Here.....we go......again.
LOL
No really I'm not down in the dumps, or upset, or even stressing about whats to come because honestly when its right it will happen I know that.
So we have 5 good prospects on homes, of which we will begin looking at again come wednesday of this week.
The first 2 up are North of here, so closer to family which is good. The trade off is higher taxes and less yard....do I care? not sure on that yet.
We still have touch ups needed here at this house as well, such as half the kitchen floor, but we are going to put forth extra effort to whip it out.
In the meantime, I'm thankful school begins soon as it will give me extra time in the afternoons to get some of those projects completed.
First up this week is carpet cleaning. Oh for the love of God children + carpet = disaster. They have needed it for awhile but I've put it off thinking we were moving, then we didn't....now we might. Forgetaboutit. I'm having them done, then if they are awful when we move, redone.
I'm excited, I have to say! I'm looking forward not only to more space and a fresh new start but also the fall weather in which to do it (or winter as it might take that long...who would have thought we could house hunt for a YEAR? Thats nuts!). It will be a year since this madness began come Dec, thats so hard to believe. It feels different this time, pressure is off. Granted we still have the one bathroom and that is seriously, not fun? lol Let's just say my new laundry room has made life livable, and laundry no longer a chore. Reminds me...pics, I know lol. In my defense I did just get my computer back so I have not even thought about my camera, and right now I have about 12 loads to put AWAY lol, so maybe I'll snag that camera once I get that done tomorrow?? :)
thats all for now as I have a princess sitting to my left who is having a serious meltdown because I won't take her to eat chinese tonight. Oh the drama lol. I would but I'm on the 24 day challenge right now so my diet is super strict. But that's another post for another time ;)
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The end of summer approaches, and i'm reflective...
This has been what seems to me probably the shortest summer I can recall as an adult. Over the last few years (read probably like 10+ or so) summertime has presented itself as a time of challenge....how to keep the children occupied lol!
This summer has been so different, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe we have had more opportunities to enjoy activities? 5 of the kids took swim lessons this summer, 2 played baseball, we started kiddie bootcamps, I spent the first half of the summer in my own bootcamp, and also prepping for my first ever 5 mile marathon....we did a house addition, and did 3 other major house projects (2 of which still need a bit of finishing ;) ),....and still somehow managed to find time as a family to relax and just enjoy the weather.
A few of my kids got the chance to visit relatives, and will do so again in a few weeks when Dean and I take our first vacation away from the kids in like....ever lol. My 3 oldest girls got a chance to attend my cousins wedding in Valpo IN a few weeks ago, then spent 12 days afterward with my mom and step dad in IA. They had a blast but were sorely missed by mommy and daddy!! :) Nate also got a chance to go stay with his Nana for 2 nights along with his older cousin Catie up at Nana and Papa's cabin in central MI.
With all that said, this summer has literally flown by. I cannot recall ever a summer where we were quite so busy. In retrospect it was great....I wouldn't change a thing (other than maybe Dean being home a teensy bit more ;) ).
As I stood on my driveway a few mornings ago while Dean and I sipped our morning coffee, I felt summer making it's last stand. The seasons speak to me, and as funny as that seems its true. I can smell fall on the tip of the breeze now, as if it has a foot in the door just waiting for summer to finish it's final moment of glory and begin its journey away for 9 more months. It feels good, that feeling of life having been renewed, and the blessings of the harvest coming to a head. I love fall, thats no secret if you know me. While I used to loathe all other seasons, in the last few years I have actually come to love them almost as much, and find good things about each, especially since Lettie was born in the spring. I never appreciated spring before that other than the rain, but that was it. It was nothing more than a wet soggy (yet still cold lol) time of year. Now I so look forward to those fresh cool days where its almost warm enough to go without a jacket, and where you see the first signs of crocuses peeking out from the newly thawed ground.
