1 Month Down, 3 to go

Today marks four weeks of Justice being gone, which means we only have 3 more months left!  The first month has gone by pretty quick so hopefully the rest will to. If all goes as planned then we will be seeing Justice for a few days in October then my mother is coming for a visit the beginning of November so at least we have things to look forward to.

Brosnan has been in a better mood the last couple of days so that has been nice. He's had his moments, well they've all had their moments but they are kids so I guess that's normal.



First Toothless Smile :-)



Justice Loses a Tooth

As you can see, Justice lost his first tooth yesterday. It had been wiggling for a week or two. I did not know that he had been wiggling it at all. I figured he was going to be one of those kids where the tooth is hanging on by a thread and still refuses to give it that final yank. I was SO wrong. Him and Brosnan were watching a movie in Justice's bedroom and Justice comes out with a bloody mouth and a tooth in his hand! I was shocked and surprised!  The tooth fairy came last night and gave him some money and a note that told him to tell his mom to take him to the store so he can buy something cool. We went to the store today and he picked out some lego's.

House Cleaning

Oh, Yesterday I finally got tired of the HUGE mess that the boys bedrooms were constantly in and I decided it was time to do some cleaning and emptying. I had been noticing that the boys would actually play with their toys the most after the rooms were cleaned and organized. Then by the end of the day when they had messed it all up, they really wouldn't go back in until it was clean again. 

This is Justice's room as I was cleaning. Please be aware that I had already taken out a bunch of stuff and picked a lot of stuff up before deciding I should take pictures.

This is his room after I was done. He got to choose 2 things to keep and the rest got sent to the garage. He choose his guys and monster trucks. The books and computer of course stayed. He had absolutely no problems with what I did and actually did a good job helping me.



Brosnan's Room Before



Brosnan's room After

Yes, I even did Arcadian's room!

Arcadian's room after

A little over 24 hours later and the rooms are still pretty clean. I have picked them up a little but it only takes me a few minutes compared to what it used to. They have all spent more time in their rooms playing and I am hoping that continues.  They have been told that if they ever want to play with anything else all they have to do is make a trade. Give me something they have now and I'll give them what they want.

Speaking of Houses



For all those curious how our house selling is going...our  WA house has been on the market for almost three months. Showings have been nearly non-existent so we have dropped the price to a ridiculous amount in hopes to at least get people looking at it so we can get a short-sale approved and be done with it (anyone want to buy a house??). Who wants to bother with the short-sale process for a house that is 30 years old when they can buy a brand new one for the same price?!? The houses provide me with daily headaches and debt. I never would have thought that buying a house for our family to live in would have ended up as a financial nightmare. A house that appraised for a decent amount over what we paid for it has dropped in value nearly $70,000 in 3 years. Something is incredibly wrong with that picture. The same thing with the VA house. It is literally worth less then half of what we paid for it. Of course we paid the highest price, about a month later is when the housing bubble burst and it was a down hill slide from there. Renting a house out for a couple hundred dollars less then your monthly mortgage is not ideal.  What ever happens I am ready to just deal with it and move on. No more house buying for us for awhile. I am enjoying renting for now.

Tomorrow.... Tomorrow is a busy day. We are supposed to go to a "meet & greet" for the Mom's Club in the morning, then in the evening the Officer's wives are having a get together. They are picking me up here at the house (and bringing a babysitter) so I have to make sure the house is clean. Fun! Actually I am looking forward to some adult conversation without kids!

JP