Holly’s Happenings

Every once in a while I come across some links and websites that offer some really cool samples and freebies. Some of the ones that I’ve ran across recently have been things like a free sample of Seattle’s Best Coffee, a Sleep Well pack from Tylenol PM and samples of Glad storage bags. I’ve even ran across a few that have given me one year subscriptions to magazines, like right now I’m receiving TV Guide and a cooking magazine.

Anyway, for some reason it hit me today as I was checking a few of them out that maybe you all would enjoy some of these as much as I do. So I was wondering, if I were to dedicate a separate page on the site just for those really good freebie and sample offers that I come across, would it be something you’d be interested in?

Many of the freebies and samples that I come across are really dumb ones, so those I wouldn’t share with you. For instance I recently ran across one that if you put this REALLY ugly banner on your website or MySpace page, they’d send you a spoon or something. But if you actually kept it there for a year, they’d send you a bottle of some new liquor. And yes, I agree that sometimes free alcohol is a good thing, but it is worth a years worth of “rent” on your site? I don’t think it is!

So give me your thoughts? Would it be something you enjoyed and something you’d “visit”? I know that many of you read my posts in feed readers rather than visit the site, so if I did do this, I’d also update with a blog post letting you know that there were new freebie/sample offers you needed to check out! Tell me what you think!

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this with you before or not, but I was adopted by my parents when I was 3 days old. I have never thought of them as my adoptive parents, they were always mom and dad and they never loved me any less than my brother who was their birth child. They always let me know that I was adopted, but not in a bad way, I was always told “You weren’t expected, you were selected”. Sometimes kids that are put up for adoption end up in not so great situations, but I was TRULY blessed to have been raised in a home by loving parents who never once made me feel like I was anything other than their daughter.

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times in my life that my mind ran wild with thoughts of my parents not wanting me or loving me, especially after my father passed away. But tell me, is there honestly any child that doesn’t have those thoughts at different times in their life?

I’ve always been curious about my biological family though. What do they look like, do any certain health problems run in my family, that sort of thing. I also know, from what little information I was able to get from the court house where my adoption was finalized, that my birth mother gave birth to another child before she had me. Yes, I’m a product of the 60’s…..you know, make love, not war….LOL! So I’m curious about my older sibling, as well as any other siblings that may have came after me.

The “problem” is, in the state where I was born and adopted, my original birth records are permanently sealed, it would almost take an act of God to ever get them opened. I know this because many have tried, and very few have succeeded! I’ve filed all the paperwork I can that would allow any of my biological family to get in touch with me if they were to choose to do so, but I’ve never heard anything from any of them.

I’m sitting here waiting until 9 PM for a new TV show to start. I’ve seen the show advertised many times over the past few weeks and have been looking forward to watching it. The show is called The Locator and it is about a man named Troy Dunn who goes to every possible extent he can to find people. Sometimes he’s looking for a mother or father that gave a child up for adoption, other times he’s looking for things like an organ donor.

I can’t wait to see the show, but I also know it will be emotional for me, any show that’s about reunions like this are always emotional for me. Maybe because I watch them and wonder if it will ever be my turn to be reunited with the people who gave me up, but gave me a chance at a WONDERFUL life! I harbor no anger or regret, only thankfulness and appreciation for what had to be an extremely difficult decision!

After hearing just how bad the current unemployment rate is in my county the other day, the thought of simply moving away from this area crossed my mind again! I basically grew up in the area I’m living right now, only difference is that I’m currently living in NW Ohio and I grew up in SE Michigan.

I do love living in this area, it offers the beauty of all four seasons of the year and some of the prettiest fall foliage you’ll ever see! The only thing I don’t like weather wise about this area is when we have bitter cold winters, those are something that I could really do without! But as much as I love living in this area, with our local unemployment rate sitting at 9.2%, the chances of my getting any calls on the numerous resumes and job applications that I’ve put out this summer are slim to none!

Some of the areas that I would consider living in would be Northern California, Washington State and both North and South Carolina. A couple of my choices would be automatically ruled out simply because of how high their cost of living is, and after checking out some of the beautiful Wilmington NC real estate that’s available, the North Carolina area is looking better and better!

