Running!

It's that time again ... training season. :) I'm so excited. Jenny and I are volunteering again for the Galloway Training program as Pace Group Leaders for the Palm Beach Half Marathon. We have a pretty big group right now, I think 13 people. Today we're doing 6 miles ... and for most of them, it's the most they've ever done. I really enjoy watching them progress and do things they didn't think they could. I've been up since 4:20am, I need to leave shortly to pick Jenny up and get to Fleet Feet by 5:45 to start running at 6:00 .... it sure is early.

We have a busy day ahead of us ... when I get back from my run, we're going to Alex's open house at his daycare so we can meet his new teachers. He's moving up to the toddler class. It'll be interesting. No more cribs to sleep in, no more tables to hold them ... it's on to mats on the floor for nap time and a small table with chairs. I think they potty train them in this class too. Alex has started telling us when he goes in his diaper, so it's time I guess. I thought you didn't potty train till 3? Shrug. We're learning as we go.

Gotta run .. yes, I know I need to post pics of Puerto Rico .... hopefully this weekend I'll find some time. My brother-in-law, Aldo, is on his way here from Texas to stay with us for a bit, so lots to do before he gets here. Joy joy.

Haircut & Puerto Rico

The first 3 pics are before his haircut ... My mom was nice enough to let me borrow her camera, and she took some pics too ... Alex's hair was so cute and curly. But he gets hot easily, and since we're headed to Puerto Rico (in less than an hour) ... he got his first haircut on Saturday. I'll spare you the details of the lady that doesn't know how to cut hair. Ugh. He got his second haircut today, it looks much better. But I don't have any pics of it yet, sorry, been a lil crazy trying to pack .. I haven't slept ... and probably won't until ... hmmm ... not sure, unless I'm lucky and Alex sleeps on the plane!

My grandparent's 50th anniversary is on Saturday, there's going to be a big celebration! We're excited to get away .. I've been working non-stop ... I'm ready for a break. We'll be back on the 28th ... if I can find a computer with internet, I'll post.

Running rocks!

I'm on such a high ... I'll enjoy it while it's here, cause once I get to work, it'll be gone. Jenny and I went running this morning, and I'm feeling soooo good. I just figured out our paces, we started at a 16:37 pace, and today we did a 15:02 pace. That's great!

At work, Christina and I are keeping track of our weight ... this week I lost 2.5 pounds. Off to a good start I think. With vacation just around the corner, I don't know that it'll stay off, but I'm on the right track.

I don't have a day off until next Saturday, the 11th ... so it's pretty crazy around here. Lots to do, buy and pack before we leave on the 14th for Puerto Rico. I'm excited about the trip, but overwhelmed with work and life.

Here's some pics of Alex from June 4th. He woke up in such a happy/goofy mood, I had to grab the camera! I was trying on his outfit for Kat's (niece) graduation party that night, he looks so grown! Yes, I know, I trimmed his hair too short, don't worry, it's already grown out. He still hasn't had his hair "cut", just the front trimmed by me twice. Guess I need to do that soon ... everyone keeps asking if he is a girl. Even when he's wearing blue. Hubby gets mad. I think he looks cute. :)

Oh what a feeling!!

Jenny and I went running this morning! Man, do I feel just so hot and sweaty! :) What a great feeling! We did 1.93 miles in 30:55 with an average pace while running of 13:45. I think the plan is to run MWF and walk with Alex T & Th this week. We're trying to do 2 miles when we run and I think it's 3 miles when we walk. We're trying to get ready for our training group. We don't wanna be huffin and puffin for the easy runs, ya know?

We had a good weekend. Alex and I went to the La Leche Meeting on Saturday, it was nice to catch up with everyone. They helped me figure out how to wear Alex in my ring sling. I'm bringing it with us on our trip to Puerto Rico, hopefully it'll help at the airport.

Alex is having a melt down because I won't let him have my Garmin (running watch) ... write more soon.

Alex Picture

Here's a pic of Alex (17 mths old) on May 12th, just before we moved.

I'll get some more up soon, stop the hate mail! :)

Stolen ....

