Easter

Today Avery and I went to church with my parents to see my dad sing in the choir. There were fresh cinnamon rolls and we even got some of the left overs, which Avery is pretty pleased with. When we got home, we had a small scale Easter egg hunt downstairs. We relaxed for a little while, then she went with Tim to Sherry's grandmas for their Easter dinner. My parents, brother and I went to Kozlak's for brunch. I was mildly disappointed that there was no eggs benedict, catfish, or the icecream bar. It was still good, but some of my favorite elements were missing. I could have used a nap afterward but chose to ride my motorcycle over to Caribou to visit with my friend Heidi. It was a bit chilly for a ride when the sun went behind the clouds, but it was a short one.

Wednesday this last week was my first ride of the season and that one was great. My friend Ken and I went around White Bear Lake, and Stillwater and back. I still need to change the oil in it, but I"ll get to that eventually. I'm going to take a riding course of some sort in May with Heidi, which should be fun, but I'm a little nervous for it too. We'll see how it goes.

The new quarter starts tomorrow and I'll be busy all the time again. I have classes Mondays and Wednesdays when Avery's at Tim's, and I want to try to get to the gym before class starts at 6 each day. I don't know if it will happen, but I'm going to try.

Still waiting on news on the house I put an offer on Friday on in North St Paul. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, as this is the fourth house I've signed on since I started looking last summer, but its hard not to. It would be perfect, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I should know if the owners accept the offer sometime this week, and even if they do it will be another long wait to see if the bank accepts it, since its another short sale. We put a closing date of June 2nd for now.

Sick of this weather

So I realize its been a few months since the last update, and I'm going to skim over everything that's happened. The main one being I have a newly found distaste for MN. After my trip to Hawaii with my parents (which was AMAZING) I am no longer satisfied to live in this cold, blah state. 75% of the year is gross here. Why do I put up with it? I'm really not sure, but I do know, somethings gotta give. 2.5 years until I'm done with my bachelors and then I'm reassessing my living situation.

Avery's birthday was at Pinz in Oakdale and Mikai, Cece, Tierney, Hannah and Gunther attended. They all had a lot of fun bowling, and then we went in the party room for pizza, rootbeer and cupcakes. Mikai actually knit Avery a scarf. It was very cool.

The same week we left for Hawaii. I stayed from the 5th-14th. We did whale watches, a luau, Cirque Polynesia, shopping, the road to Hana, and more. The last whale watch I went on was amazing. This young male whale came up to our raft and was swimming around and underneath for about an hour. I was able to touch it, and put my face in the water with a snorkel mask to see his entire body. It was incredible, a once in a lifetime deal. There are tons of pictures and I just put together a book on Snapfish last night. It should be in the mail this week. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Going back further, Christmas and New Years went great. Pete was home from California and we spent a lot of time with his family and friends as well as mine. He went back Jan 2 and I'm hopefully going to make it out there for his birthday at the end of April. I could use some warm weather again. I can't handle anything lower than 35 now.

Sears

So today I had made an appointment for 2:30 for Tierney and Avery to get their pictures taken. I really wanted to sleep in (badly) but I had to pick Tierney up at 9 in order to get home and get her bathed and ready before Avery got home at 11 and we had to go to her swimming lessons, then get her ready. So the mall was packed and so was Sears. I HATE the mall during the holidays. Good grief. I thought that I could just get the pictures taken and my mom could order the prints online because I didn't know what size or how many to get. But it turns out that you have to pay another 10 dollars to do that and then you can't use the coupons and discounts. So I ordered some 8x10s and left it at that.

This week has been so crazy with my parents in Branson. I've had to get up early to get everything ready for Avery to get ready for school with Chad and then when he leaves have our neighbor come over to take her there, and then have Tim pick her up, etc etc. Its just been nuts and I'm so tired. I could sleep for a week.

6 Weeks

Well today is the 6 week marker of my surgery. I start physical therapy and I picked OSI in North St. Paul because its close and hopefully easy to get in. My appointment is at 4:15 and I'll be going twice a week for the next 4 weeks. My brace was set to 0pen up to 30 degrees and the doc changed it to 75 yesterday so the goal by the next appt is to be able to move it to that 75 degree mark. Then I have another 2 weeks before we hit the 12 week mark that was supposed to be the later end of my estimated recovery time. 6-12 weeks. Ugh, whatever. I pretty much hate everything about this whole process now.

What really doesn't help my mood is the property in Woodbury went to crap. It had gone as far as the seller accepting my bid. But it turns out all these things weren't as they were told to be. Ex: Property is being sold by a person, not a bank. There are less than 20% owners in the place and in order for the bank to give me a loan it needs to be over 30. The seller claimed it was. It's not. There was no offers on the place when I made mine, but then the seller said there actually was, and at the list price at that. Only problem was, they didn't have a preapproval. So the offer wasn't even valid. I could go on and on, but it basically boils down to the fact that the guys a schmuck and I don't get to buy the place. So now we're back to square one. Absolutely no options of other places and I'm just sitting here waiting. Even if I had gotten this place I wouldn't have closed till Nov 20th. It takes about 45 days to close. The cut off for the rebate is Nov 30th. So I'm screwed.

