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

Palm Beach Half Marathon

Santiago and I dropped Alex off at my parents house (thanks mom and dad!) and headed down to West Palm Beach to pickup my race packet, along with Jenny and Christina's. I was quite annoyed that the exhibit hall closed early and they'd run out of the correct sized shirts, especially considering we all signed up months ago, and when you sign up, you have to give your shirt size. This didn't affect me pesonally since all they had left were Small and 2XL. But that isn't the sizes Christina and Jenny wear. Ugh.


I was really looking forward to walking around the exhibit hall ... that's where you see all the cool new running stuff, get samples of stuff and pickup information about upcoming races. I love seeing what other races are out there and we can do. Oh well.


We met Bucky and two of my training group ladies, Bonnie & Treici for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Way yummy food!! It was a great dinner ... getting to chit chat and hang out before our big race.


Hubby and I stayed at a fancy hotel, Hawthorn Suites, and I woke up early, 3:45am. Bucky met us at our hotel at 4:45 and we headed to the starting line ... the race started at 6, but you've gotta get there early to meet your buddies, stretch and get pumped up!




At the starting line area ... ready to run!!! L to R, Rhonda, Trecei, Me, Bonnie and Jenny ... Christina and Bucky were there too, just not in this picture!


It was so exciting to see everyone so excited! :) I know I was finally feeling good and ready for the race, even though the weeks leading up to it had been hectic. I was ready. As we got lined up, we lost our training group ladies, Rhonda, Trecei and Bonnie, I think they were further up, they planned on staying together, so we weren't worried, plus they're a lot faster than me! :) Jenny, Christina, Bucky and I stayed together for the first mile ... Christina, who had not trained at all, started falling back, (I later found out she fell that morning) ... so Bucky, being the cool guy he is, stayed with her for the entire race ... they walked it.





The race started with a cool breeze and a little fog, it was perfect! Here's Rhonda, Trecei and Bonnie stickin together! On the left is probably around mile 4 and on the right was around mile 7 ... they're always smiling!




I love the picture on the left ... there was one part of the race where you turned around, between miles 6 & 7 ... this is our group around the 7 mile mark and Jenny & I around the 6 mile mark, passing each other ... this really pumped me up. I was so excited to see them doing so well and still smiling. We high-fived each other!





Jenny and I at the 10 mile mark ... Still together and smiling!

During the turn around point, we saw a younger "big" guy and we said we had to catch up to him .. around the 9 mile mark we did. And we told him we were trying hard to catch him, it made him laugh ... we played leap frog a few times, him passing us, us passing him ... and we started chatting with him as we did this ... his name is Simon, he had an accent although I don't know from where ... there was a thin girl in front of him, running backwards, cheering him on and encouraging him. I'm guessing this was his trainer or a good friend. He was struggling. But he was pushing through! I think it was around the 12.5-13 mark that we finally took off ahead of him. When we finished, we went back to the finish line to cheer him on ... it made me cry. It was his first half marathon and you could tell it took everything he had to finish. That's him in the picture below on the far left side.






The time on the clock is from when they started the race, but with so many people, it took a while for us to cross the starting line. We wear a "chip" on our shoes which is our real time ... our chip time was 3:38:53, our pace was 16:42. This is the best I have ever done ... so it's my new "PR" Personal Record!!! I've completed 3 half marathons so far.


Jenny & I stayed together the whole time ... it really meant a lot to me. She pushed me when I wanted to walk, encouraged me when I ran ... it was great! I also pushed myself pretty hard, at one point, I think I ran for 3.5 minutes ... which is a lot for me, considering we do a 30 second run with our training. It felt great to be with her the whole race! We caught up on each other's lives and talked about everything and anything. We are a great team. Towards the end I was hurting and tired, but I listened to Jenny and pushed through it ... it was out of this world having her next to me at the finish line ... and yes, I cried.


Jenny said it was the best she felt after a half ... that's great, considering this was the 5th half marathon she's completed!! WOW!





Us with our hubbies ... they're the best! They're both really supportive of our running. Santiago was all over the course ... snapping pictures, cheering and encouraging us along the way. It was great seeing him every few miles.





We hung around waiting for Bucky and Christina ... we were worried about them, but they made it!! YAY!! It was Christina's first (and I think last) and Bucky's 3rd ... he's usually by my side, but he didn't want to leave Christina alone. Kudos to them both!





Jenny, Christina, Bucky and I after we all finished ... look, we're still smiling!!! :)

I saw this sign as we were leaving and it really hit home ... 7 years ago, I tipped the scales at 374, yes, three hundred seventy-four pounds. I could barely get around, much less go walking or running. In 7 years, I've kept off 100 of the pounds that I lost, and although I'm sure my gastric bypass surgeon wouldn't be jumping up and down with my long term results, I am happy with where I am. If anyone would have told me years ago that one day I'd complete ONE half marathon, I woulda laughed ... and here I am today ... with the help of my family and friends ... happy and looking forward to many more races.

