Still Going

Hello!
I'm very bad at this whole blog-thing.
As for what's going on in the Hoffert family - nothing! and yet everything! Ever feel that way sometimes?
I'm so ready for our little baby boy to be out! I have 5 1/2 weeks left and the doctor told me that he's already 5 lbs! Lissy was only 5 lb 15 oz. When I told the doctor this she said "oh, he'll definitely be much bigger than that!" I'd rather him not, frankly. Felicity seemed the perfect size. No wonder my stomach and organs feel so cramped!
Everything else is going well, though. We've set up his crib in Lissy's room along with some of his toys. We're trying to get Lissy used to the idea that those things are for the baby and not her. She's actually doing pretty well.
We're also trying to potty train her right now.
Now, I know everyone said it takes a while and to be patient...but...it REALLY can take a while and require a lot of patience. Some days Felicity does amazing, doesn't have any accidents and uses the potty like a champ. Other days, however, she has no interest at all. It's like the potty doesn't exist some days in her growing mind. Whatever it is, though, I wish I could figure it out! It's not like cleaning up her accidents is that bad, generally. It's just that I have a huge stomach that makes bending over and getting back up the ordeal of the century.
I was really hoping to get her potty trained before the baby came, since they say you have to wait a while when a new baby arrives because it will mess up your baby's potty training schedule and is just too different and life-changing in general. I don't think that's going to happen, though. However, on my ever-optimistic side: It could happen!
And so, the potty training continues.
On an entirely different subject; we've decided on a boy name! This is quite a momentous thing, considering we've never been able to agree on a boy name since we've met.
Here's how it came about:
I was feeling stressed about the financial and motherly burdens of the coming second child and was, frankly, having a hard time being excited at all about our new little one's arrival. My dad always gives Father's blessings when school starts up again, but we were out of town when he did this year. So a few weeks ago, my Mom remembers and asks if Mike and I want my Dad to give us one.
In my blessing my Dad blessed me to be calm about the worries of motherhood and that everything would work out fine. He also said that the little boy inside me was a valiant spirit who is full of vigor and vim and ready to be here on this earth. He said that the little boy would be a joy and a light in our home.
I felt so much better after the blessing, as did Mike after his as well. For a few days after the blessing I kept thinking it would be nice to find a name that meant valiant for our little one. Then one day, Mike calls me up randomly from work and tells me he'd found the perfect name for our little one. He said he had been feeling like he needed to find a name that meant valiant (we hadn't discussed this at all). He came up with William Riley Hoffert. Both William and Riley mean 'valiant protector.' Now, I have never been a huge fan of the name William, but when Mike said it then, I knew it was it!
So there you have it. Through the inspiration and guidance of the Lord, our little boy will be named William Riley. Now what we'll call him for short - I have no idea. But nicknames and such are generally better when not pre-meditated.

Our home is great, and we might actually be done organizing it some day. Christmas time is here and I couldn't be more grateful to the Savior and our Lord for all the blessings overflowing in our lives! 'Tis the season to be grateful, joyous, peaceful, giving, loving, and hopeful!

catch up

Well it's been a while since my last post, and I could throw out a whole bunch of excuses as to why, but mostly I'm forgetful and easily distracted.
So just to bring you up to date:
We finally got the house! WOO! It's lovely and besides the few problems with the seller post-move in (like the fact that he did not complete the repairs he claimed to, etc.) we've really enjoyed having our own space and knowing that where we live is now an investment instead of a black hole money-wise. Lissy loves her new room and the space to run.
We picked up a cute little stray who, so the vets say, is about 9 months old. He's a small pup that a mix. I know he's part doberman pincher but the other part I'm not sure. He's all legs and loves to jump and run. Lissy and him are so cute playing together.
We're loving our new ward. They're happy, upbeat, and they put us to work asap. Lissy's also nursery age which is SO nice. ahhh. It's like I can actually listen to the lessons in church now.
Felicity is doing amazing. She's so attentive and ready to learn and help. She throws away her trash and puts her toys away all on her own, is slowly being potty trained and is the sweetest little thing ever. The other day Mike and I were doing things in separate rooms and Mike comes across a plastic rose. He tells Lissy to take it to me, which she does. I give Lissy a kiss for it and she returns back to Mike, scrunches her face a little, and then puckers up to give him the kiss. Isn't that so stinkin' cute? I love being a mommy :)
I guess the last thing to wrap it up would be to announce that Mike and I are having a little boy January 23rd! We found out yesterday his gender and are so excited. I'm going to be honest, after having such a wonderful little girl first I wanted another one, but I'm sure I'll love my lil' boy just as much.
I would ask to keep our little one in your prayers. His ultrasound showed everything normal except for one of the sacks in his brain, which is enlarged beyond normal. We are going to see a specialist tomorrow to determine if it's just an advance in his growth or if something is blocked and go from there. We are hopeful, since it's not grossly enlarged, just mildly, but would appreciate any prayers and thoughts for us from ya'll.

