Splash Pad

I had not taken Alli to the local splash pad until today. Supposedly today was the opening day. You can't beat that it is less than 10 minutes from my house and free! Normally this place is packed and that is enough of a deterrent for me. I don't like over crowded places and neither does Alli. But today our church's mother's group got together at the splash pad and I thought it would be fun to go with a bunch of Alli's friends from church.

We didn't plan or consider how many cicadas would be around the water. Many of the kids were screaming and wanted nothing to do with it. Alli didn't mind all the much. In fact, she touched one after I pointed it out to her and touched it myself.It took her a good 45 minutes to an hour to get comfortable with the water spraying everywhere. She loves water but wants it splashed on her terms. After most of the play group had left, Alli decided it was time to start having fun. So we stayed an extra hour.

She had a great time and I think we may try to go back tomorrow when Ben is home to enjoy it with us. This month is a perfect time to go since the cicadas will keep it from getting over crowded and Alli didn't mind them!

For anyone interested

I love browsing coupon blogs. There is one blog I regularly follow and she is a very practical kind of person. She tends to do a whole lot of freezer cooking to reduce the amount of time she spends on meals and it also ensures they eat out less and eat healthier. One of the meals she cooked this week was in an effort to save money because he husband is addicted to the breakfast burritos from McDonalds. It's simple and practical and I ask myself...why didn't I think of that. So here is her recipe. I did alter the ham to sausage.

Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup chopped green pepper
• 18 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped ham
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 20 flour tortillas

Saute onions and green pepper in butter. Beat eggs and milk together and pour into the skillet with the onions and peppers.

Add the ham, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until eggs are set. Mix in cheese and let melt.

Scoop 1/2 cup egg mixture onto tortillas. Fold ends under and roll up. Freeze (see instructions below) or put all burritos in a baking dish, top with extra cheese (if you’d like) and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve with salsa.

Freezer Instructions:

Wrap burrito in a paper towel and then in a sheet of foil. Seal tightly and place in freezer bags. When bag is full, remove all air and seal. Freeze.

To serve: Remove foil and put paper-towel-wrapped burrito in microwave. Reheat for around one minute. Serve with salsa.

As the recipe states, it makes 20 burritos. I already had green pepper and onions on hand so the only thing I needed were tortillas, cheese, eggs and sausage. So $8 in ingredients and I had 20 burritos. Think about what you pay for a fast food burrito...Mine come out to $0.40 a piece...Score...Can't go wrong with the fact that they tasted really good. Ben thought they tasted like quiche in a tortilla. Sounds yummy to me!

Prayer Request

I posted this on facebook already but thought I'd mention it here as well in case someone misses it.

Anyone who knows my Ben knows that it has always been a lifelong passion of his to be a firefighter. He doesn't want to stop there though. He wants so badly to progress in his field and learn anything and everything he can. Every time a promotion has opened up that he was eligible for, he would apply. He has been passed up on 3 driver promotions. We aren't sure why and are not really sure it even matters. In a lot of ways the fire service is a buddy system. Those who are well liked by the higher ups get the promotions. Ben works very hard, he tries not to allow the negativity of others at work pull him into the cycle of complaining, and he always does what he is told (no questions asked). This cannot be said for many of the guys on the department. Ben has not hid the fact that he wants to promote up and that he seeks further training and growth.

It is time once again for driver promotions at work. Ben (as always) received a good evaluation this year. Something new to this driver promotion is the requirement that you had to get an evaluation score above a 3.0. This may have knocked quite a few guys out of even applying but this really doesn't even matter. Ben deserves this promotion and this is his only way he can go to the fire academy to get the extra training he so badly wants. The department won't send you to training unless you are getting promoted to something. So, I'm requesting prayers on Ben's behalf. This week they will be taking their driver tests (probably Thursday for Ben). Ben will have to answer questions on basic fire fighting knowledge and knowing how to get to various places within the city by displaying street by street turns. Ben knows his job and knows it well and I would love to see him get the promotion he rightfully deserves! I pray he does well on his test and has a good interview in the upcoming weeks. I'd appreciate (and I know he would too) any and all prayers and thoughts on his behalf this week and in the weeks to come!

Just sit back and chill

This is something I've never been good at...chilling...After a long exhausting process over the last few months of we're selling our house...we're not selling...back to we're selling our house....we found a house we love...we lost the house we love...

We have once again decided to just sit tight and not sell our house. A culmination a many things has brought us to this decision. Go ahead...if you feel like you are on a seesaw when you read about our plans then I'm right there with you.

