Tuesday rantings

Removed!!!

July 2008

July is now almost over. We have had a pretty interesting month. We spent 10 days in Maryland, then a weekend in Charleston.
Maryland was great. We house-sat for one of Matthew's coworkers. The house was right on the water. We go tto go swimming, boating, and kayaking! It was fun. The hosue was beautiful. The kids and I spent a lot of time looking at houses. We even put an offer in on one! But it wasn't accepted. They wouldn't budge on the price.
We got to walk around the Inner Harbor and see the ships and all the boats. Then we went to a really nice seafood restaraunt and had crab. Of course we had crab 3 other times while we were there. Nothing better than fresh crab cakes!
We took the kids to Annie's playground. Look it up on the web. It's really sad why it was made, but it is the most awesome playground I've ever seen! The kids just love going there.
We also spent a lot of time just watching tv and hanging out in the house, relaxing!

Matt's cousin Margaret invited us to Charleston the following week. I have always wanted to go and this was perfect. We stayed in Matt's great Aunt's house which is beautiful and filled with priceless antiques! We went down to the pier and relaxed on a huge porch swing. We watched people get soaked in a fountain. We got to roam the market and watch people weave baskets out of sweet grass. We also got to go visit the carriage house, and pet roosters and goats. Then we walked around the battery and looked at the beautiful million dollar homes and the kids had fun climbing all over old cannons! We also attended church at St Michaels, which is the oldest church in the City. It was absolutely beautiful. I took plenty of photos which I will post as soon as I can get to the library.
We are still looking for a house. Our hosue is still for sale here in SC. The market is so bad throughout the US. We just have to stick it out. We considered renting our house, but that is just too much of a gamble.
Hopefully we will be able to put an offer on a nother house next week and get moved in before or right around the time school starts. That is my main concern.

March

We're still here! We have tuened our den into a 4th bedroom so people should start calling any day now.

Brittin just had his last day of basketball this past Saturday. He also had his Pinewood derby. He won 3rd place in his den, but didn't get any trophy or ribbon. He did alright in the pack race. We got some good tips for next year though!

Baseball sign up is soon and I plan to sign up all 3. They all can't wait!

November

Matthew has now been with Johns Hopkins for over a month. He loves working there. Still no bites on our house. Hopefully it is just because of the Holiday season. The kids and I were able to drive up to Baltimore for a weekend last month. We looked at a few houses up there and have picked out one in particular that we absolutely love. The price is higher than we'd like, but we'll see what we can do on that. We are waiting on the roofers estimate before we put an offer on the house.
Matthew will be comming home for Christmas, or at least the weekend before. We're still not sure if he has to work Christmas eve or not. But the main things is he'll be home for a few days.
The kids will be in 2 Christmas parades this year. One in York with girl scouts and cub scouts and one in Ft Mill with 4-H! They are very excited about that.
Brittin did well with his popcorn sales. He got a certificate to go to Summer camp free this year. He also raised enough to re-register him with scouts for the new year! He will be getting a few new belt loops that he qualified for over the Summer.
Aleyna is liking Girl Scouts. They always have a ton of projects for them to do at the meetings. She has a lot of fun!
Jayden is just biding his time waiting for when he gets to be in cub scouts. They aren't too interested in 4-H this year. They love going to the meetings, but hate going to dog practice. Our dogs just aren't too cooperative with the kids!
All in all we are trying to stay busy while Matt is so far away.

To Baltimore we go!

Matt was offered the job last night and has accepted! He will be starting at Johns Hopkins October 15th. He will be sending out his application for his MD license tomorrow and that will take 2-4 weeks. Depending on when he gets that back, he may start working earlier. We have been looking for houses in the area and will be able to plan a trip in late October to go look at a few. Still no calls on our house. I believe that's a good thing. Maybe now that he got the job we'll start getting calls? This means I have to start slowly packing the house so it's not all left to last minute. Thankfully I have some good friends here who have offered to help. I've never had to pack our house myself. That was the good thing about being in the military. They did it all for you and for free! Thankfully we are getting a relocation bonus with this job, so that should help out a good bit.

Just some news

Last night was the big Popcorn kickoff for Brittin's cub scout troop. Let me know if anyone would like to buy some. The prizes from his sales will include uniform, patches, and many other things. The popcorn is really good! We bought a tin last year and all fought over who got to eat it! We also signed Aleyna up for Brownies. We won't know for a couple days which church she'll be going to. She has friends going to 2 out of the 5 in the area, so we're crossing our fingers on that. Matthew will be getting an email with an offer today or tomorrow, so buy the end of the week I'll have news on Baltimore.

Aleyna came down with the chicken pox yesterday!! We have no idea how she caught them. All 3 of the kids have been vaccinated, but being Aleyna, she's got em. Thankfully she doesn't have a fever anymore and they aren't very itchy at all. We'll just have to wait and see if the boys get them. I really hope not because it is Jayden's Birthday on Friday!!! We're having a little cookout and cake and a couple neighbors over. He is very excited because he is getting closer to being able to be in cub scouts. That's what he wants more than anything right now! Thankfully we have some wonderful leaders who let him participate in some of the things the older boys do. I will really miss this pack when we have to leave.

Baltimore

Matthew Flew to Baltimore yesterday on 9/11. He had his interview today. He says Baltimore looks a lot like Seattle. We loved living in Tacoma, so that is a really good thing. He hasn't told me what happened at the interview, just that he met everyone he would be working with and they took him to lunch. He is at the airport now waiting his flight and I'll find out more details at 9:30 tonight. I will post them as soon as I can get to the computer. Keep your fingers crossed!

Our house went on the market yesterday. We got tons of pictures taken. You can see it on Realtor.com as well. We're praying that the sale of the house goes nice and smooth.