Our Lot

Just a big bunch of dirt right now. Where I'm standing is where our house will be. Definently not country acreage but it'll do for now. Heck, it'll more than work for now. The house behind us isn't by our builder, but I'm pretty sure the one story to the right is by our builder. Ours will be a one story.

The bluebonnets are blooming right now - there's quite a few on our lot, you can see a few of them in front of me. So pretty. Too bad they'll rip them out when they put in the house. Check out those skinny jeans. Do I look freakin' trendy or what? heh. I love 'em.

It deserves a post of it's own.

Bloglines. Check it out. All your blog reads in one spot. Only the updated posts show so you know exactly which ones have new posts to read. Plus? You can put blogs as private - so all those junk blogs you read when there's nothing else to read don't have to show up on your links, they're just there if you want them and if you don't have time to read them you just click to make the backup posts that only show up as a number go away.

I integrated my link list from bloglines into my blog and have all my blog links showing except for the junk ones, but you don't have to. You can keep your blogroll if you want.

It's easy. Join, click on feeds, and click add, enter in the blog address and submit. You're good to go. Add as many as you want and in a few hours you'll see updated posts and enjoy all the wonder that is Bloglines. Did I mention it saves time? No longer do I have to hunt for new posts, I can see all the new ones on one page.

Updates

We took a picture of the four of us on our lot the other day, so we can start taking progression pictures from before it's built to when it's completed. SO fun! That was the first time I got excited. We picked out our kitchen - wowzers did we spend a LOT on it, but everybody keeps telling us it'll be worth it, that the kitchen makes the house. We're doing this for resale or rental down the road, so pretty kitchen equals quick rental or sale. Not that I'm not going to enjoy every bit of it while I'm there!! hehe We added a few other things, like a door to the backyard through the garage, stairs to the attic, dual sinks in the master bathroom, and a few others that I forget. Little things, but things that will really make the house usable when it's completed.

As far as the boys schooling, Girl I know you were curious, we decided to keep them in the two day school for as long as we can and as long as it works for them and then go from there. Shawners will start kindergarten next year - SO cute, and Justinbustin will go into third grade - scary! A friend of ours will be teaching his math and science class so that should be interesting. The math part does seem a little slow for him so maybe we will work on more on our own. For now we have a peace with sending them to that school and letting them AND us get a little more foundation under our belts before we move on to anything else.

Counseling is going AWESOME. I heart him. It's funny, since we are dealing with going through my childhood right now I've been sharing a lot of his insights with my sister who went through the same crap and they end up being light bulb moments for her as well. That's really neat for her to hear. We've just gotten to the teenage years and will work on that a little more next week and then start working on some strategies to get past some of the issues that we've talked about.

Brando and I were hanging on by a thread there for a month or so, but the last five days have been REALLY great. We had that wonderful family weekend which just completely fills up my love tank. I'm hoping that going through the counseling will help me deal better when things are hard.

My schedule is still cram packed, but now that I'm used to it I'm finding more of a balance. I've been trading babysitting with a friend for school which has worked out well so as to not take too much time off Brando's work. Her baby boy is one of the ones whose birth I was at last year so he holds a special place in my heart - I call him Squishy from Finding Nemo, "He is my squishy and I will call him Squishy." He is SO much fun to watch and has such adorable cheeks. Now that things are settling a little bit and we're actually getting some family time in I might actually have more time for social stuff here soon, besides watching The Hills and chatting til' midnight with my neighbor on Monday nights teehee.

Another Class

Last week I talked to my professor after class about not being able to answer the question, "What do you like about you?" He had called me out on my hems and haws on that question and my lack of answers during a group discussion, even when I was open beforehand. I shared my lack of confidence from not being in a school setting for highschool and he was so nice about it and gave a great pep talk. He asked me to do three things, 1. Stop calling myself stupid (I wasn't! Okay I guess I was when I said I FELT that way - sheesh, picky picky) 2. Step out of the box (what box? I like these walls!) 3. Give my intelligence. So I walked away thinking crap somebody knows my inner secrets I can't show my face again. Then I remembered he also told me the conversation would stay between him and me and nobody would know unless I wanted them to know and I realized I could let people know that in time, they don't know have to know that off the bat about me, if at all. That, and sweet Justinbustin offering to pray for me, gave me the confidence to go in there tonight and KNOW that I could do this class and totally open up, which I did and had a GREAT time. After class he actually commented on how great I did, that he was afraid I might withdraw after our conversation and he was just amazed how out there I was. Go me!

