I Feel Like a Rockstar!

Yesterday was a big day for the organization that I work for. We have been working really hard to get a bill passed to prohibit smoking in worksites and public places and yesterday, this bill was introduced as House Bill #2-the first bill introduced after House rules on the General Assembly's opening day!

NC House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, who we have been working closely with, scheduled a news conference Thursday to discuss H.B. 2: Prohibit Smoking in Public & Work Places Act as the primary sponsor of the bill. I was part of this news conference and it received a lot of media coverage. Check out the video below and you can see me standing behind the podium during the press conference for a brief moment. My kids saw this and think I am a rock star now! I didn't correct them and plan on taking advantage of this celebrity status, at least for a little while. It won't be long before this type of thing embarasses them! :)


http://www.wral.com/news/state/video/4424682/

We Chose...

We chose house # 2 because we love the yard- the idea of being able to sit on our screened porch watching the kids play and watch the horses roam was really appealing to us. We loved the kitchen and master bath. You convinced us that a bonus room on the third floor was actually a good thing, especially when the kids get older. And the price was right!

Looks like you guys are pretty good at playing house hunters! It was dead even between House #2 and House #3 right up until the end but my Aunt Kathy came in at the last minute and voted for house #2.

Thanks for playing everyone-we close on Feb. 19th!

House Hunters

As most of you know, we have been renting since we moved back to NC. We have spent the last few months looking at houses and have narrowed our search down to three, including the one we are renting. So, now it is time to play House Hunters goes to North Carolina.

House #1

House #1 is a 1650 square foot house on a .5 acre corner lot. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It has an additional 1400 square feet of unfinished space upstairs. If we purchase this house we are going to have the builder finish an additional 1100 square feet upstairs to include a bedroom, a bathroom, an office and a large bonus room for a total of ~2800 square feet- 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, an office and a bonus room. This is the most afforfable of the three.

Things we like about this house: The wrap-around porch. It has a a great yard. It has the potential to be a really large house with a HUGE bonus room. It is the most affordable. We don't have to move!

Things we don't like about this house: It has a very open floorplan and no foyer- you walk right into the living room. It is on a corner lot by the road. We are not crazy about the neighborhood/neighbors. There are currently houses being built next to and across from this house that will total ~1600 square feet. We have to finish it and are not crazy about the builder! If we finish this house we will have the biggest, most expensive house in the neighborhood and that is never a good things for investment purposes or resale.

House #2

House #2 is a ~2500 square foot house on .75 acres with 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, an office and a decent sized bonus room. This house includes several upgrades from the first house like granite and a tiled master bath but is more expensive than the first.

Things we like about this house: The neighborhood. The kitchen and master bath are beautiful, it has a large open porch and a nice screened-in porch, it has the best yard of the three and faces a horse pasture in the back. It also has a huge laundry/mud room off of the garage that we really like. It is move-in ready.

Things we don't like about this house: It is three stories which means a lot of stairs and the bonus room is on the third floor which is kind of far away from the kids if I am on the bottom floor. It doesn't have much of a backyard because it backs up to a horse pasture-almost the entire yard is to the side of the house. It doesn't have a lot of storage space or a spare bedroom like the other two.

House # 3

House # 3 is a ~2700 square foot house on .5 acres with 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a formal living room and a small bonus room. Again, it has many upgrades from the first house but is the most expensive of the three.

Things we like about this house: The neighborhood. The overall look/curb appeal-Southern Plantation style. The side entry into the house. It is on a cul-de-sac, the balcony off of the master bedroom and the screened-in porch. I would use the formal living room for my office so it would still have 4 bedrooms. It has a lot of storage space.

Things we don't like about this house: The price! It has a small bonus room, the back yard is kind of sloped, the stove is in the center island. This house needs several things in order to be move-in ready, i.e. the floors need a final coat of poly, the screen porch has not been finished, it needs a new HVAC system because the previous one was stolen...but the builder has agreed to complete all of these as part of the purchase).

We have contacted the builders of each of these and have their best offer in hand -So, which one did we choose?

House #1- the largest and most affordable?

House #2- the three story with the great yard?

House #3- the Southern Plantation budget buster?

Take the poll to the right! We'll announce which house we chose on Sunday!

Snowday #2, 3, 4...

A few inches of snow and the entire state shuts down! I realize that NC does not have the same equipment or level of preparedeness that upstate NY does but seriously-three snow days for 6 inches of snow!

Oh well, the kids had fun and this only happens once every few years around here so we tried to make the best of it!

