ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

We have a contract on our house in Texas! After several back-and-forth offers today, we have an offer that we like and we are scheduled to close on August 27. Of course things can happen between now and then but given the $1000 earnest money that buyers must put down, usually that means they are serious and things will hopefully go well. We are cautiously optimistic and excited to have this weight off of our shoulders - this calls for drinks!

Regarding the house in Wichita, we are waiting for a mediator to be appointed by the bank to determine the future of the house we're trying to buy. The mediator will determine if the sale can continue and whether or not the terms of the sale will still be ok. Our realtor believes this is a positive sign because she's seen some banks give a flat out "no" and not let the sale proceed. Wish us luck on this. I may have to change my header to "homeless with no mortgage" soon!

Got a call from our realtor today that the house we're hoping to buy in a few weeks is going into foreclosure due to the homeowners not paying for the last 3 months. We should know by Thursday if the bank is going to allow our house purchase to go through or if it will continue into foreclosure. As our realtor said, it "frosts her cookies" that this is happening. We should know more very soon.

Have wireless again and a bunch of pics to post! Some pics from the last month...

Last week, I took the kids to meet up with Dan and Katrina and their boys at Crown Center for dinner at Fritz's. Blake just LOVES the way the train delivers the food there so I wanted to take him again. Afterward, we found out that the whole shopping area was closed (it was just a few minutes after 6!) so we headed outside to the fountains where the kids got filthy and sweaty but had fun.

We are living with Bob and Nicki until our house closes on August 29 and have been staying here for several weeks now. Not sure it would have worked with too many other people but it works for all of us. I'm sure they'll be glad to get us out of their house (9 people and two dogs in one house is a lot!) but in the meantime, we're all making it work. Some pics I've snapped while we've been here...

The inseparable five year old "twins"


A couple of weeks ago, Nicki took all of the kids to Vacation Bible School and on the last night of the week, the parents came for a final night party.



I think Micah's first (or almost first) word was "bubbles" - he loves them!


All the kids in a train they made...

Wichita has a great museum called Exploration Place which has quickly become one of our favorite places to go. It's big, modern, located right on the river and has great exhibits. They have a reciprocity agreement with the museum we already belong to in Fort Worth so we get in free. These pics are from two different visits but since Blake's in the same clothes in both (living out of suitcases will do that to you!), we'll just pretend it's the same day.

Climbing the stairs on the castle...


Riding the mini-coaster...


Kansas section...




Stream table w/fake sand to test water flow...





The flight room. Really beautiful how the metal pieces on the wall move...




Glider simulator in the flight room...




Kansas in Miniature Room. Whole room of a mini version of Kansas. There are the tiniest moving parts and a train that runs through it.

Amanda and I went and saw Kathy Griffin on July 21. Since she's just a comedian that stands there and flash photography wasn't allowed, this blurry photos are all I got. We saw her last year as well and her material always changes and is hilarious each time. We love her (and her fans!).

On a couple of occasions, I've attempted to get pics of the Fort Worth skyline (I want to frame a pic of the skyline in our new house). I kinda didn't succeed but here are my attempts. Amanda convinced me to just get a postcard somewhere. :)






Turns out flashes don't work on buildings that are far away - who knew? ;)

On July 4 (our 9th anniversary!) we went to Main Event w/Marcy and fam for some bowling, arcade games and laser tag. When we got back, we set off some small fireworks in front of our house. Some teenaged boys were nearby calling our fireworks ghetto and our little conversation ended with me telling them to leave us alone so we could have fun with our kids. I told them! :) Some pics...