It DOES happen sometimes!

We just went through a four hour cleaning marathon of the boys room. That would be all four of us. For four hours. Yep. It was that bad. We got rid of eight trash bags full. And we took a trip to Toys R Us - Shawner's version of finding toys that had been given up for lost - good thing, because he'd been begging to go all day. It's hilarious how they fight and cry and are sooooo upset that they God forbid! have to clean their room. Brando handles all that with them MUCH nicer than I do, so he did take care of it, and after fifteen minutes or so they gave up fighting it and pitched in. It's useless to tell them all the benefits of a cleaned room and cleared out crap during. But afterwards? They've been coloring in there for the last half hour, quiet and content as two mice snug in a rug.

A Perfect Kind of Night

We went to a grand opening of a branch of the bank that my neighbor works at today. Boy do they pull out all the stops - professional face painting, pancakes with blueberries, peaches, and whip cream, sno cones, bounce houses, $1500 AmEx card drawing - usually they have a stretch Hummer limo they take the kids around in as well, but it couldn't fit down the steep driveway of this branch. We went for the monkey they usually have, but the branch that my neighbor works at was the last one to have one : ( . Boo! We had a great time any way, the kids loved it and it was free.

We came home and the boys and I went to the pool while Brando stayed home with an allergy attack. I got to wear my new bathing suit (I've been wanting one like this forEVER - the white with the pink hibiscus flower type)! We soaked up some sun and the boys played on their favorite alligator and then we headed back just as Brando was feeling better.

Brando played football outside (on the sidewalk, that's chaning soon hehe) with the boys and then cleaned the Brownie duty off the deck. Yay! I can open my french doors to let in the breeze again!


I made smokey bbq bacon cheddar hamburgers tonight and then made a beer and ice cream run as the boys cleaned up the kitchen. I also picked up some nails for my cute new coffee signs for my kitchen and the boys and Brando helped direct me as to where they should go as I nailed them up above the kitchen cabinets.

It's a perfect
kind of night.

TMNT

Took the boys to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tonight. Fun! Shawner's eyes were huge and his jaw was dropped the whole time! Adorable. Justinbustin loved it and is trying to figure out when it comes out on DVD. Ditched a girl's night to be with family tonight - we needed it!

The Cut!

and the obligatory crappy after haircut photo

Update: Oh crap! I have no idea how the comments got disabled on this post! I saw that yesterday and thought Haloscan wasn't working - I didn't realize it was only this post.

THANKS S for helping me pick the hairstyle :)! We beautymarked short haircuts over at TeamSugar (scroll down to see my latest bookmarks) and I took her pictures and mine in to combine the two and come up with one haircut that I love! Brando HEARTS it (can guys heart things?) and he couldn't believe I was so happy with it with how much I cut off. I think he likes how much I love it even better!

Oh and Cali Girl, I don't have any other pictures with just me in it yet. The kids and I did take a bunch of crazy fun pictures with photo booth on Macs after this though teehee. I'll post them as soon as I do!

Absent Much

Which is pretty much what I'll be this next week. What I have going on this week...

*Counseling
*Class starts (went to the first one tonight - yay!)
*Hair appt.
*Eyebrow appt.
*House design appt.
*Trading babysitting (did that today as well)
*Justinbustin's school starts back up this week
*Cub scouts
*Dinner, coffee, and/or scrapbooking on Wednesday with a friend (whatever I'm not too tired for)
*Tentative girls night out Friday with a few girlfriends

FUN! But BUSY! So be forewarned if I'm not here, it's because I'm there.

