Hello Kitty and Nana

Nana knew I'd been pretty gloomy and stressed lately, so this morning she came over for a visit! This was exactly what the doctor ordered. After playing outside for a little bit, we packed up the van and headed over to Build-A-Bear to get Mary the kitty cat she's been talking about for a long time. Mary has fallen in love with Hello Kitty. Anything that has Hello Kitty on it is Mary's new favorite thing. In fact, everytime she sees the letter "k" she says, "K for Kitty!" Everyone had a great time at the store, and since we're planning on starting potty training soon (next month), we picked up some Hello Kitty panties for her new Tropical Hello Kitty (Target has Hello Kitty panties that we're going to get for Mary when the time comes). We finished up our special trip with lunch from Chic-Fil-A. Perfect! Thanks, Nana, for cheering everyone up!

As far as the house goes, things are still up in the air. We're trying to get an FHA loan, and this type of loan is contingent on an inspection. The house was inspected, and surprise, there are some things that must be fixed before we can get the loan and close on the house. Doesn't sound so bad, just get the seller to do it, right? Well, the seller's son made a big deal over a couple thousand dollars in estimated closing costs, so I don't think this is going to go over so well with him. We're waiting to hear exactly what needs to be fixed so we can hurry things along (our interest rate will expire in 9 days), but our loan specialist is out of the office today, so everything seems to be on hold until someone can get in touch with her, which hasn't been very easy to do to begin with. Drama, drama, drama! Again, please keep us in your prayers. We've done everything we know to do, so if God really wants us in this house it will happen. If not, then that's that, and we don't want to be where God doesn't want us anyway.

In unrelated, but happy news, Stephen's aunt is giving us her piano! Thanks, Faye! We can't wait for the girls to start taking lessons. We've already spoken with a wonderful woman at church who gives private lessons in piano and violin, and she's excited about having Mary and Anna as future students. Mary loves music, and she usually always asks to listen to classical music when we're playing in the dining room. I know she's going to love learning the piano when she's a little older!