The Huge “Catch Up” Post to Cover July

The biggest news from the last few weeks is that we moved into our new house! Our first night was July 3rd and the following day we had a few friends over to celebrate the 4th. The kids loved the little fireworks.

Desmond loves all the new space to run and play. The formal living room is his play room since we don’t have any furniture for it. We go outside nearly every day, and his favorite activity is splashing in the kiddie pool.

We enjoyed a long overdue visit with the Hardys the following weekend. We went down to a festival that was going on at a nearby park. After the kids were in bed we played games and laughed the evening away.

Ah, the not so fun task of deep cleaning the condo. We scrubbed that thing from top to bottom, touched up the paint, and finally dug out the blocks Desmond had dumped behind the fireplace insert. Now to find a renter. We are posted on craigslist so if you know of anyone needing a place…http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/apa/1869725730.html

July 17th marked our sixth wedding anniversary! We took three nights up in Seattle while my parents stayed with Desmond. We stayed at the new Maxwell Hotel right across from the Seattle Center. Highlights: the Auburn drive-in, the Pacific Science Center, cherries from Pike's Place Market, and dinner at Bahn Thai.

Desmond is quite the little helper and helped me make the truck cookies for his birthday party. Always so much more clean up afterwards, but so much fun when I remind myself the mess is cleanable and the laughter is priceless.

Desmond is 2! He loved his dump truck cake and we enjoyed hosting friends and family at our house. Desmond had fun opening all the gifts and is totally spoiled with so many new toys! (But it has been a little easier to get things done during the day as he is well occupied.) Davin’s parents all stayed with us for several nights and it was the first time Desmond had all his grandparents together.

Life has been fun and full for the last month, but I’m looking forward to settling back into a routine. Our next focus is getting the condo rented and fixing up the new house. Coming soon… a new roof.

My Artist

 

“Yeah, I was keeping the paint on my paper, Mommy.”

My trade-off for five minutes of uninterrupted pantry organization was fifteen minutes of clean-up.  He makes me smile.

The Proud New Owners' Learning Curve

For better or worse we are the new owners of this four bedroom house in NE Vancouver. We closed on June 18th but finally got the keys today after the past owners moved out. We stopped by this evening, and Davin got to see inside for the first time since our showing back in February. Desmond loved running around the open space and hiding in all the closets. We know the roof needs replaced and we have to treat some mold in the attic. The surprise was when I called to get our name on the water bill and found out that it's been $400 every two months! The lady told me to check for a leak since that's extremely high. We looked today and yes, with everything turned off inside the meter is still spinning. Great! I'm trying not to worry about the finances. We tried calculating out all the extra costs beforehand, but we've only purchased a brand new condo so we're not used to all the maintenance expenses that come with a fifteen year old house. We have many projects to fill the coming months, and the new water problem might involve ripping up our driveway and yard. I don't even know who to call about something like that. Guess we'll find out.

Reaching a Big Goal

I’ve been continuing my Jillian Michaels workouts and following most of her nutritional plan.  I have one workout left to complete the 30 days.  (Davin’s planning on joining me as I go through it again next month.)  I’ve lost five inches and 8 pounds this month, and I’m feeling good!  I’ve also finally dipped into my normal BMI range for the first time in probably 4 years.  Normally I like to reward myself by eating ice cream, but this time I think I’ll go shopping for some new smaller clothes that fit me better. 

Last week I went out with some of my mom friends to California Pizza Kitchen.  I looked up the nutritional information beforehand and felt empowered to make a wise decision with my food.  Normally I would have easily made a 1600 calorie choice and justified it because I was out with friends.  This time I ate within my limit for dinner totaling 560 calories and it was satisfying. I control the food; it doesn’t control me!  Before going out for the evening I snapped a few pictures because I was feeling cute.  It’s still hard for my mind to catch up to my slimmer body.

 

Visit from Aunt Ashana and Ed

In April we had the pleasure of visiting with Davin’s sister Ashana and her boyfriend Ed.  They hadn’t seen Desmond since he was three weeks old!  Desmond warmed up to them right away, and I thought it was hilarious that he called Ed, “Odd.” 

