A Grown-up home

We have been house hunting pretty much all summer. We have seen some wonderful homes and some I will not ever enter again! In July Dad Hislop introduced us to a home close to them that we really liked, but we didn't like the price and the owners were not ready to come down so we kept looking. About 2 weeks ago we went and looked at a home we had actually looked at in June, but it had come down in price since then. We REALLY liked both homes and had a VERY difficult time trying to decide. We went over and talked to the owners by my parents and they still did not want to come down very far, so after much thought and prayer we decided to put an offer in the home in Farr West. We put a low offer in thinking we would get a counter back and then we could take it to the owners of the other property and see if that made them a little more willing to come down in price. Well, they only upped our offer $5, 000! That made the house in Farr West VERY pleasing. We knew the other owners of the other property would not come down that low (Yes, I did go talk to them). So we thought and prayed some more and decided to accept their counter offer. We set the closing for October 12th.

This is both exciting and scary, this is DEFINITELY the most we have EVER spent on a home... this is a GROWN-UP home... you know the type you will raise your family in. It is beautiful and has many amenities. It has six bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a large room downstairs where I could run a pre-school. It has a 3 car garage, but one bay is double deep so I guess it's really a four car garage. It sits on .61 of an acre. It was built in 2007 and has sat empty for almost two years. The owner/builder got a can't pass up job offer in CA so it was only lived in for 6 weeks, so everything is basically brand new. We will be selling our rental and the home we currently live in so our payments won't be too horrendous. We will need to put in a yard, but the home is move-in ready.

So here's to buying a grown-up home! :)

Teacher of the Year

I received my award today for "Teacher of the Year" for Ogden City School District. It's always nice to feel appreciated. I had great support from my family! THANK YOU!

Hislop Family Reunion

The Hislop Family reunion was today. Mark and Elynn and there family were in town so Mom decided to get a family picture. Here we all are in our "Team Hislop" shirts designed by JL. My Aunt Linda was in charge of this year's reunion and did a fabulous job, although whenever she is in charge expectations are really high! We all had loads of fun--volleyball, giant blow-up water slide, lots of delicious food, great conversations, fun fashion show and more! Another wonderful reunion goes down in the books!

Can you play?

We have some neighbor kids that come over and ask if AJ can come outside and play. Sometimes we go outside and let AJ crawl around and “play” with the kids. Kurt and I have even been known to join in a few games with the neighborhood kids. About a month ago one of the little neighbor girls came over and asked Kurt if he could play outside. He said maybe another day. Kurt told her to ask her Dad to play, she responded, “You guys are the only grown-ups in the neighborhood that will play with us. My Dad won’t do it!”

Last night this same little girl came over and asked Kurt if he would come out and play. He told her we were just getting AJ ready for bed so he couldn’t. About an hour later when Kurt and I were getting ready for bed, the doorbell rang again. There stood the neighbor girl… “Did you get AJ to bed? Can you come out and play now?” :)

Adoption Papers are IN!

Kurt and I have everything turned in for our next adoption. We had the paperwork done before our trip, but I didn’t get our profile done. On our trip Jason took some great family photos of us so when we arrived home I could get it all put together. Or I would be more accurate in saying… Having Kim put it together. I don’t know why but putting together the profile, picking out the pictures and the color scheme and then the whole layout of the profile itself is VERY INTIMIDATING to me! I want it to be just right so a birthmother will see it and think, “I want this family!” I guess I don’t have confidence in my decorating ability; I do however have a lot of confidence in Kim’s! She basically forced me to pick out the paper…Kurt, AJ and I went to Robert’s and I himmed and hawed over several different patterns, then I finally went with a grouping of papers that all had the same color scheme and some embellishments to match. I then went up to Kim’s and pleaded for her help. It took us one night to pick the pictures we wanted to use and get the writing printed off on the paper. The next night Wakely and Drew had invited the girl cousins over for a sleepover. I took all the girls and AJ to a park and out for ice cream while Kim perfected the layouts for the profile. Later that night I tried as best as I could to copy the pages she had done. (We need to turn in 3 copies of the same profile, one for the birth mom, one for the agency and one to be given back to us when we get our baby.) I didn’t leave until about midnight, but I left with all but the last page completely done, we decided to use different photos so I had to print them at Costco the next day and then finish up. When I turned it in, the social workers gushed over it. They commented on how well our last profile showed and this one looks just as good! THANK YOU KIM!!!!

Homework for the teacher

As part of winning teacher of the year for my school district, I had to fulfill the requirements for the state teacher of the year. As part of the process I had a 10 page packet I had to fill out, over half of the pages were essay questions to answer. UGH! I also had to have “letters of support” from different people. I admit those where kind of fun for 2 reasons #1 I didn’t have to write them. :) #2 it was fun to read what others think are my strengths in being a teacher. I am very pleased to say I got it all done and mailed off to the state before the deadline! YEAH!!! Thanks to Teresa for editing and Jeanette the public relations person from the district for going over it with a fine tooth comb!

First Haircut

AJ had his first haircut on July 14th, Pam cut it for him. He was much more interested in trying to grab the scissors than he was in getting his haircut; I had to hold his head for awhile. Kurt said he could go to with him to reserves now because his hair is off his ears. :)

When we walked into Cabela’s in Sidney NE the greeter said, “Oh what a cute little girl.” In the humid weather AJ had little curls all around the back of his head. The curls are gone, there is now no mistaking…he’s a boy!