Frustration!

As many of you may already know Terence was unemployed for 14 months.
That in and of its self was quite a challenge but with Terence on unemployment
and us not sure how long it was going to last we decided we needed to try and
make some changes financially.  We applied to the "making home
affordable" program back in January with the hopes that we would be able
to get our mortgage modified to stay in our house.  Our mortgage company
put us on a modified payment plan while they reviewed our file and the modified
payment reduced our mortgage by $500 a month.  Then there was nothing we could
do but continue to make our payments and wait, and wait, and wait.  We would
get the occasional call from them asking for more paperwork, or in most cases
they had no idea why they had called us we just came up in their queue.  Then good news!  Terence got his new job and we were very
excited about that.  Terence was able to
take that job at a considerable cut in pay because we were making the modified
mortgage payments.  Just as luck would have
it, they finally got around to processing all of our paperwork shortly after T
started his new job.  Because of that we
were DECLINED for the modification. Their reasoning was that our mortgage payment was not more than 31% of
our income even though we have lost money by him going back to work (since we
pay for daycare and commuting expenses). So on top of our mortgage going up $500 a month we now have to pay back
$3400 by the 10^th of October. If we don’t we will be reported to the credit bureaus as delinquent on
our account (even though we have NEVER been late or missed a payment) and our
house could fall into foreclosure.  This
all seem so backwards and frustrating to me! We are trying to do the right thing and this is what happened.  On top of all of that, when we got the letter
stating that we were denied they also gave us options to either short sale our
house or deed it back to the mortgage company and walk away.  It seems to me the more logical solution
would be to keep people in their home and have them pay their mortgages rather
then walk away but what do I know.  The
whole thing is just so very strange. Thankfully we have some amazing people who have stepped up and are
lending us the money so we can pay it back by the 10^th and not be
reported as delinquent on our mortgage (even though we have NEVER missed a
payment or been late!  Did I say that
already?  Just wanted to emphasize that).  It’s just been another incredibly frustrating
situation on top of an already rough year. 
P.S. once again blogger wants to make this look like a poem.  I'm not rewriting it so enjoy!

New home phone

In an effort to save money Terence and I have changed our home phone service.  Because of that we have a new home phone number.  So for those of you who would like to keep your contact information current our new home number is 206-497-9731.

My Girls!

These are two of my favorite people on the planet!  My Mom and my Sister are amazing and I loved spending the day with them yesterday.  My Mom and I were cracking up the entire day and the three of us together had such a great time!  We had a hard time getting a picture with all three boys but it was easy to get a picture of the three of us!

my favorite!  and we actually got one of Brooks sitting down all in one!

Goofy face!

Red Robin...Yum!

One of the things that Heather and I love to do when she is in town is go to Red Robin.  We both the Buzz Clucks and diet cokes.  Since we were out celebrating her birthday yesterday and we were close by, it only seemed natural to go there for lunch/dinner.  The kids were fascinated by the girl at the front blowing up the balloons and all three were pretty excited to get one.  After we ate dinner we tried to get a picture of the boys with their balloons.  It's an interesting challenge to get all three boys to look at the camera at the tame time and as of yet we are still unsuccessful.  Although we did find that telling JR that there was an airplane to look at would get him to look for a second.

This was the closest we got to having all three boys looking at the camera!

Carousel

Another thing we did while we were at the park was go and see the antique carousel they have there.  I am not a huge fan of rides and Connor did not want to go on it.  Corey did so he rode with Brooks, Heather and Brooks JR.  This was a FAST carousel and as soon as it started going fast I could hear Corey scream.  His fast the first time he came around was terrified but I think once he got used to it he had a good time.  Half way through the ride they move a stick out that has rings in it and you are supposed to try and grab a ring as you go by and then throw it in a clowns mouth.  If you get the ring in you get a free ride  There is also one gold ring in the bunch and if you get that you automatically win a free ride.  Brooks pulled the gold ring! 

Getting on

Brooks with his free ticket

Heather with Corey

Little Red Wagon...

