is there a house in our future? YES

so it's official. we've signed papers to buy our first house. but it isn't built yet. so we have to wait. darn. but it's worth it, and we are super duper excited to go from 800 sq ft (i'm just guessing) to 1730 sq ft... 2 bedrooms to 4. needless to say...it will be nice. it's a mile down the road from where we are now, and we have one of the biggest lots on the very end, so only 1 neighbor to deal with, no one behind us. anyhow. i could go on and on, but i think it may get annoying after a while, so i'll keep it brief. WE'RE GOING TO BE HOMEOWNERS REAL SOON!! yes! ok ok, so i know that it's "not all it's cracked up to be" but in a brand new home, not a whole lot can go wrong that isn't covered by a warranty. so we are making a list of everything you need as homeowners that you don't need as apt renters, and we'll work on saving for that stuff now. i'm a little on edge becuause it's quite a responsiblity to take over, but i guess after a year i'll breathe easier. i'm just that way when it comes to finances. 

besides that, kathryn went to the eye doctor friday, and her glasses haven't corrected the "strabismus" or cross-eyed problem. to me, she isn't crossing her eyes like she was before the glasses, so i dunno, but clearly, if you cover her better eye (the right) her left eye definitely crosses. so the doctor wants to try patching. apparently "bandaid" style patches work best for little kids, as they semi-hurt if they try to remove it, so they are less likely to bother it. this is true for kathryn! after she leaves it be for...5 mins, she forgets it's there. i sure hope it helps. our other options are vision therapy (great, more therapy) or surgery (will it even work?) so i've never been cross-eyed, and i don't know just what she is experiencing, but apparently, she is seeing close to what we would call "double vision" where there are 2 mommies in the kitchen or 2 toys on the floor to not step on...no wonder she is so clumsy! i feel so sorry for her. she has a lot of minor issues that could result in major issues down the road. i dunno. i guess i'm waiting to see what the geneticist says. i'm about 100% sure she has neurofibromatosis. but what does that mean?? it seems like she has what is called a cutaneous neurofibroma (i've noticed 3 so far) basically a benign button-like tumor on the skin (same color as the skin) but i guess the doctor will let me know all that. i just hope she can live a normal life. although, to her, she knows no different.

and last but not least, daniel is incredibly impressive. of course i'm sure i have kathryn to thank for a lot of the skills he is developing, but he is wasting no time getting around. he wishes he could run. poor lil legs just don't quite move fast enough for him sometimes. he wants to feed himself. i should just let him go at it with a spoon, but i am a mess-avoiding freak when i can help it, and baby + spoon + food = huge mess in my eyes. who knows. we'll try it soon enough. he has the grab and turn skill. like unscrewing the screw that adjusts the height of our pedastal fan...or turning the switch to on on our box fan and our dishwasher...he is good at that now. silly boy. oh, and today, he pulled himself up to the door of the dishwasher from  pulling up on the top rack...he seriously did a pull up!!! before john and i knew it, he was in the bottom rack in the dishwasher! crazy daredevil kid...when he gets up on our bed (or any pile that looks temptingly fluffy) he belly flops (for lack of a better term) straight down! seriously, he stands straight up, leans forward, and waits for gravity to pull him flat to the surface! maybe face plants would describe it better. he is crazy! i can ONLY imagine what he has waiting for me over the next year! his hair is getting much darker now. i'm interested to see how he'll look in 6 months. hard to believe a year has almost come and gone!

HELP!!

ok, so thanks to Jamie's husband Joe, i am re-motivated to make plate lunches to sell. i have been wanting to do it, but a bit overwhelmed...but i'm gonna just make the jump and see how it works. 

here's what i need your help with...i am thinking i'd eventually like to make this a 3 day a week occurence, and if it's popular enough...possibly more, we'll see. right now i have a great lasagna recipe, and what i think is a good jambalaya recipe, and i'm debating on doing a roast lunch with potatoes, carrots, and a roll...i haven't looked into the cost of it tho. what other lunch meals are people interested in having??? what about fried chicken?

and second, locally, are there any of you out there that would be willing to "taste test" my meals/portion sizes? i'm thinking i want to do the tasting within the next 2 weeks...maybe i'll bring them to church...so if you are interested let me know! i need feedback before i disappoint any paying customers!!

