Poor Cole

Several years ago our neighbor at the time had a St Bernard dog. This dog was awful. One time Chad and I had returned home and the dog was out. Chad got our of the car and it wouldn't let him pass. Chad had his gun on his hip and his hand on it. Thats how bad this dog was. One day the kids were playing outside and the dog attacked Cole. He was not injured physically but he was scarred for life. to this day he screams as the site of a barking dog, even one as small as a stupid chihuahua.
Well He had a run in tonight :( in our new house we don't have a back fence. Once of our back neighbors has 2 large dogs. They're inside dogs but they bring them out to potty. They're always supervised. Cole went out to untangle Gideon because his chain was wrapped around the trampoline. Cole did not see the dogs outside and the neighbor did not see Cole come out. The dogs went running straight to him barking very protectively. I was in the house when I heard the commotion. I rushed out and the fear in Coles eyes will never leave my memory. He was terrified beyond comfort. The neighbor felt horrible and apologized profusely, but the damage had already been done. It was no ones fault really, just an unfortunate event.


Poor Cole.

A little Something for Me

HELLOOOO!
So I told you a little bit of why I don't post much any more. I kept telling hubby that if I had a laptop Id post from bed :) well no more excuses.



Now maybe I will blog about my trip to Hawaii, or our new house, or Chad's promotion, and our new, new house. Oh so much has gone on this year.

More Blogging??

Ok so here's the truth. I don't like blogging from my phone. The blogger app doesn't upload my pictures correctly, and I just prefer to blog at the computer. Sounds easy enough right? Well I don't get on the computer anymore because it's kind of in an inconvenient place in the way of everyone. And all my pictures are on my phone. But I thought I would do a little better at it and just do some smaller "status update" type posts using the app and then longer posts with pics when I can on the computer. I do miss my blog not that anybody reads it. But it's kind of my journal and someday I will print it off. I will admit I love Facebook because everything is so simple and easy to just hop on then hop right off.  I've been using Instagram mostly and it automatically shares to Facebook. So I'm not posting on the actual Facebook much anymore. I even deleted Facebook off my phone. Keep in mind though I can't delete my Facebook account altogether because right now pretty much 90% of my business comes from Facebook. I love Instagram though. Because I have an account with chat books and in prints my Instagram feed. Anyway. We will see what happens. I have changed my posting habits so much over the last few months. I've kind of turned into a a private person but I do miss being sarcastic to the public lol. 

From the Scource

So Since I'm sure the rumors are started and conversations and assumptions are under way I thought I'd do a post to tell the story now that we have a more clear picture of whats happening.

A few weeks ago Chad and I had the idea to go talk to the bank to just kind of see where our financial status was, and see what our goals needed to be to qualify to buy a bigger home. To our surprise we actually qualify right now to buy a home big enough. We were actually kind of surprised that for the first time since we've been married our debt to income wasn't in the way (patting our selves on the back a little) So then we were like Hmmm I wonder what kind of homes are in the area that would work for our price range. We got online and just kind of sorta started browsing not being serious though.

However, we came across this absolutely awesome house. It was HUGE 3500sq ft 7 bedrooms and in our price range !?! So we called the realtor to go take a look.

We then found out that we didn't quite qualify to be able to buy a house before selling our current, mainly because we didn't have a down payment. So in order for us to try to buy the new house we'd have to sell. Well never having sold a house before, and the market being all over the place we didn't know if it would sell before we could have a chance at the other house. So we worked our tails off listed our house in less than a week later. Here is what happen:

Yes we listed out house for sale
Yes in the first 3 days it was on the market we got 4 full price offers
Yes we did accept one of those offer contingent that we get a house
Yes we put in an offer on the new house

No our offer was not accepted and the seller did not counter
No we did not get that house

Yes we looked and looked for another house to buy
Yes we found some that would work for our family

No we did not put in any other offers
Yes we were able to back out of our sale

And Yes we will be staying put for now.

Some people are probably wondering why on earth would we willingly choose to stay here in our little humble abode if we had the chance to move and get more room? Well for us it was quite simple. While yes there are 7 people living in my tiny 1100q ft home. My house payment is some months less than my cell phone bill. If we chose to upgrade our house it would triple my current payment. Meaning the money I earn off babysitting or my craft business would be required to help with everyday bills instead of investing back into the business. I was fine with that if we could have gotten that huge house. but all the other homes we looked at yes had 4+ bedrooms the rooms were small so even spreading the boys out to only have 2 boys per room, it wouldn't actually give them any more space because it's was small. and the houses we looked at not one of them had a nice functional back yard big enough for 5 rowdy kids to go run. So to me it just wasn't worth it. It would take all of our disposable income. So no more fun summer activities, no more summer vacations, no more hey lets order pizza tonight because moms too tired to cook.
We were trying so hard to stay in the middle school district because of the programs they have Carsyn in for his advancing. (Carsyn has already started taking high school credits and he still has a whole year of middle left) So we decided to stay here until the end of the school year and Pray that next May when we put our house on the market again it will sell just as fast.

