Dreading Tomorrow

Stella's getting her 4 month vaccines tomorrow and I am DREADING IT! We were supposed to get them last Wednesday but waited so she wouldn't be a complete pill for her Baba and her Aunts who came to visit. OF course, yesterday she still was a pill, she just refused to sleep. Between getting off of her nap schedule, us having lunch at a place that took FOREVER and didn't have a/c (we didn't know!), and her teething, we couldn't get her to sleep at all. Having guests is nice, but I think it totally gets ALL our schedules off when they are here for several days! I realized a few minutes ago that what I really should be doing is cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, all the stuff that Stella may not let me do for the next couple of days if she has an unhappy reaction to the shots like she did last time. Poor thing was just not herself for 2 or 3 days, and cried out in pain whenever I accidentally brushed her legs where she'd gotten the shots. At least this time I'm prepared and know what to expect. Oh, well, a little pain is a small price to pay to have the world rid of horrible diseases that 50 years ago could cripple or kill your child (polio anyone? shudder!)
In an hour I have to go all the way across town to have a meeting for a murder mystery I'm doing this Friday. It was presented to me as having NO rehearsals. Of course, I guess this doesn't count as a rehearsal, it is just a happy hour meeting to discuss the game plan. I thought that was why we arrived at the place we're performing an hour early! Oh, well, these things never are as promised. Let's just hope Stella doesn't give her Daddy any trouble tonight when they are home alone.

Stella's 4 Month Check up

We just returned from Stella's 4-month check up and she is healthy and growing apace! She is 25.5 inches long (still 90th percentile), 14 lbs, 12.8 oz (still 75th) and 40 centimeters in head circumference (only 25th percentile). Although the doctor thinks the head size will increase once the flat spot she has on one side evens out. To that end, we are to spend even more time with Stella upright and on her tummy. The doctor even recommended we put her down for naps on her tummy, with her head turned so that the flat side of her head is not touching the mattress. I was surprised by this, but apparently it's safe now that she can lift her head and roll over. This means doing away with the Swaddler, though, so we're going to wait to attempt this until the weekend when Tim is home. I'm sure the first few times I'll be checking on her every five minutes! But we don't want her to have to go through life with a misshapen head:0
Also, the subject of solids came up, and the doctor said as long as I don't mind feeding her more often like I have been, I don't have to give cereal until I'm ready. Phew! Although I think we're going to start doing it soon, as Stella seems ready. She watches us eat and reaches out to pull plates and stuff towards her sometimes. I read a bit in T. Barry Brazelton about mommies being reticent to give their children solids because we'll no longer be the sole source of nourishment, and recognized myself. He really made me realize that it's okay to move on this next stage. Of course I also dread solids because of the cost and the fact poopy diapers will now have to be rinsed in the toilet. So far, Stella has been practically free on a day-to-day basis since I bought the cloth diapers eons ago and she's breastfed. Now we'll have an ongoing expense! Another new development, we should start giving her water, especially when she's out in the heat. We'll see how she takes to that after only having the sweet taste of milk. I'm going to try tonight when we go to Tim's run, since she'll be outside. Last Tuesday she wanted to eat when we were out and I think it was because she was thirsty, not hungry. New developments every day, this is when she's really getting exciting!
Her Baba and Aunt Christine were supposed to be here 40 minutes ago. Hopefully they didn't encounter any bad weather! 

Another meme!

