Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama

i know i'm late for saint patrick's day, and i am a little obsessed with this, but it's so funny!

house status

So we put an offer on a house on we saw on saturday. This was monday, we didn't hear back until tuesday when our offer was refused. The counter offer was still too high and so we offered a bit more than our first bid. The seller wouldn't budge, so we walked. It was frustrating but also freeing. I feel like now we know for sure what we have to do: rent. The house was great, but in God's good timing we will find another. We will rent for 12 months and be ready to find a new home.

Mark and is sick and home from work. Asa is well, but still in his pj's. I am feeling weird, but hopefully the headache and dizziness will go away before long. It's been a stressful beginning of the week! Hopefully the apartment complex we want to be in will have the appropriate sized unit available for us still. Then we can set everything up and start packing for real.

It's pretty dismal out. It feels like a day where all I would like to do is sleep.

I started my scrapbooking. Bought the materials needed and received all the pictures from Winkflash(which by the way does not have flat rate shipping anymore). I want to finish thatup before I get too serious about packing. It's hard to find the time with a toddler though. I have been so sleepy lately I go to bed really early. I eat a ton now too. My appetite has gotten HUGE! Only 6 weeks left.

update

still sick! I keep telling myself that I am better because it's been so long. But i still feel yucky! Coughing my brains out and feeling fatigued. I am even going to have to miss Grandpop's birthday :(



Asa just fell asleep in his booster chair. I was wondering why he was so quiet.

I DID MY TAXES!! It was very hard this year because we took money out of a mutual fund last summer....you wouldn't think something as minute as that would wreak such havoc on your filing of taxes, but I was on the phone with our investment company, h&r block and the IRS to figure out how to sholw that one item had long and short term gains and they were obviously accuired at different times....AH! I am so getting rid of our mutual fund, no lie---it is NOT worth all that aggrivation! I did finish though, and filed everything online. Except for my local which I will mail today. It feels so nice to have that done!! Early this year(for me). There are websites which offer free filing for people in certain salary brackets. I thought that was awesome. I use H&R Block Online because they have previous years on record and I am familiar with their software. Sometimes I get annoyed with them though because it's hard to figure out what they mean from their examples....

Next on the looming list of things I need to do soon: Finish Asa's baby book and some family albums. The hard part about that is the pictures are all still digital and stored on different computers some of which aren't connected to the internet. So I'll have to import them to this computer and send 'em over to Winkflash.com ( my favorite online picture developing company) then I can get crackin'.


Wednesday we are looking at 3 homes. Yes we changed our mind again and are hoping to buy quickly...maybe we are insane. I like all three homes. One is in a very good location and the other two are iffy. But they are all nice and spacious and one has a lot of property which would be great. I really hope and pray that one of them is the house for us and we can move things along quickly.

Here is the recipe for the BBQ sauce:
1 Bottle ketchup
1 Cup brown sugar
1 red onion (sliced in medium strips)
1 Tb Cumin
1 Tb Chili Powder(if its not very spicy add more)
3 Tb Dark Molasses (use less if desired)
salt and pepper
Pinch of Tabasco(we put 15 dashes)
Pinch of Coriander

Just add the onion last so you can mix everything together smoothly. slather on your meat and grill away! Seriously good tasting sauce here.

(Picture from Christmas, but I thought it was cute!)




Daylight time begins this Saturday night. Don't forget to Spring Forward :)

8 weeks and 2 days left

The flu wasn't very fun. It was Asa's first time. He is still on anti-biotics. I just have to take the nebulizer. It's amazing how terrible a bug can make you feel. It's been a week of this and hopefully it's about to be lifted from our home. Mark went back to work yesterday and thankfully wasn't touched by the flu. He was an amazing homemaker and nurse. He really surprised me with how attentive he was. He did the laundry dishes, made the meals brought me all my meds and made sure Asa got his as well. He is amazing :)


I have a lot of packing to do, only about 5 weeks left of this place. I have no energy or else I would be further along in the packing department.

I went to my PCP on monday and she checked me out. She is the sweetest doctor ever...seriously. She knows my OB and I was able to talk to her about some concerns with my umbilical hernia and pregnancy. Looks like I am going to go through a normal birth(God willing) and have my stomach fixed 6-8 weeks down the road. She reassured me about recovery time and the surgeon she would reccommend and I feel much better now.


We are leaning toward renting again. At this point I think we ran out of time to buy. Plus I don't really want to get involved in the stress of homebuying right before giving birth....We really haven't seen any homes we've liked anyway.


My grandfather's 80th birthday is this Saturday. There's going to be a party for him. I wanted to go to the Italian Market this week and buy him some goodies, but unfortunately i haven't been out of the house. I love the italian Market. Claudio's is a great store for olives and cheese and deli meats. The people who work there are so nice and friendly. Whenever we go down to the Italian Market(me and the same friends each time) we always go the Chinatown before hand for Dim Sum. It's a great time!! I love Dim Sum, but I usually eat just the kinds with shrimp...

I went to a Culinary Workshop with my mother-in-law last week. That was a lot of fun. They taught us how to make this amazing homemade bbq sauce. It was SO yummy! The chef taught us how to make boneless country style ribs from chuck roll. I learned alot and had a belly full of angus beef when I left. We also made this indian style chili which was outstanding!! I learned about Arrowroot being a better base for gravy than flour or corn starch..that was interesting. I also learned that McCormick spices discontinued Arrowroot...lol

Asa would like some Honey Bunches of Oats.