Happy Easter Time

Me & the Easter Bunny

I had planned on doing something cute for Chris for Easter. I waited until he was going to do his homework to slip out and grab something. I decided that since we live right next to a store, I would just walk over there, and grab a few things. I guess Chris had the same idea. He kept looking out to see when my car would leave, and it never did. He decided I was probably over at Rite-Aid, and wanted to come scare me. I was looking at some Easter stuff, when I heard "What are you going to get him?" It scared me, because I whipped around and it was Chris. We ended up just shopping for things together. We got home, and dyed some eggs. We bought some Paas kit to decorate the eggs with, but we never got that far, so we gave it to our neighbors to decorate with her little girl.
We went to a park with Chris's family to eat yummy food. We brought our neighbors with us. Chris got surprised by being asked if he could play the Easter Bunny for all the little kids there. It was hilarious indeed. We finished up the night by going to my parents to see Buddy, Tiffany and Kids. We went up to the "Wooden House" to see the progress. Eric actually let me tote him around for a bit. He has started to mumble a few words I don't understand, but it is so cute! Caden had fun picking up the never-ending nails. It was fun to see them.

Easter Bunny Chris, our neighbor Christine, and Enslea

Our neighbors Tydus & Christine

Back view of the Easter Bunny suit

The Easter Bunny was walking around by himself, and looked so sad.....

Our nephew Max with Chris

Sealing

Chris and I went to our Bishop's appointment last night for our Living Ordinance Recommend. Our next step is to go to the Stake President, and we are all good to go to be able to get sealed together for all time and eternity. We are waiting for Chris's brother to come home from his mission since he will be the only family member besides his parents that will be able to attend and it will mean a lot to him to have him there. We are tossing around August 6th, 13th or the 20th. We will let you know when we have decided for sure. We are extremely excited to get sealed to each other.

There are not many updates on our house. We just submitted all of the paperwork to the loan officer. It was fairly easy to round up everything, and we got everything we needed. We are just waiting to hear back. Underwriters always seem to want an arm and a leg though. We are trying to round up boxes. It was nice when I worked at NPS because I got all the boxes I could ever need. Funny story about boxes......... Chris and I went to pick up the Bountiful Basket last Saturday, when Chris decided that he is out of cereal. We just went to the Dick's in Centerville. We had a few groceries in the bottom of the cart, and got a huge stack of boxes from the produce people. I told Chris to put the boxes in the cart so he didn't have to carry them around. We were down the cereal aisle, and I was waiting for Chris to pick out some cereal, when a woman walked by me, and leaned over and said in a really snide tone "Hmmmm.... That sure looks ominous!" I kind of laughed and smiled, because it didn't hit me what she was saying yet, and I thought she was joking. I turned around and she was muttering down the whole aisle "Those kids, hiding their groceries under those boxes....." She thought we were planning on stealing the groceries! I wanted to go up to her and tap her on the shoulder and say "Thanks for assuming!" but I just let it go. I couldn't believe that people will just walk right up and state their assumptions straight out like that. I was already having a bad day, and it was just weird. I laugh now though.

House

Chris and I have the house. The only thing stopping us right now is the financing. We are just getting that done right now. The bank got us the addendum on Friday, and we have already signed the papers and sent it back. Next is financing, then it's ours for good. We are pretty confident that financing will go well. The bank wants to close on it ASAP. We are really excited to have a place of our own.

Crossing Our Fingers!!!! Some Updates

Chris and I started looking for houses for a little bit now. We felt like it was time to have our own place. We have looked through numerous houses. We cannot believe how some people live, and their Do-It-Yourself projects gone wrong. Amazing. Well, after a few bids and not winning any of them, we finally found a house that we both love, and put a bid on it. It is a short sale, so we were not expecting anything. There was already a primary bidder on it, and we were the secondary. We got a call from our Realtor telling us that the primary bidders backed out and we were next in line. The bank gave us a counter-offer, so we took it. It is still not ours yet. We have not heard back from the bank yet. We both felt like we were going to get it, when we put our bid on it. We are pretty sure we are getting it, but you never know what the banks have up their sleeves. The only way we are not getting it, is if the banks foreclose the home (and take a huge loss.) We are still crossing our fingers and hoping that it's ours. Its a cute home in Foxboro in a lovely cul-de-sac. If you would like to see more pics & info on it, you can get on utahrealestate.com and type in MLS # 1006232.


