7-24-08 ~First Haircut

I'm doing a little backtracking (when I get a chance), so if you notice a post with a different date in the title, it's when it actually happened. It's just easier since I haven't been very good at blogging regularly lately. Forgive me.

I have been saying Eleanor was going to have her first haircut for ages, but I've never gotten around to it. I wasn't very encouraged to do it by the horrified looks I would get from people when I'd even mention the possibility. "What? No! You'll cut off all her pretty curls." But the ends of her hair were getting more and more snarly to the point where she would cringe as I tried to comb it and beg, "Do it soffry, Mommy."

It was time.

Before "Laughing Grandma" (as she has dubbed my mom --I'm not sure why except that she does like to laugh with her grandkids-- not to say that Eleanor's other grandmas don't laugh) went out of town to a family reunion, we had her give Eleanor a haircut. Eleanor had watched as Grandpa gave Grandma a haircut the other night, so she was pretty excited to join in the fun. Plus, I told her that Grandma was going to cut the owie parts out of her hair.

I got her hair wet in the tub, and she thought she looked pretty funny with a towel on her head like Mommy wears after showering.

So serious!

We mostly just had her watch herself in the mirror to hold still. She was pretty interested in the process, so she did well. Of course, she is two, so she did have some wiggles.

This is her hair before it was cut. Look how uneven it was!!

This is after. Look! the curls are still there! We even left it just slightly uneven so we wouldn't be parting with so much of her length all at once. I mostly did that for Grant's sake, 'cause I really had to ease him into the idea of her getting a haircut. It's not like I was going to use the electric shaver on her like I do him!
See! Not that much is gone, and now it's more healthy. Thanks, Grandma!

Since then, Eleanor has declared happily, "My grandma cut the owie parts off," when I have asked her to let me do her hair.

Correction: SO Spoiled

I guess I spoke too soon. Grant took Friday off for his family reunion last weekend. We stopped in Dallas for a few things before we headed out to join the family, and we went to the post office. Apparently, a package had attempted to come, but since my parents have a gate on their property with a warning about dogs, no mailman dares to go past it to drop off a package. I'm sure you can guess what was in the package. When we were moving out of our house, Grant ordered a few things online to spoil Eleanor and me, or so he said. Eleanor got a couple of packages containing her favorite movies and her favorite book, but nothing ever came for me. Nothing came because he had pre-ordered Breaking Dawn for me, along with Twilight and New Moon. Now I have the complete set! Apparently, Amazon pre-orders don't get there the day the book comes out. They actually ship a few days after the book comes out. Silly Amazon! So thanks to those who were going to loan it to me, but I won't be needing to borrow it.

But, for the record, I'm more excited about the washer and dryer!

Feeling Pretty Spoiled

So, maybe I don't have my own copy of this. . .

I'm just going to wait until I can get my hands on it from some obliging friend. Until then, I will be plugging my ears and humming (or shouting if need be) whenever I hear people talking about the subject. I hate spoilers!! So, do me a favor and don't tell me anything about it-- at all. Don't tell me if you liked it. Don't tell me if it made you happy or sad. Don't tell me what your sister thought. And, especially, don't tell me anything that happens. I don't even want to know if Edward kisses Bella (which will obviously happen at least once)! Just let me find out for myself.

You want to know why I'm not sad I don't have that book?
Because I am the proud new owner of these:

Granted, they are sitting in a warehouse until the deal on our house goes through, but I own them! Grant and I have been the hand-me-down couple when it comes to washers and dryers. For six years, we lived with the ticking-time-bomb feeling that any day, the washer could quit washing, and any day, the dryer could quit drying. We have been through a couple of sets of hand-me-downs when the previous ones have quit on us. We have been blessed to find people willing to donate to us in times of need. Now, we are thrilled to have our very own new set that we can count on not to quit for a good long time (knock on wood). Plus, Eleanor is fascinated with front loaders, so I look forward to lots of help with my laundry.

I should also mention that we are going to have a new fridge and dishwasher when we move in to our house. We realized the house didn't actually have a dishwasher, which would have been a deal-breaker for me after having lived in one house without a dishwasher already and the fact that I will have a newborn right when we move in. Call me a wimp if you want to! So, Grant has vowed to make some "adjustments" on the cabinets to fit a dishwasher before we even move in. We didn't negotiate to keep the fridge that was there, and we left our other fridge in the house we sold (sniff, sniff, she was a beaut), so we had to find a new fridge, too. So there's a warehouse full of appliances with our name on them right now! Woohoo!

Cherry Cheeks (with a splash of spaghetti sauce)

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. . .