Home From Houston After The Holidays

We went to Houston this year, for Poppy’s first Christmas and spent almost a week with my family.  Everyone loved and was amazed by Poppy, of course and she did splendidly.  She traveled quite well, sleeping for the first part of both flights and playing quietly for the second.  She also did a remarkably good job dealing with all the people she didn’t really know and the back and forth craziness of going from house to house to house.  We of course had a great time and look forward to seeing all of the family again this summer for the bi-annual reunion (every two years).

We Refinanced Our Mortgage Today

We have refinanced (or at least started the process) and locked in at 4.96 after paying a point (it was 5.6 without the point, lenders wanting up-front money and assurance in today’s market). We are rolling in the point and closing costs into the new loan and we’ll still be saving $140/month over our current loan (and if we hadn’t rolled in the costs, it would only have saved us $21/month more).

Obviously, this may be biased, but here’s an article that helped me make up my mind:

Say Hello to the Best Rates in History
by Victor Burek
Posted Dec 17 2008, 08:11 AM

In today’s economy things are changing very quickly and you can chase rates for a while but you don’t want to miss the boat. I would advise all readers, determine a rate that makes sense as far as what it costs and how much you are saving. Once rates hit that level, lock, close and move on with your life. Rates can and will go lower, but there is much more room above for rates to go higher then below for rates to go lower. And keep in mind, LIFE happens, things can change, you could simple forget to make 1 payment to a credit card and your credit could fall and now you don’t qualify. One month ago, rates where 1% higher then they are now, 2 months ago rates where 1.25% higher then now. So, as you can see, things can move quickly.

It’s Been A Busy Couple Of Years…

Photos Uploaded

I’ve finally processed and uploaded the photos from my camera.  We’ve got new ones from september, october, and november.  Most are of Poppy, but not all of them.  Some great halloween photos, some camping, and many other occasions where the camera was brought out.

You can see some on the homepage of this site, or poke around flickr at: http://flickr.com/photos/zeroasterisk/

A Recent Letter From My Mom, About Her Visit And Poppy

An email from my Mom who recently visited us. It’s a great recap and update on Poppy, so I’m just pasting in here:

I recommend becoming a grandmother — it’s the best! I have just returned from a week in Louisville with Alan and Anita…and Poppy, which included two Halloween parties, a wedding in Columbus, a long walk in Iroquois park to check out the fall colors, two swimming lessons for Poppy (with Anita), and progress made on Poppy’s room mural by my good friend, Joan Firster and me. Lots of walks, quality time with Poppy, and with Alan and Anita, dining out, dining in, a little gardening, and a delicious pre-Thanksgiving feast at Karen and Bryan’s, plus a tour of their amazing new back yard and brick patio.

Poppy (who was 9 months on Oct. 24, and is holding steady at 19# [60 percentile for weight and measuring 29″ [90 percentile for height: ) is all about mobility these days–pulling herself up to a standing position and holding on while she walks around tables, chairs, sofas, and taller toys, like her current favorite: plastic kitchen appliances (see photo). She climbs the steps without hesitation and when she gets to the top, she’s ready to go down (holding on to your two pointy fingers), and at the bottom, she can hardly wait to turn around and climb up again. I spotted her up and down one day 8 times till I had to stop!

Another fun activity that never gets old is that she likes to dance. If she’s sitting, she’ll rock back and forth on her bottom and sometimes also move her arms. If she’s standing and becomes aware of music, she will bend those knees and be-bop up and down. She’ll dance to silly songs you might sing, even if you’ve forgotten some of the words. It’s all the same to her if she can catch a beat.

Besides mom’s milk, she is eating a variety of fruits and veggies but no sugar, milk, or peanut butter that might get her into trouble. She’s got 2 teeth on the bottom and 4 on the top, and it’s remarkable what those teeth can do. She takes about 3 naps a day, plus car trip naps are extra. Her naps keep everyone on an even keel. Alan and Anita both realize they’re very lucky that Miss Poppy is such a good baby and that she’s healthy and, of course, above average.

Photos include two of Poppy in her Halloween costume: she was a Roller Derby Girl, complete with fishnet stockings. Check out the “skates” Anita made. There are also two of the family at Iroquois Park with fall color all around. Fall color in Louisville seems electric –especially the reds. Beautiful! I also reminded them how lucky they are that all those trees exhibiting fall color are on their neighbors’ lots and not theirs. I know first hand as we have lots and lots of leaves to rake every year, but without the electric colors. (would you believe brown?)

