Next Stop---> Homeownership!

When we moved to Texas at the beginning of the year, we decided to rent at first so that we had an opportunity to get familiar with the Dallas area. And after 6 months of exploring, we decided that we really liked Plano. It's not that we don't like Frisco, but Plano is way more established & closer to the main highways that Richard uses all the time for work. Plus Plano doesn't have as much of a "little boxes made of ticky-tacky" feel to it.

And so with that, we began our homesearch online. Lots of houses caught our eye, but we somehow managed to narrow it down to 10 that we wanted to view. We were able to see 8 of the 10 in one day (2 were contract pending), and of those we really liked 3 of them, and of those there was one in particular that we really, REALLY liked. The house had 99% of what we wanted, and it was in our price range to boot!

We took the weekend to think everything over, and decided to just go for it and make an offer on our #1 pick, assuming we would probably be going back-and-forth before an agreement (if any) was made. But to our surprise, the next day we got word that the sellers had agreed to our first offer! Now we are awaiting the inspection on Wednesday, and the final approval of our mortgage loan. All going well, we close on the 29th, and move in on the 2nd.

So how am I feeling about this? I'm honestly trying to contain my excitement until I know everything is going according to plan. I think this is mostly because the whole process has gone WAY faster than I had pictured, and in the back of my mind I'm waiting for something to go wrong. Buying a house can't be this easy, can it?? But I'm also thinking happy thoughts, and enjoying looking at new furniture for the new place. Besides, worse case scenario is that we don't buy the house, and if that happens we'll just stay put until the house that's really meant to be comes along.

But keep your fingers crossed for us, and just as soon as we know all is well I'll post pictures of our new home!

Happy 4th of July!

Road Trip 2009 (Part 2)

So the main reason we took our roadtrip early this year was so that we had a great excuse to get back to Iowa in time for my cousin Bethany's wedding. And we also allowed time to spend a couple days in K-ville to catch up with family & friends.

One highlight: Olivia was finally big enough to ride my dad's Trail-a-Bike attachment! Dad used to use this with Drew all the time when he was little, and it had been sitting in the garage just waiting for grandkids to come along to use it. Needless to say, both Olivia & Grandpa had a blast together!


We also managed to arrange a impromptu visit with some of my Iowa friends & their kiddos.

Stephanie, Zack, Isaac, & Ian:

Kelly & Carter:

Andy (and me):

The kids had a blast at my parents' house. It has the perfect layout for running laps!

Carter & Olivia also treated us to a piano concert:

We mananged to get the kids to sit still long enough (barely) to snap a group shot. Boy o' boy, those girls look like trouble!


Then it was off to Council Bluffs for the wedding, and on the way we stopped in Atlantic to pick up Nathaniel & Amber. We got to see their house, and they surprised me with a framed drawing of a dodo bird in a baker's hat. No doubt this will be the Dough Dough logo one day!

And we had just enough time to stop by and see my grandparents. Olivia was a little bit shy, but by the end of the visit was happy enough to sit with Grandma Betty for a quick snapshot:



Whew! I think that pretty much sums up our busy May. June hasn't been nearly as exciting, but believe me I am not complaining at all! As hot as it has been down here, we've been spending plenty of time either in the kiddie pool or inside watching cartoons. Aw yeah!

Road Trip 2009 (Part 1)

At least once a year we find ourselves going on an epic journey somewhere in the good ol' US of A, and this year was certainly no exception! This year took us on a loop through Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma (whew!).

Here are some highlights...

First stop: Lubbock, TX to visit Buddy Holly:

Roswell, NM. This is where (supposedly) the UFO crashed & the government covered up the evidence. I'm not so sure about that, but the town sure embraces the idea. There were about 50 alien shops that looks just like this one:

But we did run into a couple of green guys out in front of the UFO museum:


Then in was off to Fort Sumner to visit Billy the Kid. Understandably, he wasn't too talkative:

Olivia liked the Billy mannequin in the gift shop!

