Where to start?

Soooooo much has happened. It's overwhelming to try and remember it all, much less compose it into a blog post. We've had a lot of help these days. A lot of family, too. I love our new house more every day we're in it. Robert is grumpy most of the time due to the untimely combination of a fighting a cold and cutting his 2-year molars. Poor, snotty, tired, frustrated little fellow. Two in, two to go, then he's done with teething until age 6. Woo hoo!

We're down to one car again. On Tuesday of this week we were heading to St. Louis for a temple trip and hit a patch of ice on the freeway. We spun around a couple times, went into the ditch, hit a freeway sign, and almost came spinning out of the ditch back onto the freeway before our car finally stopped. No one was hurt, thankfully, and we didn't hit anyone else, extra thankfully, or a concrete overpass (erk). Bobby's parents had Alice in their car and they were following us at the time and able to pull over and help. It's mostly a blur from that point on. The car was totaled from an insurance standpoint. We're at an awkward spot right now trying to figure out when/if to purchase a replacement vehicle. Do we get something bigger in case we have another couple kids (our current car won't fit three car seats in back)? Do we get something super small and efficient exclusively for Bobby's 2-mile commute and worry about the kid thing later?

Lots of thinking in our future, and a unique opportunity. When we were looking for a new home, proximity to the stores and services we used most often was a key priority. I even began secret plans to get rid of our second car altogether and use my bike and the bus more. It's a little earlier than I wanted to start the experiment, and December 31st is hardly the best time to start riding one's bike more in the frigid midwest, but if not now...when? So, we've decided to put the insurance check into savings and try this one-car-family thing again for a month. Work, school, shopping, medical clinic, dentist, pharmacy, and several friends literally live within 2 miles of our new home. As long as it's not actively storming or dangerously cold, there is little excuse for me to use a car. I wonder if a month is long enough to truly create a new rhythm. I want to get past "survivor" mode. Is a month long enough to generate a sustainable routine? Hmmmm. I might shoot for 100 days...April 9th, 2012. January, February, and March will probably be the hardest months. This week and the last week of the trial period should be perfectly sublime. HA HA HA! I'm crazy. And yet...

Anyway, I'm still trying to find the USB cable that will allow me to upload pictures from our camera.

I had a lovely time this week reconnecting with Bobby's parents and getting to know Jon and Brooke a little better. I stayed up way too late, ate way too much delicious food, and did way too little by way of real life (i.e. unpacking, laundry, house chores, email, blogging, etc.). It was truly a vacation! I appreciate all the Evanses who helped make it that way :) We are planning on a very, very, very quiet New Year's Eve celebration tonight with nachos supreme for dinner, a bath for the kids, movie and popcorn, and a regular bedtime. *sigh* Sounds divine. Can't wait to get started :)

If anyone has any Lowe's/Home Depot/Menards coupons or discounts they won't be using, will you please send them our way? The bathrooms are almost "done." We haven't even started with the kitchen. This house doesn't need many rigorous fixes that we can do ourselves, so we get to play around with details until help arrives later. Bobby would like to install remote-controlled ceiling fans in every bedroom. I'm looking into curtains and other decor (a new arena for me, to be sure). Then there's the yard and garden. Ooooo, I'm itching to get started. Lots more planning to go on there. Can't get a fence and garden beds installed until spring. The previous owners opted for landscape plastic and river rocks all the way around the house. They also nurtured a monstrous patch of poke weed (i.e. tap roots and beautiful clusters of purple poisonous berries) that I will be battling for many years to come. So, maybe I can start on one of those projects while the weather is still freakishly mild.

All that bus-riding and bike-riding will toughen me up for outdoor work anyway :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

I know it has been a long time since I last wrote.  A lot of that is because we have been moving and have not had internet access in our home until very recently.  Well we are back, and like Susan said I don't think we will be able to catch up with everything that has happened sine the last time I wrote.  Lets see, we first moved from our house to a temporary house.  This is because some things changes with the price of our new house, which forced the loan to go through some hoops and need to be rewritten so that resulted in us being homeless for a little less then a week.