So Tim tells me I am still pronouncing it wrong. I think it's meem not mim. Whatever. Anyway, the newest meme is typing "Julie wants" into Google and then typing up the first ten responses. Fun! Some of them didn't make any sense, so I skipped them in favor of ones that did.
Julie wants ..... to know if she'll ever get Straight A's (not again until Grad School, but this happened a few times in my younger days. Unfortunately it has no bearing on your future life. they don't tell you that.)
Julie wants.... to meet 1 person
badass Julie wants ....to go clubbing (this is my favorite. God how I would love to go clubbing, I haven't done that in years! Dude, once we're all done with breastfeeding, I should totally drag Anna and Ashley to do that. We already have something else we are going to do that we all agree on. hee hee. only 8 months to go!)
Julie wants ..... Jean killed like an animal. (oh wait, maybe this is my favorite, although I've only ever met a couple of Jeans/Genes, but they were both incredibly sweet)
Julie wants .... to do 8 things.
Julie wants.... to return to her roots.
Julie wants.... to be a mathematics teacher after finishing college. (no freaking way!)
Juli(a) wants .... me to flip the bird this way (not really, I'm not picky, flip the bird anyway you'd like, just don't flip it at other drivers, they will often get out of their car and try to kick your ass. I learned this the hard way in high school. trust me, don't do it)
Julie wants.... to fall in love and exactly who she is looking to fall in love with. (too late, already fell in love with Mr. Tim nearly 10 years ago and Miss. Stella 4 months ago)
Julie wants.... out

Meme from Kelli

Tim makes fun of me because I call these things "mee mees". They are apparently mims. Whatever. Kelli tagged me to do one from Stella's point of view, although it's nearly impossible, as being only 4 months old, Stella doesn't have very strong opinions. But I'll do what I can!

3 Things That Scare Me
naps
Being laid on my changing table when I'm really hungry and really wet. What if she never feeds me?!
loud noises

3 People That Make Me Laugh
Daddy
Mommy
MeMe

3 Things I Love
Rabbit (aka Rae, aka Rae Rae)
Buddy
Kitty

3 Things I Hate
naps
wet diapers
having to poo but it just won't come out!

3 Things I Don’t Understand
English
Why Mommy is annoyed when I wake up at 5am raring to play
Let Down - I want my milk RIGHT THIS SECOND!

3 Things On My Desk/Table
I don't have desk or table. Mommy's bedside table, which is next to my crib has:
A Book about Baby Giraffes
A Book about Baby Koalas
a coaster

3 Things I’m Doing Right Now
Sleeping in my crib, which is now in Mommy and Daddy's room. I love my crib, I do a 360 turn in it and spend lots of time trying to roll over and waking Mommy and Daddy up really early.
I'm wrapped in my swaddler
I'm dreaming of crawling. Or at least sitting up!

3 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
I agree with the first two responders: Mommy’s not even willing to discuss me in the same sentence with that word so I guess we have to skip it.

3 Things I Can Do
Roll over
Do baby sit-ups
Smile the world's most beautiful smile

3 Ways to Describe My Personality
Happy
Outgoing
Selfish (hey I'm a baby!)

3 Things I Can’t Do
More like 300!:
Be Reasoned with
Recite Shakespeare
Control my bodily functions

3 Things I Think You Should Listen To
Here Come the ABC's by They Might Be Giants
For the Kids cd, especially "Hop Hop Hippity Hop"
My cries

3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To
dogs barking
phones ringing
"shhing" my parents do when they are trying to get me to go to sleep

3 Absolute Favorite Foods
Mommy's Milk
Mommy's Milk
Mommy's Milk

3 Things I’d Like to Learn
To sit up
To crawl
to walk

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly
See "Absolute Favorite Foods"

3 Shows I Watched as a Kid
I am not allowed to watch tv, but I really try. I am trying to be like an owl so I can turn my head around 360 degrees and see the tv no matter what Mommy and Daddy do!

3 People I Tag
Henry
Daniel (use Mommy's LGT blog!)
Jackson (tell Mommy to start a blog!)

Here's a picture of me with my Great Grandma, Mama and my Great Grandpa, Papa. Don't let my expression fool you, I really liked them, I was just really sleepy!

So fortunate!

