1. I suppose I could have stayed up late last night and gotten my post done, but considering I had just been discharged from the hospital a few hours earlier, I decided sleep was a slightly more pressing matter and opted against non-essential journaling. Yes, I got to spend Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon at the local hospital with a bad case of gallstones. Leave it to me, I tell ya. Actually, Mark and I were totally thrilled that it was just gallstones and not something else. Because as Wednesday morning wore into the afternoon I really wasn't feeling well. It had gone from uh, I think I have a really upset stomach to oh dear Lord, this is starting to feel just like what it felt like before Kolbe was born. I developed really sharp sustained pain across the entire top of my abdomen that would not pass and only got worse. Needless to say, I started panicking. Surely this wasn't HELLP syndrome happening all over again...and this early in the pregnancy! Mark came home from work and rushed me to the hospital where I was "that patient" who was dry heaving in a trash can making horribly disturbing noises and begging for someone to help me. After getting an IV started with pain medicine and something to stop the violent act of barfing up nothing, they were able to check my blood pressure. Totally normal. And rush my blood off to the lab. Liver enzymes came back normal too. Actually slightly low! With the threat of HELLP seeming to be out of the way, they did an ultrasound on my abdomen and found a happy baby boy squirming around and balloon that was supposed to be solid black on the screen that was instead decorated with lots and lots of polka dots. A lovely "hot gallbladder" as they called it. Luckily, this was not an obstetric emergency at all. Just something that could have happened at any time to anyone and just chose to happen to me at not exactly the best time. 'Cause normally they would just do a simple laproscopic surgery to remove the gallbladder and I'd be on my way. But at this far into my pregnancy, they wouldn't be able to do it laproscopically and would have to make a major incision to get to it. Plus, the anesthesia and swelling would put the baby under a lot of pressure and could induce preterm labor. No thanks on either of those. So instead, I'm left to eat a low-fat, low-spice, bland diet until after the baby arrives and I can safely have the surgery. Though lent just ended, it looks like I'm now giving up fried foods and all things yummy for the next eight weeks or so. Boo. But I'll gladly do it to not have to endure that sharp pain again and keep our little guy safe for a few more weeks. Just another medical dilemma to add to my repertoire. I jokingly told Mark that I ought to have them go ahead and take out my appendix while they're in there. I've already had the tonsils and adenoids removed. Now the gallbladder. Surely the appendix is the next useless organ to try to do me in!
2. By moving to a community like The Woodlands, we knew there'd be the temptation to "keep up with the Joneses" from time to time. But we had no idea that it would kick in before we even got settled into our own house. About sixty dollars, one helmet and a twelve inch bike later, we've already fallen victim to the curse at least once. My parents' street is packed with little boys. Really. There's Joey, Timmy, Lucas, Noah, Liam, Collin, Kolbe, and Rudy...all under the age of five. And that's just on my parents' end of the street! The boys have loved having other little boys to play with but we quickly discovered that all the other three-year-olds already have real bikes with training wheels. Not measly tricycles like Kolbe. They would all go racing down the street and Kolbe would be left in the dust, peddling his heart out and getting nowhere. Feeling the pressure for a "real little boy bike" from Kolbe, we broke down and headed to Academy for the grand purchase. After an hour or so of assembly, he finally had his bike. And within a day or two could give Lance Armstrong a run for his money. The daily routine has now become at least two to three bike rides per day. And we're not talking just down the street and back. Pa takes him on these roughly two mile treks, broken up by time at the park, of course. And Rudy does his best to keep up on the little bike Kolbe got when he turned two that's more of a tricycle but appears to also have training wheels so he always chooses it over the faster, standard tricycle. Has to be as much like big brother as possible! So while yes, it makes me cringe to think that the only reason we felt so inspired to buy the bike was because "the other kids his age had one," I must say it's been a more-than-worth-it purchase. Provides endless hours of entertainment. And might I mention, children who ride bikes for long periods of time take fantastic naps!
3. Did you have a good Easter? We sure did. Heck, the overload of chocolate is probably what led to the aforementioned gallbladder attack! Nevertheless, it sure was fun to see the boys get into the holiday and start to understand the meaning behind why we celebrate it. We spent lots of time reading Easter books. The inquisitive Kolbe loved to ask the same questions every time: Why did they do that? Why didn't they like him? How did he come back to life? Where does Jesus live now? While Rudy would just frown and say, "awwww..." on pages when Jesus died and then cheer wildly when he was raised from the dead. And repeat over and over "Jesus. Cross. Jesus. Cross." Simple and innocent, yet somehow, they get the point. They were at about the same level with the whole Easter egg hunt idea. Kolbe was all over it. Rudy was thinking You want me to do what? Why? It's so fun watching these guys grow up. And exciting to see them learn and celebrate all the traditions that are so dear to us.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 16
1. Finding Time. Yikes! I'm getting more and more "laid back" with my weekly post and trying to have it done by Thursday morning. You'd think that by living with my parents and having help with the boys more often that it would be the easiest time for me to write ever. And I really thought that this week would finally be more relaxed and afford me a little more "me" time. But as I've discovered, this whole moving-to-a-new-city-selling-a-house-buying-a-house-having-a-baby scheme I've got going on here is just one thing after another. Non-stop. So last night when I went to ponder what I'd write about today, I found an email in my inbox from our lender at the bank asking for a whole plethora of additional documents...to have to him by noon today. Why anyone thinks that giving someone a deadline that's twelve hours away to collect a bunch of financial documents is a feasible request is beyond me. So this morning was spent scrambling to get the documents, scan them, send them, yadayadayada. Oh, and make it to a 10:20 sonogram as well. See? Never ends. But all's well that ends well and we're just hoping it all ends well.
2. Gunny. Quite the momentous event occurred for one, Rudy Mark Asmussen, this week. Most of you are probably aware of my child's addiction to his pacifier "Gunny or GunGun" and our blatant disdain for the vile thing. To be real honest, I always thought that the whole my-kid-refuses-to-give-up-his-pacifier thing was a bunch of hog wash. Be the parent! Just take the thing away from him! After all, Kolbe did have a pacifier that he loved to chew on, but since he wasn't able to suck until after his first year of life, it wasn't very difficult to give it up. I had no idea how strong the sucking addiction could be. So when Rudy came along, I had no problem letting him have one. And let me just remind you...in my own defense...that I had two babies. A fifteen-month-old and a preemie newborn. Both still requiring baby care and attention, neither one able to adequately communicate (in words) with me, etc. At times I was desperate for a little peace from one so I could tend to the other. So the paci became a little bit of a crutch for me as well as the tyke. But then the attempts to get rid of GunGun began and so did the nightmares. To say that Gunny had become Rudy's attachment item (such as a blankie or stuffed animal) is an understatement. We'd catch him doing bizarre things like rubbing it all over his cheeks and forehead. Crazy, I know. A few months back we were finally able to get it to where he understood that he could only have Gunny when he was sleeping. He had to be in bed and if he got out of bed, he had to turn Gunny in to the powers that be. He became OK with this system, though any time anything emotional happened, he still asked for it.
Then on Monday when Rudy woke up from his nap, he came to give me a few cuddles and as I took Gunny from him I told him that it was stinky and nasty. I told him that we needed to throw GunGun away because it was yucky and big boys didn't need a GunGun and since Baby Brother would be here soon and Rudy would officially be the big brother, he didn't need Gunny. Without any prompting, he walked over to the trash can, took the lid off, and threw Gunny in. I was shocked, to say the least. Not wanting to abandon the open door, I cheered for him wildly and decided we had to go with it. After leaving the room I snuck back in and removed Gunny. (Lord knows he'd go looking for it later...) And that night was the first night without the beloved GunGun. There certainly have been tears and lots of clinging to Mama as he goes through withdrawals in order to fall asleep...I've had to talk him down from the ledge a time or two. But after a few days, he has stopped asking, and when he does, he's willing to accept the fact that the trash man already came and took Gunny away. Whew. Finally jumped that hurdle. And really, we should have done it a long time ago, but with the moving and all the other changes, I couldn't bare to add any more emotionalness to the situation. I'll definitely be re-evaluating my view on the paci once the baby arrives. But then again, in every sonogram we've had he's been a thumb sucker so we just may not have that problem!