As my belly grows I'm looking for more and more pregnancy clothes sewing ideas, so if you know of any, please feel free to share them! And I'll see if Mike can help me get up some ultrasound pics. :)

check it out

Check this out!

I grew up on these movies! They're so fun and we've only been able to collect them through thrift stores/ DI etc.
Apparently if you post this link on a site you have other than facebook, you get a free DVD of one of them!
To claim your DVD, create the link then email the URL and your contact information to: rewards@livingscriptures.com
So even if you've never seen them before, they have so many wonderful stories from the scriptures! Check 'em out and post this on your blog to get a free one!
There's no harm in that, right?


www.facebook.com/livingscriptures

Buying a Home

When Mike and I decided we wanted to purchase a home in time for the tax credit we knew there would be some bumps along the way. For one, we'd be buying at a peak of interest in the housing market. Secondly, we decided we wanted in on it the last month before it would be over, so it was crunch time. And finally, we had never done it before...which I guess is implied since we're eligible for the first time home buyers tax credit.
So we made our list of things we wanted in a home and how much we thought we could afford. Then we went to JP Morgan Chase bank to get pre-approved. This part of the process is deceptively easy. We were in there less than 5 minutes and were approved for a decent amount - an amount we had already decided we couldn't afford. That is why my first recommendation to anyone considering buying a home is: Decide between you and your sweetheart (Or if it's just you, then you and your finances) what you can afford BEFORE you go into the bank and ask them. Of course they want to convince you you can take on a bigger loan, that's how they get money.
Anyway, we simply asked Ron Riedell, our mortgage loan officer, to reduce the price on the approval letter to where we were comfortable. He complied. This is also something I'd recommend: your loan officer can state whatever price you want on the approval letter as long as it's at or under what you're approved of. If you make it lower, then when you go to a home that's slightly above, you have purchasing power to sway them down, because you're already approved. That's what Mike and I did, and are so glad for, because if we hadn't, the home would have gone over appraisal value (we found out later) and the whole deal would be off.
So far so good, right?
So we start off on our home quest, and I have to say this is the most fun, most time consuming, and most frustrating part of the whole ordeal. Here's how it went: We'd check dozens of online databases for homes we liked that were in our price range, using www.hompath.com , www.sawbucks.com, bw home team and others. I know a lot of people will just look for a realtor they like and have them show them homes from then on. We tried that at first, looking up who was the best around and such but we didn't find anyone we really liked that way. Instead, we looked for houses we wanted, met whatever realtor was showing it and decided if we liked the realtor and/or the house. This is how we found the realtor we do really like, Trish Cloud. I think she works with BW Home Team now...though I'm not sure, she just switched. Anyway, we sent her a question about a home on her site, and she replied promptly - not only the same day, but within 15 min! - and was really nice, so we decided to go with her.
Trish has been really great. She showed us tons of homes, and wasn't skimpy with her time just because we weren't in a higher price bracket. She's done a great job. That's not to say we weren't still looking up homes on our own, because we were, and I strongly encourage everyone to do that too. Once you find a realtor you like, keep looking for homes you like, even if they're looking too. The sooner you find an awesome steal that goes up and act on it, the better chance you have of getting it.
So we finally found the home we wanted, it fit nearly every point on our list of things we wanted, which was rather comprehensive, and was in our price range (keynote: OUR price range, not the bank's). We were the first ones to go see this home, which was newly renovated and pretty cheap, and decided to hop on it. We sent everything in, including an offer below the asking price and asked for closing costs.
This is when negotiations start. The owner turned back our proposal and asked for higher than the asking price, because we wanted closing costs. We said no, we'll only pay slightly higher than we first offered. He said no, he wouldn't take less than 2 thousand over what he asked. This is when we used our pre-approval letter trick. To be honest, our letter still said higher than what we wanted to pay, so I asked Ron to write us another for lower. He complied. We then took this to the seller and said, Hey look! We can't pay higher than this, BUT we are pre-approved and ready to go. The buyer huffed a little and took the offer. YAY.
So now we've entered the most frustrating part of the whole process. Turning everything over to the lender and waiting. Blah!
All we had left to do was our appraisal, which we did, and it turned out very well. No foundation problems (a miracle in Texas, especially for an older home), and since everything had been replaced by the investor we were buying from, it was appraised highly. The appraisal was done during our 5 day option period (usually it's at least 7, but our seller wanted only 5 since he was going with our lower price). An option period is a period of time where the seller can't back out of the contract for other offers because you're saying your in, but you don't have to lose your earnest money yet. We paid 75$ for our option period. This means that for any reason, we could back out of the contract for only the 75 $ without a penalty. This is nice, and not allowed in all states, because earnest money can cost $500-1000! Earnest money shows the buyer that you're sincere and that if he takes the house off the market and starts the fees of ordering the new title (which custom has the seller pay), he has some guarantee he won't lose everything if we pull out after the option period and before the clsoing date. So our appraisal done and option period over, there's literally nothing to do but hunt insurance (which I posted on earlier).
The waiting period is already very frustrating, because you just want word if everything you put on the line is going to go through. It's ten times worse when you work with someone like Ron Riedell. Once he has the paperwork saying he will, he's no longer amicable and helpful. He doesn't answer phone calls or emails and doesn't update us on anything. The only we've been able to get a hold of him is by calling the branch he's at that particular day and having them not only switch us to his line, but walk over and tell him there's a phone call to answer. OI. For someone who's making a NICE commission off of what we're giving him, you think he'd be more helpful. So the days ticked by and here we are, 2 days before the contracts stated closing and we're still just waiting.
What does the lender have to do in this time? Ask for a bank approved Appraisal so they know their not investing in a home that's worth less than the price they're helping us pay. And make sure we check out (most of which they already did when they approved us: credit checks, address checks, etc.). The buyer pays for the appraisal and is refunded the cost at closing if they don't back out. We were charged for the appraisal 1 1/2 weeks after the paperwork went to Ron. It was done this past Friday. That's not usual. Usually when the money goes out, the appraisal is ordered and it happens very promptly afterward.
So everything's good, right!? NO! bah. Now underwriting has to look it over and see if they do, in fact, think it accurate (what do they higher the appraiser for then anyway?? They should go look at the home themselves). Lucky for us, at least the appraisal came back higher than what we're paying, yay! So now, again 2 days before we're supposed to close at the latest (!), we're still just waiting for underwriting to dittle around before they approve what has already been approved.
There's no way to get a hold of underwriting, we've tried, and Ron's still playing the disappearing act.
In short, I'd like to say:
Dear Ron Riedell, Chase, and Whoever Chase Contacts for Underwriting,
FINISH what you started, and FINISH it NOW.
Yours Truly,
Carolyn

Strep

It's amazing how much life gets harder when you get sick. I mean, in highschool it really wasn't that bad. Yeah, you lie at home in bed, watching a movie and wishing the pain would go away, but that's it. Your school work will be taken care of in due time and otherwise you're fine.
It's much harder when your job is to stay home and watch a little one who doesn't understand you're sick. Who doesn't see why she can't have a bite of whatever I'm eating too, and who gets bored not being able to go outside. Poor thing.
She's so patient.
I remember having strep once before in my life, in junior high. I was so sick I just lay in bed dripping a Popsicle down my throat, doing everything possible not to swallow. Luckily I don't seem to be that sick this time...though I may have just grown up some.
Fortunately, our insurance company has this thing called "teladoc." We get 3 free phone calls per person to a doctor who, if they can adequately diagnose our sickness over the phone, will prescribe us medicine and send it to the pharmacy of our choice. Now I must admit, when I first heard about this I was skeptical. I thought, who would trust something like that if they were super sick? Then when my little Lissy got a bad rash I thought about using it, but decided not to since rashes are so ambiguous, even if you go into the doctor they can easily not know what it is from.
However, when I suddenly became ill on Saturday and spent all night writhing in pain I got up Sunday morning with a resolve to teladoc and get medicine! I was certain it was strep, because I've had it before and because when Mike looked at my tonsils they were red with big white spots all over them. So instead of trucking over to the emergency room, which would have been my only option otherwise since doctor offices aren't open on Sundays, I called up the doc.
He was very kind and had perfect bedside manner, even though I wasn't there next to him on a bed. He asked me what I was feeling and listened well. Right when I said my tonsils had spots on them he said "oh dear" and listened to the rest of what I was saying. When I was done he pronounced that since my tonsils had spots and since I had a fever and chills, that it definitely wasn't a soar throat caused by a virus, but one caused by streptococcal bacteria. He quickly prescribed me amoxicillin, after asking if I'd had it before.
Then Mike drove out and picked it up an hour later.
All in all, VERY worth it! Thankyou teladoc!

Now I'm just desperately hoping and praying that neither Mike nor sweet Lissy will catch it. I'm almost certain I'd have to take Lissy in to the hospital since it's so painful to eat she probably wouldn't.
Prayers in our behalf would be so appreciated!

Tasty Crock Pot Recipes

Thought I'd post a shorter and much lighter post today than last.
I spent a good majority of today watching my Aunt Dora's 2 littlest ones and afterward talking to Dora about...well, everything (you know how women can be).
One of the things we brought up was crock pot dinners and how easy they can make life!

I thought I'd share some of them with ya'll:

Classic (Sunday) Roast:
Easy and delicious! Simply place the roast in the crock pot with carrots potatoes, onions, and whatever else you might want (or you can cook it by itself). Then add water and the seasonings you prefer. I generally put in seasoning salt, garlic, onion powder if I didn't put onions in it, Italian seasonings, and pepper. Simple turn it on to cook! On high it only takes a few hours and will still be fairly moist and yummy. For an even more most and peel apart roast, cook it on medium or low for many hours (depends on crock pot).

Curry Dinner:
This one was told to me by my sister-in-law and is awesome! This one is great because you can cook the rice, the curry sauce, the meat, and the veggies all at the same time, in the same pot! Easy clean up! simply put the rice, the curry block of paste, which you can get at almost any store in the foreign section (I go with mild because I don't like spicy!), the meat: chicken, beef, pork, whatever you prefer!, and then the veggies. The veggies can be fresh or frozen and can be whatever you like! Carrots and potatoes tend to make it heavier, while corn, broccoli, and green beans tend to be lighter...and almost more like a chili. Then add enough water for the rice to cook and the sauce to be...well, saucey. Set it for a few hours and you're good to go! So delicious, and kind of out of the normal for most!

Taco Soup
I call this one my food storage dinner. It, like all crock pot meals seem to be, is so easy! I tend to make this one big so there are plenty of leftovers. I'd say it makes enough for 6. The key to this recipe is to not drain the cans! Go ahead and pour all the contents into it, that saves the nutrients at the bottom and helps fill your liquid quota! Add 2 cans of black beans, 1 can of kidney beans (you can swip-swap those if you'd like), 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, about 6 oz. of tomato sauce, a can of corn, water (thicken it to what you like, it can be more of a stew or more of a soup), cumin (I use this liberally), and a little pepper. No need to add salt to this puppy, as the salt to preserve canned vegetables will be more than enough! You can also add chicken or ground beef. If you add the meat it will need to cook long enough that the meat cooks, otherwise it just needs to cook until it's warm. This is a recipe that works great in a big pot on the stove too. Serve with corn chips and shredded cheese on top! Yummy.

These are just three of many! I love collecting crock pot recipes, so if ya'll know of any, please share! The more the merrier!

:D

Assurance in the Home vs. Insurance for the Home

Today I've been kept busy with finding the right home owner's insurance for us. We have to have a quote to give the bank on the day of closing and there are so many options we haven't decided yet. However, we are running out time, as we are closing next week, and should probably make the decision soon.

