Ramblings

Well we have been in our new house a few days now. The funny thing about a "new to you house" is that you notice a lot of things you didn't notice before, when you were looking at it, considering buying it. There have been some things we love, and some things that drive us crazy.

One thing that is going to take some adjusting is that there is very little storage space in the bathrooms. Our old house had tons. All (four) of the bathrooms here have minimal space to put things. No medicine cabinets, just flat mirrors. Just two drawers and space under the pipes in the cabinets. AND there is no where to put any other cupboards etc. They did this weird thing that extended the countertop over the top of the toilet, so we can't buy any of those cupboards that stand on the ground and are above the toilet. We might be able to get a small cupboard that mounts on the wall, but we'll see.

There are other things that we are loving. We love our kitchen and eat in area. The layout just seems more family friendly. In our old house I would sometimes feel stuck in the kitchen. Here everything is so much more open. I can see and hear and even talk to other people at the table and even in the great room just beyond the eat-in area. It's great!! It makes being in the kitchen a little more pleasant, although it is still not my favorite place to be (it's not just this kitchen, it's kitchens in general, and what goes on in kitchens, cooking, washing dishes,etc). We also love that there is so much space. I think it really does cut down on arguments, fights, etc. I'll take that!

The kids love the new laundry chute. Adam in particular. He is constantly asking me if I have anything for him to throw down the laundry chute. He also has taken to changing into pajamas way ahead of the game just so he can send things down the chute sooner. He will even come down to the kitchen which is right by the laundry room with a pair of socks or something and ask me if he can throw them down. He will then run back upstairs and throw them in. This morning he and Anna were even playing the laundry chute game. They were pretending to go down the laundry chute. They would start in our room where the laundry chute is and then run down both sets of stairs to the basement screaming, "AHHH!!! I'm going down the laundry chute!!" Adam, mister precision, counted how many times they did this. 10. He was going for 30 but Anna became disenchanted with this little exercise, and it just wasn't as fun by himself. (I bet there has never been a paragraph written that has the words laundry chute in it so many times).

All in all we are very happy. Of course we notice the quirks and oddities that this particular house has, but we can't complain. This is a very nice home with a lot of space, in a great neighborhood and awesome schools. We once again feel blessed, and realize that we really have been helped along in life. A lot. I know that bad things happen to good people, but so do good things.

Living in a stranger's home

Well, we survived the day and are now proud owners of a bigger house. Things didn't start off so smooth though ...

We decided to leave home a little early in hopes that Ben would take a little nap before we had to drop him at the babysitters. So we drove around for a while and ended up on the freeway outside of town. We were trying to time things just right to arrive at the babysitters, drop the kids, and get to the lawyer's office right on time for closing.

I exited the freeway on the highway leading to town, settled into my seat, and set the cruise control for the obligatory 7 MPH above the speed limit (that's the true speed limit right?). Just then, I noticed some man in a green jacket standing in the middle of the road waving at me. I thought of waving back, but then realized he was standing in the middle of my lane, so I decided to slow down. As we approached I saw that his green jacket had a big black word "SHERRIFF". "Strange", I thought, "why would the Sherriff be standing on the highway in the middle of nowhere?" That's when I noticed the collection of other green jackets standing in the bushes to the side of the road - one holding what could only have been a radar gun. I realized I had driven right into a speed trap. "Great - we're going to be late to closing" I thought.

Well, the good news is that he made quick work of issuing the citation. The bad news is that I learned the speed limit really wasn't 55 MPH there, but 45 MPH. He says I was 19 MPH over the speed limit. I'm sure there is no sign between the freeway exit and where we were stopped and it was only a few hundred more feet to a sign that said "55 MPH" but apparently that didn't matter. Realizing I didn't really have time to argue my case (and also realizing that I was speeding even if it were 55) we accepted the ticket and went on. [Just so you don't get the wrong impression - I'm not too bad of a driver ... this is only my second ticket ever]. By the way, our neighbor across the street happened to be stopped in the same speed trap just two cars ahead of us ... it's a small world.

Well, we made it to the closing barely on time only to find out that the buyers of our house had gotten a flat tire on their way in. So they ended up about 15 minutes late and our lawyer was 25 minutes late. We were beginning to recognize bad omens all about us.

