my dream house

No, this is not my dream house. This, is probably the UGLIEST room I have ever seen. I'm really trying to not be judgemental here, but come on. The ugly speaks for itself. This is one of the pictures for a house listed in the area we're looking at. As soon as I saw this picture I completely ruled out this house as an option, I think it speaks of even bigger problems. Wow, it's almost hard to look at.
These pictures are pretty close to my dream house. Tall arched ceilings, lots of white, great art on the walls and interesting things to look at everywhere, wood floors, and furniture that's not too precious: couches that are meant to be lounged upon, yard sale finds that look cool with a coat of paint, shelves full of books.
p.s. Thank you to everyone who gave their advice on our housing conundrum. I will be coming back to the booth, I'm sure.

A year in review

Today is it, the day we've all been waiting for! My little man turns one year old! What a wonderful year it's been with him. I can't believe that a year ago I was spending my days without Reid's company. I really can't imagine life without him. So, here's to you, my sweet Reid! Happy Birthday! Your first year of life went a little something like this:
May 2, 2007
If this is weird for you, then just skip to the next picture. For the rest of you, this is me...a year ago yesterday. Just waiting. That's a lot of baby in there.

May 3, 2007

Fresh out of the oven. Reid was delivered c-section because he wasn't getting enough oxygen. Things started to decline very quickly, and within 20 minutes the decision to have a c-section was made, they wheeled me in, made the incision at 7:59 pm and time of birth was 8:01 pm. As you can see, the doctors made the right decision, he needed to come out quickly. He's nearly as purple as the nurses' gloves! He struggled while we were in the hospital, but he's been as strong as an ox ever since.

May 2007

This is Reid at only a few days old. So small! Oh, I wish I could have just one more day of this tininess. He just seems so fresh from heaven.

May 2007

This is Reid at about 2 weeks, and I think this picture is my all time favorite. There was just an instant connection between these two. I just can't get enough of this picture.

June 2007

Reid in his little blessing outfit. He was blessed in Colorado at Erik's parents' ward. We were there for a visit after Zach and Natalie got married in Portland. My parents came up for the blessing also, and it was so wonderful to be with Erik and our little Reid, and to have both sets of parents with us. The day of the blessing we didn't think to get pictures of everyone in their Sunday best and Reid in his blessing outfit. I had my camera, and so I figured I'd get pictures after church. In Relief Society, the last meeting, Reid was asleep in his carseat and projectile vomited all over himself and incidentally...all over my mom's shoes. He didn't even wake up. It just spewed out of his mouth and he stayed asleep the whole time. Crazy. I totally forgot about pictures at that point, so a few weeks later I put him back in his outfit, so it could at least be documented somehow. Just imagine Erik and I holding him, and our parents standing next to us, and a church in the background on a nice summer day in Colorado. That's the picture in my head.

July 2007

We saw a lot of this in the first few months. Reid would squirm and move around on the floor, sometimes enjoying tummy time and sometimes not. But everytime it would wear him out and he would fall asleep. Hard. He's always been a great sleeper. Erik left when Reid was 9 weeks old, and one of the biggest blessings I received in the last year was that Reid was sleeping 8 hours each night by the time Erik left. Amazing.

August 2007
This is, I think, the only edited picture I have. I was trying to make it look like I know something about photography and photo editing, but I don't think I'm fooling anybody. This is post-bath Reid, still one of my favorite things. Look at that sweet face and that soft baby skin. He was such an angel. He still is, just as sweet and easy-going as ever.

September 2007

This epitomizes this developmental stage. Pushing up off of his tummy, and making motorboat sounds for mama. I really miss this stage.

October 2007

You may remember this. This is the costume disaster. I should try it on him now, I bet it would still be too big. Oh well. He was supposed to be Yoda. Next year I'll start sewing before 4 pm on the day of the party. Or, at least I'll try to remember to do that, but I don't think I can make any promises. Reid was such a sport in this costume. It's made out of fleece (because there was snow everywhere for Halloween in Alaska) and he was totally sweating inside. Plus, it was like he had a Yoda straight jacket on. What a perfect baby.

November 2007

Reid learned to crawl while at Matt and Ann's house for Thanksgiving. Here's Sarah reading him a story. Matt and Ann have such wonderful children, they were so sweet to Reid. They're going to be great when the get a new baby in 5 days!

December 2007

Still in Oklahoma, and Matt and Ann's ward put on an amazing Christmas party. Look at that Santa! Reid's first Christmas! Christmas Day was spent with the Olsens in Colorado, and Reid loved all the attention, especially from his little cousin buddy, Kate.