Condo

So yesterday I went to look at a condo in Woodbury. I was very excited about it because it was just listed, in my price range and looked good. So we finally got out to see it after I discovered I have a conventional loan not FHA and that opened up a lot of possibilities. The place was perfect, small but fine for Avery and I. Very clean and new looking. It was built in 1989 and looks great. The driveway needs resurfacing but the association pays for the driveway and lawn so I also wouldn't have to snowblow or mow the lawn!! I am really crossing my fingers on this one, right now I'm waiting to find out their pet policy, if they allow them I'm going to put in a bid, and if not...well then I guess it was too good to be true. My realtor went to ask the seller about that and the listing had expired. She wasn't sure what was going on since as of yesterday there were no bids on the place. I've been waiting for her email but haven't heard anything. So I'm very hopeful still. There are pictures on the flickr site, I suggest going to the month of September and looking at them that way, because for whatever reason, when I upload stuff and it goes into the normal photo stream, they're all out of order. That's all for now!

Birthdays, houses, and schools oh my.

Well the birthday party was...tiring. I sat off to the side where there was a handicap table so I wasn't in the way. We were there from 11:30 till about 2. It was far too long. Freya didn't assist in opening her presents and Tiff was surprised it was all clothes. Really? Because that's what she demanded people get "the kids have enough toys already". Tiff said Tierney has told her she's a mean mom. Her response was that when she was her age with 3 kids she would be too. But might I ask, whose fault is that exactly? Ugh. Bad parenting truly annoys me, and there is definitely more than enough to be annoyed with.

Today I told Cece that I was getting her a hair cut for her birthday. She looks like a shaggy little dog and Andrea hasn't had it trimmed in months. So I'm going to talk to her about it today and maybe go get her a hair cut next week.

I discovered I have enough money to be able to get a house. I have the same stupid realtor and I'm finding myself more and more annoyed with her, and yet I still haven't changed realtors. I'm such a pushover, and I somehow feel bad for this. It's stupid, I know. I was supposed to go look at 2 houses today but then she informs me one won't be approved for FHA and the other is 10,000 over what my budget is. So why has she showed me these houses? Is the price set in stone? I mean really, this is the kind of stuff I deal with her on. Whatever.

Avery had her first day of Preschool today. She was almost late as we thought it was at 1:15 instead of 1:00. (She gets out at 3:15). She made it though, and sounds like everything went well. No seperation anxiety at all, and the teacher sent home a not that said she played on the computer and with play dough. I thought it was neat they said some of what they did, because it can be awful hard to pry it out of Avery.

I bought Avery a Barbie Fashion Designer game on ebay and it came in the mail today. Avery about pooped her pants, and now its killing her that I won't let her play it until Cece goes home. Now who's the mean mommy! Haha. These are the days of our lives...

3 Weeks

For those who were wondering, the actual name of the surgery was: right knee extensor realignment proximal and distal with tubercle shaft. So basically moving my kneecap to where it should be and screwing it there. Hehe. I have my appointment today at 3pm. I'll let you know how it goes later.

Well I'm home after a rather disappointing day. We loaded Avery and myself into the back seat (which didn't quite work all that well) and went off to see the doc. We waited almost 40 minutes past our appt time all for me to find out that I have to sit tight for another 3 weeks before we even start therapy. I got a refill for my muscle relaxers that help me sleep, and adjusted my brace so that I can move my leg 30 degrees. (Which is really nothing). I got the paperwork for a handicap parking pass and when we got to the DMV at 4:40 we found out that the secretary hadn't filled out everything she needed too and they couldn't give it to us. So now my mom has to go back and get that done correctly so we can make another trip to the DMV which we all know is so much fun. It was a rotten time and I was ready to go home but decided to go on as planned because there was no point in moping at home.

We went to Kohls to find some outfits for Freya (my neice's sister) as its her 2nd birthday party on Sunday. We were told not to buy toys as they have enough, even though they've thrown away all the other toys we've bought for the kids in the past 4 years. Whatever. After that we went to a chinese place kitty corner to Kohls in Woodbury and ate. It was quite good, but kind of expensive. After that a quick stop home, then to Target to get my prescription filled and finish off Avery's clothes shopping.

Now I'm home, still crabby and not sure how I'm going to make it through another 3 weeks of sitting in bed. If I could shop all the time that would be great. But I'll run out of money quickly that way. Maybe I should start a boredom fund for myself. Donate money for me to shop so I won't die of boredom!