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April 29, 2006
Relo: Day 2
8:45 (mile 525) We get on the road. Katie falls asleep almost immediately.
10:30 (mile 653) We enter Alabama. The terrain instantly looks different, less mountainous.
10:50 (mile 673) We have to stop for gas. Katie wakes up. As we drive into Fort Payne for lunch, I realize we are fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine. We have found the Sock Capitol of the world! We ate at Arby's. Pricey, but good. Next time, I'll make sure to ask for no mustard. Damn that stuff was spicy! Oh, and the kids sandwich was just like mine, but with the crusts cut off, no mayo, mustard, lettuce or tomato. Kinda sad, actually.
12:00 We get back on the road. It's like we can't stop for less than an hour.
1:00 (mile 750) Halfway!
1:40/12:40 (mile 800) I notice that the time has changed. Not really sure where.
2:00/1:00 (mile 826) We stop for snacks and get some gas. I get to recover the chicken that has been bock bocking every time we hit a bump. There were a lot of bumps. I achieve a new level of white trash by breastfeeding ouside the gas station, sitting on the ground leaning on the building and feeding Jamie M&M's.
2:35/1:35 Back on the road. Both girls falls asleep. I'm in heaven, aside from the fact that I can't feel my ass.
3:35/2:35 (mile 900) We enter Mississippi.
5:40 (mile 1055) We hit the Mississippi River, and enter Louisiana.
6:30/5:30 (mile 1095) I actually price checked a couple hotels. Ok, two, and they're right next to each other. We're socked in and waiting for Rex to catch up, and for the sugar to wear off so I get hungry.
Posted by me at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
Relo: Night 1
Sucked.
Thankfully, Rex got my voicemail and met up with us at the motel. If nothing else, it saved us from eating breakfast bars and fruit roll-ups, because there was no was I was going to put the kids back in the can to pick up dinner.
For some reason, though, I couldn't sleep. Neither could Jamie. While I didn't get any feet in my face, she spent some time rolling and playing and occasionally talking. And Katie, well, she screamed herself to sleep.
One of the cats knocked over the litter box.
Bubba knocked the cooler off the desk.
Katie woke up (duh). I nursed her back to sleep.
Katie woke up early and wasn't having any of our efforts to put her back to sleep. By now, Jamie is out COLD. She slept through Rex's shower, and then I woke her up so she could shower with me. Katie gave her a big hug. Jamie gave her a big hug and said, "Wake up, sleephead!"
And so we started Day 2.
Posted by me at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
Relo: Day 1
10:45 (mile 0) We hit the road. I'm becoming quite skilled at driving while crying. Katie immediately falls asleep. Jamie talks for literally 45 minutes straight.
12:00 (mile 100) Jamie has to pee, so we stop at BK for lunch. We go before we eat, then after Jamie says she has to poop. She doesn't.
1:00 Back on the road.
1:35 (mile 140) Jamie says she has to pee again. I ask her to hold it.
1:50 (mile 157) Katie is so bored she's already eating her toes. Jamie tells me she still needs the potty.
2:18 (mile 187) Jamie tells me every now and then that she still needs to potty, so I stop and she goes on her potty on the side of the road. She really did have to go!
(mile 288) We stop for gas and munchies, but mostly to give the kids a break. I stop at an exit that has just one gas station, and the grassy patch there is coated with trash. We sit on a small patch of recently poured cement that looks clean except for a couple pieces of gum.
4:30 Back on the road.
5:20 (mile 355) I've been passing crackers back to Katie through Jamie. I have no idea what she's doing with them, but they keep disappearing. She screams for a little while, then falls asleep.
5:40 (mile 374) Jamie succumbs to sleep. Ahhh, peace.
6:00 (mile 401) We enter Tennessee.
6:14 (mile 416) We pass our first Sonic!
7:00 (mile 480) Katie wakes, screams, goes back to sleep, repeat. I start looking for a hotel. I have no cell signal, so I can't reach Rex to tell him where I'm stopping.
7:40 (mile 520) I can't take the screaming anymore. I pull into a Motel 6 and use their phone to try to get Rex. The best I can do is a vm on his work phone, and hope he checks it.
8:15 I'm nursing Katie. There's a knock at the door. Thank god, Rex got the vm!
Posted by me at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2006
We're going to Texas? Alright!
I'm back. Didja miss me?