I was just doing our finances and realized how fortunate we are that we can afford for me to stay home with Stella. We made it through the first half of the month without touching savings, with even a little bit to spare. This the first month since I've become a Stay At Home Mom that we were able to do that. Of course, we did have a month where Roxie was sick and then needed her teeth cleaned which cost over a $1,000, which you can hardly budget for. It's really a relief to be like, "phew, we can do this!" Sometimes I think, "what did we spend our money on when I worked?" Of course, then I remember that we put a ton of money in savings, took great vacations, and last, but certainly not least, went out A LOT. So that's where the money went! I can't wait for November, when Tim's car is paid off and then we can start saving again. Tim wants to sell his car, but I just think there's too much convenience in having two cars. Sure, he takes the bus, but what about when I start doing plays again? I'm sure there'll be times when he'll need a car and I'm gone to rehearsal. And with his car just a few payments away from being ours, it seems silly to sell it and risk us needing to buy a new one and take on a car payment. I don't know, maybe he'll convince me, we'll see. It would be nice that big chunk of change in savings, and it's silly that it only gets driven once a week, if that.
Tim thinks I'm a master budgeter, but I'm really not. I couldn't do it without Quicken. I tell you who is a master budgeter: my friend Kelli. I read how much she's getting with how little, as far as groceries and just generally living and I am blown away! Maybe I'll start issuing challenges to myself. We've definitely cut back on our eating out, which is good, but we both just love Tim's gourmet meals so much, it's hard to cut back on the groceries hardcore. Well, as we've both said, you gotta' set your priorities for what makes you happy in life. Family, friends, food, music and theatre I think are Tim and I's top 5.
The picture has absolutely nothing to do with the post, but I thought the post was pretty boring and needed some spicing up:) It's from her "Future Longhorn" photo shoot. Now I just need to get one of them printed and sent to the Alcalde, the Texas Exes magazine, so we can show her off!

July 4th Partay

Isn't this the cutest picture? It's Anna, Daniel, Me, Stella, Ashley and Henry. Aren't we the best looking group of mamas you ever saw?! :)

Oh, this is going to be a fine day

I am really tired. Yesterday, Stella woke up at 7:30am, which is now her new waking up time, but for some reason I was more tired than usual because of this. But I have accepted 7:30 because she went from midnight to 7:30am without waking up at all. Yes! Oh, and Monday Tim had the day off work. Stella woke up at 7:15am, I fed her, we played, then I put her back down to sleep about 9. I went back to sleep too and we all 3 slept in until 11am! I have not done this since she was born. It was so awesome! Then this morning she decided to wake up at 6:05am. And decided she was not going back to sleep after I fed her. She was going to be all talkative and cute and want to play. Sigh. So I got up with her, ate a bowl of cereal, and then she seemed fussy so I thought perhaps she'd go back to sleep. This was a little after 7am. I read her the rest of "Are you my Mother?", (I really need to get more books. Maybe I'll check out the Monster Library Sale again. I am so tired of alternating the Foot Book, The ABC's, Are You My Mother and Mr. Brown Goes Moo. I really like Dr. Seuss, can you tell?), and then after a lot of "shhing" (our sleep cue word, we learned this from The No Cry Sleep Solution), she finally went to sleep. So did I. But she woke up again at 8:10am. We had a little tummy time and I fed her and then she was fussy again about 9:00am, so I read her the Feet Book and after much shhing, she went to sleep. But I cannot go back to sleep, AND apparently I accidentally threw away the can opener because it was in the bag from Slapdash and I didn't realize it. So no Decaf Coffee for me (which amazingly keeps me awake). I just re-read that and wow, I am not even coherent.
I really should be cleaning. I'm hosting book club tonight and I did not realize my house was so dirty until early yesterday evening. I thought I'd just have to run the vaccuum and be done. But I think I have a bit more than that to do. Damn.
And we have decided we are going to move the crib into our room because Stella is outgrowing the pack n' play bassinet. So don't laugh when you come to our house and there is no crib in the nursery. It's just actually being used! Tim has sweetly agreed to having her in our room for at least a bit longer. I'm just not ready to have her all the way over in the other room!

Wee, Slapdash!

