My friend over at Peapod Squad Stuff has given me an award!  She thinks my blog is “spoon-licking good”!  She’s a hoot, with her cute, cute triplets who just happen to be the same age as Tucker!  Sometimes she makes me laugh, other times she makes me cry…but it’s always a good read!  You guys should all go check out her blog!

And, while I’m being all super-bloggy(this is, I think, the 4th post today…I obviously have many, many important things to do in my life!), I figured that I could pass along the spoon-lickin’ goodness! 

So…I would like to share this award with all new blogs that I met one way or another through Mommyfest 2008(or blogrolls of other blogs on Mommyfest blogs…man, this blogging thing is so viral!).

Numero Uno: Baby On Bored by Stephanie. You guys have heard me rave about her hilarious books Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay and Naptime Is the New Happy Hour, but now you can get a dose of her hilarious-ness every day!  (She does occasionally drop the f-bomb, so just be aware if you don’t like that kind of thing.)

Number 2: Heather at The Spohrs Are Multiplying, Spohrs(pronounced spores) being their last name and a play on words.  Very interesting and very funny in a smart ass kind of way! 

Number 3: Lindsey over at True Tales of a Hair Wrecker.  I’m sucker for witty blogs, what can I say?  She’s clever, and…you guessed it: funny!

Number 4: Kaye at Mr. Nespy’s World. I won a mom journal on her blog during Mommyfest! (BTW, It came in the mail today, Kaye, and I love it!) But this girl is a serious saver!  The amount she saves in a month is probably somehow directly proportional to how much I over-spend per month!  My new fave that I’ve discovered are her “Tuesday Freebies”…things that you can get for absolutely FREE!!!

And for Number 5: Eleisia at In the Kitchen.  I haven’t slowed down to actually try any of her recipes, but they all look amazing!  Just reading this recipe made my mouth water.

So, congrats, ladies.  I like you…I really like you!
 

I know this is my 3rd post today, but forgive me…I have a lot to say.  This time I am asking for your advise.  We will be moving in a little over a month to a small town about 2 hours from where we are now.  Our current house has been on the market for about 4 months.  We’ve had some people come to look, but nothing too serious.  We found a house in our new location that we really liked, but we simply can’t afford two mortgages right now.  So…we’ve been stuck in the frustrating and confusing land of the in-between-and-undecided.  A while back, we had an offer from the owners of the “new” house we like: if we would buy the house, they would be glad to rent it from us until we moved.  Although that sounded like a pretty good idea, it still left us in a  place of having to pay 2 mortgages.  Our income will be *very* tight for the next few months, and that just wasn’t going to work.   Marshall will get paid here at the end of June, and our next paycheck won’t come in until mid-to-late August.  That’s a long time to spread a not-so-much amount of money!

So…now we have a new proposal.  Let me see what you in the blogosphere think of this: The owners of the “new” house are willing to rent the house to us, starting July 1st!  We would write up a purchase and sale agreement in which we would negotiate all the normal stuff-a price, closing costs, inspections, etc.-and then we would also submit a lease agreement talking about the length of rent-time, amount of rent, and such.  The lease price would be more than our current mortgage, but the house is bigger and nicer.  And, hopefully, we wouldn’t have to do that for too long.  We have briefly talked to the bank about getting some money to bridge the gap between residency and real, full-time practice, and they seem willing to help us out as best they can.  So, to me, it seems like a win-win situation.  The sellers have a definate buyer; we have a definite home in a good town with a good school district; and we don’t have to move but one time!

Here’s where you come in.  Do you see anything wrong with this idea?  Does it seem to make sense?  Be a good plan?  We want to do what is best, and it seems like this is about the best possibility, but we don’t wan to over-extend ourselves or do something blatantly stupid.  I’m going to attach a few pictures of our current house and the “new” house, so you can get a feel for what we’re talking about here. 

Current house: 3br, 2ba on two levels.  It’s in the historic district, which I love.  It has cool textured paint in the kitchen/dining room that I will miss terribly.  And the way the morning sunshine comes through the big windows in there…love it! There are gorgeous camellia bushes/trees in the backyard that make me smile every day when they are in bloom.  The basement/lower level is something I worked very hard on and am pretty proud of the way it turned out.

“New” house: 4br, 3ba on one level with a bonus/playroom above the garage.  It has a big kitchen, which I don’t have now and miss.  It has a pretty big backyard, but no fence(which we’ll need with the dogs…but that’s easily remedied, right??).   It has a nice partially covered deck in the back, with all the things that you would need if you wanted to put a outdoor patio kitchen back there.  There is ample storage space-some in a crawl up attic space, and some in a walk-in attic space.  Oh, yeah!  It also has a garage, which I’ve never had before and always wanted!  🙂

Ok…I have to admit that in these pictures, it pretty much looks like the same house.  I never really noticed that before…oh, well.  Let me know your thoughts anyway!  🙂

So yesterday ended up being my very. last. day. with “the girls”.  I cried a little sobbed most of the way home when I left their house yesterday.  I was doing ok until I read this, written by the oldest of “my” three girls:

Dear Bridget,

     It’s hard to believe this is the last school day you’ll spend with us.  I am really going to miss seeing you.  We have had some really good times.  I wish you could stay here forever.  I hope that we always stay in touch and talk/e-mail often.  I will check your website to get updates on your life.  Thanks for being such an awesome babysitter and friend.  I don’t think there is one person in [our town] happy that you are leaving.  You made an impact on many peoples’ lives.  There are not enough words in the universe (every language including Pig Latin) to describe how I feel towards you.  You will be greatly missed here.

If that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, you have no soul.  What a sweetie!  I’ll miss you, too, Ell-bell!