Unloading

I'm a disaster today, so I'm going to unload:

- we finally heard back from the bank about the house we put an offer on 3 months ago.  They want a LOT more than we offered.  They want a lot more than it was listed for even.  I don't know what they've been smokin', but it's just not gonna happen.  (It's been on the market for over a YEAR and we're the only offer they have at any price!)  We're working on some things to see if we can still make it work, but they're insane.  The house is scheduled to go to auction in 5 days.
- in the mean time interest rates have gone up, and thanks to FHA being killed by bailing out idiots who overextended themselves or took on risky loans, they're hiking up PMI.  It has already gone up a LOT and is going to go up again in a month.  Everything was working out perfectly for us to finally own a home and now it's becoming a mess again.  I'm extremely frustrated.
- on Saturday Kate lost another tooth!  kinda.  The tooth was rotten clear through and most of it broke right off.  The tooth fairy came... and we made a dentist appointment.  She (Kate, not the Tooth Fairy) had the rest of the tooth extracted this afternoon and a spacer put in until the permanent tooth can come in.  She has to have one big filling and two more extractions (bad set of teeth).  Fortunately she loves the dentist, does FABULOUS there, and the dentist hasn't complained about how much we owe him and how much more we'll be adding on to our tab with him.
- our dishwasher has been dead for a couple of months.  We've done everything we can, but it's just plain OLD and needs to be replaced.  So I've been slowly working on reclaiming the kitchen one or two batches of dishes a day.
- I can only manage one or two loads of dishes and laundry each day before something gets too irritated to finish.  I'm grateful I am able to live without pain medication every day, but I am only able to do that as long as I'm careful about what I eat, drink, and do.  I'm able to keep up our house, but improving things is slow.
- apparently our fridge quit working two days ago.  Unfortuantely we noticed the freezer after a day and had to chuck most of the freezer food.  Double unfortunately we thought the door had been not closed all the way so we left the things that were still okay in there.  Triple unfortunately it was another full day before we noticed the actual problem.  Out of a whole fridge/freezer full of food we have three scant grocery bags and 3 gallons of milk.  And they're all at Michael's work which makes grabbing a glass of milk a bit complicated.
- we have to get the landlord to decide what he's willing to do about the fridge and dishwasher issues.  (We're not even going to hope he'll fix the broken faucet too.)  To have him come over, though, I needed the kitchen to be more caught up than it was going to be by today.  So I overdid it last night and this morning and I'm paying for it now.
- we're tired of renting.  We're tired of our living situation being so dependent on what a landlord feels like doing or not doing.  I want to be more in control of our surroundings.  I want to care about the house because it's ours, not because someone else may care.

DEEEEEEEEP BREATH

Okay, that feels a bit better to get a few things off my chest.  Now on a more positive note:

+ The girls seem to be healthy again!  After fevers for 3 weeks then pink eye and coughs it's nice to have them back to "normal" for a bit. (picture above of Sabrina sleeping on the floor one afternoon when she was sick).
+ Kate actually looked forward to her dentist appointment.  She is just fine with making another two appointments for more work.  She had multiple shots today and did great with them all (even that pesky shot in the roof of the mouth).
+ We are looking forward to an exciting (though very busy) weekend including a baptism, baby blessing, family sealing, then another baby blessing.  Big deals in each of our extended families!  We can't wait to celebrate these events with them all.
+ Lizzie is doing much better at sleeping in her own bed.  I got her a puppy calendar at the store (for $2 since it's well into the year) and some puppy stickers.  Every night she stays in her bed all night she gets to put a sticker on the calendar.  She asked if she could earn $1 if she gets a sticker every day for a month.  Fine by me!!! 
+ We've hit out deductible already this year (well, that part is more on the "-" side since that's $3,000 out of our pockets already) Now doctor's appointments and medications are more reasonably priced.  I like being past the deductible period so I feel less guilty about needing more meds or a doc appointment. 
+ My kitchen is pretty dang clean now!  It's not perfect yet, but by tomorrow it may be.  Then as long as I can keep doing my bit each day it will be easier to keep in clean than having to keep chipping away at the things that need taking care of.
+ The girls and I are having a great time with the local library.  It's roughly the size of a good high school library, but we've been reading lots of fun books.  A new library is finally being built across the street from the current one so then the library can put out all the books they have to keep in storage now.  Kate and I particularly liked listening to the Eragon series on audiobook together.


I have several things I'm been meaning to post (such as our trip to the circus, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Dr. Seuss' Birthday at school, etc.) but haven't managed yet.  I'll try to get them done soon.  Life is really just fine.  I'm just overwhelmed today and am trying SO hard to figure out what the best things are for us to do.  I realize there are many people, even among those who may read this, who are having a much tougher time than us.  I'm not trying to compare to anyone or anything.  I just needed to vent.