So I just finished draft one of my Slapdash script and thanks to the fact that AOR has wireless, I can blog about it to you in real time! I would totally post this on the LGT website, but Tim has my computer set to find loadedguntheory.com internally or something and I can't access it without him working secret voodoo when I am not at the house. It's majorly annoying, especially since I want to see where we stand on reservations.
As usual, I started out not being happy with my script, not really thinking that was where I wanted to go, and ended up really liking it. That's the great thing about Slapdash, you just have to trust your instincts, there's no time for overanalyzing.
I had the hardest time leaving Stella. I was seriously fighting back tears thinking about spending 11 hours away from her; by far the longest we've been apart. Also, I'd miss out on our nighttime feeding, which is when she's such a little angel. But, as I figured, as soon as I started writing I've been too busy to miss her. Although I'm looking forward to seeing her again in the morning. Well, guess I'd better go pump before we read our scripts at 3am. Whee, more sugar please!
UPDATE: The clock on this site is totally wrong. It is not 12:38am, it's 2:38am. Just so you don't think I'm a speed demon writer!

My Word Cloud

A nifty little time waster I got from Tim, who got it from Kelli.
http://www.snapshirts.com/

For the Love of Pete, Sleep!

Stella suddenly refuses to take naps. She's almost always been a sleep-fighter during the day, but now it's reached epic proportions. Sunday she didn't sleep at all from 2:30-8:30pm, and Tim finally got her to sleep by sheer force. He has much more patience for rocking her bassinet and saying "shhh" over and over again than I do. I spent the entire afternoon trying to put her down, then picking her back up when she would cry. He finally took over at 8:30 and, hallelujah, she slept! I guess I should consider myself lucky that she sleeps through the night beautifully. We put her down about 10pm, sometimes earlier if she's fussy, I usually wake her up just before I go to bed to feed her, about 11 or 11:30 (although not always, it depends on how long it's been since her last feeding), and then she sleeps until about 5:30am. Then she goes back to sleep usually until 8:30am, which is earlier than I like, but I'm able to get a good 5 or 6 hours in a row, which rocks. But oh, those naps, she just doesn't want to take them! I was reading reviews of sleep books on Amazon, which left me more confused than when I started. They really are more geared towards babies that don't sleep at night rather than ones that don't sleep during the day. And I hate parenting books because they are usually so "all or nothing". The only ones I've read are "What to Expect the First Year", T. Berry Brazelton's book, I can't remember the name of, and The American Academy of Pediatrics. Those are all pretty unjudgemental and "just the facts, mam".
I'm sad too because my card reader will not work. That's why there haven't been any new pictures of Stella posted for a few weeks. We did get portraits taken at Sears Saturday, which is where the shots at the top came from. I can't believe the Sears website allows you to save those. I'm totally "breakin' the law, breakin' the law!" They turned out really great, I can't wait to get the prints.
Last night we had an awesome July 4th party. A bunch of folks came over and we had beer, barbecue and breastfeeding. Ah, what a difference a year makes. Last July 4th we were all at Tim's old company's July 4th party watching the fireworks. There was beer and barbecue, although I had no beer then. I had just read The Fastest Way to Get Pregnant Naturally and I was following his instructions to be a teetotaler. And little did I know, I was just a wee bit pregnant. Stella was a tiny developing speck! That's so crazy to think about.

Stella Rolled Over!

I never knew that watching your child roll over could be so exciting. Stella is 3 months, 6 days old today. We were over at Anna's having lunch with her, Daniel, and Katy, and I had put Stella down on a blanket. She was really enjoying herself and first she rolled onto her side. I was like, "look guys, she rolled on her side, isn't that cool?" Then, before I even knew what was happening, she rolled all the way over onto her tummy! It was awesome! And I had two witnesses. Of course, I didn't have my camera, but Anna dutifully took a picture with theirs, so hopefully I can get that. Afterwards, Stella was inconsolably fussy, so we had to come home and put her down for naptime, but it was still so cool. I need to put her down on blankets to just hang out more often I guess. I think I don't let her just "be" enough, I'm always trying to play with her. I'm so excited. But now I have to clean because I have company coming tomorrow. Tutaloo! (or however that's spelled).

