Housing Blues

As many of you know, we are currently trying to buy a house. It's a "buyer's market" but it is seeming increasingly difficult to actually buy a house! As many of you know, there are sooooo many foreclosures in California. But, here are some of the difficulties with the market in California:
1. The bank owned properties often have multiple offers on them. We currently have an offer on a house near BIOLA but we were the 12th offer after the house had been on the market for only a week. It has been on the market for an additional 2 weeks now and we still haven't heard anything from the bank. They really take their time, let the offers pile up, and typically choose the offers with the greatest cash down. This speaks volumes for where the banks are since it would be in their best interest (long term) to choose offers that don't have as much cash down because in the long run, with interest, they would earn more. But banks are in trouble and need the cash NOW.
2. We will have to do an FHA loan which prohibits any serious problems with the house. We looked at one house recently that had a cracked foundation, a sinking bedroom, and had 5 offers on it. Seriously??? But a house like that (even if we wanted to buy it), wouldn't be allowed under FHA requirements.
3. Many of the short sales have the residents still living in them (which makes it very awkward to view while they're home) and, if purchased, there are sometimes issues with getting the current residents to leave. Many times the courts need to get involved which can take a very long time.
4. Within our price range, there is almost always something wrong with the houses we look at, whether it be no heat/air conditioning, needing a new roof, and sometimes something even more serious. Ugh!
Needless to say, we spend a lot of time in prayer over buying a house and we feel grateful because we have a great rental house and can be content staying here as well. Just wanted to share the craziness...

Family Funnies

Sky and Brad came with me to the doctor for my glucose test (blood draw). Sky had lots of questions before, during and after the blood draw but the funniest thing she said was, "Are they taking the blood out to make more room for the baby?"
A few days ago I was reading a book with Brad and he kept pointing to an elephant (specifically the elephant's trunk) in the book and saying, "Bink!" I was so confused. "Bink" is the word that we use for his pacifier. Then I put it together. We keep his bink attached to him with a strap that hangs down from his shirt. He was thinking that the elephant's trunk was connecting a bink to the elephant. Too funny!

Cousins!

While we were in Connecticut Sky and Brad got to spend some time with their cousins Bryce and Ayla. They had a fun time playing together and got along really well together. We sure wish that they could see each other more often!

Will I die if I eat this?

Lately Sky has been very interested in what things she should and should not eat. She probably asks me 100 questions a day about this topic (I'm not kidding). Here's how a typical conversation might go (these are all real examples of things that she actually said):
Sky: Mommy will I die if I eat the pit in this plum?
Mom: No but it might hurt your tummy.
Sky: Would I get sick?
Mom: You might. It won't taste good.
Sky: What if just a piece of the pit fell off and I ate it?
Mom: It might give you a tummy ache.
Sky: What if I ate shampoo-would I die then?
Mom: No. But you might get sick. It won't taste good.
Sky: Mommy, I think I just ate some air. Will I get sick from that?
Mom: You can't eat air.
Sky: Well, I just did. Will I get sick?
Mom: You can't get sick from eating air because you can't eat air.
Sky: Well I feel like I have a tummy ache from it.
I'm so glad that Sky is an inquisitive, imaginative 4 year old but sometimes the constant verbal battering is just exhausting. She starts talking the moment she wakes up in the morning and there is no rest until she goes to sleep at night.

Such a little man

So this is our little man, Brad. He had a blast in CT. My dad hadn't seen him in over a year so they had fun bonding and doing manly things together. I know the pictures would be better if he didn't have that binky in his mouth all the time but he LOVES that thing. I guess we'll have to take it away someday...

Gary and Katie's Wedding

Me and my "little brother"

Mr. and Mrs. LeClerc

Sky dancing with Pepere

Sky and Uncle Gary

Brad-a rare moment of stillness!

Katie with her puppy Tony

We just returned from a whirlwind week in Connecticut! My youngest brother Gary had planned to marry his long time sweet heart, Katie Oneill on July 4th but they changed the date to April 10 since my due date is July 6th and I wouldn't have been able to attend then. The bummer was that Eric's wife Michelle couldn't attend because she is due with their first baby in about a month. Sky was a flower girl, Brad was the ring bearer and I was a bridesmaid. Brad and I walked down the aisle together and Sky walked with another flower girl. They really enjoyed the dancing afterwards. It was hard to keep them off the dance floor.

It was a wonderful wedding-held outdoors at a beautiful reception place, the food was fabulous, the music was live and cut across all generations, but, perhaps the most unique aspect to the wedding was that there were dogs in the wedding. Katie is a dog lover and she has a business walking and caring for dogs so she really wanted her dogs to be a part of the wedding. The dogs behaved reasonably well and there are some great pictures of Gary and Katie with the dogs.

The newlyweds went to the Poconos in PA for their honeymoon but we were able to see them 2 times during the week beside the wedding. Katie is moving into the house that Gary is renting but they are hoping to buy their own house in Waterbury pretty soon. They took us to see that house and it is definitely a fixer-upper but it has great potential. We wish them all the best as they start their life together.

Family Jam

Our little friend Courage-isn't she too cute????

Sky and her little friend Titus dancing to the live music.

Today our church had a really fun family day including 3 jump houses, face painting, balloon animal making, Easter egg hunt, and a really cool raffle. The kids had a blast! I think we were there for at least 3 hours! It was a really fun day!