Four Wheelin'

Spring Break Playtime

This week is my spring break, and I promised myself I would study everyday and also get a lot of my "to do" items checked off (which seems to be growing by the day). Somehow even on my spring break I can hardly even find time to go grocery shopping!

House hunting is very time consuming!

Today Hunter and Maia came over. It was a breakthrough for Maia, because she hardly cried at all! She's been here 3 times before, but has cried on/off for the entire time, and refused to eat or drink.

She cried when her mom left, but recovered, and we played in the front yard until our landlord's realtor arrived. She ate all of her lunch and even laughed and played - I was so happy!

Anyway, the weather has been wonderful and Noel LOVES being outdoors. I honestly think she would stay outside all day long if I let her. I have been doing some leaf-raking this week and gravel-removal from our yard. It seems that when we shoveled the driveway, a LOT of gravels ended up in the snow, and now, in the grass. I hope to get most of them up before Tim starts mowing - the last thing we need is to break out a window.

Here are a few pictures from this evening. This is what you get when you say "Smile, Noel!"

House Hunting: Day 2

Today was much more low key than yesterday, but Julie (our realtor), Noel and I went to check out a house that was a little over our price range, but that the listing agent said they were accepting all offers.

Without much hope in it working out, we went to check it out. It is not our ideal lot/location or even layout. BUT, It's in pristine condition, has all new carpeting/flooring, and kitchen appliances. It's on a huge level lot and will have lots of outdoor space for Noel to play!

I was sure to take lots of pictures, and I even did a video "tour" of the house so that Tim could see everything that we did. After talking it over with our mortgage broker, Tim and I decided to just go for it. We have a time limit that is rapidly approaching (Under contract by April 5) and we don't have time to wait around for new houses to come on the market.

She delivered our contract tonight and we should know something by Monday. It's easy to get my hopes up, but I know that these things fall through pretty often. A couple of years ago we had three houses fall out from under us.

House Hunting: Day 1

Our first day of house hunting didn't go as well as we had hoped! We visited 5-6 houses and most of them were in desperate need of renovation/repair.

Noel did great though, and enjoyed being outside and wandering around all of these new and exciting places!

Here are some photos of Noel:

Our Busy Life

I haven't updated in a LONG time and I apologize!

We have a lot going on right now. I'm busy with my classes, taking care of household stuff, preparing to sell my car, and we're also searching for a new house.

We tried buying a couple of years ago, and it did not work out. We had the worst real estate agent EVER, and we just could not find the right house for the right price. We put down several contracts but all of our offers were rejected! I recently found out that a house we put an offer on was relisted for 20k less than our offer. HAHA! I bet they wish they would have negotiated with us. But thankfully it did not work out--we're looking to move out of this neighborhood because our water bill is so high.

Anyway, we're at it again...with a new mortgage broker and realtor. We are set to look at 7 houses on Wednesday. It'll be a lot more interesting with an 18-month old running around!

Tim thinks we should see 10 houses, pick the best out of 10, and buy it. Last time we came up to C'ville weekend after weekend, seeing house after house, for months. It was very stressful! I'm hoping that this time around will be much more productive and also less stressful.

As far as Noel-news goes, she is talking a LOT more than she used to. She's using phrases, like "What's that one?" and "Hi Puppy". But she will NOT answer with a yes or no. The other day she said "yes" and Tim replied "You CAN say yes!" and she shook her head..."no". Oh boy!

She's been testing her limits a lot, which will end up in 'time out'. She's been biting and hitting me too, but it's not as bad this week as it was last week.

Our realtor said she's looking forward to meeting Noel and said she'd "hold" Noel while we looked at the houses. Haha! Noel won't even let me hold her anymore, unless I'm cooking or involved in something she can't get into. Her independence is growing so much by the day that I often wonder what her teenage years will bring!

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks!

"Ki Ki" sleeping

Story time with Poppa

Noel's showing me how to properly blow your nose

Her new carseat! Many times more comfortable
than her old one!!