Our Weekend

I love holiday weekends. This weekend was no exception. We didn't have any plans, but had a really nice weekend anyway.

I talked a few days ago about the Puzzlemania books we get from Highlights magazine. I realized again last night just how glad I am we get these for the kids. They have lots of fun activities, and are such a wonderful educational tool. My kids just LOVE these books and are building their vocabulary and learning other things with them. I usually have to help them out with the crossword puzzles because of some of the words in the clues they don't understand, but they amaze me anyway. I got really tickled at them once last night, though. J. was working on a crossword puzzle in his book and A. was working with him. Most of the puzzles in these books have some kind of theme. For this particular one, all the answers had "IN" somwhere in the word. One of the clues was "another term for slender." So I asked them "what do I call A. sometimes?" Remember - A.'s lanky like her daddy. So A. jumps up and says, "jabber jaws!" I cracked up! Well, yes, but that has nothing to do with being slender and it doesn't have "IN" anywere. After a bit more prompting, A. realized I was referring to the times that I call her "skinny Minnie." Well, after all that, J. tells me the word only has four letters. So then we decide it must be "thin." We all got a good laugh out of that though. They crack me up sometimes!

Something else I mentioned a few days ago was a big decision that P. and I were considering. We've decided that now is the right time for us to buy a home of our own. We will probably settle here in North Carolina when it's time for retirement. The market here in our area is a buyer's market right now, and with the BRAC and the increase of troops that's going to happen within the next couple of years, property prices are probably about to skyrocket. Our lease on the house we're renting is up the end of May. So with all these factors, the timing just seems right. We've been considering it off and on for about a year now (since before we left Germany). Now that we're here, know the area better, and the kids are in school, we are very specific in what we want. We don't want to have to change the kids' school, so I looked up the school's district so that I knew where the boundaries are. We found a house we really like in another part of the subdivision we live in. It's a brand new house, has just been completed. We got the preapproval and made the offer today. The Realtor feels we should have an answer from the builder by fairly early tomorrow. Then we just have to wait for a commitment letter from the lender and then the process from then to closing. I am so excited about finally owning our own home, but am pretty nervous about it too. We always thought we'd wait until after retirement to buy, but this will be a good investment, even after we leave.

So that's what's been going on with us lately. Let's just hope the rest of the home-buying process goes as smoothly as it has up to this point.