Wonderfully we have some great friends who did not need their house for that very week, so we first moved in there, then this past Wednesday we finally closed on our new house and have moved in.  We are still putting some things away, and we have to hang the pictures on the walls, but we are finally home.

Today was Christmas.  I think this was one of the best Christmases ever.  Both Alice and Robert had a lot of fun.  I think some of that was that they took their time.  They would open up one present, and fall in love with it.  They would play with it and explore it for a while before moving on to the next one.  Part of it too was because we had a real family Christmas.  It was great to have my parents in town, but also to have my brother and his family living close enough that the house was actually full, and everyone was having a good time.

I will try to post some pictures soon.

Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed our first Christmas morning in our new home today. Alice is awash in pink princessey happiness (Erin, she's already eaten two meals in the dress you gave her. We wouldn't let her wear it to church, despite it's excellent quality and formal nature. She and Bobby are currently attending a ball in the dining room). Robert is up to his elbows in string cheese and tangerines, happy as can be. There is so much to share with the move and our new house and Christmas! I'll never catch it all again well enough to frame it on the blog. Suffice it to say the stress and uncertainty ended when we left the closing table with new keys in our hand. This is the right place for us and the transition has been more fun than I had anticipated. I get to put real roots down here. Everything feels different.

Bobby's parents are in town and we're having them break in our guest room. Several neighbors have already come by to introduce themselves and bring us treats. Families with kids! Bobby's been home full-time since the move, too. I'm in a strange dream world of fun, time, new promise, and plenty of help to do everything I want to do. It's dreamy :)

Better

I'm feeling better today, despite Alice's double case of pink eye and a growing sense of swelling in my own ears, nose, and throat. Lots of prayer and several little steps towards the end add up to a happier me. Our house is still chaos, but I'm less feeling less chaotic.

Spent

I am so blasted tired. Not sleepy, really, but completely spent. House in chaos. Trying to live normal life (dishes, laundry, meal preparation, preschool schedule, attending social events) and this surreal second life (packing, relocating, signing binding legal documents, relocating again) at the same time. It's exhausting.

Alice is coming down with something that's making her eyes goop shut when she sleeps. The term "snot up to her eyeballs" seems accurate. She has a cough and stuffy nose, too. No fever or vomiting, though, and I'm wondering if I should send her to preschool tomorrow at all. Do other people want their kids crying boogers? Probably not. Maybe today was the worst of it and she'll be better tomorrow?

I don't know if having her home will make it better or worse for me scurrying about. I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow. My brain is spent. Done. No energy for planning because planning isn't really what I feel needs to be done. I don't know what needs to be done. I'm twiddling.

Maybe I'll pack our suitcases. That seems a reasonable thing to do the day before we move :) Maybe I'll return library books, too. I'd hate to lose one of those in the shuffle.

One day at a time

Everything is settled now. The mold in our new home wasn't as bad as we thought. Now all the inspection issues with our current home and our future home have been resolved. It turns out that "early possession" would require us to give up several safety clauses in our contract that we aren't willing to go without. Ta da! Decision made.

We will help our friends move out on Wednesday, then we'll move into their house on Thursday and close on our current house on Friday. We'll camp out in limbo until we close on our new house the next Wednesday. I am SUPER relieved to be staying at the Bair's house, by the way: washer/dryer, 3 bedrooms, full-size kitchen, sparkling clean fridge, and stable neighbors. What a joy! You can't get that at the Extended Stay Inn. We'll move from the Bair's to our new house a couple days before Bobby's parents fly in for Christmas. Christmas in our new place! Then we get back to work scheduling all the repairs we want done on the new house.