I'm a fanatic about locking my doors ... sometimes too much so. Not this time. Wednesday night I got home from work, locked the van and came inside. At some point Alex grabbed my keys from my purse, I got them back and moved my purse to where he really couldn't reach (he's growing so fast, he's able to touch so much more!). Apparently he hit the "unlock" button while he had my keys ...

Jenny, Alex and I went for a walk in the morning, got ready for work/school ... got in the van and noticed the area between the front seats was all messed up. I called Santiago, no, he wasn't in the van ... then it hit me. Someone got into my van and stole my camera. UGH. I was early, having a great day ... called the police ... went to the neighbors (some of whom I hadn't met) ... doesn't look like anyone else was hit. They didn't get much, but it's just so frustrating. Items stolen: digital camera & case, car charger for my phone, $5 gift card to Target, mini flash light and Santiago's pocket knife. Well, that's all I can remember anyways. I'm thinking I'll notice more stuff as I look for it, ya know? Luckily I had just cleaned out the van a few weeks ago, so there really wasn't much to take. I'm really mad about my camera though. It was a Christmas gift from Santiago a few years ago and we're going on vacation soon, so we'll have to get a new one, that's not in the budget!

They had to be pretty bold though. It looks like they got in from the passenger side door, because the bionoculars weren't taken that were in the drivers door, and they couldn't have reached the glove box from the drivers door either. The inside light switch wasn't touched, so when they opened the door, all the inside lights came on. I really felt safe here. I'm just so upset.

When I got home last night, I went around to more neighbors ... was nice meeting them. All said the same thing though, "It's a safe area, nothing has ever happened to me" ... yeah, well, guess what. It did to me. Santiago loves me ... before I got home, he moved stuff around in the garage so the van can fit in there now. Makes me feel better. A little bit.

Alex slept all night, YAY! Jenny and I went running this morning, did 1.6 miles with an average pace while running of 14:15. Off to a good start! My mouse isn't working right now, so it's a pain to post pictures right now, but I will try again tonight or this weekend.

Back on track!

Yeah, I've been missing for way too long ... time seems to be flying by these days ... this post is about my running, I'll post about Alex and the house soon ...

Jenny and I did 1.98 miles with an average while running of 14:38 this morning ... OMG. I feel so totally fantastic! I'm so happy to be running again. We haven't run together since ... April? Jenny sprained her ankle at work and wasn't allowed to run for what seems like forever. We were group leaders for a newbies only running group at Fleet Feet that ended in May at the 'Run for the Pineapple 5k' ... The results show I finished in 50:42, but they didn't have a starting time, so I think it was closer to 49! Yeah, I know, a minute really doesn't matter to most, but it does to me. :) The group we "trained" ran ahead of me, I am so very proud of them! Way to go ladies!

Jenny and I will be pace group leaders (PGL) again (3rd year) for the upcoming Galloway training group at Fleet Feet in Stuart. We're aiming for the Martin County Half Marathon in October and the Palm Beach Half Marathon in December. Bucky is training to do the full in Palm Beach. I think Jenny/Bucky are talking about doing the full marathon in Tampa at Gasparilla in February ... if so, I'll do the 15k on Saturday and cheer her/them on for the full on Sunday. Then in July we're going up to visit April to do the Peachtree Road Race. That's the long range plan anyways!

Although my weight has stayed at a steady high, ugh ... I'm glad it hasn't crept up higher in the last month of non-activity. My eating hasn't been great and stress has been pretty high. I'm hoping today is a day to get back on track and start feeling great again. I've really missed running. I never thought I'd say that, but I do.

Wonder if I can talk Jenny into running tomorrow? I'm gonna try. :) Alex just woke up .. have a great day!

Closing!

We finally closed on our house today but my computer crashed two days ago. Bucky is updating this for me but I will update with pictures as soon as possible.

No closing yet

Our closing was scheduled for today. It didn't happen. Long story short, people before us were purchasing the house, their mortgage company did paperwork but didn't close it, then they went out of business. Now my mortgage people have tried to hunt them down, they won't return calls ... so my mortgage people were forced to go to FHA to get the case closed. BLAH. Glad my mortgage people are explaining this all to me and I like them, it helps a little!

I'm just so frustrated. Had to call FPL *again* to reschedule the power being put in our name. Had to cancel the A/C repair people. Tell the painters they can't start working this weekend. Tell my brother he can't start on the alarm system this weekend. I had my heart set on April 8th.

Santiago has to go to IRS tomorrow in person to request papers that they keep rejecting for the closing. He'll be mad when he finally leaves there I'm sure. Especially since it's tax time. Such a brave guy.

We're hoping the closing will be sometime next week.

My parents are leaving tomorrow for Texas to visit my brother and family. Wish I was going. blah.

Yeah, I'm cranky and probably shouldn't post when I'm in this mood .... I'm ready to start working on the house ... we're going to rent ours out ... so we are going to have to move faster than planned. Just so much going on. Alex is on spring break next week ... and with my parents out of town, hubby and I are each taking off two days from work, Jenny is thankfully watching him on Monday (her day off) ... just so much going on! And so much more to do and do and do ... yes, the end result will be worth it, that's the only thing keeping me somewhat sane.

Blah ... Babbling isn't helping ... time for bed.

The park ... in pictures!

Two weekends ago, at the spur of the moment, we took Alex to the park down the street from our new house ... yes, he's in his pjs, but he had a blast! The ground is a soft mat all the way around, with mulch along the edges. He played on the smaller of the two playsets, so he'll enjoy it for years to come!

Quick house update - The closing is set for April 8th, which is next Wednesday ... we're really so excited! We are slowly getting plans in order ... have boxes, but haven't packed a thing yet! Eeeks. I'm in trouble already! And just in case you care ... I'm not the decorator type! This is stressful. Picking out verticals? Colors for all rooms? Too much stress.

Random Picture Challenge

http://4littlemen.blogspot.com/2009/03/random-picture-challenge_21.html

3rd folder, 1st picture with the color BROWN.



Another one taken with my camera phone ... January 16, 2009 ... Alex in a good mood heading to daycare. The boo boo on his nose is, sadly, from my nail. :( Bad mommy.

St. Patrick's Day

2008 - St. Patrick's Day

3 months old

2009 St. Patrick's Day

15 months old

I have a video, but it's not posting ... will try again in the morning.

A few more pictures ... these are from March 8 (1st time in 'training pants' - no, I'm not trying to potty train him, just letting him air out a bit) and March 11 (just lookin cute) ... again taken with my camera phone ... I need to find our real camera.

We got it!

The accepted our offer of $97,500!!!!!! YAY!!!! Although we knew we'd take it at 100, that lil bit of savings will help with the appliances we need to buy- fridge, stove, washer and dryer.

Now it's time to get all of our paperwork in order ... last 2 years tax returns, last 3 paystubs, last 3 months bank statements, first born's lock of hair ... you get the picture.

Santiago is working another double today, and I have a homeowners association meeting after work, so it'll be a lil crazy around here. My parents are getting Alex from daycare and doing dinner/bath, so that'll be a huge help.

We're meeting with the mortgage guy tomorrow afternoon at my office, so I have to have everything in order and ready ... whew ... lots to do.

We're hoping to close around April 8th ... not sure everyone can move that fast though. Alex's daycare is closed the following week, so we are already taking off work ... maybe we can work on the house a little with Alex in tow ... not sure how well of a plan that is! I've already contacted a home inspector, he'll be at the house on Monday. The mortgage guy is taking care of the appraisal. My uncle is a surveyor, guess I need to find out if I need that done.

Lots on my mind ... and I'm late for work .... we're so very excited. A real house! Yes!!!!!

Almost there ....

The house we put an offer on is in the St. James area ... near the park on Manville & Selvitz in North Port St. Lucie. It is on the market for 109,000 ... we offered 95,00 ... yesterday they countered back with 100,000 ... we countered back with 97,500 ... we're waiting on an answer now. The selling realtor is really on the ball, and actually calls back when he says he will, and he said it would be today, so I'm excited! Even if they come back at 100, we're buying it. :)

After work yesterday, I met my brother, Robby, and his wife, Rita, at the house to show them and see what they thought. Robby is in corrections now, but use to work for a security alarm firm, so I wanted to see how much he thought it would cost to get an alarm system installed. Not that I don't think it's a safe area, but since it's a split plan, Alex's room is waaaaaay across the house from ours. I just want some peace of mind, ya know? Plus he's real handy, so I wanted his thoughts on some projects.

