I feel like our whole life is revolving around the house. It’s mostly what we talk about, all our decisions now are based on the house, it’s all other people want to talk about with us. We feel very blessed to be where we are, and we’ve waited a long time to be here, so I don’t feel bad wanting to celebrate this step. We’re 28 years old, we have 8 years of marriage behind us, and Geoff finally has a permanent job. We’ve paid our dues, now we get to pay a mortgage. 🙂

I feel just ill when I think about the devastation in New Orleans. I feel such sorrow for those who lost loved ones, all their possessions, and for a city that will never be the same. I pray these people can rebuild new lives, and I pray that we can stop blaming others and just try to move on. I understand the hurt though, and I understand that like a death in the family, everyone will respond to it in their own way.

This week (this whole month) I got a lot going on. Tuesday morning is Elijah’s 6 month check up, and a trip to the bank. Wednesday afternoon is the house inspection, which I think may be fun. Thursday is Mom To Mom. Somewhere in there, I’m still hoping to pack.

Well, that’s about it. I’m going to close with a quote from Contact.

Michael Kitz: Your having sent this announcement all over the world may well constitute a breach of national security.
Ellie Arroway: This isn’t a person-to-person call. You can’t possibly think that a civilization sending this kind of message would intend it just for Americans.
Michael Kitz: I’m saying you might have consulted us; obviously, the contents of this message could be extremely sensitive.
Ellie Arroway: You want to classify prime numbers?

We bought a washer & dryer today (Kenmore, from Sears). It will get delivered after we move in. There is a huge sigh of relief in knowing my days of needing quarters to do laundry are numbered. 🙂 Imagine, not having to leave my house to wash & dry our clothes.

You might want to check out Geoff’s blog today. 😉

There are rumors circulating that the 2006 season of Scrubs may be its last. Or at least Zach’s last season. This would be a shame, because it’s the best show on tv, and I would still tune in to Scrubs without Zach. Time will tell what will become of this.

There was a very funny ad on tv months ago, and it has since been altered. Did you notice the Aspercreme ad changed? It went from the funny, “You bet your sweet Aspercreme” to “You bet if it’s Aspercreme”. Did people complain? “Cause I thought it was clever marketing. Who knows! I still sing the previous version when I hear it.

I had a great time at my Mom To Mom meeting. We have a wide range of ages and family sizes. Elijah did fine in the nursery, he was one of 3 babies there, and the cutest. He was happily playing in the saucer when I went to get him.

Not much else is going on. I’m looking forward to a weekend of relaxing, cleaning, and organizing. Throw in some window shopping and a trip to Peet’s.

I’m closing with a quote from The Daily Show. Lewis Black is hilarious.

(Back In Black segment)
Lewis Black: Now, we all know the best medical advice doesn’t come from the church or some machine, but from the people you trust the most: celebrities! Actor and lovestruck Scientologist Tom Cruise appeared on the Today Show last Friday, where he shared his beliefs on mental health.
Tom Cruise: I’ve never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry. And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.
Lewis Black: Unlike scientology. I mean, that’s got science right in the name!

Doug & Kirsty are pregnant! Lillian is getting a new baby brother or sister in May. We’re so happy for them, as I knew they wanted to have another child. Both Mom & Dad are excited, and Lilly loves the idea of a baby.

We’ll be praying for a safe pregnancy. I hope we can get up to E-town maybe next Fall to see all the new babies. This is the 2nd couple from the baby shower to announce a pregnancy. Lisa, did you put something in the water? 😉

We put an offer on a house on Monday, and they rejected it, offering to drop the price $2K. We countered by saying let’s meet in the middle, because Tammy (our realtor) did research and found that they were asking for more then other houses on par with it were selling for. They rejected that saying no way, it is their price or no deal. So we’ve walked away and we’re back out house hunting later this week.

Disappointing, but it’s just not a good money decision to pay more than you should (unless you are desperate). I’m certain the bank’s appraisal would have come to the same conclusion that Tammy did, and then there might have been problems with the loan.

God’s Hand has been over this whole house hunting endeavor, so we put our faith in Him that He’ll lead us to the right house.

In any case, here are the pictures of the house that almost was.

Like yesterday, I feel like today is going to be a slow day. Tick Tock.

Saturday we went out house hunting, with dinner at Chick-Fil-A (again). Mmm. I loves me Chick-Fil-A. Sunday we skipped out on church to go to Peet’s and Safeway before we went out house hunting again. The weather here has been good, hot but not too hot. Today is expected to be too hot (97 F) so I’ll try to get my errands done early.

Once there is anything to announce about the house, you’ll read about it on Geoff’s blog.

No plans for Labor Day weekend, not really. We have couples group Sunday and I think we’ll be bbq-ing together afterwards. I think it would be unwise to try and go to the mountains this weekend because

a) gas prices are high, and I don’t want to fill up anytime soon and
b) the roads to the mountains will probably be busy.

