Photo Tag

Sorry this is a long one, but i thought it was cute!!

PHOTO SURVEY

1) Answer the questions below

2) Take each answer and type it into Photobucket.com search box

3) Take a picture from the first page of results and copy the html code

4) You cant copy the persons answers who posted this before you

5) This does take a little bit of time.

1) What is your name?

2) What is your favorite movie?

3) Favorite place?

Good Ol' AZ, I know its boring, but its too cold everywhere else!

4) Your car?

Only mine is bright Yellow!

5) favorite sport?

6) Hair color?

7) Favortie color?

8) Your favorite season?

11) Your favorite food?

12) a bad habit of yours?

13) what are you passionate about?

14)One of Your favorite store:

Best place ever for cute home stuff!

17) Your favorite drink

Especially since I have given it up!!!!

18) One of Your biggest fears:

19) something you want to learn how to do

Now I tag: Becca, Misti, Angela, Christine, and Brittney

We can handle it!?!!

We watched my best friends little boy this weekend. Yep, we had him overnight and everything all by ourselves. I really wasnt nervous, but mostly because he is a really good little boy, and so dang smart!! He did so good and only cried for a few minutes when he realized we werent going back home before bed, but he just missed his mommy and dada. He really likes Eldon and watched everything he did. He would even stop and look around the corner if he heard Eldon make a noise. My favorite thing about this kid, besides that he is so cute, is that he uses sign language. He says a lot of words as well for being only about 16 months or so, but he is so smart he is now signing sentences! His latest one is "more grapes please". Most kids dont get the concept of multiple word sentences until they are older than 2! I didnt take pictures like i wanted to, i kinda forgot, so here are just a couple of the ones i remembered to take. He came out with me to my adaptive soccer program. He had a blast running around outside. The weather was awesome today and he absolutely loves balls! I had about 20 balls out waiting for the soccer players to show up, and i think he touched just about every one :P He really enjoyed watching some of the bigger kids kick the ball into the net. The kids all thought he was super cute and wanted him to have a turn playing, so they let Kaden kick it. He kicked it twice and it only rolled about a foot each time, so then he picked it up and walked it into the goalbox :) I told you this kid was smart!

Well we survived and so did he....so if our kids are as good as he is, we are set!

Another new job!?!

Yep....its true, only this one is not by choice. I know, it might sound weird, and it is! I work for the City of Phoenix in the Parks and Recreation Department. Well, as you may have noticed, the economy is not doing super fabulous at the moment. Not only does that affect me as a person, but that affects the Cities and States and other municipalities in a very big way....almost 80 million dollars in debt way. So the City had to make some changes and some cuts in a very big way. I actually knew about this situation going into it. I was told when i was hired that because of the budget crisis situation, there may be a chance that i could be let go in a few months. Hopefully that would not be the case, but it depended on the amount of the deficit. Since i had only been hired in January, my seniority within my job level was pretty much zero, and i would be the first cut if any. I had prayed about taking this job and had felt prompted to take it and actually passed up jobs that now i wonder why!, but I believe Heavenly Father has a purpose. Anyways, so last friday i was called out of an all day training to go down town (scary!!!!) to City Hall to meet with the Director of the Department. Of Course they dont tell you what the meeting is about, they just let you sit and sweat. So i freaked out for about 2 hours of the training and then at the lunch break, left to go downtown. I was pretty nervous they were going to drop the ball and say see ya later, so i prayed........and prayed......and prayed! It was the only thing i could do to not freak out too much (at least on the outside). Basically my prayer went something like "Ok Heavenly Father, did you really compel me to take this job just to get fired? If so.....now what! I felt like there was a purpose so help me know the purpose whatever that is!" So then i walk into the meeting.........Well, they started out by saying that i wasnt loosing my job, so the meeting was a good meeting. WHEW!!!!! However, because I am the only Full Time person working for the City of Phoenix with the credentials of CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) i was being moved to do more good and be a bigger influence. So now, I am the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)/Inclusion Coordinator for the City of Phoenix. Talk about Holy Cow! Basically, I am responsible for making sure the City (well at least the Parks and Recreation Department which is the 3rd biggest department in the city behind police and fire) follows the ADA and makes all facilities and programs accessible for individuals with disabilities.