Fortunately, from there things began to look up. The people that bought our house seem really nice. We were happy for our neighbors (and for our house) that good people will be moving here. Everything with that closing went very smoothly. Then we headed downtown for the closing on our new house. When we arrived there was a whole herd of people crowded into a small conference room. "Great," we thought, "what are we walking into here?" It turned out to be a kind of sad situation. The people we were buying the house from were in their mid to late 40's. Unfortunately, I don't think they've learned to manage there money well. They owed about $30,000 more on the house than we ended up paying for it. Some of the other people in the room included his elderly parents who were cosigners on some of the loans they had against the house. He, as we've mentioned before, is wheel-chair bound (result of a swimming accident). We wonder if some of their financial troubles are related to his handicap. They were friendly enough, we just felt really sorry for them.

In the end, though, we signed all the papers and they gave us the keys so we are officially more heavily in debt (in a good way). Tonight we are staying in the Orozco's new house (our old house) and tomorrow is the big move. If we get things hooked up tomorrow evening and if we still have strength in our sore muscles, we'll post an update on how the move went.

By the way, our phone number is staying the same, just the address is changing.

Today is the day!!

Well, you may have noticed that we haven't posted in a while. We have been so wrapped up in the move, that even if I did have a free minute, I didn't have the energy to blog. Well, today is the day that we close on our houses. I can't believe that it is finally here!! I'm feeling a bit nervous this morning. I think you always wonder if everything will actually go off without a hitch! We haven't heard anything otherwise, so I am assumming that everything is in order and hopefully we will be the owners of a new home by five o'clock today. I guess today is a relatively easy day, just sign some papers. Tomorrow will be the kicker, it's the day we move. The kids all seem excited and so are we. We will love having more space. We will let you know how things go.

Benjamin's Pictures

We finally made it out to get some professional pictures of Ben. You can preview them here (he's very cute):

Customer Name: Tammy Finch
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTP19201008045JCP

Lizzy Language

Lizzy is talking quite well for a two year old, but she still has trouble with some of the sounds. As a result there are a few changes in the meaning of things. One of the sounds she has the hardest time with is when a "t" is at the end of a word. For example: she woke up the other day and said "my diaper leaked on my sheeps." Translation: My diaper leaked on my sheets.
Example 2: While pretending that she and her dolls were going swimming, she says,"We're getting on our swimming soups."
Translation: We're getting on our swimming suits.
She doesn't seem to have any problem at all with the "t" if it falls in the middle of a word, though. (however she still gets a little mixed up, like trying to get my pillow suitcase this morning).
Example 3: "I will eat right here by the feater."
Translation: I will eat right here by the heater.
These are just some examples of Lizzy language.

Almost a disaster.

Anna and I were just in my room for quiet time. It is usually the time when I check email and do whatever else I need to on the computer. She likes to be in whatever room I am in, but will usually play quietly. We both smelled something like a burning smell. Immediately we got up and started sniffing around the house. We checked everywhere and the smell was definitely strongest in my room. I checked the computer and the outlets but didn't see anything. Then I checked our floor lamp (sometimes bugs get zapped in there and smell things up pretty good). Nothing. Finally I see the problem. The bedside lamp shade had been bumped so it was touching the bare bulb. There was a hole burning through it. The burn mark was about the size of a quarter, with a small hole burnt all the way through the middle of that mark. To say I was relieved is understating things. I was so thankful nothing had happened. When we couldn't find where the smell was coming from I was imagining our house burning down. After I removed the lampshade and unplugged the lamp Anna and I immediately knelt down and said a prayer of thanks. I am so glad there was not a disaster to deal with.

Pucker Up Adam

Kids one, two, and three in the backyard April 30. Not sure what Adam was thinking about (maybe a kindergarten girlfriend!).

Turtleducks and May Day Otter Pops

A few new funny stories from the ever-so-enteraining Finch children:

A couple of days ago, we were enjoying nice spring weather and went out for a walk around the block. At some point, we noticed a couple of ducks wandering through a neighbor's yard. While we had been watching and talking about the ducks with the kids for a little while, apparently Lizzy hadn't been paying much attention. Suddenly, she pipes up "Turtles! Mama! Look! There's two turtles!" She was pointing to the ducks. Apparently we have some wildlife training to do with our two-year-old.

