The Verdict Is In........

So I blogged earlier this week about a house we made an offer on. Well just got the final word and............

We didn't get it :(

There were 4 offers made this weekend so we were given until 3pm today to make our best offer. So we adjusted our closing costs a little. There wasn't to much more we could do due to the amount we got approved for. So we found out tonight that the winning bid offered more then asking price. So I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time, so we will just keep looking. 

In the mean time Hailey and I got our hair cut yesterday. She hates my hair cut. She said it makes me look not so beautiful anymore. I, on the other hand, love her hair cut. They trimmed it just enough to shape it. I love mine too. It's a little shorter then I originally wanted, but I like having a style verses just blah and poofy.

What's New With Me?!?

So here is a peak  on what has been going on in my neck of the woods......

We decided it was time for a change! We are moving (well we hope)

We have played with the idea for some time now. It was a given a couple years ago that we had outgrown our house. It has been a great house! We have been in it for five years now. It was an amazing first house to start out with when we were younger and I was pregnant. But five years later with lots of stuff, a very busy five year old, and a dog, it's just not big enough for us. There has been talk about maybe (no time right now) expanding our family, but we knew we needed more space in order for that to happen. Also another negative about this house is that we are in a very shitty loan. The agent we used was a friend that Kenny used to work with. I don't know what he was thinking at all, and with us both being young and expecting our first child, we took his advice and went with the flow. What we didn't realize was the amount of money we would just be throwing away towards interest. We got our house in February 2007 right before the interest rates dropped and the house market crashed. So we are literally stuck in a huge loan for a house that is worth $80,00 less then we owe. It's been a very hard situation to deal with, especially since it is all in my name, but we decided that it was deal with it now or wait and deal with it later. So here we were searching for a home!

We looked locally and found some nice houses. I don't know how we ever got on the topic of Fredericksburg, but one night when Meagan was here we started to think about the area and talk about how nice it was. We took a peak at the houses and were stunned to find HUGE houses that were going for so cheap! Many were foreclosures and shortsales, but we were still open to the idea or renivating. These houses were way less then what my house is worth and so much more space! So we decided maybe this was the area we wanted to move!

Meagan recommended her realtor who helped her find a house. We met with her two weekends ago and started looking at houses. She would send us daily emails of houses in our range. We had our own little webpage where we could pick the houses out and put them in favorites, possibilities, or discard them. Believe me! There were some funky houses!

The first weekend we went out we looked at 3 houses. The first one was very nice, but not for us. The second one was a dump and nothing like the picture showed. The third house was amazing, but it was very far out from the main road which would add a lot of time to our commutes. It also was in a not so nice neighborhood with a road that was full of potholes. It would add wear and tear to our vehicles just getting off the road. It was a shame though because we really liked that house. With in a couple days of looking at those houses the first one and last one both had contracts on them! So people were definitely liking them!

We decided that our next step before actually finding a house was to get approved for a loan. She recommend a guy she uses for me to contact. Pete was so nice and really worked with me to find out what was best for us. He answered all my questions and made things as clear as he could for me. We finally got our preapproval amount on Friday. We were going to Meagan's for the day anyways so we figured we would give Leigh (our realtor) a call and of course she was willing to meet with us for a little bit.

The first house we looked at is the one we really like! Kenny and I both go the feeling of this house being the "one". It was in a nice quiet neighborhood. There is a police officer that lives next door. The yards were all nice. It's a big change from what I am used too! The house didn't look so nice in the pictures but in person it was much better. It's rather plain, but I really like it. It just has a sunny welcoming feel to me! We looked around at this house for a while. We decided to check out some other ones even though we were pretty certain on this one.

The next house we went to was nice, but it was just creepy. It was apparently owned by an older person. It would be such a nice house to go see Grandma in, but not to live in. It really gave me the creeps. The next house was in a very nice ritzy neighborhood. The house was beautiful when we pulled up. We couldn't wait to look inside! Wrong! It was a disaster! It was filthy! Like sickening filthy. We actually left Hailey outside while we went upstairs. The place was completely trashed and apparently they had a big dog that peed everywhere. It was so gross that Leigh didn't even go in. It's a shame because it really was a nice house! The last house that we went too was very nice. It was a tri level house. It had been completely redone. We very much liked it but couldn't get the first one out of our head.

So we decided to sleep on it. It was getting late and we were all hungry. After we ate it was a long quiet ride home. We finally talked about what was on both of our minds and how we felt not only about the house, but moving. We both thought that the positives outweighed the  negatives, but we wanted to sleep on it and talk a little bit more in the morning. It seems to me that you always seem to view things differently in the morning. I guess it's the whole fresh mind thing.