3. Holy Week. In the Catholic Church, this week is known as Holy Week. The days leading up to Easter. Such a great time for reflection, adoration, praise, awe, and appreciation for what Christ did for us so many years ago. Ironically, as a child, I cringed when my parents loaded us up in the van to head to every single event held at the church during that week. Now as an adult, I yearn to go but find it next to impossible during my current season in life. My good friend Melanie posted this quote on her facebook page this week:
"It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping." -St. Frances of Rome
I've found a lot of solace in that quote this week...how cool, right!?! 'Cause so many times I've been plagued with that feeling that I'm just not doing enough in my relationship with God because I'm constantly taking care of the house, tending to the babies, handling the myriad of other duties (as mentioned in #1, for example) instead of truly diving in further to my relationship with the one who has given me all of these blessings. But really discerning the notion that I am exactly where God has put me for a reason has been eye opening. Just because I'm not at each of the "public events" doesn't mean that he isn't alive and meeting me constantly in the five minutes it takes to run the vacuum, the moments that I lie in silence waiting for the babies to fall asleep, or even the few seconds it takes to fill yet another sippy cup. And just because by the end of the day when I'm so exhausted that I crash instead of thumbing through a Bible study doesn't mean that I'm not growing. In fact, these years of straight service just might be similar to the many years of unrecorded time in Christ's life where he too was "just in service." My time will come some day when I'll be able to attend each and every religious event I've every wanted to partake in. I'll gladly go. And probably sadly miss the ones that used to keep me from them.
2. Gunny. Quite the momentous event occurred for one, Rudy Mark Asmussen, this week. Most of you are probably aware of my child's addiction to his pacifier "Gunny or GunGun" and our blatant disdain for the vile thing. To be real honest, I always thought that the whole my-kid-refuses-to-give-up-his-pacifier thing was a bunch of hog wash. Be the parent! Just take the thing away from him! After all, Kolbe did have a pacifier that he loved to chew on, but since he wasn't able to suck until after his first year of life, it wasn't very difficult to give it up. I had no idea how strong the sucking addiction could be. So when Rudy came along, I had no problem letting him have one. And let me just remind you...in my own defense...that I had two babies. A fifteen-month-old and a preemie newborn. Both still requiring baby care and attention, neither one able to adequately communicate (in words) with me, etc. At times I was desperate for a little peace from one so I could tend to the other. So the paci became a little bit of a crutch for me as well as the tyke. But then the attempts to get rid of GunGun began and so did the nightmares. To say that Gunny had become Rudy's attachment item (such as a blankie or stuffed animal) is an understatement. We'd catch him doing bizarre things like rubbing it all over his cheeks and forehead. Crazy, I know. A few months back we were finally able to get it to where he understood that he could only have Gunny when he was sleeping. He had to be in bed and if he got out of bed, he had to turn Gunny in to the powers that be. He became OK with this system, though any time anything emotional happened, he still asked for it.
Then on Monday when Rudy woke up from his nap, he came to give me a few cuddles and as I took Gunny from him I told him that it was stinky and nasty. I told him that we needed to throw GunGun away because it was yucky and big boys didn't need a GunGun and since Baby Brother would be here soon and Rudy would officially be the big brother, he didn't need Gunny. Without any prompting, he walked over to the trash can, took the lid off, and threw Gunny in. I was shocked, to say the least. Not wanting to abandon the open door, I cheered for him wildly and decided we had to go with it. After leaving the room I snuck back in and removed Gunny. (Lord knows he'd go looking for it later...) And that night was the first night without the beloved GunGun. There certainly have been tears and lots of clinging to Mama as he goes through withdrawals in order to fall asleep...I've had to talk him down from the ledge a time or two. But after a few days, he has stopped asking, and when he does, he's willing to accept the fact that the trash man already came and took Gunny away. Whew. Finally jumped that hurdle. And really, we should have done it a long time ago, but with the moving and all the other changes, I couldn't bare to add any more emotionalness to the situation. I'll definitely be re-evaluating my view on the paci once the baby arrives. But then again, in every sonogram we've had he's been a thumb sucker so we just may not have that problem!
3. Holy Week. In the Catholic Church, this week is known as Holy Week. The days leading up to Easter. Such a great time for reflection, adoration, praise, awe, and appreciation for what Christ did for us so many years ago. Ironically, as a child, I cringed when my parents loaded us up in the van to head to every single event held at the church during that week. Now as an adult, I yearn to go but find it next to impossible during my current season in life. My good friend Melanie posted this quote on her facebook page this week:
"It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping." -St. Frances of Rome
I've found a lot of solace in that quote this week...how cool, right!?! 'Cause so many times I've been plagued with that feeling that I'm just not doing enough in my relationship with God because I'm constantly taking care of the house, tending to the babies, handling the myriad of other duties (as mentioned in #1, for example) instead of truly diving in further to my relationship with the one who has given me all of these blessings. But really discerning the notion that I am exactly where God has put me for a reason has been eye opening. Just because I'm not at each of the "public events" doesn't mean that he isn't alive and meeting me constantly in the five minutes it takes to run the vacuum, the moments that I lie in silence waiting for the babies to fall asleep, or even the few seconds it takes to fill yet another sippy cup. And just because by the end of the day when I'm so exhausted that I crash instead of thumbing through a Bible study doesn't mean that I'm not growing. In fact, these years of straight service just might be similar to the many years of unrecorded time in Christ's life where he too was "just in service." My time will come some day when I'll be able to attend each and every religious event I've every wanted to partake in. I'll gladly go. And probably sadly miss the ones that used to keep me from them.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 15
Barely squeaking this one in as time runs out!
1. Wrap Up. After typing last weeks entry with just my thumbs and one eyeball on an iPhone in an airport terminal, I did, in fact, end up making it safely back to The Woodlands and my little family that I missed so greatly. It was quite the whirlwind trip and I was so glad to see my little ones upon returning. But the few days after returning, I was plagued with the landslide of let down after a momentous occasion. You know, where you totally build up all your adrenaline to get through something and you manage to get through it and then you're just totally wiped out. So I've been trying to rest. Trying to get things back to normal here at my parents' house. Trying to re-establish a little bit of a routine with the boys. That and other things like getting our new house inspected, getting all of our documentation together for the loan on the new house, going to doctors appointments to check on the new little fella. Just because one big event ends doesn't mean there aren't a few more on the horizon. The baby is doing well, by the way. Getting stronger and stronger...I'm almost to the point where I look forward to him not being able to move around as much! Some of those jabs are rough! And my blood pressure is staying in an okay range right now. Just nine more weeks till I'm thirty-six weeks. With all that has gone on, this has got to be the fastest pregnancy ever.
2. The New House. I mentioned it briefly last week but was still somewhat in the is-this-really-going-to-happen mindset. By now, it's definitely a reality. We are buying the "dream house." The one that we just loved that we were mad at our realtor for even showing us because it was out of our price range and we couldn't help but compare every single house to it. The one that we imagined ourselves living in ten or fifteen years from now.
