Monday, August 17, 2015

Week of August 16th

Last week was quite a momentous week for us.

Earlier in the week we were able to fit in some play time with friends.  We have been trying to make that happen as much as possible as everyone will be in school very soon and on various schedules.  It will be much more challenging to get the kids together to play.

At COSI's Farm Days


Friday brought the big day, Jack's first day of Kindergarten!  Jack was beyond excited!


Tuesday afternoon we went in for an open house at Jack's new school and we were able to tour his new classroom, drop off school supplies, and meet his teacher.  Later, Mark asked him how the open house went and Jack said it was, "trucktastic!", which is pretty much the highest honor bestowed by Jack.

The night before his first day of school Jack was so excited he could hardly sleep, I was in tears thinking about putting my baby on a bus and sending him off to school for the day!  I'm happy for him and his new adventures and proud of his enthusiasm, but it is such a shift in dynamic for me!  It's quite different sending your child off to school for 2 1/2 hours at a time 2 or 3 days a week, the way we have for the last 2 years of preschool, and sending your child on a bus with a packed lunch for a full day of school!

After spending the last 5 1/2 years together it's strange not having him around for the majority of the day. It's strange thinking about other people having such a big impact on Jack's day-to-day life. It's weird not having both kids with me all day, them being able to play together, going places all together, eating together. It was pretty quiet around here on Friday. It's nice that Molly and I will get this time together, one-on-one.  She's never had that the way Jack had for his first (nearly) 3 years of life before Molly came along.

AND, as evidenced by the school bus picture above, Jack talked me into his riding the bus to school. I had planned to drive him back and forth to school, but he insisted upon riding the bus.  Insisted!  He was sad about not being able to ride and it was the thing he was most looking forward to about school so I relinquished a little control (not easy for me!) and encouraged his independence by allowing him to ride the bus as he preferred :(

Jack had a great first day of school and is looking forward to his return on Wednesday of this week when he will begin his regular, every day school schedule.  Because they do a staggered start for kindergartners he only attends one day during the first five days of school.

Shortly after Jack arrived home from his first day of school we headed out to the closing of the sale of our home. That's right, we sold our house!


I haven't talked about the fact that we were under contract/sold our house because in my mind, it's not a done deal until the final paperwork is signed.  Because of that, it has been a stressful 6 weeks! (On top of a stressful 5 months, which is really when this journey began.)

We listed our house for sale by owner (stresssssful!) on a Monday leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend.  We didn't get a whole lot of inquiries on it, but we did have one showing on Thursday of that week.  The lack of inquiries/traffic was scary and disheartening, but we did suspect it being a holiday week had something to do with it.

Fast-forward to the following week and we had tons of inquiries on the property!  We did 2 more showings and received two offers!  We negotiated and signed the paperwork to accept one of the offers and officially went under contract 2 weeks after we had listed!  Then we had weeks of dealing with the inspection (and more negotiating), appraisal, waiting to hear the final word on a closing date, moving the last few items that were still hanging around including our playset which takes some organization, etc. SO STRESSFUL!

On Friday afternoon, we took one final walk through, snipped a few cuttings from our hydrangea bush that I love (I'm hoping to grow some at our new house from the cuttings!  I don't exactly have a green thumb so we'll see how that works out :/ ) and then went to sign the paperwork, collect our pitiful check (but hey, we actually got SOME money out of the sale, we were prepared to have to bring money to the table), and hand over our keys.

It's bittersweet.  On one hand I am SO SOOOOOOO happy to be done with that chapter of our lives. The weight of this whole house buying/selling/owning more than one property was a lot to bear.  Not to mention we have been preparing for this move in one way or another for yeeeeaaaaaars now.  Years.  There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into the sale of that house and it hasn't been our home for several months now, even before our actual move, really, considering the packing and preparing that went on.

At the same time, I'm a little sad to close the book on that chapter of our lives.  That was our home for nearly 9 years.  When we bought that house we weren't even engaged yet.  That house saw us get engaged, married, and bring home two babies.  It was home.

It's also exciting to move on to a new chapter.  Being on the other side of this mess makes me feel even more grateful that we made the move and put in all that work.  It was worth it in the end.  It still doesn't quite feel like home here, but I know that it will eventually.  We have lots of work ahead of us until it will feel as much like home as our old house, but we have time (and space!  So much more space!)

Closing out our eventful week (or two days, really...), Saturday we went and bought me a new car!


