Bad then good, then better, then worse, then ok

So since that guy backed out of buying our haouse after we had packed a lot of it up we decided to list with our realtor friend. So he came over and assesed that according to what the other trailers in our park have been selling for that he was gonna list it for 184,900. Yikes! I remember when I put out our homemade sign that I was embarrassed to put 174,900 on it. The market is definately crazy. So that is cool that we will potentially get more for it but then we had to get our house in tip top shape again. So we spent yesterday moving the boxes to Cory's parents house and cleaning up. We had also planned on putting outdoor carpeting on the deck but no place had it in until yesterday. So we thought that it had better be done. But first we had to replace a piece of rotten trim that was right beside the deck. Easy peasy. Ooops, did we forget that EVERY single upgrade we have done to this house has been way bigger and more expensive and time consuming than we thought? Yes, we must have. When Cory tried to attach the new board he realized that the wood behind the siding is rotted too. We have no idea how bad it is or how much is rotted but no matter what it doesn't look good. So we phoned our realtor and told him to postpone listing our place until it's fixed. We have another friend who used to do siding coming over to assess it but we're thinking we will probably have to re side the whole thing and replace the wood that the siding goes into. Oh well, good thing the price we will eventually get will make up for the money we have to spend. It will look nice with new siding too....to bad we wont really live in it when it's done!

On a different note I have become a member of an online community called facebook. And I have caught up with so many friends that i've lost track of over the years including my best friend Molly from elementary school! It's neat.

Thumbs down to that guy

What a roller coaster ride. Our house isn't sold. At the last minute (litterally the last minute) the buyers financing fell through. So all the packing i've been doing is for nothing. There is no way i'm unpacking boxes until we move to a new home so we will just have to live on bare necessities. But it makes showing the house more difficult.I know people aren't buying our stuff but it's harder to see the house past all the boxes. Oh well. One nice thing is that about ten minutes after hearing about this we had more people knock on the door wanting to look at it. Again very messy but oh well. Also the housing market is so crazy that even trying to go look at a place is hard. You see something interesting, try setting up an appointment and whamo it's already sold. Crazy. So because we're already mostly packed if something doesn't happen fast we'll probably get our realtor friend to sell it. He thought we should have been listing it higher anyway. So because I like to share pictures, here are some of our half packed house, Hannah and a bit of a picture i painted for Cory's mom. (It's Cory and his brother when they were young)

My new things

I eluded to a few new things that i'm doing in my last post so I had better tell what they are. I suppose one isn't entirely new to me but I haven't done it in a while. I guess i'll start with that one. I went to my brother and sister(inlaws) house and made a ukrainian easter egg. It is a really fun process where you use bees wax over different colors of dye to get the desired effect. I have done them in previous years but this one is the first I actually like ( isn't that right Krina! Hee hee)

I've also started to make ATC's (art trading cards) It is a really neat concept where people all over the world create art in their medium in the form of a trading card and then trade them with other people. I'm just sending out my first four and will be getting mine in the mail by the end of the month. One of the people i'm trading with likes Mexican art so I tried my hand at some. Hopefully she'll like them!

The last thing i'm doing is another type of swap where I had to write about a day in my life. Just an ordinary day and what I did and then I have to send it to three people and three others send theirs to me. my sound lame to some but i'm excited. So here is what I wrote:

24 Hours in the Life of Me

This morning started out the same way as every other weekday morning. With me hastily turning off the annoying alarm clock that signifies that my poor husband has to get out of the warm bed and get ready for work. At least, that is what he says happens. Everyday I turn off the alarm but don’t remember doing so. It’s weird, I can wake up to my daughter making the tiniest squeak in her room but not remember turning off an alarm.
Slowly the haze lifts and I get up and put on C’s housecoat (he lets me use it on weekdays) and join him for breakfast. I never used to like breakfast but ever since I was pregnant I’ve got into the habit. This morning I ate a new kind of cereal called, "GoLean Crunch." It has seven whole grains with no sugar added but tastes great. We are trying to make healthier food choices and finding a lot of great recipes etc.
Our kitchen has three nice big windows and the morning sun was gorgeous. It looks like winter is finally over. Our winters are fairly mild but cloudy so when spring comes with it’s sunshine I just feel healthier.
I faintly heard our five month old daughter’s morning wake-up sounds in between the loud cereal crunch in my head and C and I raced to go see her first. This may sound odd but we had to wait to have a child for almost five years and are blessed with a girl whose temperament is as bright and happy as the afore mentioned sunshine. She greeted us (her dad first, as he beat me down the hall) with her beautiful smile. After a quick diaper change we settled on to the couch for her breakfast and to listen to C read from his bible. Then I watched as they played together the same game that happens almost every morning. Dad bouncing and singing to make her laugh and her ending up laughing and puking on him from the jostling after an all liquid diet. Then it’s off to work for him and back to bed for us.
I have always been a big sleeper and so far I have been lucky to still be able to get enough even with a new baby.
Today is a little different because we are in the process of selling our house and have to meet with a lawyer this morning. So I phoned my mom at nine and asked her if she could watch H while we met with the lawyer. Thankfully she was able to on such short notice and so we got ready and drove over to Grandma’s house in our "boxy but good" Volvo. We had a cute two door sports car until we had H but obviously had to get a more family car and Volvo’s are safe. (Ugly in my opinion, but safe) So we got to visit with grandma for about half an hour before I had to go get C from work and get to our meeting. Can I mention again how beautiful of a day it was? Maybe I had cabin fever and didn’t realize it. Walking down the street I got one of my favorite spring feelings of being a little chilly but the sun warming my bare arms.
We got to meet with the lawyer almost right away and he went over the contract, made a few changes and gave us some advice on what to do next. Pretty straight forward but pretty expensive! Oh well, if you need someone to do a job then I guess they can dictate the price.
We then went and picked up H who was just waking up from a nap and headed home with a quick stop at Mc Donalds for me. C didn’t even make fun of me this time (he hates the food there) but just gave in to my craving. So much for healthy food choices!
I then spent the rest of the afternoon checking email, looking for new swaps on swapbot, reading friend’s blogs and writing up notes for this letter.
Another reason I love spring is how much lighter it is in the evening. So when C got home from work it was light enough and warm enough to eat outside.
Dinner was easy as I have started to plan ahead for meals when I go grocery shopping. I find it a lot easier than looking through a cookbook hoping I have all the necessary ingredients. Tonight was oven fried chicken strips and spicy yam fries. Yum!!
This is the one night a week when C and I go our separate ways for our extra curricular activities. He has choir and I have dance. Every week C’s mom comes and babysits H even though she is sleeping when she gets here. So generous of her.
I picked up one of my friends who takes dance with me and headed down town to the studio. The class is great as it’s all my friends and is taught by my sister-in-law. It’s a mixture of jazz and hip hop and I take it mostly for the exercise. Meaning, I don’t really seem to be a natural dancer! This was obvious the night that I tore a tendon in my ankle showing C my moves! Oh well, it’s fun. Tonight I started dance with a headache but all the stretching and laughing helped to make it go away. We’re finally coming together in some of our routines so it looks pretty cool.
Once C and I got home we were going to play a game of "Settler’s of Catan" before bed but both of us realized how tired we were. We used to be night owls but lately nine thirty is getting late for us. So off to bed with maybe a little reading to unwind.

Doing this swap has really made me realize that there really is interesting things that happen throughout an ordinary day and I can’t wait to receive the ones from others in the mail! Yay for snail mail!

Oh, and what's a post without a new picture of Hannah?

So cute

What can I say. We love our girl. Everyday she seems to have learned something different. Thankfully she is pretty much out of the high pitched scream at the top of my lungs for fun stage. But everything else id really fun to watch.

It looks as though we have sold our house. We have a meeting with the lawyer on Wednesday to go over the paperwork before we sign and there are a few subjects to be removed but overall it has been a pretty easy process. If all goes as planned we will be out of here by May 1st. I know that seems quick but in my opinion, the quicker the better. As soon as the house isn't really ours anymore then i'm sure little things will start needing repair....or heaven forbid something major happen. Not that I think anything will or want anything to go wrong for the guy that buys it, I just want to avoid the situation as much as possible. Anyway, i've started doing a few cool new things but i'll have to leave you all in suspense (all three of you) i've got to get ready for the Easter service.