Or in this case, big red wagon.  One of the things we did while we were in downtown Spokane yesterday was play at the park that is right next to the mall. It was a fun park and had all kinds of fun things to do like a gondola ride that went up and over the city (we could not go on it because they had a six person limit and there were seven of us) a carousel ride and a big red wagon that had a slide and a play area at the top for the kids to run around on.  The boys loved this thing even though it scared the heck out of me because the slide was pretty high and little boys tend to be fearless.  They had a great time and it nice to give them the opportunity to run around a little bit to burn some energy.

Brooks JR coming down the slide

Corey the monkey

Connor swinging on the bars

the Lively family

Surprise!

Yesterday was Heather's birthday.  Earlier this week my mom and I were talking about what we could do for her and we decided it would be awesome to go down to Spokane and surprise Heather for the day.  I plotted with Brooks that we would meet up at some place for breakfast or something and that when Heather walked in she would just happen to see us sitting at the table and SURPRISE!  It worked out perfectly.  When Heather and Brooks walked in and gave the lady their name to get on the list for a table the lady (who was very nice) said oh Heather, we can take you right back.  Heather got a little suspicious at that point and asked Brooks if someone was already here.  When she walked around the corner and saw Mom, the boys and me she started crying!  She was totally surprised!  It was so fun! 

I do have to say that Brooks was a great co-conspirator and actually worked out most of the details of the day.  We really just had to show up and he did the rest.  He really is a very considerate husband!

We did a lot more yesterday but I am going to break it out into separate blogs for two reasons.  One because I am way behind on my 365 blogs for the year and two because if I were to do it all as one post it would be too long and no one would read it.  So stay tuned for more.

Boston

My trip to Boston was awesome!  I fell in love with the city while I was there and really hope I have an opportunity to go back and explore it more soon!  One of my coworkers wanted me to at least see some of Boston while I was there so he took me to the Union Oyster House which is the oldest continually operating restaurant in the United States.  To get there we had to take two subway lines and then walk through downtown.  This was my first time ever riding a subway so of course I took a picture.  My poor, very patient coworker was so nice and so gracious about it.  He just told me some historical facts about the places we went and some funny stories about some of my other coworkers and their embarrassing subway experiences.  Not ashamed at all to be with an obvious tourist.  If I never get back to Boston for work I will for sure be planning a trip for fun, maybe we can tie it into a trip to New York.  It's definitely a place I think Terence would love to see.

 This is the view from my hotel room. I was looking out over Boston and the ocean.

 Boston City Hall

Faneuil Hall

My very gracious coworker Alan

Street view of the Oyster house

Lunch!  Yum, scallops and shrimp over rice with a tomato sauce

The subway.

Black and White

Cookie!  Terence's Mom and Dad went to New York at the beginning of September and every time they get out that way Terence starts talking about the amazing food they have in New York.  In particular he talks about the bagels, pickles and something called a black and white cookie.  He always asks his parents to bring them home for him and they have not been able to until this trip.  They went out looking for some and were not able to find them but found some reasonable facsimile to them at a Starbucks in downtown.  When they showed these cookies to Terence's Grandma and Aunt they said they were unacceptable and not a real black and white.  So Terence amazing aunt went out early one morning to a deli or bakery (I'm not sure which) and found him some awesome real black and whites.  They were too big to bring all four of them home so Terence's parents put a couple in some zip lock containers and brought them home.  Needless to say Terence was VERY excited when he got them.  It was a fun reminder of his childhood trips to New York.  I really hope we have an opportunity to get out there soon!

Bean Town!

I'm in Boston and I have to say this is one AMAZING city!  It is
absolutely gorgeous and everything is totally clean and pristinely kept.
I don’t know what I was expecting but it definitely was not this.  My hotel was right in the middle of down town
which has been both a blessing and a curse. For those of you who have never been to Boston of for those of you
planning on visiting I have one piece of advice for you.  Take a cab! The drivers here are not bad it’s the streets that are impossible to
navigate!  Also the pedestrians here have
a death wish.  They literally will walk
out in front of your car without even looking. And they do not use crosswalks just cross anywhere there is a break in
traffic.  Yesterday afternoon I had to
run a couple of errands before the dinner I was hosting so I ventured out near
my hotel.  The first crosswalk I came to
the red hand was on so I stopped. Everyone around me kept right on walking.  I instantly identified myself as from out of
town because I waited for the walk sign to go before I went.  I am hoping to leave the office a little
early today and get out to see some of the town.  I don’t have a ton of time because my flight
leaves Boston at 6:30 but hopefully I will see something.  If not I will have to get back out here again
(hopefully with Terence).

