The Real Truth About The Grand Canyon

Actually, my previous post was a little misleading. lol. They really had a great time at the Grand Canyon! They hiked from rim to rim in 4 days, 3 nights. The hike was 27 miles. They carried all their food, sleeping stuff, clothes, cameras ect. on their backs. They didn't have to carry all their own water. There were water stations throughout the canyonso they just carried enough to get from station to station. There were 11 hikers ranging in age from over 50 to 12ish. I'm not exactly sure. There were 5 wifes left home with 8 children (collectively). Lonely wives. lol. But they all had fun! Every single one of them made it out. None were hurt and the hubby assures me he would go again today. Here are some of his favorite pictures:

Grand Canyon Trip

The hubby and my family just got back from hiking rim to rim through the Grand Canyon! He's so tough! I stayed home with the kiddos. But my dad, brother and half sister went plus a bunch of other family friends. Apparently, this is what some of them thought of the Grand Canyon.

The Love of My Life

5 years ago, I married the love of my life! We were so young and in love. It was so sweet. Our families surely thought we were crazy. We'd only known each other a very short time and we were so young.

But 5 wonderful years later, I am so very much more in love. Marrying my sweetheart has been the best decision I've ever made. He compliments me in so many ways. Where I am weak, he is strong. And of course, he has no weaknesses. He's perfect. I mean come on have you seen this guy?

I wonder how I got so lucky. Somebody must have been watching out for me. I got the whole package, my bestfriend, sweetheart and lover.

Booki Baaki

The Babe is fascinated with making up his own words. His latest is Booki Baaki. When we were moving, he told me that Booki Baaki was moving with us. I thought it was the beginning of an invisible friend. But since then he's named everything Booki Baaki. The hubby told him that we might get a cat when we move into our new house. He then asked him what he wanted to name the cat. The Babe doesn't get the concept of naming animals. So he was confused. But the hubby came to the rescue and told him we should name the cat Booki Baaki.

Now every day we talk about Booki Bakki and whether (s)he will be moving to the new house with us. I think he might be sad to realize that Booki Bakki isn't a real cat. It was just an idea.

Parenting Insecurities

The Little Lady has been acting funny. She got a rash all over her body last week. I was sure it was an allergy and mentally went over anything I had given her that could have possibly caused such a rash. I cut out a few things from her diet and the rash got better. But then the next day, it was back in a milder version. It has since been only on her arms and face. Coupled with magical disappearing/reappearing rash, she has been waking up in the middle of the night a bunch of times. She is inconsolable! The only way to calm her is to feed her. She's 9 months old! She doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night...twice. So of course I am again mentally going over anything and everything it could be. Seasonal Allergies? A medicine she was taking? Food Allergies?

This brings me to my concern. Why is it that I can't trust my own instincts? I know the answer. Because I am bombarded with information from everyone else. I ask an opinion of a friend and she tells me about someone she knew who's child went into an allergic reaction where her throat swelled up after having a mild rash for a few days. Then I look on the net and find that she could have any number of scary maladies. Then I pull from my mental bank a show on t.v. By this point, my motherly instinct is completely gone and I've convinced myself that she is going to die if I don't take her to the ER right now. Which thinking rashionally (lol) now is just silly.

No, I didn't take her to the ER. I am considering taking her to the doctor in the next week but still haven't convinced myself that it's serious enough. So I'm back to square one. What did she eat? What has she touched? Which I am sure is all the doctor is going to ask me.

Another Exciting Post About Our Soon To Be House

Ok the stress is pretty much over except the part where we sign our lives away in 500 places just in case they the first 499 times weren't enough. We are in the fun stage now. I went back to the house last week to show my dad and auntie. Combining trips, I also measured windows for curtains (not because the current owners are awful but because they are completely awful). I am also picking colors for paint. I have neglected to post pictures because I am waiting for the dramatic picture of us in front of the house with the sold sign up! But to let you in on a little surprise, the current owners have their sitting room (aka home teaching room...piano room....study?) painted Christmas Red with Christmas green couches and Christmas green blinds. And of course, I just brought in a few paint samples to try to match the bold blue carpet in the family room.

I am now one of those people who walk around Home Depot for hours just ooooing and ahhhing over all the fun stuff that I could do to my house! But because we will now be living below the poverty level we can in no way afford to do any home improvements save the much needed paint. Every time we leave that store with nothing the Babe says where are the groceries? As if we can't go to a store and not buy anything. Besides any project that I want to do costs upwards of $500 and that's a lot of money.

But the hubby wanted to mention that we are debt free for probably the last time in our lives. We have 0 debt! No credit cards, car loans, student loans....nothing! But it's a short-lived accomplishment. So congratulate me while you can.

My Mother's Day Present

I bought myself my mother's day present a few days before Mother's Day. I bought myself (via the hubby's money) a flat panel monitor! I love it! It frees up so much space on our computer desk! So I thought I was all lucky and special but today the hubby bought me a super duper special Mother's Day Present.