But then we have my husbands job to think about. The possibility of his hours picking back up are looking a little more promising and do we dare take the risk of walking away from a good paying job that might have a decent future to move somewhere unfamiliar and start all over? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens and weigh our options when it gets to the point where we have no choice but to decide!

What about you? If you could move anywhere right now, where would you move?

OK, I admit, it wasn’t until just a couple of days ago that I watched my first minute of the Olympics. Life has been a bit busy the past week, and I just didn’t think about it. That, and the fact that they’re on so late at night, and I’m usually in bed by 10 PM.

Tonight the kids and I have been watching everything we can! We watched some Beach Volleyball, we’ve watched some Gymnastics and, of course, we’ve watched Swimming. It was absolutely thrilling to watch Michael Phelps achieve Olympic history, and you can bet that for the rest of the Olympics, I will be glued and watching him EVERY time he swims!

Both of the kids think that the gymnasts are absolutely amazing, and I have to agree with them! Tonight we’ve been watching the women’s teams, which just wrapped up. It was heartbreaking to see Alicia Sacramone on the US team fall off the beam and fall on her toosh for the floor exercise. You just felt so bad for her and could tell that she just wanted to cry her eyes out. My daughter was like “Mom, she just made a mistake” and I told her that’s exactly was, a simple mistake. But this kind of mistake isn’t one that can be erased like putting blemish acne cream on a pimple. When you get to the Olympics, there is no room for simple mistakes, and I’m sure that Alicia will never forget that! It was awesome that they were able to go on to win the silver medal, though!

WOW, we just watched the mens 4×200 freestyle swimming team receive their gold medals, which includes Michael Phelps getting his 11th gold medal. It’s VERY cool to think that we just watched Olympic History be made, history that will probably not be broken in my lifetime. AWESOME! And on that note, I’m calling it a night!

I know that I’m a person of words, it’s actually quite easy for me to find things to talk about in my blog posts. But so many things have happened in the past 24 or so hours that have put my mind in a whirlwind, and for the first time, in a VERY long time, I’m finding it hard to find something to write about.

My mouth wants to scream out to people and remind them to take the time. Take the time to let the special people in your life know just how special they are to you. Take the time to remember that no one is perfect and we all make mistakes and that it’s not our job to judge someone when they make a mistake. And to take the time to be just a little more thoughtful and caring to someone who just might be a little down on their luck in life.

It’s so easy to want to turn our backs on someone when they do something wrong, to cut them out of our lives in the hopes that they, and their problems, won’t be a part of our lives any longer. But the worst part about doing that is that when something happens and that persons life ends, you’re left behind with this huge mountain of regret for the choices that you’ve made and wishing that you could do anything and everything to get those moments back. But they’re gone, forever, just like the person you’ve finally realized was so special to you.

No, I’m not talking about myself when I talk about cutting someone out of your life, I didn’t make that mistake. But I have several family members right now that are struggling to deal with the guilt of doing this, of turning their backs on someone who needed their help, the help they refused to offer. I’m also dealing with the fact that for the first time in almost 8 years my husband is going to come face to face with several family members who cut him out of their lives because of a mistake he made. But to be on the safe side, we made sure it would be acceptable for him to be present at the funeral this weekend, and amazingly were told there would be no problem with it. Could this be a new beginning? I’m honestly not going to hold my breath! It’s their loss for cutting him out of their lives, especially for something that did not affect their lives in any way, shape or form.

It’s going to be a difficult weekend, at best. Saying goodbye to a person that has been a part of your life for over 30 years is never an easy task. And seeing the pain and guilt that his family members that refused to allow him to be a part of their life for nearly 20 years are now having to deal with will make it even more difficult.

WOW, I honestly can’t believe it’s Saturday already! I have no clue what it was that made this week fly by so fast, but I sure hope it doesn’t happen very often! Weeks that go by as fast as the past one did totally throw me off, they really do!!

I guess all the running around I did with my sister in law this week probably added to the week going by so quickly. I’m used to the “schedule” I have and two days this week were spent with her, helping her out. Then there were a TON of phone calls that I had to make as well as some online stuff.

