Wait for it. . .

Even with our strong preference to stay in our ward, we didn't completely rule out looking in other areas. We had to try to accept the idea that maybe the Lord had something else in store for us. We had looked at a batch of houses in Keizer, but we were unimpressed. The more it seemed like we were running out of options in West Salem, I began to search in other areas. Last Saturday, we looked at a few houses near Grant's work and some in south Salem. This time, we saw something we liked.

Again, it was higher priced than we could pay, but closer to our range than others had been. This house stood out to us as a really good fit. So, we offered what we could first thing Monday morning, trying not to get our hopes up. Tuesday, we received a counter offer. It was much more reasonable than we expected. Long story short (if that's even possible at this point), we are now under contract to buy a new home. We still have to get through the inspection and escrow, which is my worst nightmare. I won't ever feel like it's really ours until the keys are in our hands. But if all goes well, we will have a new home. I'll be holding my breath until then.

It's bittersweet to think that we could be done searching. I felt like we were saying, "See you later," to our ward and friends in West Salem. Now, I'm realizing it was really a goodbye that we never said because we thought we were coming back. Grant's mom had a chance to view the house with us this week, and she said, "I really didn't want to like the house, but I do." I feel the same way. I wanted us to find a great house like that in West Salem. I didn't want the best option to be somewhere else. We never wanted to leave, but we have to do what's best for our family. This feels right.

It was such a blessing the way everything fell into place for the sale of our house. It went on the market on Monday, had a full price offer on Friday. Since it was such a short sale, the appraiser fudged the square footage a bit in order to help the house's worth match its price to satisfy the lender. Also, after we turned over the keys, they discovered that a pipe to a hose on the side of the house had a leak. We had never known about it because we had kept the head of our bed against that wall, so we never saw any signs of it. The person doing the home inspection didn't catch it, so we didn't have to do anything about it. The inspector was the one to blame, and our buyer was left with the repairs. We did feel badly about how it worked out for her, but it would have been a catastrophe if we had ended up dealing with that mess.

I had certainly hoped we would have such an easy time finding a house as we did selling ours, but I didn't expect it to be that easy. It felt like we had already been blessed more than we deserved. Then we found this house. I couldn't believe the seller lowered the price to a point where we could possibly afford it. The house is clearly worth more. It has a great yard. The neighborhood is safe. We've heard nothing but good things about it and the schools. I didn't imagine that it would still be in the same ward as some of our friends out south, but it is. We already know people in the ward. There are so many things right about this house, that we had to ignore the one thing that was wrong: it wasn't in our same ward in West Salem. Ever since we decided to accept the counter offer, I have felt such peace. I know we have been blessed, and I can't be ungrateful just because it all didn't fit into the plan we made. I am so happy.

Of course, now it's a waiting game until our close date. I will be biting my nails the whole time. When we bought our first home, it seemed like the seller did everything they possibly could to make things difficult. I hope we don't meet similar challenges with this home. Our inspection is Tuesday. Oh, and if you're wondering, we won't be in the house before the baby is born. Our close date is currently Sept. 4th. My due date is Sept. 7th (we can thank Grant for the foresight on that one. But in his defense, on the original offer, we just went with a date our agent came up with, and our agent told the seller our close date was as flexible as she might need it to be. I guess it just didn't occur to Grant at the time that Sept. 4th might not be the best option). We're going to try to push the close date back, but if it doesn't work for the seller, we'll just go with things as they are. We know we have some challenges ahead of us, but we're just going to make do the best we can. Until then, we just have to wait. . .

Here's a Start. . .

I feel bad that I haven't given much of an update on our search for a home. I also haven't been very good at keeping in touch with people about how things are going, so hopefully this update will satisfy some curiosity.

I can't believe we're at the end of July already! What a month! I asked Grant what we did with our entire month, and both of us agreed that it felt like all we did all month was search for a home. I haven't been blogging as much because every time I open my computer, I just can't resist but search for new listings of properties. It's very addictive once you get started (and once you no longer have a home and are nearing 8 months pregnant).

I have loved hearing all the support we have from people in our (previous) ward. So many people have made suggestions to our in-laws about houses or situations we might not have known. It has really felt good to know that people want us to come back, and they are trying to look out for us. I'm amazed at how many people have tried to help. I wish I could say any of that help had led us to our dream home, but so far, none of it has.


