Decisions Decisions

This year is the year we have to renew our mortgage(just a little side note of useless information....did you know that mortgage means until death?Hmmm strangely appropriate)We are facing a very big decision.Should we borrow against our homes equity to put a proper foundation under the house and add one more bedroom or do we wait.

Our house will not fall into the ground if we don't(it would just be nice to have something other than dirt ) nor will we die if our house only has two bedrooms.People not that long ago raised families of twelve in homes smaller than this so I think a family of four can do it.It is sometimes difficult not to get caught up in the "bigger is better" mentality.Bigger just means more house to clean!

We were fortunate to purchase our house before the house prices spiked.So our house has almost doubled in value since we bought it 5 years ago.Our mortgage broker has come back with an amount that we can get and how much it effects our monthly payments(which is not a lot)People pay way more in rent than we would have to pay.But the decision is still difficult to make.DH is self employed and has taken a considerable hit due to the recession.Business is picking up again now that people have gotten over the initial fear, but my point is will there be enough in our budget to take on the extra.(We have already dipped into the savings to keep a float.)However the prices of materials and labour keep going up dramatically so in five years when we revisit the same decision will we be able to do it then?It is so difficult to choose.

Then there is the other aspect.The actual renovation.I want the end result but I'm just not sure I would survive the actual process.I do have some idea of what renovations entail.Dust,dirt,meals out,permits,time lines not being met,more money being required than originally anticipated,.So I am not on renovation cloud 9 with unrealistic expectations.But I have only dealt with reno's on a small scale not something as big as this.Then add to the mixture two kids under 5 and an open stairwell to a concrete pit and you have a recipe for disaster( or mommy completely ready for the nut house.)

Only time will tell.

Lions and Tigers and Bears.....Oh my!

Well I took the girls to the zoo this week.I went with my sister-in-law and a couple other moms.This was my pumpkins first visit and only my monkey's second.Her first trip was when she was around 18 months or so and we went with my mom.So its been a while.
I must admit after their antics before we left for the zoo, I was really tempted to leave them there.Although I am not so sure that the monkeys would have wanted them either.But by the time they got to the zoo they were very well behaved.So no drastic measures needed to be taken.

We managed to see all of the big animals like the lions,tigers,giraffes and elephants but we whizzed through so fast that we didn't really get to enjoy them.The other moms had seasons passes so it didn't really matter to them if they were only there for a couple hours.Going with friends is fun but I must admit there is something to going alone.To go at your own pace.Oh well,it won't be the last trip to the zoo,I'm sure.The girls and I stayed for about an hour after everyone else had gone.We enjoyed a snack of strawberries and grapes and the girls had a great time at the park climbing through the tunnels and racing down the slides.By about 1 o'clock the zoo was beginning to get over run with school kids on field trips so that was our cue that maybe it was time to go. I think the highlight of the trip was all of the kids were running around asking where "Marty" and "Melmen" were.I think they have all seen just a little bit too much "Madagascar".Too funny!

Vibrating with creativity

So last night I discovered how to download "brushes" and " textures " into my GIMP photo editing.I had to stop myself because I was going nuts down loading EVERYTHING.I was coming to kind of a road block as to what to do with my pictures.There is only so often you can use the plug ins with out getting bored and all the pictures start looking the same.But I figured out how to use the textures (so cool) and now with the brushes I can do a lot of the things I have seen that I absolutely love on other photography sites.I hardly know where to begin.I am just vibrating with ideas(I even took pictures of my own textures to add to the mix) .Hopefully there will be some new and exciting things to come.The pictures may not always be great but it sure is fun trying.(the picture is the son of a freind of mine)