These pictures are from my camera phone, so the quality isn't the best, but gives you an idea ...

Kitchen is on the small side, we'll need to buy a stove and fridge.

Living Room. To the left is the dining area.

Master bath. I'm not totally in love with it, but it'll work just fine. I think in the near future, we'll take out the tub and put in a large shower. And Rita (SIL) suggested turning the shower area into a linen closet. I hadn't even noticed there wasn't one in there! I told hubby when I got home, and he hadn't noticed either. Great idea!

Today is my day off, but I'm going into the office for a few hours, or the day. We'll see. I've been working on taxes for the last several weeks and I'm behind on my regular work. Maybe I can make a lil dent in it today since everyone thinks I'm off and won't bother me! :)

Dream home?

I'm sure there is such a thing as a dream home ... but finding it is exhausting! Any spare time we've had, we've spent driving around or scouring the internet, looking for available houses.

We're looking for a 3/2/2, CBS home ... hopefully in South Fort Pierce, but realized, we'll probably have to live in ... gulp ... Port St. Lucie. I say that, because I was born and raised in Fort Pierce ... not quite sure how I'll adjust to living there ... although I'm sure I will. Will I lie and put "Fort Pierce" as a return address? laugh ... probably not.

This past weekend we spent a LOT of time driving around ... writing down houses that were in quiet areas and then coming home and trying to see how much they are on the market for. Most of them are "Short Sales" ... and our Realtor knows most take a long time from bidding to buying. Not that we're in a rush, but I don't want to tie up money on House A and find the "dream house".

Speaking of dream house ... Three weeks ago Hubby and I fell in love with the one on Manville that got 16 offers. We're still comparing the houses we see to it. "But at Manville, there was a nice window in the dining room" ... "the master shower was really nice at Manville" ... "the alarm system was already installed at Manville" ... you get the picture.

Then we found another house on Manville for sale ... literally across from the first house ... "back on the market" it said. It's a 4/3/2, CBS, built in 2005, 2100 sq ft ... yes, it's huge. As my mom said probably 5 times last night "it's a lot of house". Which to me means, there's a lot of house to clean, air condition/heat, decorate, lose Alex in, etc. All of the window treatments are gone, which can get expensive to replace. There are 3 sets of double widows ... those are the ones that scare me, price wise. Plus, I'm not too much of a decorator, as anyone who has seen my house can attest to.

This picture is from the Property Appraisers website, when it was a brand new house in November 2005.

This is the picture the Realtor has in the listing ... the only picture. Most listings have 6-8 pictures of the inside of the house, not this one. Neither did the first house on Manville now that I think about it.

This is my quick attempt to show how the house is set up ... The front two bedrooms share a bathroom, that's neat. The A/C unit looks good and shows it's the "most efficient", the water heater looks good, the kitchen is kinda small, but will work just fine for our family. The master bath is the only "eh" factor ... I'm not totally in love with it, but it'll work just fine , and I can see where a little remodel will produce a nice large shower ... it has a roman tub and a small shower stall right now.

It's on the market for $109,000. We put in an offer for $95,000. The selling agent said we would hear from him today ... let's hope he calls with good news.

So there ya have it ... we're still looking ... we've probably looked inside of 18 or so houses in the last month. It's hard to remember what you liked and disliked about each one. If this falls through, we'll keep looking ... of course.

Under Contract

Sigh. The house had 16 bids in 4 days. :( Ours wasn't accepted. We put in a bid, the asking price, Saturday morning, along with all of the papers they asked for. The stupid MLS listing shows "Pending" as of today, hello, we put in our bid on Saturday?! ARGH. Wish they would have told us they had other offers, but they didn't, they said they didn't have any.

