Ups and downs

It's been such an emotional roller coaster these past few days.

Two nights ago, we were packing and moving things in and out of the house. Ginger somehow ended up in the middle of the street and got hit by a car. A bystander stopped and took her body from the street and laid her on the grass. We had no idea what had happened at the time. 10-15 minutes passed and Taty started looking for Ginger and the bystander asked if she was looking for a dog. She looked over and saw Ginger's lifeless body on the side of the road. I was inside at the time when Taty came looking for me to tell me what happened. I didn't know what to do. The lady said Ginger was already dead when she took her out of the street. I couldn't believe it and I still can't believe she's really gone. She was just there.

Also Ella just left with Nok and Noy and family for FL. While they are going to move there for a few years, Ella will be staying with them for a month. It feels so empty already. My heart feels so unsettled. With them gone, Thou will have none of his family members here. Bree was the only one who stayed back for school. I really hope one of the girls will consider moving back to stay with us when the school year starts again. I don't know what we are going to do without them. They have been our lifeline for so long now.

New job also meant quitting my current job at Northwest Family Physicians. I just put in my two weeks notice in yesterday. It's going to be hard to go. I've built some really good relationships here and as if leaving wasn't hard enough, Rich also gave me a guilt trip about leaving making me feel even worse. I think everyone goes through it and I've been through it before, but it never gets easier.

I guess the good always goes with the bad. I have an awesome new job, with an awesome boss. Bought a new house and renovating it to my liking. Two once in a lifetime trips coming up. So many good, bittersweet moments.

Just gotta remember to be POSITIVE.

New house, new job! =D

So we closed our home on June 2, 2015. I looked at my last post and I didn't realize how so much sooner we would be owning our own home. Looking at the list now, I realize I go almost everything I wanted-the kitchen not so much, but am currently working on it.

I also landed a full-time mammography job with Shared Medical Services thanks to Kym Lokken-one of the girls I went to school with! With her referral and my job history I got the offer in May. It's amazing how blessed we have been this past 5 years and hoping for even more blessings for years to come. 

Our new home is a 3 bed 4 bath ranch style home in New Brighton on a cul de sac situated very close to Pike Lake. It needs a little updating but very livable. We had contractors come out right away to knock down the walls on both sides of the fireplace to open up the living room to the dining room. One side of the fireplace consisted of a mantle and now there is really nothing there but lopsided bricks so we are having a stone guy come out and give us an estimated cost on re-stoning it. There are still so much projects to do before we can really be situated! Despite the work, I am ready to tackle them! Here is a list of what has been done and still needs to be done:

• Knock out walls on either side of fireplace to open up the space
• Re-stone fireplace
• Install hardwood floors
• Kitchen cabinets and counters
• Install new toilets and bathroom vanities
• Install crown molding
• Sand and paint wall base, wall trims, and window casings
• White indoor doors with new knobs
• Re-tile bathroom

So much to do but I'm so looking forward to it!

More home stuff..

As I'm sitting here at work, my mind keeps wandering off to what kind of home we'll have an almost a year here. I've been going back and forth on Pinterest finding ways to personalize my future home and though I'm okay with a ready-to-move in home, I know it probably won't have exactly everything that  I'm envisioning.

Top of my list of what I want in a home:

• House
• Ranch style (one level)
• Facing west or south
• Mounds View/New Brighton/St. Anthony/Shoreview/Arden Hills area
• White kitchen
• Dark wooden floors
• Glass cabinet doors
• Dark wood floors
• Gray granite counters or light wooden counters
• White or gray tile back splash
• Big island with a bar
• Breakfast nook nestled in a corner somewhere
• Formal dining room as an option
• Lots of light and windows
• Stainless steel appliances
• Living room
• Lots of light
• Roomy
• Can be hardwood or carpet
• Tall ceilings
• Bedrooms
• Mastered with master bathroom (bath/shower/toilet/double sinks)
• 3 bedrooms on one floor
• Bathrooms/Etc
• At least 2 bathrooms
• Separate bath/shower on main floor
• Washer/dryer on main floor

I know I won't be able to get everything on my list, but I am excited to get at least 25% of this. I'm excited for what houses become available this coming Spring and Summer!

House hunting process..

It's late but I can't fall asleep. Logan is up with me and we are both on our electronics. He's YouTubing while I'm looking up houses. Even though Thou and I haven't even been pre-approved, we've been looking nonstop. In the past 2 weeks, the houses have been literally falling off the market. There have been a few ones that I've seen that I've really liked but nothing that's reached out to me. Thou and I hope to be pre-approved by the end of this month and if not, we are going to wait one more month to do a credit pull. I'm desperate to make my credit look better so we can get the best possible rate out there. There are a few programs I'm interested that will help us with our down payment too so hopefully we use everything we have.

We are looking in the Mounds View school district and Saint Anthony district at the moment and there just isn't very much to choose from. Despite that, I'm determined to stay in the area because of the awesome school district.

The kind of house I hope to find is a one level ranch style with an open concept. I'm hoping by the time summer rolls around people will be more ready to sell their homes and there will be more to choose from. That, isn't happening so much right now.

I'm so excited and am even looking to do some interior remodeling if the house isn't exactly move-in ready. So ready to get my hands dirty!

Update

It's been so long since I've been here. It's finally a new year and we are looking to bigger and better things this year. The kids have also grown up so much and their personalities are evolving everyday. We moved to Mounds View 6 months ago to another rental and finally looking for a house to buy this year. Not only are we planning to move, we are planning a huge trip to Dubai at the end of October which I am so excited about!

Thanksgiving and Christmas came quickly and was a success as always. 2014 the flu was on a rampant and made its way to the kids. Logan and Noah ended up in ER and urgent care but was sent home with meds and lots of rest. Logan was the sickest he had ever been but finally getting over it. Noah is still sick but slowly recovering. His fever has disappeared but I can tell he's still gets fatigue. Of course my machine, Ella was only sick for a day or two and was fine after that.

Ella is 3 years old now. We plan on enrolling her into school next fall and hopefully in the Mounds View district. Ever since she saw Evan get on his bus, she's been begging to go to school. She's getting so smart and learning so quickly as always. To keep her busy, I attempted to enroll her into gymnastics but she didn't seem very interested in that so I think I might wait on that. Ella is really into Doc McStuffin, Monster High, make up, and so many other things.

Logan is 2 years old. He is still my sweet boy. He still struggles with speaking but I can tell he's been improving so much. His word of the moment is "Nice." I have no idea where he got that from. He is into Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Paw Patrol, and superheroes in general.

Noah is 1 and doing so great. He is slowly getting over his eczema. He still has a few spots behind his knee, the tops of his feet and chest but it's disappeared from his cheeks, inside his elbows and and hands. He's still such a tiny thing, but eating really good but just can't seem to get fat which is okay. He is so smart too and is already  learning how to say words here and there. Some of his words include, "c'mea", "go", "eat eat eat", "daddy", and the famous saying, "no." He understands so much. I have a feeling he's going to be my next Ella but a little tamer.

The kids get along pretty well for the most part. With Noah joining the party, it's gotten a little wilder.

Thou and I have been doing pretty well. Aside from some of the shit that we go through at the end of the day, we belong together and things always fall into place at the end of the day. I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else. I love that man.

We've been slowly planning our Dubai trip. It's going to quite a lot of money that we need to save up for the trip, but it will be well worth it! I'm so excited! Updates soon!

Career life has been okay for me. I'm still at Northwest Family in Urgent Care but with more hours. I've also taken on a per diem job in Red Lake that pays 1280 a weekend. I'm actually really excited about that opportunity. That'll give me hospital experience and more. It's quite the hike but I think I'll stay committed to that for 2015.

Thou's career has also taken off. He's taken on so many responsibilities now and got a small raise. I think he could've have gotten a better one but he's definitely getting there. I'm excited for what's to come for him.

Even though it was a rough start to 2015, I hope it's just a lesson to be better for 2015.

Happy New Year!