Househunting...

So, we found this short sale house in The Pines neighborhood, we liked the house but it had a smallish backyard and backed up to commercial property, but the price was great. We started our shower install to get our house ready to put on the market and put a bid on the short sale. In the week it took us to get started on the bathroom (and cover the hole in the ceiling) there were 3 other bids put in on the house, after 8 months of nothing. So we put in our bid and didn't get the house. Originally we decided that if we didn't get the short sale we were not going to look at other homes, then we changed our minds.

After looking in a couple different areas we found another house in The Pines neighborhood for sale, the house was a much better layout, looked brand new (it's 12 years old, only 1 single female owner without kids), the backyard is much bigger but manageable, unlike the 1.2 acres we currently have. So we put in an offer and it was accepted. Our bathroom is finished now and the house has been on the market for 2 weeks and we've had no offers, I'm getting discouraged. We had an open house last Sunday and will have another this Sunday along with a Buyer's Open on Tuesday.

I keep trying to not get excited or to look forward to moving but I really like the other house and neighborhood. But like I said, I'm getting discouraged.

This is the front of the other house...




I'm not good at waiting and dealing with an unknown. I hate suspense in my life. But all I can do is wait and hope we get a good offer soon. I'd love to move Zachary to a new school. I'd love to live in a cul-de-sac with other kids for the boys to play with. I'd love to live walking distance to the park and eateries. I'd love to live in a house with a better layout and use of square footage than we have now (the new house is 1400 sqft, our current house is 1574 sqft but the new house has bigger bedrooms, closets, bathrooms and just an all around better layout). I'd love to live in a neighborhood with people similar to me (working or SAH moms with young kids). The neighborhood we're in now is nice and quiet but all the residents are older, retired, kids are gone or in high school so I feel like I'm alone out in the sticks sometimes.

1st day of Kindergarten!

Zachary's first day of Kindergarten was on Friday, August 20th. It was actually an orientation day so I had to go with him and he was only there from 9:00-9:30, they also split up his class into groups of about 7 so he wasn't able to meet all the kids until the following Monday. I'm not sure why the school decided to coddle the kids but, whatever. I thought all the schools in our district did this but found out over the weekend our school is the only one. So Zachary's first real day was Monday the 23rd, he was very excited, found his classroom just fine and loved every minute of it and that's what counts!

Dogless

So for over 10 years now I've been a dog owner, Jerry has been a dog owner for far longer than that, at least 15 consecutive years that I know of and I also know of other dogs before that. Yesterday we had to bring Scooter to the vet, the night before I tried to put him out to do his business and he literally could not figure out how to walk out the door. He ended up running into the side of the door then wobbly walked through the garage again got confused at the outside door and ran smack into the fence. He's been acting strange for a couple weeks now, not able to find a treat when you place it right in front of him, wobbly legs, seemed almost blind at times, drinking so much water he should have been floating.
So I brought the boys to visit Maddox and brought Scooter to the vet who said he likely had diabetes, which would require special diet food and shots and would be costly, he also said it sounded like he had a stroke and was likely at least partially blind as a result of both. The vet said that this was all very unusual for such a young dog and that while we might extend his life he would never recover so we had him put down. This all devastated Zachary because he's gotten very close to Scooter, especially since we had to have Maggie put down in June.
We have decided to take a break from having a dog, or any furry animal for that matter. The idea of a puppy sounds great until you remember that they grow up, get big, drag mud into the house, slobber on everything and bark every time someone walks close to the house. Add to that the cost of the vet visits, food and grooming and it will definitely be a while before we have another dog. A small, short haired dog sounds a bit appealing at times, until I remember we like to travel a bit and it's a pain to find someone to feed/water the dog while we are gone.
It has been odd to not have to tell someone to 'let the dog out' or 'get the dog some food' or to make sure the dog goes out before we leave and worry about how hot it is and if the dog should be in or out when we leave for a while.

T-ball

So someone had this awesome idea to put both boys in YMCA t-ball, we won't mention any names...Anyway, since the Y splits 3 and 4 year olds we had 2 teams to deal with. Zachary's team did not have a coach and none of the parent's on the team were willing to volunteer so Jerry did. It's been a good season for the boys, we found that Zac really enjoys playing, pays attention and hustles when at practice and games so we don't mind putting him on a city team since the other parent's on the team left a lot to be desired, I'm hoping that since we have to pay for a city team the parent's will be more involved and focused.


Kaleb finally came out of his shell and really started to enjoy practice and games about 3 weeks before the end of the season. He won't be old enough for the city league next year so we will have to go with the Y for him again.

Zac's 5th birthday

Another better late than never birthday post. Zac had his first party with friends this year, he had 4 friends which was perfect. We played a few games and everyone won at least one game, the cake was awesome and Kaleb's expressions when opening presents were priceless. Our boys have almost decided on their own that they each help the other open their presents on their birthday, cuts down on whining and crying and since they share pretty well while playing no one notices they didn't get anything new that day.







The day after the party we invited one of Zachary's friends, Maddox, to a Redhawks game. Everyone enjoyed the game and the Redhawks won. We had Zac's name up on the scoreboard which he thought was neat. So even though it was hot, it was fun.

To Move or Not To Move...

Pros to the new house:
Has a den + 3 bedrooms
HUGE master bath and closet
No updates needed
More carpet than tile
Smaller yard
Walking distance to several places
Real hallways to separate living space and bedrooms
Smaller well layed out kitchen
Large attic space

Cons to the new house:
Backs up to commercial property
Small garage
Dinning area completely open to living room
Can only have very small shed for storage
Smaller laundry room
Cross house trek with groceries

Pros to this house:
Quiet neighborhood
Lots of space for the boys
Making progress on getting it the way I want it

Cons to this house:
Kitchen almost too big
Living room too spread out
No friends for the boys
Boys will never be able to walk/ride their bike to friends houses
Still a lot of work/updates to be done
Way to much tile

Ahhhh, July!

This month has gone considerably better than last. First I got all the Redhawks ticket vouchers from the ticket office to replace the ones that were lost. Then Red Robin said they'd make sure I got my free birthday burger yesterday, which I did! Then today we got the TT&L paperwork in the mail for the new car, our tag should be due by this Friday, the 9th, the tag agency said it's not due until the 22nd! That's awesome because it gives us more breathing room to pay the $880 we'll owe that day. Then, also today, I went to 1/2 price books to turn in the reading logs for the boys and get their $3 gift cards for this week, I asked the cashier if there was any way to replace the ones that were in my now lost/gone wallet and he said sure, and gave me 4 to replace the ones that are gone! I even found a rug for my kitchen for a good price at Bed Bath and Beyond, it was originally $39.99, on clearance for $19.99 plus a 20% off coupon! I'd love to get another one but didn't have a 2nd coupon, maybe I'll get one next week and they'll still have a rug left.

In other news...I've decided that my kitchen cabinet organization makes no sense, all my dishes are by the stove and usually only get put on the table, so the cabinets they are in are furthest from the table and dishwasher, all my baking supplies are in the cabinet over the dishwasher, across the kitchen from where I always use them; so next week I'll do a complete reorganization of the cabinets, which I'm sure will make Jerry so happy!