Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Big Brother

Welcome, little one!

Our friends Ross and Kara had their baby girl yesterday evening. Rylee Grace weighs in at 6lbs., 8oz. and everyone is doing great. (Those are all the details I have since Matt was the one who actually talked to Ross and you know how boys are about baby details :)) We are eager to get over there and meet little Rylee!

One cool dude

Can you guess who just got his first pair of sunglasses?

(Hairdo in the second picture courtesy of Daddy.)

Happy birthday to ME!

Instead of just celebrating my birthDAY, I prefer to celebrate my birthWEEK (Hey, it only happens once a year. Might as well milk it for all it's worth). So this past week I enjoyed multiple birthday celebrations including dinner at Matt's parents' house, a picnic in Kollen Park with my family, and a night out on the town with friends and Matt's siblings. The first picture is Matt and me with the kids at Kollen Park and the second one is us out for dinner at San Chez. Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthweek. The countdown begins for next year!

SOLD!!

Our house is SOLD!! Yay!! We just got done signing off on the offer with our realtor. We ended up getting pretty close to our asking price and the timing is really good, so we're happy. The main thing is that I don't have to clean the house for any more showings! It sounds like the buyer is a single guy with a significant other of some sort (hopefully she has good taste so it doesn't become a party pad :) ).

I love my family!

Aren't they cute?

Brett Update

As many of you know, Matt's youngest brother Brett is a Marine currently serving in Iraq. He's been there since March and he'll be home in October (he's in Recon - the Marine's special forces - so they serve slightly shorter deployments). He was on a month long mission, so we were all anxious to hear from him. Here's an email I just got from my mother-in-law. Thanks for all the prayers!

"Just wanted to let you all know that we heard from Brett. (YEAH!!!) His mission went well and everyone came back OK. He couldn't tell us much of anything except that between times of boredom there were some really tense situations. He said they were all actually glad to be back at Camp Fallujah with all it's "modern" conveniences like toilets and electricity.

He feels like he is on the home stretch now with only a little more that two months to go! Thanks again for your prayers for him. I KNOW that God hears all of your prayers and that they are very effective in Brett's life. ~Mom"

9 Months!

Ella had her 9 month check-up today. Her current stats are 18 lbs./14 oz. and 26 1/2 inches long. Because of Ella's reflux, the doctor seemed a little concerned that her growth seems to be tapering off (at 6 months, she was in the 75th percentile for weight and height; now she is a little below average). I'm not too worried about it as this point...she does spit up quite a bit but it seems to go in spurts and I think she's still getting the vast majority of the nutrients. The doctor did suggest adding cereal to her bottles. Has anyone else tried this?? We go back in a month to check her weight and height again.

Our little pumpkin is also a little under the weather right now which is just sad to watch. She has some sort of stomach bug and she's really worn out but very cuddly. Last night she slept in our bed between us for the first time in her little life. Dylan used to snuggle with us all the time when he was a baby, but we've never done it with her because she usually prefers her own space. It was a precious moment though, and I try to make a mental note of those moments because I know they grow up all too fast.

Getting close??

So we're trying not to get our hopes up, but we feel like we are getting closer to having a buyer for our house. We had a couple come through this afternoon for the second time, and someone else is coming through (also for the second time) on Friday. The people today really like our house; they have their house for sale by owner and think they have an offer for their current house, but they just have to make sure everything is on the up and up. They are using our realtor which is a bonus for us because we'll end up paying a little less in commission fees if they end up buying our house. The people coming on Friday also sound like they are in a position to buy. There was a third party that came through last week in addition to these first two couples, but we haven't heard feedback from them yet. Seems like things are starting to heat up. Keep your fingers crossed!

WPHS Class of '97

We went to my ten year class reunion this weekend. It was one of those things where part of you is looking forward to it and part of you is dreading it. I actually enjoyed high school, but I had lost touch with a lot of people over the years. I figured it was one of those once in a lifetime things though so off we went.

For the first hour or so, it was a complete sensory overload because I kept running into people that I hadn't seen in 10 years. People looked and acted more or less the same (no big surprises or scandals), and we ended up having a really great time (hey, it was a night out without the kids anyway). Matt was a good sport and hung out with other non-Park husbands and even danced a little.

My mom read somewhere that high school is so indelibly marked in our memories because of the way our brains are developing at that time. Seems to make sense because I can remember a lot more from high school than I can from college or even from our first few years of marraige. I guess I will forever be connected to that group of people in some strange way. We'll see what the next ten years bring...

Another house update...

It's August! We close on the new house on the 31st and it's feeling closer now that it's the end of this month. We will get possesion on September 8, and our current plan is to get in there and do a couple of things (painting, new bathroom flooring, etc.) and then do the big move one of the last weekends of September.

We are still working on selling our current home. The showings have been pretty steady, although nothing has come out of them yet. The last couple of people through were tire kickers (car sales speak for people who are just looking, but not really serious) which is annoying since I spend hours cleaning my house before each showing. On the positive side, our house has been cleaner these past few weeks than it ever has :). We have another showing on Thursday and these people seem like pretty good prospects. They have no house to sell and they are ready to buy. Rumor has it, they had another house picked out, but the seller backed out and the deal fell through.

Keep sending those prayers our way! We know our house will sell eventually, and if there's some overlap it will actually make the move/renovations less stressful because we can do them more gradually and not be rushed. The downside, of course, is owning two homes at once :).