Halloween Costumes

We borrowed three Halloween costumes from a friend at church, and we're trying to decide on the best one for Jasper. Vote on the left side of the page to let us know which one you like best.

Finally Refinanced!

  We finally closed on our refinanced mortgage yesterday! It's been a long, frustrating road. We first applied September 12 because we wanted to get a fixed rate. When we bought our house 4 years ago we got a 7 year ARM meaning that the rate could adjust after 7 years. Because of the way the market has been, we wanted to go ahead and get a fixed rate. We did a lot of work to the outside of our house the summer in preparation for an appraisal for a refinance. WELL, the apprasier came in mid-September and when the report came back, she appraised the house for $6,500 LESS than we bought the house. Pretty disheartening after all the money and sweat we've put into the house (new windows, gutters, garage doors, rebuilding walls and siding our outbuilding, adding on to the deck, landscaping, etc., etc.) We were expecting it to appraise for about $12,000 more than we'd bought it, which would have allowed us to get rid of our private mortgage insurance. To top it off, we couldn't even get the refinance loan because they wouldn't loan us the amount we needed because of the lower appraised value, we would owe more than the percentage they were willing to loan.

I was pretty upset, but thanks to my dad, I called the banker back, and he agreed to order another appraisal free of charge. The second appraisal came back at $3,500 more than we originally paid. Not enough to get rid of our mortgage insurance, but enough to get the refinance loan at a fixed rate. Oh, the rate...Started at 6.125% and by the time all the appraisal nonsense was completed it had jumped to 6.5% Oh, well at least it would be fixed. Then we get the approval letter in the mail with the estimated payment and closing costs...Our payment is actually $20 more per month and our closing costs were outrageous! The payment went up because that private mortgage insurance doubled in the past four years (thanks to all the mortgage loans that had been defaulted on.) The closing costs went up since we live in St. Joseph County and the property taxes STILL haven't come out. We're supposed to see a 30% decrease, but since the bank hasn't seen a bill, they required us to pay 13 MONTHS of taxes ahead of time.

It was a small disaster, but we went ahead because, at least in these uncertain financial times, we'll know our mortgage rate will not change!

Catching up...

This week has been another busy one. Sunday, we went to church and watched FOOTBALL most of the afternoon. I attempted a nap, but got a lot of, "Mommy, mommy..." each time I closed my eyes. If it wasn't that, it was play food being stuffed in my mouth!

Jasper now LOVES Elmo and Blue's Clue's. It's funny because he's only seen each of them a couple times on DVDs from the library.

One night we went to the park and played on the big mound of sandy dirt. Jasper thought it was fun to climb up and slide down (as did Nano!)

Grandma Cathy came up and stayed with Jasper on Tuesday. Thank goodness for Grandparents!! He slept for 2 and a half hours that day - why will he never nap that long for me??

Jasper's been very into reading books this week. He's doing such a good job at naming objects - especially in his Baby Bear book. He can point out the red fox, flying squirrel, mountain goat, blue herron, striped skunk, mule deer, rattlesnake, baby bear and mama bear (I'm probably forgetting a few) but it amazed us that he can point at the pictures and say the names of all of those! He's also starting to count correctly 1,2,3 (he still likes to throw in a 9 occasionally!

Tomorrow night, Jasper is going to spend the night with Brama (Judy) and Pa pa Jack. That will give Josh and I time to go on an actual date! I'm looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday!!!

A Fun Birthday Party

Jasper got invited to Norah Porter's 4th Birthday party last weekend. It was held at Matthys Farm in South Bend. There were several other little kids and some of Norah's cousins at the party. First, we went to a greenhouse where they had bales of hay set up as seats, and we had cake and Norah opened her gifts. Then all the kids got stickers that got them into the petting zoo. There were all sorts of farm animals. Jasper was running all over the place. He especially liked the pigs and the goats. He also enjoyed playing on the playground and pretending to drive the wooden truck and train. Then we all took a hayride out to a pumpkin patch where each child could pick any pumpkin they could carry. As soon as Jasper got off the wagon, he was off! He ran around trying to pick up pumpkins and saying, "Heaby" (his version of heavy.) He sat on a few pumpkins before finally finding the perfect one for him. We took the hayride back to the greenhouse and then said goodbye and drove home. At home, Jasper told Daddy about the animals he saw and the hay ride and all the pumpkins!

A Busy Week

Busy, busy, busy!! I worked every day this week because we are having an audit at work and Josh had to be out of town on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Tuesday evening, Jasper and I met my friend, Mary, for dinner, and then we all went to the Women's Health Fair in Michigan City. Josh was working the glucose testing booth, so we got to see him. I actually won a door prize from one of the booths!!