There's been a stomach flu making the rounds. Two families I normally call on for babysitting have been knocked out of commission, so Alice and Robert got to come with me to the mold inspection and an appointment with the optometrist today (did I mention I tore my last contact lens this morning?). They were quite well-behaved at both appointments. Your prayers are creating miracles after all :) I have no room for complaint, however, since one of those barfing families happens to be the Bair's. They could probably use a few prayers, too.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has felt like one of the most stressful weeks of my life.  We are going to be selling our house on Friday of this next week, and well we will probably not be able to move into our new house until Wednesday of the following week.  I did not really think that it would stress me out like it has, but it has really stressed me out.  I feel a lot better now that we have a plan on exactly what we are going to do either way.  Honestly the rest of the week just seems like a blur, so I think I will just leave it at that for now.

Holy cow, what just happened?

Each new email from our Realtor, lawyer, or mortgage broker causes a cold shiver and a thrill of anticipation as I open it up. Good news, bad news, waiting news, no news. Argh! There's so much back-and-forth. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details. The important tidbits are here: 1) our buyers must close on the 16th and 2) our financing for the new place won't be ready until the 21st.

Um, that's a pretty big gap.

We're applying for early possession of the new house (i.e. renting it from the owners until we can close on it), but that's not guaranteed to come through by Wednesday or Thursday since we're renegotiating the price on MONDAY! Blast it all! If early possession doesn't come through, we do have a place to go, but it's bittersweet. We'll help our dear friends the Bairs move away and then stay in their home until closing day. It's a strange place for me to be emotionally: one event making me so terribly sad and so terribly grateful at the same time.

So, we're packing the house as if we were leaving on Friday. Our closets are empty and our living spaces are piled with boxes. It's surreal. How did this all happen like this? Why can't I figure out what to do with myself half the time? I crave escape, but I need resolution. Res-o-lu-tion!

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well,  I don't think this is that new, but it is now official enough that the realtor finally decided to make the change to the sign.

Yesterday was very busy.  We ran lots of errands.  As part of it we were out and decided to eat at a little Mexican grocery store in town.  It was very good.  http://www.elcharrochampaign.com/  It is a hole in the wall, but totally worth it.

Friday night was supposed to be our date night.  I had just dropped Alice and Robert off at a friends house and was walking down the street when our friend came running out yelling that Robert had just thrown up all over the place.  I came in just in time to have him expel the second half of the contents of his stomach.  So Susan and I spent our date night giving Robert a bath and putting him to bed.  We think it may have been caused by teething, but we don't know for sure, because he was back to his old self very quickly.  Ashley, we are still sorry about your piano and floor.

That was our week this week.

I know I'm feeling stressed when...

...I roll out of bed craving my Google Reader. Floating in the blogosphere is a blissful step away from the reality of poopy morning diapers, dinner dishes still on the table from last night, and an email inbox full of "need this ASAP" requests.

...I crave a handful of chocolate chips after breakfast. Just a little pick-me-up, y'know?

Things will get better next week as the paperwork and deadlines move out of my inbox into someone else's. We will need to get our current roof fixed too, apparently. I'm grateful for a competent and honest handyman who's certified to make all the repairs we'll need. I can't say enough about the awesome professionals I've come to know in this process. It's intimidating to step into something I'm SO unfamiliar with (despite my best efforts to prepare) and admit I just don't have the time or desire to become an expert in any of it. Self-sufficiency is important to me, but I don't expect to be able to do everything right now.

And I did resist the chocolate chip craving until after lunch when the handyman left, we had a new home insurance quote (over the phone), Alice had a gold star from the dentist, and I made an appointment for Bobby and me to meet with our mortgage broker...again. I couldn't manage a babysitter on such short notice at such an awkward time, but we'll make do :) They must have a couple stray lollipops hanging around their office somewhere. Speaking of which, time to wake up Robert, bundle the kidlets, and head out to said meeting.

Things will get a lot better tomorrow.

Whew.