Saturday, July 30, 2011

We're here

We are finally (mostly) moved into our new home.  It's been a challenging ride both physically and mentally.  How do you possibly pack and move a family of 9 (with a lot of stuff) to a new house in a week?!  I would have liked to pack more thoughtfully; maybe donate some items, toss others, etc.  Instead there was no time for thinking about that.  We had a lot of help cleaning, fixing, packing, and moving, (THANK YOU!!!).  We still have a fair amount of stuff at our old house, and a fair amount of work to do to put it on the market.  And we need to do it pretty quickly.  I stopped by today to pick up a few more things and it was sad.  Our old neighborhood is nice, we had been doing a lot of work on the house, etc.  That's when it hit me.  We need to leave it completely and soon.   Normally when you move you don't go back, it's sold and someone is living there!  We need to make that break soon - both financially and emotionally.   We do have prospective buyers very very interested.  As much as we'd like it to work (hey - a great family with kids who wants to live on our cul-de-sac, they don't even want us to patch the holes in the wall,etc.) - not sure if it's going to work out for both of us.  We'll be in contact with them again shortly.  If you are so inclined, please offer some prayers :)  Thank you.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Big Blue

It's been an interesting ride and we finally found out at 5:30 this evening we got the house!  We went through the closing last Friday but the seller never showed and didn't sign everything until very late this afternoon (apparently that's not all that uncommon with a foreclosure....weird.)  But, that part of the journey is over...now the real work begins.

ahhhh...anyone know how to get year old iron stains out of toilets?  I'm heading over tomorrow with a pumice stone and gloves among all the other cleaning items. 

But, I will NOT complain.  I still prefer scrubbing toilets to grocery shopping :) 

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Small Successes

For more small success stories click here

  1. Made a bunch of phone calls to cancel appointments because we did NOT close on our house last Friday.
  2. Spent a lot of time packing and cleaning up....because we are supposed to close THIS Friday now (more phone calls Th afternoon to reschedule things).
  3. I kept my sense of humor through my ultrasound (below).
  4. Made a somewhat uncomfortable phone call (for me) that may turn out to be quite profitable.  The family that was considering our house (but hadn't seen the inside yet) had changed their minds.  They decided they would move but take a different route.  At my dh's suggestion I called them back and offered to let them look at it in the condition it is in (we were going to stage it somewhat first after getting the painting done.)  Turns out they were having second thoughts and will be over tomorrow!  Yeah!  They'd really like to live on this cul-de-sac, near some good friends of theirs, and our house is much bigger than theirs.  We're hoping, AND PRAYING, they want it and we can work out some sort of win-win deal.  If not, that's fine.  They know what they want in a house and this simply might not fit the bill for them.  But if it did it could save us a lot of time and money!
Here's to a peaceful day for us all.

Needing permission to use the restroom

The funniest thing happened to me today during my almost 20 week ultrasound.  I had to ask for a break to use the restroom.  Funny?  No.  But with 7 kids at home I have never had to ask for a break to use the restroom.  I'm guessing that most of you understand, I really needed to take that break.  When I asked the technician she said matter of factly, "I'll finish this and then I will check your bladder." 

What?  Check my bladder.  I am 43 years old.  I know when I have to go!  But, she checked and decided to stop immediately and let me go.  I would have gone anyway, but luckily I passed the test.  When she came back she told me that I didn't need to come with a full bladder. 

Well, this may be TMI but I told her I'd already gone 3 times since I got there, and one of those times was on the way into the exam room.  But the baby was moving around a lot while she was trying to get all the information she wanted and which organ was taking the brunt of those moves?!  She just looked at me and said, "Well then, you've got really good kidneys," and that was it. 

