Free Homemade Gifts Tag...

This is what you do:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a song. It may be a self portrait or maybe even some creation I haven't yet dreamed up. I may draw. I may bake you something and mail it to you. It may not be big or impressive. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! So come on, sign up!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

Decisions, decisions...

Whew! The last couple of months have been CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY! We have moved from Montana to Idaho with very few hitches. We were concerned our house in Montana wouldn't sell because of the housing market and all, but within 3-4 weeks after we listed it, we received an offer and accepted it! YEAH! I was literally ready to do a victory dance...but somehow managed to control myself, barely. With that sold, we knew we'd be able to get into a house here in Idaho sooner than we thought. We had planned on living with my parents until our house sold in Montana. We had already moved in with them (and we still are living with them currently). But, things don't always go as planned...

Mike and I have had a difficult time choosing a house. We seriously have looked at over 40 houses and have re-looked at some of those a few times, too. We have an awesome realtor working with us, who has been extremely patient with us. We have finally narrowed the choices down to two houses.

Here is the deal--we have found a house that has everything we want in a house and it is in a excellent neighborhood. The only catch to this house is that it is at the very top of our price range. We could afford it, but money would have to be watched. The other house we found is $40,000 cheaper and the location is perfect. It is in the school district we wanted and very close to Mike's work. We would be able to save money each month, too. But, neither of us like the house that much. We do like that it comes with 2 acres (Brooke still asks for a pig on a regular basis :0) so we'd be able to do a future 4-H project), the location, and school district, but the house needs a little updating to make it something I'd like to live in. The other house is a lot bigger, very nice, and basically brand new. But, we would be tighter on money.

So, what do we do? That's where Mike and I are stuck. We could get into a house we like, or we could buy a house that is cheaper and put money into it hoping to recover what we put into the house if we decide to sell and upgrade at a later point.

Have I lost everyone yet? Anyway, this is where Mike and I are right now...we're going to look at both houses AGAIN tonight and compare and contrast and pray and hopefully by Friday make an offer. If anyone has any insights, please feel free to share!

On a different note, my camera is packed with half of our stuff in a storage unit in Helena, so I'll be posting picture free for awhile (unless I can sweet talk my sisters into sharing some pictures with me or until I get my hands on my parents' camera!). I may have to hint to Mike about getting me a new camera for my b-day next month...we'll see. :0)

Eight Years, Eight Moves

Yep, that's right, Mike and I are moving..again! We have been married eight years and this will be our eighth move. We are kind of tired of moving, but this move is kind of our own doing. Mike is a civil engineer for the USDA-NRCS (if anyone really wants to know what the acronym stands for, let me know). :0) He gets transferred to different places every so often. But this transfer is one we put in for. We are heading to Rexburg, Idaho! It is kind of a bittersweet move (more sweet than bitter for me, though). We love, love, love Montana and the great people here, so we are sad to be leaving them, but in the same breath, we've missed being close to family, too. So, we are going to give it a whirl and see what it's like being close to family.

We've been super busy...the only reason I'm writing right now is because both monkeys are actually asleep at the same time and I have 1/2 hour before a realtor comes. I thought I'd take a minute to let everyone know where we're heading and why I probably won't be writing for some time! Until then, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Pep Talk...

So, when Brooke was going through her TERRIBLE two's, I used to call Mike daily for a "pep talk." Seriously, I would call him and say I needed a pep talk to get through the rest of the day. If he wasn't available, I'd usually call a sister. I haven't had to call and get a pep talk for a long time, but today was another story...to be honest, though, it wasn't so much for a pep talk as it was to inform Mike of why his house was going to look like a hurricane hit it (well maybe two little hurricanes named Brooke and Emily).

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Mike and I went down to my parents' house to visit. While we were there, we had family pictures taken (of all my siblings, their kids, etc). So, this morning I was talking to one of my sisters on the phone, while looking at the pictures online. We were discussing which pictures we liked and what not. Well, it was awfully quiet in my house, so I checked on the girls, and they had spilled Honey Nut Cheerios all over the living room floor...not such a big deal, but the cereal dust from the bottom of the box was all over, too. I asked the girls to help clean it up. Mike had let Ginger (our dog) in last night because it was freezing last night. Well, we hadn't taken her water bowl off of the kitchen floor, yet, and Emily decided Ginger needed some of the Cheerios. I told her not to put Cheerios in the water, so she reached in and took the Cheerios out and popped them into her mouth! Yuck!

We finally got all the cereal cleaned up and I called my other sister to talk to her. While talking to her, the girls went downstairs to play. They were playing so nicely, or so I thought. I went down to see what all the giggling was about and found them both in the bathroom with the door shut. Not a good sign, I know. I open the door and a nice fragrance hits me before I realize that my two Costco sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner, plus another bottle of shampoo and a bottle of baby body wash is all over the bathroom rug, Emily's hair and clothes, Brooke's hair and clothes, and wherever else! Brooke was going potty at the time,too. When I walked in she said, "I'm a big girl now because I can wash my hair by myself!" Nice.

After I get that cleaned up, I went upstairs to e-mail my mom and let her know what I want for pictures. Emily started crying, so I went downstairs and found she was tied to the window shade and couldn't move. Her sweet sister tied the shade cord to Emily's back belt loop and Emily couldn't go anywhere! I had to laugh a little, but then explain to Brooke that Emily could get the cord wrapper around her neck or something, and so she was NOT to do this again.

About this time, I called Mike and told him I was ready for my pep talk. He said, "Already? It's not even noon, yet." I said, "Exactly."

The rest of the day was a little better, but I pretty much spent it cleaning my house. We'll see what my little hurricanes come up with tomorrow!