On the Saturday before I left for Lubbock, Mark and I went and looked at a house that had just come on the market that day. It was in our price range and the online pictures looked nice, so with our hopes up, we decided to check it out. As Mark accurately said as we drove away, "It's forgettable." We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether or not we were being too picky. Should we just settle on something that "would work" for now with the thoughts of moving in to something different later? Or should we just keep looking and hope to find something that we could see ourselves in for a long time? We just couldn't see ourselves putting an offer in on a house that didn't hold a candle to either the "dream house" or the house we had previous been offering on. Especially when many of them were asking the same price. Our realtor suggested that maybe we should just put an offer in on the dream house even though it was out of our price range and see what the say. After all, an offer is better than no offer at all. I argued that at the top of our budget, we'd still need them to come down roughly fifteen thousand dollars. Having only been on the market for about twenty-five days, who in their right mind would take that!?! Mark was in agreement with the realtor...what do we have to lose? It's not like we're meeting these people in public and they're going to spit in our faces or something.
To make a long story a little bit shorter, after several days of going back and forth and lots of pestering our loan officer to crunch numbers for us, we managed to score the house we thought we'd never be able to get. Apparently, with a move to Wisconsin just weeks away, these owners were desperate to sell their home. And with the help of their company's relocation service, they were able to meet us where we needed to be to make it happen. Again, never in a million years...
But when all is said and done, here is where we'll be living in just a few short weeks:
More pictures and details to come soon!
3. Our Newest Godson. This time last week, I let on about a special little miracle that was in the process of taking place for our dear friends, Ben and Erin Johnson. Ben and Erin have been eager to start of family for several years now and for reasons known only by God, it hasn't happened. Our friendship with them grew from casual acquaintances to hang-out-multiple-times-a-week over this three year span so we shared in much of the ups and downs, hopefuls and heartaches of the journey. Mark and I never could quite figure out how they could tolerate to be around us as our family continued to grow, but in some stories, certain relationships are just meant to be. And that's just how God brought us together.
Ben and Erin began to be open to idea of adoption over the past year or so but were finding it difficult to figure out how to make it happen with such high costs. In one of the more unique stories I've ever heard, God amazingly brought them to a young pregnant mother through one of her high school friends that happened to be a part of the youth group that Erin helps out with. Within two weeks of hearing this girl's story, Ben and Erin became the parents of her biological child. Jacob Cole was born Saturday morning and weighed just three pounds and nine ounces. Due to the birth mom's struggle with pre-eclampsia, he was definitely early and is receiving care in the NICU. While I couldn't be there for the event (and what a tease!...I had just left roughly ten hours earlier!) I was blessed to get to spend the middle of the night hours texting back and forth with Erin from the waiting room getting the play-by-play as he was welcomed into this world.
Ben and Erin became the legal guardians of Jacob Cole on Monday morning. Mark and I feel so blessed to get to be part of such an amazing story and are honored to serve as Jacob's godparents. (That makes five male souls that we are responsible for lifting up now...Kolbe, Reagan, Grant, John, and Jacob...girls are just not in the cards for us!) We love this little guy already and can't wait to meet him face to face.
Welcome to the world, Jacob Cole Johnson! You are so loved, so wanted, so special, and so blessed!
1. Wrap Up. After typing last weeks entry with just my thumbs and one eyeball on an iPhone in an airport terminal, I did, in fact, end up making it safely back to The Woodlands and my little family that I missed so greatly. It was quite the whirlwind trip and I was so glad to see my little ones upon returning. But the few days after returning, I was plagued with the landslide of let down after a momentous occasion. You know, where you totally build up all your adrenaline to get through something and you manage to get through it and then you're just totally wiped out. So I've been trying to rest. Trying to get things back to normal here at my parents' house. Trying to re-establish a little bit of a routine with the boys. That and other things like getting our new house inspected, getting all of our documentation together for the loan on the new house, going to doctors appointments to check on the new little fella. Just because one big event ends doesn't mean there aren't a few more on the horizon. The baby is doing well, by the way. Getting stronger and stronger...I'm almost to the point where I look forward to him not being able to move around as much! Some of those jabs are rough! And my blood pressure is staying in an okay range right now. Just nine more weeks till I'm thirty-six weeks. With all that has gone on, this has got to be the fastest pregnancy ever.
2. The New House. I mentioned it briefly last week but was still somewhat in the is-this-really-going-to-happen mindset. By now, it's definitely a reality. We are buying the "dream house." The one that we just loved that we were mad at our realtor for even showing us because it was out of our price range and we couldn't help but compare every single house to it. The one that we imagined ourselves living in ten or fifteen years from now.
On the Saturday before I left for Lubbock, Mark and I went and looked at a house that had just come on the market that day. It was in our price range and the online pictures looked nice, so with our hopes up, we decided to check it out. As Mark accurately said as we drove away, "It's forgettable." We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether or not we were being too picky. Should we just settle on something that "would work" for now with the thoughts of moving in to something different later? Or should we just keep looking and hope to find something that we could see ourselves in for a long time? We just couldn't see ourselves putting an offer in on a house that didn't hold a candle to either the "dream house" or the house we had previous been offering on. Especially when many of them were asking the same price. Our realtor suggested that maybe we should just put an offer in on the dream house even though it was out of our price range and see what the say. After all, an offer is better than no offer at all. I argued that at the top of our budget, we'd still need them to come down roughly fifteen thousand dollars. Having only been on the market for about twenty-five days, who in their right mind would take that!?! Mark was in agreement with the realtor...what do we have to lose? It's not like we're meeting these people in public and they're going to spit in our faces or something.
To make a long story a little bit shorter, after several days of going back and forth and lots of pestering our loan officer to crunch numbers for us, we managed to score the house we thought we'd never be able to get. Apparently, with a move to Wisconsin just weeks away, these owners were desperate to sell their home. And with the help of their company's relocation service, they were able to meet us where we needed to be to make it happen. Again, never in a million years...
But when all is said and done, here is where we'll be living in just a few short weeks:
3. Our Newest Godson. This time last week, I let on about a special little miracle that was in the process of taking place for our dear friends, Ben and Erin Johnson. Ben and Erin have been eager to start of family for several years now and for reasons known only by God, it hasn't happened. Our friendship with them grew from casual acquaintances to hang-out-multiple-times-a-week over this three year span so we shared in much of the ups and downs, hopefuls and heartaches of the journey. Mark and I never could quite figure out how they could tolerate to be around us as our family continued to grow, but in some stories, certain relationships are just meant to be. And that's just how God brought us together.
Ben and Erin began to be open to idea of adoption over the past year or so but were finding it difficult to figure out how to make it happen with such high costs. In one of the more unique stories I've ever heard, God amazingly brought them to a young pregnant mother through one of her high school friends that happened to be a part of the youth group that Erin helps out with. Within two weeks of hearing this girl's story, Ben and Erin became the parents of her biological child. Jacob Cole was born Saturday morning and weighed just three pounds and nine ounces. Due to the birth mom's struggle with pre-eclampsia, he was definitely early and is receiving care in the NICU. While I couldn't be there for the event (and what a tease!...I had just left roughly ten hours earlier!) I was blessed to get to spend the middle of the night hours texting back and forth with Erin from the waiting room getting the play-by-play as he was welcomed into this world.
Ben and Erin became the legal guardians of Jacob Cole on Monday morning. Mark and I feel so blessed to get to be part of such an amazing story and are honored to serve as Jacob's godparents. (That makes five male souls that we are responsible for lifting up now...Kolbe, Reagan, Grant, John, and Jacob...girls are just not in the cards for us!) We love this little guy already and can't wait to meet him face to face.
Friday, April 8, 2011
TTT: season 2, episode 14--- FIVE THOUGHT FRIDAY!!!
1. It's official: yesterday was my first lapse of three thought Thursday since it started over a year ago. But I said at the beginning of this year-- no guarantees. So glad I went with that disclaimer. So I thought we'd go with five thought Friday. Two bonus thoughts, but all five shorter than my usual rants. Why? I'm typing this on a dadgum iPhone while sitting in an airport terminal for a longer-than-necessary amount of time. The saying "I'm all thumbs" will have to suffice to explain any typos. Really. As I type, it's all thumbs.
