I am trying to make lemonade here, people!

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Yep, we have all heard it. We have all probably rolled our eyes at it too. This phrase is never said when things are going great so it is expected that it is not a well received quote. Today I was handed some lemons. I used to like lemons but now, not so much. So what was it? A house. My house. The house that I drive past several times a week and have wanted. It is not some beautiful, fancy dream house. No, I have one of those and it is like Ryan Gosling...fun to look at and dream about, but I am levelheaded enough to know it is out of my reach. No, this house is next door to my mom and is about 50 years old. It has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, an in ground pool, fenced in yard, a den with a separate entrance that would make a perfect in home daycare for me, hard wood floors and many other things that I like. It was foreclosed on over a year ago and I have wanted it ever since. And it is on the market and is dirt cheap. Like seriously cheap!!! But still out of our reach.

About 11 years ago we purchased a mobile home. We traveled for dh's job (I went with him) and were rarely home so it was the perfect choice. It is in a really nice park and well maintained. And very safe for when I am home alone. Once I quit traveling we were faced with a decision: buy a house or try for a baby. It was a no brainer, we wanted a baby. Seven years later we finally have that baby and are in the process of trying for another, but it has us no closer to owning a home. Dh is self employed and in order to keep from paying a fortune in taxes we take every tax deduction we can get. This makes us look dirt poor. And the years of medical bills (deductibles, fertility treatments, and copayments) have left us with a pile of medical debt that has hurt our credit. A lot! We have most of the debt paid down but the damage is done. We could afford the house payment easily, even with our current mobile home payment, and there is a first time home buyers asst program here that we qualify for that would give us $15k down yet we cannot get this house.

So for me, this sad news is a lemon. But my lemonade is that we will work harder to get out of the rest of our debt and rebuild our credit score. And we have a child and the chance at another. That is worth more than any house. But I still want that house!!! I thought about dropping some dead cockroaches in the window to scare off potential buyers, but they creep me out so there goes that. Maybe a few snakes? A ghostly noise? Mine traps?? Or maybe I should just pray, huh? :)