I'm so ... I don't know the word ... sad. I was already picturing living there ... meeting the neighbors, going to the park. :( I'd thought of decorating Alex's room, a real room, where it was all his. Instead of what it is now ... his room and our office. And it's all of maybe 10x10? And really, I don't think it's that big.

I'm just so disappointed. We have everything in order. Our credit, the down payment ... sigh. I was telling Santiago tonight how I didn't think we got it, but even as I said it, I didn't believe it. In my heart, I felt it was ours. And it's not.

I looked on MLS tonight ... and there's nothing new in the area we want and the money we are comfy spending. So we'll go check out the rest of the ones I printed on Thursday night that we didn't look at because we fell in love with that one.

Blah. And I don't know why, but I'm crying. Blah.

House Hunting

My head is pounding. We've decided to buy a house. I'm overwhelmed by it all.

To give you a lil background ... I bought the condo we live in in 1996 when I was 21, single and working 3 jobs ... it's a 2/2, 900 sq ft ... was great for a single girl, and fine when we got married 10 years ago ... but now it's just too small for our growing family and since it's a condo, we have no place to expand.

I contacted the bank ... we're approved for the range we're interested in. I didn't even ask what we were approved for. Our credit is good, we don't have any credit cards ... we owe on our van and couch, that's it.

There is a foreclosure across from my parents, a 3/2, 1700 sq ft, CBS house ... which needs a LOT of work. But my heart is set on it. I want to live across from my parents, so Alex can grow up with them very closeby. But hub finally saw the inside of it for himself today, after weeks of planning to buy it ... and said no way. It just needs too much work. :(

I was worried we wouldn't be the high bidder at the auction, so yesterday I started looking at the houses available in this area ... oh my. There are lots. Yesterday we looked inside of 2. That was neat. One was wow, the other was yuck. But the wow one is priced at 104. I'd really like to stay around 80.

So last night, I hunted and hunted and hunted online ... printed out 14 ... hub and I sat and looked over the info and picked 9 we wanted to see the inside of. My friend Gail is a realtor, she showed us two (they were occupied) ... one was wow, the other was yuck. This time the wow one was 99 and a 4/2/2. That's a little closer, right? :)

We planned on looking at 5 on Saturday morning, but on the way home from looking at those two today, we decided to take a quick peek at one that we were really interested in that just went on the market 4 days ago ... and oh my goodness!!! It's near a park, in a good area, there's a sidewalk to my parents house (maybe 3 miles one way?) ... It's a 3/2/2, split plan, 1847 sq ft, tile, roman tub in the master, screened porch, fenced back yard, built in 1995, new roof in 2005 ... for 79?!?! OH MY GOODNESS. Can this really be ours?

We're puttin in an offer *full listing price* tomorrow morning ... I have a headache trying to wrap my head around it all ... and all of the details!! We're so excited. Bad picture, but it's the only one I can find ...

Oh ... my head is pounding ... and my heart is too ... I'm excited and nervous. A real house. For us. :) I don't like that Alex's room will be across the house. I've enjoyed hearing him breathing while I'm on the computer. It's 2 of our condos! Our 3 cats won't know what to do with all the space!! Ok ... I'm gonna try to sleep. And yes, I know I'm behind on emails again ... I'll try to get to them this weekend!

Random Picture Challenge

The blog 4 Little Men and Girly Twins posted a Random Picture Challenge ... you pick the 3rd picture in either your January 2007 folder or the 13th folder.

Here's the 3rd picture in our 13th folder ...

July 27, 2008 at 9:15am, it must have been time for Alex's morning nap and he wouldn't go down? Who knows. Anytime daddy couldn't get him to sleep, this worked, it doesn't anymore. Alex is 7 months old in this picture ... and the reclincer they're in now lives at Jenny's house.

Thursday Pictures

I've been sucked into Facebook ... which isn't good ... although I have enjoyed connecting with some of my highschool buddies .... but now the little time I do have on the computer, it's spent there instead of here. Bad Christy. :(

Here's some pics to make up for it. I took these with my camera yesterday morning as I was dropping Alex off at daycare. And yes, it's time for his 1st haircut ... soon.

He's walking ... and climbing