not much...

I got a call yesterday morning from Jacob's Landing. They got our file back from Audit, and there were only minor corrections. She said we look good, and to go ahead and put in our 30 days notice. She is sending the corrections back to Audit and we should have our final answer by the end of the week. This is taking forever, but it will be worth it.
Sorry no pictures lately. The flash on my camera is broken, and it is cheaper to buy a new one then to fix it, so It will be a while before we have another camera. IT still takes good out side pictures though. OH and we will be doing family pictures soon. Probably this weekend. Marisa is here from Texas for a while and she is going to take them for us. I'm so excited.
And, Lydia can't decided between going as Giselle for Halloween (from Enchanted, that what she was last year) and a cow boy (with a GUN).

cleaning and packing...yay...

Well we have started the process already. A little early maybe, but that's how we roll. A little bit here and a little bit there chunks away at the big picture and makes the last week MUCH easier. And actually we haven't got the "official" word from the housing weather we got the house or not. Still waiting on it to come back from Audit. But unofficially we have been told that they can't see anything that would keep us from getting it. Anyway we "should" know this week. I said "should" cause the app process is suppose to take 2 weeks, and it's been nearly 4. Shiesh. Its a good thing I started looking for housing plenty early.
It feels so good to get rid of junk though. I'm finding things that have been in the "get rid of" pile from previous moves, and I'm determined to get rid of them this time. The bad part about being 4 1/2 weeks out is then when I get in a packing/cleaning mood there is only so much I can do. There is only so much that we can do with out for a month. ...and there is only so much i can do with my two little helpers...
I'm really hoping we can get a "new" washer and dryer. This set we have now is....well...working...and it's better then nothing. We are going to take some of the money we get from the car and go shopping on craigs list. yippee! Now if I time it just right, we can just get rid of the old ones and bring the new ones straight to the new place. But I'm not holding my breath. I'll just check it every day and wait till I find the deal I'm looking for.
OH, and in other news, Danton went pee on the potty for the first time last week. He has been sitting on the potty on occasion for the last month or so with no luck. Then one evening before bed, his diaper was still dry and I asked if he wanted to go potty. He RAN to the bathroom, and after like 30 sec (or less) he peed on the potty!!!! Yay...well oops, you are suppose to pee IN the potty. We cleaned the seat and his leg and hand and adjusted his aim, and what do you know, he did it again, only this time IN the potty. It was great. ...and we washed hands really REALLY well that time. :)

Ditched the Dish

About a month ago we started our free trial of netflix and decided to cancel our Dish. We were finding that we weren't watching as many shows as we use to, and a lot of what we were watching wasn't that great anyway. And I gotta say, we haven't missed it one bit. Ok, maybe one bit, but just one. Football season just started and Mark doesn't have a tv to watch it on, BUT a friend at church just told him about a web site he could watch the games on, so it's all good.
When we had the dish it was on a lot more then I realized. Daddy would come home and we would try to get dinner on and talk about our days, so cartoons would go on to keep kids busy. And it would go off while we ate, then back on again till scriptures and prayers, then back on to watch our shows with out the kids.
Now, yes we have netfilx with tons of movies available on the wii, but it's on WAY less. A couple veggie tales or fragle rock during the day, daddy gets home and he plugs his ipod touch in to the surround sound and we listen to Internet radio, new songs every day. And the kids LOVE it. I learned a new song on my banjo cause I heard one I really loved, so I looked it up and played it, Daddy has more time to play with the kids. When the dancing starts to get silly they start teasing Daddy. As a family and individually we are all happier, just in general. Less yelling, more laughing. It's truly amazing the difference it's made. We can't get any local channels on our tv cause it's an analogue tv and we don't have a converter box or even an antenna. And I don't think we are going to be getting one any time soon. We still have plenty to watch when we want to, but we have found we are more aware of what we are watching and much less tolerant of things that maybe we shouldn't be watching. I think we are more aware of the spirit that it brings into our home. Plus, I love not EVER having to see commercials or adds.

SOLD! To the cousin in the front row

Well after the girl backed out on buying the car I had a feeling that there was someone who really needed it. So I prayed that we would find who ever it was that needed my car the most. I asked people I knew, and posted it on FB, no one spoke up so I went a head and posted it on Craigs List. Well the very next day (after only a few scam responses) My cousin Jacob posted his status on FB that he REALLY needed a cheap car. He just got a job and had no way of getting there. (that was LAST NIGHT) I quickly responded and he came to my house this morning to seal the deal. AWESOME. I have another parking spot back. AND he likes the car, so that is always good too. :)
AND another thing, a house. I had not been waiting to say ANYTHING about it in case it didn't happen, but I found a rental HOUSE that is the same price as rent here. 3 bed 2 bath, 2 car garage. FANTASTIC. Harder then heck to get in. There are income requirements, have to have good credit, good rental history and a bunch of other stuff. I found the place on line, called to see if they had any openings and they have one opening beginning of Sep, well we wanted to move at the end of Sep, PERFECT. I went in to get an app and I heard someone on the phone telling someone ELSE about this place....not good, you see, they only have ONE opening. You have to have the deposit for them to hold it, but it's a first come first serve. So I took the app home, filled it out and came in not even 10 mins after they opened the next day with the app and deposit. You know what she told me? "I'm so glad you made it back. There were 5 other people who got an app yesterday and YOU were the first one back" !!!!!! wahooo!
So I talked to her today and we passed the first part of the app process, she was getting my file ready to be sent to audit...not really sure what that entails, but she asked for a move in date and said we will come sign papers and pick up keys and garage door openers that day, so I'm like 98% sure we are in. I can't wait to get in a house, and to get the kids in separate rooms.

TAP!! tap tap tap tap tap!

So I thought I was going to have to quit tap for a while. We are trying to free up the budget with the car payment, and (if we get into a house) more utilities (but I"ll talk about that later) Just dont want to stretch it too thin. Anyway, plus Mark is getting back into school and will be taking night classes, so I really wont have any free evenings. But we got it worked out. Karla loves it as much as I do. We cut it back to twice a month, no charge cause she said I teach her as much as she teaches me...yeah, ok I guess that's true. And we will play it by ear, if I can get a baby sitter we will do it during week day mornings, if no Saturday morning. I was prepared (But very sad) to give it up. And now I dont have too!!!!
And on another note, the girl that was going to buy the car found another one (gee, it's a good thing we held on to it for her...) I'm going to post it on Craig's list this week. If any one wants it let me know. 99 ford escort zx2 140,ooo mi, 25-30 mpg for $1,000.

Car Wash

I cleaned up and washed the old car to get it ready to sell. I felt like being out side, so I washed it at home instead of taking it to a car wash. I had a bowl of soapy water and some rags to scrub with. The kids helped. Lydia helped scrub, and Danton dumped out the dirty water for me. And the clean water, and the water the I just brought out side. He was a tremendous help.....(what was I thinking) Then I used my garden watering can to rinse it off, and the kids helped dry. It was all in all a fun and wet...very VERY WET morning. :)And I think we have a buyer.