Story number two... In school last week Adam had made a May Day basket and was wanting to deliver it to someone on May Day (today). Well, we hadn't really gotten anything ready to put in the basket and by the time we got home from church and had dinner and he realized that May Day was almost over, it was kind of too late to gather flowers or bake cookies or anything. So after we thought about it for a little bit, we figured it would be best if we waited and did something tomorrow and delivered the basket a day late. Well, Adam wasn't too keen on that idea - and after a few minutes it becamme apparent that if he couldn't deliver the May Day basket on May Day that it would damage him forever. So, like a good mom, Tammy put on her thinking cap. To make a long story short our neighbors got a May Day basket full of Otter Pops. The bad part is, they weren't home at the time. Otter Pops can be refrozen, right?

The Case of the Missing Book

Several months ago we loaned a few books to an elderly lady we know. It had been quite a while and we were starting to think we should go ask her if we could have the books back (because we kind of wanted to keep them). Last week, Tammy got a phone call from a different friend of hers. "I was shopping at the Goodwill store the other day and bought several books," she said. "I started to read one and noticed that it said 'Finch' in the front cover. Did you donate some books recently to Goodwill?" After she read it, our nice friend returned the book to us that she had bought (fortunately, it had only cost her 37 cents at Goodwill). Tammy will be planning a shopping trip to Goodwill to attempt to recover the rest of our loaned books.

Trick or Treat - Smell My Feet

Caution!!! Six-year old humor ahead!!!

The Chainsaw Man

Okay - one more, then we'll quit for the day. Earlier today we posted our first audio blog (keep reading - you'll see it). After we listened to it with the kids, Adam decided to keep reading the rest of our blog. A few minutes later, he came out all excited. "Mom - there's FIVE comments on one of our blogs!!". Tammy responded, "That's great - but I think on Shane's blog there is one entry that has TEN comments." "Wow!" said Adam "He must really be a really nice man!". After a few minutes, he said, "By the way, who is the chainsaw man?". "WHAT??" "You said the chainsaw man had TEN comments on his blog." "No! Shane's blog - as in UNCLE Shane!" "Oh. Ooops."

We all got a kick out of that one. Sometimes we think that kid needs to have his hearing checked.

Inspector Gadget

Okay - so we're going blog crazy today - I think this is entry number four for the day. Last week I had a chance to visit our new home with the home inspector guy. It was an awesome experience - if any of you homeowners haven't had a chance to go through a home with an inspector, I highly recommend it. Future homeowners - when you buy your house, be sure to go with the inspector to look at it - it's very enlightening. I learned a tremendous amount about caring for the home - things I'd never even thought of.

All-in-all the house was in great shape. He said that homes built in our area in the late 80's are some of the best built homes around. That's because we were just emerging from the recession of the 80's and only a few new homes were being built. Because of that, they were done with more care. For example, he said that most homes built in the 90's (during the housing boom) are already starting to show some cracks in the foundation. That's because they were building houses so fast that they didn't allow the foundation to properly set up before they started building on it. He said our foundation looks to be in great shape.

I crawled up in the attic with him to look at the insulation - which was very thick. The attic is also well-ventilated (I think it was 100 deg up there that day - he said normal would be close to 120 on a day as warm as we had) which means the roof will last longer (it's already 16 years old and he said we could get another 5-10 out of it). It also means that our utility bills will be lower.

He reviewed a number of saftey devices we could put in the home. Since the fireplace has a gas starter, he suggested something called a damper-stopper (or something like that) that holds the damper slightly open in case the kids decide to turn on the gas - it won't gas the whole house. Knowing our kids - that's probably not a bad idea.

Anyway, enough rambling about the inspection. Suffice it to say that it was a great experience for me to learn more about home maintenance than I ever thought one would need to know!