Thankfully we were able to get a lot of the major financial stuff taken care of. For a little while it didn’t look like her former bank was going to cooperate with her in preventing someone getting their hands on a pension payment that is due to be deposited into her bank this week, but after several phone calls she was able to get that worked out pretty good! I was quite astounded at the attitude the lady at her new bank took when we were trying to make her understand that it was not possible to make the changes on her direct deposit ahead of time because this was a spur of the moment move. I get the feeling that this lady has never dealt with someone who was in the type of situation we were talking about, and out attempts to explain it to her seemed to fall upon deaf ears.

We need to find a few more things to get her settled into her new apartment, such as a small microwave and either a love seat or a pair of small chairs. She’s also looking for some sort of a desk or computer table that will allow her to access a computer from her wheel chair without being too awkward.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I’m REALLY glad to have her back in the area! Yes, because of being in a wheel chair she does need more help than an able bodied person, and because of living alone she does get lonely and calls often, sometimes for silly reasons. But you know what, I feel honored that she calls me when she’s lonely or when she needs help, and it makes me feel very good to be able to help her out and keep her company!

I’ve gotten so used to spending weekends here at home that this past weekend kind of knocked me off “kilter” LOL. We honestly do lead a very simple, almost boring life. We love being at home and we’re not the type to be out on the go, especially on the weekends. My husband works long and hard hours during the week and looks forward to getting in some much needed relaxation over the weekends.

Saturday was spent helping his sister unload a moving truck. Nearly four years ago she moved away from the area, against EVERYONES advice, and moved into the home of her ex husband. You know, there is a reason why someone has an EX spouse, but I guess as years go by, they can tend to forget that. So when we got the call that she was doing a “fly by night” move when her ex was out of town for a few days, we knew that she had finally realized why he was her EX! So we got the truck unloaded and got the important things put back together, like her bed, the entertainment center and TV and her cats…LOL! My hubby then took her to the store so that she could pick up some necessities that would tide her over until the next day.

We were “up and at ‘em” yesterday morning and out of the house by 9:30 heading up to my sister in laws, with coffee and a few other necessities in hand. We then spent the rest of the day getting everything unpacked and organized, making sure that she could reach the most important things from her wheel chair and that other items that she might need could be reached easily with her grabber things…LOL!

We finally headed home around dinner time, to get a few things taken care of here before heading to bed a little after 9. I felt bad that my husband had spent the bulk of his Fathers Day working hard, but I knew that as much as he would have loved a nice set of Callaway golf clubs and a day of R&R for Fathers Day, he was just thankful to have his sister close by again.

I thought I’d give you a little bit of an update from this post where I went on a semi rant about how I was tired of everyone blaming me for the problems in my family. While I do take the blame for the wrongs that I have done, a dysfunctional family doesn’t happen just because of one person.

I did, for the most part, cut off communication with my sister for almost 2 weeks. After getting an email reply from her that said “Fine, good luck”, I replied back to her simply saying that there is no need for her to talk to me that way, that I’ve dealt with what I’m going through for most of my adult life, I’m used to the road blocks and hassles, but that I do get through them. She, of course, couldn’t accept that and came back with a “Talk to you like what, I was just trying to help” reply. As much as I wanted to write her back and give her a piece of my mind, I decided that it was best to just keep my mouth shut! Amazingly, after receiving daily calls from my mother prior to the email exchange with my sister, the calls from my mother also stopped. I love both of them very much, but I am so sick of the game that they play going back and forth telling each other what I’ve said to them. I wasn’t angry with my mom, I never once did anything but listen to her suggestions and use the ones that I could. But she “assumed” that since I wasn’t very happy with my sisters “interference”, it meant I wasn’t happy with hers either, and nothing could have been further from the truth!

As much as I hate to admit it, taking a break from both of them actually alleviated quite a bit of stress from my life and allowed me to put the focus on things in my own home! I feel like I’ve made some good progress with the kids! We’re not arguing as much as we had been, and they are actually doing a decent job keeping up with the chores that I give them. My daughter has made HUGE progress when it comes to her room. Last Sunday she and I cleaned it from ceiling to floor, washing walls, throwing stuff out, etc. I’m THRILLED to say that her room is still as clean as it was when we finished up last Sunday, which is major for her! She’s done a wonderful job of putting things back when she’s done with them, putting away the clothes that she’s tried on but decided not to wear rather than letting them pile up on the floor and putting away the clean laundry that I give her. She has also done an awesome job of following my rule of having nothing to eat or drink in her room other than water. There has only been 2 times this week where she didn’t follow that rule, but she was quick to bring the dishes out of her room when she realized she shouldn’t have them in there!

