Five for Friday: Five Things I am Excited About Buying a House.

Yes we are buying a house. This is the news I would discuss later. Well it's later. We have been looking for some time now. Nothing was for sure until a few weeks ago when a house we looked at in February price kept dropping. We decided to put in an offer because the timing was right because of our lease ending in September. We are due to close in August. We got lucky we put in an offer when we did. Another couple put in an offer that night, but we were already under contract. The owner lives in MI and he just happened to be in town that day. We had the inspection today and everything looks good.

So here are 5 reasons I am excited about buying a house:

1. Basement! I will now have my own space in the basement to do with what I please. All my toys and sports stuff can go up finally! The house even has a little work shop in the basement with a bunch of old tools. I can finally get the bigger boy toys like a table grinder and a kick ass sander. Maybe I will even start painting again.

2. Garage! I can park in my own space. My car has had hundreds of dollars of damage just from me parking on the street because some jack ass scraped my car. I can also do more work on my car again that I will have a work space for it. Got to convince the wife to get an air compressor, hehe.

3. The kids will have a (big by Chicago standards) back yard. A place we can go any time and do what we please. The yard also has a place to put a table, chairs and my grill. A great place to hang dry the diapers.

4. The space we will have! The house is the same square footage as the apartment we are in now, but that doesn't count the basement or attic. We are going to need more furniture.

5. No more paying to do our own laundry! As you know we cloth diaper and it can be a pain to run out and get quarters to do your own laundry. And with another baby on the way we will be doing twice the diapers.

Ten for Tuesday: Ten Parenting Surprises.

Things are going well for everyone here in Chicago. Spring is in full swing (except today, chilly). I have two job interviews this week. I hope they go well. We also have an important meeting in the morning. More to come on that later.

Maggie is becoming more of a toddler everyday. She walks around the house with her little purse and gets into everything! She is also getting a lot better about understanding what we are saying. She's a fun little person now! I'm writing this now while Maggie is watching DWTS and walking around and dancing.

Since I didn't post a Five for Friday last Friday due me just forgetting (I'm always looking for my keys or watch), I am posting a Ten for Tuesday to make up for it. Ten Parenting Surprises:

1. Poop goes everywhere. I mean everywhere. Its ended up on the wall. Don't ask.

2. You will get peed upon. I got peed on when Maggie was hours old. You'd thing I'd learn, but no.

3. Kids will make you late. I hate being late.

4. Babies need soooo much stuff when you travel. Maggie takes more stuff than I do and I always over pack.

5. You really are on your children's schedule.

6. You may rarely get to do what you would like to do. I haven't been to the movies in almost two years. Although I am scheduled to see Back to the Future on Friday.Bars, ha! Never. I don't even bother trying to play the Wii anymore. No Point.

7. Sometimes kids can do some pretty nasty things.

8. Toddlers are a lot smarter than you think they are.

9. Kids can get you to do things that you didn't do before they were born. A blog perhaps, or even join Twitter.

10. Kids can surprise you every day.

7.

Now That I Can Dance

Yes this is Hall of Fame Wide Receiver and former 49er  Jerry Rice.

Maggie loves to watch Dancing With The Stars. My wife and her like to sit on the couch and watch it on Mondays and Tuesdays. Maggie loves it so much we keep it on the DVR in case she is in a bad mood and play it for her. Always cheers her up. Every time we ask her if she wants to watch DWTS (we just call it "Dance") she waves both fists in the air like she is dancing. She claps every time the dance is over.

Maggie was just watching it before bath and swatted my wife's hand away because she wasn't ready to take a bath. So we let her watch one more dance and she was focused on the TV and moving back and forth like she was dancing. When we turned it off, Maggie started whining and shaking her fists in the air like to say put it back on!

I really don't watch this show. Not really a fan. I usually find homework to do while they are watching it. I really don't even like to dance. Probably because I am not any good at dancing. I'm glad Maggie likes it though. It makes her happy.

Who'll Stop the Rain?

For the last two days it has been in the 40's and rainy. Just when we thought spring finally arrived, BAM, Mother Nature reminds you that she's makes the calls. I had the AC on earlier in the week and now we have the heat on. Ah, life in the Midwest, heat one day, cold and rainy the next.

We didn't even leave the house today. Mainly because Maggie has been sick, but also because it is nasty out. I still have a brisket in the freezer that needs smoking, along with some hot links and my not so famous BBQ beans (my own recipe). I did some burgers and a whole pineapple on the grill earlier in the week and damn it was delicious.

School is out for the summer. I survived! I'm only taking one class over the summer. It's online, and easy, so it is just a class to keep me busy and sharp. I did pretty well this semester and I want to keep up the good work.

