Spillin' The Beans

Ok, so if you're a regular reader of Hosmerville you know that we've had some exciting news that we were waiting until today to share. Drumroll, please....

Today is Tom's last day at K&J Goodyear Tire (yee ha!=)!!!

AND...

on Monday he will start as manager/OWNER of Hubbard Auto Center, Service Department in Onsted!!!

This is a small business but a HUGE opportunity and we're super excited to see where it's going to take us. Tom and I are headed down there tonite to scope things out and start giving the waiting area a fresh look. We're going with a coffee house feel and hope to have it done by the time he opens Monday morning. You know~ new owner, new look.

Now, on to the little contest I had going. I have to admit, I was sweating a little bit with everyone thinking I was pregnant. Sorry to disappoint you all, but I am not. not. NOT! pregnant (and definitely not with triplets, Leslie=) There were 2 ladies that guessed correctly, Nicole and Emilie. I did an old fashioned drawing and had Austin pick a name from the bowl and he drew... Nicole. So, Nicole, if you could email me your address, I have a goody bag to mail out to you. purple(underscore)butterfly22@yahoo.com. I, of course, took pictures of the goodies, but you all know how good I am at posting fresh pics so I'll tell you that the bag includes a few of my favorite things: spring kitchen towels, B&BW hand soap, a little journal, fun pens, scrapbook ribbon, and chocolate. And a bit of shameless self promotion~ a free oil change at Hubbard's=)

But wait! There's more! Goodies (sort of) for everybody. Any blog reader that stops in to visit Tom before April 1st and mentions they heard the big news from Hosmerville can get an oil change for only $14.99 (limit 1 vehicle per household). (Yes, I really am shameless;) Happy weekend, all!

There's Still Time...

... to get in on my very first bloggy contest! I'm not spilling the beans until Friday so if you haven't guessed yet, do it! Your comments are cracking me up and there may be one (or more) that have guessed the correct answer already;) Ok, that's enough hints. Resume guessing.

Woo Hoo!!!

(this is our happy face)

Just heard from the bank and our appraisal came back a little low but still high enough to make it work! Yay! Double yay because even though the housing market has crashed we haven't lost much value these past 5 years=) I literally felt the weight of the world disappear for a moment. Still a couple of technical hurdles to cross before we finalize everything. Pray things keep going smoothly=)

My Little Man Is 6!!!

Tuesday, February 18th, 2003 @ 10:54am you made me a mommy & my life was forever changed. I love you, my Austin James!!!

~XOhugs&kissesOX~

Mommy

Stay Tuned....

BIG announcement coming soon!!!

(I wanted to do one of those fun little polls to have everyone guess as to what this was all about but Tom thinks the real answer will be obvious. So if you'd like to guess, leave it in the comments. The person with the closest answer will get a fun little goody bag. No fair guessing if you already know what's going on;) I'll make the real announcement next Friday, February 27th!

The Power Of A Good Bribe

*UPDATE*

Austin's home. He had a fabulous time. And the first thing that he said to me was, "where's my money?".

We headed out to Tom's parents' tonite for a belated birthday party for Tom with his family. Audrey had arranged earlier in the week for cousin Katy to spend the nite tonite after the party. All week long she's been asking "this today?" When she woke up this morning and found out that today was indeed "the day" she was ecstatic. We were all bundling up to head home after tonite's festivities when Austin received an impromptu invite to spend the nite at cousin Anna's. He readily accepted and Anna being so excited she was having a sleepover began to expound on all of the great things they would do. And then she mentioned about how to go downstairs during the nite if he had to go to the bathroom. How it would be dark but he could use a flashlight. And then his smile began to fade.

Suddenly he didn't want to spend the nite. He wanted to go home to sleep "in his own bed". Anna started bawling, big alligator tears rolling down her cheeks. She started listing all of the "cool" things they could do:

• we can get out George (the hamster)
• my mom will make us root beer floats
• you get to go to my basketball game tomorrow
• we can leave the lights on

Nothing could convince him to change his mind. He was determined to go home and since we were taking Katy we didn't have enough room in our van to bring Anna along, too. It looked as if Anna was going to be heading home alone with a broken heart. I was encouraging him to go. As his mom I wasn't brushing aside his fears, I just knew they were completely unfounded; and he was just being stubborn. He's spent the nite away from home lots of times before. There would really be no reason that he would have to go downstairs in "the dark" by himself. He would be sleeping with Anna in her room, not secluded off by himself somewhere. So I did what any rational mom would do. I leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "I'll pay you $5 when you get home tomorrow." *Sniff* "ok". And he was off. Crisis solved. Good nite, Jamers, I'll see you in the morning!

