COMPLETE SET

The chair came today to complete the living room furniture set. Now the room looks really small. Hopefully we can find a new house with a larger living room :)

It's still below freezing today and the forecast does not give any hope of warmer weather coming. Austin and I will brave the cold today and head into Walmart for something to do.

Sick Day afternoon

Austin just woke up from his nap, cranky and feeling hot. I gave him some medicine and here he is watching horse races on the T.V. drinking some milk.
Poor little guy.

Lazy Saturday

It's been a week since my last post and not a whole lot has happened. Austin and I have a cold/sore throat. My sister in law & nephew have it too, so maybe we all passed it on to each other. We finally listed our house with a realtor and after cleaning before work yesterday thinking another broker was coming to show it...nothing. I don't know what came up, but at least when I got home the house looked great. We'll drive into Bend on Monday and look inside 2 houses I found last weekend. It would have been 3, but one is pending sale (of course the one I was really excited about) Oh well. The neighborhood is really nice, so I'm on a hunt for another house 4sale in that area. The lots are 1/2 acre and surrounded by big ponderosa pines :)

Well Austin is finally taking a nap. I'm going to relax now while I have the chance.

Beautiful Oregon

I was in a slide show making kick and wanted to share a few more photos. I took all of these within the past year or two. All of these are familiar places in Oregon and most are very close to my home.

Austin's First Year

WARMER DAY

Finally we had a day above freezing :) My cousin Michelle and her two boys came over today to play. She's been here twice in one month which is a record! We took the boys out for a walk in the sunshine. Dylan fell asleep while Michelle carried him. Ryan and Austin played chase up on the side walk and then cried (Austin did) when we had to go inside. With red noses and cheeks we figured it was the best idea to get in and warmed up (45 degrees in the sun).

Here's our baking creation: Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

It was best cold from the fridge and maybe some chocolate syrup on top. Both Michelle and I wanted it to be "richer" but after several tastes it wasn't that bad....and a couple more tastes :)

I wanted to capture this but wasn't sure how to post it. Dylan really wanted Austins bottle, yet Austin didn't like the idea of Dylan actually grabbing it.

You remember my new furniture that was delivered on Wednesday? Well I noticed today that one of the cats have already tried to sharpen their claws on it. There's about 5 holes in the fabric on one end. So guess where the cats are going to be from now on??? OUTSIDE!! I believe it was Simon because I came home from work on Friday and he was sitting in the middle of the living room floor. Thankfully no accidents were found, but I'm sure that's when the holes were made. The cats are never left in the house unsupervised and usually spend most of the time in the garage.

Furniture arrives

I have been waiting years to get new furniture and most of it was delivered today. Missing one recliner that matches these two. Both recline which was a must have for Chris. They are a little firmer than what I remember in the store but I'm sure with time we'll break them in. Now I can rearrange the living room a few times until I get them where I want them.

This is what it looks like outside our front window right now.

Martin Luther King Day

Jessica-look at Austin's eyes. Can you see the yellow? I think Sasha's are definitely blue compared to his.

Here's the boys playing a computer game. Chester (the cat) even seemed to be entertained by it.

Happy holiday to everyone that doesn't have to work today :) Hopefully some real estate agency's will be open so we can look at a few more houses. I just dropped the price on our house, so hopefully it will help. Doesn't look like the idea of renting this house is going to work. Prices are just way to high in Bend.

BOYCOTT SPRINT

Okay I am really frustrated. I switched cell companies(to Unicel from Sprint) after walking into a Sprint store and having a sales rep tell me that my account had expired. Exact words "needs re-newed" So this month I get a bill for $300.00 for early cancellation fees for 2 phone lines. I called customer service; nothing can be done. I talked to the manager at the store; the sales rep doesn't remember our conversation (who would after over a month and it was only 5 minutes long???). Emailed customer service....they wrote back and said to call customer service to take care of it; NOTHING! They can't do anything because there is no notations specifically saying there was a conversation between myself and an employee. So my next step was to call the area manager (Central Oregon) and he didn't answer. So we'll see where it goes from here. Now its the principle behind it more than anything and I'm fuming to say the least!!!!! My other options is to call the corporate office, but that will have to wait until Tuesday due to the Monday holiday.

