All Moved In

We're in! We had lots of help from church, and we able to move in one day (Friday). Then on Saturday, dear friends from our homeschool group spent the greater part of the day with us getting all those random boxes in some sort of order, and getting the kitchen together.

Sunday was good - we were so tired from the move, we mostly just sat. Then on Monday evening, the water heater exploded. Well, not literally, but it began overflowing with water all over the garage. We noticed about 6pm, but don't know how long it had been pumping by then. There was debris in the line, so we couldn't even turn the water off. I paged the property mgt company three times over an hour before anyone responded.

The Lord protected us greatly. The water meandered between the legs of furniture, under the work bench, and pooled in a low spot in the center of the garage that just happened to be clear of stuff. The only boxes to get wet were full of random garage stuff like tarps and plastic bottles of cleansers and the like that weren't damaged by water.

By Tuesday afternoon, the new water heater was installed and all was well again.

Then hubs and I had a...um...conflict that afternoon and evening. Two people who could not see the others point of view At All. One of those people is an only child, and the other is VERY pregnant and hormonal. Hurtful words, cold silence, and now an unspoken agreement not to talk about it.

I spent a lot of time crying and reading 1 Peter in the wee hours of this morning. Then dawn came with torrents of rain and gusts of wind. The wind blows the wet sideways. The lights flicker occasionally. I'm tired and fragile today. I have to facilitate a homeschool meeting in a little over an hour. I hope I can find my happy place soon. Or at least my plastic smile.

The Last Day

Today is the last day of living and sleeping in our cozy little house. Today I'll be packing and organizing the last of the toys for easy transport. A box for each bathroom, so there are 'necessary' items instantly available. I'll probably pack the last of the dishes and pots and go with paper plates this evening.

I've got some salmon thawing in the sink. I'm going to crockpot dinner - Lemon and Dill Salmon. A bit of rice, a little broccoli - yum! Dinner will be easy tonight, and easier cleanup!

Tomorrow morning should see me stripping beds, last minute laundry and wondering where I put the diapers.

It's also my birthday today!

4 days to go...

It's Monday. We are moving in on Friday to our rental. It's only a half a mile from our house now, so it shouldn't be too difficult. We also had a surprising number of people volunteer to help out.

I am now down to packing the hard stuff. Every item I pick up, I have to decide if I can live without it for the next week or so, or do I need to wait a couple more days.

I have lots of phone calls to make, so better get going!

Two weeks till the move...

Well, here we are two weeks out. We have a rental lined up, but it's really, really, really small (1050 square feet). So we continue the hunt for a rental in hopes of finding one that is bigger. I don't mind small for short term, but since we really have no idea of how long we will need to rent, I would prefer something bigger. Hoping to find something at least 1200 square feet. Going to look at one tonight, and have calls in on 2 others.

Little Leah had her doctor appt this morning. All is well. She's 50% for head size and height, but only 5% for weight. Given that her older sister is super tall and super skinny, the Dr was not concerned. Leah is actually shorter than Hannah was. Hannie was usually 5 - 10% for weight and 80-90% for height.

Everyone is recovered from their colds over the past 2 weeks. Today we will do a reduced school day, and try to get the usual 2-3 boxes packed. Packing is getting a bit harder now. I have to give serious thought to what can be packed and what we are going to need. Convienence vs. economy.

Well, that's all for now. If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know here. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

Stuff

Today has been pretty productive so far. It's 8:18am, and I've got my second load of laundry going, the dishwasher going, everyone is fed and dressed, emptied the shredder and finished shredding some stuff, scrubbed down the kitchen barstools and looked up an address to mail off a picture for Hannah.

I still need to do school, go to the drugstore and the bank, reserve a storage unit and truck for this weekend, and I'm really, really hoping to sweep and mop today.

Still haven't heard anything on the new house, but we have been assigned our 'negotiator'. Of course, this is the holiday season and he is probably on vacation until next week.

We have 3 weeks left to move. Still no idea yet where we are going. The house is about halfway packed up. There has been lots of organizing and purging projects though. That part feels good.

We want to move all of the already packed stuff, the large yard toys (swingset, play structure) and the garage things into a storage locker this weekend. That will free up a lot of space in the house. Anybody have a teenage boy we can borrow on Saturday?

December 27th

I stayed home from church with the girls today - they are both sick with moderate colds. Should be fine in a couple days. The boys (Daddy & Nathan) went to church together.

While they were gone, I gave the girls a bath, took a shower myself, took down and boxed up all the Christmas decorations, got dinner prepped and in the crockpot, then made lunch.

So now, Christmas is officially 'down' in my house. Since I've also been packing the last few weeks, everything looks quite barren. I took down the decorative items in my bedroom today as well and boxed those up. Most of the deco items in the house are packed now. A few things left in the girls room and kitchen - odd sized things that won't fit into normal boxes. Also need to figure out how to move/store the large decorative pictures.

On the upside, the living room looks huge!

Michael is taking a quick nap, and I've sent the children to their rooms for a little quiet time. Maybe I'll go put my feet up for a few mintues. I'm sure Michael will want to go for a walk before it gets dark. Walking in the brisk winter air works up an appetite, and makes little children go to bed early!

More bad news...

We were so happy on Dec 1st when we were told that the bank would assign us a negotiator and give us an answer on the short sale we bid on over 100 days ago. They said we'd know by Dec 15th.

We found out today (the 20th) that they have not yet assigned a negotiator. And seeing that it is the holiday season, it's quite likely that every one is on vacation and getting a negotiator won't happen until after the first of the year.

The people buying our house have given us an extension to Jan 20th. After that, I have no idea. Again, the real estate agents are telling us that we're going to know any second now...

Anybody know of anybody willing to rent us a place for anywhere from a week to 6 months?

The last 30 days in review...

This past month has been busy and stressful.

We have sold our home. We have to be out by Jan 12th. But as of yet, the bank has not responded to our offer on a short sale in Rocklin. It's been 98 days now. The bank has assured us that all looks well and they will give us an answer very soon. I guess I need to request that they define 'soon'.

So in 4 weeks, we will have no house. Should we wait another week to hear from the bank? Or go find a rental now? We can't do a lease, it's has to be a month-to-month rental. What if we only need it for 2 weeks? Grrrr....

We have had several inspections on our home (the one we live in right now, not the new one we're hoping to buy). The pest inspection found two 'potential risks' that we needed to fix before our buyers could get their financing. We fixed the 2 completely stupid and petty things, and had the pest guy come back to check it. He was going to charge me $75 to look at a gap in my fence. ?!?!?!?!?

I politely protested using words like extortion and non-disclosure. He came out and did it for free. Pest inspection is cleared and certified!!

Then today I got the renewal notice for Michael's business license. We originally filed in the city that we live in. I called City Hall and asked if we should re-file in the city we will be moving to instead. They said we should have a business license for every city we do business in.

Okay - Michael takes photographs for real estate agents. In 3 counties. Do you know how many cities that is??? Let's pretend it's only 20 cities, and they charge $35 a year for a license. Outrageous!! I'm not going to think about it. LALALALALALALALALA! I can't hear you!!!