Not much to say today...

A few of my flickr favorites for today. Feelin' melancholy in these hot yucky days. I'm wishing for the energy and inspiration of cooler weather and happier times.

Hear the story and then vote at the poll...

*Option 1:
Build house on Shields.
We could build a house off of West State Street, near the old Highway 55. Our mortgage payment will stay about the same, our house will be very large and we will be next door to my mom and dad. The house will appreciate at a normal rate.

*Option 2:
Buy house on Regan.
Buy house on 23rd and Regan (about 6 blocks from Jimmy's shop). Our mortage payment will double. The house is very large and old and it needs quite a bit of work. (We could do almost all of the work ourselves.) If the popularity of the North End stays strong we could sell the house in a couple years for 100,000 to 200,000 more than we paid for it. We will offset our mortgage costs for about a year by sharing the house with my brother and his fiance. They are trying to save money to buy their own house. While they live there they will help with the work needed on the house.

Ok, that is as objective as it gets.
So, vote and leave your comments and then I will tell you which option I choose and detail the pros and cons of both options (for me).

Random Ramblings

1) Ok, it is not a kidney stone. What is it? In the words of the genius at Primary Health..."I just don't know." Oh, ok. Thanks.

2) I hate pain medicine. It makes me loopy and I hate feeling out of control. I'm a control freak and I can admit it. I have to take it though or I'm a sniveling mess.

3) Tonight is "no kid night" at our house. I think I'm gonna make Jimmy take me to see "License to Wed". It looks cute. Anyone seen it?

4) Takin' the kids to Eagle Island today with Olivia's class. We are such water babies, I can't wait until my mom and dad get a pool.

5) My house down the street is "under contract" so it will probably sell. I'm bummed but I've fallen in love with another house that I probably can't have. I'm such a dork.

6) Um, I guess that's it. I am having a hard time forming complete and coherent sentences. Residual pain medicine, I guess.

Have a great Thursday!

She finally did it!

To view my mom's blog go here

Whatcha been up to?

It is so nice to be home on a Saturday with nothing to do, no where to go...ahhh relaxing! On my list today...

1) Sort mountain of laundry...with the back-to-back trips I can't seem to catch up.

2) Listen to new music I downloaded...a bunch of totally random music...Paul Simon, Dido, Paolo Nutini, Blondie, Veggie Tales Silly Songs, Cat Stevens, Tori Amos, Foy Vance, Peter, Paul and Mary..Pretty random huh?

3) Hope Jimmy doesn't buy something at the auction he's at right now. Unless of course it's a 1963 Cadillac.

4) Get some pictures printed.

5) Watch the Twilight Criterium with my brother

6) Don't drink beer because...see #7

7) Get a CT scan for my KIDNEY STONE!!! Gross huh? My back has been hurting for 4 or 5 days, I finally went to the doctor yesterday after work and guess what? ICK!

So, I hope you all have a great Saturday!

JuJu says...

Happy Birthday Creama! She put her special birthday suit on for you. I could tell it was a really sincere happy birthday because she then licked a gummy fish and stuck it to her chest!
Happy birthday from me too!
I hope it's a great one!

Random Ramblings

1. We had a great time in Lagoon but the really cool part was this store that Kelsey took my mom and I to on Saturday morning. It's called TaiPan Trading. It's a "wholesale" home decorator store. They have tons of stuff and it's a really gorgeous store. I was thinking it'd be all yard sale-y but it was really clean, well laid out and loaded with tons of cool stuff at awesome prices. My mom and I are planning on going back with a plan of what we want in mind after we move to our new houses.

2. Speaking of new houses. It's finally listed and the crack job put it at 270! Ridiculous! Our next door neighbors have the same house but with a full basement that adds almost 1,000 sq ft and they are only going to ask 275. Dummies. So, we are going to put our offer in and then move on if they don't take it. Sigh. Yesterday we walked through with our realtor and I fell in love with it all over again. Sigh again. Wanna check it out? Here it is. The "Elegant Cape Cod". Take note of the hideous floral wall paper all over the place and the totally outdated kitchen. It also needs a new roof. 270! Ridiculous!!!

3. I think I have a job. We'll see. It'll just be 2 or 3 days a week. More info to come.

4. I can't believe summer is nearly over! I saw school supplies in the store! We still have a couple more fun things planned. A couple camping trips, a trip to Portland for a wedding and (probably not) a family vacation.

5. I am pretty jacked for JuJu to start preschool. She will be going 3 days a week for two hours. I think it will be a nice "get away" for her...so to speak. She'll be around new people, her mom won't work there, Olivia won't be there and she'll be one of the older kids in the class which I think will be a nice change for her. She'll be going to The Children's School. I worked there before I had Olivia. Actually I worked there when Olivia was a newborn. I went back to work after just 6 weeks at home with Olivia. What was I thinking? I must have been so tired. Funny, how you block those things out of your memory. Olivia will continue on at Little School House and I will keep on working Fridays to trade. Now that I'm facing paying (a small fortune) for Jamie's preschool I am really appreciating trading. Thanks Buf!

6. I guess that's about it!

Lagoon pictures

We're goin' to...

The only good clue is the mountains in the middle. Those are the Wasatch mountains. We are going to Lagoon tomorrow! It will be my kids' first time. I plan on spending most of my time at the water park...so hot! We are going with Melissa, Gabe, Joe, Kelsey and my mom and dad. Fun, Fun!

