You'd think with as much as I apologize about not blogging, I might try and do it a little more often. But alas, life gets in the way. This summer has been crazy busy with one thing happening after the other. Plus, now that I am trying(and doing) to be more social, I've always got something going on. I'm not complaining, but it is definitely a little out of my comfort zone but hey, maybe I needed that.

Really I just need the routine that the school year brings. Three days a week, Avalon will have preschool(three days a week with three hours to do what I wish which is mainly working out, sad, I know).

We have one more little trip for the last weekend in August to Yellowstone and Chico. I am excited to go but at the same time, ready to settle down for the fall.

As you know, we've been on the house hunt. We found a house, made and offer. Before presenting our offer, our realtor discovered someone else was making an offer as well and wanted to know if we wanted to change our offer. So we upped our offer to asking price plus sellers cover 5k in closing(which helps us be more flexible withthe sale of our own home)

The sellers decided to negotiate with the other offer but when negotiations failed they came back to us but said we had to pay 5k over asking price to cover the 5k in closing costs. Noone in this economy is getting asking price for their homes, and we put our best foot forward with our original offer, they need to gie a little too. So we refused their counter but told them if they change their mind, we would stick by our original offer. We're thinking that they will come to their senses and come back. They hadn't had any interest since they listed their house in April and no other offers since ours and the other that they couldn't agree upon.

So, in an attempt to ready our house should we need to list it(or if we decide to list regardless) I've been cleaning like I'm nine months pregnant and nesting. (I'm not, thanks for asking) We are getting rid of the clutter(which wouldn't be clutter if I had more space) and streamingling things and then cleaning every surface. Today alone I used 5 Mr.Clean magic erasers and I still have the whole basement. But we are renting a storage unit until we find a place and move.

Just got back from a trip to Great Falls and the cabin at Seeley. Avalon and I went up early and got to spend 3.5 days in Great Falls. Avalon had 3.5 days to spend with her other set of grandparents(yes she calls them Grandma Joelene and Grandpa Pat) and even though they aren't my biological parents, our relationship is how I imagine most moms to treat their kids.(or as Jeff's parent treat us.) It was nice to have someone else cook dinner and since she has a fancy schmany washing machine that I can never figure out, she even did my laundry.

I got to see some girlfriends and their munchkins, do some shopping and just relax. We headed to Seeley for the weekend. We did some boating, dock moving and more relaxing. Pat's stepmom, Grandma D(elores) was up there as were both his sisters and their spouses. Grandma D invited Avalon up to her trailer for a real tea party. Avalon even walked up their by herself and thought it was the best thing ever!

Pat's one sister and her husband and are both blind and have guide dogs. Avalon took to Joy pretty quick and kept asking her to do things that required eyesight. I tried, politely, all weekend to explain to her that they couldn't see. I wasn't sure she got it until she brought it up tonight at Walmart, of all places. Pat's other sister brought her puppies up with her to, 4 shih tzus. Avalon was absolutely astounded that you can actually hold a dog and dogs actually play fetch. (Poor Murph has obviously been such a disappointment in this area) By Sunday she was asking us to get her a small dog she can play with. And because Jeff loves these shih tzus, we just may have a new dog in the future.

I'm not afraid of the responsibility of a new dog(and maybe one we can train early one). I'm just afraid of how Murph would handle it. I don't want him to feel replaced but I don't know if he would be to agressive with a new dog. I don't think that he would be mean but when we had the cat, he LOVED to play with the cat and put the cat on guard all the time and the cat became mean aways trying to protect hiimself. We'll see. I don't mean to be the party pooper, but taking care of a new dog will all come down to me and I'm not sure if I want to tackle that yet.

Alright, thats it for now.