After she left the room I high tailed it back across the hall to the restroom, getting back just in time for the perinatoligt to appear.  He looked so glum I thought something was wrong.  He never smiled and spoke so quietly and seriously.  Long story short....everything is fine!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Small Successes

For more small success click here

This is the "we are preparing to close on a new (to us) house on Friday" version.  So, my successes are limited to this project...while the other things I should also be doing get pushed aside (big failures post?  j/k...can't do everything!)
  1. Packed lots of boxes and ran numerous errands for our painters (dh and kids).
  2. I took the kids down to the end of the cul-de-sac to watch fireworks when I just wanted to go to bed after the long day working around here.
  3. Made numerous numerous phone calls for appointments and co-ordinating estimates for our house next week for things we can't do ourself (check/charge the AC, etc.)
  4. Only slightly panicked when I received a call that there are some last minute problems and we may not close on the house tomorrow.  Well, OK inside I was stressing more.  But a call to explain all this to my dh put it all in perspective.  He's so calm under pressure.
We haven't sold our current house yet.  So, although frustrating and inconvenient (hopefully next week's successes won't entail cancelling all the appointments), it could be worse.  And if it falls through, we'll happily stay put.  The foreclosed house is just an amazing opportunity for us, it's not a necessity. 

We've been praying all along that God's will be done, and all along many many issues kept falling into place for us.  (Like....a dramatic price drop after we decided it was too much, then our lowball offer being accepted over two others, etc. )  We pray that if this is God's will these will fall into place as well, and if it's not, then He'll put the kabosh on the whole thing.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I'm not that old


"Mom, that car looks like it's from the '80s!"  That's what one of my kids told me when they saw a car similar to the one pictured above.  Turns out it was a 1951 Buick!   I guess when you are quite young....the 80s is a LONG time ago.  ahem...I graduated in the late 80s.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Logan (age 3) at Mass

We arrived a little bit late to Mass today and didn't want to head to our usual spot in the front pew during the opening prayers.  (hey...for all you that know me we are rarely late...we used to come in this late far too often...now rarely).

Instead we sat near the middle (not enough space in the back pews for a family of 9) - thankfully in a place where Logan could still see.  He is pretty good at Mass, but today had a few questions he whispered to me.

  • Where is the bed?  huh?  Oh...the casket?   Our pastor (Father Hogan)'s funeral was held there a couple weeks ago.
  • I can't see Father Hogan!...fortunately he meant he couldn't see Father Hermann preaching - he has a little problem mixing up their names.
  • When everyone started getting up for communion he sort of panicked and said, "What's everyone doing?!"  He's not used too seeing a bunch of people get up in front of him since we sit in the front.  Apparently it looked a little more unnerving than the slower stream of people walking past after receiving communion.
  • He was sadder than usual when the Eucharistic minister didn't bless him.  I'm not going to get into the argument about whether or not they should bless people.  There is no harm in someone blessing my child, but I also don't expect that it should happen.  To me, if it happens it happens.  To Logan, it's the highlight of his morning.  So, my dh took him to see Father, explained the sadness, and asked for a blessing.  Father treated him to a very special blessing, and Logan treated Father to a big smile and a thank you.

Meals with toddlers

Ever notice how a toddler cannot stand having something on his plate that he doesn't want.   I.E.  He cannot possibly have that plate near him with that one bean on it?

Ever notice how a toddler can take too big of a bite, spit his food out onto his plate, and still continue to eat off that plate?  Maybe even "re-eat" that same piece of food?

We are working on...tolerance and napkins...both for him.

(On an aside...I do remember when I was younger going out to restaurants and always ordering my food with NO guacamole.  If it came on my plate I wouldn't eat it.  I don't remember if we sent it back or put my napkin over the plate and ate nothing.  Just knowing it was there started a gag reflex.  Long story involving and avocado and my cousin's tooth.   You really don't want to know.  Suffice it to say, I'm somewhat forgiving with the children in not wanting something on their plate...but tolerance is still expected...and we never have guacamole or avocados.)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Logan's take on moving

We were talking about packing and moving and Logan (age 3.5) was pretty happy about the whole thing. 

Then he got sort of a strange look on his face and said, “It’s going to be a little weird always having to call that guy so we can get in all the time.”  (right now the realtor needs to let us in for inspections, etc.)

His face lit up when I explained to him that we would get the keys and we’d lock and unlock the doors just like this house.  He thought that was very cool!