Exhausted - But Revived

So the move is finally over and all that's left is the unpacking. The house is in VERY good shape so there will be no late night painting marathons like in the last house. But we did find out about the "Granger water problems." We officially have the rust and the odor that comes with it. But we had the water expert out to the house and we should have that problem solved soon.

Furniture is late, but something had to be...

Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon so everyone can feel at home with us.

A HUGE thanks out to the people that helped us move and set up rooms this past weekend - we couldn't have done it without you - seriously - we'd probably still be doing it...

Right now I'm blogging from a small western suburb of Chicago. I'm on a trip with a couple members of the communications team at GCC to visit the main office of our web design company [Aspire!One] We've had a great day brainstorming and will be heading home soon. Just thought I'd stop and give a quick update since it's been a while since I last blogged.

Cheers!

Moving Day

Well today is the day. Last night we slept in our house on Winston for the last time. I have to admit it was a little wierd. I had a hard time falling asleep, just thinking about all the things I had forgotten to do and all the memories we will be leaving behind. Don't get me wrong I am so excited to move and cannot wait to get into our new house, but it is kind of sad to leave this house. We have brought all of our kids home from the hosiptal here, we have had lots of laughs and lots of tears in this house. I have a lot of memories of my mom in this house and I know when I move there will be no memories of her in the new house.
Even though I am sad to move out, I am ready for the next phase of our lives. As I type this Daryl and his dad are moving our things out. We close today at 2:00pm and then we will officially be owners of a house that I plan to live in for a VERY long time. We have our best friends coming after work to help us move in. I cannot wait to have "Saturday night" at our new house and maybe if they are lucky I will turn the new gas fireplace on!
See ya in Granger!

Acting Like We Belong

It feels normal driving through a neighborhood when you don't live there yet, but to get out of the car and walk the neighborhood is an entirely different story. Not sure how it felt to Tammy, but for me it was strange.

We drove the van over with wagon and bike in the back. When we got there Allison rode her bike and we pulled Tyler and Rachel through our new neighborhood.

There were a lot of people out doing yardwork, but we didn't stop to chat. We just walked and talked as if we belonged there...

We walked around the house and checked it out again from the outside. Lots of sticks in the yard and leaves to rake - but that can wait. We will be in the new house in less than a week!

Tyler Learns Quickly

Not the greatest swing, but he's working on it!



Tammy showed him how to slide one time and that was all it took!

Sorry Bud - I Still Love You

Mom's can be so mean. Tyler, I won't tell anyone if you won't...

Dating Your Spouse

The concept of "dating your mate" really hit home today for me. I was at work in Plymouth, IN when my wife had to make an infrequent trip down for a meeting in the same little town. We coordinated it so we were able to go to Applebee's (or Happy-bee's as I call it...) together for lunch.

Not the first time we've gone on a date - in fact we do date nights bi-weekly to keep things interesting. But this was one of those out-of-the-blue type dates that really brought back (pre-marriage/pre-kid) memories.

Just thought I'd tell you that. Thanks for lunch Hon! I had a great time :)

We're Almost There

It has been awhile since I have filled you in on the where things stand in the house buying process, so here it is. The inspections and negotiations about what we will fix has been completed. We were hoping to close this next weekend, but much to Daryl's dismay that is not going to happen. It looks like right now it will not be until April 21. Their lender could not get everything together quick enough to close next weekend. We were really hoping to get into the new house as soon as we could, but hey what do you do. It probably is a good thing since I sprained my ankle this past week and probably would not have been 100% by next weekend anyways.
So the countdown has begun. The packing continues, our house is looking very bare. Everything is off the walls and the crawl space is almost empty. I have been furniture shopping and I think we have found the couch (thanks Jami and Beck for your 2 cents), and the refrigerator will be ordered tomorrow. There are still times I have to remind myself that within a month we will be living someplace different, weird!