Say hello to mom car 2.0

The purchase was planned-ish.  I've been putting off buying a new car for a while now.  My old car is very clearly reaching the end of it's life and I've just been pretending that it's not because that's what I do when I don't want to deal with things until I have to.  Obviously we have been trying to avoid major purchases considering the house situation.  Well, some expensive repairs came up and we weren't about to sink more money into the car so it was time.  We've been shopping for a few weeks (and I've been borrowing my mom's car!) and Saturday we brought this pretty Dodge Charger home to stay.  Yay!

So yeah, we've had just a few things going on.  I'm hoping that's the end of excitement around here for a while.  I (and our poor savings account) need some time to recover and settle in with the changes we have had.


Here's what we're eating this week:


Sunday:  Grilled Hot Dogs with Sweet Corn and Watermelon

Monday:  BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad

Tuesday:  Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday:  Caprese Panzanella Salad

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Monday, August 10, 2015

Week of August 9th

We had a super busy week last week!  I tried to fit in lots of fun since it was our last full week of summer vacation before school starts.  Mid-week we made it to the park to play with friends.

Jack and his little friend Will have been meeting at that park for playdates since they were about 4 months old!

Friday and Saturday I attended a virtual conference with friends.



Lots of doulas in one room!  It was educational and fun, but I felt like I was gone all weekend!

While I was away Mark (along with some family and friends, who made it possible) finally got our swingset moved over to the new house!  Woot!



The first part of summer was SO rainy that we didn't really miss the swingset or have a good opportunity to move it.  It has been nice the last 2 weeks or so, so it has been greatly missed.  So happy to have it over here!

Sunday we did a lot of running around, which made Monday come up super quickly!

This week we're gearing up for back to school (acckk!).  Today we went school supply shopping, tomorrow there's a meet the teacher open house, now that we actually know Jack's room/teacher assignment.  Thursday there's a parent meeting for "curriculum night", whatever that is, and then Jack's first day of school will actually be Friday!

Jack is *SO* excited about his police car lunch box!  I tried to talk him out of it because it's a funny shape and therefore hard to pack, but he was set on it so we'll make it work!

Our district does a staggered start for Kindergartners for the first 5 days of school so he will attend on Friday and then not again until next Wednesday when he will begin his regular schedule.  He is also insistent upon riding the bus, which I'm not feeling super happy about.  I was planning to take him to and from school, but he is really sticking with wanting to ride the bus so we'll see what happens :(

I am so not ready for him to be in Kindergarten, but he sure is!  Ultimately, that's what matters!

It's been a really busy few weeks for me, but luckily the next 2ish weeks should be a little slower.  Of course I say this while I have 500+ square feet of wood flooring waiting to be installed.  It's all relative at this point!

Here's what we'll be eating this week:


Sunday:  Grabbed a late dinner

Monday:  BLATs with Fruit

Tuesday:  Grilled Lemon Garlic Chicken with Orzo Salad with Tomatoes, Basil, and Feta

Wednesday:  Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Baked Ranch Potato Wedges

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Monday, August 3, 2015

Week of August 2nd

Zoombezi lunch break

Last week the weather was nice (no rain! sun!), but hot, so we had some water fun.  Early in the week the kids and I visited Zoombezi Bay for the first time.  We went with a few friends and the kids had a BLAST! On Friday afternoon I had the unique privilege of sneaking away without kids and returning with just my friends.  It was so much fun and they even got me on some water slides (Eek!)

And some at home pool fun

We're trying to soak up as much summer as possible considering it's already August (HOW?!) With school starting in a little more than a week (so soon!) and the first part of summer monopolized by moving + rain, rain, and more rain, it seems like we haven't had the opportunity to really enjoy much of summer.  Now I feel pressure to maximize what's left, but that kind of pressure kind of negates the relaxed feel that summer should be all about.

Little to no progress was made on the house this week.  We're to the point where most everything is unpacked, but every room still feels like it's in disarray.  I don't know if it's the sporadic boxes or because not one room feels fully put together, but it's annoying because I don't know exactly how to make things feel settled.  We're trying to finalize plans for flooring on the first floor right now. Maybe once that is completed things will feel a little more finished and homey.


Menu for the week:


Sunday:  Grilled Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday:  Salmon with Strawberry Avocado Salsa with Garlic Green Beans

Tuesday:  Grilled Summer Vegetable Chopped Salad

Wednesday:  Tostadas

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday & Saturday:  Out


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com