Play-by-play of the trip after I clear enough space to walk to the bathroom without tripping.
Posted by me at 10:16 PM | Comments (1)
April 22, 2006
Still
Did you know you could call to inititate electric service at 11 at night? You don't get the best customer service rep in the world, but it can be done.
The truck is packed. We still have to load up the car we're towing and the van tomorrow morning, and then we're outta here.
It still doesn't feel real.
I still can't believe we don't live here anymore.
I still can't believe all that I'm voluntarily giving up.
Posted by me at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)
On the road again
All my recent posts are in the moving blog. I'm too pooped to even make a link right now.
Posted by me at 9:46 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
Katezilla Returns!
Posted by me at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
The house is totally, officially, technically ours!
The money has all gone through. All the paperwork is complete.
On to the important part - internet access!
I called today to set up cable and cable modem. We knew it wasn't going to be cheap, even with their introductory rate. We used to pay right around $100 for both services (and that was just basic digital cable, no frills). It was $85 for the first 6 months, then goes up to the regular rate of $95. Whew! Then he told me that he since we were installing both, he would give me 50% off of the internet installation. It would only be $50! Add that to the $42.95 they wanted to install the cable, and I told him i was going to check out DSL.
Because Rex works for SBC/AT&T and we're actually going to be living in an area they provide servce to, we're eligible for a discount. We weren't sure exactly how much the discount was, we weren't all that excited. I called and found out that they cover everything except the taxes for a phone line and the DSL! And we'll get a small discount on Dish Network, too.
What I didn't manage to do was get the electric turned on. I wonder if they work on the weekends...
Posted by me at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
Almost ready to roll
We finally got the corrected HUD today, signed it, faxed it and overnighted it with a cashier's check. As soon as the mortgage company transfers their funds and ours are received, we're set.
I've started changing addresses. I saved my list from when we moved up here, so hopefully I won't miss too many.
I've set up for the gas and water/sewer/trash to be transferred to us. We've decided to get cable and a cable modem. I'll call them tomorrow to get installation set up. We still need to pick an electric company and get that set up tomorrow as well.
I ordered the washer, dryer and fridge yesterday. They should be delivered Wednesday.
I've spent the last week going to activities for the last time, saying goodbye.
This still doesn't feel quite real.
Posted by me at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Tidbits
Heh. I put this in Tidbits because it makes me giggle :)
Apparently Consumer Reports rated condoms last year. I don't remember reading the article at the time, or maybe I just didn't care, since I was 18 months pregnant at the time. Anyway, turns out the particular brand and style we have is towards the bottom of the list in reliablilty.
The cheap in me says take your chances. It's a mega box, don't wanna waste that cash! I might even want a third kid, let's just leave it up to fate! Besides, I'm not in a fertile place right now (I know, I know, you CAN get pregnant while nursing, but it's less likely with the state of my body. And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.).
The rational me says we haven't agreed on a third kid yet. And now maybe isn't the best time. We should wait and make sure the crazy goes away after the move before we start taking any chances. Chuck the box!
I think I'll wait and see how nervous the possibility makes Rex :)
Posted by me at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
!!!
We own a house!
Posted by me at 10:20 PM | Comments (1)
I'm doing a little dance in my chair
We accidently closed on our house a day early.
Maybe I should start a little farther back.
By Monday, we still hadn't heard anything about closing. No paperwork, no calls from the title company giving us a time and place, no contact information information for the people who would know these things.
Today, we started making more calls to see what was going on. Up until this morning, our realtor wasn't even sure we would be able to close tomorrow because the mortgage company had gotten a copy of our contract so late.
By this afternoon, we knew we were going to be able to close tomorrow. The title company was going to email the paperwork to the notary company either today or tomorrow, and the notary would contact us.
At this point, I realized I hadn't transferred out down payment from my money market to our checking account. Oops. I got that done about 10 minutes before the market closed. With any luck, the funds will be available tomorrow. Not that big a deal, since we don't need the keys in the next couple days anyway.
While we were eating dinner, I got a voicemail from the notary. She could meet us for the closing tonight between 7 and 8. Huh? I called the realtor to see if that was ok. We called the mortgage company to see if it was ok with them. We accepted the appointment.
The only flaw in this deal is that the HUD statement has an error that no one was acailable to fix tonight. Since it isn't a form that needs to be notarized, we'll get the corrected copy tomorrow, sign it and send it in.