Anyway, this post isn't about weather so much as its about seasons. I feel like I have finally come to peace with this season of my life. The past few years have brought many challenges, some of which I feared would break me because of how difficult they were, but this summer has taken a lot of those things and given me life perspective on them. I have come to terms (or am working on) with friendships, my job as mother, having 8 kids, where my future is leading me, losses and how to accept them, and finding joy regardless of what life throws my way. I wouldn't say I'm content, lol...I'm never content, I'm always searching to learn more, be better, love harder, see the beauty in simple things, be more thankful and trust God as much as humanly possible.
As the days grow shorter and the sun sets earlier, I'm reminded yet once again how truly blessed I am, and how amazing this journey called life continues to be.
This summer has been so different, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe we have had more opportunities to enjoy activities? 5 of the kids took swim lessons this summer, 2 played baseball, we started kiddie bootcamps, I spent the first half of the summer in my own bootcamp, and also prepping for my first ever 5 mile marathon....we did a house addition, and did 3 other major house projects (2 of which still need a bit of finishing ;) ),....and still somehow managed to find time as a family to relax and just enjoy the weather.
A few of my kids got the chance to visit relatives, and will do so again in a few weeks when Dean and I take our first vacation away from the kids in like....ever lol. My 3 oldest girls got a chance to attend my cousins wedding in Valpo IN a few weeks ago, then spent 12 days afterward with my mom and step dad in IA. They had a blast but were sorely missed by mommy and daddy!! :) Nate also got a chance to go stay with his Nana for 2 nights along with his older cousin Catie up at Nana and Papa's cabin in central MI.
With all that said, this summer has literally flown by. I cannot recall ever a summer where we were quite so busy. In retrospect it was great....I wouldn't change a thing (other than maybe Dean being home a teensy bit more ;) ).
As I stood on my driveway a few mornings ago while Dean and I sipped our morning coffee, I felt summer making it's last stand. The seasons speak to me, and as funny as that seems its true. I can smell fall on the tip of the breeze now, as if it has a foot in the door just waiting for summer to finish it's final moment of glory and begin its journey away for 9 more months. It feels good, that feeling of life having been renewed, and the blessings of the harvest coming to a head. I love fall, thats no secret if you know me. While I used to loathe all other seasons, in the last few years I have actually come to love them almost as much, and find good things about each, especially since Lettie was born in the spring. I never appreciated spring before that other than the rain, but that was it. It was nothing more than a wet soggy (yet still cold lol) time of year. Now I so look forward to those fresh cool days where its almost warm enough to go without a jacket, and where you see the first signs of crocuses peeking out from the newly thawed ground.
Anyway, this post isn't about weather so much as its about seasons. I feel like I have finally come to peace with this season of my life. The past few years have brought many challenges, some of which I feared would break me because of how difficult they were, but this summer has taken a lot of those things and given me life perspective on them. I have come to terms (or am working on) with friendships, my job as mother, having 8 kids, where my future is leading me, losses and how to accept them, and finding joy regardless of what life throws my way. I wouldn't say I'm content, lol...I'm never content, I'm always searching to learn more, be better, love harder, see the beauty in simple things, be more thankful and trust God as much as humanly possible.
As the days grow shorter and the sun sets earlier, I'm reminded yet once again how truly blessed I am, and how amazing this journey called life continues to be.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
bullets on a positive note.
Trying really hard to stay positive tonight, its been a really awful week full of my personal belongings, time and overall self being used, broken and invaded but never-the-less I’m trying to put the best foot forward and look for that tiny ray of sunshine in the midst of it all.
Here is my list style update, bullets of info about us this week.
1. My girls have been successfully delivered to IA as of Sunday evening. They will spend 10 days total with my mom, brother & wife and cousins until they return on the 2nd via a midnight train ( obligatory journey reference here ;) ). I miss them but am very happy that they are having such a great time out there. (and I wish I was with them, boo hoo!).
2. I am blogging right now for the first time on my brand new laptop. Just one of the expensive items my children sabotaged this week.
3. you would think with my girls being gone my house would be much quieter, but the truth is,…it isn’t. Boys make noise.period.
