Prom Date

Last night, Ryan and I helped my little brother ask a girl to Prom. While my brother did the shopping for the supplies, Ryan did most of the actual work. I, on the other hand, supervised the project by "testing" all of the M&M's. What can I say, Ryan has better handwriting than me and he's much more of a perfectionist than I am - he was just a better fit for the job. But now that I think about it, I probably should have been a little more concerned about how excited my husband was to ask a girl to prom. Hmmm...

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A Drive-In Bbq

Last night we went to the drive-in movies with some friends. To make the most of our "drive-in" experience, we brought along our mini grill and had a bbq during the movie. Although the wind wasn't quite as cooperative as we would've liked, it was fun getting to watch a movie under the stars.

And yes, that's an actual hammock that Tiffany and James are laying on. They took apart their hammock from home and put it together at the drive-in's. We were quite impressed by their innovation!

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Cleaning House

Since we will soon be moving, Ryan and I decided it was time to "clean house." And by that I mean having Ryan go through all of his old boxes and throw stuff away. Growing up, I was known for being a total pack-rat. If you ask my mom, she will tell you that I kept everything because I felt like it all had some kind of sentimental value. As I've gotten older and have had to move around for college, I've developed a strict rule that if I haven't used it in the last 6-months, it needs to go.

The last couple times we've gone to visit Ryan's parents, Ryan has brought home his boxes with all of his stuff from his mission and from when he was a kid. As much fun as it is to look through all his old stuff and relive his childhood, the time has come to sift through the boxes and throw away the stuff he'll never use. Although Ryan didn't enjoy our little "cleaning party" as much as I did, it was absolutely hilarious to see all of the stuff that he's kept over the years. Keep in mind that he's already gone through these boxes twice in the last 2 years and this is some of the stuff that he's kept:

In case you were wondering, yes, that IS a Velcro wallet with his name on it. If he were to use that in the next 6 months, I think I'd be a little concerned.

I don't know who this Brazilian girl is but I think I should be worried. He was pretty adamant that she not get thrown away. And yes, he won that battle. It looks like this mystery woman will be living with us a while longer.

When asked where "My Buddy" is that goes with these overalls, his exact reply was, "I don't know, but that's all I have left of him." (This particular fight went on for quite a while.)

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A Place of Our Own

Although we never thought the day would come, we have FINALLY found a house. The offer has been accepted, the terms have been negotiated, and the inspections are done! We will officially close on May 21 and are extremely excited. It will be nice to finally have a place of our own!

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Our Home Search...

When we graduated, we thought we'd move down to AZ, buy a house and start "real life" in our new home. Apparently, life doesn't always go according to plan...

Started our home search in April '08.

Looked at over 60 homes in 3 months.

Put our first offer on a home.

Never heard back from the bank about our offer.

Looked at another 40 homes.

Put in 2 more offers on homes.

Had both offers rejected due to multiple offers on the homes.

Looked at another 15 homes.

Found nothing we liked.

Put our homes search on hold for a couple months.

Started our home search again.

Looked at another 20 homes.

Found a great deal on a fixer-upper.

Put an offer on the fixer-upper.

Got in a bidding war over the fixer-upper and gave up.

Found out the home sold for only $5k more than our highest bid.

Looked at another 20 homes.

Found another home we liked.

Home was a short sale so we didn't bother with it.

Found out the home went under contract the next day.

Found another home in the same neighborhood.

Put an offer on it.

Liked the home but didn't feel right about the area.

Withdrew our offer 2 days before offer would've been accepted.

Looked at another 15 homes.

Found our perfect home.

Found out it went under contract the same day we found it.

Looked at every home in that neighborhood.

Found two homes we liked.

Picked one and put in an offer.

Had our offer accepted.

Jumped for joy.

Had a home inspection done.

Found water damage.

Asked the bank to pay to repair the water damage.

Waiting to hear back from the bank.

And so here we are, 1 year, over 150 homes, and 6 offers later and pretty much nowhere. Talk about a patient realtor... (thanks Ann).

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Aubry Elise

On Thursday afternoon, my friend Hanna had her first baby, little Aubry Elise. Look at that head of hair!

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Little Stud

This last week my sister Adrienne was visiting with her son Brooklen. As always, we had a total blast shopping, eating, and playing. What can I say, my nephew's a stud!

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