The Adams Family Blog

1. I need to do more random acts of kindness. The other day Sara & I ate lunch at a restaurant. When I was in line to pay the handsome guy behind me said “I’m paying for their bill” and he did! He was just being nice. That’s it. I later found out from the restaurant staff that he’s a pastor of a church and does that often for people as he goes there every Tuesday. It gave me & Sara the most amazing feeling. Not because we each saved $10, but because someone chose us to do something randomly special for us. I can only imagine how good it made him feel too. After all, it’s better to give than receive, right? I will repay that act of kindness by doing it to someone else. I promise.

2. The economy & housing market in Michigan is clearly worse than most of the other country. A week ago we put our house in MI for sale, and our condo in UT for sale. As of today, not one person has looked at our house in MI, but yet we SOLD the condo for FULL asking price already. YEAH!!!

3. I should cancel my AAA membership and just call my friend Lisa. Who needs guys when you have 3 stay at home mom’s working together. Ok, mostly Lisa did the work and Jackie & I watched (and Sara drove away never to look back). But today I slid off Jackie’s driveway sort of into a small ditch of snow. Lisa rigged up some chains and straps and towed my car out with hers! (PS…Dave, please don’t try to save a couple of thousand dollars next time on my car….I really need AWD….I got stuck in my driveway this week too!)

4. I am once again addicted to American Idol. For the 9th season. It consumes 3 evenings each week. Scrapbooking has taken a back seat.

5. I know way more about contractors, painters, plumbing, square feet, appliances, faucets, sinks, dry wall, etc than I thought I’d ever know. We close on the new house in 2 weeks.

6. The boys new favorite word is “sweetie”. They play with everything and call their toys “sweetie”. Heck, even the toy story bucket of green army men are pointing their big guns at each other saying “hi sweetie, do you want to play?”

7. I realized I was away from the house for a full 8 hours today…..5 of which were spent shopping in 7 different stores. I used to wonder if I’d be able to leave the house with twins, then I ended up going to “one place” with them, and now they do marathon days with me with no trouble. Jackie, there’s hope for you yet….hang in there….your day is coming!

8. We are going to Utah next Thursday and I’m really looking forward to the visit. Although I am fearful that I’ll crash and burn on my healthy eating and exercise. Update….I have lost 10 pounds and Dave has lost 18. He’s hoping to wear a speedo in Jamaica in April. Just kidding. I wouldn’t allow that.

I must end this and pay attention to Idol.

We bought a house about a week ago. If this comes as a surprise to you, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. It was a bit of a surprise to us also. We came across a bank owned home that was marked down about 55% and was one heck of a deal. Each house we looked had a story. Often a sad story. The economy affected so many people here in Michigan. I wondered about the family that had to foreclose on this new house and what their story was.

Anyway, we would only consider moving if we came across a killer deal. We will lose money on our house as everyone does in this market, but we will more than make up for that loss (probably by 3-4 times) in the new house. Hence, it’s a good investment.

So that’s the “why” about why we bought the house. Now the fun stuff. It’s 7,000 square feet. 5 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms (yikes, I hate cleaning toilets), 5 fireplaces in the house including one right in our master bedroom which is really neat and there are 2 full kitchens. It’s right here in Oakpointe, just about 2 miles from our current house and it sits on the 14th hole of the golf course.

We listed our house for sale. We are crossing our fingers that we can sell or rent our house fairly quickly. The new house needs some touch ups here and there and we’re planning to do all of those things prior to moving in. For example, you’ll notice from the pictures that there is very little paint color in the house….that will change…lots of color for us! So, I have a new winter project consuming my time!! The boys are excited about it and ask me each day if we can go to the “new house”. There is a huge open loft area upstairs that over looks the main floor and it will be their play area. They are so excited about this! They’ve already spent several hours just running around the empty house.

I’ve had several people ask to see pictures, so I’ll share them with you. Click HERE.

January was great! I did so many projects that I’ve been meaning to do for so long. I also started an exercise/diet routine (I joined a weight loss competition online also)….trying to lose the 14 pounds I gained this past spring/summer/fall during my busy photo season. I lost 6 pounds in January.

Tyler did awesome with his potty training last week. Although, I don’t think there really was any training involved. He just did it after that toy reward I blogged about last time. He was dry every single night so we stopped night diapers after a few days. He rarely ever had accidents. And he pee’s standing up in the big potty like Brady does. Poops in it now too. So, we are officially a diaper free and potty chair free home. Yeah!

We spent most of January cooped up, wishing we could be outside.

We did go outside one time during the month to pose for some pics with our penguins for charity.

Brady cracked me up the other day when he was playing with his toy story bucket of soldiers. He was saying “horn, horn, horn, horn”. When I asked him what he was saying he said “My soldier is playing a really, really big horn, Mom”. So innocent.

I am looking forward to a GREAT February. I have lots on my to-do list to accomplish. Oh, I have jury duty for 2 weeks at the end of the month. This does not make me happy. But it’s my civic duty I suppose.