I’ve also got to say that my son’s attitudes have really calmed down as well! He’s been much more receptive to me when I ask him to do things, and if he does get an attitude with me I simply look at him and say “This will stop now”, which usually gets him to snap out of his attitude pretty quick. He’s been an awesome helper when I’ve asked him to do things and he’s also done a much better job at tuning his sister down when she’s doing things that he finds annoying, which is a major step for him! There have also been many more times over the past week or so that the kids have been getting along than times when they were fighting with each other, which is a major improvement!

Hopefully we can keep things going, but I also know that it’s not very realistic to expect things to always go well. But it sure has been nice!!

The trip this week has been amazing! I’ve seen many things that I have never seen before and many things that I honestly thought I’d never get the chance to see. Our first leg of the trip started on Monday evening, we left NW Ohio aroung 8:30 PM and drove through the night covering Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and crossed into Missouri. Tuesday morning, as the sun was coming up, I was graced with the beauty of the Ozark Mountains, which is an amazing site that I think everyone should see!

We spent Tuesday travelling through the rest of Missouri, Oklahoma and into Texas, spending Tuesday night in Amarillo, Texas. When I woke up Wednesday morning I was greeted by a beautiful rolling fog/mist that appeared before the sun came up. The day Wednesday was spent driving from Amarillo, Texas to Roswell, New Mexico so that we could see if we could spot our own aliens. We had a good time in Roswell, then hit the road for our final destination that day which was Flagstaff, Arizona.

When we woke up Thursday morning our first goal was to drive to the Grand Canyon. It was a beautiful site and something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life! After seeing the canyon we hit the road again with our final destination for Thursday being Las Vegas. we arrived in Vegas before the sun went down, and let me tell you, it was HOT! Being a mid west girl, I’ve never really gotten used to really high temperatures. And from what I understand we were actually very lucky because the temp was much lower than normal, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t think it was warm…LOL! We had a nice night in Vegas and I even played a couple of the slot machines before calling it a night and getting some sleep.

When we hit the road on Friday our goal was our final destination for this trip, San Jose, CA. We knew that we had about 8 to 10 hours of driving ahead of us, and we wanted to get a good start on it. Travelling Friday was probably the hottest travel weather we had the entire trip. We drove through hours and hours of desert with the sun beating down on us, but we also seen some very beautiful sites as well! The Mojave Desert was beautiful as were the Sierra Nevada mountains and it was amazing driving over the Hoover Dam, and we made it to our final destination by 7:00 PM.

It’s amazing to think of driving nearly 3,000 miles, what’s even more amazing is to realize that we did that in less than 4 days, even with making several stops along the way! But the one thing that I discovered is that the combination of that many hours sitting in a car combined with multiple time changes and too much junk food an energy drinks can have an effect on your body that is comprable to a colon cleanse….LOL. It’s been a nice break not going through time chages, weather changes and junk food the past couple of days. As much as I’ve enjoyed this trip, there is a part of me that will be kind of glad to get back home to the things and the routine that I’ve become used to. Not that EVERYTHING is going to stay the same when I get home though, there are going to be a few changes, but nothing major!

It’s strange when you “wake up” one day and realize that your kids aren’t little any longer! My oldest child is just a few weeks away from being legally old enough to get his learners permit to drive. It seems so strange to think back now and remember him as a baby that I held in my arms, or the little toddler who proudly proclaimed “I eat Pop Tart cereal” in his first sentence.

Now his spare time is filled with phone calls from his friends, MySpace messages and video games. And the things that he and his friends talk about and do crack me up! Last night my son was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. When I asked him what was so funny he showed me a message on his MySpace from one of his friends that said “The treadmill stole my cookie, should I run after it?”.

And it’s so strange to think of my daughter, who is just a few weeks away from “officially” being a teenager, as the little 2 year old girl who, curled her tiny little toes into the molding on the car door and used that to boost herself up enough to flip into an open car window. Now her days are filled with boys, music and sports! But one of her favorite things to do in her spare time is play with the dogs and she always seems to get the dogs doing something when she’s playing with them that make all of us crack up laughing!