Speaking of my class it was great! The instructor is awesome and very friendly. There's only five students in the class so far - probably because it's right at the five o'clock traffic hour which is great for the size. He had us talk to each other for twenty minutes and then introduce somebody else other than us. There's three guys and another girl probably about my age and I. She's cute and young, so that's fun. He told us the class is going to be all about us, that we'd write a lot of papers but wouldn't have to go to the library because we are the subjects. The questions he asked us and what we discussed today were, "What do you want?", "What can you get [from college, and from this class]?", "What's the difference between high school & college?" (which didn't really apply to me because I didn't do things the traditional way, but I have my theory on it any way). I think it's going to be really great because that's what I need right now - figuring out what I think and feel and believe and easing into the student and college life without feeling like I'm being thrown in.

Oh and this weekend we watched my neighbor's daughter all week as her sister was out of town and went to the Texas State Fair and Rodeo! We did the fair part which wasn't a whole lot, but that Shawners he LOVES animals - we watched the sheep show for two hours (hot dogs, bbq beef sandwiches, funnel cakes and all), Justinbustin rock climbed and we had an awesome time in the beautiful 76 degree weather.

Fun stuff!

We Sold Our Van!

The mini van that is. Yup, we decided to hang on to the two smaller cars despite the car payment on one of them because you know what? It's really nice to have a car where EVERYthing works, plus if we had held onto the paid for minivan the gas mileage was higher, the miles were higher, and the maintenance - well plain and simple there's just more of it. We put $800 into it the day after we bought it for gosh sakes. We've put the same amount into the VW since then in car payments but at least it didn't have to be all in one big chunk - and the brakes don't squeak, and the remote works, and I don't have to open and close the sliding doors for my kids all the time because they are too heavy for my kids to close! Any way that was a divine work because we've had it up on Craigslist and haven't had any calls for THREE weeks. Then this last week when we REALLY need the moolah to put towards our home, we get two calls on the van. The first potential buyers didn't pan out because they couldn't meet us at a good time for us, the second one came with cash and paid on the spot. I'm pretty sure God is letting us know that He has us in mind right now which is REALLY good because I really need to be reminded of that right now.

Ahhhh That's Better

Oh my word I have been in SUCH a funk today. I finally locked myself in my bathroom and spent two hours giving my toesies a pedicure, doing a mask on my face, tweezing my eyebrows, and filing my nails - pampering girlie stuff. Ahhh I feel SO much better now. I needed that.

Next week I'm so getting my eyebrows professionally done so I don't feel like a bush!! That and my hair. I'm going short people. It's summer and it's Texas summer so buh-bye long hair, I've had it long enough any way!

S, since you're a fellow Teamsugar addict how about you start beauty marking some fun cute short haircuts with me : ) ? What is your username by the way? Mine is sundrops (big surprise).

Oh and overheard last night in What About Brian? was something I had figured out a few weeks ago. I had included a day with the girls and manicures with it though. Nic (to Deena): Boys and their video games - what is it with that. What would be the female equivalent? Deena: I don't know. Pedicures?

Making CDs

Who knew iTunes makes it so easy? I do this thing where I will balk at understanding something until I finally have a need for it and then I dive head on into it. We've had iTunes for years, but I've never wanted a CD so bad that I took the time to figure it out. Justinbustin has been begging for CDs for years but it's not until he started listening to his Christmas CD in March that I decided to get in gear with this whole CD thing. We went through all my iTunes songs to pick the songs he liked. I put them in different playlists for each CD - alternative, rock, inspirational - stuck the CD in the slot, and clicked burn cd. Ta-da! Done. I even figured out how to print a super fun mosaic playlist and cd cover for him. His response? "I love you." with his big ol' ear to ear grin that lights up his face. SO much fun. Now I'm excited to make my own CDs!


Not that the kid doesn't have his own iPod, he just likes his discman his Uncle M gave him.

