Moving?!?!?!?

With the post below I have gotten comments on the post itself and emails from people wanting to know where we are moving. I guess I forget sometimes that for some friends the blog is the only update they get on our lives and I have not mentioned the house on here yet. Four years ago the house we were living in on the west side of town was sold and we got a rental on the East Side of Town. It was in a newer development by a newer shopping development so even though the East Side of town has a bad rap we thought we were okay since it was all new development. We were sorely mistaken as we have dealt with a lot more vandalism and our cars being broken into more times then we can count. The schools on this side of town are not very good, and we have been fortunate after two years on the waiting list to get the boys in the Charter School on the West Side of town. So, it has been a goal of ours to get back over to the West Side of town.
With the economy the way it is and people losing houses it has caused yes the price of homes to come down but the demand for rentals to go up so the rent price is going up. This has effected us as our rent has gone up quite a bit over the last four years but the biggest jump this last year. Since John received an inheritance from his fathers death we decided to look into purchasing a home and investing his inheritance. We have looked at more houses then I want to mention, and one afternoon our Bishop called and said one of his coworkers came to him and said that his house had been on the market for over a year, that it was a short sale, and it had not had a single offer in the year it has been on the market. He asked the bishop of he knew anyone in his church that was looking to buy a home and said that he and his wife had taken great care of the house and that it had a roof that was only two years old on it and an air conditioner that was a little under two years old. This bishop called us and we went and looked at and loved it.

We put an offer on it a little under two months ago and unfortunately since it is a short sale have not heard an answer from the gentleman's lender yet. Our real estate agent called us last weekend and said she had gotten an email saying that the lender had come to a decision and they hoped to be in contact with us by the end of the month. John said he wont be surprised if we do not hear their answer until Tuesday if not Wednesday as it is the end of the quarter and banks have to report their losses, and since this is a short sale they will take a loss, so John feels they will wait until after they finish this quarters report. We pray that we get this house as it a great size and price for us (5 bed 3 bath 2400 square feet) and our mortgage included property tax and home owners insurance will be cheaper then our rent. Which is a great thing too!

Garage Clean Out

While John was on Spring Break we cleaned out the garage of 8 years of marriage crap. And yes 99.9% of it was of no use to us so in our sense it was "crap"! About a month ago a sister in our ward gave a homemaking lesson on cleaning and organizing our homes. She talked about being pack rats and making our house work for us. I loved her lesson and the books she used so I asked her if I could borrow them. I read the first one in a day and a half and started the second one and kept reading portions of it to John. After a few days John told me to just order my own copies so I did. We have read the one book "Clutters Last Stand" together and then during his spring break we takled the garage. When we started we had wall to wall "crap" There was a walkway from the inside door that lead to my washing machine, and another that lead to the freezer. I am happy to report this is all that is left in our garage.

This is what the drive way looked like with everything that was of no use to us anymore on it.


We then yard saled for two days. Eliza loved it so much!

After two days of yard sale we borrowed a family friends pickup truck,as the rule was nothing could go back in to the garage. It took 5 trips to good will to get it gone, but a great feeling to have that big project done and out from under us!
We have now started slowly on the rest of the house since John went back to work and I started back teaching piano. But our goal is there. It is to get through the whole house and rid ourself of "CRAP" before we move so that we do not move the stuff we do not need with us. Wish us luck!

Chuck E Cheese

After we got Anna from the airport we headed to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Eliza's Birthday. The kids have not been there in quite some time, but they were sure happy to be there.

Airport

Monday the 16th was a busy day. It is Eliza actual birthday. John started Spring Break, and although the boys did not we let them stay home from school since we were heading to Fresno. After breakfast we headed to Fresno to pick up John's sister Anna who was flying in from Utah to spend five days with us. Our plan was to get to the airport an hour before her flight came in, but we got a little lost (well I feel asleep navigating and John got lost :-) anyway by the time we got there it was a little over a half hour before her flight got in. We worked on patience, walked the halls, worked on patiently waiting, got a candy from the gift shop, and waited as patient as a 2, 3, 5, & 7 year old could.

Eliza's Birthday Weekend

We started off Eliza's Birthday weekend with a BBQ with my parents and grandparents. We had a Tinkerbell Birthday Party which her brothers picked out for her. The kids all had fun jumping on the trampoline and grandma stuffed a pinata full of candy toys and bouncy balls so it was fun when Vincent piked the correct streamer to pull and it all came falling out. Eliza got another princess baby doll, clothes, and a duckie towel.

Happy Birthday Eliza

It is hard to believe that our little girl is turning 2! We have a fun weekend of activities that will conclude on Monday her actual birthday. Her grandpa and grandma Sanders and great-grandpa and great-greandma Vincent are coming tomorrow (Saturday) for a family BBQ. Then, on Monday (her actual Birthday) we are going to Fresno to pick up Johns sister Anna who is going to spend the rest of the week with us and we are going to go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner to celebrate with Aunt Anna. Will post all the fun pictures of our fun weekend of events later next week!

Happy Birthday Eliza!

Eliza Grace Wilder
March 16, 2007
8:36 am
7lb 6oz
20 in

Eliza and her hair

My mom took these pictures last weekend while she was here as it amazes her to this day the way Eliza will sit to have her hair done. The little girl that my mom watches that is a day younger then Eliza cries, "Ouch" and "Hurt" when you barely touch her head. Eliza will sit and let me do creations like this one that took from start to finish close to 10 minutes. She loves having it curled and making sure there is a bow or some sort of "pretty" on top of the rubber band. Then she has to admire herself in the mirror.