4. We are going to look at 2 houses tomorrow for fun…I say fun because while we qualify for another loan, I’m still not convinced that is where we are meant to head despite my own personal tiny house hell. Part of me had a serious mental flip out today even thinking about that drama again. I am still in house loan losers land and I don’t know when I will leave. Maybe after the new year when my plate look normal…yeah maybe then.
5. Only 32 days till Big Daddy and I leave for vaca ;) omgosh………………..I C.A.N.N.O.T. wait. I will miss Lettie……………………….. lol, the others, well I’ll miss them at the end of the four days ha! jk, I’ll miss them but this mama needs a break with my heart and soul. 4 beautiful long days to sleep, hike, sleep, eat, drink wine, relax in the indoor hottub in our cabin….sleep lol.
6. I just wanted to say how relieved I am that the oil spill has finally mostly been contained. I’ve been praying they would find a solution, it makes me SO sick to think of all that grime and slime in our waters :( so awful.
7. I keep forgetting to mention this, but I have made the switch back to being a carnivore. Originally I gave up meat (with fish as the exception) in order to be healthier, but I have found that I have a really tough time finding decent protein sources without it. Maybe I’m not educated enough?? I dunno…what I do know is that I personally cannot live on beans alone LOL and i don’t think anyone wants me too either haha!! No seriously while I consume mostly veggies, and we do eat fish or shellfish at least 2 x’s a week,…I will still eat red meat and especially lean chicken breast on occassion.
8. I finished boot camp only losing 2 lbs and 1 inch off my hips. I kind of got ticked when the trainer acted like he expected more??? and then tried to blame it on me missing a bunch of classes. I gave him a puzzled look because that was anything but the truth honestly…I missed 2 classes only, 1 of those was the night they played soccer (and i do NOT do soccer for a multitude of reasons) …that night I ran 2 miles, and the 2nd day I missed was the day I ran a 5 mile marathon??? yeah I’m a TOTAL SLACKER, whatever dude lol!
9. Speaking of workout my sil is in a biggest loser contest of which I had the privilege of joining last week for a 2 hour workout. Hoooooly smokes did my legs hurt the next day rofl! Must have been those bleacher step ups ;) love what they do for my bootie heh heh! I am going back friday night, I seriously can’t wait. THAT’S the kind of workout that will make me lose those pesky 10 lbs I want off this month. ;)
10. Ok…you heard it here first (well, maybe). I’m applying to Extreme home makeover. I have no expectations what so ever…matter of fact its been a huge mental battle just to make myself do it because I’m like ok why waste my time….not because i don’t think it can happen but because I know there are so many people out there that have bad situations. Bad as in way worse than mine….even though mine majorly stinks and it upsets me often, I just still consider myself blessed in many ways so, I dunno take that for what you will.
11. i’ve had a lot of time to spend with Dyl Pickle’s this week, man he is such a cool kid <3 we are addicted Zelda Twilight princess game (Wii)….way too much fun and way to much of a distraction for this already overly busy mama.
12. I freaking LOVE Ikea. I need to go there again soon but I don’t have a lot of money to spend so I’m a little scared too lol.
13. do you have any idea how much school supplies for 6 kids in school costs? geeeeeeeeeeezzzz.
14. I need to take some pics and post them and I think tomorrow is the perfect day to work on that. Dean is off this weekend, I think…first full 2 days off in, a month? :/ so glad he is too, i want to take the kids to the fair sunday. I <3 the county fair.
Thats all, I have itunes to download tonight, and I have to get up early and get my new Droid ordered….Thanks to my 2 yr old my 6 day old phone now needs replacing. My little Tiget has caused quite the stir here this week, he’s lucky he has mama wrapped around his finger ;)
15. oh and speaking of fingers…………the OTHER thing that happened was, stupid me I wore my GORGEOUS filigree diamond ring to IN this past weekend and sure and shootin, it fell off and I lost it. So much for getting it resized. Here is hoping this next week brings some better things into my path.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Something that I really hate...
Well 2 things actually.
1 is when people make a huge deal out of the size of my family. Granted...I know its not everyday in today's day and age that you see a young couple who has been married for nearly 17 years and has a very large family that shares the same mommy and daddy, I get that. What bothers me is the way people react when you tell them how many kids you have and make snide/rude comments, such as a few weeks ago while at a public function and it came out in conversation that I was a mom to 8 kids and someone nearby who didn't know me actually said out loud , and I kid you not... "WHY?!" with a puzzled look on their face. It's not so much the tone of voice as it was the question in general and the flippancy in regards to the fact of my children's lives. It might not have been meant as personal but it was taken as such. WHY I have 8 kids isn't really anyone's business to be honest, however if they or anyone must know ...we have eight kids because of the following reasons.
1. we believe they are blessings
2. we believe that life is sacred and beautiful
3. we fell in love with our first one and it snowballed from there
4. we prayed for God to tell us when we reached the number HE wanted for us
5. we tried to use NFP and we sucked at it
6. kids are amazing and if time/money/energy were of no consequence, we would have kept going
7. overpopulation is a lie
8. somedays I don't believe any of the above 7 bulleted items, but I love them and cherish each of them none the less and believe that regardless of how I feel they were meant to be here.
The 2nd thing that seriously irritates me is when people feel the need to remind me that I CHOOSE to have a large family.
Ex: JP's preschool teacher who reminded me that I should have thought about having a large family before I actually did it (in reference to me telling her I would not be able to participate in PRESCHOOL activities on a regular basis like they were asking me too because ....i have 7 other kids, several of which are older and involved in more important things than PRESCHOOL activities, 1 of which has major special needs, another which has ADHD and requires constant school contact, 1 of which at the time was a nursing newborn, another of which was a homeschooled teenager, also my husband works anywhere from 60-90 hours per week and I literally do it all on my own. Yeah, as you can see I don't sit in my lounge chair and read books all day.)
This morning was another example. The city in which I live in allows only 3 cans of trash each week per house. When i called to ask them to give us ONE extra can I was told the only option I have is to BUY bag tags to the tune of $1.50 each extra and attach them to each extra bag we have. The best part is, I have to try and find the time to drive to city hall, park my min church bus, pay the marking meter and go purchase these tags. I told her it wasn't so much the extra $ but the fact that they make it seriously inconvenient to get them. I asked if there was someway they could just bill me LOL CC, payment in advance or whatever via the phone and was told no, this is the only way. I said that's ridiculous that this is what my tax $ as a homeowner gets me and to that she replied "well it was your choice to have a large family"
huh, nice. Prime example # 2 of why I hate dealing with people in general. The ignorance just screams at me through a comment like this. I could write a book on the stupid comments I hear all the time over the life we live.
In defense against my hatred lol, I will say that on occasion I meet someone who has nothing but sweet kind loving words of awe and or thankfulness over the sacrifice Dean and I (and other families like us) make to raise a large group of children. God forbid we actually populate the earth with good , beautiful well rounded loving citizens who will grow up to pay the idiots above social security, but ya know....that was MY CHOICE to contribute to their future retirement/benefits. How dare I?! :P
1 is when people make a huge deal out of the size of my family. Granted...I know its not everyday in today's day and age that you see a young couple who has been married for nearly 17 years and has a very large family that shares the same mommy and daddy, I get that. What bothers me is the way people react when you tell them how many kids you have and make snide/rude comments, such as a few weeks ago while at a public function and it came out in conversation that I was a mom to 8 kids and someone nearby who didn't know me actually said out loud , and I kid you not... "WHY?!" with a puzzled look on their face. It's not so much the tone of voice as it was the question in general and the flippancy in regards to the fact of my children's lives. It might not have been meant as personal but it was taken as such. WHY I have 8 kids isn't really anyone's business to be honest, however if they or anyone must know ...we have eight kids because of the following reasons.