We own a house!
Posted by me at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
Ahh, the irony
Tom Cruise's and Brook Shield's daughters, born on the same day.
Posted by me at 9:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
It'll all come out in the wash, right?
We looked at refrigerators, washers and dryers today. Looks like we can go ahead and order them up here and have them delivered in Texas for basically nothing. I think I'm going to do that.
We made a decision on the fridge. It wasn't all that difficult. The washer was a little more complicated, but once we decided to get it at Sear's to combine delivery charges, it narrowed the choices significantly without costing us more dough. The dryer, though, that's giving me fits.
I'd *like* the washer and dryer to match, but I don't feel the need to spend a couple extra hundred dollars to make that happen. But the list of dryers to choose from is long, and relatively undifferentiated, except by price. I wonder how much it really matters.
I think I'm going to make that decision tomorrow!
Posted by me at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
Packety packety
Well, we didn't make it to Easter, but we did get a buttload of packing done. I guess I'll have to settle for that. Most of the stuff in the basement is packed. I didn't intend to get much of the upstairs done, but I needed crap to finish off boxes, so I took what I could. Then I got motivated and packed a few more boxes worth of stuff that we won't be using for the next week.
There's still a lot of stuff, but most of it is still in use. Plus, I still have a week to pack and organize. Even better, Rex is home all week. Well, working, but here.
We leave in a week.
Posted by me at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
New colors
I decided I was sick of the green.
Changing the damn header colors turned out to be a major pain in my ass. I need to read more about how to make and edit graphics, 'cause I'm just not picking it up by messing with the program.
I like the darker blue, well, the background blue. The png->gif conversion changed it a bit, and I'm not sure how to get it to stop doing that. And the light blue? Looks a little too candy-happy blue, but I'm tired and I wanna go to bed. And we're moving soon, so I may not have time to change it anytime soon.
Posted by me at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)
Making her first political statement
Posted by me at 4:27 PM | Comments (2)
April 15, 2006
Who needs to pack?
I need to pack!
I've gotten all of two more boxes packed. It's getting close to crunch time.
Tomorrow, my dad is taking the girls to my aunt's house for Easter with his family. Rex and I will be staying home to pack. Byt tomorrow evening, we need to have pretty much everything in the basement packed, and as much as the stuff upstairs done as we can get away with.
I really want to be able to go with the girls. I want to see them hunt eggs again with my cousin's kids. I want to say goodbye to my family.
There's just not enough time to do everything.
Posted by me at 8:33 PM | Comments (0)
A whole lotta to-do about a lazy un-bear
Posted by me at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
Which is natural, and which is full of cheese?
Posted by me at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
If only the memory of summer lasted long enough to get me through the cold
I knew I should have saved before I stood up. Another post bites the dust.
I've decided that winter is like childbirth. The last few days have been so gorgeous, so green and sunny and gloriously warm, that I can't believe we're leaving. I've already forgotten how suck-ass the last 6 months were.
I took a walk with the girls yesterday to get the mail. The flat part of the driveway has trees growing on both sides. Deer are forever running across right in front of you, and if you look closely, you can see them wandering around in the trees. Sometimes they are close enough that you could hit them if you threw something out the car window.
Jamie was having a blast, picking up sticks and leaves, running her hands in the dirt, chattering and singing. Katie loved riding on the Toro the best, bouncing and cooing the entire ride (we rode partway - Katie is getting too heavy for me to carry 1.2 miles without a sling or anything, and sometimes even with.) She kept grabbing the steering wheel, which almost caused a few accidents, but made her giggle.
I can't believe that I'm giving up all this space. I love the green grass so much it hurts sometimes. (The grass in Texas isn't as foot friendly, and often contains fire ants.) The horses would be such a blast when the kids got older. (Of course, the "kid" horses will be dead by then, one already is!) So would the creek, and the pine trees and the trails and the chores. It's so hard to leave these things that I love and hate with the same thought.
Of course, I'm pretty sure Texas is where we need to be. I can feel winter coming already.
Posted by me at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)
Still mostly just standing
Posted by me at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
No pictures of the hippo, though
Posted by me at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Slam dunk
There are a lot of days I feel sort of sheepish about moving back to the exact same town we left a year and a half ago.
Today is not one of them.
Katie will be due for her one year well check two weeks after we get back to Texas, and I already have an appointment with a pediatrician I know and like. She's not taking new patients, but since she remembered Jamie, she was willing to take Katie on as well.
Posted by me at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)
Maybe they won't have to shell out for Playboy this month
If you have a headache and you eat ice cream, does the ice cream headache cancel the original headache out?
Yesterday, the sun made everything happy. Today, I think I got too much sun. We spent an entire day *around* the zoo, but only about two and a half hours *at* the zoo. Traffic sucked, parking didn't suck because it wasn't available, and when we finally managed to get a space and get in, the place was still packed.
I think Jamie was already tired by the time we got to the zoo, but the hippo made quite an impression on her. So much that she wanted to go back and see him again. We stopped in to check him out on our way to the car, and got to watch a zookeeper pet him, get him to open his HUGE mouth, and give him a banana for a "treat". I say "treat", because the zookeeper threw the banana into his gaping maw, right down his throat. He didn't chew, and unless hippos are made different from other mammals, he never tasted it. After the demostration, the hippo finally got into the water, took a drink and swam. I think Jamie was finally content.
I don't think Katie got much of a thrill from the zoo. She won't fall asleep in the stroller, and when I tried to nurse her to sleep in front of the sea lion, all I managed to do was provide masturbation material for a group of teenage boys. I don't think the poor kids even saw anything worth getting excited about, but I got the impression they didn't see it that way.
When we got home, Katie finally got her chance to "run". She must have made a dozen or two laps around me, crawling after a box of dominoes she wanted to dump. It sounds cruel, but she was laughing and giggling like this was the best game ever.
Oh, and the headache thing? The ice cream makes it worse.
Posted by me at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)
Passing on her years of wisdom
Posted by me at 11:36 AM | Comments (1)
April 10, 2006
Today was a good day
I really think it had a lot to do with the weather.
It's no secret that I'm a sunny, warm weather kind of girl. Today only got into the mid 60's, but we were outside, playing in the mulch, feeding the geese (that we aren't supposed to feed. Suck it.), walking around and just sitting in the grass. We even ate a picnic dinner out in the barn while Dad took a break from loading hay.
All of this wonderfulness may have had something to do with Jamie being an angel at lunch. Apparently, Macaroni Grill is a little more formal than I remembered, and I don't think they were thrilled to have two slightly frumpy women come in with 4 kids 3 and under between us. Katie was pooped at this point, since she was about 2 hours past due for her first nap, and the bread was only going to hold her off for so long. We survived, then headed back to the playground area for some more sun.
I can't even think of a lowpoint for the day. So on that note, I'm going to bed :)
Posted by me at 9:46 PM | Comments (1)
She was having a blast in Daddy's new manties
Posted by me at 11:34 AM | Comments (2)
Her version of "Mr. Mom"
"There's gum in Bubba's hair, sweet 'tatoes in his lazy chair.."
Posted by me at 9:29 AM | Comments (1)
April 9, 2006
God I miss Sonic
Posted by me at 11:32 AM | Comments (2)
Daddy's girl
"Your boobs are big!"
Posted by me at 9:28 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2006
Lazy dayz
I'm really going to miss sleeping in in the mornings.
Katie slept til 6:30 this morning, then I got up and nursed her. My dad was already upstairs waiting for Jamie to wake up, so he came in and got her, and then got Jamie when she woke up at 7:30.
Me? I slept in til 8:30.
Two more weeks, and all this sleep is over.
I could cry.
Posted by me at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
Get to work!
Got the Inspection Report on the perfect house today. It's not so perfect. The good news is, they're obligated to fix a lot of it, and if they don't do it to our satisfaction, I believe we have a warranty so I can make them keep coming back until they do it right, even after we close. They need to get started soon, though, since we're supposed to close in 11 days.
And move in two weeks. I've gotten exactly one box packed in the last week. I need to get on that. Rex will be home early Friday morning, which means that I need to pack my ass off from Friday afternoon through Sunday. I may even send Rex and the girls off to celebrate Easter with my dad's side of the family, although I really want to go too! And I sort of hate to have to spend a holiday alone instead of with my girls, even if it isn't one the biggies in our family.
I guess I need to get on the phone and get the realtor moving on the builder. I'd like for them to finish as many of the needed repairs as possible before I'm moved into the house and have to sit around waiting for workmen.
