Hi All,

First Thanks for all the wonderful well wishes and prayers. 

WE GOT OUR FIRST HOUSE!!!! FINALLY!.  Made it official Wednesday 9/24/08.  After two very long years of looking and being savvy to make sure we don't go house poor, we finally did it.  We ended up buying a foreclosure.  This is a house that we had put a contract in on back in October of last year and by waiting we got it $30,000.00 cheaper and an unbelievable interest rate.  Yeah!!!

We are so happy and relieved.  We have a lot of cleaning and painting and flooring to do before we officially move in, but hey it's for "our place", so it's worth it.

A warning to people who burn candles A LOT..... the soot from the candles is just as bad as smoking does damage to the inside of your home.  It is everywhere in our new house and it is terrible to clean and it's all over everything!  The inside of the windows were so gross.  Then when I cleaned the outside of the windows it wasn't even close to being near what was on the inside.  Hate to know what their lungs look like from breathing all that in.  We are painting with Kils paint cause the white walls are "BLACK" up near the tops.  It took me two hours of serious scrubbing just to do the outside of the refrigerator.  Running your finger down the window it comes off "black".  Yup...Yuck.

All the carpets are torn up already and we are down to the bare plywood.  Looking GREAT.  We are going to put in manufactured hardwood flooring throughout the house (doing it ourselves).

It is so exciting to finally have our own home.  We told our neighbors here and they are so happy for us and offering to help in anyway.  We are going to miss them SO much.  They are the best.

Our daughters preschool teacher is our neighbor!  She's so sweet.  Lots of kids around for DD to play with too.

DD absolutely LOVES her room!  She loves the house too.

Well, off to finish packing cause we are leaving for Baltimore for my best friends Wedding this weekend.  I'm a bridesmaid.  I can't fit anymore into my schedule this week.  My birthday is Sunday and we are going to take DD to her first major league baseball game at Camden Yards.  She is excited and has a little Baltimore cheerleader outfit.  Fab.

Best wishes to you all too.

Hi everyone!  Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it just seems non-stop lately.  Love reading all your posts. 

Well, we are hopeful that our current contract on a house (a foreclosure in good shape) goes through and we'll be moving the 24th!  We just hope all goes well with the deed.  That could be a hiccup.  We are more hopeful this time around.  We will then be a couple blocks from DD school.  Great town.  Small.  Great neighborhood and Great blue ribbon schools.

DD started pre-school last week (Thank God) and SHE LOVES IT.  She is doing great and I love hearing all about it.  When I pick her up she has a smile from ear to ear and treats me with so much more respect.  (amazing)The things she tells me is so awesome.  Her teachers are GREAT.  Sweethearts.  They learn a lot and even have HOMEWORK.  Not just practicing their letters and numbers but things like jumping on one foot (which DD definitely needed to practice).  They did Apple painting.  That is SO Cool.  I've heard of golf ball painting but not apples.  I think I'd like to go to pre-school.  DH said "where do I sign up".  lol 

The time she is at pre-school, I'm taking that time to study and practice with my camera and fine tune my photography skills.  I've got the eye and skill just need to brush up on the technical end.  I took photography in High School and went advanced but the brain forgets.  It's always been my passion and my family is urging me down that road and I love it.  Why not try something I love to make a living for a change?  I would hate to go back into the Corporate field again.  Even my brother paid me a compliment that shocked the heck out of me.  When we went for our church directory pictures, I got talking with the Photographer and he said that he has some openings in his studio.  I gave him my card.  That would be a great way to get started.  Start at the bottom and work my way up sounds good to me.  I didn't think I would like to be a Wedding photographer but after long consideration, it just might be my cup of tea.  We'll see and keep my fingers crossed.

DD is HUGE into arts and crafts lately.  I think it is great to see the things she creates.  The glue and scissors and tape are not an issue with her (Thank God).  She does well with markers too.  I am happy about that cause she found some permanent markers and colored some in her coloring book and she was wearing light colored clothes and not a mark on them.  PPPpppppphhhhhhheeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.  So yup those are up high now.

She is making pumpkins and gluing them in my notebook now and coloring a picture around them.  She's got some skill.  We still have her in gymnastics too.  She loves it and is doing very well.  Can you sit crossed legged and touch your nose to your toes?  I can only make it half way and DD says "Well, Mommy you just have to keeping practicing".  LOL