We took a drive through Palo Duro Canyon (think Grand Canyon, only way smaller):

Next it was off to Cadillac Ranch. A bit on the tacky side, and the paint fumes kept me at a distance:

Olivia didn't quite know what to make of it either. She wanted to climb the cars after watching some punk teenagers do it, but needless to say we didn't let her:

Sticking with the car theme, we made the loooong trip in the middle of nowhere to Nebraska to see Carhenge. Carhenge is a close-to-actual-scale replica of Stonehenge, only instead of rocks they used cars painted grey. Very cool:


Next I treated Richard & Olivia to a tourist spot of my childhood, the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, IA. I'm about one-eighth Danish (mom's side), so I've been there a few times, although I hadn't been back in about 15 years:

Our last stop before K-ville was John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset, IA:


Part 2 next time!

Playing Catch Up

In an attempt to redeem myself for slacking off on here lately, I'm going to take advantage of a relatively quiet June and fill everyone in on what I have been up to this past month. I'll probably need to do this in a few entries, so I'd better get crackin'...


HOT SPRINGS, VA (May 2009)

Every other year, I get to go with Richard on his annual regional directors' reward trip for work. This year we were whisked away to a 3-day jaunt to The Homestead in Hot Springs, which is up in the mountains of Virginia.

We flew in to North Carolina where the company jet was waiting to take us the rest of our journey. I have never flown in a private jet before, and let me say it was quite the experience!

Here I am, a little bit on the queasy side, but putting on a brave face...

This sign on one of the panels was both amusing and alarming...

Our landing strip, which was about the size of a Band-Aid. It sat on top of a 4,000-foot mountain, and the wind made landing nothing if not thrilling...

But we survived the landing, and soon we arrived at the Homestead Resort, which was absolutely breathtaking to say the least:


This was just the lobby!!!!

And the indoor pool:


Other than a super-short morning meeting Richard went to on the first day, this was a trip mainly for relaxing & doing our own thing. Lots of the other couples went on hiking tours, skeet shooting, & horseback riding, but since we are in the "family way", we opted out of that and did a lot of mild exploring around the grounds, took in the scenery, and my personal favorite, napped!

The afternoon group activities that were planned made me dust of my high school P.E. badminton skills. I did pretty good considering I haven't whacked a birdie in about 12 years...

Richard did alright too, but he called the birdie a "shuttlecock", which made us giggle...

There was also a mini-golf course. The picture makes it seem mild, but what you can't see very well is that this course was very hilly, and you had to be careful or your ball would roll down the hill and off the course, which piled on the number of strokes, at least for me!

On the last night we got dressed up for our Civil War Costume Party. As you can see, I was a dead-ringer for Little Bo Peep, and Richard was an army Captain (or General, or something):

We all gathered for cocktails & appetizers outside, and as a special treat we got to watch a Birds of Prey demonstration. The handler seemed to enjoy trying to get the bird to fly down as close to people's heads as possible:

And finally, after dinner all the ladies in the house decided to party like it was 1899. I believe the song we were dancing to here was Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow", which isn't exactly historically accurate, but fun anyhow:


And there you have it. We had a great time (thanks Keith & Charlie!!), but we were also happy to get back home so we could rest up for a couple of days before leaving home once again for ROAD TRIP 2009!!

to be continued.....

It's MY Blog...

...and I'll post as many Craig Ferguson clips as I want to!

Seriously though, this was his opening Wednesday night, and it is a true gem. Biffy, this one's for you:





P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!

There's Something In The Oven...

But this time it's NOT a cake...

WE'RE PREGNANT!!

I'm 12 weeks along, which makes me due December 4th. We couldn't be more excited if we tried!

So in case you were wondering why my blogging frequency has tanked in the past couple of months, there's your answer. I have been feeling the lovely effects of being with-child, mostly the tiredness & the nausea. Oh, the nausea... I'm very hopeful that I will be feeling much better in the next couple weeks so that I can get back to caking. It's very weird to love making cake but not being able to stand the smell of it!

Olivia is psyched about becoming a big sister, although she's a little confused about the whole process. Every morning she'll ask me, "Is the baby coming out today?".

I will be sure to post our ultrasound pictures as soon as Richard scans them, but I wanted to fill you in on our exciting news before we took off for our road trip tomorrow. All I can say is that Richard is a saint for willing to travel many long hours with a 4-year-old and a pregnant woman, both of whom will need to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes!