Wordless Wednesday-

I hate all the weird effects they do to the pictures at the portrait studio. I think the pink circle around the edges looks kinda weird. The pictures I ordered aren't actually like that, but the ones on the CD are. Oh well.

Kitchen stuff

For the next month or so, I'm probably going to be posting some kitchen remodel stuff here. It's the easiest way for me to keep track of stuff. So here are pictures and measurements of the appliances.

The double oven


Depth: 26-1/8 in.
Height, Backguard Top: 46-3/4 in.
Maximum Width: 29-7/8 in.

Microwave



Dimensions:
Depth: 15-11/16 in
Depth, Door Open: 37-5/8 in.
Height: 16-7/16 in.
Turntable Diameter: 12-3/4 in.
Cutouts:
Depth, Opening: 13 in.
Height, Opening: 16-1/2 in.
Top Edge from Cooking Surface: 30 in. min.
Width, Opening: 30 in.




Dishwasher (with controls my kids can't get at when it's closed. I don't know how many times they have turned the dishwasher on by messing with the buttons.


Depth w/Door Closed: 25-1/2 in.
Depth w/Door Open: -
Height: 34-1/2 in.
Width: 23-7/8 in.
PS3
This is the fridge Jeff wants. I think it's a bit of overkill, but he really wants it. He already gave the kitchen guy the measurements for it. LOL

The phone

Have I ever shared here that I hate talking on the phone? It's one of those things that Jeff and I go around about. He always wants me to speak to people on the phone. His family, random people he knows, the guy doing our kitchen, whoever. I'm pretty sure Jeff thinks it's like a public speaking anxiety or something, but really, it's not. For whatever reason, I can not hear well on the phone. It's better with people who I speak to regularly maybe because I can figure out what they are saying more easily? Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Jeff is convinced he will fix this about me by making me talk to people. I wish I could make him understand that this is not the case. If anything it makes me more anxious about talking on the phone. I love email and texting because I can often get around the talking on the phone stuff. What about you, what weird things do you hate?

Tackle it Tuesday

It's Tuesday! Time to tackle something right? It's been a while since I've participated, but this week, I've actually got something done. My tackle for the week is hanging pictures. We've lived here since the beginning of May, and as of last week, there was nothing on the walls. So today, I'm hanging stuff up. So far, the tea cup shelf is up in the office. There are things on the walls in both kids rooms, and I've hung pictures in my room and bathroom. I'm not putting anything up in the kitchen or dining room because it will just have to come down anyway. ( Have I mentioned that we're not redoing our counters now? Instead we're getting a new kitchen??) I'll post more about that later. Let's just say I'm going to be using lots of wrinkle creams and dying my gray hair by the time this is over. LOL

So, did ya play? Go visit 5minutesformom.com to see other Tackles. :-)

I survived! The actual visit to the dentist was great. I think the most painful thing was getting the IV put in! Okay and maybe the little pinch when I got the shots. Most of the procedure is pretty hazy. I remember them putting oxygen on me, and an automatic BP cuff. Then I got a heart rate monitor and next was the oxygen sensor on my finger. Last they put something over my eyes and put in the IV. I remember the doctor asking me a few times if I was sleepy yet. Then he started doing the Novocaine. He did an excellent job. I've never done well with anesthesia but I didn't feel a thing. I have vague recollections of conversations going on around me, and the doctor commenting when the first tooth came out. The next thing I remember it was half an hour later and we were all done. It went faster than anticipated, they came out easily.

So thanks for all the well wishes I got on here and in emails. I highly recommend getting some sort of sedation for big dental work if you're nervous. I really appreciated that the dentist also called me last night to check on me. This was my first experience at this dental office and they definitely get 5 stars in my opinion. Amelia has a check up on Friday, wish me luck that it goes well! LOL The kid loves brushing her own teeth (with lots of toothpaste) but she's not real big on letting anyone else near her teeth.

Totally unrelated (I'm going through mail while I'm writing this) I keep getting junk mail for random vacations. I'm not sure whose list I got on, but they think I'm loaded and want to take lots of vacations. Yeah, cause I have so much extra $$ that I can afford to pack up the family and have a vacation across the country with Outer Banks rentals. Seriously though, I wonder how they pick who is on those lists.

