Up to my eyeballs in paperwork and deadlines

Selling a house and buying a house at the same time is a lot of stress :(  Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Then there's the negotiation at every step in the process, setting up appointments with mortgage brokers, house inspectors, attorneys, and other professionals for EACH house and EACH set of buyers and sellers. I don't remember our first mortgage application being this complicated, but our finances were simpler then and we weren't on a 30-day possession timeline. By the way, 30 days is very little time.

Maybe the process has changed, too, in the last 6 years :)

In related news, Bobby and I were there in the maple leaf house when the inspection was being performed. I really, really liked that experience. I could see how thorough the inspection was: every window, every doorknob, every light switch...every single thing in that house was tested. He measured the moisture level on suspicious-looking ceiling spots. He answered every question I could think of. It was an enlightening experience, and actually pretty fun. At one point, I asked if the kitchen was rigged for a gas stove. Our Realtor just pulled the stove from the wall himself so we could have a look! The inspector called him a stud for it. Cracked me up.

All in all, the interior of the home is in good shape. It's much larger than I had remembered. Each bedroom has its own enormous closet. The tile work isn't as hideous as I had remembered, either. And I just kept looking out that sliding glass door at the expanse of the yard..."fruit trees here, garden beds there, there, and there, chicken coop back there, compost bin definitely right there...and maybe the kids will play out there every once in a while, too" ;) The interior was comfortable, but I was drawn to the windows wherever I went, just drinking in all that new green space to play with.

An oak tree in the north east corner of the yard suggests we will be battling squirrels quite often. I may end up renting a few plots in the community garden across the street just so I can harvest some sweet corn  and tomatoes every once in a while. My poor, future peach trees. Will I ever get a harvest from you? Or, *gasp* we may need to acquire a dog to keep those squirrels out of my orchard. I swore off pets long ago, but a farm dog is a totally different story.

The attic and crawlspace have had some serious water leakage and will need repairs and professional treatment for mold, but those aren't deal-breaking problems. Also, the furnace can't seem to get hot air to any of the vents sooooooo far from it. There are affordable fixes for that, too. We're moving ahead with our offer and application.

Now if I could only find the motivation to start packing!

Paintrlite

Alice created this masterpiece on Bobby's smartphone while I was dozing next to them in my bed. I never thought I'd be so tired as to sleep through something like that.

It's a picture of me after I've eaten a grape popsicle. Purple juice all over my mouth and dripping down my legs. I'm, um, flattered?

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, lets see.  It has been a while since I last wrote and a lot has happened since then.  First Susan left for a quick trip to California.  She was gone for about a week and I got to go solo with the kids.  While she was away we got an offer on our current house and consequently made an offer on a different house. So there was a lot of paper signing and scanning/e-mailing that happened that week.  Hopefully the financing will all go through just fine and we will be in our new house by Christmas.

One of the big things that happened while Susan was gone is that Robert started getting very nervous when we leave him anywhere.  I think it has something to do with Susan leaving.  He is doing fine now, but he has really bonded with me and now will cry out for me before he asks for Susan.  This has become a problem in church, where he can see me sitting on the stand, but cannot go up to hug me and get some comfort.

Thanksgiving was fun.  We got together with some friends.  It was a fairly laid back holiday.  We did the turkey, gravy, stuffing, and a pie.  They did rolls, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and two other pies.  Neither of us felt overwhelmed and the kids played together very well.  It made the whole experience a good one.

BOUGHT!

With just a little negotiation, we find ourselves newly betrothed to the "maple leaf" house. So happy! So much work to do in such a short time. If all goes well, we'll be closing on it the week before Christmas. I've already planned out the garden and orchard out back, I know where I want to put our Christmas tree, and I'm mentally setting up the guest bedroom for Bobby's parents :)

It's bigger than we were originally looking for, but the location and lot are spot-on. The house itself has a brick exterior, bay windows in front, 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, separate family room, and a wide, sunny, green back yard with decent-sized patio. We have friends already living just a few doors down from it. They tell us there's another family next door to us with kids our kids' ages. It's a quiet neighborhood, mature, and closer to everything we do most often. I am very, very pleased.

