The House Hunt Begins

So far, so so. We spent 4 hours with a realtor yesterday afternoon and came up with "just OK" impressions of everything we saw. I will admit, we are being a little cheap with this, but I just can't see stretching ourselves to the limit. Most of what we saw yesterday were foreclosures, so we had an odd mix of the following problems:

Evidence of previous leaks in the roof
Actual leaks in the floor
Poorly done remodeling projects - I mean who decided that a closet would convert to a closet/bathroom combo ... REALLY!
Swimming pool (that we don't even want) full of green water - YUCK!
Washer and Dryer in a little room that opens off the back porch - No laundry on rainy days!

The saddest thing to me was all of the missing and stolen things. Most of you have probably heard about people stealing things out of the house or tearing it up when it gets repossesed, but we actually saw it yesterday. These people actually took the A/C unit and completely wrecked their basement renovation, tore out paneling and everything. So sad. This one house, they took the knobs off the kitchen cabinets and took the stove and fridge. Just insane. Of course, if I was losing that much money, I would probably go a little nuts too.

We may actually buy a forecloseure though, because there is something nice about fixing a place up just the way you like it and we would have the extra money to do that if we didn't have to spend so much up front. We will see though. Meeting the Realtor again on Friday to see some more properties.

August

The weekend after we got back from the lake, we went to Ft. Walton with Joe and Sandra. Had lots of fun hanging out at the beach with the girls

Joe & Sandra at dinner.

Aimee, Me, and Danielle at the beach.

William with his Mommy.

Me and William at the beach.

July

We spent 10 days at the lake for our Birthdays. We had lots of visits from family and friends.

Sandra, Aimee, and Ian fishing

Makayla, Me, and Aimee after Birthday dinner.

Aimee's fish. She even baited her own hook with a worm!

This boat needs a fun name. Any ideas other than Redneck Yacht Club.

June - a new Great Nephew

In June we visited my new Great Nephew, Joseph IV, who lives in South Louisiana. It was a good excuse for the guys to go fishing in the flats. This is what they looked like after their fishing trip.

(L-R) Joseph III, Joseph JR, Joseph SR, and William

My Mom and Dad with JD (the 4th) and big sister Catherine

All 4 Joseph's

Catherine decided to try on my walking shoes. I love the pose.

April - Lamb and Friends

Our friends Paul and Sarah roast a lamb for Greek Easter every year. Lots of fun and seeing old friends. They encourage us all to try making an authentic Greek dish to share. I learned to make Baclava this year. It turned out really good.

The lamb on Paul's home-made spit.

Paul with his masterpiece.

Will relaxing at the party.

Hmm... February

We both had new jobs in February,so I don't think we went out of town. Lacey and I started training for the 3-day and we went to see our friend Sara in her first roller derby match. That was a new experience. Pretty fun overall.

Sara AKA Scaryl Crow, Me, Lacey, & Michael

William & SAF

Random Pictures from ... January

In January, we were both jobless so we spent some time visiting with William's Grandmothers. We spent a week at my Grandmother's house at Christmas too, so we got to see all of them.

This is Louise, Grandma Brooks' neighbor in Pensacola. She comes over to play cards with us.

This is Grandma Brooks on the left and Aunt Annie (her sister) on the right. This was at Annie's house the day she cooked us dinner.

This is Donna, William's Aunt in Macon. She lives with Grandma Howington.

This is Grandma Howington. Her Birthday is the same day as William's and she is in her 90's now. She's still really active though and fun to talk to.

A year off

Yes, it has been almost a year since I have posted anything to our blog. I probably have no readers left. I have been distracted by facebook, but have decided to make an effort to keep up the blog too. So ... here's what's new.

We moved to Atlanta and I quit travel nursing.
Surprisingly, I love my full-time job and am not bored.

William is doing temp work still. It is something to do, but not very fulfilling.
He has recently started an interview process at UPS that we hope goes well.

We have been in major vacation mode since spring and are taking advantage of every day off.

We are still a one-car family, so I have been re-aquainting myself with MARTA.
William has even ridden it once or twice alone.

I am training to walk in the breast cancer 3-day walk with my mom in October. Sixty miles over 3 days isn't that bad, is it? Still fundraising if anyone wants to help.

We are planning to buy a house and a second car by the end of the year - yes we know it's crazy, but think of the tax credits.

We have found a new church in Atlanta that we both like and are involved in a small group when we are in town.

I got my tonsils out last week.

We recently went to the lake for 10 days, then the beach for 4 days - back to back!

We are planning to go to Colorado the week after Thanksgiving.

William was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, so there have been some drastic dietary and lifestyle changes at our house.

You know... I don't feel so guilty anymore for not keeping the blog up. We've been busy this year!