We've searched West Salem with a fine-toothed comb to try to find something suitable and affordable for our growing family. We even looked at houses out of our price range, hoping we could negotiate something lower because of the poor market right now. Our offer on the foreclosed house (the one that wasn't the only back-up offer) didn't work out. No big surprise. The person who made the first offer closed the deal. Then, we made a long-shot offer on a house asking for more than we could pay (but a great house), hoping to find a desperate seller. That was fruitless, but we figured we had to try. About a week and a half ago, we went out to view another batch of houses in West Salem, basically the last ones left to look at in our price range that we felt were worth seeing. It felt like a huge waste of time. The houses/yards were either way too small or they needed way too much work. Some of them, we wished we hadn't seen at all; it's amazing how some people can abuse a house! And don't get me started on cat lovers!!!


Eleanor started out being really good about looking at houses. She would tag along pleasantly, and run circles in the houses that weren't occupied. We tried to let her play at Grandma's when possible to give her a break from it, but she still has gotten really sick and tired of viewing homes. Her sentiments on the issue have made it rather difficult for me to wrangle her and take in all the details of the homes. I can't say I blame her, though.


I have certainly had ups and downs. It's hard not to with all the hormones and my ticking time-bomb of a belly. After that last batch we viewed in W. Salem, I was discouraged. We never wanted to consider that we might not be able to find a place in West Salem. It's our home. It's where we wanted to stay. I started to cry as I was getting Eleanor out of the car. She asked me what was wrong. I told her, "I just wish we could find a nice house."

She reached up with her little hands and wiped my tears away. Then she said, with all her two-year-old wisdom, "Let's just wivv at Gwamma's."

There's more to tell, but I'll have to finish this later. I'll try to post the rest of the update soon, so check back.

Favorite Things / Pottery with Grandpa

I was invited to a "favorite things" party last Saturday hosted by my friends Carolyn, "Prissy," and Alicia. They invited me last year, but I was in Utah for a family reunion. I was so sad to miss it. They are such creative party planners, and it sounded like so much fun. So this year, I was really excited to be able to go. I decided to do a handmade project as part of my favorites.

I made a journal. It encompassed several favorites of mine. I like to make handmade gifts when I have time/ideas to do it. I also like to do embroidery, which was included by the stitching on the front. I also have kept some type of journal off and on since 4th grade, whether actually in a journal or through blogging (though I still have kept a journal since starting a blog. I just don't write in it quite as much). Here's how it turned out:

I took a few pictures of the spine before I put the cover on. I love how neat the spine looks all stitched together.

Here's the cover. I stitched lemon/lime on the front since that was the theme of the party.

Title page.

What the text pages look like.

Front and back end papers.

Back cover.

Ribbon ties. I also attached a ribbon bookmark.

This is everything I gave as my favorites.

• A water bottle because I always have to have water with me everywhere I go.
• The journal
• A mix CD of some of my favorite songs. I couldn't leave music out. I listen to music every time I clean, ride in the car, work on a project, etc. I just have to have music, and I love finding new songs I enjoy.
• I included Taco Bell hot sauce. Taco Bell food is okay, but the hot sauce is what is my favorite. I'm such a major picky eater that I like salsa, but not the chunks-- just the juice. Taco Bell hot sauce is great because it's just the liquid, so I load up on it every time I go there.
• Trident gum, cinnamon flavor. One of my biggest pet peeves/paranoias is bad breath. I take gum with me almost everywhere I go. Trident has always been a favorite of mine.
• Rook cards. My family has always been a big card-playing family. It's one of our favorite pastimes. Rook cards have been central to all this. We could play all sorts of games with Rook cards. Back in the day, they made them in all different varieties, so you could mix the decks and still know which cards were yours. Rook is a great game also; we've played it many times.
• A dish scrubber. Doing dishes is NOT my favorite thing to do, but these little soap dispensing dish scrubbers sure make it easier.
• I also included a Caramello bar. It's been my favorite candy bar during this pregnancy. It's not in the picture because I stopped at the store for it on the way to the party. I would have included a Whatchamacallit, my usual all time favorite candy bar, but that store didn't have any. If you haven't tried one, you should.

Oh, and I didn't take a picture of it, but here's what I received that was someone else's favorites:

• A Tide to Go pen
• A DVD of Fools Rush In
• A hand-held back massager
• Lindor chocolates-- yum!
• A wallflowers air freshener from Bath and Body Works in Warm Vanilla Sugar scent
• Burt's Bees lip balm

Here's a picture of the whole group. There I am with my big belly right in the middle. Almost everyone dressed in lemon or lime colors. Three of us were pregnant (and showing), so it was lucky we didn't all show up in the same maternity clothes. I knew a few of the ladies besides the hostesses, but there were many with whom I needed to catch up/get acquainted. The conversation was great, and seeing everyone's favorites was fun. The decorating and the food was amazing. You can see more pictures of it on Carolyn's or "Prissy's" blogs by clicking on their names. I am so glad I got to go this year!