Rollie Pollie Ollie

Well the long awaited day has finally come. About two weeks ago Ben finally rolled from his back to his front. Now there is no stopping him. I was starting to worry a bit when 6 months came and went and he was still just laying there on his back. But now I don't worry anymore. I am hopeful that someday he might actually crawl. Now when you lay him down on the floor he just rolls and rolls all over the place. Across the room, down the hall, until he gets wedged in a position that he can't get out of. (Yesterday it was between the clavinova and this big potted plant we have; he was even trying to pull the leaves off the plant). The kids think this new development is great fun. Lizzy is particularly fond of "helping" Ben roll over. Today we were eating lunch and Ben was on the floor. He started in the living room where we could see him, but then started down the hall. We couldn't keep the kids at the table because they all had to check on his progress. "Now he is by the kitchen," or "He's almost to the bathroom". I must admit that I am quite pleased myself. I don't feel like he needs to be held all the time now. He enjoys rolling around and is happy, which frees me up to do a few things (like make a million phone calls). It couldn't have come at a better time!

Odds and ends

Well, we have a house all picked out and we have said that we are willing to pay money for it, and the owners of that house said sure, we'll take your money. You would think that would make things in our life slow down a little bit, but now the "fun" is just beginning. The last week or two have been spent looking for just the right mortgage, just the right homeowner's insurance, just the right appraiser, etc. We haven't even begun to pack up our current home!! It has felt like both Greg and I have been on the phone or email almost constantly with various companies. (The kids are tired of me closing them out of our room because I need to make or take "an important phone call"). We think that all our effort and homework has paid off though, and we feel, as we so often have in our marriage, the blessings of paying our tithing. We feel like we got a great mortgage at a great rate, one of the very best rates in the country right now (we would know since we talked to practically everybody!!). We are going to be paying much less for our homeowners insurance than anticipated thanks to BYU's arrangement with Liberty Mutual insurance. Perhaps the most amazing miracle of all is what has happened with our tax assessment. The home we are buying was assessed at far above the value of the surrounding homes. Like 50 or 60 thousand more. It seemed unusually high. It is a nicer home, but not that much nicer!! Greg sent an email to the assessor asking about it and the appeal process. The very next day the assessor answered back saying the current owners had already appealed and the assessment had indeed gone down effective in just two or three more days. We couldn't believe it!! So between the great deals on mortgage and insurance, and the decrease in taxes, our monthly payments will be less than we had planned on. We have just felt that the Lord has really been with us through this whole process. We are so thankful things are going well. There is still a lot to do, but we are anxiously awaiting the day when we can move into our new home.

Down by the bay...

We decided to try out audio blogging. We all took a turn talking. Just click the button below!

A new home!

We found our new house and bought it today! Just when we were starting to think we were running out of options - the perfect house pops up. This house has been on the market for quite a long time and was one that we had not checked out because it was priced too high for us to afford. Well, the sellers must have been getting desperate because they kept lowering their asking price until it came almost within our range. So yesterday we headed out to see it and fell instantly in love with it. We went back today to check it out again and still felt really good, so we decided to make an offer. We were able to negotiate with the sellers until we got the home into our price range (barely). We actually ended up paying $50,000 less than they were originally asking a year and a half ago, so we feel like we are getting a great deal.

Here's a link to the listing: Click Here! There are several pictures, but the pictures don't really do it justice. It's got a nice size fenced yard (.37 acres) and is right across the street from one of the nicer parks in the area.

One of the things that may have kept the house from selling in the past is that it is built to be handicap accessible. So, instead of steps leading into and out of the house, there are ramps. There's a master bedroom and bath on the main floor and another master bedroom and bath upstairs. They actually used to have an elevator in the house, but took it out when they moved and turned the elevator shaft into three huge closets (upstairs, main, and basement). The basement is very nicely finished and the kids so far have loved playing down there.

Well, that's about all I can say about it. If you want to know more, you'll have to come and visit! We'll be closing on May 24th (our house and the new one) and moving in on the 25th.

I wanted to post this picture from the other day. The day Lizzy was having her very two year old day, one of the other things she did was to give Ben a colored pencil, which he somehow managed to get on his face (luckily he didn't poke his eye out!!). I wonder how hard he had to press to get it to color on his face... Thanks Lizzy!! 

Nauvoo

We decided we needed a break from the stress of house shopping so we headed to Nauvoo this morning. It was a perfect day to be there - mid 70's, low humidity, light breeze. While Tammy was in the temple, the kids and I played outside and enjoyed the spring weather. I actually remembered to bring the camera this time (well, Tammy remembered) so we took some pictures.

Families are forever! 

Ready for the ox ride.