Finally

I am so done with the housing drama it's not even funny. But the good news is we are officially moving out on June 18th (the exact same day I moved out of my house in StG last year, kinda wierd) & into a way better perfect house!

We looked at a rental on Thursday not thinking anything would change & we would have to pull a lot of money out of savings to get into another one but WOW is all I can say, someone was definately looking out for us!

This house we are moving into is the EXACT model of the one we wanted to buy except for it only has a half bath instead of a full downstairs. Which is ok by me as it has a HUGE walk in pantry! We fell in love with it the second we walked in & the best part is, ok well the 2 best things are that the landlord is an F-16 pilot (different squadron but no worries if he is going to pay his payment or not YAY) and that he is willing to let us make our deposit in payments so that we can not stress about getting it all paid plus turning on utilities (which is ridiculous nowadays) We are definately thankful for this house! It felt more like home than the other house. *just a funny side note, the guy has a 15yr old daughter who was wanting to go to a friends house & he said be back @ 630 so we can go to dinner & she goes we are going to dinner & he honestly said "I aint got nutin to cook with here YO!" & then after she walked away said to us "you gotta say yo or they don't understand"*

anyways, this week is going to be a very busy one for us because in 7 beautifully hot days we will be heading HOME! & then right when we get back, we move so I got a lot of packing to do as well as Brok has therapy & I have a doc appt with a new doc (apparently in the middle of my care even though they work in the same practice, the woman I was seeing is no longer contracted with our insurance) But it is all worth it!

Anyway, I will keep you all updated & can't wait to see all my fun friends! We miss you all!

Another week in our CrAzY life

Since last Thursday when we went to look at a rental for us, it has been a flurry of craziness.

But first I can tell you the fun stuff! Monday we had a bbq for Memorial Day with 4 families from Kevin's work, The Doidges, the Wenzels, & the Stanleys (ok with us it makes 4). It was fun! The Stanleys have a little 4 or 5 week old boy named Lucas Gunner (called Gunner) who I got to hold & play mommy to because their 2yr old was going crazy & trying to escape! I loved it but it made me even more anxious for our little Luke to get here! He is an active baby! I feel him all the time & he lets me know when he is hungry with a little flip in my belly! Brok didn't mind the little one & it was good practice for having 2 kids!

Back to Thursday. We decided to look at this house that was $1100/mo a little more than we wanted to pay but it's less than 2 miles to Kevin's work so it would save us close to $150-200 a month just in gas (we spend close to $550-600 now) & it is perfect. It is a 4/2.5 with a loft & a HUGE backyard. When I say huge, it's big, it's on a "culdesac" so it has a pie shaped lot. It has about a 20ft square plot of grass surrounded by pea gravel. Along the back wall is a fireplace type thing & a fire pit with seating. There is also what should have a bbq built in but is just the island thing. It has an rv gate on the side & the neighbors have a 5th wheel trailer, a boat & a trailer full of 4-wheelers parked along their side yard (to give you an idea of how long it is) It has all tile downstairs with a formal living room area when you walk in the door & a living room area with a built in entertainment center & get this, a wine cooler fridge built in by the TV spot (not sure why but it's cool for sodas & stuff) It is a really nice house. So we fill out the application & pay the fee (pointless fees if you ask me) and wait to hear if we get approved. The prop manager who showed us the house told us the deposit was $1375 (1.25x rent) with a $200 "non-refundable admin fee" (another stupid thing in the city of phoenix, unless you get lucky, you gotta pay anywhere from 200-500) making our total move in cost $2475. Which is a lot but we figured it was worth it. Well they call us on tuesday to let us know we got approved but because our dogs, the owner now wants a $1650 dep and they sent me a move-in cost sheet which has a rental tax! We have to pay the city a 2% tax on rent! how retarded is that. As if that weren't enough, the 1st of July is a Tuesday ?& we can't move in on Tuesday so we have to pay $150 for June rent as well! & I call to see about utility deposits, it's going to be over $500 to get electricity & water turned on! How ridiculous is that!

Anyway, we now have a dilema, do we pay the money & rent the house (it's going to save us gas remember) or do we find another house to rent. So today we go to look at another house about 2.5 mi from his work which is $100 less a month & is owned by a military man & well, I have decided that while you can get a good house for a good price here, the fees & deposits they charge are outrageous!

I have also gotten slacky on my orders of letters & so I am playing catch up so in the last 2 days I have finished 5 names totalling 32 letters... I guess that's what happens when you take a break!

So the weather?

Sunday it was our first 100+ degree day, Monday set a record by being 110 degrees after the frist day of hitting 100 & then yesterday & today it's under 70 degrees!

Talk about desert weather! Up in Flagstaff, which is like 2hrs from here, there is tons of snow on the ground & it's cold!

I can't believe the change, I wish it would be cold like this one day a week during the summer so I can go run errands! It's too stinkin hot!

I need help!

So Brok has this new thing he does where he literally screams bloody murder when he gets mad, & it is getting on our nerves. It doesn't matter if he is in the store, in his bed, on the floor, nothing, if something happens to tick him off, better cover your ears!

I do not know how to fix this. I have put him in his bed for time out where he just screams louder, I have said no, swatted him lightly, nothing phases this kid.

Have any other mom's had this issue!

He has also decided that he wants to wake up every 2 hrs at night, so not happening for me, I can't get up in the morning as it is! Anyone have any ideas why? I have let him scream but honestly, he doesn't stop. He was in his bed for 2hrs one day screaming so loud & I know he's tired but it seems like he jsut forgot that he likes to sleep.

The only place he will sleep is his car seat in the moving car but with gas how it is, well I am not going to drive more than necessary!!!!

HELP!!
Any ideas before we lose our sanity?

It's

Still a boy...

I didn't think it would change & we can officially say we are having a boy (though we have been for a while now). I am very excited, they will be such good friends (we can hope right?) think positive & it'll happen! The only down part is that while I have a ton of baby boy clothes, most are meant for a complete diff season! Now not that it gets cold really here, though it does get cold enough for jackets, but after like 0-3 is up, the clothes I have change to summer! Now lets just guess he is as big as his brother, well, I have to buy all new clothes! So it could be interesting. As far as everything else, the only fun part is that we can get a new double stroller. I want the Kolcraft Contours Options double tandem one that has the seat arrangements that can be 4 different things! It comes with a bar so an infant seat can fit, then the other seat can face in or out (you or to the front). It also includes another seat part so when they are bigger, you can have them face in towards each other or back towards you or one each way or both to the front. Sounds confusing I am sure but really it is the coolest thing!

I already have a cradle, a pack n play, a swing, tons of toys, & a crib so really it won't be as expensive as last time...

I want a healthy happy baby, like Brok was, & this time I am only hoping he's a tad smaller! (For those of you who don't know, Brok was 8lbs 10oz & 21in long & my placenta was another baby itself) But we'll take him either way!

As of right now we like the name Lucas Eli, Luke for short. Eli is my great great grandpa or something to that effect & we just liked Luke but didn't think it sounded good with Beal. Anyway it could change as more & more I hear that it is a popular name!

This week is almost over (sorry it's kind of a novel)

Wow... Can I just tell you that this week has been a rollercoaster ride!

It all started on Tuesday morning when I woke up to see Kevin off and went in to check my email before Brok woke. Now normally, I just look at it & go get him up. No not this time. There was a nice little email from our landlord making false claims & letting us know that she started the eviction process on us for 2 very, wrong reasons. The first thing that she claimed was that she hadn't recieved rent for the past 2 months (April & May) and the second was that she was turning off the utilities because we hadn't been paying them (they are in her name)

Now, none of this is true mind you but I am having an emotional breakdown at this point. I quickly let Kevin know what was going on & was then left to deal with it.

The first thing I did was to call her up. No answer. So I send her an email with the check numbers and the dates that they came out of our accounts and the list of confirmation numbers from paying the utilities. I also asked what was our fear, when did we need to be out. I called her every half hour for the next 2 hours to no avail & she wasn't answering texts either.

