2 weeks and counting!

Hello to everyone! As the closing date of our house gets closer and closer the reality of owning a home is becoming more real to us! We had home inspections and pest inspections done last week. There are a few changes that the seller will need to fix before we close on the house. We are hopeful that he will agree to all the fixes that will need to be done or at least pay us to fix them. Although the closing date is set for May 18th, we proably won't be moving until after the school year is over. We gave our 60 day notice for our apartment and don't have to be out of it until June 30th which will give us all of June to move, paint, and re-carpet. This will probably be less stressfull on us as we won't have to worry about rushing to move during the end of the school year and during Mike's District and State meets for track.

We are now looking for new paint colors for our kitchen and living room since we forgot that our kitchen counters are light blue. We are open to any opinions or ideas that anyone may have.

Track season is well underway for Mike. We ran the F.A.T. system at the girls meet last week and all went well. Shelby will run it again for the boys meet on Tuesday as long as the rain will hold out!

Wildcat and Toad are still alive and well. Toad is however, extremely obsese. As you can see below, his stomach is very large. Apparently we have been feeding them too much food and with him being a scavenger he is always looking for food and aparently finding lots of leftovers on the bottom of the tank. we will need to monitor his weight otherwise he may explode!!!

Our Humble Home. . .

Future home of Mike and Shelby Hougen

604 6th Street

Durant, Iowa 52747

Small 1 car garage on the right side of house (can't see from picture)

Standing in the entryway looking at living room. The doorway on the left side of the picture leads straight into the kitchen. If you go left at the doorway, you will go to the bathroom or the two mainfloor bedrooms. There is a door leading upstairs just beyond the doorway there to the right. This gets you to the masterbedroom. (hope that makes sense)

Main Floor bedroom #1. I love the original wood flooring in both of them!

The other bedroom on the main floor

Bathroom - on main level. Is inbetween the two bedrooms on the main floor

If this picture looks funny don't worry it is. The exposure was funny on it. I did my best so you could kind of see what the master bedroom is like. I love the ceilings in it. It also has a built in desk and bookshelves. Kinda neat. It is upstairs.

Walk - in closet for master bedroom upstairs. My favorite part of the whole house is this small room.

Standing in master bedroom, looking over railing at staircase. Small white door on the left is a crawl space that goes alongside both walls in bedroom - lots of storage space for junk!

A pretty good look at the kitchen

The appliances!

A look at part of our kitchen. Lots of seller's 'junk'. Looking towards side entryway - see below for side entryway.

Our beautiful Blue Countertops

Looking at side door from kitchen. Also goes down to basement from this side.

New Paint Colors

Here is the curtain fabric we picked out for our living room. It is just a 'sample' piece, but it shows the colors really well.

Also, here is a sample of the paint that we will have on the walls of our living room. The color of the couch will be the color of the walls in our kitchen/hallway area! We are getting closer to closing. Less than 3 weeks away! We are getting very excited. We have inspections tomorrow (29th) if all goes well we will be on track for moving in starting May 19th.

Moving Up In The World!

Preschool Contract signed for 2009-2010 school year. . . . . . .CHECK
House found in Durant FSBO. . . . . . . . .CHECK
Contacted real estate attorney about buying home . . . . . . . CHECK
Attorney currently writing up offer to purchase home. . . . . .CHECK
Closing Date for house set for May 15. . . . . . .CHECK
Thinking about paint colors for living room and kitchen. . . . . . .CHECK
Pictures of house for all to see. . . . . . COMING SOON!

Update!

For those of you who don't already know, Mike and I put an offer in on a house in Durant last weekend. They rejected our offer, so our search continues for a home. We'll let you know when we find one we like!

As for the job situation, yes I have the pre-k job for next year, although I haven't signed the contract yet. It has to go through board approval next week, and then I can sign the contract. I have also been doing some subbing in the district because they are short on teacher subs. I am loving the extra money that comes with that!!!

Mike has his first outdoor meet today in Wapello. Hopefully the rain holds out for them. He has another meet on Thursday in Wilton. I get to go (maybe with Taylor too if she is here) and see how his team is doing.