P.S. not sure why my formatting is so weird today.  Blogger decided this post should look like a poem.

Tender Mercy

Today I am grateful for the tender mecies of the Lord.  I ackowldege his hand in my life.  I know that he is watching over and blessing my family in ways that I cannot even comprehend and I'm so grateful for that.  Tonight I was on my way to the airport to leave for my flight to Boston and I got the feeling that I needed to check my wallet and make sure I had my American Express card.  I did not remember taking it out of my wallet but the feeling was so strong I did not ignore the prompting.  I pulled over, looked though my wallet and realized it was not there.  I knew at that point I had left it at work.  I'm so grateful that I left earlier tonight then I was planning, I'm so grateful I was thinking instead of listening to music so I was able to receive the feeling and I'm grateful most of all that I was able to run by my office and find my Amex card.  Now I can actually check into my hotel and pay for food on my trip.  I know that it was a tender mercy of the Lord that I was reminded to check for it.  Just another reminder that our Father in Heaven knows us and is watching over each and every one of us.

Cupcakes!

We have the opportunity to have Talia come to visit yesterday and spend some time with her.  Talia has been watching food network a lot lately and wanted to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.  Her boyfriends birthday is this week and he really likes angel food cake so we decided to try an angel food cake cupcake recipe.  Angel food is pretty easy to make as long as you whip up the egg whites right the first time, which I'm proud to say we did!  Once the cupcakes were baked and cooled we hollowed out the center and added a raspberry.  We were thinking you could do strawberries too and that would be really good

Once we put the berries in all of them we frosted them with whipped cream.  We put stabilizer in the whip cream so it would not fall on the cupcakes.  They turned out really cute and actually tasted really good!

 We also made red velvet cupcakes.  I love red velvet cupcakes because they have a cream cheese frosting on them. Also I did not know until yesterday that they have buttermilk and vinegar in the cupcake it's self.  I am assuming the vinegar has something to do with the amount of food coloring you put in it and sets the color like it does on an Easter egg.  I don't know that's just a guess. 

This is a recipe that we got off of the food network website and they were easy to make but the cupcake it's self did not have a lot of flavor.  The frosting was awesome though, its identical the the frosting I put in my pumpkin rolls at thanksgiving so I knew it was going to be good.  It was so good in fact that Talia and Corey did not even move out of the kitchen before the started licking the spoons.

 It was a really fun day and reminded me how much I like baking.  The only things I did not like were that its a lot of work and it makes a ton of dishes.  Next time I am thinking of trying to make a version of my pumpkin rolls in cupcake form.  We will see how that turns out.

Literally one of the worst things I have ever seen.

Man, Women, Wild

This is one of my new favorite shows.  It is on Discovery Chanel on Friday nights and I love it!  It's a husband and wife team (Mykel and Ruth) who are put in different survival situations and have to show you how to survive.  Yeah, I know what your thinking, we have seen that before; not really.  Yes the format is the same as far as having to live off the land and having a camera crew follow you around and record you adventures.  What sets this show apart is Ruth.  I love her!  She is British and totally proper, she has been a field journalist and news reporter yet she is adventurousness and tries anything.  There was an episode where she had to kill a snake and eat it, she has helped build shelters, she scavenges for food, cooks, wades across freezing cold rivers, anything!  The thing I like about her is she is entertaining while she does it.  She is kind of the comic yin to her husbands super commando survivalists yang.  I find this show highly entertaining and would recommend it if you have nothing better to do on a Friday night.

Fun Memory

This is one I meant to blog about a while ago but never got around to it.  When I found out I was pregnant in July Heather was at my house that day.  She also took a pregnancy test (more for fun then anything) and it came out positive!  You have never heard so much squealing in your life.  Our husbands both thought we were pretty much out of our minds.  Even though both of us ended up miscarrying it is still a really fun memory and I LOVE these pictures.

