Not sure what Max is watching

Today, it was fun and humid and rainy and we went to the park in the middle of August and had a picnic with our new neighbors (not Mr. Fish)...actually, the little girl's name is Izzy, so of course my kids call her Sophie. Anyway, Max comes up to us and says, "When we get home, we're going to get a knife and cut up Bryn and then we'll cook her and eat her and she'll taste just like chicken." Not sure where to go with that one.

Last week, we were driving and Max looks at me and says, "Mom, we don't have any African-Americans in my Primary". Hmm.

To kiss a Fish

I mentioned in my last post our nice neighbors. I thought you all might really like to hear about one of them, Mr. Fish. The day we're moving in, we get a knock on the door and standing there is a very nice, older gentleman who introduces himself as Mr. Fish. Sometime into the conversation, I asked him how old he is and he said, "I don't know, I was born in 1919". So, he lives right across the street and we see him every few days and chat for a minute. On Monday morning, I get up really early and see him walking his poodle. I head out to the Y to go swimming and he walks up to my car to chat. After a little conversation, I'm just wrapping things up and he says, "I need a kiss". Now, anyone that knows my grandpa knows that he was a sloppy lip-kisser, so i have experience with this sort of thing. So he leans into my car and kisses me on the lips. Then...he says, "I need another one"... now, i do have standards, of course, so I graciously decline and he say, "Just one?" Yep, just one, but i'm here anxiously awaiting the next one.

FInally settled...

So, let me take everyone back to the beginning of June. Still thoroughly enjoying trailer park life and just hoping to stay there forever, we make an offer on a house in Mesa and shocker...the bank accepts our offer. It's a fixer off of Alma School and the 202 and we are totally excited to be heading back to the Eastside. We make the offer on Monday and the bank accepts that same day. I also find out that Max gets into a preschool that I'm really excited about that is in Mesa. So, Tuesday, I'm outside in the driveway letting the kids ride their bikes in the street and a lady walks by with her daughter. We start talking about life in the trailer park and how much we love it and I mention that we'd gotten a house in Mesa and we'd need to sell the trailer. (We hadn't told anyone we were selling yet). I say that we could carry the note and she mentions that her sister might be interested. I think, great...and an hour later her sister and sister's husband show up, love it (who wouldn't, did I mention it's a trailer?) and SOLD. They're about to have their first baby, so we say we'll be out beginning of July. Our house is closing July 17th and has about a month's worth of fix-up, so I go on VRBO and find a great little condo right by my old apartment on Mesa Drive and Brown. Things are going great, all the furniture is in a POD waiting to be unloaded and July 10th, our lender calls...you don't qualify for the house. WOW. Well, apparently, when they looked at Ben's corporate taxes, they didn't like that he lost money last year (i bet they didn't make any money, but it's not my place to say, right?)...So, we start scrambling, I ask some friends to carry the note and that doesn't work out, so I say, what can you do? We figure the house isn't the right thing for us. So, we start looking for rentals and find this cool old house off of university and stapley that looks and feels just like grandma's house (down to the drapes, countertops and appliances). It has a mother-in-law type set-up, so Ben has an office and we have a toyroom totally separate from the house. It takes the property management a week to tell us if we have the place and finally we move in. That was July 28th and we are happy and settled and have a big backyard and nice neighbors and are just glad to be alive!!