Debt Reduction Surgery

so today John and I finally decided to go through with the Debt Reduction Surgery. we had been holding off, thinking we might be able to get this pre-forclosure house next to his parents, but after the long consideration and thought we put into trying to make it work (it needed about $25000 in repairs) we decided not only would the bank most likely not accept our low offer, but it wasn't in our best interest...we had a goal (to get out of debt) and we need to achieve it first. so the house thing is off. it was a pretty big decision and rather emotional, seeing as to how we don't know when we'll get a house, but to break the mood of remorse, we jumped right in to our Debt reduction! we were holding on to about $3700 for a down payment for the "maybe" house, and since that was a no-go, it was free again! we stripped off $7500 in debt since the last "total money makeover" post! we paid off our credit card with our bank, our debt consolidation loan, and citi credit card, and we are now attacking our car loan!!! it feels so awesome to be paying more than the minimum for the car note. that has never happened! we suddenly can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! we have just under $8000 to pay off in our debt and that just made our day! life without a car note??? very soon, very soon.

so in the midst of this life-changing decision, we got to talking about other life-altering decisions like, when to get a second vehicle, when will we get a house, how much house can we afford, do we still want to move to utah? and so we have changed our minds about a few things, and i'll explain.

first and foremost, we have decided we aren't going to move to utah...house prices there are just as much, if not more than houses here, so we'd be waiting even longer to get into a house, and the big reason we decided not to move is the cost to visit...plane tickets would run $1200 to $1600 if john came, and that would leave us without family for a long time. and since kathryn has gotten quite attatched to the extended family, we have decided we can settle for Walker, La. it's a much smaller town than BR, and i LOVE that. and the school system is not too bad...or so we've heard...so, we'll be looking for a house in the Walker area, probably in another year and a half to 2 years. we are going to be saving up for the second vehicle as soon as we become debt free, and we will pay cash for it. we'd like to get a van, but it looks like there aren't many to choose from...no one is selling them! so i guess we shall cross that bridge when we get there...hopefully we will have a second vehicle in a year. then save for the down payment for the house/fully funded emergency fund. and maybe i may try to go back to school after all that...but idk.

so aside from that...the kids are...still alive! i had the flu a week ago and didn't know it (i wondered why i felt so TIRED and achy and terrible) and turns out Daniel caught it and he had it bad! his fever was 104.5 at the docs office on saturday morning...i was really worried about him. and kathryn probably had it too, she was sleeping more than normal and had a bit of a fever, but nothing over 102.5...and just as daniel starts to get over his flu today, kathryn breaks out in hives...well, that is very sad for her. i called the nurse and she said it is usually caused from a viral infection...so she is still sick =( i dunno if there is anything more than benadryl that she can take... i just hate it when my kids are so sick and there is nothing i can do to make it better other than comfort them.

so the last bit of news we have is kathryn finally got evaluated for speech therapy and turns out she qualifies for a whole lot more...i guess when you assume your kid is normal, you never want to think otherwise...i never had much of a reason to think kathryn was anything but a typical kid developing at her own rate...well, apparently she has quite a few developmental delays including her speech. the good news is...they want to offer her therapy for all the areas she is weak in. so that is terrific. i guess to all the parents of 3 year olds, you have no idea how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate properly with your toddler, or to not know what they are trying to say 90% of the time. i only hope it works/helps her to improve her speech. everything that i have tried with her seems to not help much. oh well, leave it to the professsonal. bad news, they are going to take up to 2 months getting back with me about when we can get started.

o ho busy busy

o lots have been going on in our little world!

Daniel is now walking all over! this has been about a 3 week thing from the time he took his first steps...and everyday he is getting faster and better and choosing walking over crawling! it's pretty crazy. i may just post some videos of him later.

I cut John's hair last night for the very first time (the first time i've ever cut hair) before i always just used the hair trimmer, and thought that was basically fool proof, but decided this time i wanted his hair longer than 1 inch...so i cut it. before i cut it, his hair was a good 7-8 inches long or so...it was a bit to much, now he is much more conservative, and i think the hair cut is a success!! yay! so before:

and after:

and daniel also discovered he can dig in the cabinets and so he likes to pull out all the mixing bowls and pan lids and then crawl into the cabinet...he's so full of energy and fun. super cute even when he's doing things he's not supposed to..

and kathryn has learned how to pretend with her stuffed animals...all of her activities now have to include her stuffed animals as well.

this week she also has her speech therapy evaluation, so that will be nice to see if it helps, or what i can do differently at home...

and baby Braden is 1 month old today, and he is getting soo chunky! he's so cute! and such a good baby. he never ever cries.