2. Another safe explanation for any typos is that I'm writing this using only one eye. No, I didn't have to give one up at the closing on our Lubbock house (though I'm convinced that may have been easier...). Wednesday was fine. Busy packing with two nice mayflower movers. Thursday I spent watching four strapping lads disassemble our house and load it all onto a truck, while a nagging pain developed in my eye. By dinner time, it was swollen, painful, and gross. By this morning it was swollen completely shut. So I went to my closing looking like a major creepo. "No, I'm not weeping over the sale of my home though it does both excite and sadden me. And no, it's not even because I'm having to sign 'Mark Dwayne Asmussen by my agent and attorney-in-fact Laura Ellen Asmussen' every single time I sign my own name to a document." I spent the hour and half after the closing not celebrating but having a doctor examine and treat my grossly infected sty. You know, sometimes I look at the always daily shenanigans I encounter and just ask WHY!?! This thing is painful. And gross. And annoying! Ugh. Goodbye, Lubbock. Thanks for the sweet dust storm that I'm CERTAIN caused this!!!
3. I'm sure you've gathered from #1 and #2 that we did, in fact, sell our Lubbock house. Done deal. Off the books. One MAJOR thing out of the way. One less list of issues, one less realtor, one less major responsibility. Ahhhhh.
4. here's the deal with the bonus thoughts: to get the GOOD, juicy details, you're going to have to come back next week. They're just too good to limit to a thumb-typed, iPhone written explanation with limited verbiage. They both deserve the best, most over the top flowery words that I could possibly come up with. Especially #5.
But we are on #4.
Right in the middle of the chaos of packers, movers, closing, leaving my babies and husband for three days...We got a house. Not just A house. THE house. The original love house. The one I wrote about on week one of looking that I said was our dream home that we definitely couldn't get now but hopefully, maybe, someday down the road. THAT one. Like I said, it needs many more words to describe how and why. But who'd have thought that 'someday' would be just a few weeks and not years and years!?! My heart skips a beat, I tell you.
5. There are two people who I love who are as dear to my heart as my own family. Two people who are Mark and my best good friends (as Forrest Gump would say.) Two people who are the kind of friends you have in high school that you are inseparable from, though we only met as grown, married adults. Two people who, to me, deserve the world. Two people who have been very, very blessed for many years though we've spent these past few praying most especially for one certain blessing. Two people who, after tonight, just might receive that gift.
My heart is so fully overjoyed.
2. Another safe explanation for any typos is that I'm writing this using only one eye. No, I didn't have to give one up at the closing on our Lubbock house (though I'm convinced that may have been easier...). Wednesday was fine. Busy packing with two nice mayflower movers. Thursday I spent watching four strapping lads disassemble our house and load it all onto a truck, while a nagging pain developed in my eye. By dinner time, it was swollen, painful, and gross. By this morning it was swollen completely shut. So I went to my closing looking like a major creepo. "No, I'm not weeping over the sale of my home though it does both excite and sadden me. And no, it's not even because I'm having to sign 'Mark Dwayne Asmussen by my agent and attorney-in-fact Laura Ellen Asmussen' every single time I sign my own name to a document." I spent the hour and half after the closing not celebrating but having a doctor examine and treat my grossly infected sty. You know, sometimes I look at the always daily shenanigans I encounter and just ask WHY!?! This thing is painful. And gross. And annoying! Ugh. Goodbye, Lubbock. Thanks for the sweet dust storm that I'm CERTAIN caused this!!!
3. I'm sure you've gathered from #1 and #2 that we did, in fact, sell our Lubbock house. Done deal. Off the books. One MAJOR thing out of the way. One less list of issues, one less realtor, one less major responsibility. Ahhhhh.
4. here's the deal with the bonus thoughts: to get the GOOD, juicy details, you're going to have to come back next week. They're just too good to limit to a thumb-typed, iPhone written explanation with limited verbiage. They both deserve the best, most over the top flowery words that I could possibly come up with. Especially #5.
But we are on #4.
Right in the middle of the chaos of packers, movers, closing, leaving my babies and husband for three days...We got a house. Not just A house. THE house. The original love house. The one I wrote about on week one of looking that I said was our dream home that we definitely couldn't get now but hopefully, maybe, someday down the road. THAT one. Like I said, it needs many more words to describe how and why. But who'd have thought that 'someday' would be just a few weeks and not years and years!?! My heart skips a beat, I tell you.
5. There are two people who I love who are as dear to my heart as my own family. Two people who are Mark and my best good friends (as Forrest Gump would say.) Two people who are the kind of friends you have in high school that you are inseparable from, though we only met as grown, married adults. Two people who, to me, deserve the world. Two people who have been very, very blessed for many years though we've spent these past few praying most especially for one certain blessing. Two people who, after tonight, just might receive that gift.
My heart is so fully overjoyed.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 13
Better late than never! ...
1. Square One. Yep. Back to square one. In the house hunt, that is. The past few weeks I've blabbed on and on about how we found a house we love and had put some offers in on it but were waiting to accept their final counter offer until we got Mark's first paycheck...yada, yada, yada. We expect that first check to be rolling in tomorrow.
And found out that the owners accepted an offer from someone else Tuesday night.
Let's just say that yesterday was not a good day. I woke up to the email telling me that my little house was no longer available. How dare they do that to an emotional pregnant woman! The whole day ended up being rough. Tough pill to swallow. Mainly because I've felt all along that this whole finding-a-new-house thing was mainly my responsibility. I took it upon myself. Sure, Mark likes to be involved and wants to help make the decisions, but after all, I'm a homemaker. He works so that I can stay home, care for our children, and take care of our home. So I really took this whole house hunting project on as "Mark will start his new job and try to get into the swing of an entirely new medical community and practice and I'll find us the perfect house and get it all established." To say it felt like I dropped the ball is an understatement. Especially since there's no "back-up" house. Nothing we liked just as much or second in the running. At least not in our price range. Just our little house we had our hearts set on. There's still the original "dream house" but unless we magically stumble upon an extra $10,000.... we're back to square one.
I know. There are greater tragedies. And thank God we have my parents here with their doors opened for us to stay. But really, I had my heart set on getting into our new home and settled down before the new baby gets here. If things are stressful now, can you imagine trying to move into a new house and get it all set up with a three-year-old, a two-year-old and a few-week-old? The thought alone makes me nauseous. We still have a little bit of time. But supposedly down here things take about forty days from contract to closing, so right now we're looking at mid to end of May. And a few weeks from now, make that June. Same time as we're expecting our little man to arrive. We trust that the right thing is going to end up working out for our family. It's just so hard not knowing how...or when...or where...or....
2. The poor, abandoned house on 72nd. I knew leaving our little home behind in Lubbock just two days after accepting an offer on it would be risky. Even though it wasn't getting shown anymore, knowing our luck, I was certain at least something would happen to it while we were away. Something destructive that I'd have to figure out how to fix from afar prior to the closing. Something like this:
Good ol' West Texas wind. That and an unlocked, extremely poorly made particle board shed door don't go well together apparently.
My brother Dave has been checking on our house regularly to make sure everything is ok and stumbled upon this on Sunday. Knowing that we have all kinds of stuff stored out there and not wanting to leave it open, I began wracking my brain trying to figure out a way to fix it without hiring a local handyman that would charge me way more than it actually costs. Someone who actually had the tools and skills to fix it.
Enter male super hero extraordinaire, my cousin's husband, Joe. When he's not busy performing orthopedic surgery on the poor unfortunate souls in Lubbock, he's doing things like making a custom Murphy Bed or designer outdoor dog resort. Or creating this cool window in our house. He's got the skills, he's got the tools. To think he'd have it completely done within twenty-four hours was just out of my imagination. But apparently super heroes are not subject to time restraints and thus, the following evening his beautiful daughter,Vanna White Shelby sent me this pic of the new door.