The dentist

Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist. And not just a normal simple cleaning type visit, but I have to have my wisdom teeth surgically removed. All four of them. They're going to knock me out and take them all at once. They mean business too, I got a whole list of rules for tomorrow. Jeff must come with me, and stay in the waiting room the whole time. (Which should be interesting considering he will have both kids with him.) We even get a special parking spot at the back of the building so they can sneak me out without dragging me through the waiting room when the torture surgery is complete.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but the dentist and I are not good friends. I'm kind of terrified of doctors in general, and the hospital smell makes me want to vomit. (The fact that I managed to spend six days in the hospital when I had Amelia is amazing. That's probably why they strapped me down during the c sections, they were afraid I'd bolt.) Yeah so the point of this post is I'm scared. So if you read this before noon on Friday, think good thoughts for me. I need all the help I can get! :-)

Rambling

I can't remember what I've posted about lately. Did I tell you all about our furniture buying experiences? We spent a lot of money at Ikea, I found the most perfect couch there. (Well it's perfect for us, and it has nothing to do with aesthetics.) Ikea has this furniture line where you can pick your own cover. So the couch isn't really upholstered. You buy the couch, then you buy your covers. Once they are put on, they look much better than a separate cover you'd buy at Macy's or wherever. And the best part? It can all be thrown in the washer! So yeah, experience shopping at Ikea was great. One of my friends recomended this other furniture store to me. She went on and on about how great it was, so I went to check it out. I was a little disappointed when I arrived however and I found out it was a commercial furniture store. It had office furniture mostly. Not sure how that would help my house but oh well. It's that thought that counts. Maybe she thought we needed industrial grade furniture for it to stand up to my kids? LOL

I have a bunch of furniture I still want to purchase for my house. I'd like a new dining set ( don't tell my husband) and I'd love to get a new headboard and bedroom furniture. Unfortunately Jeff bought our bedroom set and dining set way before I knew him and he refuses to part with them. Even though they are all in pretty bad shape.

I don't remember now what the point of this post was. LOL I have to go to the dentist tonight to find out about getting my wisdom teeth pulled, and I'm just a bit nervous and distracted. Wish me luck.

Quiet time.

We have been so busy here. Who knew summers at home could be so crazy. I like it this way though, the kids get in far less trouble when we're off doing stuff. Monday I was sick so we had to skip our playdate. I did drag myself out of bed to take Amelia to ballet tough. Tuesday we went to the park and to story time at the library. Wednesday we got the kids hair cut, then had a trip to costco and the grocery store. Thursday we stayed home and got stuff done around the house, although we did make it to the park in our tract for an hour in the morning. . Friday was a trip to OC for swimming at Tiffeny's. I got sooo sun burnt. It's two days later and I'm still bright pink and cringing when anyone touches my back or shoulders. The kids had a blast though. Anthony's still not sure about the pool, but he's getting better about not freaking out too much.

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's market. The kid each picked out a cactus and we got some fruit and veggies too. Next we went to Fairmount park and drove around the lake. Then we let the kids run around in the rose gardens. It reminded me of some the old parks and rose gardens in Portland. Then last night we packed up a dinner and went to another park. We ate and then the kids ran around and played. Then once the sun started setting we set up our chairs and blankets on the grass and got ready to enjoy a movie courtesy of the city's Parks and Rec Department. It seems like there are a lot of free or cheap activities to do around here especially in the summer. I think next week (once my sun burn goes away) we're going to try out the local pool.

When you add in the baking Amelia insists we do regularly, cleaning the house, doing laundry, making meals and our ongoing projects in the yard, it's been crazy busy around here. But I like it that way. Jeff and Amelia are at the grocery store getting a couple things I need to make some banana bread. ( I bought too many bananas at Costco this week. Ooops.) Anthony is napping and I'm doing laundry, and enjoying the peace and quiet.

I actually took a few more house pictures I'll try and get up in the next few days too. I've already rearranged Amelia's room again since the last pictures, and I'm fianlly starting to hang pictures and things on the walls.

Sellout?

So my friend, (also named Stephanie, also with the nickname Stepherz, weird huh?) does some paid advertising in her blog occasionally. It cracks me up because she labels these posts Stepherz the sellout.

I like this blog. I like sharing pictures of my kids, projects we make and what I'm tackling around the house this week. However, this blog does cost a little bit of money to host. (Not much mind you!) And if I haven't already mentioned it 800 times, we're getting a new kitchen. So every little bit helps. And that would be a nice way to make some extra $$.