A couple drawbacks: 1) needs new kitchen appliances, washer, and dryer, 2) bathrooms chock-full of colored porcelain (avocado and mustard, mostly). We'll want to update the kitchen and light fixtures in many ways, but that's all cosmetic. Purely aesthetic. It's a functionally sound house. We'll let the inspector determine how structurally sound it is :)

Now to start the not-so-fun part: packing, cleaning old house, cleaning new house, moving stuff, unpacking. Maybe it's time for another purge.

SOLD!

I was casually packing for my pre-Thanksgiving trip to California, realizing I would have another 6 hours of leisurely waiting at home before heading out, and the thought actually crossed my mind, "Wouldn't it be funny if someone called to see the house this afternoon? I might actually have time to clean it." Ten minutes later, the phone rings and schedules a showing that evening at 5:30...right when I had planned to leave. That was okay, though, since I had oodles of time to clean and it turns out the first leg of my journey was flexible.

I cleaned out the fridge first...why? I don't know. I guess I didn't want to start the real work too early. Kids have a way of messing it up again if you give them enough time. We cooked the rest of the gingerbread dough into Ninjabread men. I even had time to decorate them. Then I started the hard work of putting everything away and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. It had been a couple months since someone came to see the house. I made spiced apple cider in the crockpot. We watched Baby V again, which kept Alice well-occupied during the last part of the cleaning and organizing marathon. I bundled up the kids, dropped off Baby V, met Bobby for dinner at the Apple Dumpling, and took off towards Chicago. Bobby tells me the young couple was still there when he got back from dinner at 6:15pm. I took that as a good sign :)

The next morning, we had an offer. An insultingly low one, but we still countered. And over the course of a day with emails and phone calls across two time zones, we agreed on a price. It sold!

Still can't believe it. Really. Not our house anymore. It's what I wanted, right? The immediate joy has passed, leaving a lingering solemnity in its place.

And now it's time to get to work.

For the Barneys

You've created a monster! A dancing, hopping, panting monster!

Choir Practice

I'm driving home from church this afternoon and Alice pipes up from the back, "Mom, you know what my favorite part about choir practice was today?"

"Hmmmm. What was it?"

"Zee-Zee-Ahhhhhhhhh! Zee-Zee-Ahhhhhhhh! Will you sing that for me?"

"You mean the warm ups?"

"And there's another one with mmmmm's"

"Is it may-o-may-o-may-o-may-o-may?"

"Yeah! Zee-Zee-Ahhhhhhh. Mayo-mayo-may. That's my favorite."

Robert pipes up, "Zee-eee-ahhhh. Zee-eee-ahhhhh. Mayo!" He's frightfully close to on-key.

I think, "Crazy, awesome kids. Why not?"

We've been warming up our voices pretty much all day. During quiet time, Alice was playing some elaborate game with at least three different characters (I could tell that from the different "voices" she used for each one). There was a lot of warming up going on. Later, she tells me they were practicing for a performance and she had written down all the music for them in English and Spanish:

She sounded out "Zee-Eee-Ahhhhhhhh" on her own and put the "Mayo" bits in Spanish.

I'll say it again. Crazy, awesome kids.

Family photo shoots

When I pull out the camera to record something cute, it usually turns into a family photo shoot. Alice inevitably asks, "Can I have a turn, Mommy?" Then Robert sees Alice with "the shiny toy with buttons and lights" and begs for a turn when she's done, "Bwah! Al-ee. Done! Done!" (He does call her Al-ee sometimes. A name he certainly made up himself.)

Here are a few gems from our photo shoots this week. Yes, that's plural:

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well this week has been fairly normal.  Work has been a bit difficult.  We have been trying to fix an annoying bug that shows up once a day, but we have no idea what is really causing it.  Alice and Robert have not reacted very well to the time change.  They have been staying up too late at night, which has caused them to be a bit grumpy during the day, but they are slowing returning to normal

Sunlight

I'm double-checking our financial picture and comparing it to our goals. It looks like we may be able to put an offer on a house soon, as long as we don't close on it until January or February. This is exciting news. And there's a story to go with it:

Buddy and I are heading home from aerobics this morning and we take a quick side-trip to see the house that is my current favorite in this crazy home buying game. I just have to see it again now that something might actually happen soon. We drive up and there are three tall maple trees that I had never noticed before. The whole front yard, driveway, and sidewalk is a flutter of brilliant red and orange leaves. A breeze shuffles the colors and suddenly the sun bursts out from behind the clouds. The whole world is brighter just right here and just for an instant. I gasp. Buddy snorts in his asleep. We turn around and head home in silence.

