SURPRISE!!

So, today started out like any other Saturday; we slept in, took a shower, went grocery shopping (where we, by-the-way, bought the new DVD Clue game and it is totally rad). On our way home from shopping we were listening to the radio and they were talking about how we could win Rascal Flatts (one of our favorite country bands) concert tickets at this furniture store in Sandy (about 10 min from where we were). Now, the concert is in two weeks and we were going to buy tickets until we found out they were $65 a piece...so I've been trying to win them by calling the radio station at those certain times of day-no luck. So, anyway, we were driving and I looked at Eric and I asked him if he wanted to try his luck and he said sure, so we went. There wasn't a huge amount of people there and the next drawing was in 20 min. so we entered and just hung out, looking at furniture. At 3pm they had the drawing and we actually almost left before it happened, but they CALLED ERIC'S NAME AND WE WON 2 TICKETS TO SEE RASCAL FLATTS MARCH 9TH!!!!!!! Can you believe it? Well, it's true and we are so excited about it that we just had to share in our good fortune. Just one of those random things that makes life a little sweeter.

baby pictures

This is a cute picture of her sucking her thumb.

Here is her profile and her two little feet crossed at the ankles. It's amazing what they can see!

The closeup: What a frightening first picture!

House update

So, the new blog is a bit different and took me a little bit to get used to. Anyway, I promised an update, so here we go. Charlie and I decided after many prayers to withdraw our offer for the house in Maybee. When we went with the inspector to have the home inspected, we walked in and the kitchen ceiling was on the floor. The realtor selling the home didn't winterized it and the water pipes for the upstairs bathroom burst causing a lot of water damage. So, because we were there, the inspector inspected everything else that he could and told us that he thought we were looking at about $50,000 worth of work. That sounds high, because it is, but it's high because that is what we would pay if we hired out most of the work. We were planning on doing most of the work ourselves and knew that we would be paying a pretty penny for the updates and repairs. With the water pipes broken we couldn't qualify for a loan on the house because it wasn't livable (I mean, jeez, why would you need running water to live in a house anyway?). The realtor selling the house was pretty rude to our realtor when she called to tell her about the water pipes and our not being able to get a loan for the house. Their realtor, Jean, told our realtor, Brenda, that if we didn't do something that week that she'd re-list the house. Well, we couldn't really do anything so Charlie and I prayed about it and felt like it didn't matter if we bought this house or not. So we felt that logically we shouldn't. We told Brenda that we didn't want it and she formally withdrew the offer. Since then, Jean has left the company she was working for and the house has been reassigned to a different realtor. That realtor has been calling Brenda and asking whats been going on and why we haven't closed yet on this house. So she called me yesterday and wanted to know if we were sure we didn't want this house. She said that the plumbing was to be fixed by this Friday and we could walk back through the house if we wanted. I told her I'd talk to Charlie and he and I decided that we were sure. So I called her back lastnight and told her we were sure that we didn't want this house. Maybe, if it's still on the market in a couple of months we'll re-evaluate and offer a lower bid but for now we are going to look elsewhere. We are kind of in the position of Kurt and Heather and waiting and hoping that more houses will come on the market in the spring. We are also looking at the possiblity that Charlie may change jobs so we aren't sure if we should buy right now anyway since we aren't sure where Charlie will end up. He really doesn't like his job. It's really hard for him to split time between the two schools and the subjects he's teaching are not his favorite. We know that he could get a full time high school teaching job somewhere else but we don't know if that's the best thing for him. He has started coaching in Flat Rock, something he's always wanted to do and we aren't sure he'll be able to do that somewhere else. We're trying to weight the pros and cons and praying a lot. We want to make sure we do what the Lord wants us to. So I'll try to keep you guys posted as well as I can. Take care all.

It's a GIRL!

We had our ultrasound this morning and we're having a little girl! The ultrasound was amazing, they are able to see so much (kidneys, brain, lips, diaphragm, stomach, even the four chambers of the heart!) and everything was healthy and normal. It is now starting to sink in that we're really going to be parents. Jason and I are feeling very blessed, overwhelmed, and excited!

Congrats Jana and Jason!!!!

Jana and Jason
Congratulations on your wonderful news. It is always good to have a girl first because she can baby-sit when she gets older and you really don't have to pay her. Good luck figureing out a name. I think Erica is good name for girl, but that's my opinion. We are so excited for you and hope that this news eases the stress a little bit. Kari and I are planning on a big present that will take up your entire moving van, sorry.

birthdays and valentines

I hope Dad had a great birthday yesterday (the big 53!) and that Alexis has something wonderful planned today (the big 10...double digits!).