I'll put a warning in here: this next bit is the confusing whirlwind of insurance hunting and results I encountered today. If you are not up to the tedious task of reading and/or reading and wishing you hadn't read the excerpt below, feel free to skip on down to the next set of squiggles! :D

~~~
The one thing, I think, that is most bothersome about the whole ordeal is that you have to fork over all the information about you possible and then listen to your phone ringing off the hook for days, before the insurance agents will finally send you an email quote. And even then, there's all the fine print saying that what they sent you may or (more likely) may not be how low your quote is.
Then once you decide on a few speculative quotes, after harrowing hours of figuring out what exactly they DO cover, comes the researching required to make sure you're not being swindled or making a contract with a company known for not paying out.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) people generally only post comments or reviews when they're unhappy with the company, making it seem like any and all insurance companies are villains.
All in all, I spent all day researching and reviewing with the result that we still haven't made a decision yet. However, some of the things I learned are:
- Amica has the highest ratings for Consumer Satisfaction 8 years running (according
to the consumer reports)
- Travelers has, easily, the most negative reviews on both home and auto
- In general, the low quotes given to you are if you switch to do your auto through
that company also, giving you a multi plan deal
- Farmers seems to have a decent amount of positive reviews compared to most others
and is much cheaper than Amica (though, fairly, Amica isn't unreasonable)
- Allstate was ranked one of the lowest in customer satisfaction according to the
consumer reports
- Safeco is easily the cheapest, and as such has it's cornucopia of negative reviews
(though still ranking higher than Allstate and Travelers)
- Liberty mutual has a fair amount of positive views, compared to the lowest three.

In short: A) All companies I researched quoted between about 600-1100 a year (Safeco on one end, Amica on the other) B) The order (from what I could tell) of Consumer Satisfaction from high to low is: Amica, Famers, Liberty mutaul, Safeco, Travelers, and then Allstate C) all companies claim to insure against fire, explosion (not act of war kind), lightening, natural disaster (not including earthquake or flood) and vandalism in their dwelling coverage D)All offer at least 300,000 liability for not much extra.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/september-2009/home-garden/homeowners-insurance/overview/homeowners-insurance-ov.htm
http://www.viewpoints.com/Farmers-Insurance-reviews (this one I used for all, I just happened to end on Famers. Simply type in the other names if you want to take a look)
~~~~~

With all this information I wouldn't be surprised if I've confused you as much as all this research has confused me!
Ah well, we'll figure it out somehow.
However,
Pondering all the confusion these different insurance companies and their reviewers have thrown at me, I realized that it related a lot to the grander scheme of things. How often do individuals go out looking for the answers to their problems, for the assurance that what their doing is right or socially acceptable, or for the best deal life can offer?
So often are people tossed and hurricaned around when searching for the answers to these important questions, only to end up thoroughly confused and stumbling through what was supposed to be an easy and fruitful quest!
That's one reason why the home is so important! Through a solid family life with an anchored core, whether it be in God, Love, Unity, or whatever is important to your family, the members of your family will know their purpose in life and know a place - one singular, reliable, and loving place - they can seek answers to the other questions in life.
Even better, the answers they receive in a well-grounded home will be all the assurance they need to recover from emotional losses, tough days, physical trials, and any other bumps along the road of life. What better home insurance is there?

My home was founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ and I therefore know my divine purpose and am so grateful for my parents who answered all my questions (silly or not)with love and helped steer me towards the right (even when I didn't want it!)!

Family Fun!

Here's my cute little family! I need to get one of all of us together.




The cute little Dress Felicity is wearing in this picture with Mike was actually homemade (not by me, sadly). I picked it up in Provo, UT at a yard sale where there were several homemade items also available! It's darling.


I personally love the homemade touches in crafts that you just don't get in the stores.

I'm currently working on a set of darling pillow case dresses that are so simple and fun! I'll post them as soon as I can.

Homemaking the Heart of the Nation

With technology, fashion, finances, and politics snowballing out of control (pulling any hapless bystander down the hill with them), the home is more important than ever!

Our homes can be a safe haven of comfort and familiarity, of traditions, good expectations, honor, virtue, and flat out fun! Today's world is fast moving and so full of things to do (clubs, sports, electives, exercise, work, work, work, work) it's easy to forget to spend time and have fun with your family!

The purpose of my blog, therefore, is to find out (preferably cheap) ways to strengthen home and family, whether it's through crafting, cooking, family lessons, fun adventures, or simply tried and tested ways to bring the family together to create lifelong bonds and memories, and then to share what I find with you!

As I love to cook, sew, read, and spend time with my husband, Mike and sweet 15 month old, Felicity, a lot of the first posts will be about these things, hopefully branching out to new fields of interest and importance as I grow and develop my talents as well as find ways to help families all over the world strengthen their own talents, bonds, and core.

I truly believe that our nation is created and profoundly affected by the individual families that it is made of. "It takes a village to raise a baby" and likewise the baby's the village raise grow up to run the village and raise the next generations. As the village is a web of family units, it is incredibly important to start the work of raising happy, healthy, intelligent, and strong families and children in the home.

Please, feel free to leave any comments or suggestions on things you'd like to see, questions you might have, or feedback on anything else! I'd love to hear from you as I figure out what I can share with you, as well as things I can learn from you!