Two months back, One month forward and then a Twirl

Yes, my life almost feels like I'm doing a dance...mostly because I have no grace or coordination. I have been exercising with a friend lately and realized I can't jump. I mean I didn't think I was an athlete, I just thought I was average. I told this to Dave and he very much reassured me that, No I can't jump. Well onto the jumbled mess of the last two months and looking forward to the next month with a twirl at the end.  I'll keep this post as short as possible and just highlight the main events.

My Birthday

Dave spoiled me with a getaway to Petoskey, MI. It was romantic. Notice the big fluffy robes on the bed. The next day we went to the spa and got massages. The night before we had a fabulous dinner with live music from a girl and her guitar...it was a fabulous gift. Thanks Dave!

House Hunting

At the beginning of April we went out to the Tri-cities with hopes of finding a home we would like. We had checked into renting and everything we found seemed just as expensive as a mortgage. Plus, Dave didn't like the idea of having to move again in a year. The hunting went smoothly. We loved our realtor. We had sent him places we had seen online and liked.  He had a packet made up of each home organized by area and we quickly went through 30 homes the first day. With about 4 or 5 to recheck the next day and then another 10 more we hadn't seen.  There was only one we really liked and still like!  My favorite part is that it's only 2 blocks from a 22 mile bike trail that runs along the Columbia River with parks along it too. Also, we are only 1/2 mile from the church and 10 minutes from Dave's work. Since we have decided to try out 1 car for awhile, this seems to be ideal. I thought finding the home would be the hardest part. Nope, it's all the financial stuff afterwards. We had been preapproved by 2 different mortgage companies.  We dropped the first one because they kept changing things without telling us. The second decided to drop us because Dave will be an independent contractor, which we had told them several times...but whatever. Finally we are happy with the latest one.  They even gave a loan to another new attending at the same hospital. So fingers crossed 'til all papers are signed but we feel hopeful. If all works out then we will finally have a home with a dishwasher, doorbell, garage, a turning front door knob, more than 1 bathroom, a linen closet and happily there is more counter space on the island than in my whole kitchen now!

Oh man we feel so grown up, kinda scary.

Here's a link to the virtual tour if you want to check it out.

http://www.visualtour.com/shownp.asp?sk=16&t=2011876

Here's a neighborhood dog we saw. Maybe Kenzee can make a friend.

Republica de Dominicana

A day after we came home from Washington we were off to Punta Cana in the D.R. It was a real vacation for Dave, just chillaxin. We pretty much laid in hammocks, read books, went on a little hikes through a nature preserve and found some cool natural spring pools to jump into and cool off, then layed around some more in the sun and jumped into the ocean. I loved speaking Spanish while we were there. We kept thinking how much fun it would be to bring family there too. The place we stayed at had so much fun free stuff to do (which we lazily did not do any of)  but we never felt guilty about it. We took too many pictures of turtles and when we finally brought the camera to the natural springs there were lots of leaves floating around. Just imagine it more pristine, like when we first found them. I think it maybe sometime before we get a chance to do such a vacation again.

Okay. I will try to keep things moving forward with more blogs to share shortly. Just forgive me if I trip up a bit over my own feet.