By waiting until May, after the school year we will be able to go farther, and have more options. We will most likely move closer to Chads work. We will have also gotten Chads bonus in march that will probably nearly wipe out most of our remaining debt including chads new car. then we will more easily be able to afford a higher house payment while still being able to enjoy Family Fun Time.

So there you have it. Thats the whole story on why all of a sudden there was a for sale sign in my yard that was never mentioned.

Remenesing

So I'm feeling the need to blog about some things that have been on my mind. I'm not sure if you know this but if you're on Facebook and you go to notifications on your phone and scroll to the bottom it has a section called "today in the past" You can choose to share them if you want. 

Recently the posts it has been showing me are from Today 4 years ago. Well that is when Mom died. It has been interesting to see my posts from that time in my life. While losing a loved one like your mom you'd think I'd be a wreck but actually I think I held it together surprisingly well. I credit that to my strong testimony of the gospel and the knowledge I have of what happens after death. There was 1 night shortly after her passing that was rough and I remember it well. I sobbed most of the night and my sweet hubby called in to work so he can be with me. That was the one and only time I really broke down. 

In reading all of these past posts I've also read the comments and I am so grateful to the friends I had at that time to lift me up and offer support. So many people reached out with a txt or messages or comments. 

I still miss my mom. Who wouldn't? She was a great lady. There are times that I wish I could call her and get her thoughts about something. But you know what? I have an amazing husband and a few amazing friends. While the need for my mom will never go away. I'm glad that I haven't let that tragedy over take me to the point I can't function. 

So for now I'll make her home made chicken soup and rolls with a smile on my face and just say

 "Love you Mama Jo"

Shot Down

Cole was heading to bed and I said "you forgot something" He asked what so I puckered up for a kiss. He shook his head no and said "not tonight" and went to bed. Wow shot down by my own son. 

Ok so here's the deal.

I love love love my blog, and I can't wait until I get it all printed off into a book. I love telling stories, venting my frustrations, opening up on controversial subjects and not have to put up with the back lash on FB. So why don't I update it more often? Well that's a great question and here is the answer. I'm hardly ever at my computer anymore. I do all of my social networking from my iPhone. I love how it's super easy to update things. In most cases I update my Instagram and have the ability to automatically share that post with my Facebook and Twitter all at the same time. Oh how I wish it was an option to also share that post with my blog. I do have the blogger app on my phone. But every time I post a picture I then have to put my phone down and go log onto the computer and fix the post because the photo didn't upload correctly. 

So what's a girl to do? 

I plan to try and set time aside every week to blog more mainly because I think my FB friends are getting tired of seeing Caybrie pictures :) but since I love to post pics of my family I need to share them here. We will see how it goes. I have some other things I'm working on in efforts to better certain things in my personal life. But who doesn't. 

From the Mouths of Babes.

"Mom, a long time ago we were playing truth or dare in the car. But we didn't do the lip stuff."
-Son age 6.

Not so sweet.

Hi, my name is Caybrie and my farts can clear a room! 

Creationary Madness

A few years ago we purchased a game called Creationary. It was on clearance for cheap. It's a game like pictionary but instead of drawing the picture you have to create it using legos. This game sat in the closet for well over a year. A few months ago the kids got it out and started playing. They quickly learned that instead of "Playing the game" they could just build stuff with the included legos. I will admit I have 4 boys and I have never purchased 1 single set of legos. Everyday this week the boys have gotten it out just to make cars. I could see they were now hooked onto legos. 

Tonight for our FHE lesson we decided to use creationary for an object lesson about a strong family foundation. 

This kids were super excited helping Dad build a house using legos. Each piece was to represent something we do to make our foundation stronger. Reading scriptures, attending church, family prayers etc....Then we asked What happens when we've read all the scriptures and have added all the pieces (meaning we ran out of legos in the box)? 

The answer...............ADD MORE!!!

After I saw the lego spark in their eyes I got on craigslist and found this HUGE lego lot for only $100. If you've ever shopped for legos they're pretty darn pricey so I feel we got a good deal. They loved it. 

It was fun bringing this out of the garage to surprise them after the lesson.