Need Some Advice!

Okay, it's been sooooo long since I've posted, and soooo many things have been happening for us.  But I need some advice about something.

We've moved to the Seattle area (surprise!), and are feeling really good about buying a house!  Here's the problem - with the budget that we'd like to spend, the homes are in the lesser of the 2 school districts around here.  (The good one is ranked in the top 50 in Washington, and the other is around 120 out of 280 total districts). 

I have been looking into homeschooling for a couple years now, and gotten pretty serious about it the last year or so (have been doing a preschool at home for Tooty for a couple months now, and we love it), so the school district doesn't really have too much bearing on us, but a LOT on the potential to sell the house later on.

So, looking at resale value (in many years, of course - we wouldn't buy if we weren't confident of staying put for at least 4 years), is it a horrible idea for us to purchase in the lesser school district?  Is that like shooting ourselves in the foot?  The specific school doesn't matter, because they allow you to attend any in the district that you want, so it's just a matter of being in the same district. 

What do you think?  Would you knowingly buy in a lower scoring district?

Trick or Treat!

 Luckily I had found an easy and quick idea for a costume for the girls, because we didn't get back from our trip until the day before Halloween.  And it was great not to stress all day about sewing anything - I spent about an hour making little ladybugs from felt and ribbon.  It was great!  They both had a great time.

 We didn't go to too many houses, mainly just up our side of the street, but they both were given a TON of candy.  Which I later gave away to the trick or treaters that dropped by our house.  It's the first time we've had more than one knock on the door, and it was pretty fun. 

Baby Girl lost her shoe on the way to the second building, but we didn't realize it until she stepped up on the porch. 

Drumming

This morning while I was fixing breakfast for the girls, Cupcake was drumming her hands on her knees while walking around.  I laughed and mimicked her, so she ran over to give me a big hug.  Tooty's reaction was not so happy.  She asked us to please stop drumming. 

I asked her why and she said because drumming makes her head 'Go wickity whack!' 

Big News!

We have some great news, and we are super excited about it!  Last week, our final student loan payment went through!!  That's right, folks, we are now

DEBT FREE!!!

We are pretty excited about it.  It's been a rather interesting road to get our loans paid off, which is the only debt we've had.  We were able to pay off my graduate student loans while Daddy was still in school, thanks to a great tax return or two.  And finished my undergraduate loans last Christmas time.  That took quite a leap of faith, since Daddy didn't have a job at the time and we were living off our savings.  We sent the last $600 that month, thinking that it would be better to have it paid off than to have to keep paying a monthly payment.

And thanks to his great job right now, we were able to completely finish his loans last week.  Which means that we paid them off only 16 months after he graduated!

I don't have the figures in front of me, but I think we started out with about $24 thousand total - which really isn't too bad, considering we have 11 years of school, 2 bachelor's degrees, and one master's degree between the two of us.  

We followed the advice of the wonderful Dave Ramsey.  Thanks to him, we are sitting pretty on a budget that doesn't include any loan payments. 

WOOHOOOOOO!!!

Speaking of...

Tooty brought home a note from church on Sunday that said she is giving a talk next week in Primary!  We are trying to help her be excited about it and happy to do it, but in the back of my mind, I see myself giving the talk.  She has absolutely blossomed living here, but is still on-the-verge-of-crying-she's-so-shy about half the time.  So we'll see how it goes. 

We worked out the words today.  She was asked to speak on something related to the month's message of "The Gospel Will Be Spread Throughout All the World" or something really similar.  So I told her that means she can talk about missionaries. 

Here's the talk -

Missionaries share the scriptures.  They tell people about Jesus.  My Uncle Sam is a missionary and I pray for him.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

And we found a picture of some missionaries that we can hold up so people can see (or so she can hide).  Tonight after dinner we will head over to the church to practice in the primary room while the YW have mutual (since the church will be unlocked!). 

Good luck, Tooty!  I know you can do it!

We Are Alive

We are alive and well (except for James, who is currently in QuickCare with a tummyache).  But we all survived the move to SE Idaho, and are absolutely THRILLED to be living together again.  The girls have been doing so much better, especially Tooty, although she has decided that the best thing to do it to completely ignore my voice unless she needs something.  Which is not my favorite.  I have some pictures of some stuff we've been up to, but they are still on the camera. 

I wish that some things could just be decided for us.  We have had an amazing opportunity fall into our laps, but are currently living in a pretty great opportunity.  So how do we decide which one we should pursue?  Would you mind making up my mind for me and I will pass that along during the discussion later?  That'd be great.

Best of Moscow

I have done it! 

I have solved one of the worst problems that plague the citizens of Moscow, Idaho.

Is there anyone in town who enjoys drinking from the tap?  Not endure - enjoy.

I don't think so.

Throughout the years, I have tried a variety of ways to 'fix' the gross taste of the water.  And some work.  My freshman year of college, we filled and refilled and refilled small water bottles.  And if the water was cold enough, it was fine.  At the end of that year, I was given a large Brita filtration - and that worked great!  But it is a little on the expensive side to continue buying filters, and sometimes we weren't too good at refilling it.  So then you had to refill it and drink from the tap.

Totally gross.

And turning water into juice/crystal light/kool aid is really tasty.

But I still want to drink water, and that's tough when

my one and only pitcher is already filled.

The other day, as I was putting my pitcher of water back into the fridge,

I decided to try an experiment.

I squirted a little bit of lime juice (from the 39 cent container from WinCo)

into the water.

The result?

DE-LICIOUS!!

And it doesn't take very much.  And you can't really taste the lime.

It seems to neutralize the grossness and make it

taste like regular tap water.

Thank you, thank you.

You don't need to pay for this genius idea - I am allowing you

to try it and share it freely.

But I wouldn't say no to a parade...