Yes, there are days when I wish I could turn back time with my children and have them still need me for everything, and there are days that I dread thinking about what life has in store for them! But I know that they are at a stage in their lives where I need to give them enough space so that they can spread their wings and learn things for themselves. The days of mom being able to do everything for them have passed and I can only hope that I’ve taught them well enough so that when they spread their wings and fly, they soar like eagles!

Well hello there! If you don’t mind, I need to pick your brain for a minute and get your thoughts about whether or not you think something would be appropriate. I’ll try to keep this short, but no promises, OK?

Here’s the deal. My niece just had a baby on Thursday, and I’m now a Great Aunt for the second time. I had every intention of making the near 2 hour drive last night to go visit her and the new baby at the hospital, but I ended up coming down with a KILLER headache that was on the verge of a migraine. But anyway, this post isn’t about me, it’s about her, sorry for getting off track there.

So this is my niece’s second child with her first being just 2 1/2 years old. She’s currently a work from home mom, or at least she will be when she goes back from her maternity leave. I’d love to get her a plant or something special to commemorate the birth of her 2nd child. I’m a mom of two who also happen to be 2 1/2 years apart age wise, so I know and remember how rough things were when my daughter first came home.

So when thinking about getting my niece a nice plant or some beautiful flowers, I can’t help but think about the fact that live plants and flowers do take time and care if you want them to stay green…LOL! I was wondering if it would be appropriate to get her a beautiful flower arrangement made with silk flowers instead? That way she has pretty flowers that don’t require daily watering or ones that will die. But I’m just not sure if doing something like that would come across the way that I see it or not. So what are your thoughts, how would you feel if a family member gave you a beautiful silk flower arrangement for your special event? Me personally, I prefer them over real flowers or plants, but that’s because I have a VERY brown thumb…LOL!

For the past 6 weeks or so, my husband and I have been in the planning stages with my step daughter for our two children to spend some time with her this summer. We’ve got the date for them to fly out to the east coast down, but had never really talked about a return date. My husband and I were thinking a week, maybe 10 days, but I was totally blown away when I was talking with my step daughter last night and she said “I’d like to keep them for the month”. Even now, twelve hours later, I’m still not sure what to think…LOL!

I honestly don’t have a problem with the kids spending a month with their big sister, she’s an awesome young lady who is very responsible! The things that I worry about include the fact that the kids have never been away from home for that long of a period of time and it’s been many years since they’ve spent any significant amount of time with their older sister. Yes, they are teenagers and they do need to learn to be away from home like this and I know they’ll have a wonderful time with their sister, she has a TON of stuff planned to do with them, I just worry.

One of my options is to shop around the different airlines for the best buy on flights that would allow a flexible return date, or I could just simply purchase one way flights for the trip out there, talk to them after the first week to see how they’re doing and how they’re feeling about being so far from home, and decide then when they’ll come home and but one way tickets home for them.

It’s just nerve wracking, and yes, I know that I’m probably making more out of it than I need to. Maybe a month away from each other is exactly what we need, especially my husband and I! But WOW, hearing the words really put me in shock!

A short time ago I was actually in bed sleeping, but then I woke up remembering something I needed to do tonight. I powered up my computer, took care of what I needed to, and decided that I’d take the time to enjoy the peace and quiet a bit. I’m sitting here tonight watching Miami Animal Police on Animal Planet. It’s sad to watch this sometimes! I love my puppies dearly and I can’t imagine how anyone could treat a dog, or any type of animal, the way some of the animals on the show are treated. Earlier they had four small dogs, all were around a year or so old, and they had spent their entire lives cooped up in a crate that you would use for transporting a dog. There were 2 dogs per crate and the floor of each crate was filled with urine and fecal matter, it was just GROSS! Fortunately all four dogs recovered fully and were found new homes with owners that gave them wonderful lives!

It was an OK weekend, nothing too bad happened. But I’m telling you, I’m wondering more and more about my marriage. My husband and I are just a few days away from celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary, and I love him dearly, but lately I’m wondering just how much longer we’re actually going to make it together. We seem to just bicker and argue with each other non stop over some of the most stupidest of things! I try my best to bite my tongue and/or walk away, I don’t like arguing and fighting, not one bit! Hopefully it’s just a phase that we’re going through and it will pass with time, because if it doesn’t I can’t promise we’ll make it to our 17th. But, that’s not today, and today things are OK, I can deal with it!