New Year, New Look

First off, Eddy seems to be back to his normal self. We've held off on treats to give his stomach a rest and he hasn't gotten sick since Monday morning. I made sm'ookies yesterday and let me just say... holy butterscotch chip cookies, batman!!! These things were seriously amazing! Warm from the oven with a melted milk chocolate and marshmallow filling~ yummy!!! Like a smore but better=)

Well, I promised pics of my newly painted kitchen, oh... a month ago and here they (finally) are! I picked the green color before we moved in not realizing how dark the back of the house usually is (not a whole lot of natural sunlight). About a year and a half ago we converted the what-was-the-formal-dining-room-turned-playroom back into a dining room and repainted the dark blue walls "stony mountain". It was amazing how much a new coat of paint brightened up the space. Ever since then I've been wanting to repaint the kitchen but was putting it off because I didn't want to have to paint the paneling and paint around the appliances and cabinets. I finally determined to get this project done and asked for gift cards for Christmas to help fund the expense. The paint color doesn't have a name. Tom took in a ribbon that I absolutely loved and had Home Depot color match it in their computer. The final result is a bit brighter than what I was imagining (it was closer to the ribbon color before it dried) but I love the way it gives my kitchen a whole new look. So...

BEFORE:

AFTER: Originally, this was going to be a simple paint job but Tom had this James Dean picture that we ended up putting on the big blank wall which inspired us to go "retro". See the metal magnet board under the phone? I didn't put that back up (I took it for my scrapbook room, ha ha=). We moved all of the magnets over to the garage door.

And some new kitchen accessories for our retro theme:









This is command central. I found the fabric at Jo~Ann's to cover our cork board. I'm not sure if this is "retro" but I like the print. So, what do you think?

Weekend Update

• Friday nite I pulled out all of my old The Body Shop foot tubs, towels, and product and headed over to Skiff Lake Bible Church to treat the ladies at their pj party to foot soaks.
• Tom came home from work Friday sick so I left Austin in charge for the evening. He was thrilled with his big brother responsibilities, the girls... not so much.
• Saturday morning we headed over to Austin's school for the annual Groundhog Derby cardboard sled races. I had brought Austin a ginormous orange bin home from work which he and Tom transformed into a dog house. We wrote his name Austin "Snow Dog" Hosmer over the top of the door. The kids raced in heats of 3 and as Austin lined up I could hear the other kids chanting "snow dog! snow dog!"
• I worked both days this weekend. We were super busy for the Super Bowl. Every time I walked past the bins of grapefruit I could see Austin's smiling face sticking up over the top of his "dog house".
• I'm teaching Austin's Sunday school class for the next 2 months while his real teacher is snowbirding in Florida. Usually there are approximately 3 or 4 kids every Sunday. Yesterday I ended up with 10 because my cousin who teaches the 2 & 3's was home with a sick child. And did I mention that 3 of those 10 were 4 year old triplet boys!? After a brief moment of panic, I pulled things together and got through the lesson. I had brought Audrey's pink Little People castle, king, Little People men and lions to re~enact the story of Daniel and the lions den so that totally saved me by helping keep the little kids busy for quite awhile.
• I got home last nite exhausted. Eddy was sleeping with Audrey in our bed and threw up all over the floor when he got up to greet me. Tom said he had thrown up 4 other times during the day. I was sleeping soundly when Audrey woke me up crying. I rolled over into a pile of dog puke. Somehow Eddy had thrown up all over the bed and I had slept right thru it. I cleaned it up as best I could and laid a towel over the wet spot. This morning as soon as he woke up he got sick again. I'm starting to get worried because he's never been sick like this before. He barked for the girls' leftover toast and has chowed down breakfast so hopefully he can keep this down. The last thing we need right now is an outrageous vet bill but we really just want Ed to be ok.
• I'm looking forward to doing a little baking and cooking with the girls this week. Austin used to be right alongside me in the kitchen, too, but now he prefers to play b~ball and only appears when samples are being passed out. I found a recipe for homemade oatmeal apple scones in a Rachel Ray magazine. We all love scones around here so I'm anxious to give this one a try. I also found a yummy recipe for sm'ookies. It calls for peanut butter cookies sandwiched with a chocolate and marshmallow filling. I'm tweaking it just a bit and making butterscotch cookies in place of the peanut butter. I'll let you know how they turn out;). I also want to simmer up a big pot of Beach Bar tomato soup. I'm not a huge fan of tomato soup, but Tom *loves* this stuff.
• And today's Groundhog's day. I can never remember if it's good or bad if he sees his shadow. Here's hoping spring is on its way!!!