Our Failure at Family Portraiture

We went to Sears this afternoon to try and get pictures of Stella as well as all 3 of us. I feel way behind on this, I really intended to do it earlier. It's hard to believe she turned 3 months old yesterday! She's going to be in college before we know it. Not really, but it does seem to have gone by fast. So we got to Sears, and they made us wait for a few minutes. While we waited, Stella was being adorable and laughing and smiling at us, not to mention drooling a whole bunch. They finally took us back, and we could tell she was getting a little tired. She'd not gotten as long of a nap as we would have liked, but we thought it'd all be okay. Okay, Tim thought it'd all be okay, and I was really worried about it. He took the sermon at church to heart today, and I tried to also after he reminded me of it. Basically, it was to trust in God that everything would be okay. They told the parable of Christ and the disciples on a ship when a big storm came up, the disciples freaked and went to Jesus who was asleep. He said "Peace, Be Still!" to the ocean and the storm stopped. I thought that having your baby be fussy during pictures was hardly a crisis of those proportions, but anyway, I tried not to worry. Well we got a couple of cute pictures of the 3 of us, with the poor photographer trying every trick in the book to get Stella to smile. She did, 3 times. Then they tried to get one of Stella by herself, with another photographer. Stella refused to smile, we could tell she was getting overloaded. We tried desperately to get her to keep going, but finally had to give up. We had to make another appointment for next Saturday morning. Usually she's really happy in the mornings, so hopefully it will work. The girl was really sweet about it, but I'm disappointed, I was really looking forward to having pictures of Stella. Oh, well, we'll just have to try again. Why do I stress out so much about something so silly? I spent way too much energy trying to find the perfect dress, but it just didn't happen either. We finally just dressed her in one of her onesies that looks like a dress, and it was probably for the best because she's very comfortable in those.

I am now one of THOSE people

I love concerts. I have been going to them since I was 12 and they've always been the one thing I will plunk lots of cash down on. In fact, I have paid ridiculous amounts for tickets, $75/ticket to see the Pixies (worth every penny, I became a fan shortly before they broke up so I never was able to see them live), and nearly $300 US to see Morrissey at Royal Albert Hall in London, which was an absolutely amazing experience. Basically I discovered Morrissey was going to be performing in London while we were there. How could you miss that? So I paid 185 pounds or a little less than $300 on ebay for 2 tickets to see him. And as I attended all these concerts, I stayed till the bitter end, through one encore or 3, even once at the Violent Femmes concert at Numbers in Houston, hiding from my friends who wanted to leave to make curfew. Screw curfew, this is music man! But now I know I am an adult. I missed Beck's encore last night.

Beck played at the Backyard, which is no longer an idyllic, beautiful place in the middle of the hillcountry, but a hellish, crowded piece of fake country surrounded on all sides by a shopping center. A gigantic shopping center that no one apparently goes to because there were tons of free parking spots. But will the owners of this montrosity allow you to park there? Noooo, you have to wind around and around the parking lot, down a narrow gravel road, into a dirt parking lot that is very similiar to the old lot they had at the Backyard, but a lot further away. All told, from the main entrance to the parking lot to the front gate of the Backyard, it took us about an hour. AN HOUR! I was thoroughly annoyed, let me tell you. Then I couldn't even get a beer because the lines were outrageously long. But I digress.

I was talking about encores. So I figured that it would take us at least an hour to get back out of the lot after the show, and we had told our incredibly kind, wonderful, generous, great friends Travis and Ashley who were watching Stella ALONG WITH their own 8 month old son that we would be back about 11pm. I was not about to abuse their generosity by showing up at midnight or later to retrieve Stella, not to mention the fact that by then I would be milk-full and in pain, so I decided we would leave before the encore. Dude, I am doing that from now on! We were back to our car and out of there in no time at all, maybe 10 minutes, then back to reclaim the monkey by 5 till 11. Brilliant! I may never stay for an encore again. No lines, no having to pee/being super-thirsty waiting to leave, no cursing yourself or other drivers for choosing to go to the concert. It was fantastic! Now I know what I've been missing all these years. See? I'm getting old.