So yeah, if you're looking for moving companies San Francisco
then go visit that site.

Kids rooms

Yes, I'm aware we've lived here for over two months, and I still haven't posted pictures. Oops. In my defense, I did move and I'm still not totally unpacked. I did however find the camera cord today(now if I could just find the rest of the silverware) so here are a few pics of the kids rooms. Poor Ant got the smallest room in the house, but I wanted his room next to Amelia's, so thats what he's got. Besides, the office/spare room/ sewing scrapbooking room needs to be large to hold all of our junk. There are no curtains in Ant's room because I haven't figure out what I want in there yet. Amelia picked the fabric for her valance herself, which is why it's pink. (Cause the pepto bismal color on the walls isn't enough pink. LOL) So yeah, I'll stop rambling now, here are the pictures. :-) Click to enlarge.

No one's home.

The downside to my new home purchase and moving is the new phone number and the new telemarketers. Half the people who call me don't speak English, which I find entertaining. It's much easier to harass a telemarketer when you don't speak the same language. I've stopped answering the phone for unknown numbers, they are all usually someone trying to sell me something, (especially security systems!) or wanting to sign me up for some cause or get my donation. The best one that I've seen on the caller ID was the Oakland motorcycle accident lawyer. That's actually what showed up on my caller ID. Well really it was a much shorter condensed version, but I'm guessing that's what they meant. Either way, I got a good laugh out of it.

Still unpacking!

Is it sad that I'm still unpacking? We've lived here for three months. I sort of thought we'd be all done by now. Oh well, we'll get there eventually. We're about to pack up the whole kitchen back up again. I'm not looking forward to that. On the plus side, unpacking stuff is like Christmas as far as the kids are concerned. We got out 4 huge boxes of toys from the garage last weekend and they were so excited.

It's funny the random things that are still lost somewhere. I can't find my favorite Dansko shoes. My cousin talked me into buying them the last time I was in Portland, and I love them. But they are still lost in the garage somewhere. Hopefully I'll find them soon.

What did you do today?

Today I

Got up at 530.
Took a shower.
Had a cup of tea.
Made 3 beds.
Prepared breakfast.
Filled up the water and sand table.
Played in the back yard.
Made mud pies with the kids.
Washed dishes.
Unloaded the dishwasher.
Vacuumed the dried mud off the floors.
Spot steam cleaned the carpet.
Bathed the kids.
Baked brownies with Amelia.
Made lunch for myself and the kids.
Washed dishes.
Unpacked two more boxes.
Dug up some more of the ditch we're digging in the back yard.
Signed Amelia up for a ballet class that started today.
Drove all over trying to find the right outfit/shoes for ballet.
Drove across town to the ballet class.
Spent an hour chasing Anthony around the ballet studio.
Explained to the teacher that Amelia does not have three brothers (named Anthony, Jack, and Chance. HA)
Supervised (and kept the kids away from) the guy from the window company while he made some repairs.
Washed, hung up, folded and put away a lot of laundry.
Weeded my flower beds.
Took out the compost. (That stuff stinks! Ewww)
Swept and mopped the kitchen floor.
Glued Anthony's dresser drawer back together(someone remind me why I put an antique dresser in a kid's room?)
Went through all the kids toys, and put them back where they go.
Sorted through half of Amelia's closet.(have to do Anthony's tomorrow)
Did puzzles with the kids.
Tried to convince Anthony not to wear the laundry basket on his head.
Changed 3 poopy diapers and a lot more peepee ones.

It's 730. Ant is in bed, but not sleeping. Jeff and Amelia just ran to get ice cream. I think I'm ready for bed.

What did you do today?

Did ya miss me? Wait. Don't answer that. So anyway, I'm back. Still probably not going to be blogging too much, but I'll try and post here and there. And I promise there will be pictures of the new house soon. :-)

Things are progressing around here. We've got the new windows in. It's a lot quieter and much cooler in here already. The downside to the new windows is our already funky kitchen counters (tile that someone put in themselves) have bigger problems caused by the pass through windows. When the new windows were put in, they had to chip out some of the tile and it ended up cracking the tile all around my sink. So it looks like the kitchen redo is going to front of the list. We're trying to decide now if we're going to do new cabinets or just new counters. I love the size and layout of our kitchen. I can live with the current cabinets, Jeff hates them. I think it's just the stain that he hates though so I'm wondering if we could just refinish or paint them. We'll see. Right now I'm trying to pick out the counter tops. I'm really liking that the solid surface counter tops (think Corian). There are even some green options, one style we like is made with a portion of recycled materials. The ones I like are made by LG, pictures can be seen here. I really like the idea of having the sink integrated so it's all one piece. No seems to keep clean!

If you're reading this and have experienced solid surface counters, please leave me a comment. I'd like to hear about it! It's one thing to research and look at pictures it's another to hear from someone who has it in their house. Anyway. I should probably get to bed, I'm having a nanny party here tomorrow. Woohoo. :-)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Melt in your Mouth Meat Loaf, Salad, Frozen veggies

Tuesday: Avocado Chicken, Banana Bread, Brown Rice, salad

Wednesday: Pasta, veggies, salad

Thursday, Crockpot stew, Rolls,

Friday: Pizza/leftovers

Saturday: Turkey burgers, red potatoes, fruit

Sunday: Teriyaki Chicken, Salad, Veggies

I'm alive!

Moving is a pain but it's worth it. A large portion of our stuff is unpacked, although the garage still appears to be filled with junk. The kids are settled in their rooms, and sleeping pretty well. No more waking each other up all night. We've had lots of little projects completed already, a new water heater has been installed, the cable and phone lines have been rerun, and a few electrical things have been fixed. We've bought new furniture, repainted almost the whole interior of the house, and ordered all new windows. The windows should be installed in a few weeks, and I think that will make a huge difference with the noise and the heat this summer. Next we'll be working on the yard and then deciding how much to redo in the kitchen. We already have new appliances, but I'm not crazy about the cabinets and counters, so we'll see what happens. We also need to have the electrician back in so we can get ceiling fans put in.

The guest room had it's first visitors this weekend.(Although they had to sleep on air mattresses because we don't have a bed in there yet! Ha.) My brother in law and nephew drove out from Arizona. It was nice to see them, and Amelia had so much fun with Uncle Jim. She was so sad after they left, she told me she wanted them to come back "right now!" :-) We took them to the beach, and they had to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport Beach to get cupcakes to take back to my niece Sara. I tried one, and while it was good, I'm not sure they were worth the price. Nine cupcakes cost me $27!

Anyway, posts will probably still be few and far between for a while until I get a little more organized around here.

Today's to do list

• Submit Change of address form to USPS
• Change address with all of our accounts (figure them all out later)
• Turn on electric, water, gas
  
• Get garbage service started(This literally took 5 phone calls by me and 3 more by Jeff. Who knew there were so many Garbage companies in Riverside...
• Reserve moving truck
• Hire movers
• Pack the kitchen
• Set up carpet cleaning for next week
• Set up cleaners
• Finish pulling nails and patching holes
• Clean my bathroom
• Clean kids bathroom
• Finish packing kids room (except clothes)
• Finish painting
• Clean kitchen

Shhh, don't tell!

I'm totally hiding out from Jeff and the kids. At 5AM Jeff and I got into a little argument about who was getting up with Anthony.

Yesterday, I got up with the kids and Jeff stayed in bed. He's so nice and sweet when I'm leaving with the kids. The kids and I even went and got donuts at 6 AM, and took the really long way around, and got donuts from a bakery across town, so he could sleep. Then I cleaned and did laundry and watched the kids while he slept.

Fast forward to this morning when he's all irritated that I want him to get up with Anthony today. He did eventually get up with him after he bitched for a bit. Following his exit from the bedroom, they have been back to "visit Mommy" three times. So I gave up. At 715 I finally got out of bed. But I still want some quiet time. And I know that as soon as I go out into the living room, Jeff will run as fast as he can back to bed, not to be moved until noon. So, this is how I find myself at the desk in my room, in my pajamas, reading TMZ and blogging, while hiding from my children. Good times!

Hey Grandma

This morning Amelia and ( and some bears and a stuffed dog) had a tea party on the floor. We took these pics to show Grandma. :-)

The things kids say

The kids and I were sitting at the table, they were eating cereal and I was still waking up, when Jeff left for work this morning. After he made his way out the front door, arms full of his laptop, his lunch and the trash, Amelia looked at me and sighed. She followed that with, "Mama, I'm gonna miss that little fella."

