Contingency Plan{s}

Well I can't even say Monday Monday because it's already Tuesday! Days seem to be just flying by in a blurr. Anyways, welcome back! Hope you had a great weekend full of family time, love and laughter - I know we did. No matter how hard things have been that is one of the things I really admire about my husband. He will always take the time to laugh. I need to take more lessons from him that's for sure. Keep working with me honey!

During the day on Saturday our realtor in Abilene was having an open house for us. Sadly there have been so many interested buys for our property who cannot qualify because the criteria just keep going up and up. We have really struggled to sell this property simply due to the market. It is not located in the very best neighborhood by any means but it also isn't in the worst either. Finally this Saturday we received 3 variations of an offer on the house. One in writing, contingent to the home inspection, one verbal contingent on the sale of their house, and one offer to rent for a year while they work on their credit then to purchase at that point. We presented a counter offer to the written offer and they went ahead with the inspection. The house is nearly 100 years old, and it is on a pier and beam foundation. It doesn't take a genius to figure out it may need some foundation work. Well after finding that out, the buyer pulled out. Either you love old houses or you don't. We have since accepted the offer contingent to the sale of their house. They have a very small house a few blocks away, so they already like the neighborhood, they just outgrew their house. They are pricing it to sell fast (hopefully). If they are not under contract with us in 30 days we will rent it for a year to the third couple, take it off the market and leave it at that. So gratefully it seems like our house in Abilene is dealt with for now.

Saturday night we were blessed to have my parents watch our sweet babies while we met up for dinner with my brother Blair and his wife Danielle. Nothing fancy but we went out for pizza and were going to catch a movie at the cheap theatre. Over dinner (and our bad service) we decided it would be less expensive for everyone if we rented some movies instead. Off to Blockbuster! I learned a valuable lesson that night. We decided to let the ladies pick one movie and the guys to pick the other one. I will never do that again. We ended up watch "The Time Traveller's Wife" (obviously our pick) and "Zombieland". UGGH. It was so stupid and gross that we laughed the whole time but what a waste of time (in my personal opinion). I am so not into horror, guts, or science fiction of any sort. Definitely leave that one on the shelf.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day for everyone. We hung out at the farm and went for a walk outside. Mike pulled Harrison on the sled while I tried to keep up, then we had a snow fight with Harrison. It was so much fun! He was so adorable trying to scoop the snow up with his little mitts and throw it into the air. Almost all of his snow landed back on him which just made him laugh, and us laugh some more. I also gave Mike his first face wash ever! Too fun!

Monday morning Mike called the fellow at the Montana wind farm and went for an interview that afternoon. Everything went great, they are hiring 13 people over the next few months, but in batches of 3 at a time. He was really impressed with Mike's experience and knowledge, so our prayer now is that he will be included in the first batch of 3 to start on March 10. We have waited so long and had so many jobs slip through the cracks I don't know if we can bear to lose another one. Until he has actually started somewhere, Mike will continue to search for work. He has a phone interview on Thursday with a company who have employees all over the USA. We'll see how that goes in a couple more days.

Harrison was sick all day yesterday while Mike was gone to Montana. He actually hasn't been sick a whole lot so I'm new to dealing with it on my own. He was hot and sweaty when he woke up so I gave him some Tylenol which seemed to help. Poor guy. I think he is just teething really badly right now because of his 2 year molars. I put him to bed at 11:45 for his nap and he woke up at 2:40 crying, which isn't normal for him. I went downstairs to find him covered in puke. His pillow, his hair, ears, toys, blankets and sheets all covered in yucky puke. I do not have a very strong stomach so I scooped him up the best I could, striped him down and cleaned him up. He cried and cried and cried until Grandma came home at 5:20pm. He didn't have any dinner and went back to bed at 7 pm. I feel so bad for him when I can't help. He wouldn't even eat a popsicle. Today he is still not himself but at least is isn't nearly as bad as yesterday.

So I guess living in Montana is our contingency plan. Mike gets the job, he'll stay down there during the week and see us on the weekend for about a month or as long as it takes to be able to afford to rent a house on our own. Hopefully the house in Abilene sells (instead of rents) so we can afford to move all of our belongings to Montana when the time comes. Montana is just like Alberta, in fact we will be about 2 hours from my parents, just across the line. This way I can still bring the kids to Alberta for healthcare. It really seems like a win-win situation. I just can't wait for it all to finally be finalized.

Thanks for reading and keeping us in your prayers!

The Burnetts