Hard to get back to life at the farmette….without the Poppy sounds, hugs and kisses, and all that Poppy energy. Sigh.

xxxooo
Grannie C

Back In Business, Now With Power

Saturday night we got back home and were amazed to see lights on.  LG&E rigged up some scary looking connections across downed lines (we will not go walking on stilts), but they got our block light up… faster than I expected.

We were without power for right at a week, and it certainly could have been much worse.  We had no damage and no monetary loss (except the food in the fridge/freezer).  Pretty much, it was like wussy-camping.  I worked at Via and charged my phone there… we walked and visited with neighbors and ate out after our food spoiled.  Kinda fun, really.

We Are Moved In… Yay

I’ve gone for 72 hours without checking my email or getting online. Wonders will never cease.

We’ve been finishing up packing and moving into our new house!

As such - things are of course - crazy and i’m beaten down (in fact, I
might have very very mild heat stroke) - but we’re both really happy to
be here and get this house… we’ll be getting things setup as we can
over the next couple of weeks.

Our House On Coral

We have made an offer on 183 Coral Ave. and it was accepted (finally).

You may have heard about the problems we had with the last house we were interested in, so were were trying not to get our hopes up too much - but now we are signed and contracted… good to go.

The house is big enough with a little expansion room in the basement, across the street from a great park and on an almost double lot. It’s got a couple of small decks and a brick patio.

The house is being inspected on July 7th. We close on Aug. 1st.

Also - just in case anyone is interested, here’s a map of places we’ve lived, that’s not quite complete yet, but it does include the new house.

Sadness, No Home For The Blounts

We had gotten VERY excited about a house we were going to buy.

We made an offer, they countered, we accepted… all today (Sunday). We were waiting on the counter-offer-paperwork to sign and send back… well, instead of getting that, we actually got notified that the offer was retracted. Someone else made a better offer and we weren’t given an option to bid back.

Of course, this was after we’d told everyone and after we’d gotten really, really excited about this house. It really was perfect for us - expandable, large, great neighborhood, great character and charm… it really felt like us… the 30 other houses we’ve looked at all paled in comparison.

Now we’re depressed, we feel like we’ve looked at all the available houses in the areas we want to live in, which are large enough.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor annoyance. We’ve got our jobs, our health, our family and friends - and the most beautiful and perfect little girl… we’re doing great. But I’m still feeling very sorry for myself.

*pout*

Poppy, Age 4 Months - 4 Days In Colorado

Poppy at Month four:

This month has been quite productive. She has been growing by leaps and bounds, like
normal. She’s now reaching for everything and
putting it all in her mouth and dropping it on the floor. Nothing is safe within a foot and a half of her. She is sitting up well, if you help her
out. She’s standing well, if you help her out. I think she is just
starting to change from blue to hazel eyes, though that’s only in certain lighting. Of course she’s
still chubby. We think she is about 17 pounds and 25 and a half
inches. She’s still gloriously, generously, thankfully, happy and easy going. We are so lucky.

In Colorado:

The flight to Colorado was fantastic. Penelope slept through the
accent and decent and a little bit in between. She was so good. We
actually had to sit in between other people, the middle seats, on in
front of each other. We passed her back and forth a little bit over the
top which was kind of entertaining. We got a shuttle from the airport to
Keystone, again she slept through a lot of pressure changes and did
remarkably well. We got into our hotel room and had the gorgeous view
over a little lake. And every thing’s amazingly picturesque.

The meetings are going fine and it’s great to meet the families of other employees. Poppy is like kryptonite, melting the hearts of all around her.

I wasn’t there, but Poppy wet swimming today and had an inflatable boat… apparently she loved it - and was squeeling at the water, while anita swam around - using the boat as a kickboard. too cute.

Date Night == Ethiopian & Iron Man

Baby Sean

Jessie had his son (photos)

General Update : In Houston, Poppy Status = Good

Update - we are in Houston for April and May. Staying w/ family and
Anita’s doing her last rotation at a hospital here. They are kicking
her ass and not even saying sorry… but it’s the home stretch till
she’s finally done with school forever! (YAY)

Poppy is big-tastic. She is holding her head up all the time,
laughing a little (when tickled or otherwise super-excited) and smiling
a lot. She’s almost on a schedule - which includes 15-30 min of crying
every night at bed time… but she’s sleeping in her crib like a champ
and is doing very well. She’s a little better w/ tummy time and has
super strong legs… just need to work on those arm muscles.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/zeroasterisk/collections/72157603816664754/ — look for new ones in 03 and a few in 04 (more to add sometime soon)