Posted by me at 2:29 PM | Comments (0)
Photo shoot at the mall
Posted by me at 11:31 AM | Comments (1)
I call her Mo. Mo Lasses.
An addendum to my food woes with Jamie:
She eats so slowly. So. Slowly.
If I ask her if she's full, she says no. When she continues to eat at the inverse of the speed of light, I go to take her plate away. She protests and takes a bite. Half an hour later, she might actually be done.
So do I listen to her words, or follow her actions? Is this a control thing, or just her inability to pay attention to anything for more than 3 seconds at a time?
Or should I fund her college account with the money we make from producing Ripley's Slowest Eater?
(Grr. MT ate my entry. It sounded better the first time.)
Posted by me at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)
April 7, 2006
That's what I get for sleeping
Katie took her first steps today. I know this because Jamie and my dad told me. Well, and because she took some more steps later in the day. Anyway, the point is that I missed them.
I should be more broken up about it, I suppose, except that for all I know, she's been walking around in her crib for weeks. And I got to see plenty of other steps today, although she's being perverse and only seems to walk in the presence of my dad.
I feel more badly for Rex, who not only missed her first steps, but won't be around for another week. If Katie keeps walking a little bit every day, she could be toddling around quite competently by next week. I know he hates to miss this kind of stuff.
This is coming off like a downer post, but I don't mean it to be. I'm tickled that Katie has finally started walking. I guess that I've been expecting it for so long that it's not really a surprise.
Posted by me at 9:38 PM | Comments (3)
When did she get so tall?
Posted by me at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)
April 6, 2006
She's quite the scholar
Posted by me at 9:10 AM | Comments (3)
April 5, 2006
My 04 05 06 is somewhat less springy
Posted by me at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Where I allude to my checkered past
Rex is back in New Mexico. He'll be gone until next Thursday, and I think I'm really going to miss him over the weekend. I mean, I miss him during the week, but we're used to him not being around for the better part of the day.
We went on a little tour of PETsMART today with the MOMS Club. We had a HUGE herd of kids under 5. Jamie and I have spent a lot of time in PETsMART's for one reason or another (ok, ok, I worked in one. Well, in the vet clinic in one.) we had already seen everything our guide showed us. The neat part was that he got out a few of the creatures for the kids to touch. A giant hermit crab, a very calm and relaxed guinea pig, and a blue-tongued skink.
As an added bonus, a bunch of us headed over to BK for lunch and decompression.
And this brings me to something about the way Jamie eats.
Jamie never admits to being full while there is food on her plate. I've never made her clean her plate, and I've always tried to be clear that she can stop eating when she gets full. But if you put a whole burger in front of her, she'll finish it. If you put half a burger in front of her, she'll finish it, but tell you she had enough if you offer her more.
I try to be careful about putting too much in front of her now. I'd rather get her seconds, thirds and fourths than have her eating food she isn't hungry for because for some reason she thinks she should.
I've watched some of the other kids eat lunch, and they don't seem to have any need to finish anything. They graze, leaving the table to play and coming back for bites every now and then. Jamie sits at the table until she finishes her meal. (I'm not complaining about this. I actually think it's more polite, and it certainly makes for nicer family meals at home.) Some of the kids eat two bites and call it a meal, others eat considerably more, sometimes all of one thing and none of another, or some of everything.
I'm trying very hard not to pass on my eating issues. Seems like I'm failing already.
Posted by me at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
This time we're sure. I think.
I received the contracts for the perfect house today. Rex has already left for New Mexico again, so I signed them and the FedExed them to him. Thirty-five freaking dollars! Eh, well, compared the the price of the house, that's not even chicken feed.
Still, the things I could do with $35. Yes, I'm a cheapskate.
So, the whole thing about opting out of one house and offering on the perfect house. I guess I haven't really told that story yet.
We called Wally the salesguy back Monday to see if they had moved any on the price. They came down a bit, and we came up some, and we had a deal. The rest of the evening was spent in a flurry of phonecalls to the realtor, the mortgage company and to some friends and family, letting everyone in on the change.
Here's the rundown on what we lost in the deal:
Hmm. That was less than i was thinking. I wonder if I've blocked something out of my mind already. We thought we were going to lose the application/appraisal fee, but since the appraisal hadn't actually happened, I think we'll be able to transfer that to the new house.
Closing should still be on or around April 19th, so the the truck rental is still on.
Posted by me at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2006
The next big thing
OK, I give. I have a second blog (ok, third) that I started to keep track of moving stuff. Not sure now why I didn't just make another category. I had a reason, but I've forgotten already.
In any case, the moving blog is here.
Posted by me at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
Everything was going so smoothly
I reserved a truck for our move this morning! We're set to pack up and go on the 22nd. The last time we moved, Penske was cheaper, and Rex loved the truck cause it was newish and diesel. I figured I'd go ahead and check U-Haul prices again, just to see.
U-Haul: 6 days, 1623 miles, 26' truck - $2201 and they said we couldn't tow Rex's Scion xA
Penske: 7 days, unlimited miles, 26' truck - $1385 plus $365 for a car trailer
Yeah, I went with Penske.
Then we made abother bid for the perfect house, and opted out of our current contract!
We're a bit confused, too.
I'll post a bit more about that tomorrow when we shake out all the details. Shame we couldn't manage to make this decision last week!
Posted by me at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
Rex sure was surprised to hear it
"Mama goes all the way!"
(Before you call Child Protective Services, she means I go all the way down the crooked road home, instead of taking the shortcut.)
Posted by me at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
April 2, 2006
Touching on deep thoughts
Holy crap am I tired.
I shouldn't be. The time change is in my favor right now. My dad got up with the kids this morning, and I got to stay in bed really late. Reeeeally late.
Of course, Katie got me up 3 times. And most of my "sleep in" time was interrupted by Jamie or Katie crying and laughing. I'm not a deep sleeper when it comes to my kids, and I don't fall back asleep easily for anything.
I went to a baby shower for a friend I haven't gotten to see much of in the last 5 years. She got married soon after me, but not long after she moved to Hawaii. I haven't seen her since her wedding, so it was great to reconnect, even if it was in a room full of other people, many of whom were doing the same thing.
I feel the need to note how jealous I am of her living in Hawaii. And of how much she's travelled in the last 4 years. I swear she's been everywhere! Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for her. Sometimes I just want to *be* her.
After the shower, we met my mother at the mall for dinner and some running around. The germy play area was closed, so the girls spent a bunch of time climbing up and down stairs and looking at the fountains. It occurs to me that even though I know nearly every detail of Jamie's life, I don't really know how to talk with her, and I haven't found a way to play with her that she and I both enjoy. I feel so awkward when I'm not taking care of needs or discipline.
I need to think some more on that, but right now, I'm too tired and out of it to be making rational decisions.
Posted by me at 9:33 PM | Comments (1)
I don't really need all those dishes in Texas, do I?
I have so much to do. Packing, trying to decide what stuff we're going to make the previous homeowner's fix, keeping the kids from offing themselves and each other.
So why the hell did I start reading a new book?
I've had a bunch of books on my list to read. I've been trying to find the time to read The DaVinci Code since before we moved up here. Hell, I've started it at least 3 times. I guess it just hasn't sucked me in, because I've managed to read several other books in the meantime. I joined the MOMS Club book club (heh. I typoed that as "boob") to give me some motivation to finish them in a reasonable amount of time.
This time, I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha. Five hundred freaking pages! And its sucked me in.
Posted by me at 8:49 PM | Comments (0)
Still holding out hope. For what, I'm not sure
I caved in and called Wally.
The perfect house is still for sale. I didn't ask what his price was now, and I didn't tell himi who I was. Just a quick call to find out if it was still available.
I'm back to being torn.
We haven't heard back if the seller's of our actual house if they have accepted the repairs we've asked for. Of course, we just faxed the contract addendum in today, so that's no big shock. We still have a few days left on our option perioed to back out, and I'm still not sure which way I'm leaning.
Posted by me at 8:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2006
Wishful thinking
We finally got the inspection report today. No major problems, although there are plenty of little ones. Rex and I just finished going through the list to decide which items we felt needed to be repaired. The list seems pretty long, although we left plenty of things off of it.
Part of me hoped that there would be something major wrong with the house so that we could take another crack at the perfect house. I'd try anyway, except that at this point we've sunk about $1,000 in fees and such into "our" house. The good news is that I'm less disappointed with the house we got. I'm starting to try to decorate and repair it in my head, although that's hard, since i can't remember a lot of the details.
I've emailed our list of repairs to our realtor. She negotiates them from here. I believe that the mortgage company has ordered the appraisal. Rex and I have started hammering out the details of the actual move: who will be around to help us load and unload the truck, how we're going to drive down with the girls, where we're going to sleep and what we'll eat our first night or two in the house.
It's all a bit overwhelming right now, and I suspect there are going to be some really crappy days ahead. In the end, though, I bet it will all work out!
Posted by me at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)
On the hunt
(I actually copied this post from another blog about our move. I can't seem to keep up with all my blogs!)
I’m having a really hard time writing this post. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s that I have too much. Summing things up doesn’t seem to do the whole “moving blog” concept any justice, but nobody wants to read my 3 page blow-by-blow either.
We spent last weekend in Houston, house hunting. Friday consisted of checking out a new subdivision and looking at a floor plan we loved on paper, but was lacking in person. (For some reason I can’t let this go – the flow and layout of the house were great, but the proportions were off – the auxiliary bedrooms were just too small for the size of the house.)
Saturday, we met up with Wendy, our realtor, bright and early. She is an interesting combination of friend, former neighbor and former realtor. The first two houses we looked at were ruled them out for the same reason that I loved them – they were in our old neighborhood. I loved the old neighborhood – the location is great, the people are nice, the park was close, but the property values just weren’t appreciating well. After the hit we took when we sold our first house, I don’t think Rex or I are willing to take the chance of making the same mistake twice.
On to the next subdivision. Imperial Oaks was probably highest on our list before we even got to Texas. We have some very good friends there, the schools are decent (although not quite as good as The Woodlands) and there are homes of all ages and prices. We had two homes that topped our list on paper, and they held up in person. Those two homes are the same size on the same street and the same price, but the similarity ends there. One of the houses (pretty house) is on 2,000 feet less lot and has no sprinkler system, but it showed BEAUTIFULLY. The other (big yard house) is nice, if plain, but the space is used more effectively for the way we live our lives. The back yard is bigger, with nice trees that give it shade and privacy. But the turquoise wallpaper in the master bath that just HAS to go!
We looked at maybe half a dozen homes in that neighborhood, some very nice and some not. All of them had something that made them less desirable than pretty and big yard. We decided to go look in Spring Trails, the new subdivision we had driven through the night before. We looked through one existing home and a couple new construction homes, but they were either terrible floor plans (one had no garage, just a garage door!) or too expensive for what you got.
Then we turned into a section that was waaay out of our price range. I ran into their construction trailer just to see if they had any spec homes. Wally had one. One that they had been close to selling when the deal fell through 3 days before closing. One that they were willing to deal on considerably.
Even though this house was way our of our price range, we decided to walk through it. This house is perfect! I love the floor plan. The rooms are all big and open. The kitchen is stunning. The yard is large, in spite of the 3 car detached garage. It has tons of energy efficient and convenience features built in. It is at least $30k above the max we wanted to spend.
At this point, Rex and I were in house overload. Katie was starving and pooped after 5 hours of no food and no naps. Wendy took us back to our car, and we headed out to lunch to do some thinking and talking.
By late afternoon, Rex and I had decided to make an offer on the house with in Imperial Oaks with the big yard. We decided to offer $10k less than they were asking, figuring they would counter right in the middle and that would be fine. We headed over to Wendy’s to sign the contracts. Somewhere in the middle, we started looking at some more homes online, in our friend’s section of Imperial Oaks. There was one that looked quite promising, and the price was acceptable, so we ran off to look at one more house. It was nice, aside from the power lines in the back yard!
At this point, I was close to having a meltdown. We decided to sleep on it, and headed out to see some of Rex’s family.
The next morning, we went ahead and signed the contract and submitted our offer. By this time, neither of us could really remember the details of the house we were trying to buy, we were just going with our gut reaction from the day before. We also decided to look at our perfect house one more time, and see if we could get them to drop the price a little more. I had figured out the numbers, and we can afford that house, we just hadn’t planned on wanting to afford something that expensive.
On our way to the perfect house, we heard back on our offer, it was accepted with no counter-offer! After walking through the perfect house, we decided it really was perfect and put an offer in writing on that house, too. Then we made a mad dash for the airport.
In the end, the builder of the perfect house went up on his price instead of down. He strung us along for a while first. So as it stands, barring any inspection issues or other catastrophes, we’ll be the proud owners of a house I can barely remember as of April 19th.
Whew! And that was the short version!
Posted by me at 8:46 PM | Comments (2)