Happy Birthday Kolten!

Kolty turned 11 on Saturday, October 25th.  I can't believe how the time flies by.  It seems like I just had him yesterday.  He has been the best kid anyone could ever ask for!  He is very polite most of the time and has such a mild manner to him.  He gets really good grades in school and is trying to hit the honor roll this year so that he can earn some money from us.  We told him that for every A he gets on his report card, we will give him $5 and if he gets straight A's, we will give him $10 an A.  So this means the difference of anywhere from $5-25 for a report card with 1 B or more and $60 if he gets all A's.  This strategy has really worked for us to encourage him to get good grades.  Last year, he missed getting $60 by 1 B and got $25 instead.  He was a little upset that he didn't quite make it and this year at the beginning of the year, he told me, "I'm going to make sure I get $60 this report card."  We are proud of him no matter what his grades are and are excited that he wants to try so hard to succeed.  It seems that this has helped in his learning abilities also.  I need to give alot of credit to his school as well but, he took his ability test the beginning of this year and is in the 80th percentile for children his age in all the nation.  This means he is smarter (in school subjects) than 8 out of every 10 kids in the nation.  Also he is in advanced math and reading.  I think this must come from Rick's side of the family.  Not because my side isn't smart but because I sucked in School!  I had the worst grades and had a hard time paying attention... the boosing probably didn't help either.

Kolten was so excited over the weekend.  We took him to Blast Off, which for those of you who have no idea what this is, it is a place where kids can go and play on these huge "McDonald Toys" and they have an arcade, mini golf, rock climbing and laser tag.  Kolten took about 6 of his friends and cousins and had a blast.  Plus this whole weekend has been filled with junk candy.  Because his birthday is so close to Halloween, a lot of the Halloween candy I bought to pass out to the trick or treaters got gobbled up over the weekend.  He was also excited to play with the new presents he got.  For everyone that gave him a gift card to Walmart - Thank you!  We had to take him to Walmart that night he got the cards and he bought a new Xbox game.  He also got another XBox game as a gift from one of the relatives that he said is the best game he has ever had next to Halo!  Thanks!  Rick and I gave him a new electric guitar that he wanted so bad and thanks to the Xbox games, Rick has got to play it more than Kolten has, was this a coincidence you say, I don't thinks so.  

Our House

Thanks to Amber being as smart as she is,  you all can see a photo of our new house.  This is the photo from the MLS that was taken by the agent that had our house listed.  The grass now doesn't look as good.  For some strange reason the guy that we bought the house from did not know how to water the lawn and when we moved in he hadn't watered it for quite a while and when we mowed the lawn, the grass looked pretty dry.  But, by next spring, we will fertilize and keep it watered and that will make all the difference.  

I can't remember if I mentioned this already but, we hate it here.  The neighbors are all really nice but I hate being so close to the neighbors and I there are things about this house that I really do not like (just little things) but I knew that was what it was going to be like and I just keep telling myself that we won't be here that long.  I have been painting a little in the house and I haven't been able to hang any photos or decorate until I get the rooms painted.  It is taking longer than I would like because I have no help.  Rick wanted to hire someone to do it and I would not let him because I feel like that is just throwing money down the drain so I now get the chore of doing it myself.  Plus I still have a little bit going on in Real Estate and I don't have the time to get it done.  So when people come to our house they get to see it in a big mess right now.  Oh well, if you don't care if you see it that way, we don't care.  

Also, because we went from 3400 finished sq ft to 1400 finished sq ft and a 1400 unfinished basement, we have a huge storage pile in the basement and garage and we have to park our vehicle outside which really sucks because we have frost in the mornings and have to warm the cars up before we go anywhere in the mornings.  We also went from a 3 car to a 2 car garage and do not have the storage for our motorbikes, lawnmower, etc. and we now get to store that in the garage as well. 

I will stop complaining now.  I am just thankful to have a home and am glad I am not in a  financial mess like thousands of other unfortunate people.  There are so many vacant homes in our neighborhood and homes in the back part of the subdivision that are half way finished that the bank took over.  And as sad as our market is here, I have been reading that our housing market is in the top #6 for the nation.   SCARY!

Snow Already

It snowed today and it is freezing cold outside!   I can not believe it!  We got about an inch to 2 inches today but it quickly melted and rained afterwards.  I'm sure it will snow later tonight. Unfortunately, people always drive to fast on the first day of snow.  Nightime of the first snowfall always makes for slick icy roads and Rick is working tonight.  I hope he isn't up all night on car wrecks.  Sorry honey! 

Picture of Our New House

Well, I tried to save a photo from the MLS of our new house and it would not work.  I used to be able to save photos with no problems on my laptop but with the Mac, I'm a little slow learning so you will have to wait until the weather clears up before I can snap a photo.  

Photos

I just realized that I might be able to pull some photos off of the internet from when they had it listed.  I'll try to save them and post them so you can see our new house.

New House

OK, I have a request to update so I better do it.  I can't find my camera so you won't get any photos until I do.  We haven't got everything in and put away yet so you wouldn't want to see it anyway.  Rick wanted to hanfg some pictures up today but i won't let him until we do some painting.  I have a few colors picked out but I still don't have a complete vision on the way I want everything to look so we will see what happens in the next week or two.  I will take some before and after photos so that you can see our progress.  The house is not a fixxer upper or anything but it just isn't my style (like I have any style) I guess I should say it isn't my personality.