I'm still laughing. I'm going to make a guess that this was the first time anyone has ever called Jeff a little fella. :-)

Amelia bakes a cake!

Caught in the act

Anthony's new favorite spot in the house is in my bathroom sink. He's quite the little monkey and can climb right up the cabinets all on his own. This is how I found him earlier today. He was so engrossed in trying to eat the toothpaste, that he didn't even notice me at first.






Then he finally noticed me and immediately got the uh oh look on his face. He knows he's not supposed to be up there and is generally quite proud of himself when he gets up there without my noticing.









Just ignore the mess on my counters, I was in the middle of cleaning and packing when he made his mad dash for the toothpaste.

Note to self

Hey Self-

When you spend the whole morning sweeping and mopping and vacuuming the whole house, you should not let the kids play out in the sand and water table all afternoon. The floors will not look very good after the kids throw "snowballs" (sand and water formed into balls) into the kitchen from the back patio. And after they track some more sand into the master bedroom and through to their bedroom, the floors will look even worse. Really, you shouldn't bother.

Driveby posting

Overheard in the OC household.

Steph: Amelia, go put your blankie on your bed please.
Amelia: No Mom. I can't. I'm Limboing.

I turn around, and sure enough, Anthony is holding their play broom, and she is trying to do the limbo under the stick. Too bad I didn't have my camera close by.

(We're sloooooooowly moving forward with the home buying process, which is still the reason for my absence. Hoping to have keys next week. Yay!!)

Taking a break

In a few short weeks, we'll officially be homeowners. While I'm very excited, I'm also slightly overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have to get done. So, I'm going to take a bloggy break. I'll be back with pictures and tales of the move when we're all moved in. I probably won't be visiting blogs much either.

Happy Easter!

My Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would be 56 if he was still alive. He passed away the year after I had Amelia, right around his birthday. Can it really be three years that he's been gone? Every time there is a milestone, a birthday, a Christmas, buying our first house, I miss him. And I'm afraid I'll forget him. My sister got everything of his when he died,so all I have is a few pictures of his.

The other day I was reading a post written by my friend Steph, and she talked about some of her childhood memories of her Mom. I am nowhere near the storyteller she is, but I thought I'd share some of my good memories of my Dad. There are some not so good memories as well, but today is about good things.

My dad was an amazing writer. Some of his poetry was really well written. The subject matter was often full of angst, stories about drug use, wars and his relationship with my mom. But he had a way with words. I wish now that I had more of his writing put away somewhere. I hope my mom still has it all.

Besides having a way with words, he was an excellent guitar player. He taught himself over the years, and could play anything, at least that's how it seemed to me as a child. When I was around 10 or so, my dad and his girlfriend moved into a trailer on the Oregon coast. The lived in the little town of Otis in this rural trailer park. It was in the hills and it was nice. At first they didn't have electricity because they couldn't afford to get the power pole put up for the trailer.( I think it was permits or something they lacked.) So they had kerosene lamps all over the trailer, and a wood stove, and an extension cord run to the neighbors to run the TV and stuff like alarm clocks. They lived that way for months. Every time I smell a wood stove I remember those times. In the evenings Dad and Gail would play guitars and sing songs. He could hear a song and play it back for me.

Another great memory I have is camping. As a teenager, we would go camping every summer. We'd camp at Spruce Run outside Seaside, OR. We usually got rained on. My sister and I would play in the mud swim in the river and sit around the camp fire. There was a huge group that would go, and we'd always have a great time. I truly enjoyed those times with my Dad. Now I wish I'd taken more pictures and appreciated it all more. I'm finally over being Angry at my Dad for leaving us. Now I just miss him.

Tackle it Tuesday

So this is going to be a little different than most Tackle it Tuesdays. I'm sick, Anthony's sick and neither of us got much sleep last night. However, I've got a huge list of stuff to get done. We spent yesterday at the park, and outside a lot so I have to get stuff done today. I'm going to post my list here and check back in every so often as I cross stuff off. I probably won't get it all done, but I can start!

ETA: It's 930 and I'm feeling a lot worse. My head feels like it's about to explode. I can feel myself getting sicker. So I'm off to get as much of my list done as I can before I give in and take some tylenol cold. Wish me luck!

Clean the kitchen

Do laundry

Put laundry away

Change kids sheets

Change my sheets

Deep clean my bedroom

Vacuum living room

Clean bathrooms

Sweep and Mop

Take out Garbages

Ready, set, go!!

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend! Saturday, we wandered around Target in the morning, then we went to a birthday party out in the boonies. (Okay really it was in Upland, by Mt. Baldy.) We managed to get lost on the way there, two freeways meet for a few miles and branch off again, we ended up the wrong one. Oops. We took the 60 all the way to Riverside before we realized we were way far from where we should be. So we back tracked about 20 minutes and were only a half hour late. It was nice to spend so much time outside, even if Jeff and I did get a little sun burnt. The kids had a great time playing in the bouncer and eating cupcakes. We were there all afternoon.

On the way home we stopped at Lowes and spent at least an hour there looking at things we want to get for the new house. Checked out our dream kitchen, ha ha. Not gonna happen anytime soon, but it was fun to look. We came home at 6, I cleaned a little and did some laundry. Then I gave the kids baths and put them to bed. It was a tiring day! :-)

Sunday we went out to Oak Canyon and went for a hike. We've been taking classes there during the week, so Amelia had a good time showing Jeff around. It was really nice, hiking is not something I do much anymore, and I miss it. I need to get a pack for Anthony, there are more trails we could explore if we didn't have the stroller.

After our hike we had lunch at Rubios, mmmm fish Tacos, then went to Trader Joes for grocery shopping. Both kids fell asleep, so now they're sleeping and Jeff is out doing something in the garage. I need to go clean out my car, and take it get vacuumed, then Jeff and Amelia are going to wash it for me after her nap.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Pasta Meatball Soup Whole Wheat Rolls, Salad

Tuesday Pesto Chicken, brown Rice, Veggies Salad

Wednesday Oven baked Pork Chops, Sweet Potatoes, Salad

Thursday Veggie Quiche,

Friday Stew, Whole wheat rolls, salad

Saturday Breakfast for dinner,

Sunday Salsa Chicken (Recipe below)


Salsa Chicken

1 large Jar of Salsa
2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 can black beans
1 can corn

Put the Salsa and chicken in the crockpot, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. When it's about finished, shred the chicken, mix in the beans and corn, and it's all done. I sometimes eat it in a whole wheat tortilla with cheese, or just in a bowl. Yummy!

Everything I need to know, I learned on the Wonder Pets...

Overheard in the OC Mama's car the other day.

"Look Mom! There's the statue of Liberty."

I look over and see him standing there. He's dancing around trying to drum up business for the tax place I think.

"Yes, that guy's in a Statue of Liberty costume. Did you learn about her in school?"

"No Mom. She was on The Wonder Pets."

"Of course she was. I don't think you need to go to school anymore, you can just watch the Wonder Pets."

"Can I watch it all day long? But not Anthony. He should take a nap."

Every day?

So Michelle is doing a blog post a day for the next month, and I thought I'd try it too. I'm not sure if I'll make it, but it can't hurt to try.

We're going to see some of our playgroup friends today, Amelia is so excited. With everyone being in school, we haven't been doing much as a group lately.

We're still waiting on house stuff. Inspection was a week ago and still no word on if they'll fix the stuff required for our financing. I'm disappointed in how slowly this process is moving, but maybe it's good for me. I probably needed to learn some patience anyway. :-)

Plugging along

Between Jeff and I, we managed to track down the info on the HOA for the new house. When Jeff called them, he got some interesting info, the house was painted without their permission. And dues haven't been paid yet for this year. Hmm. And the HOA was under the impression that the house was being lived in by the owners. Huh. But none of that should affect us, as they can't transfer the back dues to us, and they are okay with the new color, even if they were not informed.

We are hoping to hear back from the other agent today on our list of stuff that needs to be fixed. And we've been told the gas should be on by Friday so we can have it reinspected. I'm beginning to think I should offer to go sit there while the gas company comes. It may be the only way to finish the inspection before we close! Sheesh.

In other news, I love our agent. She is very patient with me and my OCD about understanding everything. I emailed her a question at 930 last night and she called me back (while she was at Stater Bros ha) immediately and explained it to me. She is always telling us to call any time with questions or concerns, and she has been really helpful with things. When we have had to do paperwork or stuff at the house (inspection etc.) she helped watch the kids so I could take pictures and measurements. So even if this whole process is driving me batty, at least I feel like we have an ally in this.