 

They gave Desmond this cute Leap Frog dog named Scout.  Davin likes it because it plugs into the computer. We programmed it to say Desmond’s name and some of his favorite things.  Desmond loves it and is almost inseparable from Scout.  His favorite song is the one that spells his name.  I seriously think he has even started laughing like Scout. Wow.

Strawberries!

We enjoyed the beautiful summer day and went strawberry picking this morning at Philbrook Farms.  Desmond did well picking only the red ones… mostly, and Davin filled a bucket too even though it’s more like a difficult Easter egg hunt for him.  We will most definitely be back.

     

Workout Day 12

Just finished my Jillian Michaels workout for day 12.  This is my second time around getting to day 12, but last time I only went as far as day 15 when I found out I was pregnant and backed things off.  I look forward to completing the whole 30 days this time.  These workouts are tough, but the fun part is that it makes me feel strong afterwards!  I’m starting to get the arms to prove it.  

Desmond-Doodle

I captured a picture of Desmond napping the other day because I want to remember the little moments like this.  He’s developed some distinctly Desmond ways of doing things. When he’s getting situated in bed to go to sleep he likes to snuggle all the way under the covers or he’ll at least make sure his head is covered.  He likes to have bear, puppy, and blanket when he goes to sleep.  He is a fidgeter with his blanket and often falls asleep with a corner in his mouth and a corner in each hand. 

  

He loves to play outside. His favorite activities include drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles, pushing around his wagon, collecting rocks, and running through the bushes. He innately knows that trees are for climbing though there are no low branches on our little tree. 

So Desmond got his first major boo-boo one week ago today.  We usually run to the front window to look out and watch Davin put his bike away when we hear him come home.  Desmond fell down a couple stairs and landed on the hardwood entry splitting his chin open.  Yeah, it was a nice way to welcome Daddy home.  We immediately took off for the ER, and three hours later we were home for a late dinner and bed.  Desmond was a trooper but it was really hard to see him get five stitches.  We got them taken out on Friday and the steri-strips came off tonight.  His cut hasn’t bothered him at all, but now it will be my job to keep sunscreen on it to minimize scarring.  But with a name like “Danger” you’ve got to have a scar, right?

  

We enjoyed the Waterfront Village this afternoon.  The best part was the cowboy show.  He got Desmond laughing with his fire juggling.  Here’s Desmond sporting his cool tattoos.

Dozer Days

A few weeks back we went to check out Dozer Days here in Vancouver.  We told Desmond we’d be seeing backhoes and when we pulled in to the parking lot Desmond excitedly says, “Backhoe!!!”  “Do you see a backhoe, bud?” I asked. (No backhoes were in sight yet.)  “No,” he replies matter-of-factly.  Davin and I got a good laugh out of that. 

We didn’t think many people would be at the quarry to check out backhoes, but man were we wrong!  This was quite the event with at least 30 backhoes and bulldozers that older kids could sit in with an “drive” with an operator.  We got ushered in by riding in the back of a huge dump truck.  Desmond was thrilled to just watch the action and play with the gravel. Although he was super excited about the backhoes he didn’t want to get too close or touch them.  Funny guy!  They also had rescue vehicles which Desmond loved.  We were all covered in a layer of dust by the end and there were many tears when we had to leave. (That’s when you know he really had a good time!)

  

Us in the dump truck and Desmond watching the action.

  

In the ambulance and fire truck.

 

Crawling through the tunnels and not wanting to get too close to the huge backhoe.

The "House" Ball is Rolling

We heard on Wednesday that we finally got the written approval from the sellers back to go ahead with our home purchase. The problem is that the bank says we've had this letter since April 23rd. This means we have missed the ten day window to do our inspection and we're supposed to close by the end of May. Umm, yeah... not possible. So we're asking the seller's bank for an extension until June 18th, and we're scrambling to get our financing in order. On top of this our original loan approval has expired and our bank says they're swamped and closing will take a minimum of 30-45 days from our application renewal. Well, that won't work even with our extended deadline. We'd need a second extension which increases our likelihood of having this sale fall through. We met with two new lenders yesterday to see if they can meet our short deadline and maybe even give us a better interest rate. The new lenders both say they can meet our deadline so it comes down to the bottom line of how much our monthly payments and closing costs would be. Of course this all happens on a holiday weekend so we can't find out anything until Tuesday. The ball is rolling, but we're running to try to catch up with it!