How glad am I to have friends like them who drop everything in their free time to help me out. And how sad am I to know that right now I don't have that here. Boo.
Dear Joe, I realize your parents live down in the Houston area too. Please consider moving to The Woodlands so we won't have to go without the world's best handy man. That, or make sure you're passing through any time our new little house (that we're hopefully going to find) has a problem that we can't fix. Sincerely, Laura
3. The Little Man. It's hard to believe that I'm nearing the end of my third pregnancy. Wasn't it just yesterday that I found out I was expecting? In some regards, I feel sorry for the little fella. The world outside his little comfort zone has been quite a whirlwind. Not the laid-back-take-care-of-yourself-because-your-pregnant kind of world. More like chaos-crawling-around-on-floors-painting-packing-cleaning-searching-fretting kind of world. I suppose that helps explain the lack of weight gain (for me). He, somehow, doesn't seem to mind. In fact, I went to my first OB appointment down here in The Woodlands on Tuesday and right now everything looks just fine. His heart rate was 138 and my uterus measured just right. My blood pressure was 108/70 which is stellar for me. No signs of any rising...yet. He's moving around like a champ and, like most babies, loves to do it the most when ever I finally sit down and relax. He's used to the roller coaster during the day and creates one of his own when the one I create finally slows down. To the unsuspecting, it's still hard to tell that he's even in there. I asked my mom if I honestly looked like I was pregnant. Her answer was, "Uh....kind of more like what people look like right after they've had a baby. Not right before they have a baby."
"Pudgy" or "Chunky in the mid-section" would have sufficed. Or even "nice muffin top." Nothing like being long waisted and pregnant. Despite all the shenanigans going on in our lives right now, we really are looking forward to meeting this little guy and welcoming him into the world. Most importantly into our family. Regardless of where we are living or whose house we're squatting at!
Hope everyone has a good week....hopefully I'll still be able to post next week. Big week ahead! I leave on Tuesday to head back to Lubbock. Packers on Wednesday, movers on Thursday, closing on Friday. Sad...our little life in Lubbock really is coming to an end. But it's good to see that it's all going so smoothly...at least on the selling side of things.
1. Square One. Yep. Back to square one. In the house hunt, that is. The past few weeks I've blabbed on and on about how we found a house we love and had put some offers in on it but were waiting to accept their final counter offer until we got Mark's first paycheck...yada, yada, yada. We expect that first check to be rolling in tomorrow.
And found out that the owners accepted an offer from someone else Tuesday night.
Let's just say that yesterday was not a good day. I woke up to the email telling me that my little house was no longer available. How dare they do that to an emotional pregnant woman! The whole day ended up being rough. Tough pill to swallow. Mainly because I've felt all along that this whole finding-a-new-house thing was mainly my responsibility. I took it upon myself. Sure, Mark likes to be involved and wants to help make the decisions, but after all, I'm a homemaker. He works so that I can stay home, care for our children, and take care of our home. So I really took this whole house hunting project on as "Mark will start his new job and try to get into the swing of an entirely new medical community and practice and I'll find us the perfect house and get it all established." To say it felt like I dropped the ball is an understatement. Especially since there's no "back-up" house. Nothing we liked just as much or second in the running. At least not in our price range. Just our little house we had our hearts set on. There's still the original "dream house" but unless we magically stumble upon an extra $10,000.... we're back to square one.
I know. There are greater tragedies. And thank God we have my parents here with their doors opened for us to stay. But really, I had my heart set on getting into our new home and settled down before the new baby gets here. If things are stressful now, can you imagine trying to move into a new house and get it all set up with a three-year-old, a two-year-old and a few-week-old? The thought alone makes me nauseous. We still have a little bit of time. But supposedly down here things take about forty days from contract to closing, so right now we're looking at mid to end of May. And a few weeks from now, make that June. Same time as we're expecting our little man to arrive. We trust that the right thing is going to end up working out for our family. It's just so hard not knowing how...or when...or where...or....
2. The poor, abandoned house on 72nd. I knew leaving our little home behind in Lubbock just two days after accepting an offer on it would be risky. Even though it wasn't getting shown anymore, knowing our luck, I was certain at least something would happen to it while we were away. Something destructive that I'd have to figure out how to fix from afar prior to the closing. Something like this:
Good ol' West Texas wind. That and an unlocked, extremely poorly made particle board shed door don't go well together apparently.
My brother Dave has been checking on our house regularly to make sure everything is ok and stumbled upon this on Sunday. Knowing that we have all kinds of stuff stored out there and not wanting to leave it open, I began wracking my brain trying to figure out a way to fix it without hiring a local handyman that would charge me way more than it actually costs. Someone who actually had the tools and skills to fix it.
Enter male super hero extraordinaire, my cousin's husband, Joe. When he's not busy performing orthopedic surgery on the poor unfortunate souls in Lubbock, he's doing things like making a custom Murphy Bed or designer outdoor dog resort. Or creating this cool window in our house. He's got the skills, he's got the tools. To think he'd have it completely done within twenty-four hours was just out of my imagination. But apparently super heroes are not subject to time restraints and thus, the following evening his beautiful daughter,
How glad am I to have friends like them who drop everything in their free time to help me out. And how sad am I to know that right now I don't have that here. Boo.
Dear Joe, I realize your parents live down in the Houston area too. Please consider moving to The Woodlands so we won't have to go without the world's best handy man. That, or make sure you're passing through any time our new little house (that we're hopefully going to find) has a problem that we can't fix. Sincerely, Laura
3. The Little Man. It's hard to believe that I'm nearing the end of my third pregnancy. Wasn't it just yesterday that I found out I was expecting? In some regards, I feel sorry for the little fella. The world outside his little comfort zone has been quite a whirlwind. Not the laid-back-take-care-of-yourself-because-your-pregnant kind of world. More like chaos-crawling-around-on-floors-painting-packing-cleaning-searching-fretting kind of world. I suppose that helps explain the lack of weight gain (for me). He, somehow, doesn't seem to mind. In fact, I went to my first OB appointment down here in The Woodlands on Tuesday and right now everything looks just fine. His heart rate was 138 and my uterus measured just right. My blood pressure was 108/70 which is stellar for me. No signs of any rising...yet. He's moving around like a champ and, like most babies, loves to do it the most when ever I finally sit down and relax. He's used to the roller coaster during the day and creates one of his own when the one I create finally slows down. To the unsuspecting, it's still hard to tell that he's even in there. I asked my mom if I honestly looked like I was pregnant. Her answer was, "Uh....kind of more like what people look like right after they've had a baby. Not right before they have a baby."
"Pudgy" or "Chunky in the mid-section" would have sufficed. Or even "nice muffin top." Nothing like being long waisted and pregnant. Despite all the shenanigans going on in our lives right now, we really are looking forward to meeting this little guy and welcoming him into the world. Most importantly into our family. Regardless of where we are living or whose house we're squatting at!
Hope everyone has a good week....hopefully I'll still be able to post next week. Big week ahead! I leave on Tuesday to head back to Lubbock. Packers on Wednesday, movers on Thursday, closing on Friday. Sad...our little life in Lubbock really is coming to an end. But it's good to see that it's all going so smoothly...at least on the selling side of things.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 12
1. The House Hunt. After last weeks disertation about not having to have the "dream house" at such a young age and being willing to settle on a "good enough" house for now, we did not put an offer in on the "good enough" house. Because right after my blog post, our realtor took us to see one last house that she found in her system. It was the only house we saw on Thursday...and the only one we needed to see 'cause we absolutely loved it. While still a little over our price range, we decided to put an offer in on it and the past week has been back and forth negotiations with the owners. Unfortunately, right now we're kind of deadlocked. They really have no reason to move right now other than that they want a bigger house in The Woodlands, so basically they aren't desperate to sell. And we, while we are desperate to get in to our own place ASAP, are not desperate to get ourselves into a financial situation that we can't handle. Let's just say that we're really close to taking the deal. Hypothetically, we should have enough each month to make the payment comfortably and we should have enough for the closing costs and required down payment. We're just a little gun shy. Right now our budget, like I said, is a hypothetical. We haven't received that first paycheck yet so we're not one hundred percent sure what the income is going to look like each month. And while everything is moving right along with the sale of our house in Lubbock, we're not one hundred percent sure what we'll be walking away with on closing day. Thus, we don't know exactly how much we'll have available for closing costs down here. I'm not really a fan of hypotheticals. Some of you might think I'm crazy...just go for it! Have a little faith! While others of you might think I'm smart...better safe than sorry...be cautious till you know for sure. Both are probably correct. And Lord willing, this awesome house is the house that's meant for us. But right now, only time will tell. Hopefully within the next week or two we'll have the on-paper evidence we need to take that leap of faith and commit to our new home in The Woodlands. Pray for us!
2. Our new environment. Mark started his new job on Monday and so far, everything is going really well. Of course, it's an adjustment for everyone, but for the most part it has been a smooth transition. Dada is back to work and Kolbe and Rudy are back to "school." "School" is what we refer to as structured learning time each day. We had several months of this routine back in Lubbock and then it all just went to pot when we decided we'd be moving. The focus turned to getting the house ready, moving, and such. But with such instability overall right now, I thought now would be a great time to get back into the swing of our previous normalness. It helps. A lot.
As does the nice, warm weather we are surrounded by down here. Don't get me wrong...I know "nice" in Houston turns in to "miserable" fairly quickly. But right now it's certainly tolerable and we've been able to spend a ton of time outside. We take at least one, often two trips to the park behind my parents' house each day and the boys have been fishing with Mark multiple times. Also at the park behind my parents' house. And it's quite easy to say that the fishing at our little pond in Lubbock doesn't hold a candle to this place! In all the trips back in Lubbock they didn't catch a single fish. Collectively, over about three or four trips, I think we're at around fifteen fish here in The Woodlands so far. You can literally dangle a line with a piece of corn attached down into the water and pull out a fish. The boys love it. Mark being the main "boy" in the group. And yes, it is quite humid down here...we've been in shorts and t-shirts every day since we arrived...and yes, the mosquitos are already out (for real!)...but we're loving the time to spend most of our days outdoors taking in nature. What a beautiful place in the spring time!
3. Randomness.
Bad. We all know that I'm not exactly the biggest pregnant person ever. Like even with Kolbe and Rudy when I did gain normal amounts of pregnancy weight, I never got huge like most pregnant women get. And when I lay down, it's even less pregnant looking. Like full term you can hardly even tell I'm pregnant....it all just goes off to the side kind of. Anyway, that's my defense for a little problemo I'm having. As all the books and websites and doctors say, when you're pregnant you're supposed to sleep on your side. It's best for baby, best for you, yada, yada, yada. The problem is, every single night I fall asleep on my side and wake up face down on my stomach. Most people as far along in their pregnancy as I am would find that to be impossible. But somehow I end up doing this every night, several times a night, and continue to sleep comfortably. I wake up to go to the bathroom and find myself face down. I've tried positioning pillows and all that jazz to quit my bad habit but to no avail. And really, I didn't worry much in the beginning because I had no baby bump, but now that I do...and I can literally feel him squirming around in there as he's smashed up to the mattress, I'm starting to feel bad! Like I said...random...just thought I'd share.
Good. My mom, Kolbe, Rudy and I got a special treat on Tuesday: we got to talk to my brother, Mike, on skype! As most of you know, Mike has been deployed to Afghanistan for a few weeks now and is over flying his plane in the war. While it's easy to send letters and emails, or even have a phone call, there's something so special about getting to actually see someone. To watch him move, hear his voice, see his expressions...and know he is ok. It's something we marvel at and are so thankful for now. 'Cause when my dad went to the war back in 1991, there was no skype. We didn't even have a family computer yet. And certainly didn't have cell phones yet either. Sure there were letters and packages. And we always prayed to God that we'd be home when Dad happened to get a chance to call. Which was like maybe ten times the entire time he was deployed. But my, how technology has changed the way we stay in touch, especially with the people who sacrifice so much for the good of others. What a special treat for us! And hopefully, in some small way, it helps him too. Please pray for all of our soldiers and their families who miss them so.
2. Our new environment. Mark started his new job on Monday and so far, everything is going really well. Of course, it's an adjustment for everyone, but for the most part it has been a smooth transition. Dada is back to work and Kolbe and Rudy are back to "school." "School" is what we refer to as structured learning time each day. We had several months of this routine back in Lubbock and then it all just went to pot when we decided we'd be moving. The focus turned to getting the house ready, moving, and such. But with such instability overall right now, I thought now would be a great time to get back into the swing of our previous normalness. It helps. A lot.
As does the nice, warm weather we are surrounded by down here. Don't get me wrong...I know "nice" in Houston turns in to "miserable" fairly quickly. But right now it's certainly tolerable and we've been able to spend a ton of time outside. We take at least one, often two trips to the park behind my parents' house each day and the boys have been fishing with Mark multiple times. Also at the park behind my parents' house. And it's quite easy to say that the fishing at our little pond in Lubbock doesn't hold a candle to this place! In all the trips back in Lubbock they didn't catch a single fish. Collectively, over about three or four trips, I think we're at around fifteen fish here in The Woodlands so far. You can literally dangle a line with a piece of corn attached down into the water and pull out a fish. The boys love it. Mark being the main "boy" in the group. And yes, it is quite humid down here...we've been in shorts and t-shirts every day since we arrived...and yes, the mosquitos are already out (for real!)...but we're loving the time to spend most of our days outdoors taking in nature. What a beautiful place in the spring time!
3. Randomness.
Bad. We all know that I'm not exactly the biggest pregnant person ever. Like even with Kolbe and Rudy when I did gain normal amounts of pregnancy weight, I never got huge like most pregnant women get. And when I lay down, it's even less pregnant looking. Like full term you can hardly even tell I'm pregnant....it all just goes off to the side kind of. Anyway, that's my defense for a little problemo I'm having. As all the books and websites and doctors say, when you're pregnant you're supposed to sleep on your side. It's best for baby, best for you, yada, yada, yada. The problem is, every single night I fall asleep on my side and wake up face down on my stomach. Most people as far along in their pregnancy as I am would find that to be impossible. But somehow I end up doing this every night, several times a night, and continue to sleep comfortably. I wake up to go to the bathroom and find myself face down. I've tried positioning pillows and all that jazz to quit my bad habit but to no avail. And really, I didn't worry much in the beginning because I had no baby bump, but now that I do...and I can literally feel him squirming around in there as he's smashed up to the mattress, I'm starting to feel bad! Like I said...random...just thought I'd share.
Good. My mom, Kolbe, Rudy and I got a special treat on Tuesday: we got to talk to my brother, Mike, on skype! As most of you know, Mike has been deployed to Afghanistan for a few weeks now and is over flying his plane in the war. While it's easy to send letters and emails, or even have a phone call, there's something so special about getting to actually see someone. To watch him move, hear his voice, see his expressions...and know he is ok. It's something we marvel at and are so thankful for now. 'Cause when my dad went to the war back in 1991, there was no skype. We didn't even have a family computer yet. And certainly didn't have cell phones yet either. Sure there were letters and packages. And we always prayed to God that we'd be home when Dad happened to get a chance to call. Which was like maybe ten times the entire time he was deployed. But my, how technology has changed the way we stay in touch, especially with the people who sacrifice so much for the good of others. What a special treat for us! And hopefully, in some small way, it helps him too. Please pray for all of our soldiers and their families who miss them so.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 11
1. So much has gone on in the past week that I really can't even process. Right now it's total mental, emotional, physical overload. Every now and then I just have to pause and think Ahhhhh! I feel out of control! But I suppose I knew it would be like this. Kind of. I'll give a brief run-down for record keeping's sake:
Wednesday: (as in last Wednesday) We got our first offer on our house and made a counter-offer. I didn't want to mention it in last week's post 'cause I wasn't sure if it was going to go through or what.
Thursday: More showings of the house, so more cleaning. More packing.
Friday: Packing. And good times with a little stomach bug for me. Perfect timing. Dinner with friends and family one last time.
Saturday: They accepted our counter-offer! In under a month's time on the market, our house is under contract. Yea!!! Many props to St. Joseph for his intercession! Packing, cleaning, and a little Asmussen family going away party. Oh, and my last trip to Bahama Bucks. Red Raider with cream.
Sunday: Mass at St. E's. Lunch with friends and family at Spanky's. Brief nap for the boys and then time with G-ma and Papa Jeep for the evening. And yummy dinner at Orlandos for our "last supper." Very emotional farewell to end the evening.
Monday: Off to The Woodlands! Nine hours later we managed to survive the trip. I spent from west of Abilene all the way to Houston in the throw-up car with the two boys. Kolbe barfed twice. Once in a bag, once not so much. Such a lovely scent. The car has been airing out ever since. But thank God for leather seats!
Tuesday: Mark and I met with a mortgage lender first thing in the morning and got approved for our new mortgage at an awesome rate. (Yea!) Then the house hunt began. We saw nine houses and fell in love with one that we later discovered was totally out of our price range...especially considering the insane taxes here in The Woodlands. (Boo.) Had a pow-wow with the realtor and asked her just to focus on the ones in our realistic price range so we wouldn't needlessly fall in love anymore.
Wednesday: Looked at ten more houses. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. So much to look at and consider. Found another one we really like that is in our realistic price range. Thinking...thinking...thinking... On the way home from house hunting got our inspection report from the casa back in Lubbock. Tried to jump back to seller mode from buyer mode and process the whole thing. Ugh! There's so much to deal with!
And here we are. About to go look at a few more houses before our realtor has to go out of town this afternoon. I need a nap. And really, a margarita. But I'll hold back for a few more months.
2. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Pinkie and Pa have been getting to spenda little a lot of time with the boys while we house hunt. Kolbe is loving it all but Rudy has really had a little bit of a hard time with it. He was very emotional the first day when we were out looking. Very sensitive to the fact that Mama and Dada were missing. And very aware that we weren't going "home." I honestly thought Kolbe would be the one to hit the ready-to-go-homes first but instead it's the little guy. It made me really sad Tuesday when we got home from eating out...he rode in my parent's car and as we got into the driveway, he immediately ran over to our car and started pulling on the handle saying, "Home. Home." Then yesterday morning he woke up and crawled up in bed with me and said the same thing. It's amazing how babies can sense that something is definitely going on. That their world is changing. That the normal they always knew is no longer. And it makes me hate that we're doing this to him. I know, I know. He'll be ok. A week or two from now he'll be used to the changes and it won't be so bad. It's just a lot for a little mind to process right now. So much so that his sleep has gotten totally out of whack. I'm not sure how this is even humanly possible but he's had a total mess of a time attempting to adjust to the day light savings time change. Instead of wanting to stay up all night and thus sleeping in late, he's waking up even earlier than ever! Like up at 6:00am. Which just a few days ago was 5:00am! How do you possibly managed to adjust in the opposite way!?! Ugh! Go to sleep, little fella! It will all be alright. Really. I promise.
3. I debated writing about two things for my third thought. Either the emotions of saying goodbye or the drama of house hunting. I think I'm ready to stop being sad about leaving and focus on the here-and-now for a bit. Besides, I'm sure I'll be writing about how much I miss everyone here in a week or two when all has settled down and I'm not as overwhelmingly busy and have time to miss the normalness of our world back in Lubbock.
So back to the house hunt.
Do you know that feeling when you're in the store and see something you love that's just a little more than you were wanting to pay??? Or say if you're looking for a new car. You decided you're on a minivan budget, but man, that extended Tahoe sure looks awesome...and would make me look like such a cool mom! It's only a difference in monthly payment of like, oh, two hundred dollars or so...
We're having a little bit of that problemo with the ol' house hunt. When we told our realtor our original price range, she (like I'm sure all realtors do...) extended the range of homes we looked at to include home that were over our price range. Like $25,000 over our price range. She went into the whole dog and pony show of how you don't have to offer them the full price and a lot of them have been on the market for a long time and are anxious to sell and they'd be willing to really negotiate with you and...
So of course almost every house we saw on the first day fit in to this category. At least $20,000 over our goal price range. And I have to give her this...almost all the houses in this area are priced like that. Hello! Have you ever been to The Woodlands!?! Let's just say that we are on the very low end of the totem pole.
Four or five houses in, we went to see a house that we just totally fell in love with. Ahhhhh...heaven. It had literally everything we would want or need in a house and needed absolutely no help what so ever. That dream house feeling. So surely since it's probably been on the market a long time and they're anxious to sell, and, and, and...we'd be able to get a great price on it. Just to find out it's only been on the market for six days. Six. If someone offered me twenty thousand dollars less than my asking price on day six, I'd laugh. Trying to remain hopeful, we went home to crunch numbers only to discover that really, it was completely unrealstic, just as we had predicted. Frustrated, we insisted that the following day, we only be shown houses that were realistic for our budget. But of course, with the images of our dream house forever burned in our minds. If only she hadn't shown it to us....
The homes the following day were rocky at best. Issues ranged from absolutely no backyard what so ever, to completely junked out foreclosure nightmare, to way-too-far-from-work-and-my-parents-to-be-worth-the-better-price, to Uh, I'm pretty sure there's no way our kitchen table would even fit in the space. So frustrating to find that the only things in your price range in a very elite part of Texas are things that would require thousands to fix or worse, couldn't be fixed at all. But alas, the very last house of the day was one where we finally saw a little light at the end of the tunnel. It's adorable. And aside from one of the bedrooms featuring cotton candy pink walls, really had absolutely nothing we would just have to change.
But, admittedly, that little let-down of It's just not the dream house was in the back of our minds. It's impossible not to compare! The biggest, most obvious element being a huge gameroom area in the dream house. It was set up perfectly to be a gameroom/school room/ office/ sewing room. Even having a little niche completely shelved out for my sewing business and big enough to fit a table where I could leave my machine set up and ready to go. I'm telling you. It was the perfect house in a dream world.
But the truth is, Mark and I are twenty-seven and twenty-eight years old. A lot of people aren't buying their first house at that age, and we're on our second! And certainly, very, very few are buying their "dream home." Of course, we see it and there's that human desire to think Oh, I want it so bad! Why can't we have it now? It was made for our family!!! But in reality, we want it now. We don't need it now. The other house we like meets every need our family has and then some. Sure, I'll still have to drag out and store away my little business every day. And that dream playroom will have to continue to dwell in bedrooms and cleverly stored in the family room. That, or the "formal dining room" that we have no formal dining room furniture to fill it with anyway could be that room...and be the first thing you see when you enter our home. Hi! Welcome to The Asmussens! Want to step on a handful of legos on your way to the kitchen??? But hello! That's where we are at in life! Really, who is coming to our home that we're trying to impress so much that this would be a problem? We are a young, married couple with two, soon to be three small children.
And besides, we certainly don't have to live in this house forever. In fact, the only thing that is holding us back from truly being able to afford a dream house at such a young age is the exorbitant student loan payment that we are making every month on Mark's student loans. (under-grad and grad adds up to be a lot, lemme tell ya...like student loan payment larger than mortgage payment) But guess what- ten years from now all of those loans will be paid off. And we'll be left with a huge increase in expendable income. And heck, if we decide we want a different house, we can go get a different house! And you know what, we'll then be the old, old age of thirty-seven and thirty-eight.
Kind of puts things in perspective. Sure, it's easy to want the Escalade when everyone around you is driving one. But I'm pretty sure Mark and I are cool enough to roll in the swagger-wagon for a while and be completely fine with it. Hey, it's not so bad being exactly where God wants you to be at each stage in life. We're just starting out. We're just beginning. And we have a long, long way to go. But when the right time comes along to change from the "young couple with a handful of little bitty ones" to the "relatively young couple with a pack of tweens and teens," the real "dream house" will be ready for our little family. (ok, I think we're probably already classified as a big family...)
Wednesday: (as in last Wednesday) We got our first offer on our house and made a counter-offer. I didn't want to mention it in last week's post 'cause I wasn't sure if it was going to go through or what.
Thursday: More showings of the house, so more cleaning. More packing.
Friday: Packing. And good times with a little stomach bug for me. Perfect timing. Dinner with friends and family one last time.
Saturday: They accepted our counter-offer! In under a month's time on the market, our house is under contract. Yea!!! Many props to St. Joseph for his intercession! Packing, cleaning, and a little Asmussen family going away party. Oh, and my last trip to Bahama Bucks. Red Raider with cream.
Sunday: Mass at St. E's. Lunch with friends and family at Spanky's. Brief nap for the boys and then time with G-ma and Papa Jeep for the evening. And yummy dinner at Orlandos for our "last supper." Very emotional farewell to end the evening.
Monday: Off to The Woodlands! Nine hours later we managed to survive the trip. I spent from west of Abilene all the way to Houston in the throw-up car with the two boys. Kolbe barfed twice. Once in a bag, once not so much. Such a lovely scent. The car has been airing out ever since. But thank God for leather seats!
Tuesday: Mark and I met with a mortgage lender first thing in the morning and got approved for our new mortgage at an awesome rate. (Yea!) Then the house hunt began. We saw nine houses and fell in love with one that we later discovered was totally out of our price range...especially considering the insane taxes here in The Woodlands. (Boo.) Had a pow-wow with the realtor and asked her just to focus on the ones in our realistic price range so we wouldn't needlessly fall in love anymore.
Wednesday: Looked at ten more houses. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. So much to look at and consider. Found another one we really like that is in our realistic price range. Thinking...thinking...thinking... On the way home from house hunting got our inspection report from the casa back in Lubbock. Tried to jump back to seller mode from buyer mode and process the whole thing. Ugh! There's so much to deal with!
And here we are. About to go look at a few more houses before our realtor has to go out of town this afternoon. I need a nap. And really, a margarita. But I'll hold back for a few more months.
2. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Pinkie and Pa have been getting to spend
3. I debated writing about two things for my third thought. Either the emotions of saying goodbye or the drama of house hunting. I think I'm ready to stop being sad about leaving and focus on the here-and-now for a bit. Besides, I'm sure I'll be writing about how much I miss everyone here in a week or two when all has settled down and I'm not as overwhelmingly busy and have time to miss the normalness of our world back in Lubbock.
So back to the house hunt.
Do you know that feeling when you're in the store and see something you love that's just a little more than you were wanting to pay??? Or say if you're looking for a new car. You decided you're on a minivan budget, but man, that extended Tahoe sure looks awesome...and would make me look like such a cool mom! It's only a difference in monthly payment of like, oh, two hundred dollars or so...
We're having a little bit of that problemo with the ol' house hunt. When we told our realtor our original price range, she (like I'm sure all realtors do...) extended the range of homes we looked at to include home that were over our price range. Like $25,000 over our price range. She went into the whole dog and pony show of how you don't have to offer them the full price and a lot of them have been on the market for a long time and are anxious to sell and they'd be willing to really negotiate with you and...
So of course almost every house we saw on the first day fit in to this category. At least $20,000 over our goal price range. And I have to give her this...almost all the houses in this area are priced like that. Hello! Have you ever been to The Woodlands!?! Let's just say that we are on the very low end of the totem pole.
Four or five houses in, we went to see a house that we just totally fell in love with. Ahhhhh...heaven. It had literally everything we would want or need in a house and needed absolutely no help what so ever. That dream house feeling. So surely since it's probably been on the market a long time and they're anxious to sell, and, and, and...we'd be able to get a great price on it. Just to find out it's only been on the market for six days. Six. If someone offered me twenty thousand dollars less than my asking price on day six, I'd laugh. Trying to remain hopeful, we went home to crunch numbers only to discover that really, it was completely unrealstic, just as we had predicted. Frustrated, we insisted that the following day, we only be shown houses that were realistic for our budget. But of course, with the images of our dream house forever burned in our minds. If only she hadn't shown it to us....
The homes the following day were rocky at best. Issues ranged from absolutely no backyard what so ever, to completely junked out foreclosure nightmare, to way-too-far-from-work-and-my-parents-to-be-worth-the-better-price, to Uh, I'm pretty sure there's no way our kitchen table would even fit in the space. So frustrating to find that the only things in your price range in a very elite part of Texas are things that would require thousands to fix or worse, couldn't be fixed at all. But alas, the very last house of the day was one where we finally saw a little light at the end of the tunnel. It's adorable. And aside from one of the bedrooms featuring cotton candy pink walls, really had absolutely nothing we would just have to change.
But, admittedly, that little let-down of It's just not the dream house was in the back of our minds. It's impossible not to compare! The biggest, most obvious element being a huge gameroom area in the dream house. It was set up perfectly to be a gameroom/school room/ office/ sewing room. Even having a little niche completely shelved out for my sewing business and big enough to fit a table where I could leave my machine set up and ready to go. I'm telling you. It was the perfect house in a dream world.
But the truth is, Mark and I are twenty-seven and twenty-eight years old. A lot of people aren't buying their first house at that age, and we're on our second! And certainly, very, very few are buying their "dream home." Of course, we see it and there's that human desire to think Oh, I want it so bad! Why can't we have it now? It was made for our family!!! But in reality, we want it now. We don't need it now. The other house we like meets every need our family has and then some. Sure, I'll still have to drag out and store away my little business every day. And that dream playroom will have to continue to dwell in bedrooms and cleverly stored in the family room. That, or the "formal dining room" that we have no formal dining room furniture to fill it with anyway could be that room...and be the first thing you see when you enter our home. Hi! Welcome to The Asmussens! Want to step on a handful of legos on your way to the kitchen??? But hello! That's where we are at in life! Really, who is coming to our home that we're trying to impress so much that this would be a problem? We are a young, married couple with two, soon to be three small children.
And besides, we certainly don't have to live in this house forever. In fact, the only thing that is holding us back from truly being able to afford a dream house at such a young age is the exorbitant student loan payment that we are making every month on Mark's student loans. (under-grad and grad adds up to be a lot, lemme tell ya...like student loan payment larger than mortgage payment) But guess what- ten years from now all of those loans will be paid off. And we'll be left with a huge increase in expendable income. And heck, if we decide we want a different house, we can go get a different house! And you know what, we'll then be the old, old age of thirty-seven and thirty-eight.
Kind of puts things in perspective. Sure, it's easy to want the Escalade when everyone around you is driving one. But I'm pretty sure Mark and I are cool enough to roll in the swagger-wagon for a while and be completely fine with it. Hey, it's not so bad being exactly where God wants you to be at each stage in life. We're just starting out. We're just beginning. And we have a long, long way to go. But when the right time comes along to change from the "young couple with a handful of little bitty ones" to the "relatively young couple with a pack of tweens and teens," the real "dream house" will be ready for our little family. (ok, I think we're probably already classified as a big family...)
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