(rant for the day)Sometimes I get worked up over things that I don’t need to. Sometimes I get really annoyed with people taking cheap shots at my faith, and I want to lash out. I’m working on not letting myself get worked up, and realizing that lashing out isn’t going to make things better. If people want to say things, or advertise insulting things on their car, that’s their choice. My choice should be to pray for them.(end of rant)

We bought a new vacuum cleaner, a Dyson. We’ve needed a new vacuum for a long time, the one we have we got for our wedding. It served us well, but we will need something more reliable if we hope to clean this place before we leave. We got a good price on it and I can’t wait for it to get delivered. We’re trying to hold off buying stuff for the new place until we move since we don’t want to pack and move stuff unnecessarily.

I’m anticipating getting some good news from a great friend tonight. I’ll post about it tomorrow, but I suspect someone is getting a visit from the stork. 🙂

I’ll close with a quote from Clueless.

Heather: It’s just like Hamlet said, “To thine own self be true.”
Cher: Hamlet didn’t say that.
Heather: I think I remember Hamlet accurately.
Cher: Well, I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn’t say that. That Polonius guy did.

We’re going house hunting tomorrow, and Elijah is going to be with a babysitter. We’re very excited to look at houses, and have been waiting for Saturday all week. We’re looking in Aurora, it’s closer to Geoff’s work, church, and the housing is more affordable there. Incidentally, the new neighbors, the gay couple, are also moving to Aurora, next month. They bought a townhouse for $100K. I had a nice chat with one of them, I didn’t catch his name though. He said he was in shock over how overpriced houses are here. In Houston, where he’s from, you get more house for your money. He said his partner is a school teacher in Highlands Ranch and he is in the medical field. They went from being well off to being poor. We also talked about Vienna (their dog). I guess I am getting good practice for getting to know my neighbors.

My Mom-To-Mom group starts officially on the 8th, but they have an open house next Thursday to meet your group and the teachers/caregivers for your kids. It’ll be nice to have that each week.

I figure I’m watching too much Star Trek: The Next Generation (again) because I’m starting to question the dynamics between the characters. Like why does Picard refer to Data as Mr. Data or Worf as Mr. Worf instead of by their rank? When did you ever hear him call Riker Mr. Riker? I think maybe because Data & Worf are lower in rank, they don’t merit always being called Lt. Commander. He does address them by rank sometimes, but not always. See, watching too much ST:TNG.

I’m going to close with a quote from Robot Chicken. (Geoff this is for you)

pirate 1: [has a helm wheel on the front of his pants]
pirate 2: Arr! What’s that steering wheel be for?
pirate 1: Arrr, it’s driving me nuts!

Happy Anniversary to my in-laws Glen & Diane! 33 years of marriage, that’s something to celebrate.

I’ve been blessed to be getting some good sleeps last week. Elijah is sleeping through the night, and so I’m sleeping much better, most nights. Last night was awesome, though Geoff was up and even watched some Robot Chicken. I slept through that, and that is pretty rare. We got a great rain storm yesterday so it was nice and cool last night.

I’m hoping now that Elijah is sleeping better that I can get back to reading before bed. I’d like to try and finish reading a few of the books I started months ago, and there are a few I want to read before Christmas comes and I get more books. 🙂

No big plans this week, just the usual stuff. Since private school has started back in session, I may call Mary and try to get together with her. She has a membership to the zoo, and I could go for that if she’s game. Or we could always go to the museum for lunch & to see Jeff. I think Rich should be back by now, and I’m very interested to hear what changes are taking place in our dept.

I’m having a lot of fun daydreaming about the new place (I leave the stress of it all to Geoff). I love going to Cost Plus and looking at decor. I found some nice stuff for Diane & Meg who are big into the Asian decor theme. At some point Geoff wants to have an English gentlemen room, a room with comfy leather furniture to sit and enjoy his scotch. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that with our first house, but definitely in the future. I’m just looking forward to having a room for our guests to sleep in that isn’t the living room.

I had a crazy dream the other night. We (Geoff & I) were at some theatre, waiting to see a movie, and the Hogans were sitting behind us. I turned and told Brooke how much I like their show. Then I notice there is no screen, just a bunch of tvs set up, and the seats are arranged in a square manner. Some guy starts playing his guitar and talking about the Dune books. I turn behind me and ask Mike if he’s read that one since he’s a big fan. He gives me a strange look like “why would I have read that?”. I get up to leave, because this guitar playing guy wants to know who is single in the place and is hoping to play matchmaker to these people. I go into another theatre and see Diane, and she tells me she’s there to see Meg dance. I ask how come the rest of us weren’t invited, and she says Meg didn’t want us to see her dance. So I leave, and walk past Athena sitting at a bar eating something. She says, hey, can you bring this food to Andrew? I said sure. It’s a plate with 3 different pieces of chocolate cake on it. I take a bite out of one, and bring the rest of the plate to Andrew who is sitting beside Mike. I wake up at this point because Elijah is crying, and when I get back to bed I fall right back asleep, and the dream continued. I don’t remember what happened next. Man, I have some really weird dreams.

Well, I’ll close with a quote from Swingers.

Mike: Why’d they get rid of the fighting? It was the best part of the old version.
Sue: I think kids were hittin’ each other or somethin’, man.
Trent: Yeah but you know what, Mike? You can make their heads bleed in this one.
Mike: Make somebody’s head bleed.
Sue: No man, we’re in the playoffs.