Dual Dell's and an Engagement Ring

I've been connected to my Dell Latitude D610 (left) for the past year or so and I have nothing but positive to say about it. So it stands to reason that if I were to buy another notebook for say my wife - that I'd probably choose the same one right?

Wrong...

Actually, I did stick with Dell since they have shown over the years to be one of the most reliable and advanced computer companies in this modern era. But I chose one of their new home notebooks, the Inspiron E1505 (right), because it had the 15.4" WSXGA screen, was fairly light and could be customized to our needs for less than $1400.00 - seriously! I'm talking Windows XP Pro, 1.80MHz Core Duo processor, 1GB RAM, larger 9-cell battery that gets you close to 6 hrs when new..., 60GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, multi-format storage card reader, and DVD Rom/CD burner.

I must say I'm a bit jealous, but then again it's in my house so if I ever need a fix, I can just go fire it up and delete some of Tammy personal files...

[Add romantic self-disclosure here...]

A pretty cool thing happened while I was making this purchase. I was looking at the different companies and the notebooks each offered, trying to find the best technology for the best value and just weighing all the options. When suddenly I was transported back in time.

There I was out in the big city of South Bend, IN looking for a diamond (yes for Tammy...). I was learning all about color, cut, carat and clarity. I was weighing all the options, placing orders, watching it all come together and keeping the whole thing a secret - hoping that it would be the perfect engagement ring - capable of momentarily blinding her and disorienting her so that she'd consider spending the rest of her life with me.

And I got a twinge of that when buying the computer. I was excited. I was spending time, energy and money on the woman of my dreams. When it finally arrived her response was not quite as dramatic as it was when I proposed, but she had that gleam in her eye that says, "Ya, I still think you're pretty cool..."

I'm Exhausted

For those of you who don't know, it is official we sold our house and bought a new house and it all happened in about 2 weeks. We don't have an official closing date yet,but it will be sometime between April 10-24. We are still waiting on them to finish up inspections on our house, that is a whole story in itself. Just be glad you were not in screaming distance of my house on Wednesday.
I never thought this whole process would be so exhausting. We spent the last 2 months spending every weekend getting our house ready to put on the market, thinking we would have a few months to sit back and relax while it was on the market. Well that didn't happen. Now all I can think about is all the work that needs to be done. Our whole house needs to be packed and then unpacked, I am thinking it would just be easier to start over, along with changing all of our utilities and such over and then I find myself thinking about how to make the new house our "home". The list is really endless in my mind.
I am just exhausted, emotionally, physically,mentally. I never thought it would be so emotional to sell and buy a house. I still haven't figured out if it is the fact that I have brought 3 children home from the hospital to this house, or if it is just missing my mom through this whole process. I really do wish she could be here to share in all of this. All I can do is just keep plugging away knowing that it will all get done and in the next month or so it will all be over.
On a totally different note, I am SO excited about tomorrow. The girls are getting out of dodge tomorrow. We are leaving the kids and the husbands behind and heading to Chicago to hang out and spend some quality time together. I can't wait to hang with the girls and just get away for the day!
Oh, one more thing. I am typing this post on my new laptop, my husband bought it for me with some of the money he is getting for doing a web site. He is way too nice to me. Love you babe!

Big Changes Ahead...

For all I know it's bad luck to post a picture of you new house before the sale is final, but I'm going to do it anyway... ...probably because I'm ok with whatever happens. Through this entire process it has been fairly simple for me to have God in the driver's seat. In fact I don't think I even told Him to slow down when things were going 100 miles per hour.

Yes, our house sold within a week and we signed on this one a few days later...

Sure there are inspections, and closing isn't for another month or so. But for all intents and purposes we've made the transition from "starter home" to the house we can grow into over the next 20 years or so.

The above picture shows part of the Great Room - where we will undoubtedly spend the majority of our time. I took these before figuring out that I can take multiple pictures in succession and convert them into a cool landscape picture. Oh well, maybe next time...

Pray for us as we go through the closing process and definitely the moving process!