January 2008

He's now able to pull himself up on things, and cruise around. When we got back from our long, long holiday trip, Reid became REALLY into playing. He would just play, and crawl, and jabber all day.

February 2008

It seems like Reid and I have spent hours in this spot. Reid in his chair and me facing him, feeding him. At this age he started to enjoy bigger pieces of food, especially things he could feed himself.

March 2008

This is what I call "Reidzilla." When I get down on the floor to play with him, he likes to tower over me and clobber me. Lately he's really into sitting in my lap. If I'm sitting on the ground, then he'll walk over to me, turn around, and back up into my lap. So cute, except for when I'm laying on the ground, because then he likes to back up and sit on my head.

April 2008
Reid is always looking for something to climb into/on top of/over/under/etc. The trick, he's learned, is getting himself out of the trouble he got himself into. I hear ya, Reid.

I can't wait for all the years to come with this little boy. He's such a delight, and I'm so grateful that he came to us. I'm going to try taking a picture a day of Reid, I'm getting really big into documenting, and it's all happening so fast that I don't want to forget it. It's just too good to forget.

one more house

Wow, three posts in one day. That's amazing...or obsessive. Whichever. First of all, you need to check out this. Annie told me about it and during the first minute or two I was like, "why am I watching this nonsense?" But believe me, you'll laugh out loud by the end. If not then you might be dead inside.

Thank you to those who have responded with advice thus far. It really does help. I do, however, feel the need to illustrate just how much renovation work the big blue box house would need. Annie said the house gave her the creeps. Basically every surface will have to be redone. Floors, remove the wood paneling (on every wall in the house!), complete kitchen re-do, downstairs bath going from 1/2 to full, turning 2 rooms upstairs into a master suite, build a detached garage, and landscape. Check out this virtual tour if you're interested. So, yeah, it's a piece of work. But that square footage! Dahlia made a good point that it's not our dream home. That's true. We're not looking for our dream home, I'm just trying to figure out which is the best investment.

Okay, so one more house option. This one (see above picture) was just listed a few days ago at 309,000 and it's a 3 bed/3 bath and 1,632 sq ft. It has hard wood floors and a large backyard, and a garage! Like the others (except the big blue box) this looks like it needs just some cosmetic changes. I really, really like this house, it's just a mental thing because we purposely set the max low at 300, and something inside of me wants to eliminate it as an option because it's over by a bit. Silly, I know. Especially since adding the cost of all the renovations and a detached garage would put the big blue box well over 300. This house is actually really great. Maybe we can talk 'em down. We can show them all the other houses that keep lowering their prices by tens of thousands, houses that have been on the market for 6+ months. Wow, this housing stuff is on my mind so much lately. It just seems like a lot of money, and I want us to make the best decision possible. So I figure that the more information I can gather, the better our chances are of making to that best decision.

Look for the next few posts to be about what I want to do with the house. I'm thinking "not wasteful", if you know what I mean!

the "booth"

You know how in the Peanuts cartoon how Lucy has her booth, and Charlie comes for advice? First of all, why does Charlie keep coming back? Lucy is so mean to him. Well, my family jokes about how my perfect job is to have a "booth" where people could come and pay me to tell them what to do. Not in a rude, degrading way like Lucy, but in a "let's break it down" kind of a way. I think I have a gift for being like "boom, boom, boom...that's what needs to happen." Of course, I do not have the gift of follow-through. So if while you're reading this you're like, "What? If Emily knows what needs to be done so well, then why doesn't she ever get anything done?" That's a fair question. But it's besides the point. The point is, I would be great at the "booth". If you are ever so bogged down with options and information, and you don't know what to do...come to the booth. I won't even charge ya. Big or little, career decisions or hairstyles, I can help. Right now my only customer is my mom. I love it, she'll call and say "I'm coming to the booth." And I'm pretty good, eh mom? How bout that quilting class advice? Gold.
Well, I am coming to the booth of all of you. Erik and I move to California in a few months and I've spent a LOT of time researching the housing market in the area. Erik has owned a home before, but it will be my first time, and it's a huge deal to me. I'm going to be a homeowner! The fall of the market works in our favor, but it makes me a little nervous about how it will improve in the next few years, meaning I don't want to go beyond our means and get ourselves into a tricky situation when we try to sell in a few years. Does anyone have any psychic information about the health of the housing market in a few years? That would be very helpful. So, with our BAH (housing allowance) and what we can put down, we're in the 300,000 range. Sounds great! Right? Well, that doesn't buy you much out there. We're pretty much decided on a certain area, largely because it's the closest area to the base. So I'm going to show you a few options, and tell me what you would buy if you were us. Would ya?