Finally 3 hours after the first email, she emails me back saying she will double check her account for that deposit and that I need to immediately go pay May's rent (which I thought I had paid since I know I went there to pay it but for some reason lost the check) along with any fees per our contract. So of course, I go pay rent & then I also send her copies of the check's backs where it has her account information on it saying it was deposited.

6 hrs into the whole ordeal as I have been frantically trying to find us somewhere to live that we can afford & letting them all know what is going on & after calling & texting her constantly, she calls me. She tells me that she can't find the deposit into her account for April but that since I have the checks, she can take it to her bank, that she recieved may's rent & that she cancelled the utilities shut off.

At this point I am so frustrated that I am trying really hard not to get upset not to get angry & to make her mad but I firmly let her know that this was not acceptable. Every month since we moved in, if for some reason we were late with rent, she let me know so not telling me for a month was suspicious. I told her that I didn't need the stress of having to worry about this with the new baby coming & that it wasn't fair to me to do that without any sort of inclination something was up. I also let her know that I knew her 2 other rentals had foreclosed & asked if ours was next. She firmly told me that No, she saved the house, that it was close but that she had negotiated to get it worked out. Ok, still not really what you want to hear but I am not going to argue. She also said we could work something out to use our Deposit as a rent payment should we decide to leave a month early so we could be settled before the baby comes. Ok, nice lady right?

Fast forward to tonight, Friday at around 730pm. Kevin and I walk out to get the mail. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until we open the box & find some interesting documents. There is something from a lawyer's office addressed to Parties in Possession & our address. My first thought was "Great she filed eviction anyway." But since legally we are the addressee, Kevin opens it to find a Substitution of Trustee notice & all other documents related. For those of you who don't know what that is (we had our suspicsions but weren't positive, thank goodness for my old boss & their immense knowledge) it is the beginnings of a foreclosure, or preforeclosure. It stated that our house would be auctioned on August 7, 2008 (90 days from the recorded date) Another paper attached let us know that she had not been making her payments since 12/01/2007. You can guarantee that sparked some interest considering we pay our rent every month right? So it goes on to say that the reason for the foreclosure is because she has missed her payments of $778.04 since 12/01/2007, this month was month 6 & that all other payments, late fees, liens on the property, etc hadn't been paid either. Well, she has 2 mortgages so this is her first. I call up my old boss & what do you know, this means she has to pay everything past due & up til August 7,2008 in full (without interest, late fees & any other amounts alone is $7002.36) or the house will be auctioned to the highest bidder. Not exactly a nice lady? Yeah so not that I am discrediting her in anyway but who can deny that it looks mighty suspiscious... So now we get to go find out what is really going on & more than likely find us a house to move into. Yay.

Rewind to Wednesday. I am searching online just messing around when Kevin gets the idea that we should get pre-approved for a home purchase loan & that I need to find us a house. Ok, easy huh? Since we pretty much knew what we wanted, I found a house perfect for us! It has 4 beds, 3 baths & a huge grassy lot with a deck off a loft! Not to mention that the master is upstairs (a must for us since our kid can't seem to sleep through the night) and it's like 2200sq ft. It is only listed for 137,000 and is only 10 min from the base (as opposed to our 30 min drive now) and is in a good neighborhood with low HOA fees. So now we are waiting to see what happens with that...

Thursday comes & I put my listing up on Craigslist for my letters, & I got an order for 39 from one lady & 10 from another and a prior customer has ordered again & said she is addicted to them! How sweet is that!

One high light of the week is that I got a business license so now we can claim on taxes I am self employed (not always a good thing) but we get to write off part of our rent & utilities every month. So that could be interesting. My business name is BabyBug Creations LLC

Tomorrow we have our 2nd ultrasound which should confirm a gender (I am not thinking it's gunna change) and should be pretty fun! I will keep everyone posted & Keep us in your prayers! We definately need all the help we can get at this point!

Late mother's day

So I had a really good mother's day... I love being a mom... It is so fun to see how much Brok grows each day! He is a character... for instance, yesterday we had some friends over for a bbq & he was just quietly playing on the floor when all the sudden he was across the room with a phone book just tearing out the pages! He ripped out so many pages (it's ok we got like 3 of them & our neighbor's house is empty & their books are still on the porch) that it really looked like a tornado came through the living room!

