43 days and falling :)

Signed, sealed, not quite yet delivered...  the house is ours!

 

Despite the fact that we had to drop me off the mortgage paperwork due to not enough American credit (thus read as "bad credit" by anyone in the money business), our mortgage loan was approved!  43 days from now, we'll be pdragging boxes downstairs, throwing them in the truck and driving them the whole 2.5 miles to our new home (hardly seems worth it to pack the truck - but Jeremiah says he's not helping me carry everything over!!!)

 

As far as we know, we have only one more store to stop at to finish picking stuff out for. This time for things like kitchen/bathroom faucets, toilets, bathroom sinks, etc.  If it's like last Saturdays stop at Yale (lighting/fan fixtures), it'll be 5 minutes in and out :)  We're not really interested in doing any upgrades that we'll actually have to pay for. We would just like to see what standard pieces are so that we can switch it out if we say "ew -- that's gross" (like we did with the yucky bronze plated chandelier they wanted to hang in our dining room--- EEEEWIE!!!)

 

On top of it all, we're thinking about getting a puppy :) That is, if we can agree on a name (better to get the disagreements over with on a dog and then nail it out of the park by agreeing when we try to name kids, right???)  *I* would like to get the puppy soon (like before we move into the house) -- that way, he can pee on the apartment carpet instead of our new carpet!!!  I'm such a scheemer......

 

That's it for today.  And don't forget to scroll down and register for the Phil and Ted stroller contest.  Leave my name in their so I better my chances to win a stroller that as of yet I do not need!!!! :)

 

 

 

No, I'm not pregnant

But who doesn't want to win a free Phil and Ted's Sport Buggy for the future???

Click the link below to enter to win! You can enter more than once (once a week, I believe)

Leave the "dealsnmoredeals" address in the referred email slot and I'll get my name put in again for referring you!! Don't forget about your extra entries by referring!!

The Waiting Game

We are still waiting to hear about approval of financing on our house.  We should be hearing any day but every day seems like an eternity when you're waiting for the phone to ring:)  If all goes well, move in day is 7 weeks from Friday!

 

Will keep you posted!

and you thought I was only gone a couple days...

When I signed off blogger, facebook, and msn a few days ago, I believe the house countdown as at 104.  Well, now I’m back (but determinedly cutting back “screen time” long term) and the count down is at 55!!!   We think. 

 

Due to some changes in the market, our closing date had to pop back by 6 weeks in order to get the financing that we needed to make the house possible.  That’s cool cause we get to move in in mid-May instead of the end of August. But it’s scary as anything because that’s 3 paychecks early and we won’t be quite as comfortable as we once thought..

 

We know God has led in this, so if it goes through (the financing could still fall through – we’ll know by late this week), we’ll know that he is continuing to lead and we’ll be ok.  If it falls through, we will also consider it a blessing because other things will be possible. 

 

Here’s to having a Saviour who goes through the “tough stuff” of life with you!!!

 

 

"Screenitizing"

Jeremiah and I are "turning off the screens" for the rest of the week. So if you need to get ahold of us or get a message to us, email or facebook will not be the way to do it :)  We'll see you on the flipside! 

 

And in the meantime, don't forget that your Redeemer Lives!!

Newberry awards

I love children's literature.  Above that, I love award winning children's literature.  In college, my room mate Alison and I would read to each other before going to sleep almost every night. (Then she would stay up hours later than I would and I would talk to her in my sleep -- but that's another blog altogether!)

I decided then that, in hopes that my children will love to read as much as I do, I will buy them the Newberry award winner each year.  I haven't looked at as many of the Caldecott winners (the younger award books), but I can see getting those as well.

Below is a list of all the Newberry Award winners since they began awarding it in 1922.  The RED ones I have read. The BLUE ones I will commit to reading this year. The GREEN I may have read as a child but am unsure. The rest, I would like to work my way back through eventually (to a point anyway.)

--Side note-- There are not as many reds as I thought there would be.  I had better change that!

2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press) 
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children) 
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) 
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial) 
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte) 
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster) 
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic) 
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry(Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

FW: Creativity --- not!

My creativity is lacking. I thought I used to have some, but I think I left it along the way somewhere. I am great at solving problems, love my job fixing IT stuff, but that takes no creativity (except being creative to figure out what the problem is.)  Creating, on the other hand, is not my forte.  I'm supposed to be creating brochures.  I am supposed to be working on an ad campaign. I am totally out of my element.  It just looks like words on a page.  Was I ever creative?  Did I have it and lose it?  If I did, can I get it back?  Or was it not mine to begin with??? 

 

Yours, uncreatively.