St. Patrick's Day Weekend - Happy Birthday Emily!

It's official! Princess Emily is 5 years old! The events are still unfolding for our action packed weekend. Today was presents, cake, bounce house, Build A Bear, the Easter bunny, and dinner out. Tomorrow is Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Jeff's 1/2 marathon, LOTS of playing, and Aunt Carolyn's birthday!

Birthday morning, Jackson even got a toy!

Two new dresses!!!

Bitty Baby - just what I wanted!

Lalaloopsy play set

Helping Uncle Jeff with Emily's gift. Uncle Jeff is also known as "that guy".

Aunt Carolyn looking hot in her PJ's.

Diva pose...look out in a few years.

Working on my "bottom teeth" smile playing with Emily's baby doll bed.

Jumpin' Monkey

Build a bear, stuffing an Alvin and a bunny

Whoever invented Build A Bear is a genius.

Easter bunny!

Equally adorable and creepy at the same time.

Lalaloopsy cake

Silly string

Family Date Day, etc.

This morning we woke up and I surprised Bill and Jackson with a family date day. Bill has been craving some really good pizza, so I have been researching where to go for a couple of weeks. I was so excited to tell him that we had plans to go to a little local pizza joint and then go see The Lorax, that I was coming out of my skin. After I 'announced' it, Bill said that the Capitals had a really important game on today and he had been looking forward to watching it. Apparently I had a pathetic look on my face because it wasn't long before he was wanting to go on family date day instead! Of course, it may have just been the idea of the pizza that changed his mind.

Anyway, before we had fun we had to run errands (yeah...yeah...leave it to me to throw some boring errands in the mix). We ran to our Realtors office, signed some paperwork (more on that later), and off to eat pizza. It was pretty darn yummy! It was the kind of pizza that would be good with a really cold beer. I think we will be going back there. Jackson played with his V-Reader about 1/2 of the time but he was so excited about the movie he couldn't concentrate on the pizza.

The Lorax was cute. Nice story with a good message and some snazzy music. It didn't hold Jackson's attention as well as his first movie (The Chipmunks), but the theater was PACKED and loud and that is pretty darn distracting to Jackson.

We also went to Home Depot and checked out some flooring options and appliance options. Bill was totally bored with this, and Jack was primarily interested in driving every riding lawnmower in the store so this stop was short lived.

As far as the house story goes, we did an inspection on the home we had a contract on and it just didn't go well. Faulty plumbing throughout is the main issue, which will cost over $8K to fix. Bill felt we should walk away if the seller wouldn't have this repaired prior to closing. I felt that we could have her lower the cost significantly and we could fix the plumbing in the future. Yesterday, we had filled out an addendum to ask for a 5 day extension to 'research' the plumbing, but today we went ahead and backed out of the contract. The plumbing isn't the only issue, it will be around $30K to get the house up and running and that kinda ruins the "good deal" we were getting. I wish we could get the $500 back we spent on the home inspection!
However, we had lost a bid on an awesome foreclosure a couple of months ago. The price was "firm" and we went ahead and bid $10K less. We finally received a "thanks but no thanks" response from the bank, reminding us the price was firm. I guess this isn't the same thing as losing a bid, but you get the picture. Well, guess what? Yesterday the price dropped to below what we had bid a couple of months ago! Crazy. We went ahead and put in a bid at full price. Of course, we fully expect a bidding war on this home that will drive the price up. We will bend a little, but aren't going to get into a highest and best situation. Since the price dropped, the house has been a revolving door of Realtors and potential buyers. I don't want to get my hopes up, but this is the only house I have personally been excited about during the last 6 months of looking. Anyway, our fingers are crossed - but if it isn't meant to be then it is just that - not meant to be. I am not sure if I had mentioned this home before, but it is a shame how the previous owners abused it. Originally it was a beautiful home. If we get it, we will take some before and after photos.

What else is going on? Well....Bill and I are going to foster. Yep. This decision has been a long time coming. It is actually him pushing it and all in favor. I am familiar with the process because of my Social Work background, but I suggested he go to an open house with questions and current foster parents. Children aren't allowed, so I stayed home with Jackson. I fully expected him to come home and say "this isn't for us", "I don't want my heart broken", etc, etc. He actually came home and listed a bunch of reason why we should do it. I am excited about it, but we will not be able to do the training until this Summer due to my upcoming travel schedule and our potential move in May to a new home. The training is 8 - 9 weeks of Wednesdays from 6:30pm - 8:30pm. I have a friend from work that is willing to come watch Jackson along with her daughter. She isn't the most reliable of people, so it makes me nervous. Our back up babysitter "closes" at 5pm sharp everyday. Our family can't drive down or fly in for a 2 hour babysitting stint once a week either! Anyway, we are looking forward to potential changes in our family and both feel really positive about opening our lives to a new child(ren). With that said, Jackson comes first. If it is too much for him then we will reevaluate.

Tomorrow is going to be "family clean day" because Cousin Emily is coming to town soon. This event has stirred a lot of excitement in our house and prompted lots of phone calls on the toy box cell phone to her. Hopefully lots of pictures will be the result!!!

Long time no post!

We have been busy, busy, BUSY around the Curran household!

Dr. Seuss art Jackson made at school

Jackson having an ice cream sundae

One of my favorite things! FRENCH FRIES!

Pink eye :(

Daddy said I could put ONE sticker on monkey

Picture day outside of school - thumbs up

As you can see, Jackson had pink eye. It seems that runs rampant at his school. Of course, our little guy seriously dislikes eye drops because he has had these way too much in his life. He did great at the doctors office, and even showed her the octopus that he had made that day at school.

Bill has also been sick, with the flu. He had a 103.8 degree temp. I took him to urgent care, and they told him he had the flu. Apparently it isn't that fun to have your nose swabbed. Anyway, he was out of commission for several days. Jackson wasn't sick at all - UNTIL, the other night. About 2am Jackson started puking and didn't stop until mid morning. He didn't ever have a fever though and has seemed fine ever since!

As of last week, we also negotiated a contract to purchase a home. Next week we have a moisture/termite inspection and a home inspection. If everything goes well, we close April 25th. Its a "fixer upper", but has a big yard and has plenty of room inside for Jackson to grow and play. He immediately noticed it had a fireplace and commented that Santa could come at Christmas! We have been talking about it a lot and will make the transition slow out of our rental house. After all, this has been the only home he has lived in (on U.S. soil), and we have stayed as long as we have just for stability & consistency.

In a couple of weeks Cousin Emily (and her parents) is coming down for the weekend. That weekend happens to be her birthday (and her mom's!), so we will probably have a cake for them. Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Jeff are running a 1/2 marathon that weekend, so they may not want any cake!!

Next post - house update!