So today we decided we wanted to go look at it one more time and make an offer! We decided to give them their asking price, but ask them to pay all closing. They now have the choice to accept our offer or to counteroffer. We then will either agree with their terms or make another offer. So right now it's a waiting game, but the documents were signed and we made the first move. We also took some time to really look the house over one more time and get some pictures.

The house originally was probably a foreclosure. A investment agency bought it and did some remodeling. The kitchen was redone. Hardwood floors were redone in the house. New carpet and new windows were also installed. There were some things that were flawed that we saw and some things they did cheaply, but they are really only minor repairs. The house is three bedrooms and two baths. It has an attached one car garage and a two car garage outside. I think it will be a perfect house to fix up and really make it ours! Even Hailey is excited!

And now for some pictures!

This is dining room:

 This is bedroom 1:

 This is bedroom 2: This is the one Hailey wants!

 This is third bedroom:

 Family room:

 Garage on house:

Second garage:

How to Make a Beautiful Life!

Field Trip!!!!

Today was field trip day! We went to Elms beach in St. Mary's. This was Hailey's first real field trip and I got to be a volunteer! I wait almost two weeks patiently to see if I had been picked. They were only taking the first four volunteers for each class. Luckily I found out Tuesday that I had been chosen and was given my instructions to report to school at 9am today with my lunch packed! Believe me, I was super excited!

The weather wasn't as nice as it had been all weekend. It called for 50% chance of rain and it rained all around us. Lucky for us, some how we missed all the rain! Wahoo! It was cloudy, but we could deal with clouds. I got to be the chaperon for a group of four which included Hailey! Let's just say these kids had a TON of energy. It was a very long bus ride, but we finally made it!

We started the trip off by learning about the Maryland Blue Crab. We learned that if it loses a leg or arm during a fight that it would grow back. Also we learned the different stages from baby to adult. We got to see a little baby crab in a tank, a huge crab in a tank, and a shell of a crab. The women there said that the big crab had shed it's shell the day before. It was really neat! It was completely in tack and just looked like a dead crab. Apparently crabs shed there shells about roughly 13 times in their 3 year life span.

After that was the scavenger hunt. We were given a list of items to find out on the beach. It included different shells, driftwood, a pinch of sand, a rock, pieces of crabs, and some seaweed. The kids got to make a paper bag to take home some treasures from the scavenger hunt. We went out on the beach and the kids quickly filled up our bucket of all the things we were supposed to find. Afterwards we went back to the picnic tables as a class and sorted everything we had found. Each kid got to pick five things from their pile to take home in their bags.

After this we did a bathroom break, washed hands with the hoses, and it was lunch time. We all brought out paper bag lunches and chowed down. The buses came back and it was time to head home!

It was alot of fun! I am so glad I could be there. My parents never went on any of my school trips so I am glad I can do it with Hailey. It is something that I have always worried about with working so far away. I am thankful that my job is pretty flexible and I am really good at saving leave.

Oh and one thing before we get to the pictures! The children are all wearing a white tee shirt. Each child put their hand print on all the shirts. Mrs. Edwards then wrote all the kids names by their hand prints and on the front of the shirt it said:

Kindergarten here I come!
I know I'll have lots of fun
But I will always remember the friends I made,
When I was in Mrs. Edwards' Pre K!

I got to face it.....My baby is growing up!

Today Is A Brand New Day!!

Mother's Day (Post 2)

 Mother's day continued......

I told you would be back after I uploaded some more pictures! So this past weekend was pretty uneventful. Meagan came up and we went and got our toes done. She spent the evening making crafts with Hailey and then we got dinner with Kenny. The Caps lost the big game, so we are out of the series (womp womp), so that was kind of depressing, but good food made up for it! Then we came home and went to bed!

The next morning Meagan got up with Hailey and worked on the finishing touches to their crafts. Kenny got us a dozen donuts and my favorite coffee drink from Dunkin Donuts! The Boston Creams were in heart shapes and said "Mom" on them! After Hailey showed me all her presents we ate our breakfast and Meagan left to go see her Mom. I putted around the house until 3 and we headed to my grandmother's for a Mother's day dinner. We just did hamburgers and hot dogs and chips. I brought a strawberry shortcake for desert. It was relaxing and we just hung out there. As you will see, I played with my camera some and let Jaime be my model! She has gotten so big and so sweet! I love my baby cousin! I love watching Hailey interact with her, they are best friends!

I ended the night on the couch watching Say Yes to the Dress Brides Maid edition. I had never watched those shows, but I think I got a new series to watch on Netflix!

Now for some pics!!!!