I would like to hear what everyone did yesterday on Valentine's Day. I always have a difficult time with this particular holiday, probably because I feel I'm already out of ideas of things to do. Jason and I made pink rice krispie treats (we had intended to pass them out to our friends, but that didn't end up happening), I sent him on a little scavenger hunt for candy, and he brought me home a rose. We also had take-out for dinner. Nothing extravagent, but nice. I'm curious what you ended up doing...

We're starting to look forward to our ultrasound, it's this Tuesday. Even though I didn't want to know what we're having, now that I have to know, I'm starting to get excited about it. I'll keep you posted!

Guess What?!!!

Soooooooooo.....I was just dinking around on the internet and I thought I would check my application status before we went to bed and so......I GOT IN!!!! So, this fall I will be a full time student at the University of Utah. This is to make Dad proud :) But we still have yet to hear from Creighton so we could be moving-but we aren't holding our breaths. Anyway, just thought you all would want to know. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY...WE LOVE YOU!

Super pretzels!

Here's an update on the house stuff.

Heather said a bit about the house before. The list price was $160,000. We put an offer on it for $125,000 last Friday. We knew it wouldn't be accepted; we were using it as a negotiating starting point. The house had an open house on Sunday, and today we found out from our agent that they got an offer in the $150s. That's higher than we were willing to go for this particular house, so we're back to the hunt. We have some more houses lined up to look at later this week, so hopefully we'll find something soon. As it gets closer to spring, more houses are coming on the market, so we're not worried. We'll keep looking until we find the right one.

Super pretzels rule.

Decisions, decisions

Thought I'd add my two cents to the updates. Our life is pretty much the same as it has been for the past few months. Eric has heard from 6 of the 7 schools he's applied to and none of it has been good news. We still have to hear from Creighton, but he's not optimistic. But he's doing okay and is already planning for the applications this year. He is going to retake the MCAT, probably at the beginning of April or after we get back from Michigan. But, with dads urging, we have researched both him becoming a Medical Doctor (MD) or an Osteopathic Doctor (DO). So, Eric is going to apply to both schools. It you want to know more about DO's-we didn't know much-here's a website: click here. So we are making plans to stay here in Utah. I have applied to the University of Utah and are still waiting to hear back but Eric's pretty certain that I'll get in. So then we are planning that in the fall I will be going to school full time and he will be hopefully working full time. We are going to move too-probably to live in downtown Salt Lake, we have found some cheaper apartments there and are hoping that will still be true in July when we will be moving. Ummm....that's seems to be the gist of the news. Oh, except that yesterday was our one year anniversary of getting engaged so Eric took me to Park City-where we got engaged-and we practically relived the night. It was a lot of fun.

These are the flowers he bought me yesterday-the first flowers he has ever bought me. Aren't they pretty?










And this is a picture of us on the bench where we got engaged. If you click on it to make it bigger you can see the snow falling.

Plus now you can remember what we look like-just in case you were having a hard time remembering. Well, that's all from us. We wish everybody who has a birthday this week and who had one last week and good and happy birthday and a warm congratulations to Merrit for getting baptized, we hope that it was a wonderful time. We love you all and are SUPER excited to see you guys in a couple of months.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MERRIT!!

Merrit is now 8 whopping years!!

Merrit is getting baptized!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we've got Merrit's baptism set for this Sat., the 10th at 3 pm. I can't believe he is going to be 8 already! He's pretty excited and so are we. I need to go to bed and I have a house update, but it's too long of a story to write now so I'll do it latter.

Tom and Ethel's

Thought everyone might want to see the house we are looking at. Follow this link to see the pictures.
It needs a lot of TLC but we should be able to get it at a reasonable price. Hopefully when we move we'll be able to make a tidy profit to put towards a longer-term house. We've named most of the houses we were interested in. This one we named Tom and Ethel's because it looks like a widower has lived there alone for the past twenty years. Ethel made some top of the line design decisions back in 1950 but they are a little out of date now. We're waiting to get some market information from the realtor before we put an offer in. We'll keep you updated on the progress.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HILLARY

Hillary is now the big 29!!

Let's all gather together in a loud birthday SHOUT while we celebrate Hillary's last year before she enters her 30s. HURRAH! I hope you have a great birthday and get to do something fun. Now I hope I can just remember when all of your kid's birthdays are...it all gets so confusing when they're this close together!