I don't think this experience was a 'sign', and that's not why I chose to share it here. It was just striking and beautiful in a way that I like striking and beautiful. This house has its drawbacks, believe me, like raking millions of brilliantly red and orange leaves every fall :) It's not a perfect house. I just really like it.

Alice Answers the MEME

Alice's Answers:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:

1. Girly Girl
2. Alice
3. iyes (as spelled by Alice describing what Robert calls her)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:

1. Pajamas
2. Tattoos (rub on that do not go away)
3. Smile

THREE THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:

1. More princess dolls
2. A real tiara (Daddy, there's more then three things I want)
3. Grad-ma and Grand-pa at my birthday party (and a baby barbie disney princess baby doll)

THREE PEOPLE WHO YOU HOPE WILL DO THE MEME:

1. Will
2. Yikes I don't know

THREE THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:

1. Slept
2. Listened to stories on my CD player
3. looked at books

THREE PEOPLE YOU LAST TALKED TO ON THE PHONE:

1. I don't know I never talked on the phone

THREE THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO DO TOMORROW:

1. Go to preschool
2. Play with baby dolls
3. Do everything I want

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS:

1. Punch
2. Juice
3. Water

THREE THINGS THAT MADE YOU SMILE TODAY:

1. Thinking about a baby barbie disney princess doll
2. Putting a baby on my head (she is currently doing it with her baby doll)
3. Playing a drawing guessing game in primary.  Her teachers didn't guess it was her friend from preschool, even with a lot of hints.

Oodles of Ideas

I happened upon this in a semi-random sampling of the non-fiction aisles in our library's Children's Department:

http://www.amazon.com/Tasha-Tudors-Old-Fashioned-Gifts-Occasions/dp/0679209816

Pure gold. I'm goggling every page and planning to make (almost) every delightfully old-fashioned (which does NOT necessarily mean simple) gift including wool pom-pom bunnies, miniature hat boxes, pinafores, hand-cut valentines, and birthday snappers packed with a handmade paper hat, a personalized limerick, and a small gift. Oh yeah.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

The big news this week was of course halloween.  After Alice's previous trick or treating opportunities, we decided that we did not need to go out that evening to anyones houses.  She didn't even notice.  We did do a Yahoo! trick or treating thing, which was fun.  Alice was very sad that she didn't win the costume contest, but it is hard to beat custom made jawa costumes with light up eyes.  The rest of the week was fairly typical.

Sheep Meme

Hmmm. Perhaps I should have completed this meme on any day besides Sunday. It's a good thing there's a Wikipedia article to explain/clarify anything, eh? Even LDS worship service lingo.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Mommy
2. Alice's Mommy
3. Susan

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Stickers
2. Contacts
3. Brown socks

THREE THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:
1. Sleep
2. Sustainable ideas for me to become a better Visiting Teacher
3. Can't really think of a third one..."very badly" isn't something I feel that often

THREE PEOPLE WHO YOU HOPE WILL DO THE MEME:
1. Ummmmm. Bobby.
2. Alice
3. Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. Make your voice heard!

THREE THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:
1. Date night swap
2. Worked on a secret Christmas gift
3. Cleaned up after the date night swap

THREE PEOPLE YOU LAST TALKED TO ON THE PHONE:
1. Neighbor asking for a ride (Saturday)
2. Wrong number (Friday)
3. Bobby asking when date night was supposed to start (Friday)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO DO TOMORROW:
1. Aerobics
2. Grocery shopping
3. Diaper laundry

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS:
1. Water
2. Fresh lemonade
3. Cocoa

THREE THINGS THAT MADE YOU SMILE TODAY:
1. Robert sitting through Sacrament prayers for the first time...ever
2. Sitting and chatting with my husband during Sunday School
3. Robert happily sharing his snacks with Alice after she had finished her own. He learned that from her, actually, which amazes me on many levels. They just came that way.

Thoughts on Lifelong Friends

I've been thinking a lot recently about how life will change when all of our kids are in school. It was more fun raking leaves with kids running around and having fun than it ever was raking them alone in quieter times. I'm starting to see how people can eventually miss this chapter of their lives. Unfortunately, I'm already beginning to miss the people from this chapter in my life.

