House Update and Pregnancy Update

We met with our realtor today and decided we're going to go to the Greivance Committee and Ethics Committee to try and get back some of our $750. These come before mediation and don't cost. Hopefully things can be settled through the committees so we don't have to do mediation. We're going to sign the release on the house when we get that paperwork back from our realtor to sign.
Last night Andy and I spent a lot of time on the realty website. I look at it a lot so I had written down 8 different houses to show him. We looked at all of them and crossed 2 off the list. So good news, there are 5 homes we're at least interested in seeing! We're hopefully going to go look at them with our realtor sometime this week. If we see one we're fairly interested in then we'll work at getting our house up on the market. We are going ahead and scheduling our soffit/fascia and gutter replacement which we had intended to do prior to the whole house trading possibility so that the outside looks good. The roof is new as of last summer. I'll keep you posted on our new home search!

My OB office called today to tell me the results of my blood work after the glucose test. My sugar was high so now I go back and do a 3 hour glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes or not. I had to do this with Luke and it came back negative so I'm not worried yet. Just really dreading the blood being drawn from the same arm 4 times. That hurt so badly. I remember asking them if they would please use the other arm on the 3rd blood drawing and they told me they couldn't. I hate that part. I have to fast from midnight until I get there at 8:30. Then I have my blood drawn. Drink a glucose drink, and 1 hour after I finish I have my blood drawn again. Blood drawn again after 2 hours and 3 hours after drinking the nasty drink. So I sit and sit and sit there! No food for almost 12 hours. Not gonna be very fun.

Andy and I are going to the Melting Pot tonight to celebrate my completion of my National Board portfolio and test! I'm super excited. My mom is watching the boys and we have reservations for dinner. I have wanted to eat at TMP for YEARS and we are finally going tonight! I'll post about our evening later!

A Fun 4th!

Another good recipe from Annie's Eats!

Tonight I tried another recipe from the blog Annie's Eats! It was for Black Bean Enchiladas. They were delicious. We all enjoyed them. We just had mexican rice with them. It made a lot of enchiladas- more than enought for another dinner. It was pretty easy too. I followed the recipe all except for leaving out the cilantro. I didn't have any but I love cilantro so I'd recommend using it! Click here for the recipe!

The house...I think it's over.

So needless to say, I haven't updated you on the house for a while. The updates would've had to come multiple times a day because Mr. Realtor man (who I now despise) was changing things by the minute it seemed. Yesterday I received a phone call from our wonderful realtor that he wanted to close on Monday. I said ok, we can pack and close then. A little while later she called and said he can't close until at least the 15th due to getting his loan. We said, ok, we can close on the 15th. Anyway, we decided against using his wife as the loan officer because she did several things that made us feel uncomfortable using her services. We decided to go with another company. It was stated in the contract that we could use his wife or another loan company and if we used his wife he'd pay $3000 in closing. If we used someone else he'd pay $2000 in closing. I think he became upset about us choosing to not use his wife. Last night he told our realtor a big list of things he wanted to change on the contract. She told him he couldn't, we had a signed contract. This morning he called and told her he wanted out, he had a better offer. We had to release the contract by noon or he was taking it to a judge. We decided we'd go to mediation since we've done nothing wrong and have a valid contract rather than just let him off the hook. Around 1:30 she called and said she received a fax from his loan officer stating that he couldn't get his loan to buy our house. That is a bunch of bull. He was already pre-approved. So it's over. He got his way. We're out over $750. Andy was going to call our realtor back and see if there is anything else we can do to possibly get some more money back from the appraisal or something. How is it fair that he was pre-approved and now, because he wants out, he can just call his loan officer and have them write a letter saying he can no longer get the loan for our house? Ridiculous. He is not a nice man. I feel sorry for the people he already has wanting the house. I'm sure they were offering him more money. So. The house search starts over. I have some very mean things to say about him and his shady ways but I'm keeping them to myself. You can think your own mean nasty thoughts of him for me. He is horrible. I guess the good news is we never have to deal with him again. He was making things awful.
I am very sad and disapointed though. I had finally believed as of YESTERDAY that it was actually going to happen. I liked that house. But I've got to trust in Him and know the His plan is greater than mine. God has a plan. I just want to know it. Like 2 1/2 months ago when this whole house thing started.

Big Boy!

Luke has gone pee pee in the potty twice! Last night and this morning. I somehow managed to get him into undies this morning even though he kept saying "no undies, no undies". I had lots of different pairs for him to pick from but he wasn't interested. He kept saying no undies until I put shorts on him and covered them up. Now he seems okay! Hopefully he'll keep going on the potty today!

This baby...is gonna be BIG.

Had my 28 week appointment yesterday. I'd been feeling rather LARGE lately. I'm happy to report that I have gained an appropriate amount of weight. For now, it is expected that a preggo has gained 17-24 lbs. I've gained 21lbs. Even though that is a lot of weight, it is to be expected with all the extra cargo I'm lugging around with me every day!! Click that sentence to see the shirt I keep telling Andy he needs to order for me! They also have one that simply says "Third." and another that says "I think I might be pregnant." I think those are funny!



Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you that I'm measuring big. My doctor thinks this baby might be big. At 37 weeks Luke was 8 lbs 7 oz. So in 4 weeks I have an ultrasound to get a check on the size of the baby and make sure things are ok. I also had my gestational diabetes test yesterday so I'll find the results out of that at some point I guess!

Happy Birthday, Madelyn!!

Madelyn turns FIVE years old today! We had a fun time celebrating this morning. My mom, dad, Terry, Andy and I took the 4 kids to see a movie this morning. For $2.00 each we got admission to the movie, a kids drink and a kids popcorn. They saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was fun! Then we left and went to McDonald's for lunch and playing. Tonight we're meeting up for a picnic and live music at the park. My dad is playing with the band. It will be lots of fun!

Edited to Add:

At the park we had a delicious picnic, the kids had strawberry birthday cake and Madelyn got to open some presents. My mom and I took the kids over to the playground for a little while and we enjoyed some great music! I think Madelyn had a fantastic birthday!