Grocery Store: Home of Peace and Light

I just got back from the grocery store about half an hour or so ago. Grocery stores in the middle of the day are so nice! It's deserted. You don't even have to pull a number at the deli counter. And there are moms and babies everywhere. I struck up a conversation with 3 different moms while waiting for my lunch meat. So bizarre. How did I ever work?
I'm so excited, Tim, Stella and I are going to have our first family portrait Sunday! Hopefully it'll turn out okay. I can't believe Stella's going to be 3 months Saturday and we haven't gotten a professional portrait of her yet. My very good friend Diane is a wonderful photographer and I plan to have her take some pictures of Stella, but, unfortunately, she lives in Houston. We're going to Sears, surely they can do a decent job. The pictures they took of Ashley and Henry were adorable.
On another note, I finally caught up on my straggling thank you notes for Stella's presents yesterday (except for the ones Tim needs to write to his relatives. I'm going to have to sit on him to make sure he does it:) It's really funny, but we've gotten 3 new presents since I finished! I'm not complaining, it's just funny that I feel like I'll never be caught up.
I've got to go feed Stella now, it sounds like she's waking up again. Also, I need to do the anti-rain dance. We have tickets to Beck tonight and it's supposed to storm like gangbusters!

Embarassing

Ever do something without thinking and then it's plastered on the internet and you're embarassed and you want to die, but there isn't a damn thing you can do about it? Yeah, me too. And no, I'm not going to tell you what it is because I don't want anyone else knowing about it. Hopefully it can just quietly disappear. And no it's not like I'm naked or screwing a donkey or anything like that, so don't worry.

I just want a haircut!!!!

See how shaggy my hair is? Actually, you don't notice my hair because Stella is just too cute, isn't she?
I have been procrastinating getting my haircut for forever now, because I'm growing it out and because my hairstylist costs too much and has not been doing that great of a job lately. But it's finally gotten to the point where I can't take it anymore, it's been nearly 3 months, the longest I've gone without a haircut in years. So I finally called to make an appt. and my stylist is on vacation until Wednesday. I cannot wait until Wednesday, when I decide I want my hair cut, I want it cut right then! So I'm trying to find somewhere else and it is sooo hard! I got recommendations from friends, but, of course, they're all even more expensive that Betty and I can't even remember where they said. Tim loved Bird's and I called and they do women's hair, but you have to just walk in. I'm thinking about just trying it, although getting your haircut at a place that caters to men is a little scary. Gosh, why is this so difficult?!

Stella does situps!

So Stella started a new thing this morning. We put her in her swing while we were enjoying some blueberry pancakes with her Auntie Christine and Uncle Brian who came for a brief visit, and she started lifting her head to see her feet, it looked like she was doing crunches! She's been doing it all day, anytime we put her in a reclining position. Tim said she was doing it just now in her sleep. Speaking of sleep, she's been sleeping almost all day today. I guess that baby situps really exhaust you. Our daughter is going to have a 6-pack. Rock!
Speaking of her Aunt and Uncle's visit, they watched Stella last night and we got to go see 24th Day at Arts on Real. We were unfortunately one of only 6 in the audience:( Trust us, Blake, we know how it feels! Anyway, it was SOOOO nice to get out just the two of us! We used to go see theatre at least once, and often 2 times a week and it was fantastic to get to do it for only the 2nd time since Stella was born.

Baby Yoga is cool!

Okay, it actually isn't baby yoga, it's post-natal yoga, but you can bring your baby. And there were TONS of Mamas and babies there, which means it was noisy, and adorable and crowded. It was great! I finally got out of the house in time to go. The class starts at 10:30am on Tuesdays and while I get up before 10:30, it's difficult to get somewhere by then. But Stella and I made it today. There was another Stella there, the first we've met. I forgot to ask how old she was, she was tiny. Of course, most of the babies seemed tiny compared to Stella. I think they're all newborns until I realize that Stella is in the 75th percentile in size. That means 3 out of 4 babies are going to be smaller than her. So really, it makes sense that they were mostly smaller. It was a very noisy room, but still really nice. We were told to tend to our babies, feed our babies, change our babies whenever we needed to. It was hardly a workout, but it was cool to get to bond with Stella on the moves we got to do with our babies. Stella was a trooper, although she unfortunately got a little overwhelmed in the middle when we did a bunch of stuff with our babies. By the "Yoga Hokey-Pokey" I think she'd had enough. And a bunch of the Mamas were going to The Alamo to see a movie this afternoon (Tuesdays are baby day, bring your baby to the movie!). I couldn't make it, but they do it every week, so i hope to go in the future.
Ashley taught me the kangaroo hold when she brought me my new gorgeous sling Friday and I have Stella in it right now. (check out www.littlepepperpouches.com for great deals on the coolest slings you'll ever see. I don't think she has the site finished, but you can email her for more info.) This sling fits better than the first one she made me (which is also gorgeous), and it was much easier to get Stella in it. She was really enjoying it at first, but does seem a little frustrated at not being able to stretch out her long limbs. I guess it's like being stuck in coach for a baby. But I can type and have her close to me, which is totally cool!
I couldn't find a picture of her in my sling, but the one at the top is of Stella in Tim's cool sling that Ashley also made for him.

