. Can we fast forward to the last step?
• I really really really want to buy a house in Woodsdale, but I don't think it's going to happen.
• My darling Natalie K. has been making me many mix CDs, and they help me get through long nights of QC at work. Natalie, you continue to improve my life every week. I love our 15 minutes on Sundays.
• YOU, (yes you) should be listening to Emily Haines (with or without the Soft Skeleton and other various accompaniments). Crowd Surf off a Cliff and Bottom of the World are two of my new favorite songs.
• Owen will now willingly wear sandals, sunglasses and/or a hat. He has a little baseball-like hat, and it's slightly too big, so I turn it to the side and he looks like a little gangster.
• My darling Laura's bun is nearly cooked. We must have one more night out for crab legs before you become a mother of two.
• I recently reconnected (through Facebook!) with a little girl I used to babysit all through college. I started watching her when she was 5 or 6, I think. She is now nearly 15. Wow. The first time I watched her, she made me stay on a swing by her garage while she rode her bike up the street, making sure to keep in contact via walkie-talkie. I have so many good memories of that little lady. I hope we get together soon.
• I really really really want a new car. I refuse to make a new mix CD until I can make one for MY car, and I'm getting impatient.
• Owen has started running. It's more like a fast, exaggerated waddle, but it's adorable.
• My good friend Annie from high school is visiting while her husband is doing some training in the military. It's so good to see friends from your past, who after all the time are in the exact same place in their lives as you are. So good to see you and little Alex!
• Clint and I watched the entire first two seasons of True Blood in two weeks. It's scandalous. There is a lot of cussing, effing, biting and killing. Good stuff.
• Owen still doesn't say many words, but he talks all the time in little baby-talk sentences. He uses a lot of inflection and various different sounds. I'm convinced one day he is just going to start talking in sentences. He says, "dada, mama (very rarely), hi, kitty, yeah, mmmmm (when he likes something to eat), what's that, uh oh," and he makes exaggerated kissing sounds when he kisses things. He also kisses everything that he loves. I also saw him hugging a little Shrek doll today.
• Yesterday, my mama turned 64!!!! Happy Birthday Jude.

Ok, my little list turned into a long list.

How to Disappear Completely.

So... Things are kind of rough these days.

It seems like one good thing happens, and then three bad things happen directly afterward. For example, we got a handy man for a very reasonable price, who (together with Clint's assistance) finished the hallway and removed the sink and replaced the wall in the laundry room. Clint has been sanding window frames and hopes to do a lot of painting done next week. House renovations in preparation to put it on the market = good stuff.

So, then comes some bad stuff. Last Thursday, I had a dentist appointment. For a very long time, I have known that I have TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder). If you are unfamiliar, basically, it's a misalignment of the joints in my jaw. It causes a lot of different symptoms, but MINE include: headaches, clicking (to the point where I have had a meal with someone and they ask, 'what is that noise?' 'yeah, it's my jaw clicking.'), sometimes dizziness, and the worst of all - clenching. I clench my jaw all the time. I will wake up in the morning and my jaw will be clenched. I will be sitting at my desk and realize I have been clenching my jaw for who knows how long. I catch myself doing it all day. Well, for the past few weeks, I thought I might have had a cavity, because when I would drink something cold, or have something sweet, like a big old glass of Riesling... I would have some sensitivity in my lower left set of teeth. I expressed this to my dental hygienist, and she pointed it out to the dentist. He examined. I'm laying in the reclined chair, mouth wide open when I hear, "Oh, you have a crack in one of your lower left teeth... Here's another one on the other side!" So, apparently, I have been clenching my jaw hard enough and long enough that I have started cracking my teeth.

So, I am scheduled to have my teeth molded next week so that I can have a splint made to wear at night so I don't clench my teeth when I'm sleeping. This is of course, conveniently not covered by my dental insurance. Another option is to get braces. Believe me, I don't exactly dig the idea of having braces as an adult, but if it will prevent me cracking all my teeth and reducing the crazy headaches caused by all of this, I will consider. The option I will not even consider is surgery. The idea of having part of my jaw bones scraped off, and then having my jaw wired shut for weeks so it may heal does NOT sound like an excellent time.

So, that's that.

The next thing, which is both a good and bad thing at the same time, is that I sold my VW bug to a coworker. This is good because I no longer have a car payment and our monthly gas budget will be reduced. But it's bad because I no longer have a car, and I loved that car. Honestly, it was a little ridiculous having a toddler and a tiny two-door car, whose trunk did not even accommodate his stroller... With Clint being laid off right now, we sincerely do not need two cars. I walk to work. We are home together through the week. We very rarely drive separately anymore. Clint and I made a deal that when he gets a new job or we sell the house, whichever comes first, I can get a new car. I am pretty much decided on a Honda or a Nissan. I really want a CRV or a Rogue, but I would also take an Element, Murano or maybe even a Versa. Those are my possibilities.

And, very sadly, my great Aunt Katie died on Monday. She was 91. She was one of my late grandmother's many siblings, only one of which are still with us, my great Aunt Helen. Aunt Katie's funeral was today. Despite the fact that it was a very sad occasion, a lot of my family from out of town got to meet Owen at the viewing last night. He was actually very brave while there, not his usual timid self. He was walking around the entire first floor, and even grabbing random people's legs! He must have known he was among family.

Oh, and Clint found out he is making little more than half of what he made in unemployment the last time he was laid off! So, I am going to have to be creative with our budget until he goes back to work. Please pray that he finds a new job and that we are able to sell our house. This is wearing me down. I feel like I need a vacation from my life. I should start entering contests to have an all expense paid vacation to somewhere beautiful and stress free. Just for a week. Wonder what my odds would be... My mom thinks I'm pretty lucky.

Random good things this week:
Seeing dearly loved family that I don't get to see nearly enough.
Owen saying "Mama" completely unprovoked to get my attention.
Natalie.
New Moon on DVD, obviously.

The Park, part two.

We made a play date at the park today. Me, my mom, and the bug, and we invited Erin and Alexander along. It was slightly colder than last time, so we had to bundle up. Owen played his usual - the timid kid for the majority of the time we are some place, warming up around the time we are getting ready to leave...

The boys.
Managed to get a great picture of Alexander!

Tunnels.

Finally warming up.

Owey and Mamaw.

Me and my monkey.

We had to be out of the house while Daddy and our new super hero handy man fixed the wall in the laundry room. Next project on Thursday - the HALLWAY.