Family

Mike's parents were in town this weekend. We only had a couple of days with them, but we made good use of our time and packed in some super fun activities. On Friday we went to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it (I'm not HUGE on museums that focus on things military or mobile), but it was pretty cool even for me. My guys, of course, LOVED it. I had to practically drag Mike and his dad out of the World War I era wing of the museum because Alec was so tired and hungry.

We ate at Tutta Bella in Seattle, which was YUMMY. It has authentic Naples style pizza with the wafer thin crust and the real deal in mozzarella. The menu is written in Italian. Very reasonably priced and located in a nice area. I recommend it.

On Saturday we rode the foot ferry from Port Orchard to Bremerton. We let the boys splash in the waterfountain play park again before eating lunch outside on the boardwalk. After lunch we walked over to the Turner Joy, which is a historic Navy destroyer ship. I decided to sit out on the ship tour and sat outside in the sunshine watching people and boats and birds. I was treated to a viewing of a bald eagle who soared around the warship for awhile before chasing away a seabird and landing on the very top of the ship's mast. It sat up there and called for half an hour or more while I watched. Pretty cool.

We had a good visit with Grandad and GranB.

GranB, Grandad, Mike, Zach and Alec at the Museum of Flight

Zach on the foot ferry.

The Turner Joy.

Finally

Finally. It is done.





We are homeowners of a sweet 3 bed/2 bath home in Bartlett, TN with a HUGE laundry room and a lovely fenced backyard perfect for two energetic little boys.





Finally. The papers have been signed and FedExed and it's all good.

I promised an explanation of our stressful home buying experience. I'm going to make it short and sweet, because at this point I am so very happy it is all over.

The overall home buying process from halfway across the country is riddled with little "incidents" that make a person cringe. We had four major setbacks along the way.

1) Our loan application package got lost in the mail.

Yep. Enough said on that, but I'll clarify just a bit. We sent the package two day priority with confirmation of delivery and one week later the package arrived in pieces on our loan processor's desk WITHOUT the $400+ check for fees. We spent WAY too much money faxing most of those papers while the original documents were floating around and then had to pay for a stop payment fee on the lost check.

2) The VA (Veteran's Admin) gave us trouble.

We were aquiring a VA loan and we had about two weeks of uncertainty regarding whether the VA would approve our loan because they had no "proof" that we'd paid off a prior loan with them in 2001. We had, most definitely, paid off that loan but it had not been properly reported and a lot of red tape was involved in getting that straightened out.

3) The home appraisal was almost $12,000 less than what we'd agreed to pay for the home.

This doesn't sound like a bad thing, but it basically meant that no mortgage lender would approve the original price since the appraisal was so much less. We spent a LONG weekend waiting to hear if the homeowners were going to come down to the appraisal price or just take their house off the market. They finally agreed to the appraisal price and we are blessed to be getting our home for less than expected! We had to renegotiate with them and ended up paying our closing fees, which wasn't so awesome. But we're still paying significantly less for our house.

4) Due to the home appraisal, the VA dragging their feet on the loan, and the Memorial Day bank and mail holiday, we didn't close on our scheduled date. We overnighted our documents on Tuesday and the house closed yesterday afternoon.

It is ours. Praise God!

Father, friend, ROCKER

I hope you are enjoying a nice long Memorial weekend. We were treated to a concert performed by Mike and his small ensemble Navy band yesterday in Bremerton, on the boardwalk. I am so mad at myself because I did not get many good pictures, and no decent video coverage. I'm usually much better about recording things, but somehow I got to the concert without my camera and ended up using Zach's little cheapie camera. ANYWAY, the most exciting event of the evening was when I turned away for a SPLIT second and Alec was suddenly on stage giving Mike a hug. Middle of the concert. Mike was cool, as always. He just laughingly hugged him back and then introduced Alec and Zach to the crowd. Everyone clapped for them. It was sweet. I was so appalled that I'd allowed him to get on the stage that I stood there without taking a picture of it. Aaaggghh! Anyway, we really enjoyed seeing Mike do his thing. I told him last night that I am amazed at how amazing he is. I've always been very impressed with his musical gift. But he has taken it to a whole new level in the last couple of years. He is truly GREAT! Zach and Alec have a rocker dad. :-)



Zach and Alec watching Daddy. Mike is on the far right:


















Zach, Alec, and Zach's good buddy Easton:











Mike, Zach and Alec after the concert.

Fresh locks

Well, I went for the short 'do this morning. By the way, for anyone in P.O. looking for a stylist, I LOVE Marlo at M&M in Manchester. She's sweet and did a nice job today. The cut is good. She respected the nature of the beast in dealing with curly hair! She straightened it for me and then, of course, as soon as I got home I had to wash it and play with it. Per Kathryn's request, photos are below.

Today is a 1/2 day of school for Zachary so Alec and I are about to head back to the school and get big brother. It's gorgeous today so I think we'll stay out and play for awhile.

