I have a friend

I have a friend that is in the process of buying her first home. Since we purchased our first home last year, she has been asking me for a lot of advice. She is getting frustrated with all the time-consuming tasks that are involved in purchasing a home, such as the home inspection services. While she feels confident that the real estate appraisal is right on the mark, and she has seen no sign of any issues with the home she is buying, she is terrified that something won't turn out right with the inspection, or that something else will get in the way of her buying her dream home. I remember feeling the same way myself, afraid that at any second the rug would be pulled from under me, and that I'd be losing out on making my dreams come true.

Thankfully, everything has gone much smoother for her than it did for my hubby and me. There were a few times when it was looking like we might lose the house after all, and we'd spend nights crying at the thought that we would be stuck in the old neighborhood, where we weren't happy at all. The area was going downhill, and we didn't want to have to stay there with our children. What a relief it was to be done with it all and finally get to move into our home!

Of course, we've already had to make our first insurance claim on the house, after a series of storms (to the point of flooding a lot of the cities around us) caused acorns and debris to thunder onto our roof. We've already had to have the roof replaced (which, thankfully, the insurance company helped us with immediately!). I'm hoping she won't have to make an insurance claim as quickly as we did. It is so worth it, though, when you realize that the home is your own.

I share with my friend quite often about what a good feeling it will be when all is said and done, and she can finally move into her new home. I am thrilled that she is getting to make her dream come true, just as we were able to. Now if I could just help her make it through her most recent problem... trying to decide if she wants to look into home warranties or not. Oh, the responsibilities of a future homeowner!

Sometimes I feel like I live in a fantasy land

Between Monster Man and Little Man, I often feel like I live in a fantasy land. Monster Man has always been very imaginative. When he was about two and a half years old, he started believing he was Santa Claus. He didn't just pretend it, but truly believed it. This belief lasted until he was almost six, when he started turning his interests toward super heroes and Star Wars. In the past year, he has started quoting movies out of nowhere, or finding ways to compare current events to things out of movies. Little Man, on the other hand, likes to pretend to be characters out of movies. Sometimes, he uses real props (like his lightsaber when playing Star Wars). Other times, he likes to pretend he has a prop when, in actuality, he doesn't. He'll go around swinging his arms like he has a lightsaber in his hands, making the sounds with his mouth.

My boys keep things interesting in our home.

Their fish tanks were so cool

I used to take Angel Baby and Monster Man (pre-Little Man days) to a pediatrician that had their waiting rooms (one for sick patients, one for well patients) separated by a wall with built-in saltwater fish tanks. Those fish tanks were really cool! The kids loved watching the fish, even getting some of the fish to follow their finger as they moved it along the side of the glass, while waiting for their appointments.

These tanks were full of live coral and brightly colored fish. There were easily over 100 fish between the selection of tanks, and each one looked different in one way or another. Watching these fish swim around, in and out the glass statues inside the tank, around the coral, and along the glass walls served as a great distraction while waiting for the appointments, especially those dreaded appointments that involved immunizations.

Having those fish in view when you enter the waiting rooms of the pediatrician's office was a great way to make a welcoming, happy atmosphere. So many times, doctors' office waiting rooms are dreary places, adding to the crummy feelings that sick patients are already feeling, or to the anxiety of patients who know they are waiting for shots. It was so nice to have just the opposite experience, in the form of the fish tanks, to make the waiting rooms feeling a little brighter.

I Wish I Were An....

OSCAR MAYER WIENER!

Sorry for the blurry images, but I wanted to share with you the recent excitement my kids got to experience. We were riding past our local Kroger when Monster Man made a comment that there was a "funny looking Oscar Mayer truck" in the parking lot. Since we'd already passed it and I hadn't seen it, I asked if it looked like a hot dog. Sure enough, it was the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. I made my hubby turn around so that Angel Baby, Monster Man, and Little Man could all get to see it. They were able to climb a few steps to look inside (and we were thankful that the door opened to the top so that it covered us from the drizzle while we talked to the workers inside). The kids were given stickers (see picture of Little Man above), along with wienie whistles. I was given a few Wienermobile postcards to send to some of my Postcrossing recipients. I only wish I'd had my camera with me, rather than having to use my camera phone (which has a scratched lens).

Without my morning coffee

Some days seem like they would be impossible to start without my morning coffee. Even now, I'm sipping on my first cup of coffee for the day while catching up on my emails and blogs. My husband is a big coffee drinker, too, and we enjoy sampling new brands and flavors as we look for the freshest brews. We've recently started looking at some bean to cup coffee makers, like the one my mom uses. We are always amazed at how much fresher the coffee is when it comes straight from the bean to our cup. It's looking like we might purchase one in the near future. Now if we can just decide what model to choose...

Already noticing a difference

We had just discovered that my thyroid was to blame for a lot of my health problems when my husband was laid off this past September. Since we lost our health insurance, I was unable to get in to see the endocrinologist, and that meant I was unable to get the medication I needed. I've been struggling ever since, getting mad that the problems had to continue while we wait for a new job with good benefits to pop up. I was beginning to think that my case was hopeless for now, that there was nothing I could do to improve my health while we looked for a job to come along. Diets and exercise weren't helping much at all, and I was getting really frustrated.

At bowling class this past Wednesday, I was talking to one of the ladies in my class. She mentioned that she had been going to the gym in hopes of losing some weight after having her baby, and that she'd experienced thyroid issues in the past. We got to talking more about the thyroid problems, and the treatments she had used. Then she told me that there were some natural remedies available at health food stores. She told me that they'd helped her a lot, making her feel a lot better and helping her lose the weight she'd previously struggled with.

Thursday morning, I went to the local health food store and bought some Thyroid Assist drops and Thyroid Active pills. I wasn't expecting to notice a difference anytime soon, but the results started kicking in yesterday (after only 24 hours!). I'm already noticing a huge increase in energy, and I feel a lot better than I had been feeling. I haven't noticed a change in weight yet (and I don't expect to for at least a couple weeks). I do weigh myself weekly, rather than daily, so I'll see how my weight has changed in the next couple of at home weigh-ins.

He bought his home outright!

While I was at the grocery store yesterday, I ran into an old neighbor from our previous home. I was asking how he'd been doing, and he told me that he and his wife had been struggling financially, but that they had gotten through it. He also said that they had recently sold their old home and moved into a HUD home that they'd been lucky enough to purchase outright. Of course, hearing this made me curious as to how he'd been able to do it, especially since he'd mentioned the .

He explained that it wasn't really so much outright as it was with the money he had received from a police pension buy out. Since he'd recently retired from the police force, he was able to sell a portion of his pension in return for the money he needed to purchase his home. He and his wife had found a bargain like ours, only needing a little paint and a few touch-ups, but at an amazingly low price. The money he was able to get from selling part of his pension was more than enough to pay for the home and make the repairs.

He then went on to explain that he had learned about this option from a friend who had had a wonderful experience with a military pension buy out that he was able to use to pay for his two children to go to college. He even said that another friend had heard about the experience and used a firefighter pension buy out to start up his dream business - a 50s theme restaurant. They had all had great experiences that changed their lives, and the lives of their families, for the better.

What a great option to help make dreams come true!