A Robertson Family Dinner

We had almost the entire Utah Robertson Clan over for dinner on Thursday. We had 2 lamb roasts, red potatoes, rolls, a big green salad, chocolate cake and some cookies. It actually was a lot of fun to have everyone here and on a school night too. We loved it. But, I am actually writing this post because after dinner when we were cleaning up John brought me the bowl of salad which was still nearly full. See, I like like fresh vegetables, in fact, I really and truly love and even sometimes crave a good green salad. I love the spring lettuce mixes you can get now days. I really like lettuce that has a good flavor. John hates fresh vegetables. He gets grumpy when we have a salad more than twice a week. So John was very pleased that his family supported him in his anti-green salad crusade by eating up most of the 2 lamb roasts, all of the potatoes and rolls, and most of the 7 pound chocolate but hardly any of the salad. But, I have not been dissuaded. I still love salad and I will still make salad. I have to say for the sake of John's sisters, though, that John's sisters are in really good shape and take really good care of their bodies. They are WAY better than I am at regular exercise.

Here are the leftovers

Salad Still Brimming over the top of the bowl.

 

What is left of 2 lamb roasts (It was really good too.)

What is left of the yummy Costco chocolate cake

Answered Prayers

I feel so Grateful right now. I know that we have had people all over the nation praying for us. And I am sure that it is because of the prayers and the faith of so many good people that I can happily announce that John got a job today. It is a good job with a good salary. It is also exactly what John wants to be doing and is good at. We will have to leave Lehi, Ut and move some where in Salt Lake. But that is obviously not a problem. Thank you to everyone for all of your prayers, and thank you Heavenly Father for blessing us so thoroughly.

Interesting Calculation

Last night during Family Home Evening while Ruth was wrestling and being obnoxious, we made a quick calculation. Unless she had a severe stomach flu Ruth has wrestled and jumped and played every family home evening since she was around 11 months. We believe we have had to tell her to settle down, pay attention, listen, be reverent... during family home evening about 6,000 times.

Anya Turns 2

Anya had her birthday yesterday. She is now a terrible two, although she is not quite terrible yet. She did, however, remove all of the batteries from the battery recharger so we do not have pictures of her birthday. But Anya was absolutely adorable during her birthday. We took her to Target to get a feel for what she liked (besides more babies). Anya liked every thing. Kate got her a balloon, a stuffed monkey, and some little dogs. Ruth got her a Jumbo push pop, and the rest of us got her this electronic duck and some more pacifiers. (Yes, I know she is getting too old for pacifiers, but with our life how it is now, it seems like a bad idea to take it away now, and we took Adam's away at this age and he started sucking his finger two weeks later which he still does. So we gave her something she loves, but is too old for.)
 As Anya opened each present she gave half of everything to Rachel. I didn't know a two year old could share so sweetly on their birthday. When we sang happy birthday to her, she got down and danced around the room. Again, HOW CUTE!! Then when it was time to blow out her candles, she picked one candle up-- flame and all. Fortunately, a quick thinking Ruth blew out her candles really fast.

We are definitely blessed with some, cute, good, and happy kids. Happy Birthday Little Anya. We look forward to another year with you little baby, and hopefully not so terrible. But everyone has to be 2.

Updates and Options

To try and keep us from becoming homeless in the next few weeks here are our two plans.

First, we found out what we could from the bank about the Sheriff's auction, and we also found out what we could through a realtor. The bank wants to start the bid between $140,000 and $160,000. You cannot know what the starting bid will be before attending the auction. But what basically happens is the the Sheriff starts the bid at what the owners owe the bank plus $1.00. We are living in a ranch style townhome. These townhomes have two types the ordinary tall thin ones which are going for $165,000 and the ranch style which typically sell for $139,000. (We thought this was nice, because the ranch style are more spacious. But people in Utah must like the tall thin ones better.) Anyway, what this means is anyone who understands the market and pricing right now will not start a bid on this townhouse above $140,000. So if the home is not sold at the auction it will go back to the bank for further deliberation.

These are our two plans and we have not yet made a decision:

1. We just stay put, pay our February rent and hope that the house does not sell.
2. We get our tax return right away, find some one who will rent a home with a 6 month lease with 3 to 6 months rent paid up front, along with the cleaning deposit.

This is what we are doing:

1. We are gathering all of our documents up from the two jobs, three wards, and two states so we can start our taxes.
2. We are keeping a close eye out on what is available for rent, contacting people who are renting their home not through a rental company, and viewing a few places to get a feel for what is out there and how much money we will need to carry off plan #2. We also have a few people who are asking around for rentals from people they know for us.
   
3. We are contacting the owner to stall the sale (He didn't even know that it was going to be auctioned off.), and the company that we send the rent too to see what we are required to do, and to find out our legal status in the matter.
4. We are praying really hard for John to get a job ASAP.

Nonetheless, these are really nerve racking times and we are just trying to keep things as peaceful and as normal as we can for our children.

Scary Notice

When we got home from grocery shopping yesterday we found this notice taped to our door. I will have to give a short history to explain this. When we were looking to buy a house, most houses in our price range were short sales, in which one has to get the offer approved from the bank before one's offer would be accepted. The banks sometimes take a very long time on this. When the bank hadn't done anything about our offer on this place, and when we couldn't find anything that we thought would suit us better for around the same price we got in touch with a man that sets short sales up as rentals. We started renting this place planning to buy it. In November when John had to ask to be laid off because his company was not making payroll, we just hoped that the bank would still be slow to accept our offer. But we had a "safe-lease" in that if the bank took another offer we had 60 days to move out. Well, apparently the owners of this place are in serious financial trouble and have filed for bankruptcy. This house is now being sold at auction on Feb 2nd to pay  for the owners debts. So our lease is actually void. Even if John had a job, we could not bid on the house, because you have to have the full amount of money within three days after the auction. Obviously with an FHA loan that we would need, we would not even qualify to bid. So now, we have approximately 28 days to pack up, find a new place, and move . John still does not have a job. We haven't defaulted on rent or any other bills, but I am not sure that will matter as we look for another place to rent. If john gets a job in the next two weeks, I think we will be fine. There are plenty of houses for rent around $1,200 a month that we could fit into and qualify family size wise to rent. That is about $200 more than what we are now paying and what we ever hoped to have to pay. But I think that does not matter now. We need a home for our children.

Two Conversations

John: Adam tell mom what you saw boy eat.
Adam: Oh, it was a snake.
Mom: A snake?
Adam: yes boy caught it. It was a king cobra.
Mom: A king Cobra?
Adam: Yeah but it is okay because boy ate it.




Rachel: Mom, I hvae two grandmas. My Grandma with the black hair gave me this dress. I have two grandpas too.
Me (to Johnny): Johnny show Adam how to do that part of his game.
Johnny: Okay, Adam...
Rachel: And my two Grandmas have houses. One house is here and one house is far away...
Me: Johnny Adam needs you to show him how to plant the mushrooms.
Rachel: mom, mom, mom, mom, mom
Me: Adam you have to click on your little suns.
Rachel: MOM YOU ARE IGNORING ME!!
Me: Did you say that I was ignoring you?
Rachel: Yes. You have to listen to me.
Me: So Rachel, you have 2 Grandmas right.
Rachel: Yes I do. And one lives far away and gave me this dress...