Last night, Maxwell came into our bed disturbing our sleep. I was too tired to come fully awake to kick him out so Jared was pretty grumpy this morning. After we were all awake we asked Maxwell why he came in to our bed. Maxwell had a nightmare where he got caught in a giant spider web and then a black widow bit him. After this he woke up and came in our bed and refused to leave. Jared was telling Maxwell that there aren't any spider webs that big and Xander was helpfully correcting Jared. I was pushing Jared's back to keep him from falling into a trap that could easily be disproved. Jared was more careful with his wording and said that no person could get caught by a spider web and that spiders do not try to catch people.

This morning I switched the boys' glasses in our rush to get out the door. Xander was being poky this morning so we were running late. I put his glasses on last so we didn't realize the issue until then. Maxwell's prescription is much stronger than Xander's. Xander complained that his glasses were blurry and I assured him that they were not because I had cleaned them. Fortunately I got struck by a laser beam and realized my mistake before dropping them off. It is amazing that this was the first time I have ever switched their glasses.

Today as I was gathering towels for washing I discovered a cute baby gecko in the bathroom.

Last night I went to book club to discuss The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. The gist is that the story is really odd but the writing is excellent. The author does an excellent job evoking emotional response, character connection and hope. Hopefully he writes another less odd book. I don't recommend it. I guess most Oprah picks aren't recommendable. I was really glad I went to book club since it was at a lady's house who was recently widowed. It ended up being just me, her, and her daughter from the West Valley that works at Borders. Her daughter lent me some Advanced Reader books which is awesome. They also both gave me a lot of reading ideas for myself and for Elijah. Her daughter seriously has one of my dream jobs. Jared and I were arguing earlier about whether Elijah reads too much. The only issue I have with Elijah's reading is when he does it over following directions that are important to us making it out of the house on time.

Elijah has a scrimmage tomorrow. This is his first serious sports team so that is exciting. I think he is still trying to find his way. Jared had to take him to buy his first cup and had to have a bit of "the talk" with him explaining the cup. Elijah also got a new bat that will work better for Jared and I. Elijah is playing kid pitch.

We are still looking for a house. I really wanted that last house and we thought (and our Realtor thought) that we had a good chance of getting it. I keep hoping this contract will fall through and the Seller's agent will give us a call. The first place we bid on in Gilbert fell through and they called us but Jared and I are no longer interested. As much as it seems to bother some people we really think we like Maricopa better than Gilbert. (Aside from what we can actually afford.) The one neighborhood we really want to get into is really set up well for families and young children. There are tons of bike paths away from the street aside from the other great amenities. We want our kids to be able to be freer than we have been able to allow in this neighborhood. We have a delightful neighbor here that goes 45 down our cul-de-sac. We also don't want our kids to be the only kids playing outside. Also, Maricopa (at least the neighborhoods we are looking at) is closer to our kids school. We have even driven out there during "rush hour" to see what it was like. You go 70 the whole way and so it is much preferable to the stop and go that I currently drive to school. If you just miss certain lights on the way from here to their school it can add 3 minutes to your stop time which is super annoying. If you get stopped by a train it adds 10 minutes to your stop time. So a 20 minute drive is not that bad.

If we moved to Gilbert we would try to get the kids in to the Polytechnic school out there. The issue with this is that we would have to go through the lottery and waiting lists and stuff again. We already did that to get in to our current school. Polytechnic already has a 500 student waiting list. Also if we got one kid in to Polytechnic we couldn't keep driving the other kids to Horizon while we waited for them to get in.

We still might move to Gilbert and we are still looking at the MLS for there. Unfortunately the houses we have seen so far are not as nice, smaller, and in way worse condition than the average condition of homes in Maricopa. Either way we are still competing with investors swooping in with cash. We have even witnessed flippers in this economic climate. One flipper has owned the house for less than 3 months, never been in it according to the MLS, and is trying to make over a 50,000 profit in Maricopa. It is frustrating since we are just trying to buy a home that meets our current (and at least for the next 10 years) needs and fits our budget.

We will be pretty disappointed if we don't manage to close on a house before November so please keep us in your prayers. We only want what is actually best for our family to happen. So please don't pray for anything specific, just pray that what is best happens.

Happy weekend!