Dessert Nachos

Tonight while I was at the youth activity for church one of the other leaders showed how to make dessert nachos.

Well I'm not 100% sure that is what she called them as I was standing outside the door and could not hear her very well.I do know they were really good.  Basically you take some flour tortillas and spread cinnamon and sugar on them and bake them in the oven until they are crunchy.  Then you take fruit flavored yogurt and different kinds of fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries) and put all of it over the top of the cinnamon and sugar tortillas.  I was skeptical about them because I'm not a huge yogurt fan but these were SO good.  I will definitely be making them for my family.  Thank you Meredith for the recipe (if you could tell me exactly how to make the tortillas I would love you forever!)

Blah!

I have been feeling kind of blah the last couple of days.  Not really sick blah more feeling sorry for myself blah.  I can't seem to snap out of it.  I think the primary thing that is contributing to this general feeling of blahness is the fact that this week would have been my due date had I not miscarried back in March.  I will be going along just fine and then something will remind me of the fact that we could be having a baby this week but instead we are not.  I know the timing was not right for either of the babies I miscarried and I am trying to take comfort in the fact that when it's right it will happen for us.  But tonight I ate an entire carton of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt and sat on the couch watching football with Terence.  It was kind of my own personal pity party.  I don't think even Terence understands the extent of my feelings right now and I don't know that I can put them into words here.  Really I think it's mostly sadness and a sense of loss, almost loneliness, and dread.  I am dreading the fact that I will have to go through this again in March when the due date for my baby girl that I lost comes around.  I know I will feel better in a few days, I'm pretty sure its natural to feel this way when you have experienced a miscarriage and I know I'm not alone but like I said, right now I just feel kind of lonely and sad.

Just Curious

I know there are people who read my blog but never leave comments.  I'm really curious who is reading this, don't be shy!  If you read my blog this is your chance to let me know!  Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you.

GOAL

Tonight Terence played in his first indoor soccer game in 10 years.  He has wanted to play for a while, but now with the $600 he gets a year from Egencia, he finally signed up.  He is playing at Arena Sports in Redmond.  It is a 6 on 6 with 3 girls and 3 guys on the field at a time.  We put his name on the internet this last week and he got a pretty quick response from a guy who was looking for a team.  We got him signed up on Thursday and tonight he played for the first time with his new team.  The games are 45 minutes total and he got to play about half of the time due to the amount of subs.  He said that he felt all 215 pounds on his body as he was running around.  Apparently he got in the game and after a minute and a half needed a sub.  I guess he found out just how out of shape he is as well as how fast of a game indoor soccer is.  On the bright side his team won 9-3.  They are 6 game seasons but they play year round so he is going to keep playing with them.  Terence of course did awesome and got 2 goals and two assists.  He said that one was a right footed goal and one was from the left.  Apparently the left footed goal was pretty amazing when he broke away from two defenders, and then left footed the ball in between the goalie and the post.  He said it was a pretty tight spot to put the ball.  I love the fact that he is able to do something he loves again and I can't wait to go watch him play next week.  Go Team Keenan!

to think that I saw it on Mulberry street

Growing up one of my favorite books was to think that I saw it on mulberry street by Dr. Seuss.  The book talks about a kid who sees all these crazy things while he is coming home from school (or something like that), anyway this week at Microsoft has reminded me of that.  Anyone who has worked for MS knows that there are some eccentric people/activities, Nerf fights in the hallways, ping pong game in the middle of the day and dungeons and dragons tournaments after hours in the conference room.  I mention this because just in the last two days I have seen things that you would not believe!  Yesterday I was sitting at my desk and heard flute music coming from the stairwell.  I can only assume that someone was practicing their flute in there for the acoustics.  Then today while I was driving to work today I saw a lady walking down the sidewalk spinning yarn of all things.  When I say spinning yarn I literally mean she had a ball of wool in one hand, a spindle in the other and was spinning the yard onto the spindle.  Some people read a book on the bus, some people listen to music, this lady spins yarn.  Also as I was sitting in my office today I could hear air horns, lady gaga music and lots of people.  I looked out the window to see, what else?  A parade.  Yup a parade.  From what we could gather a team was celebrating some kind of launch or something and they decided to advertise it by putting on a parade through campus.  They even had floats, bag pipers, a couple of hursts, cheerleaders, you name it.  So instead of "to think that I saw it on Mulberry street" you could say "to think that I saw it on One Microsoft Way".  Crazy!

fifteen!