After the party, we hung around Grant's parents' house for a while. Eleanor convinced Grandpa to help her throw a pot on the wheel. I was feeling too hot/tired/pregnant to go out and watch, but Grant got pictures. Now I'm sad I missed it, but oh well.

Her grandpa is so good to her.

See how she had to wear a ribbon in her hair just like Mommy?

And here's a little video of her working on the bowl with Grandpa. Grant took it, so of course, it's sideways. If anyone has a good program to turn quick time videos, please tell me about it. I'll certainly be needing it. I just can't teach him to hold the camera upright!

The Word is Out!

So much for waiting until the baby is born!

We went to a family baby blessing last Sunday. The baby name question came up, and since everyone was voting against surprises on the poll, I gave up. Grant's cousin, Lisa, asked me what name we were thinking about for the baby, and I buckled under all the pressure. She wasn't pressuring me at all. I could have just told her we weren't ready to tell people. It was the pressure from Grant being so excited to share it with people and my blog voters telling me to share it already and maybe my own need to actually have an answer to that question. Plus, Lisa's really easy to talk to; for some reason, I end up telling her just about anything. But that's not her fault. So, I told her the name, and we then proceeded to tell the rest of the family our potential name (I'm still saying maybe, but who am I kidding?). Are you feeling left out yet? I guess we'd better fix that. Here it is. Like it or not, we are most likely naming this baby girl

Phaedra Noel

(pronounced "fay-dra")

We'll call her Phae for short. It's not a family name, except Noel is my middle name. I just liked the way Phae sounded, but I wasn't that fond of it spelled with an F --no real explanation why. So, we looked on some name websites to see the different ways to spell Phae, and we stumbled upon Phaedra. Grant loved it immediately and has ever since. I loved it at first. Since then, I've had moments when I loved it, and moments when I wasn't so sure about it. Considering how much Grant loves it and how stumped I am to come up with another name we will both love, it is really very likely going to be the name for this baby, so keep that in mind before you leave a comment trashing it.

I'm not hesitant because I don't like the name. I think I'm mostly hesitant because of how different it is. I grew up with a rather different name. I like my name, but there have been periods in my life when I didn't appreciate it quite as much. It has always been a pretty name, which I think Phaedra will also be. It just isn't as common or easy to spell. Jocelyn is now becoming more popular, but when I was growing up, I would tell people my name and get a puzzled look and a request to repeat it. (I've already seen hints of that with the name Phaedra.) I learned to try to pronounce it really clearly the first time to avoid having to repeat myself as much. I still end up repeating myself sometimes because people just don't pay attention. I don't even try with customer service people over the phone. I either give them a last name or tell them my first and immediately spell it. Add to that the misspellings and the mispronunciations. I didn't get made fun of for my name much in school except when I was called to the office on the intercom. My mother's handwriting makes her Os look like As unless you compare them to another A; this never helped my case. I was always called down to the office as Jacklyn or Jacelyn or even Joycelyn. Some people can have my name typed out right in front of them and still call me Jacklyn or Jacelyn, as if they assume it just must be a typo. Certainly, I don't know how to spell my own name!

I guess this is why I'm hesitant. I don't really want to put my daughter through that. On the other hand, it's not like I'm scarred for life, and I've never had to be known as Jocelyn W. to clarify that I wasn't that other Jocelyn. That has been one of Grant and my main goals in naming children. We're not trying to give them a name that will never ever be used on another child, but at least one that won't be shared with five other kids in their class. Obviously, there are no guarantees, but we try. Luckily, I don't think Phaedra will be quite as difficult as far as pronunciation when it comes to conversation. It will mostly be a spelling/reading issue. Plus, Phae is familiar as a nickname when it's spoken. Blah, blah, blah. I can really talk myself in circles on this one. Sorry about all the blathering. I have some concerns, but when it all comes down to it, I still really like the name. I guess our daughter and others are just going to have to deal with it.

It could be worse. My joke names for this baby were Garbanzo for a boy or Tambourine for a girl. I still really like Garbanzo ;)

A Girl and her Dog

We're getting settled in at my parents' house. Lane has been indoors much more around here than he was at our house. Because of that, Eleanor has been enjoying having her doggy around. Poor guy. I can't feel too sorry for him, though. Even when she's really pestering him, and I move us to play in another room to give him some space, he seeks us out. That dog loves people. I guess all that matters to him is companionship. He doesn't seem to care about the quality of that companionship. I'm glad to know he's so patient with her.

We convinced my parents to upgrade their internet to DSL rather than dial-up. It's not the high-speed cable that I've been spoiled with in the past, but it's something. Now that things are settling down a little from the move, I should be able to post some more.