Listing photo
Photo I took this morning. We got the keys to our new home July 7. There is much more to the story, which I will post later. The house was a foreclosure and the bank would not budge on a 30-day escrow, which meant we had to get busy with moving tasks, even before, but when we were pretty sure, the asset manager signed the final counter offer.
The weekend (Memorial Day weekend nonetheless) before he signed, Brian and I started packing knick knacks, stuff we didn't need in the next month. It was the weirdest feeling, surreal, like we were secretly sneaking off. And even though we were fairly sure the offer would be signed, we wondered if we'd end up unpacking those first boxes! We only had a 7-day investigation period (where we could back out w/out losing our deposit) so wanted to be sure to have all the necessary inspections done in that week. Especially since we were buying the house in "as-is" condition!!
Our realtor is awesome and super on top of things, and immediately started scheduling inspections, even before we had the final offer signed! Crazy! We had the roof inspection: no leaks, just a few broken tiles. We had the termite inspection: no termite damage or evidence! None at all! Brian and I were surprised, as this house was built in 1998, and our first house, built in 1997, had some minor termite damage that we had to have repaired when we sold it in 2004. We saw God work in many ways during this whole process, including the inspections, making it clear that we should indeed buy this house!
June 6 we had the septic tank inspection. The results were normal with it as well. The septic inspectors were these cute (as in comical) college-aged guys. I asked them all kinds of questions, like what they'd pumped out of the tank that shouldn't have been there. They found baby wipes, feminine products... None of that really shocked me. But one of them said he found a baseball bat in a tank once... How in the world would you get that down there?! The other guy said the "healthiest" tank he'd inspected was a farmer's. The farmer had easy access to his tank and put a dead chicken in it! LOL They told me to put sour milk or meat fat down the drain now and then to keep it healthy--that was interesting. Bad cell-phone pic of our tanks (just what you wanted to see):
June 7 was Lauren's Kindergarten graduation. She was soooo excited for her big day and wore her fancy dress. The kids sang a few songs, adorable as always at that age. :D
There was a family picnic after the Kinder performance. A few other parents (who have kids in Austin's grade) and I remarked what a nice class Lauren's is--and the parents of this class. At Austin's graduation, people were standing in front of others videotaping the singing--like they were the only ones who cared to see it. At Lauren's people got up to take a picture or video a little, then sat back down! At Austin's picnic, some of the parents were crowding and cutting! At Lauren's, the parents were making sure the kids got to go first, and kinder to other families. Kind of interesting!
Caroline wanted to be in this picture with Lauren and the sign. Lauren loves her baby sister and wanted her there too. But still, I wish I would have gotten one picture of just Lauren with the sign on her special day. I didn't even think about it--just one of many things that didn't get thought about during our crazy month of moving!!
June 8 Julia had her 3rd trimester awards assembly--earned Perfect Attendance (for trimester) and Honor Roll awards.
That afternoon Julia competed in the 5th-6th grade spelling bee. She was one of four classroom finalists for her class. Well, she ended up getting 1st place! I was so proud of her! Beating even the 6th graders! ;) For that matter, the last 3-4 contestants were all 5th graders. And lest we get too proud, she and the 2nd place winner went round and round spelling words correctly, misspelling words. Till finally Julia spelled the other kid's misspelled word correctly, then one more word to win it! It could have easily gone the other way--Julia said it herself. :) Another bad cell phone picture--the only camera I thought to bring! Bye bye, mind!
June 8 Julia had her 3rd trimester awards assembly--earned Perfect Attendance (for trimester) and Honor Roll awards.
Right after Julia's assembly I had to go right home to the house we were leaving to let the appraiser in. It didn't take long for him to take his pictures of the rooms, but still, I was late to Austin's awards ceremony! In fact I missed the whole thing! Bad mom!! He wasn't happy about it either, and told me, "You went to Julia and Lauren's things, why didn't you come to mine?!" Poor little guy. My friend took this picture for me of Austin with his award for Creative Writing. The whole 2nd grade class had a family picnic after the ceremony, so at least Caroline and I were there for that. And wouldn't you know, Austin let me know how unhappy he was about me not being there earlier, yet the whole time I was at the picnic, he was off playing with his friends! And so it goes...
Austin found my tin of old marbles from my grandma one day. I showed them how to play marbles with a shooter and the yarn circle. Austin was pretty good at it!
Julia loves the kitties and they love her.
The youngest 3 had 7 swim lessons in June and July. They loved them, as always. Miss Jennie, their teacher, is sooo good with the kids! Julia didn't take lessons but swam and played in the pool while the other kids practiced.
As soon as we got things finalized with the house we moved from, we pulled out all our
While packing and taking things off walls, we discovered this:
Last day of school was June 10. The kids took to sleeping in right away. I didn't sleep in much. LOL I was concerned about getting out of shape without my daily walk to school and back. I needn't have been. I packed and carried and cleaned so much, I got a ton of exercise even without the walk!!
Caroline was glad to have her big sister with her to play with all day, every day! She and Lauren are best friends. Austin and Lauren used to be, but now they fight!
Austin found my tin of old marbles from my grandma one day. I showed them how to play marbles with a shooter and the yarn circle. Austin was pretty good at it!
Julia loves the kitties and they love her.
The youngest 3 had 7 swim lessons in June and July. They loved them, as always. Miss Jennie, their teacher, is sooo good with the kids! Julia didn't take lessons but swam and played in the pool while the other kids practiced.
As soon as we got things finalized with the house we moved from, we pulled out all our
boxes and hoard of stuff to get rid of and started sorting through it for a garage sale. We couldn't make a mess of the house till we knew for sure what was happening with it. I'm not going to go into detail online, but I have to say, the part about what to do with the house we were leaving was the part of moving that worried me the most. I was sooooo worried about it and felt like throwing up thinking about what we were doing, but the whole issue turned out *great*! We prayed that God would bless us in that endeavor, and He brought along *amazing* people to make that house situation work out perfectly, and in absolute perfect timing--sooo much better than we ever imagined!
These are the boxes we'd accumulated in our garage. For a garage sale someday. And this was even after I'd taken boxes and boxes to the consignment shop earlier in the year! And then Brian brought in boxes of boy baby and toddler clothes from the attic for us to add to the garage sale pile. They aren't even in this picture! We had sooooo much stuff, and soooo much kid clothes especially. I'd saved all of Austin's newborn to just-out-grown clothes, except what I'd sold at the consignment shop. That is 8 years of clothes just from him!
The mountain was so overwhelming, I just decided to price everything at 25 cents a piece and hoped to get rid of a lot. Nicer jackets, jeans, dress clothes, and shoes I did price higher. Julia was a huge help with the garage sale sorting. She was born for the job. I couldn't have done it without her! She'd sort and I'd pack. She'd ask me about prices, then go ahead and price things. We did give her a portion of the profit, since she helped so much!!
While packing and taking things off walls, we discovered this:
Hee hee...Neither Brian or I remembered painting *around* the shelf that was there. That is not something *we* would do. LOL
Austin with a Lego tower he built. And playing in a fort made of garage sale boxes. He and the little girls (especially them!) were bad about getting into the garage sale stuff and finding toys and treasures they loooooved. Supposedly--they'd forgotten all about them until they saw them in the pile.
Austin with a Lego tower he built. And playing in a fort made of garage sale boxes. He and the little girls (especially them!) were bad about getting into the garage sale stuff and finding toys and treasures they loooooved. Supposedly--they'd forgotten all about them until they saw them in the pile.
Father's Day
Lauren. I don't even remember what she was doing this day. Looking like a rock star?! She put on tons and tons of make up and thought she looked sooo beautiful. Now, I have no problem w/ the girls dressing up and playing with their play make up.
But check out her nails! See the polish all the way down her fingers and hands?! Well, it was also splattered all over the bathroom tile--counter and floor--and toilet, and even on one cupboard door! I was so mad at her and told her she was not allowed to use nail polish again till we were at our new house. And then she could do it outside!
Lock info, paint samples, new house listing, yellow notebook filled w/ new house info, inspectors, people to clean carpets, do tile, fix roof, etc.
June 25 was our garage sale. The pictures are bad b/c (bye bye, brain, again!!) the camera was set on Tungsten, and Brian didn't know, and took these pictures on about as opposite conditions from Tungsten as you can get: this gray, misty, foggy morning. But he didn't know. I should have switched the camera back to auto white balance (I usually do...like I said, bye bye, brain!!) I color corrected them, but they're still bad.
Julia made cupcakes and the kids sold most of them. Before, we've had all the cupcakes sell, so that was kind of a surprise they didn't. But not a big deal, as we ate the rest! ;)
We had sooo many kids clothes, we ran out of tables. Brian and I rigged up tables using large boxes. The toddler bed mattress and the ironing board. We already had all our tables (not our big dining table) and coffee and end tables out there. And we borrowed two tables and the clothes rack from a friend. And rigged up a table using our sheet of plywood. We still couldn't fit all the clothes on them! We had more than one person ask in disbelief, "How many kids do you have?!" ROFL!! We did get rid of almost all of it though!
Julia helped set things out and keep the items as neat as we could.
We sold most of what we set out. We were surprised our green glider rocker/ottoman didn't sell. Several people looked at it and said it was a good price, but didn't buy it for whatever reason.
Many, many Popsicles were eaten this summer. The kids always have to eat them outside b/c they make such a mess! That, and it's good for them to get out in the fresh air. :D
Lauren. I don't even remember what she was doing this day. Looking like a rock star?! She put on tons and tons of make up and thought she looked sooo beautiful. Now, I have no problem w/ the girls dressing up and playing with their play make up.
But check out her nails! See the polish all the way down her fingers and hands?! Well, it was also splattered all over the bathroom tile--counter and floor--and toilet, and even on one cupboard door! I was so mad at her and told her she was not allowed to use nail polish again till we were at our new house. And then she could do it outside!
Lock info, paint samples, new house listing, yellow notebook filled w/ new house info, inspectors, people to clean carpets, do tile, fix roof, etc.
June 25 was our garage sale. The pictures are bad b/c (bye bye, brain, again!!) the camera was set on Tungsten, and Brian didn't know, and took these pictures on about as opposite conditions from Tungsten as you can get: this gray, misty, foggy morning. But he didn't know. I should have switched the camera back to auto white balance (I usually do...like I said, bye bye, brain!!) I color corrected them, but they're still bad.
Anyway! Brian and I told the kids for a few weeks that if we made enough money, we'd take them to see Cars 2 at the drive-in. Of course with all our stuff, we sold plenty for that outing! I doubted a garage sale would be even worth our time, as we made a measly $90 some odd dollars at our last one.
Julia made cupcakes and the kids sold most of them. Before, we've had all the cupcakes sell, so that was kind of a surprise they didn't. But not a big deal, as we ate the rest! ;)
We had sooo many kids clothes, we ran out of tables. Brian and I rigged up tables using large boxes. The toddler bed mattress and the ironing board. We already had all our tables (not our big dining table) and coffee and end tables out there. And we borrowed two tables and the clothes rack from a friend. And rigged up a table using our sheet of plywood. We still couldn't fit all the clothes on them! We had more than one person ask in disbelief, "How many kids do you have?!" ROFL!! We did get rid of almost all of it though!
One lady, pregnant with a little girl, bought a bunch of baby girl clothes. Then came back again for more. She said we had such nice things, and priced great! Then, Sunday, I got an email response to our Craigslist sale ad from this lady. She wrote that I had such amazing clothes, and could she buy the remaining baby girl things? I sold her the last 4 boxes (of non-Gymboree anyway. That's going to consignment or online ;) ). Yay! Glad to be free of them. And glad to help someone out who appreciated the cute little things. :D And, as my friend says, be glad you can bless someone else.
Then, there were a few people who would roll a shirt inside a pants, to hide it, and try to get both for 25 cents. That irritated me. Because I gave most people an even better deal than a quarter each if they just asked. Grrrr.... Made me feel like they were stealing from the garage sale! Goodness!
Julia helped set things out and keep the items as neat as we could.
We sold most of what we set out. We were surprised our green glider rocker/ottoman didn't sell. Several people looked at it and said it was a good price, but didn't buy it for whatever reason.
And, we made enough $$ to go see Cars 2 at the drive-in. We brought pizza, popcorn, and other snacks. It was reeeeeally cold that night and I was glad to have Caroline to sit with, and blankets to bundle up in.
Many, many Popsicles were eaten this summer. The kids always have to eat them outside b/c they make such a mess! That, and it's good for them to get out in the fresh air. :D
Austin is still liking karate. June 29 Brian took this w/ his phone--I *think* it was the day Austin earned two stripes! That is really good, to earn two on one testing day. Last week he earned another stripe, so now he has a white belt with 4 yellow stripes. We think (still not totally sure how the stripe/belt system works) he gets a yellow belt w/ a white stripe down the center length next. ???
And that is the update for June. I tried to keep it short, but it still turned out long. :D
No comments:
Post a Comment