The potential buyers that we had for our home have failed to contact us for 1.5 months. Maybe not that long but that's what it feels like. They weren't going to be a traditional sale anyway. They were interested in a lease purchase option. So now that we do not have any offers on the house, the house hasn't shown in 3-4 weeks, and there is NOTHING on the market that we like (in our price range)....we really began to look at the overall picture. We have so many things going on in our life right now. Ben is once again applying for a driver position at work (please please please pray for him that he gets this position. There is so much stuff going on at work right now and we really need a moral boost here). Our neighborhood continues to go downhill in the sense of all the homes in foreclosure that are dropping the values of our homes. We just found out this week that there is a home on our street that is 1450 sq ft that either just sold or is listed at $90000 under foreclosure. How can we compete with that? We have 1500sq ft and bought our house for $144900. Our only option would be to rent our home in the event we found a house we wanted to move into and we just aren't sure we are comfortable handling a rental property right now.

So...we are taking the house off the market...again...and we are going to sit tight and chill. We want to wait and see how things pan out in a multitude of areas. I want things to feel settled for a bit. Alli's 2nd birthday is coming up and Ben and I've said from the beginning that we would like a 2-3 yr gap between our kids. So we will probably be considering having another child before long. We would love to have at least 2 kids so that Alli isn't an only child and grows up with a brother or sister that she can be close to and have as her best friend. I love my siblings and have many fond memories of our childhood and adult years. I would love for Alli to one day say her brother or sister is her best friend.

I was really hoping that Alli would be out of diapers by the time we add another child to the mix but this monkey is just bound and determined to delay the potty training process. I know kids MUCH younger than her already close to being out of diapers. Alli runs from me when I tell her she needs a diaper change...not a good sign. This monkey has been on her OWN schedule from day one. She was lazy about crawling....lazy about walking and now she will be lazy about potty training. So...work in progress....

Have a good week everyone.

Ok forget everything I said...

Well today we went to access the potential repairs needed on the home and thank goodness for Craig Gibbs! He looked the house over for us and we realized there are some problems that make the house not worth the investment. So grateful for his knowledge and willingness to help us out!!!

So again...moving on...patience will pay off...

HUD Horrors!!

Well this entry could become long and drawn out. So I will leave it short, sweet and to the point. We lost the home we were going to purchase through HUD. HUD uses 3 different agencies to list their houses. Each have different policies. Some of the policies are so new even to the listing agencies that they don't know all the rules. The listing agent for HUD helped "guide" our realtor through the application process and we followed his directions to a T! But they sent back 3 times for corrections. Little did we know HUD has a rule that if 3 or more corrections are needed in the contract then the contract is null and void and they go with the next highest bidder...so that they did...and we don't get our house.

Moving on. . .

We were upset but we went back to the drawing board and have noticed another house over in the Hunters Point subdivision. We love this area. We drive through it often on our way to that side of town. We've noticed this house has been vacant for a while and recently went bank owned. Rod took us through the home and we think it just might work for what we want out of a home. If we can get it for just the right price then we can get a "203k loan" which allows us to add money on top of the price of the home for the cost of repairs and upgrades to the home. So we will see how this plays out. We're going to take a look at it tomorrow with a contractor to get a rough estimate on what it would cost for the work that needs to be done to it. We are excited and see the potential but we HAVE to get the house at the right price or it just isn't worth it. So here it is:I like that it puts us closer to a part of town that I shop at most. It also puts us closer to mom's and Shannon and Rusty's. So...as with all things...if it is supposed to work out...it will.

I can tell Alli is getting closer to the lovely age of 2!! Within the last week she has developed a high pitched scream during her "fits". We have successfully developed the toddler temper tantrum. I can't help but laugh sometimes. It is so comical to me when she gets so worked up. I know it doesn't help the situation so I try not to laugh where she can see. I try to remain patient and calm with her and without giving in to what she is pitching a fit over...she eventually calms down after a minute or two and we are over it.

One funny thing Alli is doing lately is telling people bye bye. If she is in the front yard or anywhere she can see cars drive by, she will wave at them and say "bye bye". It's pretty cute. One day she was in the front yard with me and someone drove up to the stop sign at the cross street in front of our house. Alli began waving and saying bye bye to them. They turned left in front of our house to leave the neighborhood. They saw Alli waving at them and waved back. Alli continued to wave and say bye bye so in response they put they hand out their sunroof and gave her a very big wave bye bye. I love how outgoing she is. It's pretty funny and cute.

She likes to do things to be helpful and feel like a big girl. Tonight, she helped me hang her shirts on hangars and I lifted her up to hang them in the closet. She also loves to stand on the stool and help me "cook". She also helps me water plants and feed the dogs. Her face lights up and she gets this huge grin. I try to encourage her as much as I can to do these things and to build her confidence and her desire to help. She's growing up so fast!

Stuffy love

When Alli was born, her Nana Love gave her a soft teddy bear. Alli never showed a lot of excitement in regards to stuffed animals until she got her Violet dog on her 1st birthday. The teddy bear has always sat on a shelf above her changing table. Yesterday Alli looked up at the shelf while I was changing her diaper and said "dog dog". She thought her bear was a dog. So I told her it was a bear and then she asked for the bear. Ever since I brought the bear down off the shelf...she won't let it out of her sight. Here are a few pictures to show what I mean.