One, Two, Three Strikes -- You're Out!

Saw this, and it made my day today. I love my Nickel Creek alumni, and Chris Thile is no exception! Enjoy! :)

5 Things

Hey y'all! I am excited to report on these five things....

1. My 'little' brother Tom, who is 19, has just been called to go on a 2 year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He'll be serving in the Boise, Idaho mission. We're really excited for him and I know he'll do an amazing job no matter where he is. Love you, bro!

2. We're still looking at houses, and have found some options that are less expensive than our original search. The only problem is that we would be leaving our ward, and I'm really bummed about that prospect. Nothing has been decided yet, so maybe the Lord will perform a miracle and we can stay in Mission Viejo. If not, I'll be okay, just sad for a while. I have really great friends here that I love and would miss terribly. So we're just being patient (or trying to be, lol).

3. In about a week, I'll be heading up to Utah to visit with family and take part in my little sister Ali's wedding. She's marrying the cutest guy, Jed. They're so great together and I know they're going to have a great life and marriage. I'll be so excited to see family and get to have Eli see more of my side of the fam! Yay! :)

4. On that note, I'll be getting Ali's bridal pictures soon, and I can't wait to see how they turned out. I know it wasn't the easiest shoot in the world because of clothing malfunctions and various other things, but I know Ali had a great time and I'm sure they'll be great. My friend Jessica Kettle took them, and she does amazing work. Seriously, if you're looking for a photographer and you're in the Salt Lake area, check her out. I'm always impressed by her stuff! Not to mention, she has the cutest little boy and a great husband. They're a fun family. :)

5. Me and the peanut are doing well. I've been feeling sick lately, with weird cold symptoms, but it's been okay. Mostly just tired a lot, trying to get things done around the house and take care of Eli. Luckily I work from home and can take naps every day (because I need to!). I'm so blessed to have the job that I do, and I know it is just the perfect situation. I'm a very blessed woman. :)

Hope you're all having a great week and I'll get some new pictures up here soon. TTFN!

We went looking for houses yesterday....

...and found out that this is the only thing we can afford in southern California.

Bummer.

Okay, well maybe not that bad. But pretty dang close!

Nathan had the day off yesterday, so we went with our realtor to see about 10 different houses in our area. We're trying to stay in our ward, but that is becoming less and less of a reality. (Unless, of course, we want to go in on a house with another family in our ward....hmmm, that would be interesting!) I'm still praying for a miracle, but it's one of those things that I can't set my heart on and then be disappointed about, because then that would really stink.

So, again, with our small-ish budget (those of you in the mid-West would choke if I told you what our 'small-ish' budget was!), we are faced with some slim pickings, even if it is considered a buyer's market. I've had to come to terms with the fact that we will have to put a lot of work into our first home. Which is fine, I've just had to literally let go of the idea that "in Texas, we could afford a brand-new, 5 bedroom home for this price". It's been hard, but I'm determined to be a good sport for Nathan. His job is good right now, and this is the best area for him to succeed there. So I'm being a good, supportive wife, and gearing up to rip out cabinets and replace stained carpets. Yuck.

At least now I can put all that HGTV-watching to good use, right? :)

So please, wish us luck as we venture into the world of home-ownership. And trust me, we're going to need it!!

Well, it happened. It's July. I could lament about how fast time is going by, but instead I'll celebrate the fun things that July will bring us.

Yippee for summer to be in full swing! Yippee for my little sister to be getting married this month! Yippee for Eli possibly starting swimming lessons next week! See, there are lots of great things about July coming. I just have to remember that.

By the way, Nathan and I are loving the fact that Eli will go see a movie now. We went and saw this one last night. Although it didn't hold his attention the entire time (no dialog for the first 45 minutes will do that to a kid), he did enjoy it. And so did I. At least, the part I got to watch in between keeping my eye on a kid trying to escape to run up and down the stairs and stick his hand under the lighted walkway LED's. It was a cute movie.

But, watch out, here comes a rant -- there were these two dweebs who kept clapping during the movie because they used the Mac boot-up sound! Seriously? You love Apple so much that you have to applaud the use of its' sounds in a movie? Wow. Nathan was sure annoyed. :) And while I appreciate the Apple vibe (just look at the girl robot character, she should have a little Apple icon on her butt or something), I'm not about to root for it during the children's movie I'm watching. Too funny.

Anyways, things are going well with us lately. Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning out our room, organizing and doing laundry. I hardly got on the computer! (A true shocker, I know!) I'm trying to find a balance lately, as I've been feeling much more tired because of the bun in the oven, and I don't feel like I can do it all. Not that I ever felt like I could, but now I need a daily nap scheduled in somewhere, lol! So that's been my project, trying to only do as much work on the computer as I have to, spending the rest of the time playing with Eli or keeping up with my house. So if I don't leave comments on your blog for a while, you'll know why! :)

Okay, well that was a big long post that was probably boring. Sorry. :) I'll end with some cute random pictures for you, just so that you can go back to loving it here. LOL.

Here is Eli hanging out with his park day buddies.
These kids' moms are my support system, my best friends, my buds.
Love them and their kids. :)

And then here's my kid at home. With a puzzle piece in his mouth.

Which he knows he's not supposed to have in his mouth -- hence the "what are you gonna do about it Mom?" look on his face. Yeah, nice.

Burying himself in the pillows, his favorite thing to do lately.
Then he'll come out in a huge ruckus and yell, "There I am!" So fun having a two year old. :)

And here's a tribute to my two favorite brothers. :) They're crazy and fun and I love them both to pieces. Tom has actually put his papers in for his mission for our church. We're waiting to find out where he's going to be sent. It's so hard to wait! :) I know he'll do great wherever he goes, he's so much more spiritual than I was at his age. He's a really great guy. (I just tried to type kid and realized I can't do that anymore. He's 19. Holy smokes, how did that happen so fast??)