We are very fortunate to have wonderful parents that helped us out this week by watching Jasper on the two days that he doesn't normally go to daycare. Wednesday, Cathy (I should say Gamma Khaki) came up and watched Jasper. As soon as she got here, Jasper was in show off mode! They had a great day and Jasper even took a two hour nap!! Then on Thursday evening, my parents met Jasper and I in Plymouth and took him home with them for an overnight. Jasper got to do a lot of visiting with his Great-Grandparents on Friday. All three of us were back home together by last night.

This week in Jasper news:
~He can successfully build with Legos and is pretty intent on his creations. At one point he spent nearly half an hour building quietly.
~He can kick a small ball well, and loves to say, "My soccer ball!" (Of course, Daddy eggs him on by saying, "Daddy's soccer ball" and then Jasper squeals back, "NO, MY soccer ball!"
~He can identify the letters A, B C, O and H. He picked the letter H out of a bunch of letter toys at Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Brooke's house and said the 'H' sound twice and then said H. Later, when Grandma Debbie asked him to find the H, he picked it out! (The Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is helping him. Thanks Hershberger's for letting us borrow that - we've had it way too long - we promise to return it soon!!)
~He's been "fixing" things around the house with his tools. His new favorite cartoon is Handy Manny and we've asked him if he wants to be Handy Manny and he says "uh-huh" and then uses his toy hammer or screwdriver on a toy, or the doorknob or the refrigerator - whatever is nearby!

A Perfect Fall Weekend

This weekend was so gorgeous! Jasper actually wore shorts to the park on Saturday. Colin, Jasper and I walked down to the park while Josh mowed the yard. Jasper loved playing with Uncle Colin. It was funny to see Colin on the little playground equipment!

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Prather's annual hayride. We saw cousins and friends we hadn't seen in a long time including Barry (Anglemyer) who's back from Arizona for a few weeks. We also got to see Great Grandmas June and Lena and Great Grandpa Pete and Grandma Debbie. It was great to see Grandma Lena feeling better. (She's been having a lot of trouble with her back and hip.) Jasper and his cousin Becca sat together on the porch swing. Becca even shared her crackers with Jasper. Jasper went on the hayride. We think he liked it...he sat down on the floor of the wagon between the hay bales and didn't make a peep. He was watching the lights of the tractor. Occasionally, I'd ask him if he wanted to sit on my lap and he'd shake his head no, but when I asked if he was having fun, he'd shake his head yes. Eventually he fell asleep. We were disappointed not to have spent more time with the littlest cousins, Ada Wagner and Nathan Combs. They were worn out and had to leave before we got back from the hayride.

Today, we decided to stay home from church. Josh wasn't feeling the greatest and we were all tired from being out late last night. I got to stay in bed until after 8:30 (that's VERY late for us!) We played up stairs, went outside, had lunch, watched football, took a nap, and watched some more football! Jasper took a tumble down part of the stairs today. He's fine, just a small bump on the head. It scared Mommy and Daddy though!

Jasper's discovered a new TV show he likes, Handy Manny. It's about this boy who fixes things with talking tools. He'll say "Anny Manny" when he wants to watch it. He watched it this afternoon, and then this evening, he had his toy tools out "fixing" things.

Fun Friday

Friday was a beautiful day, and Jasper and I got to do several fun things. We had an appointment for our car, but the part wasn't in, so we ended up going to story time at the library instead. That was the first time he'd been to a story time, and he did really well. He especially liked using the glue stick during the craft time.

Then we got chicken nuggets and had a picnic at the park. After eating, Jasper got to play on the playground. He loved climbing all over the equipment, going down the slides and swinging on the swings. Then we went and met Daddy at work, and went to McDonalds for Josh and I to have lunch. After all this, Jasper was pretty tired out so he slept all the way home.

Later that afternoon, we picked one of our pumpkins to carve. Jasper chose the cat design (a little ambitious for me, but I'd told him he could choose...) I put Jasper's paint shirt on, spread out a vinyl table cloth on the floor, and we got to work. He wasn't too sure about touching the gooey inside of the pumpkin, but finally gave it a try. He matter of factly informed me that it was "ucky." At one point he sat on the pumpkin - very cute. The cat actually turned out pretty good!

Uncle Colin came over for dinner, and then we met Grandma Cathy and Walt at the John Glenn football game. John Glenn won, and the weather was nice. We walked from our house to the school, and Jasper fell fast asleep before we got to the game. He slept soundly for quite a while, but when he woke up, he had lots of energy. He wanted to run, so we took turns going down by the fence. When he was in the stands, Jasper played with his toys, only dropping them under the bleachers about three times.

Cathy and Walt came over after the game and we sat around the campfire. It was a very fun Friday!