Another Week of Joy with Two Houses

We did not get to pick out the light fixtures until Monday morning (making us late for work) due to the person we had to meet with was already booked. It appears the builder expected this done long ago but wanted us to get it by osmosis. Also, the flooring people lost our choices because due to our strange Karma, the person we spoke with was in ICU in the hospital. Good lord, what else will happen. More it appears!

Monday we thought that we would never close on time. (That is still to be determined) Wednesday we go back to visit and amazingly half the house is done. We were in shock, however, it slowed down again after that. We have gone on Saturday, Sunday and now this Monday and done punch lists for the builder. The original was 3 pages. We are now down to 2 pages but we still have no power and our inspector is going in tomorrow. Scott is about to lose it and then today the people buying our house presented us with the results from the inspection on our current house. Nothing major but I went crazy because it read like they wanted us to do whatever repairs they listed, they would pick the person to do it and we would just eat whatever it cost. I felt like they were asking for a blank check. Our realtor calmed us down and said that we will counter with an offer of a sufficient amount to cover the repairs and say do it when you want after we close. Hopefully that will work out. It is not like they don't already have free carpet and refrigerator.

On the good side, Erynn is growing like a weed. She is now holding on to things and today decided she would just start reaching for whatever comes near her especially a bottle. We are thrilled that she is learning things so fast. We go to the doctor for her 4 month appointment on Wednesday after our house closing. We are hoping he will say, "Give that girl some cereal." She is starting to wake up more at night for more food.

Think about us as the week moves on. Tomorrow is inspector. Wednesday is closing and doctor visit. Thursday is packing. Friday is move day (along with the arrival of my new refrigerator). Saturday is unpack day and then I may just collapse for a week.

Here are some new pictures of the house and of sweet pea.

A Busy Week

Here is a rundown of the last week, it has been crazy:

Last Friday - work and get house ready for Scott's mom (J for short) and Aunt Martha (M for short) to arrive. Vacuum dies while working in guest room. First present of my Valentines's/Birthday week from Scott arrives - fleece vest.

Saturday - Morning: Scott and I take Erynn to IHOP for breakfast and go to Lowe's to get new vacuum and some other items for the cleaning weekend. Afternoon: J and M arrive, we have lunch and get started on cleaning the kitchen. M works mostly in doing touch up paint throughout the house. J works on the cleaning and in directing Scott and I around the house. Erynn sleeps. Evening: Pizza for dinner, more cleaning and staging. Second present arrives at home - $100 gift certificate to Sky Mall.

Sunday - Breakfast on our own. Morning: finish up staging and cleaning in all areas except the study (where the cats are living) and the master bedroom. J and M work us hard and leave around lunch time. Scott and I take a nap and then finish up what we can in the other rooms.

Monday - Work (a welcome reprieve from the house but it sure looks good). Pick up food on the way home because we are sure not cooking in the very clean kitchen.

Tuesday - Work and maintaining the tidy house. Third present arrives at work - mutliple tins of popcorn (those who know me know that this is a perfect gift.)

Wednesday - Valentines's Day; Work, visit with insurance agent in the afternoon to pick coverages for new house and go over extension of life insurance policies. Scott is determined to make us insurance and retirement fund poor. Visit new house and we now have sod in the front yard. At least we are starting to move along. Realtor arrives to sign paperwork on selling our house. Sign officially goes in the yard around 7pm. Fourth present arrives at work - lovely arrangement of flowers.

Thursday - Birthday, Off from work - Morning: met with carpet person who measured the entire house and went off to figure amounts. Erynn in daycare until lunch so I can set up the water, trash, power and gas for the new house. Also, took about half of our garage to donations. Lunch with Scott and spent some time with Erynn visiting friends at work. Received call from another realtor asking if she could show our house between 5:30 and 6:30. In shock since the house has been on the market less than 6 hours. Scott and I go to Red Lobster with Erynn for dinner to celebrate birthday and to allow the possible buyers to check out the house. While eating our realtor calls asking if they can have more time because they want to write up an offer. Well, of course, let's have dessert. Discussions insue via email back and forth and by 10pm we had accepted an offer for the asking price of our house and throwing in the refrigerator. One heck of a day! I get a new refrigerator (stainless steel) in the new house and we got the price we wanted all in less than 24 hours. Not bad for my 37th birthday! Fifth present on its way but do not know what it is. Mom and Dad send me flowers to the house.

Friday - Signing paperwork today, calling to get things setup for termite bonds, warranties etc. Will get to go this afternoon and pick the lighting fixtures for the new house. We close on the new house on February 28 and move that weekend and we will close on the old house on March 20. So first payment on the new house will be in April and the last payment on the old house will be in March. No double payments - yeah!

Guess you saw the picture of Erynn above. These were taken by her Nana (J) while she visited during the weekend.

Deep Thoughts

If you see a time on this you will notice that it is around midnight. As a parent, normally I would be asleep. As a matter of fact, normal sleep time for Scott and I now is 9pm. Well tonight Erynn woke up wanting something to eat and I had a deep moment so after she settled back down I decided to write some.

My deep thought for tonight comes from that peaceful, quiet place when a parent is feeding their child late at night. You start to think about her life and what she will become and your goals in life change. Your career and your dreams start to become second to her hopes and dreams. In this place, you know that there are only a few things that you truly want her and others to be able to say about you. "They were great parents and they never judged another." I really feel that if I can get through the rest of my life and Erynn can say that about Scott and I then we will have done what we came here to do.

So my goal from here on is to not judge anyone and to love and teach her the same.

We are sick! - 15 Weeks

Well, I am sick mainly. Ugly upper respiratory thing. Erynn has some drainage too but still is happy. She is a little fussy when sleeping and wants to eat more but that is all good if she is a little sick. Scott is starting to get it some now too. I am so ready for it to be warmer so that we can get out with her more and hopefully get rid of all of this illness. I had a stinking flu shot so this is really annoying!

We are working steadily on getting our house ready for sale. Scott and I spent all of last weekend packing and taking things to storage. This weekend Nana (Scott's mom) comes to visit and help us finish up the clean up so we can list the house next week. We have not gone to the new house this week in hopes that there will be more done when we take Nana during the weekend.

Erynn is no longer the youngest baby at daycare. This week little Mason arrived. He is around 7 weeks old and has been diagnosed with dwarfism. He is a cutie but they have to be extra careful with his arms and legs until they develop more. It is hard to believe that sweet pea is 15 weeks. She is very much alert now and loves to talk to you.

Think good thoughts about our house selling quickly and I will get more pictures out as we get further along.

New House

We are starting to get excited about the new house and all of the things we will upgrade as we grow in it. So I thought I would put some more pics out her for you to see the land behind it. We only visit it every few days or we would go crazy. I don't think they are moving fast enough to meet our February 22 closing date but it may all come together fast at the end. Right now there is still no flooring down except for tile in the 2 upstairs bathrooms. Also, there are no outlet or switchplates installed and there are some cracked windows that need to be replaced and the whole basement area still needs to be finished out. No need to worry, right?! Anyway, we are probably as impatient as Lee and Tiff (check out her site linked to the right). They are actually building one double the size of ours from the ground up. I would already be crazy if we had done that! Thinking about you always Tiff! Congrats on Emily finally walking!

(Yes, the strange picture is Scott's laundry chute from our master closet down to the basement. Any way not to have lug clothes down the stairs. He will have to bring his own back up.)

14 Weeks

Cutie is smiling more and trying to talk now. She loves her swing and often will sleep in it long enough for mommy and daddy to take a breath. We are starting to pack for the move to our new house but do manage to spend some time each night with sweet pea!