Here's our Galloway training groups' finishing time & pace ... what a great race!!!

Bonnie 3:04:40, 14:06

Teresa (Trecei) 3:06:13, 14:13

Rhonda 3:06:15, 14:13

Me 3:38:53, 16:42

Jenny 3:38:53, 16:42

Bucky 4:59:50, 22:53

Christina 4:59:56, 22:53

For some perspective ... the 1st male finished the half in 1:14:18, pace 5:41 and the 1st female finished the half in 1:25:56, pace 6:34. The 1st full male (26.2 miles!) finished in 2:28:03, pace 5:39 (yes, he finished the full before we finished the half!!) .. and the 1st female finished the full in 2:55:35, pace 6:42 - and she is 50 years old! Isn't that just amazing!

After we finished the race ... Santiago & I stood watching people finish while we waited on Christina & Bucky ... we cheered on lots of strangers, most of them finishing the full marathon, screaming extremely loud for the half finishers.

During this time a running friend, Kathy, came up to me ... I trained with her in 2006 for the Palm Beach Half ... I immediately started crying ... she lost her husband, Mike, suddenly just before Thanksgiving, he was an avid runner and a great guy. Everytime he saw me out running, he telling me how good I was doing and encouraging me to keep going. I must have hugged her 10 times. It was great to see her, but I can only imagine how hard it was for her to be there. Mike was registered to do the full, so Kathy had one of her fast running friends wear his chip ... Kathy said it was the fastest Mike had ever done a full ... we laughed ... she was able to get his finishers medal and the special 5 year finishers medal (for those that have done the Palm Beach since it started 5 years ago) ... I hugged her some more. It was great to see her, but it hurt my heart. I'm not quite sure why his death has affected me like it has, but it's hit home with me. He was a healthy, active man ... I never thought I'd be going to his funeral. It hurts.

The 2008 Palm Beach Half Marathon was the best ... the weather was perfect, not too cold, not too hot, just perfect ... my company was great, my time was awesome ... the entire day was a great day ... I was on cloud nine ... telling everyone that would listen about my race.

My life has changed so much in the last two years ... and I am so very thankful. :)

Rushing about ...

Yes, I know, I'm way behind on my posting and will try to catch up soon ...

This morning I got through some of my 250+ emails that I've had saved in my inbox (read and saved to respond to later - bad idea). I just haven't had much computer time (at home) lately. When I snuck my last few posts in, I was at my parents house for Thanksgiving, Alex was taking a nap and my brother and his family weren't there yet, so I jumped on, posted some pics and that was all I had time for. :( It was nice to finally catch up on some old emails though. I miss staying in touch.

I'm rushing about packing, hubby and I are leaving shortly for West Palm Beach, I'm doing a half marathon tomorrow. We're dropping Alex off at my parents house until we get back tomorrow afternoon. Aren't I lucky to have such great parents!?

Fleet Feet is a big sponsor of the race, so when we're training, it's one of the ones they talk about a lot, especially because it's local and not a "huge" race, so the newbies won't be totally overwhelmed! I'm glad we found this race, it's totally flat and it's a pretty run. Here's some pics from the last two years from the same race ...

Here's Jenny & her hubby Randy after the 2006 Race.

Jenny, Me, Gina and Bucky before the 2006 Race. We sure are happy for a 5am picture!!

Jenny & I after the 2007 Race ... 2 weeks before I had Alex, no wonder I'm so ummm, rounded.

Randy & Jenny right after the 2007 Race ...

I'll post pics of this race hopefully tomorrow ... Jenny and Bucky will be doing it again with me (Bucky & I's 2nd time, Jenny's 3rd). April had an injury and won't be able to do the race, but will be there cheering her hubby, Geoff, on. Lee & Christina are co-workers that are doing it for the first time. And of Jenny & I's Galloway Training Group, Bonnie, Rhonda, and Treici will be there. Tina, Rick, and Cheryl had injuries and won't be able to make it. We'll miss them for sure!

I haven't been training this week ... or much in the last few weeks. It seems the cold/coughs want to stay in our house. I'm so over it. This week Alex was teething and had a fevers up to 104.6, it was very scary for me. :( He's feeling much better now, which I am very thankful for. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and stuffy nose, sigh ... just my luck.

Jenny and I are thinking about doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon ... we keep talking about it. It's so darned expensive though. We'll see if we do that one or another. If we do that one, I'm really going to have to buckle down, lose some weight and increase my speed. They have a pace limit of 16 ... and for long distances, I'm at a solid 17. We'll see.

Ok, I need to run ... hope everyone has a nice weekend!!