This gem is what Erik and I affectionately call "the big blue box." Not very appealing from the outside, even though the hideous landscaping in the front could be called "zeroscape"...very green. Is anyone else so SICK of the term "green"? Man, I am. Enough already, why don't we just say "not wasteful" because that's what being "green" really is. Anyway, this house is listed at 290,000 and it's 4 bed/1.5 bath and 1,998 sq ft. Almost 2000 sq ft is a TON for our price range. That's the big draw for this house. With some (extensive) renovations I think we could make this house 5 bed/3 bath. It needs a lot of work inside. Oh, and it doesn't have a garage, but it does have a nice/new-ish deck off of the kitchen. That's a plus.

This next house is listed at 261,740 and it's 4 bed/2 bath and 1,278 sq ft. There's not really anything special about the inside other than a space that could become an office or play area or something. It's a corner lot, which I don't really like because it cuts down on actual yard space. Unless the front was fenced in, it would be pretty useless because we're only going to have very small children while living here. The big draw of this house is the HUGE garage. It would easily fit 4 cars, but for our purposes that means it would fit our 2 cars and all of Erik's toys. That's a definite plus. He's a fan of anything with an engine, and I have a funny feeling that we're soon going to add an ATV to our family of garage-dwellers. And/or a dune buggy. (there's a dune preserve nearby) Erik and I are big fans of the work hard/play hard mentality.

This one is listed at 249,900 and it's 3 bed/2 bath and 1,232 sq ft. It has a nice front and back yard area, 2 car garage, and that's pretty much all I have to say about it. Of the four houses, I think this one has the largest lot, but not by much. They're all pretty much the same...small...like .15 acres.

Lastly, this one is listed at 244,900 and it's 3 bed/2 bath and 1,300 sq ft. It has a nice brick patio and back yard area, laminate flooring in the main part of the house, and a 2 car garage.

The last three houses don't seem to need too much renovation work, not anything that would require a contractor. From what I can tell. Erik and I are pretty confident and ambitious about making improvements ourselves, but when it comes down to knocking down walls, we'll need a contractor. The big blue box is split level and has a lot of space downstairs that's not being utilized. So with some very aggressive renovations I think the house could be amazing, and we would have plenty of room for all of you to come and visit! Still no garage, though.

All of the properties would need some landscaping work. And of course, from the pictures we don't know anything about the age/condition of things like the roof, hot water heater, heating/cooling systems...you know, big ticket items. We like the idea of perhaps keeping the house as a rental property once we move, and in that case the first house could be great because there aren't many large-ish homes available at a lower price range, so it might be the perfect property for a young family with a handful of kids. Some of the houses keep us far below our max, and I like that because even though the BAH seems pretty generous, once we add in property taxes, mortgage insurance, homeowner's insurance, utilities, etc. the actual cost of living in the home is more than the initial mortgage quote would suggest.

So, what do you think? I'm coming to the booth.

Enough is enough.

So as you view this picture, you're probably thinking,"well, that's kind of lame...it looks just like all the other pictures of snow she's shown us." Exactly. That's exactly the problem. This is what I saw when I woke up yesterday. More SNOW! I'm really trying very hard to tell myself to enjoy it because as soon as it's gone then that's the last of Alaskan snow for me. When Erik and I move to California in a few months, we'll be snow-free for a few years at least. So, while I'm desperately trying to enjoy it, I just...don't. If there's still snow around on the 3rd, then that will make 7 straight months of snow. Seriously, enough is enough.
I do have some other things to discuss, however. The first of which being the best baby food discovery ever. My friend Madeleine told me about yobaby yogurt (our store has the peach/pear flavors) and Reid loves it. It is honestly the best yogurt I've ever had. I use to think that yoplait was pretty good, but after having this I don't think I could eat it again. It's just so good. While I'm feeding Reid, I'm usually vulturing over him like, "oh, baby, are you done? Do you need mama to finish that for you? Okay, that's fine, you can be done." It's that good.

Hey, remember those three posts in a row that were crazy long? Like I had the energy to keep that up. I am going to try to make this bloggity business a little more of the Olsen family journal and a little less of the "Hail to Prince Reid" journal. The truth is, he's the best little boy ever, but it would be nice to have a more comprehensive record of the happenings around here. I guess the problem is that when Erik is gone, there doesn't seem to be much happening besides my sweet prince Reid. At least from my perspective. Anywho...I'll work on it.

Go get yourself some yobaby yogurt, you'll thank me. Irregardless of whether there's a baby in your house or not.