Chris went to a NSL planning meeting last night. All the community got together to plan out things for NSL, and Chris was able to participate in ideas for the city. They are going to put shopping centers down there once the population gets a little bigger. He met some guys that knew the people living in the house. There is a maroon minivan in the garage, and on Sunday, I swore that I would never own a minivan. Well, the guys Chris talked to said that they are long gone, and whatever they left, will be the possession of the new owners of the house. So if we get it, I guess we will own a van. I thought that was so funny.

On another note, Chris is almost done with this semester. He is very close to getting his Bachelor's in Urban Planning. We are excited about that. I will be starting school in the Fall. I was enabled the opportunity to have my school paid for through a G.I. Bill just like Chris, so I will be taking the opportunity.

We are going to Hawaii from May 2 - 13th. We are super excited. We are going to the Island of Kauai. Chris has never been there, and I have never been to Hawaii period.

I had Lasik at Hoopes Vision last Wednesday. We have been saving up, since I went to wearing glasses full-time about a year ago. I never liked wearing them, and when I didn't, I couldn't see anything. We decided to fix the problem when it was still relatively easy to fix, and not have to mess with contacts. We saved up enough, and I wanted to get it before we went to Hawaii. They were booked way out, but we got lucky with a few cancellations and they got me in right away. I have never let anyone touch my eyes, let alone myself. I was so scared! I had a hard time with eye drops and exams. It was not as bad as I though it would be. I had the Intralase procedure (different than Mom's) where the flap is made with a bladeless procedure. They attach suction cups to your eyes, and attach the laser to the end of the suction cups. You feel a lot of pressure while the laser is on. It creates a lot of little bubbles in your eyes, and everything looks foggy. They take you to a massage chair for about 15 minutes until the bubbles subside. Then they take you to another machine where they forcep your eyes open and pull up the flap with an instrument. While the flap is open, they make you stare at a green dot (which is incredibly blurry since the corneal flap is off) and they turn the laser on. You can smell the eye burning. Then they smooth the flap over with some lubricant and sponges. It's all done after that. It was quick and virtually painless. I am a pro at eye drops now, since you have to put so many after the procedure for a while. I tested at 20/15 vision which is better than 20/20. I read the line perfectly and quickly. That is the lowest line they had, and I could have probably read a line below that. It is really nice to have great vision again.

Life as we know it

Things have been good around the Bateman household. I have been on crutches with knee wraps on both knees lately. I was on bedrest for 2 weeks, and now I am walking around, and it's been another 2 weeks. I finally just went to a chiropractor. I won't know the results of the x-rays until today. I have a feeling that my lower back has something to do with it. It's been screaming at me lately.
My birthday was really good. Chris surprised me with a hot pink Canon SD1400 camera! Mine is pretty much shot. I also got some good shoes to try to help with the knee and back situation. Mom made stew for dinner and dad made some wheat breadsticks. They were good.
Chris and I started looking for homes. We usually go with our realtor about every weekend. We have seen some real strugglers. Most of them actually. There are definitely some interesting living situations people get themselves in. There are a lot of DIY-projects-gone-wrong. We found a really good house that we really like. The house already has an offer on it, but we put in an offer in case they don't follow through. Huge gamble on our parts, but we are still looking.
We booked our "honeymoon" since we never went on one, and because we have never had a vacation with just the two of us. We both have never been to Kauai, Hawaii, so we booked it. We got a really awesome package rate with the airfare, hotel and rental car included. We are really excited. We will be going from May 2 - May 13.
We are able to do these things, because Chris's disability got bumped up, and we got backpay from it. Quite a bit. It felt so good to be able to pay almost all of our credit card debt off from it.