Does anyone have fun plans for the long weekend?

Random thoughts

Is there an "F" word for random thoughts? I can't come up with one. Let me know if you do.

#1: I have a new favorite quick snack. Quaker Oat Squares cereal. I only like them dry. When you put milk on them they get too soggy too quickly. But I LOVE them dry. Very satisfying and a filling snack. Recommended.

#2: I'm getting a haircut tomorrow. For the past MONTH I've been trying, in vain, to make a decision on what to do with my hair. It's driving me crazy. About a year ago I decided to grow it out. I'm not sure why I made this decision. My hair is very thick, very curly, very HOT, and very unmanagable when it is long. Plus, I'm not one of those people who looks great with her hair up in a ponytail. It makes me look 12 years old. Not really a look I'm going for. So, anyway, tomorrow at 9 a.m. I have an appointment. Between now and then I have to decide what I'm going to do. I'm thinking of going pretty short. Like chin-length? I guess we'll see.

#3: The house buying process is extremely stressful and very close to being finished. I'll have to do another post at a later date about the pitfalls of buying a home from a distance. We're supposed to close on Tuesday. Be praying about that, please?

#4: This morning while I was walking on our road, I saw a bald eagle flying high up directly over my head. It was breathtaking. I think there's a nest in one of the tallest pines along our road. Very, very cool.

Okay, I guess that's enough random-ness for today. Have a great one.

Fountain Fun

Today was one of the stunningly beautiful days in the Pacific Northwest that makes me say, "Okay! Yes, I do love it here. Let's stay forever." It was sunny and warm, but not even close to hot. A nice breeze coming off the water kept things completely comfortable all day, but the sun warmed the skin enough to make playing in the water a possibility.

The boys and I took the "foot ferry" to Bremerton. This is a small ferry boat that only accomodates walk-on passengers. From downtown Port Orchard to downtown Bremerton is about a 15 minute skip across the water. And today was a great day for water skipping.

We played in Bremerton's water fountain park. They had so much fun and I enjoyed watching them and doing a bit of people watching as well. There were a lot of folks walking through dressed for high school proms and there was also a wedding party getting photographed. I enjoyed it, but the beauty of the pretty dresses was completely lost on my boys.

They just wanted to play in the water. Doesn't it look like FUN?!

Fish and Ugly

So, I have a pet peeve that I need to air.

Today I saw a minivan with a Jesus fish situated nicely on its back window. On the same minivan was a bumpersticker that read, "Horn Broken. Watch out for THE FINGER!" Does anyone else see the contradiction here? I also saw a little sporty car in the Target parking lot this morning. It was also sporting a nice Jesus fish. Its accompanying bumper sticker proclaimed, "Drive it like you stole it!" Again. . . really? On the way through the McD's drivethrough (Alec wanted chicken nuggets after preschool) there was this huge monster truck with a local church bumper sticker on the left side and a license plate holder that read, "If you can read this, get off my ass." Seriously.

I don't get this. I mean, I know we're all imperfect. But do we have to PROCLAIM our imperfections on the bumpers of our cars? Am I the only person bothered by such things?

My Mommy Day

Happy Mother's Day. I hope you've had a nice day with your family today. Mother's Day is rarely a full family affair in our household. Every spring the Navy sends Mike off on a last tour, trying to hit the high schools before the school year ends. He's always away from home on Mother's Day. I think it bothers him more than me. Mother's Day is a nice idea, but I don't need a special day to know that I'm blessed with a great family!

Zachary woke up this morning with a sore throat and a headache. Sniffles came along shortly thereafter. Even though Alec isn't sick, he has DECIDED that he has whatever Zach has. Because of that, this is what my boys have looked like most of the day. We're on our third movie of the afternoon!






















My sweet boys did present me with some treasures today. They both made precious clay sculptures this week. And Daddy took them shopping for other gifts before he left on his trip. I was blessed by an abundance of love (and awesome scrapbooking stuff!).

I am blessed!

Mike the rock star

So Mike has been on tour for the past week. He's currently in Denver and was on a local news channel there last night. I love when he does this kind of thing because we (his family) rarely get to see him play. The boys LOVED watching this! Hope you enjoy it too.


http://www.2thedeuce.com/entertainment/localmusic/

Mother's Day Tea

Alec's preschool hosted a Mother's Day tea this afternoon. I was treated to several songs, with my favorite being "You Are My Sunshine." I was also given a beautiful handprint poster made by Alec and lots of hugs and kisses. We had little triangle sandwiches with apple juice and hot tea. What a lovely way to celebrate being a mom to such a sweet, smart little boy.

Funky Monday

Mike is somewhere in Colorado for the next couple of weeks. This movie is primarily for him so he can see his boys. Of course, you are welcome to view it as well. And yes, I'm having a bit too much fun playing around with the video editing software. Cheap entertainment for me. :-)

Funny and Fantastic