busy march and fingers crossed

1. *phew* march was a busy one! we counted that we were home for 8 days- 8 days! less for mike since he works off shore. 

2. went back to indiana to go house hunting. we wanted a newer home but still had a budget to keep.  we also planned for renovations within that budget if need be.  after looking at 13 houses on monday, we were kinda discouraged.

3. i told mike about a house that i loved in a neighborhood that i loved and we drove past it. our budget got raised! (see how i did that? took him to some crappy houses first- ha!)

4. funny thing, that house ended up being our 3rd favorite. 

 5. i found this house driving by and looked it up on zillow. (photos courtesy of zillow)  i was kinda dishearten when i saw the inside (very outdated)  and that it was a foreclosure.  they did put in new, dark, hardwood floors [love] and new carpet.  they are also going to finish the half bath in the basement.

 6. but once i saw the outside, i knew mike would love it too!

7. and he did!  the deck is brand new and the yard is big enough for some fun get togethers around the fire pit or a friendly game of corn hole.

8. the pond or "lake" is also usable for paddle boating and kayaking.

9. pretty much all the bathrooms need new everything but cabinets. i'm hoping to just get new doors for them and get them painted a new color.  same with the kitchen cabinets. the countertops are perfect.  we also plan on doing the smaller bathrooms ourselves.  just the vanities and toilets.

10. unfortunately it's not ours yet and that makes me very anxious. [my heartbeats a mile a minute just thinking about it]

while we could put an offer on it we don't want to risk the paper work getting done faster than normal and be stuck with yet another house payment. (foreclosures have no contingency on them and paperwork usually takes longer than normal but i can see with our (non) luck, it would get done right away.)

indiana is calling their people back

school picture day: 2 weeks ago

1. she's wearing the same outfit today but with a cute belt instead of the shirt.

2. we finally got the a-okay that mike can apply for the off shore position. he has an interview on monday. (he will be working for the same company but just a different position)

3. not sure how i feel about him being gone for 14 days them home, cramping my style, for 14 days but i'm trying to be positive about it.

4. and kaylee is sure excited about going to the same school as one of her cousins. (they're 6 months apart)

5. i still haven't told my family or friends yet. don't want to jinx it till we know for sure. 

6. talked to my neighbor this morning. they're also thinking about moving back to indiana too. they have kids and grandkids they want to see more often. (they just got back from a wedding and being with the grandkids did it for them)

7. we're all dreading those indiana winters though! (except for kaylee)

8. i got the new iPhone 6 and its awesome. i like the thinness of it and the bigger size is better for my aging eyes.

9. i really need to be cleaning- my mil is coming to town on monday but i think i'll wait till saturday or sunday.

10. but i am wanting to start cleaning the craft room.

wow- its almost march

1. her outfit last friday for her school's fun run. she completed all 36 laps and then some.

2. i still take outfit photos of her every school day but just too lazy to post them for what she wore wednesdays. [wsww]

3. went to my favorite local furniture store called the perfect piece and got a new end table and buffet. the end table has a crank that still works to make it taller or shorter.  photos coming soon.

4. ham came home friday and stayed till saturday. he needed more food so i had mike grill about 4 pounds of chicken, shrimp, salmon and sausages while i made potatoes and blackened tilipia, all done in an hour!

5. he said he could wait on the broccoli and asparaguts [what we call them] so i could finally stop cooking. he's generous like that.

6. saturday kaylee stayed over night at a friends house, mike and i got invited to play pool and drink over at the johnson's house. [a guy who use to work for mike in indiana and was willing to move so mike got him a job here who still works for him]

7. i think i have paint colors picked for the master bedroom and bathroom. going with a navy blue-ish for the bedroom and a purplish color for the bathroom.

8. just need to finish the rest of the painting projects i have going on but at least i have colors.

9. we lost power last night. not for very long but again, it reminded me that i really need to get an emergency kit put together.

10. we are in a hurricane zone.  our neighbors/friends said they went about 2 weeks without electricity when hurricane ike striked. [the strong winds knocked everything down]

and we're back

sunrise in arkansas through my buggy windshield

1. we didn't make it as far as last year before mike had to stop and get some sleep. i could feel him drifting so i made him stop somewhere.

2. after 3 hours of sleep and another 6-8 hours of driving, we finally made it to his folks house where we stayed for the first 6 days.

3. sleeping in a car squishes my body and it ached the next day even though theres so much more room in the armada than the rover.

4. it was awesome seeing our family and friends.

5. but bad when mike left me with his parents. even though we get along- its still not cool man. 

6. he went out with his buddy brent one night, went over to another buddies house with kaylee the next night and went golfing with said buddies the day after that. 

7. kaylee and i did some shopping at the outlets when he went golfing. kaylee loved spending pooppoops and nanny's money. [they each gave her 10 bucks!]

8. after ham saw both sides of the family, he ditched us the rest of the time to hang with his buddy tommy,  at purdue.

9. i have more photos and more of the trip to share.

10. after being gone for 15 days and driving more than 3700 miles, it sure feels good to be home.

road trip!

sunrise in missouri

1. this photo was taken last year on our last road trip to indiana. the 3 of us had just waken up and mike was ready to fall asleep.

2. i was hoping this road trip, we could take our time but mike's already complaining that the trip took so long last year because we had to stop every 2 hours. [an exaggeration]

3. so today is cleaning and packing day because i like to return to a clean house.

4. i told ham that could be a new business- someone does all the work involved for your vacation and once you return they would unpack, do laundry, buy groceries etc.. but he said the people who could afford to hire me probably already have people who do that for them.

5. but i was thinking more for people like me who don't have people.

6. kaylee has a cookie baking class today. i planned that so we could have homemade cookies to take with us. 

7. and she's excited because she's going to have a sleep over at granny's house with all her girl cousins and get to see her bff on another day.

8. i'm looking forward to my nerd herd's reunion and mackinac island!

9. 2 days of no whining, complaining kids! [man were they on a roll yesterday!]

10. so no more blog posts till i return. it might only be indiana but its my only escape for the year so i'm taking advantage of it.