1. we believe they are blessings
2. we believe that life is sacred and beautiful
3. we fell in love with our first one and it snowballed from there
4. we prayed for God to tell us when we reached the number HE wanted for us
5. we tried to use NFP and we sucked at it
6. kids are amazing and if time/money/energy were of no consequence, we would have kept going
7. overpopulation is a lie
8. somedays I don't believe any of the above 7 bulleted items, but I love them and cherish each of them none the less and believe that regardless of how I feel they were meant to be here.
The 2nd thing that seriously irritates me is when people feel the need to remind me that I CHOOSE to have a large family.
Ex: JP's preschool teacher who reminded me that I should have thought about having a large family before I actually did it (in reference to me telling her I would not be able to participate in PRESCHOOL activities on a regular basis like they were asking me too because ....i have 7 other kids, several of which are older and involved in more important things than PRESCHOOL activities, 1 of which has major special needs, another which has ADHD and requires constant school contact, 1 of which at the time was a nursing newborn, another of which was a homeschooled teenager, also my husband works anywhere from 60-90 hours per week and I literally do it all on my own. Yeah, as you can see I don't sit in my lounge chair and read books all day.)
This morning was another example. The city in which I live in allows only 3 cans of trash each week per house. When i called to ask them to give us ONE extra can I was told the only option I have is to BUY bag tags to the tune of $1.50 each extra and attach them to each extra bag we have. The best part is, I have to try and find the time to drive to city hall, park my min church bus, pay the marking meter and go purchase these tags. I told her it wasn't so much the extra $ but the fact that they make it seriously inconvenient to get them. I asked if there was someway they could just bill me LOL CC, payment in advance or whatever via the phone and was told no, this is the only way. I said that's ridiculous that this is what my tax $ as a homeowner gets me and to that she replied "well it was your choice to have a large family"
huh, nice. Prime example # 2 of why I hate dealing with people in general. The ignorance just screams at me through a comment like this. I could write a book on the stupid comments I hear all the time over the life we live.
In defense against my hatred lol, I will say that on occasion I meet someone who has nothing but sweet kind loving words of awe and or thankfulness over the sacrifice Dean and I (and other families like us) make to raise a large group of children. God forbid we actually populate the earth with good , beautiful well rounded loving citizens who will grow up to pay the idiots above social security, but ya know....that was MY CHOICE to contribute to their future retirement/benefits. How dare I?! :P
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Oh how i've missed you dear cloth diapers.
Yes , its true,...I have a full blown love relationship with cloth diapers. If you've never been down that road it's hard to explain but here is how I fell onto this road. While pg with my 5th child I started researching them, and by the time I was pregnant with my 6th child (just 16 months later lol) I realized I wanted to give it a shot.
It officially began when I went for my post partum check up after #6 and held a brand new fuzzi bunz that my midwife had in her office. I instantly fell in love and realized that nothing would ever been good enough to put on my babies bums except this gorgeous soft piece of fluff i was holding in my greedy little hands.
Don't get me wrong, i've had my time (or two) going back to sposies, even though I totally despise them....the smell, the paper-ness of them in general, the look, the chemicals that I KNOW are lurking deep inside them, etc. However each time I do is purely out of necessity versus wanting. the last 6 months have been a huge example of that. In the midst of the house hunt/house loss/laundry room redo and only having 1 W/D set, well lets just say that I had no other choice than to stop using them exclusively for a time (and for awhile wasn't using them at all).
However as of this week I am happy to report that outside of the random sposie my teenager or dh manages to sneak in LOL, we are now back in our fluff full time, yay!! :)
Here is a pic of Scarlett in the cutest scrappy skirty made by my dear friend Holly of handmadebymama. Holly makes the CUTEST stuff, Scarlett only wears her wollies lol and from you pic you can see why (as if she could get any cuter?! LOL).
In the meantime, provided my PC cooperates I'll probably have some pics of the new room and the kitchen (in progress) here in the next day or so :) I spoke with a really good financial advisor today about our sitch and he agreed with what we have known this whole time as well so it looks like God's going to have to pull a big one out to solve our housing issue lol. I know he can do it, I just hope I remain faithful waiting on him in the process.
In the meantime I'm trying really hard not to spend any $ on the goodmama cuteness (my fav's! <3 ). I did buy 1 new one this week, mainly because there was a FB contest to name said diaper and I suggested a name and the name I suggested got choosen, too cool! I had to have it after that rofl! ;)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Summer Day ~ a poem by Cessalie
Summer Days are osome (awesome) because no of no school.
And no homework to do.
Summer lasts for sixtie days because june and july are 31 days, so 30+30=60 and 1+1=2 so it's 62 days of summer.
Vacation is going to be osome, so osome.
(** note from me.... going to try really hard to post more stuff like this, esp kids art pics, you won't believe some of the things my kids make. Nate recently constructed the flim-sim-de-fur from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, and Susie was recently told her artwork is college level, no joke.)
And no homework to do.
Summer lasts for sixtie days because june and july are 31 days, so 30+30=60 and 1+1=2 so it's 62 days of summer.
Vacation is going to be osome, so osome.
(** note from me.... going to try really hard to post more stuff like this, esp kids art pics, you won't believe some of the things my kids make. Nate recently constructed the flim-sim-de-fur from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, and Susie was recently told her artwork is college level, no joke.)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Decisions, decisions.
I probably ought not post this, as my thinking is my hubby will kill me for even saying it out loud LOL!
I can't help it though, i am so confused as to what we should do and would like some opinions, so here is your chance to share what you think (within reason of course lol ;) )
As you know we are no longer house hunting. 8 weeks ago that came to an abrupt halt when we found out there were stipulations to the loan we were getting which basically made it impossible to obtain at the time. We have since found out that we can still get said loan, however we have to spend a certain amount of $ (for 1) and 2 we have to wait until August. The first part is no problem as we would need to spend at least that to get the size house we need anyway thats in decent shape (able to pass VA basically) however the waiting until August part not so much.
For one we had already decided to add on a laundry room here and have spent every last penny we had in savings (minus a very small emergency fund amt) to get that accomplished. It will by far make this house more livable and easier to sell if and when that need ever arises. the problem is that while this address's one of the issues, it does not address the other 2 major issues.
Those 2 major issues are this....we need another bedroom AND another bathroom in order to live here long term. As it stands right now I have the 4 little kids in one of the big bedrooms together. This would be no big deal if they were all the same gender, however they are not. Right now seeing as the oldest is 6...we have maybe 2 years before this is a problem. The second issue, while major is slightly minor in the fact that we have only 1 bathroom for 10 people. I would go into why this is a major PITB but I'm guessing its fairly obvious right now? LOL!!
In short....we need these 2 things (minimum) OR....we need a bigger/different house.
I honestly could not tell you what we are supposed to do at this point. This has been a huge source of stress for Dean and I over the last 2 years as we have tried to figure out what to do.
Our options are buy a second house and move (like we had planned) OR, add onto this one. So far adding onto this one (which is my first choice because we would not have to move, nor would we have to take on a second mortgage. This is ideal in many many ways above the first option. While I'd like to sit here and only focus on the *positives* I can't tell you that there are any at this point. Not because I refuse to find them or I'm not looking but because there really are NOT any. We would love to stay here and add on but its impossible at this point because the banks we have spoken with refuse to loan any $ on home improvements right now thanks to values having dropped. This puts our family in a huge predicament. I spoke with one of those mortage payment lowering people on the phone yesterday and I told her what Dean's income was and she was like yeah....you don't qualify. I said ya know what, I get that but what i don't get is why family size isn't counted?? Lets face it, my hubby makes great money but we have way more expenses than the average family (namely groceries!). Anyways, before I get on THAT soap box LOL, it puts us to high to be helped and too low to be able to pay out of pocket for an addition (unless I save for like 5 or 6 years...and that's not going to cut it I'm afraid).