When we first moved to Illinois, Bobby's dad told us that the friends we made here would be our dearest friends for the rest of our lives. I didn't believe him. How on earth could this place be any different from everywhere else I had lived and made friends? It turns out that it's not the place that's important, but the stage of life. These truly are the best friends I've ever had. And even when they move away, we're still close (well, as close as I get to "close"). I never would have believed it without experiencing it myself. There's just something about that "new family with infant" stage that sticks people together like glue. Anyway, it gets harder and harder for me to make new friends as my kids grow up and my life becomes more and more different from the lives of new grad students moving in every summer. I sometimes wonder if I've passed that unique window of opportunity that Bobby's dad so wisely brought to my attention. I wonder if it's too late to make lifelong friends. I do have good friends, of course. More than I can manage to see regularly most weeks, and I've never had that problem before :) It's a fine problem to have.

I do wonder about the future, though. Most of these good friends are slated to leave at some point. They have no intention of staying. And while each one of them will certainly graduate to a "lifelong friend" relationship, I still like to have someone to sit by at functions, someone to swap date nights, and someone to invite to a birthday party. Y'know? What's more concerning is that I will have a child in school next year. Moms with kids in school tend to have very busy, very full, very complex lives that are hard to penetrate. I've tried several times ;) The ease and flexibility of toddlerhood has passed, even if there's still a toddler in the home. Life is rigid again. It's different. It's harder to begin new friendships. So what happens when friends leave faster than I can make new ones? Is that the next chapter? Does one throw her life into her family and coast on those friendships that she made before? Will I emerge at the other end with an empty nest and few friends to call my own? If so, I need someone to tell me now so I can prepare for it.

(Ever So Many) More Leaves

We had a fun little playdate in the leaves yesterday. It was probably the last warm and dry day we'll see in a long, long time. Alice was our photographer.

This little sweetie is one month younger than Robert. Alice did her hair. I can't decide if I invite this cutie over more for me or for Alice, but we both have a great time with her.

Buddy had more fun pushing the rake into people than into the leaves.

Man, I need a haircut. 

Robert asked nicely for another playdate with the car, so I let him in. Alice happened upon him just as he happened upon a piece of candy left behind. To his credit, he brought it straight to me, not entirely sure what it was.

Alice wanted to take a picture of someone in the leaf pile. Neither of the babies felt like it and I certainly wasn't up to it, so she decided on a self-portrait.

We raked and bagged all the leaves. A storm blew in overnight. Our lawn now looks more full of leaves than ever *sigh* but at least it's a temporary kind of  futile "invisible progress" work. The trees will eventually run out of leaves to drop, unlike my sink and its dishes.

Hug!

We are all driving home from St. Louis last weekend and I'm passing lunch back to Buddy one course at a time. He had slept through much of Alice's lunch earlier. The ham and bread make him very happy. Silly, actually. A minute or two later, I hear him straining and saying, "Huuuuug! Huuuuuug!" A hug? What on earth is he talking about? I look back and can't see anything out of the ordinary, but he's got that crazy grin on his face. He spreads his knees apart and I can see a very smashed pile of ham and bread in his crotch. His knees snap shut again and he strains while he squeezes his knees together,  "Huuuuuuuuug! (giggle giggle)"

Mmmmm. Crotch-hug sandwich.

Halloween 2011

Here are pictures of our Halloween celebrations this year. Robert was dressed as a tooth and Alice had planned for months to be a dentist. I whipped up a snazzy kid-size lab coat for her last month. Alice managed to attend all three parties in three different costumes, and not one of them was a dentist.

Mothers and More Halloween Parade, Friday, October 28th

Me, Tooth, and Tooth Fairy

Protective Tooth Fairy, Grateful Tooth, lots of friends

Urbana Ward Trunk or Treat, Saturday, October 29th

Barbie bride. The umbrella cape is her veil.

Y!Boo Trick or Treat, Monday, October 31st

Bobby, Tooth, and Princess Barbie (though it's exactly what she wore to church yesterday)

 

I had hopes that her dentist costume would eventually earn a showing, but it wasn't a complete surprise to me that she chose somewhat more traditional (and traditionally Alice) costumes to wear. I have a girly girl. Through and through.

Robert took to the trick-or-treating habit like a pro. Candy was eagerly sought for, gratefully received, and devoured with care:

 

A few more pictures just for fun: