kindergarten love. :)

 taylor came home w/a GIANT phone number written on a paper. :) i have no idea who wrote it, but when i saw it, he grabbed it and crumpled it up. he was so embarrassed and started yelling. i got him to calm down and give it to me, but he didnt' want me to look at it. he told me it was from drew. when i looked at it, i saw that it has "I *heart* U" written in the middle of the 8. so i asked taylor if it was really from drew. he sd yes. i sd, "he sd he loves you?" he sd, "YOU LOOKED!!! NO MOM!! it's NOT from drew!!! and i don't like ANY girls!!!! i don't ever want ANY GIRLS to come play at our new house!!!" . i sd, "...but taylor....I'M a girl... " :(

integrity

the other night eric had an AWESOME little lecture w/the older boys. we have a rule that they are not supposed to play violent video games, but a little mouse informed us that they have all been sneaking and doing it behind closed doors. well, if I had been the one initiating the lecture, it would have gone something like this:  "i know you guys have been breaking family rules. bcs of this, i am taking the doors off of your bedroom. you can earn them back when you are following the rules. if you continue to try to break them when i'm not aware, you will be sleeping on teh floor too". :) but no-oooo-oo...eric is inspired. he called them in and sd this: "boys, i want to talk to you abt integrity. do you know what that word means?? it means that you are good even when no one is watching. mom and i can't babysit you all the time to make sure you are following the rules. if you are breaking them, you can probably get away with it. but not really. bcs Heavenly Father knows when you do. and so do you. and you won't be happy if you aren't a man of integrity. this shapes who you are". anyway, that was the gist of it. i was as spellbound as the boys were. he never mentioned the video games, he never accused. they weren't put on the defensive, and i won't ahve to worry abt seeing them changing in their bedrooms. :)
well, after that discussion, we had a moral dilemma w/our new house...

the purchase price on our house was 135k. that was the asking price. the realtor who holds the listing has the house listed as it is w/.35 acres. we went over and measured th lot that the house was on, and it was .35 acres. there is an additional lot behind it. i'm not sure if it's quite as big, but it's a good sized lot. it MAY be as much as .35 acres. when the house was bought by the previous owner, it was deeded together at the cost of 176k. so i have been inquiring abt that lot. who owns it? will someone be building back there? is it available for sale? will we be paying taxes on it?? will we be responsible for weed control?? etc.etc. all along i've been toldt hat the lot is not part of the house. on our sales contract, the purchase property is listed as 65 east, 200 south, delta...etc. they don't even havea  legal description. but as i was reading the appraisal last night...which is how they determined the asking price (value) of 135k, it says under property description: "lot parcel # such and such  AND lot parcel # such and such". in other words, it listed both the house AND the land. but when you look at how they determined the value, in comparison to other homes in our vicinity, the land value was adjusted to reflect just the land that the house is on. okay, so here's where it gets tricky. taht is an interior lot. there is no water or gas, but it's less than 25 feet from hook up. it's on an alley, so not likely to have any curb appeal or value for building a home. but it could easily be valued at between 10 and 20k. okay, so i called the title company and they sd that the lot was conveyed w/the houes to HUD. so i called hud. they sd they don't do land lots. if it came w/the house, it will go w/the house. so here's our dilemma.... we know that a mistake was made in determining the price. the appraiser messed up. plain and simple. do we tell them? or do we take it as is and nt mentino it? okay, my first thought was to let it slide. it's their mistake, it's their loss. but eric's little lecture on integrity kept ringing in my ears. so i did what i thought i needed to.... i called the appraisal company to point out their error. the guy got on google maps and looked at the land. he sd that it's only .35 WITH the land. i assured him it's not. he disagreed w/me. he sd that this appraiser rarely makes mistakes. he sd that it looks like a tiny lot. he sd that the only way we can know who is right would be to do a survey, and do i really want to insist on (and pay for) that?   of course not. so, i guess we're getting the land with it. :)   these are my thoughts.... if the house were to be readjusted, the value would probably go up at least 10k. taht would put it at 145k. we could afford it, bcs it would simply add to the amount we could borrow. in other words, we wouldn't have to provide more cash bcs the lender would provide it. however, w/the new value, to make it fair, would they open it up to new bidders again?? well, it's in the hands of the appraiser's boss. if he stews over our conversation and decides that it's worthy of reconsidering, we might lose the house. if he blows off the conversation bcs who am i? and what do i know? well, we just got a bigger backyard for the same price. and guess who will be planting fruit trees next summer?? :) 

life is sure interesting, isn't it??

house bid

finally!! FINALLY i can let it all hang out. i have been avoiding this blog for fear that i would blurt it out. in the middle of a blog on baking, i'd spew out: "WE BID 138K ON THE HOUSE". or maybe i'd be telling you abt my deodorant and how i forgot to epilady that morning, and my oral diarrhea would erupt: "138K, THAT'S OUR BID!!!" and then woudlnt' be able to retrieve it as our personal information hit the cyber highway. can you imagine???
yes, we have been living, the 7 of us, in a small manufactured home. please don't shed any tears for us. it's not a one-room shanty, nor is it anything i'd pretend isn't mine if the stake president wanted to come for dinner. it's just that it's a wee small for as much testosterone as we are trying to contain. when the boys wrestle, (or even the DOGS for that matter) it is often over the top of some innocent bystander's toes. so yea, our dream home would have a family room big enough to let them brawl and separate enough to be able to carry on a conversation in a different room. kapish? soooo...we've been watching this house for several months. it's become a pet project. we "discovered" it on a dog walk. then dad mooney pointed out over dinner one day that he thought no one was living there. long story short, we went to fillmore and did a title search through county records. we tracked down the original owner and made some dear friends. we have checked 3 websites at least twice a day EVERY day. we went to the county seat for a "fake" auction. (aka: hud induced auction...i'll cover THAT devilish scheme in another blog). we have talked to countless agents, attorneys, loan agents, realtors, even title insurance companies to prepare for the moment that we could place a bid. so here's how it works..... HUD (fed govt dept of housing and urban development) "owns" this house. they appraised it to be valued at 135k. which is below what it's actually worth, but they won't consider the basement since it's unfinished. (but it IS framed and partly insulated). they "open" the bid to anyone willing to make an offer, and the bid "closes" on monday. after that we just wait. so we have run the gamut on what to bid. first, we want to offer low. see what we can get it for. you know, everyone loves a good bargain. and we'd love to have a little money to actually improve the property if we get it. then we discover that there is so much competition for this house, that we decide to offer full price. we were originally told that timing is everything and that HUD will accept the first full price offer. so , discovering that the house was open for bidding on new year's eve day, we thought we had the advantage. most people were partying and doing other things. so we submitted our bid to our realtor, who submitted to her broker, who sat on it bcs he was partying. thankfully we discovered that timing is NOT everything, but that the price is critical. so we decide to bid 138k. that extra 3k would go towards commissions and fees. but then we remember the game "price is right". remember at the last part...where they see the huge prizes?? i can't remember what it's called. anyway, one person calculates meticulously what they think the car/house/vacation/boat are worth. they come up w/a thoughtful number. 43,500. the next person jumps in and wins bidding 43,501. really? so we decide we better add a dollar. but if OTHER people are thinking the same thing? so we up it to 25$. that should protect us, right?? but then we hear of MORE people wanting this house.... and we start to get stressed. here's our deal. we are on a tight budget. we have a lot of expenses. in fact, w/a broken transmission and pending legal fees for a forced court appearance... yea...you get the picture. so we decide we will offer our top dollar. plus 200$ just to make it a little more. and then we wait. wait. wait and wait some more.
"if it's right for us, we will get it". i must have said that 1000 times in the past 5 months. :)  and now? the bids are in and closed. i can reveal my bid. and you can wait WITH me. :)

update on cell phones

just thought i'd update you... i was planning to suspend our service w/verizon. the hope was that i could just bypass the bills for the duration of our term. little did i know that that's not possible. if you're not paying, the time isn't counting. after numerous phone calls and serious stress , (and yes, some serious tears), i found an agent who talked his supervisor into pushing our renewal date up two months and they are sending a phone tomorrow. hallelujah!!! :)
but i have to admit something:  i really am an addict. the idea that i might not be able to resolve things started my heart spinning like i was losing oxygen. there was a physical reaction. and i really did have to fight back the tears. it was very painful for me to realize how dependent i am to that stinkin' electronic device. i recognized that i'm very very spoiled. it's NOT a need, it's a luxury.
...and yet...
there is something extremely comforting to me when i'm riding my bike out on the lonely plains w/little more than an occasional speeding diesel, to have that hard piece of communication in my bra. and when i'm driving out in the mountains between here and the north country (salt lake metropolitan area), it's nice to know that i COULD be just a phone call from help, should i run into a deer at night. (it matters not that there is no phone service between lynndl and nephi).  so yea, i think my cell phone has replaced my security blanket of yesteryear.
but judging by the teenagers texting in the high school parking lot, i don't think i'm alone on this one....