Not sure what’s up for this week, I really need to find out for sure if my boss is going to call me back to the new shop and give me a regular schedule, if he’s not, then I’m going to go out and start putting some applications in to find a part time job. What I’m doing now to make money is a good thing, but I have to find something that’s a bit more steady pay wise and take some of this weight off my husband!

Financial struggles are nothing new to me, I’ve experienced them my entire adult life. I’ve become a person who appreciates what I have and I have learned to make due with what I have. I don’t do this with a bitter attitude, nor do I expect people to feel sorry for me, I honestly enjoy my very simple life, “most” of the time!

We’re finally getting to a point financially where we can keep our heads above water just a little. We’ve never been one for extravagant purchases, nor do I see us becoming that way. But I know that with a little bit of effort and a good budget software program, we’d be able to pull our heads out of the water just a little bit more than what we are now.

It’s difficult though, my biggest “down fall” is grocery shopping! I can go to the grocery store and spend a couple hundred dollars without even thinking about it. And no, I don’t buy all the expensive types of foods or buy strictly name brands, I actually purchase more off brand and/or store brand products than any others. I also do a LOT of my cooking and baking from scratch as often as I can because it’s so much less expensive than buying foods that are pre made! And it’s also more nutritious as well, so it’s a double bonus!

It would be easier if I were to get called back to work, like my boss said he would. Even if it were only for a couple of days a week. But still no word from my boss as to when the new shop is going to be open for business, and after waiting five months, I’m honestly getting tired of waiting! Maybe it’s time for me to go out and find a new part time job. I’d hate to, then have him finally call me back to work, but how difficult is it for him to call me and let me know what’s going on with the reopening? And yes, I have called him, he’s always busy and says he’ll call me back.

But shall I sleep all day? I doubt it…LOL! This week is the kids’ spring break and it’s not going the best for them right now. My son managed to pick up the first major cold he’s had in years, major rnough that at 15, he laid down and took a 2+ hour nap yesterday. For him, THAT is sick! I was up all night working on a few things and before I knew it it was 4:00 AM, and since the hubby gets up for work at 4:30, I just decided to stay awake until he left for work this morning. So I’ve gotten a little more than 2 hours of sleep since being woke up by my daughter at 7:00 yesterday morning.

Thankfully I stayed busy most of the night, but I did spend some time flipping through channels about 3:00 AM and was having a hard time finding something other than informercials about the latest weight loss pills, cleaning products, pet care products and exercise equipment. I finally managed to find a channel that was running reruns of one of my favorite shows from the 90’s. I miss family sitcoms, today’s highly rated shows pale in comparison to shows like Home Improvement, Rosanne and Frasier! I really miss some of the cartoons from the 90’s like Ren & Stimply, Beevis & Butthead and Rocko’s Modern Life.

OK, I’m really starting to show my age here, so I’d better shush up….LOL! Maybe I need another nap!!!!

With the New Year closing in, there are several things that I realize are must do’s in 2008! My husband started a new job a few months ago and starting January 1st we’ll have new health insurance, so I need to contact our doctors and make sure they accept the new insurance. I also need to get some term life insurance quotes to replace the life insurance my husband lost when he lost his job, and rather than just having life insurance on him, I’m going to get quotes for coverage for both of us.

We got the keys to this house on October 1st, but we didn’t move in until the following week. So if you want to get technical, we’ve been in the new house for almost 2 months now. I have no regrets about moving here, and although it’s a smaller house than the one we moved from as far as square footage, in many ways it has more room than our old house. For instance, at the old house we had a huge kitchen and a huge dining room, but a small living room with a foyer off it that, in my opinion was wasted space. The old house also had 4 bedrooms and one bathroom. The new house has a large eat in kitchen, but no dining room, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a family room. The extra bathroom is awesome and we’ve actually set things up so that the living room “belongs” to the kids and the family room “belongs” to the hubby and I. And for the first time in more than a couple of years, he and I can actually sit and have a conversation without one of the kids being right on top of us and butting in! I guess the only thing left to do is find a good real estate agent and make sure that this is our house for keeps!