Snow on May 31st?

Ok, so not really snow, but it sure looked like it! At about 5:30PM the sirens started blaring in MG. At that time it was bright and sunny. By 6:15, outside painted a whole different picture.

We went to our basement laundry room right after this picture was taken, as I was afraid that the hail was going to break some windows. In about 15 minutes the hail was done, and the sun returned. The hail remained on the street and roofs and looked like we had just had a snow storm. I know there were some traffic accidents from low road visibility. We are just lucky that there was not a tornado as we were in a warning due to some funnel clouds that were spotted.

Here are some more pictures:

The roofs on the houses in the picture are normally black. The hail was that thick 15 minutes after the storm had gone through. And finally here is a picture of Brian enjoying the view!

Houses

So, we've been quite busy these past few weeks. I have been putting in about 10 hours of overtime a week to pay for closing costs and escrow funds, and we also started playing sand volleyball Monday nights and Wednesday nights. Besides our normal routines, we have also been house hunting 3 times now. There are quite a few houses in our price range but they really range in quality depending on where we are looking. MG has older houses that need a lot of updating. The further we move out, the nicer the houses get in our price range.

MG house that we are interested in: It is a 4-level split with 3 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom downstairs. It would need new flooring in dining room (pictured) and lots of new light fixtures which we could get with time.
Then there is a house in a suburb that if further out: 2 bedrooms upstairs, 1 bedroom downstairs, 3 bathrooms including a huge master suite.

There are some of the pictures. I am still organizing some of the others. Hopefully we will post some more soon. Does anyone have an opinion regarding 3 bedrooms upstairs versus 2 bedrooms upstairs in terms of being on the same floor as the kids?

Mortgage hunting

We have officially started the long exhausting process of buying a home. After meeting with two mortgage representatives, we are now starting to meet with realtors. We have, of course, been approved for way more money than we can afford but now know the price range for a monthly payment we can manage.


The first mortgage rep we met with was very unprofessional, unorganized, and almost seemed chauvinistic. He didn't even feel it necessary to bring his computer or a calculator with him to our meeting. How he expected to have even a semblance of a meeting, I don't know. We spent the better part of the meeting trying to unravel his cryptic monologues and tangents. We also watched him trying to calculate things in his head, needless to say Brian was giving him the answers to his math problems. He also spent most of the meeting avoiding eye contact with me and spoke mostly to Brian. You can imagine, he didn't last long as a candidate in my mind!


The second mortgage rep we met with was the first rep's polar opposite. She was very professional, answered all of our questions with patience and gave us a variety of scenarios to work with. I was very impressed. Needless to say, she is our rep of choice!

When we start to look at houses, I am going to post some pictures and ask for opinions... we can play a sort of "House Hunters" game like the TV show that is on cable. In the meantime, I would appreciate any feedback on things you all have learned you need/want/hate about your house or any previous houses. It will make us aware of things to think about that we may not have thought of.

I am so smrt

Ever since Christmas, Brian has a new favorite pair of pants. He wears them long after they need to be washed and he is usually pulling them out of the dryer as soon as they are dry. When I first met him, I never thought that I would see him in anything other than jeans and wind pants. Now I don't think he owns a pair of jeans that aren't for jobs on the farm, and his favorite pair of pants are soft pajama pants. What a change!

Volleyball

We've now had 2 Mondays of sand volleyball..... yes, you've read correctly- sand volleyball. This week was pretty nice for weather, but last week... burrrr! Brian and I bought these special sand socks to keep our feet warm against the sand. So far it seems to be working quite well. Even though it was only 40 degrees the first week, our feet were pretty toasty. Our hands and faces were another story. Yesterday was a nice 55 degrees but it was pretty windy. If you look carefully you can still see snow in this one!I didn't realize how hard it was to take action shots on a camera when the battery is dying. Here is one of me passing... no comments on the form- I know bend my knees further, and Brian hitting.

Tonight we play in our indoor league semi-finals against a pretty good team. Hopefully we can win and move to the championship game.

Glorious smells

There is something amazing and awe inspiring about the first "spring" shower. Today as I was relaxing and cleaning at home, the sky turned dark for a brief moment and it started pouring. I could hear the school children giggling and screaming and some passersby laughing as they picked up the pace to try and minimize the drenching. Then as abruptly as it came, the clouds dissipated and the sun returned. All that remained were wet streets and the amazing smell of rain. That wonderful earthy smell that makes me think of night crawlers on the sidewalk. It reminds me that the "dormant" season of winter is over and makes me excited that the beautiful colors of spring will soon return. I'm going to keep my eye out for that rainbow and look forward to my other favorite smell, freshly cut grass.

Life in the ER

So, I've determined that the ER at my current place of employment is nothing like Gray's Anatomy, although there are a few cute doctors. Last Wednesday and Thursday I had my 2 dreaded days of drawing patients in the ER. Just a reminder (as if you need one on this subject), I hate drawing blood, but combining that with having to draw it fast and having to compete with all the other departments needing that patients time, it really wasn't a fun time at all. I didn't even have to draw the gun shot that came in at 10 AM. Really people, who decides to shoot someone, let alone at 10 in the morning- get a hobby!

Wish me luck this week as I am getting trained for my overnight weekends by working 2315 to 0715 this week. I've already apologized to Brian for my upcoming week of crabbiness :)