TeamSugar

Okay I have to share a little link I've just discovered. I've hesitated because it's been overwhelmingly confusing. It's Teamsugar - the cutesy name because they've got bloggers on the same site named FabSugar (for fashion), FitSugar (for health), YumSugar (for food), and so on.

One feature that I LOVE and which is what finally got me to make a homepage just so I could do it is the ability to 'beauty mark' your finds. If you find a product you like you click your bookmark "Save to Teamsugar", mine is saved at the top of my browser in the tool area, and you're taken to a page to pick what category you want it to go in - Fab Find, Beauty Mark, Fit Find, Yum Market, etc. Once you select that you're taken to a page where you can select an image from the page you want to save. You can add any of your thoughts to it and save it. The image is saved along with your description and the original link to your teamsugar homepage for you to pull up whenever. There's also the ability to leave comments on pretty much anything and everything you want. Another fun feature is when you are reading articles posted by Teamsugar you can add it to favorites on your Teamsugar account. I've bloglined (that deserves another post of it's own) the FabSugar blog and I get a gazillion new posts there a day - too many to read but it feels a bit like InStyle online. There's also a few personal bloggers on there which it's a perfect girlie community to find bloggers in!

Despite the initial confusal there is a lot more to it, and a lot of fun features on it that are worth figuring it out.

Spontaneity

So how many of you are really truly spontaneous? Apart from having a friend in town last minute and having only a short time to be able to see them, apart from having a one time shot at a once in a lifetime opportunity, how many of you are truly spontaneous enough that you would jump up at the option to go on a friend's last minute idea to go do something you can do any day of the week? Or decide to have a couple over for dinner at the last minute? I guess what I'm getting at is I suck at spontaneity! I rock spontaneity - it's the being TOO spontaneous that gets me in trouble. Hehe When I try to be spontaneous I forget things I've planned and do a plan over something that I've already planned which SUCKS because then I have to flake on the person I made my super fun spontaneous plans with. Then, in turn, if the person I had plans with in the first place has to flake on me THEY feel bad because I cancelled my secondary plans that I shouldn't even have made at all. It's like double booking. Airlines do it. Doctor's offices do it. People shouldn't. I don't give a crap about the plans falling through because I'm in my comfy Abercrombrie workout capris, Roxy shirt, and enjoying a quiet night with my family. Still it would be a whole lot better if there wasn't all this feel bad going around and it wouldn't have been there if I had just kept the PSD spontaneity in check!

Nervous as all heck

Tomorrow I have a counseling appointment. I've been wanting to set one up for well over a year but haven't had the guts to do it. I want to deal with issues I have that affect my relationships with others, mainly my hubby, and to realize what I'm doing that's tearing down rather than building up that I may not even be aware of!! A year later, and many, many conversations with couples that are good friends where the girl has gone through counseling, then the guy and girl together who have said how good it's been for them and made me feel better about it, I've finally made the appointment. Funny thing is right now I'm in a REALLY good space. Last month? Not so much. It might be a good thing because I'll be able to talk more objectively about when things DO seem so darn hard. In the meantime I'm nervous about what the heck I'm going to talk about!

Update: It went great! He was wonderful, unlike any. other. guy. I know which is a good thing for me. I blabbered on and he made sense out of my strung together sentences in a way I completely did not say but meant. He brought up a few theories he's been developing for a new book he's writing and said he wanted to hear my history over the next few times so he's not assuming anything and then discuss some of these theories. I loved how he talked about a relationship with God and Scripture in casual conversation. He was really encouraging of me being there even though I wasn't in crisis mode, mentioning that we can always bring those issues up, that people think they have to have a gun to their head, but that's not the case. He really validated the fact that I could live a better life than my parents - not that they live a bad life. I'm excited to actually become a better mom and a better wife, and hopefully not DAMAGE my kiddos. I'm really excited about working on some of those issues!

Gift Cards Rock

Especially Pottery Barn gift cards... I have been wanting a salad serving set forEVER and these beaded ones are just GORGEOUS. Oh and from the picture above that I'm getting the pretty red plates and the coffee creamer and sugar set from the picture above that one. It was only a $50 gift card - let's not get all crazy here!! Can you believe I've NEVER bought anything from Pottery Barn before? Funny, too, because Texans are OBSESSED with Pottery Barn - at least anyone within a 60 mile radius of the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos which includes Austinites. Can't wait to get them!

So Much News

Thursday I can't remember what the heck I did except that I wanted to post something and forgot.

Friday the boys and I went over to Kel Bel's and Kel and I tanned (her hubby made fun of my whiteness *pout*) on her volleyball court - the boys watched movies and played their gameboys and I so did not care - I was going to get some sort of color if it was the only thing I did that day.

Her hubby had been out of town all week and surprised her by coming home on Thursday night so Brando met us out there later and we stuck around for dinner. Kel and I went to the grocery store and got an education on beef. Did you know the t-bone has both the new york steak and the filet mignon on it? The first is the top, longer part, and the latter is the bottom smaller part - hence the bigger the filet, the better the cut. Interesting. We had t-bones, rib eyes, new york steaks, pan fried asparagus, garlic bread, and strawberry, yellow bell pepper, red onion, and spinach salad with strawberry viniagarette dressing, and hung around until 11:30pm or so and then headed home.

If you've been following our house saga you kind of know the ups and downs we've been through lately, if not here it is in a coconut shell.

We found a rental down south but the price was too high, they lowered the price for us and we thought on it for awhile but they offered it at the lower price and it was snatched up. I was bitterly disappointed. I so want to be in a house.

Good thing that came out of that? We started talking about buying instead of renting. So we started looking. We checked out a few homes and a few fixer uppers in the area we want to be in and they either already had a contract on them, didn't work for us, or were way too much work

Then one of Brando's clients found a community that we had overlooked because they don't sell to investors whom Brando works with. His clients signed a contract for a lot with the house to be built and we saw what an awesome opportunity it was. There was an opportunity to buy the last decent lot in Phase 1, read: least expensive equals least mortgage and most appreciation. So we took the time to make our decision, walked into the office and said we wanted it and the guy had just gotten off the phone with a lady who he'd given his word to hold the lot for. I was disappointed.

Good thing that came out of that? Well, I started to think twice about living down south. I started to think about the traffic coming up the highway, Mopac, I started to think about the fact that it is south not northwest which is where we live now. Even though we'd be in a house, the southwest part of Austin is as pretty as northwest but south is not so much. I realized I love my friends up here and even though I'd have opportunities to foster new relationships down south, I decided that was okay if that didn't happen. I decided that I'd be okay with having to live up here if need be. I stopped being so greedy about having to live down south.

Then? His clients had to back out. Their half a million dollar Florida home had gone down in value $100,000 since they bought it and they weren't going to be able to get the equity out of it they needed to put the money down on the new place, besides being upside down. So? We had the opportunity to get their lot.

Talk about being confused!!!!!!!! Why all the nos then the yess? I couldn't think straight with this new information! I talked to a friend and she said it was like a roller coaster, that you'd almost have to look at it as a clean slate, a fresh start. Such good advice! That's exactly what we did and all of a sudden it seemed so much clearer. It's a BRAND NEW home, in a BRAND NEW community, as close to downtown Austin as we are going to get with our price range, there are homes across the street that are five years old that are the same price OR MORE, there are 4 bedrooms, a yard, a beautiful kitchen, and it's an excellent builder. The highest quality of the mid range. For an investment opportunity, this was a screaming deal. Even if we just live in it for two years, we rent it out or sell it and put the equity down on another rental property so we have instant cash flow. Things seemed so much clearer now.

Saturday we signed the papers for the house!! It's to be built in the next 4-6 months so we have time to get our stuff together. SO excited. Strangely I feel quite a peace about this decision - like it's a very wise one if it works out and if not, that's okay too. God has better plans in mind for us.Tomorrow we check with their loan officer which we have to use to get an extra 3% in incentives and make sure we're okay with working with them and then we start the process of getting approved for the loan via their loan company - we're already approved with ours, unfortunetly we can't use them. SOOOO EXCITED!!

Booty Shakin'

Kel Bel and I went salsa dancing downtown at Speak Easy tonight. SO. MUCH. FUN. I've never salsa danced before so we went upstairs and she taught me the basics and how to shake my bootay. We did get on the dance floor once for an easy song that her and I danced to. What a freaking blast! And who knew? I CAN shake my booty. Without a drink!



I so stopped by Walmart on the way home for a tall mirror to perfect my booty shakin' on the advice of Courtney and Kel Bel. Heh.

Broadway's Lion King

Brando bought us tickets to Disney's Lion King Broadway show at the Austin Bass Concert Hall last fall for tonight and it was AMAZING. We had 10th row orchestra seats with an amazing view. The costumes were enchanting and the cast was incredible. What an experience!! I'm SO glad my boys got to experience that, especially so young, and myself as well!
Update: Yes the boys LOVED it! They were wide eyed the ENTIRE time. At some points it was more fun to watch them than the show : ) .

Reverse Roles

Have you ever been in the mode of just NOT WANTING to do the necessities? That's what I'm in right now. With the boys home it feels like shoveling snow while it's still snowing. So I wait until Brando comes home and do it then or he does it. The sucky part is I don't get to enjoy it then, just for a few brief seconds and then I go to sleep before I wake up in the morning to another disaster. Sometimes I feel like a backyard would fix everything. I could just MAKE them go outside to play, then at least the snow would subside for a minute. I try to convince myself it'd be just another factor they'd get bored with but having always had a backyard in the past I know that's not the truth - they freaking love it. In the meantime I'm stuck shoveling snow while it's still snowing.

Kid Cuteness

As we came home tonight Shawners tells me, "I really like you because you smell good only when you take a shower." - I'm pretty sure that confirms Courtney's suspicions that Shawners is calling me stinky. Oh boy now that's starting to scare me : ) !

Then tonight he says to me, "Superman is going to marry you." Brando says Superman already did marry me and Shawners says, "No, me."

Today Justinbustin made a note that says, "High Scores - The highest one in the world was 10,000 but then my Daddy beat it."

Can't Get Enough

girl time. Wednesday night I downed a few and watched The Hills with L - we stayed up way too late and talked way too much.

Thursday night I went over to spend some time with M while Brando worked late. The kids watched cartoons in her room while we sat and chatted and it felt like old times when she was pregnant with sweet baby K.

Friday night I spent the night at Kel Bel's again, only this time Brando kept the boys. Her and I went to Nutty Brown's for beers, jalapeno poppers, southwestern egg rolls, and bad karaoke. We talked loud, dared each other to do karaoke - once I learn how I'm totally dragging her up there and she DOES know how to sing, and laughed even harder. We got home at 12:30am and fell asleep watching Stepford Wives. We woke up right when the main character's head comes off and sleepily crawled into bed to sleep the rest of the night.

Saturday we woke up and shared an avocado, bacon, and tomato omelette and french toast downtown at the bar at Kerbey Lane Cafe. We decided to walk the shops on South Congress, which is called SoCo, and is something we've both been dying to do but hadn't done. We found a costume store - perfect for the masquerade ball girls we'll be for Halloween, Uncommon Objects with bizarre but mostly wonderful antiques (LOVE those places!), and Parts & Labour with complete Austin artist creations and my favorite jewelry maker's wares. We walked and shopped three blocks before we headed home so we'd still have a few to cover the next time. We have so much fun together and LOVEd it as much as we thought we would!

Kel Bel and I parted ways and friends came over to our house for a dinner of Monterey Chicken, grilled zucchini, spinach salad with tomato and avocado, foccocia with olive oil, garlic, & balsamic vinegar, and brownie sundaes for dessert.

When they left I went over to L's and yakked until midnight with her while she baked and decorated a cake for her boyfriend, wrapped his presents - she bought him the Rocky dvd series he loves and had but had gotten stolen and a Steiner mix pack with a red bow on top, and wrote his cards.

Sunday, today, we went to church and then to lunch with the new social coordinator for our sunday school class, her hubby, and another couple from our class. We brainstormed ideas and created a social team with the other girl and I to boost her along. One of the ideas we came up with was the kayaking on Town Lake with the whole group. Sounds like a blast!

This afternoon Brando slept like a baby and the boys watched movies and cartoons while I hung out at M's with her and Casbar, her coworker, while they made enchiladas and cookies for another coworker who just had a baby.

We finished off the weekend with a hike on the cliffs of the mountain next to Austin's locally famous 360 bridge.

Looking for a House

is like having a baby. You've got to plan, prep, prepare for dissappointments (!), sicknesses, blah, blah, blah. We found a rental in a nice neighborhood for a good price nine minutes from our church and Justinbustin's school. It didn't work out, so we knew there was something better out there. After that happened we decided to go ahead and buy since we'd be paying the same. We can't buy what we would REALLY want so we're looking at what will work and what will rent out well after a few years for investment purposes.

We found that today in a new home development - beautiful gorgeous houses that were IT when we walked in. We took care of Brando's clients who bought one of the last lots available and decided on the other lot available for ourselves. We walked into the office to sign on the dotted line and the guy had just got off the phone with a lady who he gave his word to to hold until she could come in the next day for her 11:15am closing with the check. On older houses two or three people will place bids and the seller accepts the one they like the best. With new houses it's pretty much you want it or not. The guy said he didn't know what to do - this was the first time this had happened to him in a long time and he didn't know what the legal issues were. Brando asked him what he would usually go by and the guy said he usually goes by his word. Brando says he respects that this guy gave his word to someone else, and if you can't go by your word what else can you go by? And so we didn't get the house.

There's a reason for this, after all this was such a HUGE improvement over the rental that I was HIGHLY disappointed about not getting. It is brand new, had a bigger yard, was $20k less than the range we'd been looking at, and only 4 minutes further from the church than the rental house was, as well as being OURS not a lease. Whatever the reason is for not getting this house we may know in a few years or we may not ever know but there is one. In the meantime I'm house hunting venting to Kel Bel and reminding myself that the same thing happened to us two and a half years ago when we looked in Cedar Park (north Austin) and somebody put a contract on the same house the morning of the day we decided to sign the papers and look at how much has happened in this journey of life since - we went to California, Brando got in with real estate, we've met some AMAZING friends, and learned a bajillion and one things along the way.

PS Not to compare houses to babies... babies trump houses hands down. But houses are nice. :D

first thursday

Austin has an event called first thursday (yes, with no capitals) every first Thursday of the month on South Congress aka SoCo where all the local artists and musicians get together and display their wares and talents. Oh. my. gosh. LOVE it! I found a website of a lady whose jewelry I just LOVE and I emailed her back and forth a few times this week about how she was similar to one of my favorite stores in Santa Cruz called Artisan's Gallery. She suggested a place she sells her stuff at that might be similar. Can't wait to go there! She also suggested first thursday which happened to be two days later - today. I thought Justinbustin had boy scouts tonight so we had some time to kill down south and stopped by her booth. SUCH CUTE stuff. Just as beautiful in person as on her web sites. Since I have four birthdays coming up in the next week all in the family, I killed four birds with one stone and quite an inexpensive stone at that. I usually don't get everyone gifts because frankly there's just too many but my mother-in-law's birthday is her 50th and so I got her something special because we haven't done anything else for her birthday and then picked up my sister, sister-in-law, and good friend who is also also my brother's fiancee pretty little rings. Simple and sweet. Diane, the lady who designs the jewelry, is SO fun and SO cute herself. She only designs jewelry she would wear and that she likes and I like her style! Now I know where I'll be going for birthday gifts from now on.

This is what I got for my sister and sister-in-law. So casual cute.This is what I got for my good friend who is also my brother's fiancee. I also got one for me! Yay! I can't find a picture of what I got my MIL but they are gorgeous hoops with beautiful crystals hanging from them.