One Box

One Box. That's what I got packed yesterday. We are moving in less than two weeks and I have one box packed. One box a day is not going to get the job done. I'll have to be a little more industrious.

Here's the problem. Not only do I have to pack, but I still have to run a normal household and take care of the business ends of buying and selling a home. Yesterday, I was still grocery shopping and doing laundry instead of packing. Luckily, I have had some generous offers of people willing to watch JJ and help pack so I think I'll take everyone up on their offers.

One down, a million more to go.

A new home

So what great and fabulous present did I get for my birthday? A new house. Boy, Jer really knows how to please a girl. We got final word that our offer for the house was accepted and so, if all goes well on both sides, we'll have a new home in less than a month.

They say in this economy, the hardest part is selling the house, but that was not our experience. We drove by between 40 and 50 houses and went inside about 25. Each one had lots of nice things, but always one really, really wrong thing. So we had to expand our search to include a few surrounding cities and finally we found a great house, in a great neighborhood.

In the interest of privacy, I'm not going to divulge too much information, like where it is, but if you're family, ask someone, and if you a friend, you'll have to wait for the change of address e-mail. I'll post pictures and a description later. Moving will begin on the 14th of Aug and will continue through (well, honestly for the next year, but the majority should be done by) the 18th. Feel free to volunteer your services anytime during that period. Hee!Hee!

Sometimes you just gotta dance

Last night, after looking at houses, we stopped by Wendy's for dinner. Country music was playing, and not the good kind, but the really twangy, my dog died, my truck broke down, and my wife left me kind of country music.

Towards the end of dinner, JJ starts bouncing around and shaking his head. Jer asked him what he was doing and he said, "This music just makes me want to dance." Jer alternated between thoroughly disgusted that he was dancing to country music and completely amused.

Emotional

Yesterday was a little bit of an emotional morning. I woke up with the thought that I really should make sure that I take some pictures in the coming weeks of JJ's favorite things to do in our backyard. Things like climbing on the play set, digging in the sandbox and mowing the lawn. Then I started thinking about how amazing our backyard is and how much JJ will miss being able to play and then the reality of leaving set in and the tears started flowing. None of the houses we've looked at have playsets and while we're looking for a backyard big enough to put one it, it will probably take until next summer before we actually get one.

That same morning was the last day of a recertification class I was taking and JJ was a little distraught that I was leaving. He said, "I will come with you to school." There were tears, mostly mine, but we got through the day and he had a great time at grandma's house. I am once again so grateful that I get to stay home with him.

So, here is an ode to one of JJ's favorite and Jer's least favorite Saturday activities.

Under Contract

After putting our house on the market exactly a week ago, it is officially under contract. We have just been so lucky to have this work out this fast in this kind of market. We will begin a full force search for a new house next week and I am so excited. Hopefully, everything will work out as well and as quickly as this has.

For Sale

As if I didn't have enough to do and was 6 months pregnant to boot, we have decided to sell our house. It officially went on the market on Wednesday. We realize this isn't a great time to sell a home, but it is the perfect time to buy one and we will be needing some more space soon. We've had 5 showings and actually had an offer, but it fell through. Buyers know that a lot of sellers are desperate, and our first "buyers" were asking for a lot from us, but we're not in a desperate situation, so our counter offer wasn't as generous as they were hoping for.

Not to worry, lots more time. The only irritation is having to be out of the house for all these showings. But I'm looking forward to a bigger house with room for all our stuff.

New Book Reviews

This weeks recommendation is any book by Amy Krause Rosenthal. She has 2 cute books about the lessons learned while baking and sharing cookies, but the one we loved this week was Spoon. Spoon is generally happy with his life, but feels like his friends knife, fork, and chopsticks are a little cooler. But his mom helps him see that he gets to do fun things that his friends can't.

Our other recommendation is the Llama, Llama series by Anna Dewdney. They are cute rhyming stories and I love that the main character is a llama. You don't get a lot of stories about llamas.

Happy Reading!