Dang it!  I just counted and I am fifteen blogs behind.  I am trying to use that as motivation instead of being discouraged.  So in addition to my regular everyday blog I need to find 15 other things to write about.  Should be easy right?  Tonight is Thursday so I thought it was time for another installment of random thoughts Thursday.  Enjoy this candid trip into the recesses of my brain!

• Terence signed up for an indoor soccer team today.  I'm really excited for him to be on a sports team again!  Terence LOVES sports and loves being competitive so this will be great for him
• Corey's coxsackie is finally going away, although he still has it on his feet and hands
• Connor loves to sing theme songs to TV shows.  He particularly enjoys the Phineas and Ferb theme song along with the (ugh) Fanboy and Chum Chum theme.
• Tonight is the beginning of football season!
• I love football season but was not raised loving it, it's an acquired taste
• I think my team this season is going to be the Jets (I like Mark Sanchez)
• Terence pointed out that there are 22 games left in the baseball season and tonight on opening night of football season there are less games left in their season then in baseball.
• Talia is coming to visit us on the 18th!  It has been a while since we have seen her so we are pretty excited
• I have a cold sore on my lip
• Terence LOVES his new job
• Corey is potty training right now, I give it a couple of weeks and we will be done with kids in diapers 
• I made cheater chicken enchiladas for dinner.  By cheater I mean the kind that is made with cream of chicken soup instead of from scratch
• my parents are leaving on vacation tonight
• I need a new good book to read
• Terence's cousin got married this last weekend and all of T's Dad's side of the family was there except for our family.  Kind of a bummer!
• They live in New York which is why we could not make it
• I'm supposed to go to Boston in two weeks
• The weather was not terrible today.  I'm embracing it!
• the last couple of nights our boys have gone to bed early like 7:30
• Terence and I have gone to bed 8:30 or 9:00 
• Today was my coworkers 40th birthday
• I decorated her office with balloons and decorations, it was fun!
• I need to start a diet again ASAP.  
• I am going to give myself this weekend to prepare and then start on Monday
• dieting and losing weight is so hard for me!  I wish I could be one weight and stay at it.
• don't think that is in my genes
• controversial as this statement may be; I do not enjoy the Zoo!  I think it is a boring way to spend a day and I always feel so bad for all the animals they have caged up.

Ham!

I had the camera out the other night and the kids decided they were going to ham it up for me.  I took some really cute pictures of the two of them together.  I love how close my boys are and that they will grow up being best friends.  As long as you have a brother you have a best friend!

Seeing Spots!

We are seeing spots at our house.  Corey came down with a very common childhood virus called Coxsackie.  It's also know has hand, foot and mouth disease.  There is nothing we can do for him except give him Tylenol and let it run it's course but I have to tell you the poor kid is miserable.  He has some mild spots on his hands and feet but the mouth is what is killing him.  The doctor told me that the spots feel like canker sores all over your mouth and they go down your throat and into your nose.  She also told me that they can last up to two weeks before they fully go away.  Corey was having a hard time eating last night and we ended having to eat something super soft for dinner just so he could get it down.  He has not slept very well the last couple of nights either (shocking, I know).  Last night he would not stay in his bed so I made a bed on the floor for him next to our bed. He did not want to lay in that so he laid down in our bed and I laid down on the floor.  Not two minutes after I had fallen asleep he crawled down on the floor and fell asleep next to me.  Apparently the location is not the common denominator in this equation.  He seemed to be feeling better today and our babysitter said he ate pretty well so hopefully we are through the worst.  I think when Connor came down with a fever and told me his "froat" hurt on Friday he also had the virus he was just fortunate not to end up with the spots.  I will be glad when both of our boys are back to full health!