Much better!It's a week after Easter, but my family got together to celebrate last weekend at Mom & Jim's. Casey, Heidi, Rylie & Chase came down from Mitchell, and we had a fun time. Grandma loaded up some easter eggs, and we had two hunts, one for Chase & Maia upstairs, where the eggs were pretty easy to find, and one for Xander & Rylie downstairs where the hunt was a little more challenging.
Saturday afternoon, I went swimming with Grandma, Heidi, and the kids at Yankton's Summit Center, which is a really cool rec center with a nice, kid-friendly pool. Chase showed his true colors, he's going to be a little fish just like his dad. While Maia was still standing about 4 feet away from the pool, edging her way closer a half-inch at a time, her younger cousin (by about 3 months) barreled into the pool and plunged his head in almost immediately! He sure keeps his mom on her toes!
I came to the realization that my swimming suit is older than Xander, and maybe it's time for an update. Even though I can get one from Matt at Scheels for employee discount, I may still find a better deal at Wal Mart. We'll see.
Latest on the house news. We are hoping to get renters in the first of May. That's coming up fast! I don't have the lease papers or the first check from them yet, so it all kind of hinges on that. A couple of wonderful friends in Marion are fixing up the pipes and the broken window from the break-in, and only charging us the cost of supplies. What great guys!
We're in the process of refinancing the house to try to lower the monthly payments, but when Matt talked to Dave (who fixed the window) last night, he said that another Marion friend, Jonathon, might be interested in buying the property from us to use as a rental... so we'll give him a call tonight.
As long as everything's coming up roses, here's the rest of what's going on. My mom thinks maybe buying an investment property in Sioux Falls- a duplex with one unit as a 3-bedroom, might not be a bad idea, so she and Jim are coming up to take a second look at a place over near the intersection of 26th street and Southeastern, which our family looked at with Mom last week. Jim will do the fine-toothed comb inspection, then we'll see where they stand.
The house is kind of utilitarian from the outside, but it's really nice inside. The link above shows pictures of the inside of the 2-bedroom unit only, which is really nice. But the 3-bedroom unit is laid out pretty nicely for our family's needs. (Room for a family of 4 plus a grand piano). It would actually have a little more space than our house in Marion had, and it's a lot newer. Never been painted- except boring old white. I asked a few times about painting the apartment, and I think Mom thinks I want to paint the whole thing day-glo green or something. Jim says the walls can be taupe and the ceiling stays white. That's it. Lucky for me, Heidi did such a nice job with paint color in her house that I might be able to influence my landlord to let her come and help me pick out paint colors!
A move would mean a higher rent payment, even with a break for managing the property, and we have to consider that our student loans will come off deferment (again) in the Fall, plus Maia enters preschool in the fall... so we're back to tight budgeting again, but the allure of more space is probably worth it.
So that's the latest. I never have short blog entries like other folks, huh? That's probably why I'm so infrequent in my posts!
Here's some cute Maia pictures. Enjoy!
Baroque hairstyle:
Dinosaur in a dress...
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