SNOWDAY

I remember the days growing up in upstate NY when I would wake up to several feet of snow outside just hoping for a snowday. There were even nights when I would do a snow dance before bed, in hopes that a wintry blizzard would blow through while I was sleeping!

Yesterday, I got to relive my childhood and experience the excitement of a snow day through my kids. Monday night it was as clear as a bell outside but just before bed we received an automated call announcing that schools were closed the following day as a winter strom was brewing. (And I didn't even have to do a snowdance!)

Tuesday morning we woke up to nearly 6 inches of snow! We only get snow like this in NC once every couple of years. While it was nothing compared to the snowstorms we used to get up North, it was enough for our first snowday of the year- Yippee!

We are headed outside for SNOWDAY #2 so stay tuned!

The Difference Between Moms and Dads

I started singing Sprite lullaby's at night when I put her to bed (poor thing, her ears may be damaged forever). But before I started doing this, I looked up the words to common lullaby's to make sure I had the words right.

The Hubs on the other hand just makes them up as he goes along.

This blogpost might be more appropriately called: the difference between type A personality (me) and type B personality (the Hubs)!

Anyway-Here is my version of what Sprite calls the "Daddy song." You may know it by a different name...

Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won't sing, Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring turns brass, Daddy's gonna buy you a looking glass ...

And here is Daddy's version...

Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won't sing, Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring don't shine, Daddy's gonna buy you a porcupine...

I died laughing when I heard this and couldn't help but think that his way is much better!

Sweet Home Alabama

It appears as if I owe my Sweet Home Alabama an apology. I always thought it was you-Alabama-that was making us sick with your high humidity, dog-sized bugs and black mold... Turns out it was us-not you! Will you ever forgive me?

Germs, Germs, Go Away

Friday, I got a call from Sprout's school saying his ear was hurting and very inflamed. Luckily, the Hubs was able to go get him because I was about 2 hours away at a meeting! We brought both of the kids to the doctor on Saturday, which seems to be occurring a little too frequently these days, if you ask me. I think maybe we deserve a gold-plated patient card. Sprout had a nasty ear infection and needed antibiotics again. He just finished a course after having his tonsils out. We decided to have Sprite looked at too while we were there and it is a good thing. Her lungs are still tight and weezy from the pneumonia so both kids are on a round of steroids and breathing treatments twice a day to get them over this illness that has taken over our lives! So, we headed over to the pharmacy to pick up our suitcase of prescriptions and started a new schedule/routine-what do you think?

Morning:
Breathing treatment
Bath or shower in Germ-X
Airborne shake for breakfast
Power wash the house in Lysol

Evening:
Steroids
Breathing treatment
Vitamins
Airborne shake for desert
Bath or shower in Germ-X
Clorox scrub
Germ dance

Any other suggestions?

A Year in Review-2008

2008 was a big year for us. As a family we experienced a lot and grew stronger as a result. The children grew by leaps and bounds and were able to experience some new adventures. The kids and I shared a month long trip with family in NY. We beamed with pride and celebrated as Toby graduated from flight school. We packed up and said goodbye to some of the dearest friends we have ever made and drove north from Alabama back to North Carolina. We moved to a new house and Sprout and Sprite started new schools. We witnessed history in the making when our new president was elected. Sprout experienced his first operation. I said goodbye to being a stay-at-home Mommy as I began a new career in the end of 2008. There were some major changes and some not so major changes but all have shaped us and changed us in some way. Thank you all for sharing these experiences with us and supporting us along the way!




We look to the future with hope and sadness as we know that we will have to see Toby off for a 12 month deployment in the spring. This will be the first time we will be separated as a family since Sprite was born in May of 2006 and it is, no doubt, going to be a very difficult transition for all but we are thankful for the time that we had together and all of the memories that will carry us through the next year!

Happy New Year

A Little Behind the Eight Ball

I have had a few requests for some holiday pictures and am so terribly sorry to have kept you waiting but you see my camera somehow ended up in the mouth of a very large bird who carried it 18 miles before dropping it in a large cow pasture full of cow pies and I was not about to go digging around in a pasture full of cow pies...

I've never been a very good story teller but I thought it sounded better than my daughter came down with pnemonia, I started a new job and my husband took the camera to NY with him so I have been a complete slacker in the blog department.

So, without further adue...drum roll please...

The Before

Great Grammy

Aunt Dayna
The Aftermath

Thank you Great Grammy and Aunt Dayna for spending Christmas with us. We really enjoyed having you and miss you already!