Sure pictures of ultrasounds are cool to see but video is so much better. It is so amazing to see that little body moving around around in Rebecca’s belly. I think it makes parents even more excited than they already are to see the new member of their family. At least that is the way it is for me.
[quicktime width=”500″ height=”345″]http://blog.dallasgolden.com/Media/ultra.mov[/quicktime]
Yesterday we attended Brooke’s first Easter egg hunt.
It’s a good thing that I gave Brooke some practice getting eggs while we were up at Grandma and Grandpa’s house last weekend because the eggs went fast. We were one of the few parents who actually allowed our child to pick up the eggs. The rest of the parents were flying around picking up all the eggs for their children and, as a result, Brooke didn’t get many eggs.
Brooke wasn’t very happy when Mom went to participate in the women’s egg hunt. She just wanted Mom! If you know how loud Brooke can be when she is crying, you can imagine how far and wide her voice carried!
Here’s Rebecca racing against all the other women. I was part of the men’s egg hunt but in the initial start I ran into a guy who was standing in front of me but didn’t take part in the race. As a result there was no chance for me to catch up with the sweeping mob.
Brooke actually enjoyed the Easter Bunny. I was thinking that she would be absolutely terrified by him.
Today marks three years in our home! We’ve owned our place for about a month longer, but today marks the day we actually moved in!
Now I’m sure you are saying to yourself, “Big whoop! Why not just celebrate anniversaries that are multiples of five? Three is such an insignificant number.” Let me give as brief of an explanation as possible.
There is a program called the “Teacher Next Door.” This program helps what they call “revitalization” communities get quality people into the neighborhood to improve the neighborhood with their presence. This is for teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and EMTs. They offer homes that have been repossessed by the bank for bidding on a website. You don’t bid for the highest price, but an intent to buy at the discounted price. Most of the homes are in really bad shape and with such a low home price they hope the people will invest in renovating the place. They throw everybody’s name into the big witches’ cauldron and pull out the winner’s name. Three years ago we won! Here’s the catch. We are responsible for 1/2 of the mortgage and the other half is a silent mortgage that does nothing for the three years. Once the three years is up then that silent mortgage is forgiven. Every year they have sent us documents that we had to sign certifying that we still live in our condo. If we chose to sell before the three years were up then we would be responsible for the entire mortgage.
So here we are three years later and we can officially say that our mortgage is over half paid off. Add that to the fact that our home is worth a lot more than our purchase price, we are going to have a nice down payment for our next home–not that we are planning on moving because we love our place. We love our neighbors (a shout out to our neighbors who might be reading this), we have huge yard to play in, a playground, barbecue and picnicking areas, a basketball and a volleyball court, and the promise of soaking in the pool over the summer. Would you want to leave?
As geeky as it may sound, I recorded the message off our answering machine that says we won the house. I edited it for anonymity.
This is Rebecca talking to the lady about winning the house. We just couldn’t believe that we had won. We kept asking ourselves if it were real.
My stepdad Bob and I working on laying the flooring.
The huge mess of remodeling.
The end result.
The exterior.
We would like to thank again my family and Rebecca’s family who came over and helped us paint, clean, put the floors down, and generally renew everything from ceiling to floor.
You know it’s going to be a bad day when, before you’re even fully awake, you’ve had to stick your hand in the toilet.
The other night I got up to go to the bathroom. I didn’t have my glasses on or contacts in which means I’m nearly blind. However, I noticed something white on the floor. I figured it was a stray piece of toilet paper. I picked it up and chucked it in the toilet. Then I heard somewhat of a substantial splash.
That’s when I realized I had just disposed of one of Brooke’s socks. Ugh.
Aren’t toddlers supposed to be the ones putting things in the toilet that don’t belong?