We signed an agreement on our first house! Happy Mother's Day to me! Isn't that the ultimate Mother's Day Gift? What better gift for a mother than a brand new home! Yes, I'm super scared and yall probably need to pray that we'll be able to eat now. But there's no turning back now (well actually we could get out by such and such date). But we're not going to turn back. We're going to buy our first house! It's so exciting! And scary.

The Little Lady

The Little Lady has recently gotten teeth! Now she thinks that she's supposed to eat only table food and is not satisfied unless she's a part of every meal. She's only 8 months old! But she is still very, very cute!

Iceland

Today I am compiling my week long study of Iceland. I find this country to be so interesting.

Some basic facts are: population-309,699 people, 39,770 sq miles of land (slightly smaller than Kentucky), Capital- Reykjavik, Government- Constitutional Republic, Language-Icelandic, Climate-Cold Oceanic (winters=mild, windy and summer= cool, damp). Their highest temperature recorded is 86.9 F and lowest is -36.4 F (that is negative)! They use the Icelandic Krona which convert 66ISK to $1.

Their language is called Icelandic. Here is a link to hear some common phrases. Their literacy rate is one the highest in the world coming in at 99%. Here is their national anthem, Our Country's God. Wouldn't that be interesting? To have a national anthem about God?

The country is predominately Luthern based. They do have 3 LDS branches and more than 200 members. The hubby seems to remember that they have 4 missionaries there but don't quote me on that. Although, the LDS website says they are open for missionary work.

Some animals they have there are the Icelandic Sheep, (regular) Cattle, Icelandic Horses and fish. Other animals would include arctic fox, mink, mince, rats, rabbits, reindeer. Birds include puffins, skuas, and skittiwakes. Only one tree is native to Iceland known as the Downy Birch.

They produce potatoes, turnips, green vegetables, mutton, dairy and fish for industry. Their fishing industry makes up 40% of their income.

Their most claimed popular tourist attraction is the geothermal spas with the most famous being The Blue Lagoon.

Some of their native cuisine includes pickled ram's testicles, putrefied shark, singed sheep head, singed sheep head jam, blood pudding, liver sausage and dried fish with butter. None of which I would eat.

From what I saw, houses are cheaper there. Just to give you an idea I found this one for E110,000. Although, it is very expensive to live there because they have to import almost everything. Flights are cheap from NYC to Reykjavik round trip coming in around $480.

They claim to be the 4th Happiest Nation in the world. They have serious gender equality there; even having a woman president for a number of years. Women even retain their surname after marriage. This is because they don't use surnames. Their entire phone book consists of first names only. Abortion is illegal but gay marriage is legal.

99% of their electricity comes from hydropower and geothermal energy. The hubby knew that one.

Their government is Constitutional Republic which is very similar to a democracy except that instead of majority of the people they go by the rule of law. Whatever that means. Their current President is Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. They have no standing army but have the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit and a Coast Guard. They are guarded by the US and Norway.

Their education system starts at age 6 and goes through higher education at 23. It is all government based but some of which you have to meet specific requirements.

The Stress Begins

After successfully moving, the hubby went to work Monday leaving me with an apartment full of boxes. I, being the rebellious person I am, have just simply skirted around them almost pretending they don't exist instead of actually unpacking them. Then when one of them gets in my way I simply take everything out of it and set the stuff randomly around the house in order to make our hallway walkable. It would probably be easier to just unpack the boxes and put the stuff away but where's the fun in that?

Anyway, I'm rambling. Today we started shopping for houses again. Have I said, I hate buying a house. I. hate. it. So the next 30 years few months of our lives will be stressful. We looked at 5 houses today. Add that to the 5 we looked at when we were looking before we moved which makes a grand total of 10 houses. (I realized 10 isn't a lot) I'm not sure how many more I can look at!

It's impossible to compare the houses because they are so different. One's nicely priced but too far from work, the other is overpriced but has a jungle they call the front yard, another is great on the inside but sitting on the side of a hill with our back door looking at a huge rock wall 3 feet from the door. It's impossible. The house we LOVE is a little bit too expensive for us but do-able. It also has 8 people living in it right now, which means it has more than the usual wear and tear.

So we think perhaps we'll put an offer on the house we love. That is the moment house shopping is no longer a game of dreaming about us living in this or that house/neighborhood. That's when it becomes scary and non-fun. The financing is frightening to even semi-educated people like us. The risk of buying an overpriced house is real. The thought of having an astronomical mortgage payment become a reality.

The American Dream of owning land and calling your house yours is no longer appealing to me. I think I will go stake out a nice spot for our cardboard box house in order to get that feeling of ownership.

I now understand why people have such pride in the ownership of their house. It's because it about killed them to buy the house.