We have a busy week ahead of us. We have a few meetings to go to this week (I'll tell you about it at a later date, don't want to jinx it). Hopefully by the end of the week we will have some good news. Saturday is especially busy, our church is having its annually baby/kid garage sale. The wife has a meeting at work. If I can I go there is a demonstration I would like to go to on that day and we have a kick ass BBQ to celebrate a good friend of our's birthday. Wish us luck this week.

Maggie is rooting for the Bulls. (She has a red bow in her hair too)
D Rose Jersey courtesy of Uncle Phil. 

Five for Friday: Five Fun Things I Would Do If I Won the Lottery

Hello again. I am done with school and ready to get typing.

1. Buy my way onto some of my favorite TV shows. Great shows like The Simpsons, Sesame Street, Conan, No Reservations and Letterman. By buy I mean just donate a lot of money to charity in their names so I can get on. In Sesame Streets case, PBS would get a big fat check from me. I feel like I'm stealing it if I don't donate. Cookie and I can do I short scene together, maybe have a cookie eating contest. Cookies + counting = Fun for all!!

2. Buy a big sale boat and just sail. Anywhere and everywhere. (this boat would include several anti-pirate weapons, bring it!)

3. College funds for all my children. All 1.5 so far.

4. I would start my Corvette collection. I would start with the '66. Then a 2012 Z06. None would have an automatic transmission!

5. Start several business like my Cigar store. Maybe do a little day trading. Open a bar perhaps.

Got the Time

After spending a long day at school today, I met Maggie and the wife at the park after work. The weird part is I parked in front of our old building (the wife just called me in the other room to see Maggie in her high heels, oh boy). We hated that apartment. We moved 3 blocks down the same street. The place we are in now is much bigger and better than that old crappy apartment. We walk past it quite a bit. Anyway, we had a great time at the park. Maggie was walking around everywhere. We were just following her. We still can't get her in a swing, but we at least got her to sit in our laps in the swing. That's an improvement. I do not understand why she doesn't like the swings.

When I was at school today, I got a text from the wife that said Maggie tried to steal juice boxes from two different kids while at the zoo today. We gave her one over the weekend and she picked up drinking out of a straw really fast. Now she wants juice boxes all the time. Too bad she can't have them all the time.

This is the last week of school. Only have two more days of classes, all tests though. I think I will only take one class over the summer. I can't wait to be done with all of this. I'm ready for summer and all the great times Maggie and I will be having out doors, at least until the new baby comes in August.

The wife told me when she and Maggie was at Trader Joe's today, a random lady said to her "I hope your just wearing that big shirt and not pregnant." The wife says "I am pregnant". The random lady then says "well it will take two or three months to get used to it". WTF?  Probably a good thing I wasn't with them, because I am sure some F bombs would of come out of my mouth. Followed by something along the lines of minding her own business.

In other news Maggie is acting more and more like her mother. My father-in-law warned me of this. Oh well, I will just go with the flow.

Five For Friday: Five Things I Miss About Being A Kid.

After week off, we're back in the saddle.

1. Opening baseball cards. I used to save my lunch money to buy packs. There were 25 cents back then. Now there over two bucks! I know this because I buy a pack every now and again. I miss getting all excited when I found that one card I wanted. I actually am still in the hunt for the Nolan Ryan autograph from the 1991 Upper Deck cards. Twenty years and counting. In the past few years I bought a few boxes trying to find it. I will not rest until I find one! He is one of my favorite players and I saw him play many times.

2. Sleeping in. I am (more like was) a big sleeper. I used to work nights so I could sleep in every day. My record for sleeping is 16 hours and I was ten! (I've broken this but I was sick so I'm not counting it)

3. Riding my bike everywhere. I used to love riding it. I wouldn't mind riding it now, but I hate these bikers in the city, they never obey the law and I have almost hit a few of them.

4. Playing sports. I used to play baseball, soccer, and tennis. My body is getting old and beat up, so I don't play as much as I used to. I do wish I was still playing tennis. I really miss playing I would love to play it again, so if your in Chicago and you wanna play, hit me up.

5. Just being a kid. Oh wait am just a big kid at heart.

Let the Good Times Roll.

Everything has been going quite well for us. I am extremely busy with finals coming up next week. I am pretty much done with homework except for one last paper to write. I'm sure there will be more posts next week after I am done.

 Maggie and I are hanging out all day tomorrow while the wife is at work. It is finally getting warmer out and I think we will be outside a lot tomorrow. Maggie is also walking a lot more on her own. She will get up and just start walking around the house, after she grabs her purse of course. She is getting to a point where she just wants to walk by herself when we are out of the house.

Maggie and her purse.

Maggie also likes to surprise us (a lot!) by showing us things we had no idea she knew how to do. She picked up the wife's nail file the other day and tried to do her nails. She even folded her fingers back. We have no idea where she learned it because it was a file the wife hasn't used in months. I tried to get a picture of it but I was to late. 

I took Maggie to the park last weekend.