Next week is spring break week for us. Mike will have practice all week so he will be in Iowa for his whole break hopefully catching up on school work so he doesn't have to stay so late after practice to work. I am going to Montgomery next Tuesday to catch up on some sewing projects with Mom that I have been falling behind on. I will be doing Hy-Tex for Mike's meet next Monday and then take off for Monty then. I am excited to spend almost a whole week there and do some relaxing. Hope you all have a great Easter!!

A new Teacher in the Family

There have been some big things happening in Iowa recently, and we want to keep everyone updated. (even though if you are actually reading this you probably already know all the news about us) Shelby was offered a job as a preschool teacher at Durant. She of course accepted because 2 incomes are better than 1 ½ . She hasn’t signed a contract yet but should in a few weeks. I am actually a little jealous, I thought I was a big deal when I was offered the job at my interview, she was offered the job on her break before her interview, (or the rest of her letters of recommendation were turned in). She is kind of a big deal around here.

Sharkbait, found dead

Yes, it was a sad day. When we returned from our short weekend trip to Montgomery, we found sharkbait floating near the filter. The funny thing was, he had another bite taken out of his fin. This time his top fin. I must say, that is probably what we get for naming him sharkbait because he really ended up being bait. Oh well. Mike fished him out with a spoon and now there are two!

We had an awesome weekend in Montgomery. We saw Ashley, Jake and kids. They are growing so fast!! I got to see my sister Paige's home which was burnt down, celebrate Nick's birthday, and we even got to play a little broomball in the freezing cold temps! It was an eventful weekend.

This next week, we are expecting visitors to our small, humble apartment. Alison and Ann will be coming during the week. Ali will get to spend a day or two with me in pre-k. We are open to any other visitors who want to make the trek down! We were at 69 degrees here this past week, and I know you all want some of that! Have a good weekend. Mike and I are going to look at more homes!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Yes! It is raining here. It has been thunderstorming nearly all day today, which seems quite odd for February, but I guess its better than snow! I know that is what Minnesota is getting right now . . . and lots of it too.

Track season started Monday for Mike. He has been waiting all year for it and it finally is here and he is so excited. They do have 4 more weeks though, until their first meet, but that will give him plenty of time to get in shape!! (His kids that is. haha).

We will make a trip up to Minnesota this weekend to see family that we haven't seen in a while. We are really looking forward to it.

Fish are doing well. Wildcat has gotten his spirits back and is racing like crazy again. I think that means I need to change the water!! So far. . .none dead, and sharkbait is learning to swim properly after having half his tail bit off by toad.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND. LOVE MIKE AND SHELBY

Time for an update, eh?

Well, It has been over 2 weeks since our last update, so we thought we had better get our move on. Not a whole lot new going on here in Wilton. We had some wonderful visitors this past weekend for valentines day. My sister Megan and Taylor came up with Megan's two kids Kellen and Kendall. We had a blast just hanging out and playing with the babies.

We finally got a new microwave to replace our old, broken one. After only having it one week - I hate it already. Its too small and takes much too long to cook food.

Some exciting news - On Monday morning we woke up and our small albino frog has 3 claws on each back leg! Oh yeah, and sharkbait is missing his tail. I think toad ate it up one night cause we haven't been feeding them enough shrimp.

Over the past week and a half, Miek and I have been looking at homes in the Durant and Wilton area. We found a house we really like with a double lot, out buildings, etc. and its across the street from the school!! The only problem is that the bathroom situation is not ideal. We have decided to continue looking in the area to see if we can find the "perfect" one. We will see 4 or 5 more this Saturday. Thats all from Wilton. We will let ya'll know if something wonderful happens!

Microwave Gone Wrong!

What happens when you put a five year old rice sock in your microwave for 4 minutes?

First, it burns a hole in you rice sock, making it smoke terribly

Second, it burns the rice, so now half the rice is burnt black.

Third, the sock melts to the inside heat panel of your microwave, causing the heat panel to melt,


and lastly, it makes your home smell just AWEFUL all day and all night long!

We are now in the market for a new microwave so if anybody has an extra laying around . . . let us know! We will also be in the market for a new rice sock (once we get a microwave)

Lesson learned: Don't use a rice sock that is so old, so big that it has a hard time fitting in the microwave and will melt the heating plate, or has so many too many socks layered over the original sock because rice was seeping out of the holes.

For All Ya'll who have a rice sock at home - bEwArE!