The Coolest Houses in town

Tim discovered this awesome modern neighbohood called Agave which is way East on MLK, but only 10 minutes from downtown:
http://www.greenmangorealestate.com/index.cfm?p=agave
We decided to drive there today. OMG, drool, drool, drool! The houses are so cool and they have amazing views. Tim and I had all but decided we were moving there until we got home and looked at the prices again. And then did the math. As Kelli pointed out in her comment on my earlier post, the calculators do not factor in escrow: taxes, mortgage insurance, and home insurance, which adds up to over $400 a month of our payment. Depressing. Tim was willing to sell his kidney to try and save the money for a huge downpayment, but it turns out organ selling is illegal:) But I can't blame him, the houses rock. They're going to have more models though, so we're still holding out hope that maybe, just maybe. But they are absolutely gorgeous, definitely if I had $210k+ lying around, I would spend it on one of these and feel like I was getting my money's worth.
BTW, reality tv apparently loves Austin. In the last week we have seen: Property Values on HGTV that had homes in Austin, Rachel Ray's Travels that was in Austin, and Trading Spaces Austin. I just hope it does not encourage more people to move here. Please, stop, it's already getting too crowded and too expensive. I don't want Austin to turn into LA! It's the damn Californians that are moving here anyway, selling their bungalows for $850k and then buying houses here at ridiculous prices and touting it as cheap.

Need more books!

I received Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris Saturday as a birthday present. I just finished it. Damn! His books are so entertaining but are such fast reads. Now I must find something else to read and there is absolutely nothing else on our bookshelf that appeals to me. And the library by us is closed for the next year for repairs. There is another library that's relatively close, but they seem to not have any books. Or at least, they don't have any of the books I'm looking for. I was going to put some books on hold and have them sent to that branch, but the online hold thing isn't working. Argh! I guess I'll have to break down and take a trek to the downtown branch, as it seems to be the only one that has anything I want to read. But I need a solution NOW, I am not a patient person. We do have another fantastic book on parenting that is sort of tongue-in-cheek called The 3 Martini Play Date which was a gift from Katie, but Tim's reading it now.
Also, Tim and I were talking Sunday, (dreaming really), about buying a new house, and now I cannot stand the sight of my own house. It seems so filthy (it is) and boring now. I know this case of house envy was brought on by Tim's sister Katie and her husband Ryan buying an absolutely charming modern loft. I'm sure this would be an advantage to living in Houston, they don't have a housing bubble like Austin. Tim discovered this house on the internet: http://www.vintagemodernhomes.com/forsale.htm It's awesome, but very tiny, not in our part of town, and pricey. Although when I do a mortgage calculator, by magic it somehow winds up being cheaper than our current payment even though it costs loads more. I don't understand that. And really, do I want to go through the crap of packing and moving? Not to mention all the stuff we need to do to this house before we can sell. Trust me folks, just don't even start thinking about a new house/car/etc. because suddenly the one you have looks pitiful. Perhaps I just need to really focus on cleaning this house and getting rid of crap. Yes, that's what I should do. I think it's just because this house is so "finished" or at least as finished as we're willing to make it since we don't want to live here forever.
Stella does not care what the house looks like, thankfully, she's much more interested in chewing on her fingers and drooling.