Besides the above, the temperature here is still way below freezing. Right now its 25. But at night its been in the single digits. Even the cat's water in the garage is frozen solid. On the up side my new furniture is coming on Wednesday :) I've been waiting months for it and was hoping we'd have moved by now, but that's okay. I'll take pictures and send them out when it arrives.

Until next time friends........thanks for being there to vent too :)

"I don't know?"

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This is our new phrase. He repeated me the other day and then just kept saying it.

Today it is a cold 30 degrees with near zero predicted temperatures within the next couple days. Not fun. At least there might be snow with it, which makes it a little better.

Yesterday I found a house that Chris needs to look at too. It's a 1996 manf home (taken very good care of) on 1.7 acres just down the hill from my brother's house. Same street name even. They are asking over our price range, but if Chris likes the inside we'll make an offer and see what they say. Most of the lots are 2.5 acres, so that might be to our advantage in argueing a lower price. I'll keep everyone posted.

Lazy Sunday

I don't know if Austin will ever be ready to sleep in a regular bed. This is how I find him sleeping most of the time.

Well to update everyone on whats going on. Last Thursday I went to work and inquired about the need to have a rental house for staff, students or interns in Madras. Within 2 minutes I received a phone call stating that a new Chief pharmacist was moving to town and needed a place to rent that allowed pets. Within 30 minutes the new chief (Chi) emailed me and said she'd like to be put on the list to rent our house. Well that sounded great at the time but now after a few days of trying to get pre-approved for a loan, thinking about "what if we get stuck with 2 mortgage payments & can't sell the Madras house" and can we find an affordable house in Bend? My brain hurts and I'm just ready to scream "NO LETS NOT DO IT". But then I feel obligated for finding the new chief a rental now. What did I get myself into??? This started out just a simple question.

So today we are hopefully going to look at houses in Bend. Not sure if a Sunday will work for many people, but I feel that we don't have a lot of time to make a commitment. There's a list of 7 houses under 300,000 in NE Bend (we want 250k or lower). So it will be interesting to see how desperate or flexible the sellers will be on their sale price. There are several houses that have been for sale for at least a year.

So that's what's been happening here in Madras since my last post :)

What a fun day

All 3 boys-it was really hard to get the little ones to look at the camera at the same time. Dylan kept grabbing Austin and then Austin would look at him like "what are you doing?" Austin used to do the same thing to Dylan when he was younger too. Pay back time :) They're 6 month apart.

Yesterday Austin and I had the best time with my cousin Michelle and her 2 kids. They drove up to Madras (from Redmond) for the day to play. Usually we see each other every week but with the holidays and colds we didn't see each other for about a month. Her kids, Dylan-almost 9 months and Ryan- 5 in April (he likes to say he's almost 5) and Austin played really hard. Austin didn't take a nap all day and then crashed when they left. He slept really well last night too.

Here's Austin and Ryan sitting on the couch to watch Ice Age II

Dylan in the park

Today Wednesday January 3rd:

This morning it is raining hard and 45 degrees. We have had the most unusual December/Jan weather. Yesterday was in the 50's yet 2 days before it didn't get above freezing. I must say I do like the warmer temps. Today I have to go into work for meetings. Chris had to be to work by 8 a.m. so Austin was up early too to go to my mom's house for the day. He left in his PJ's and extra clothes. My Dad is out of the hospital and off for the rest of the week, so Austin will have a fun day with Pa and Grandma doing whatever he wants all day long :0)

New Year's Day

Here's a clip of Austin on his new airplane. Thanks grandma :)


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