The Inclusion part I think i can handle, because that really is what i do...helping to find ways to adapt programs, equipment, or attitudes to allow everyone to participate and enjoy recreational activities, however dealing with the legal side of the ADA and the potential ramifications on a City wide level is pretty intimidating!!! Hopefully there will be a learning curve, especially since originally they were two separate positions being done by people who were much higher levels on the career ladder than I am. So if I seem frazzled for a bit.....now you know why!~

However, on the positive side.....perhaps this was Heavenly Fathers plan because i will definitely be in a much better position to make some real changes for people with disabilities in the City of Phoenix, and if we can get it all figured out and do a good job....Phoenix is the 5th largest City in the nation, so people look to the City for an example, so maybe we can be a model for positive change all over. Now that would be very far into the future, Im sure, but possible. I am really just hoping to not drown and to help any one that i can, and really i am just grateful that they didnt say your fired!

Strike 2

Unfortunately.......we didnt get house number 2 either! Although this one we had a little more choice. this house was a repossession, so the bank owned it, and apparently they were not in too big of a hurry to get rid of the house because they wouldnt negotiate very much. I actually think we gave them a pretty good bid, but because of all the fixing up needed, we were still trying to get a deal. In order for us to qualify for the specific loan we were trying to get, the house had to meet certain requirements. without doing some repairs, the house "as is" would not meet those requirements. The bank was not willing to do any repairs in order for us to close, and we were not willing to do the repairs on a house we did not yet own, so we decided to walk away. Who knows what other houses will be out there, and with the way the bank is negotiating, maybe this house will still be available in the future and for an even better price! but for now, we are on the hunt again

Round 2

Well....the bad news is, we lost the cute house i posted about over a month ago to a higher bidder! We were very hopeful but crashed and burned in our first attempt at home buying. It probably shouldnt be that easy anyways....so on to round 2. We went back out on the hunt (minus one broken realtor daddy). We did pick up some help for a few homes though. We found Misti and Olivia as we were headed to look at some homes in their neighborhood, so they tagged along for bit. Olivia had a great saying that really summed up all the homes we looked at that day. She turned to her mom in one of the homes and said "mommy, this home is dirty!" and it was. Most of the homes we are looking at are foreclosures. When people are being forced out of their homes, they dont really take the time to tidy things up, which means....more work for us. We have been struggling to decide if the prices are worth the extra work that will need to be done to them to get them in livable conditions.

Well, today, i think we found one for round 2, and hopefully this one is a knock out. The pictures arent as cute because the home does need some work to it and the rooms are bare because the home is vacant.

We really like the house itself and we think we will love it....once it has new paint, new tile instead of that hideous linoleum, and new carpet. Pretty every inch of the house needs new flooring of some sort, and the jungle in the backyard needs to be tamed, but other than that its not too bad.

It is on a cul-de-sac, which will be nice for kids some day, in a really cute neighborhood with parks right at the end of the street. It is a one story home, which again, will be nice for kids some day, and even has enough of a backyard to maybe have a pool eventually :) the other plus is that even though it isnt in Misti and Ryan's neighborhood like the other homes we liked, it is still in their ward and just a mile away. It is right off the 202 so it should be a pretty good location. We will put in an offer first thing monday, so cross your fingers again! So far, no one else has put in an offer, so hopefully if the process doesnt take as long as the other one did, we wont have competition and get beat again! Well, let us know what you think!

To his padded room!

My Poor Daddy! We have finally done it! This once tough guy was finally shipped off to a home! Really! But not for a padded room, although after his experience, he might have really needed one! If you look back a few blogs, my poor dad busted up his knee pretty badly. Well he had reconstructive surgery this week. He even had to get cadaver parts for his knee. His knee was actually worse than the doctors expected, so even though the surgery went well, my dad was going to be in a lot of pain for quite a while. This surgery was supposed to be ab outpatient surgery, but instead, he had to stay in the hospital for 3 days. He was still in quite a bit of pain so he had to go into a resthome!

Well....He lasted less than 24 hours, and despite the pain and against doctors orders, he called and said GET ME OUT OF HERE! So my brother and sister busted him out! He still has a long road to go, but it is much better for him to be at home rather than in a home!

Congratulations Mike and Erin

Its a Girl!!!!! Mike and Erin had a beautiful baby girl this Tuesday, February 26th in the Morning. Abigail (Abbie) or however they are going to spell, came about 2 months early, but was still 5 lbs 11 ounces. She and Mom and doing wonderfully and got to go home on Thursday. While Mom was in the hospital, I got to take my turn to help watch new big brother Kaden. He is so big and so stinkin smart! The thing I love the most is that he signs! He can sign "more, all done, please, and thank you". when he signs please, its like "i will give you whatever you want" because it is so dang cute!! Anyways, I just wanted to say Congrats. hopefully they dont mind that I posted first, but its just too exciting and they have their hands full and other things to worry about other than posting the cute pics!