Housekeeping

I feel like I've been in "housekeeping" mode this last week. We've been so busy that I have let some things fall by the wayside and I am starting to feel a little behind. So this weekend we didn't do much of anything. Friday we...well it was so mundane I don't even remember! Saturday we spent a shit-ton of money at my aunt and uncle's yard sale. Me...I got a super cute desk, a media armoire, a cute entry-way coat hook shelf thingy, and two new market umbrellas for my patio and, and, and...the Pottery Barn rotary style wall phone in black for $5!!!! I love, love it! And that darn Jimmy talked me into letting him buy their riding lawnmower! GRRR! So this is the major question...Where the hell did we get $620 to spend at a yard sale? I know the obvious answer is credit but...we don't have any credit cards! Hmmm...does Jimmy have a secret stash of money? But Daddy Warbucks was acting like it was pocket change so rather than question and "bite the hand that feeds me" or "look a gift horse in the mouth" etcetera, etcetera...I took my purchases and ran!
So, my aunt and uncle sold their house and basically everything they own and are moving to the Oregon Coast. They don't even have a house there yet but their house here sold so quickly that they have to pack up and go. Thank goodness for big-ass RVs! Home away from home! Well, crazy as I think they are...I admire their bravery.
Then...Saturday afternoon I sat in the 100 degree heat on the patio at Lucky 13, signed manifests and handed out Boise Weekly stickers for the Bars and Stripes alley cat race. Side note and commercial...co-sponsored by NorthStar Cycle Couriers...my brother's business. I sat there for 2 1/2 hours and I have to say...I had a lot of fun!
Anyhoo...It was nice to have a mellow weekend and get a bit caught up. I spent today running errands and catching up on other stuff and tonight is cleaning club night! Here we come, Sue!

Here I am!

Stinky poopy internet is down at my house again...RAR! For pictures of my 4th of July BBQ go here. Thanks so much Gabe!

Happy 4th of July

I think this photo best represents my current state of mind when it comes to this holiday.

My mom will be here at noon with the ice, I am boiling water for my GIANT pasta salad....paper plates? Check! Hot dogs? Check! Buns? Check! 42 RSVP's? Check! 72 bottles of beer? Check! 2 big bottles and one box of wine? Check! Secret spy to tell me when the game is over? Check! (Thanks Corinna!) Place staked out on hill? Uh...call Jimmy then check!
Woo-Hoo! Here we go!

Lucky to have friends like these

My mom's friend Sue came up with this brilliant idea....Her, my mom and I would have a "cleaning exchange". Tonight was the first try and it was also my turn! So, they came to my house and the three of us worked together for two hours cleaning my house! Next week we will go to Sue's house and then my mom's the next week! Isn't it genius?!?! My mom and Sue had been venting their frustration over getting motivated to clean and Sue came up with this plan to help us get a little fire under our butts! I love it! My house is so clean and we had fun doing it!

Everybody's workin' for the weekend

Sometimes I love 'em and sometimes I hate 'em. This one was particularly good.
We had a surprise 30th birthday party for my friend Melissa. Well, it was at my house but her husband, Gabe, was the mastermind.
He put together this great video of pictures of her and her friends and family over the years. He did a similar one for my wedding with pictures of Jimmy and I and then added the video of the wedding to the end. I love it! I watch it all the time. So, I am putting an unsolicited advertisement for Gabe right here on my blog....I am sure he will post some of his videos on his blog now that I've put the pressure on. They are so great and they are really professional quality. He's done them for weddings and birthday parties...they are a priceless keepsake to celebrate a milestone.

So...back to the party. We BBQ'd and then we had a famous O'Dell waterfight. They start out fairly innocently with water balloons and squirt guns and end up with buckets, pitchers, hoses and everyone totally drenched. Someone inevitably gets on the roof with a hose. About 1/2 of the drenched people intended to participate....bwhahaha! The measure of fun could definitely be the water that was dripping from the ceiling in my laundry room!

And guess what...I don't have a single picture! I'm sure someone else does so I'm going to try desperately to find some.

I do, however, have pictures from our adventures on Sunday!
My mom took the kids to church on Sunday and Jimmy and I had a leisurely breakfast that consisted of reading our own separate papers (The Boise Weekly for me and American Classifieds for him) and then commenting to one another on something we read. I know we look like two people who have nothing to talk about..or something...but, honestly, I talk to him everyday. However, I don't get to read the newspaper while I eat breakfast...ever! Then we headed over to Joe and Kelsey's to steal a fish from their pond and put it in ours. (Something ate our fish). They were tossing around the idea of going to Crouch for the day so Jimmy and I jumped on the bandwagon.

We plopped our lawn chairs right in the river (the pic on the top right is where our butts were sitting just moments before) My mom calls that "redneck swimming". It was so much fun and so relaxing. The mosquitoes started to come out so we headed into town to look for bug spray but we ended up pulling over at a picnic table alongside the road (right center) and having dinner. There was another little stream so the girls and I played there for a little bit. (Left center and bottom right...I was pointing at a snake)
I love spontaneous adventures and it was really nice to spend time with Joe, Kelsey and Chance. Every time I do something with them (or Warren and Casey) I am reminded how fortunate I am to be friends with my brothers and their wives.