I got a very nice card from Kevin & some really pretty flowers... He also did my nasty dishes that I had been putting off doing! YAY!

Overall, it was a very fun day. Brok was well behaved & we had fun with our friends (2 married couples that kevin works with the guys, one wife is preg due 2 wks before me with a girl & one has a 15mo old girl) It was a blast!

I also wanted to say thanks to my mom for supporting me in all I do, I know it's hard for her to have us pretty far away (not as far as others but still a trip!) & not get to see her only grandbaby(soon to be babies) as much but she loves them & us. She is a great example to me! (she got the best gift which any mom with a missionary gets, to talk to him, & he comes home in 29 days from today)

My mother in law is also great, she raised Kevin to be such a good man... It's funny because he grew up in a home with only sisters (though due to age, they weren't living @ home most of them) so he learned a lot on how to support a wife.

Hope everyone had a great day as well!

I am so pathetic

But this is exciting for me!

I was sitting on the computer in the office yesterday & brok was playing quitely on the floor. I turned around & noticed him reaching into a tote bucket (the big 18gallon ones) that has all the baby clothes in it. All the sudden he pulled himself to a kneeling position. It scared him so he stopped but then I encouraged him to get his toy he dropped & HE PULLED HIMSELF UP TO STANDING!

WOOHOO for Brok! He fell after that so he is scared but he has been reaching up a lot since then so hopefully it happens again soon!

What a Week!

So this week I was super busy getting a brochure ready to mail to Camille Jennings of my previous letters I had made so she could take them to The What Women Want Expo in St. George & Man! It was so much harder than I thought! But I got it done & Camille was awesome to do it for me! Thanks Camille!

We also got a phone call from the AzEIP (Arizona Early Intervention Program) to get our therapy for Brok (finally after 3 months of waiting). Our case manager came out on Friday & basically just had me sign some forms & went over what we wanted from him & how soon. She left me with a list of Physical Therapist to call because usually there is a wait list & so I got right to work. I found one to come! Hopefully by next week someone will be coming in once a week to work with him! He also gets a Developmental Specialist to come work for an hour every week, basically they just play with him in a way that encourages him to walk & goes along with what the therapists will be doing! We think (or hope) he'll be walking within a few months! He will be with the program til we move, & then still will get help from wherever... When he is 2 &1/2 we meet with the school district to determine if he is @ his correct developmental age & if so AWESOME! But if not, he'll get put into a preschool with other kids who are in the same boat. It will be good either way!

Another exciting part of the week was that Kevin's AMU for work had a campout at the lake. It isn't like camping in Utah though, don't let it fool you... There were no trees & it was so hot! But it did cool off pretty good at night. It was ok for us, not too boring but definately not the party everyone else had. They all pretty much drink & even the high ranked officers over their group were so drunk one actually passed out... We were already in bed but I hear it was pretty exciting down there. Brok loved camping. He had a blast! Except for the waking up & being hungry like he does but not getting a warm bottle! I ended up sleeping with his milk curled up next to me so warm it up! Kevin had told me it wouldn't be too cold there so all I brought blanket wise was 2 little flannel ones... we couldn't share & neither of them were long enough to stretch out fully but hey, we had our huge tent (THANKS MOM & DAD) & the air mattress so we can't really complain! We went out on a boat yesterday with some friends & had fun, there was a 250,000 boat crashed against the side of the rocks, like it had tried to turn but hit the rocks. It was empty so it was more of a spectacle than really any excitement but hey, it was fun! Lake Pleasant was really cold so we didn't swim but we sure had fun!

& also, I forgot to say but I quit working like 2 weeks ago... I had a strong desire to stay home... & I was so sick that I was having a harder time working!

Anyway, this week was fun & the coming week should be too. I have a doc appt on Thurs where they should schedule another ultrasound & we'll get to hear the little one's heart... He is very active! I love it, I can feel him sloshing around!