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.

Finished piece

Here is my finished piece. It turned out pretty good I think. Chris tells me I should leave it alone, because I am always trying to make it better, so this is the finished product. I have since added more shading to the lips to make them not disappear so much into the picture, but I did that after this photo. Drawing is fun, and I would like to do more pieces soon.

Bringing Out Our Artistic Sides.....

Chris's painting to me

Dude I decided to draw. A work in progress

Not exact, but close. The shading did not pick up on the camera well either

So, Chris and I decided recently that we want to start expanding our talents, since we have been given them, and don't really do anything with them. The story of the "Parable Of The Talents" always comes to mind, and I feel like I am wasting them by not doing them, and I want to learn many more. There is something enjoyable about Chris and I taking some time to work on our projects side by side. Date nights don't always have to cost money. He even agreed to craft with me sometimes. Chris surprised me by painting me a picture. The Tuscan landscape with poppies. Some of my favorite things put together. He didn't even use a reference picture. I think that is the nicest thing a guy has ever done for me. As for me, in 7th grade, I had an art class, and we had to draw a person using a grid system. I drew a baby. That art is since long gone. I decided to print out a head shot of a model and draw it to see if I could do it. It doesn't look exact, and it is still a work in progress, but granted, it is the 2nd time I have ever attempted a person. Probably one of the hardest things I have ever attempted to draw.

Chris's Mom Gag Photo

Original photo

Gag photo made with photoshop

So, today on photoshop, I worked with layers. I saw this picture of Chris's mom, Tammy, and it looked like I could easily make it look like she was smoking. She obviously does not, and is against it, but it is a gag picture. Chris did a lot of getting the cigarette into the picture, and I finished it off, and created the smoke. It's amazing what you can do with photoshop. If you didn't see my last photoshop projects, go to my post before this one.