The Magic Number

Long story short, we have 2 mortgages. We are in the process of combining them into 1. Somehow even though we asked for and were led to believe we were getting a fixed rate on our home when we bought 5 years ago, we have recently learned that it magically turns into an ARM with our May payment. (Sneaky rat-fink bankers.) Yeah, I know, our fault because as it turns out, it was all spelled out in the dozens of papers we signed at closing. Mortgage #2 balloons in March and payment in full is required at that time. This we did know all along. That is what started us on this process in the first place because we simply do not have the money necessary to pay off 20% of our home. So we're combining 2 into 1 at a fixed rate (at least we've been told;). We've been approved, the rate is great, we're scheduled to close in a month. Smooth sailing all the way. Except (because there always is) we have to have an appraisal. And our house has to appraise for X amount of money. Doh!!! If said appraisal comes in higher than X we are good to go all the way to closing. If it comes in under than X, we're out $500 and well, we'll probably be homeless within a couple of months.

See why X is the magic number? Normally after 5 years in a home with multiple renovations and improvements worrying about an appraisal wouldn't be an issue. But this economy isn't normal, especially in our neighborhood. When the housing bubble burst a year or so ago it left splatters all over our neighborhood. At least 3 homes have been foreclosed on in the past year, 2 of which you can see from our front door. And then the banks sold them uber cheap to be rid of them. Beautiful.

Appraisal lady called Tuesday to set up an appointment for Wednesday. I was slightly panicked as this gave me less than 24 hours to figure out how to make my home look good enough to hit this magic number. In the end I realized that a freshly mopped kitchen floor was not going to increase the market value of my home. So I didn't. I didn't wash fingerprints off windows and I didn't dust (except the master bedroom which was looking a little fuzzy). I vacuumed and made the beds and prayed for the best.

Now we are playing the waiting game. We were told by the bank that it is taking upwards of 3 weeks for appraisals to be processed at this time. 3 weeks before we know the magic number.

Happy Anniversary To Me!!!

I recently celebrated my 1 year anniversary at groceries-r-us (yeah, yay me!;P) Anyways, in honor of this blessed event I thought I'd list the top 5 best and worst things about the place. Here we go.

Top 5 Worst Things:

1. Rhymes with "witchy" starts with a "b" co-workers, particularly the ladies on 3rd shift. Seriously, didn't your mama teach you how to make eye contact and smile at someone?
2. Unheated bathrooms, really when I'm already freezing why would I want to expose my bare bum to the elements?
3. Customers who poke their fingers thru ripe fruit and then ask for it to be reduced.
4. Parents who don't strap their babies/toddlers in the cart and then walk away to grab something while baby is squirming/climbing. Hello people, if your child falls head first onto the tile floor, it's not gonna be pretty. For the sake of my heart, buckle them in!!!
5. Corporate gifts: for my birthday I received a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream, my 1 year anniversary, a free cup of coffee or pop. For Christmas, a whole week to buy store brand products at a whopping 10% off. So let me get this straight... I spend my money in your store and you'll give me 10% percent off for helping boost the company's bottom line? Merry Christmas to me you!

I'm generally a positive person so let's end on a positive note, shall we? Top 5 best things:

1. Though it may be little, a weekly paycheck. Something over 10% of Jackson doesn't have right now.
2. The opportunity to grocery shop kid-free without making an extra trip to the grocery store.
3. My boss who has continuously worked around my coaching schedules and family life.
4. Working 3rd shift so I have more family nites at home.
5. My co-worker Amy, she's been like a second mother to me. And just like a mother, she's a little too protective...