So in essence we are really baffled which direction to go in right now. I'm at peace with staying here for now, as is Dean but that peace is not long lived, especially with fall/winter approaching in 3 more months. I can't even tell you how cramped this house is with all my kids locked up in the house during the winter. It's maddening. I'd love to sit here and tell you that i smile through all of it but I refuse to act like everything is *ok* in order to keep face with people, kwim? i try really hard not to discuss our problems, as I know they pale in comparison to many others, however this is a big one for us right now. I don't know what to do, but feel the need to head in some sort of direction one way or the other.
Do we stay here and try to save the $ to add on? (this one is laughable honestly)
Do we buy a 2nd house and risk a little for a possible long term financial benefit, or on the flip side possible financial ruin??
option 3...is there one? LOL
I'd love to hear suggestions...i'm out of ideas.
I can't help it though, i am so confused as to what we should do and would like some opinions, so here is your chance to share what you think (within reason of course lol ;) )
As you know we are no longer house hunting. 8 weeks ago that came to an abrupt halt when we found out there were stipulations to the loan we were getting which basically made it impossible to obtain at the time. We have since found out that we can still get said loan, however we have to spend a certain amount of $ (for 1) and 2 we have to wait until August. The first part is no problem as we would need to spend at least that to get the size house we need anyway thats in decent shape (able to pass VA basically) however the waiting until August part not so much.
For one we had already decided to add on a laundry room here and have spent every last penny we had in savings (minus a very small emergency fund amt) to get that accomplished. It will by far make this house more livable and easier to sell if and when that need ever arises. the problem is that while this address's one of the issues, it does not address the other 2 major issues.
Those 2 major issues are this....we need another bedroom AND another bathroom in order to live here long term. As it stands right now I have the 4 little kids in one of the big bedrooms together. This would be no big deal if they were all the same gender, however they are not. Right now seeing as the oldest is 6...we have maybe 2 years before this is a problem. The second issue, while major is slightly minor in the fact that we have only 1 bathroom for 10 people. I would go into why this is a major PITB but I'm guessing its fairly obvious right now? LOL!!
In short....we need these 2 things (minimum) OR....we need a bigger/different house.
I honestly could not tell you what we are supposed to do at this point. This has been a huge source of stress for Dean and I over the last 2 years as we have tried to figure out what to do.
Our options are buy a second house and move (like we had planned) OR, add onto this one. So far adding onto this one (which is my first choice because we would not have to move, nor would we have to take on a second mortgage. This is ideal in many many ways above the first option. While I'd like to sit here and only focus on the *positives* I can't tell you that there are any at this point. Not because I refuse to find them or I'm not looking but because there really are NOT any. We would love to stay here and add on but its impossible at this point because the banks we have spoken with refuse to loan any $ on home improvements right now thanks to values having dropped. This puts our family in a huge predicament. I spoke with one of those mortage payment lowering people on the phone yesterday and I told her what Dean's income was and she was like yeah....you don't qualify. I said ya know what, I get that but what i don't get is why family size isn't counted?? Lets face it, my hubby makes great money but we have way more expenses than the average family (namely groceries!). Anyways, before I get on THAT soap box LOL, it puts us to high to be helped and too low to be able to pay out of pocket for an addition (unless I save for like 5 or 6 years...and that's not going to cut it I'm afraid).
So in essence we are really baffled which direction to go in right now. I'm at peace with staying here for now, as is Dean but that peace is not long lived, especially with fall/winter approaching in 3 more months. I can't even tell you how cramped this house is with all my kids locked up in the house during the winter. It's maddening. I'd love to sit here and tell you that i smile through all of it but I refuse to act like everything is *ok* in order to keep face with people, kwim? i try really hard not to discuss our problems, as I know they pale in comparison to many others, however this is a big one for us right now. I don't know what to do, but feel the need to head in some sort of direction one way or the other.
Do we stay here and try to save the $ to add on? (this one is laughable honestly)
Do we buy a 2nd house and risk a little for a possible long term financial benefit, or on the flip side possible financial ruin??
option 3...is there one? LOL
I'd love to hear suggestions...i'm out of ideas.
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