Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Homeless

After 4 hours of moving and cleaning yesterday and 2 hours at closing, Ben and I are offically homeless. It was very interesting seeing our house totally empty- strangely surreal, but not necessarily sad. I thought I would be very sad- this was our home, Audra's first home, and she won't even remember it. But without all of our stuff inside, it was just 4 walls. I told Ben it wasn't the house that held all the memories, it was what was inside the house and concluded that the things you acquire are what are most important. He told me I was half right.

We are now at Ben's parents, and they have been wonderful. Obviously it is not the most ideal living situation, but we are very grateful to them and their generosity in helping us out as we prepare to move into the new house. As we emptied out the old house and packed up the last of our memories there, really I just got a sense of excitement- I can not wait to be in our new house! The house Audra will grow up in (I really truly NEVER want to move again- as all of you know, it is a pain!!!) and we will hopefully retire in. I look forward to the future, and think back to the past with fondness. We have been so blessed!

Oh, and Audra loves staying with Grandma and Grandpa Marriott- she runs after their cat Gizmo and thinks it is the funniest and most wonderful thing in the world! Very cute!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Kitchen Explosions and Other Disasters

Ok, so I counted and I have 18 boxes of kitchen stuff. Now, this does not include the 10 + boxes I already packed before we even put the house on the market and are in storage at Ben's parents house, and I will still need to pack about 4 more boxes before the move on Monday. That will make roughly 32 boxes of kitchen stuff! Does that seem insane to anybody else? I realized the kitchen boxes were getting out of control, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I saw the egg separater that I have NEVER used, and thought, "do I really need to pack this?" And then I panicked and thought to myself, "of course I do! What if someday I become the type of chef that is in desparate need of an egg separater on a regular basis? What a waste it would be to throw such a wonderful instrument away!" And so, alas, I am left with at least 32 boxes of kitchen "essentials" to pack, haul, move, unpack, place in a drawer at my new house, and waste away never to be used- just the same as it is not used here.
So here is the question: What useless piece of equipment do you have in your kitchen that you cannot part with, but you really probably should?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Strongest Man at Church

Tonight was our annual Bishop's BBQ for church. It was a lot of fun, except for the tantruming screaming baby we had to deal with for the entire time...but outside of that, it was a great time. They combined it to celebrate the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the plains as well, so there were some fun pioneer games. Ben and Curt compteted in a "stick pull." Ben lost miserably both times, but he claims Curt had better leverage and he has made it his goal to be able to beat Curt in the stick pull! I guess Ben had better start working out! Here are some pictures:

Here Audra and Cache get into the action. I am not sure who won...

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Chaos, Chaos, Chaos

To say that our house is in a total state of chaos is an understatement. Despite the fact that I have packed probably 70% of our belongings, our house is a complete disaster (and by disaster I mean I can't even vaccuum because there are boxes, toys, odd-shaped items waiting to be packed all over every floor space in the whole house) and we are literally tripping over each other to get to anywhere. Audra, of course, thinks this is wonderful and thinks that climbing on top of boxes is the greatest thing in the world and is VERY proud of herself when she does so. I will try to get some pictures to post. We are down to nine days until moving day and are getting very anixious and excited. I am sure in six months we will be very glad that we did this!!
Here are some cute pictures of the Aud-Pod. Here is happy normal (but, yes, very dirty) face:

Here is the her newest "don't mess with me or I will get you" face. Very cute!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

And it Begins

To say that things are crazy at our house is an understatement. The movers are coming to load everything into a trailor for storage on Monday, July 28th- only 13 days away! I can't believe it is coming up so soon! That is also the day of closing on our townhome, which Ben does not have to be at because he is not on the title (I bought the house the day of our first date, so he had no say in the townhome whatsoever). Then, we will move into Ben's parents house, and we are VERY grateful to them for being willing to let us crash at their place for what we believe will be 10 days. We close on our new house on July 31st and actually get posession of the house on August 1st. But, we are hiring painters to come in and paint the whole house before we move in, which should take about a week. So, we are set to move into the new house on August 8th.

It is an emotional and stressful time. I was telling Audra's future mother-in-law, Jen (Cache's mom), about how Ben and I fell in love painting this townhouse and it was Audra's first home and there were lots of memories and everything, and she laughed at me and said, "kiss the walls and move on!" And, she is right, so I am glad that she said that- we will make many more new memories in our new house, that we bought together and will be able to decorate and everything else together. So, it is an exciting time- but I will be VERY happy in about 2 months when all of this is over!!!!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Audra Boxed In




Audra was literally "boxed in" while driving in the car as I picked up TONS of boxes from our local grocery store. And it is a good thing I got them because...

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!! In case you hadn't heard, WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! We are not "technically" under contract, but we are faxing over the paper work right now and THEN we are under contract!!! This is a very exciting, but also a VERY STRESSFUL time! But, Audra is handling this all quite well:)
Oh, yeah, and she graduated to her front facing car seat- but she doesn't seem to care all that much.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

TEXAS IDNTIFY YOURSELF!!!



OK, somebody in San Antonio, TX keeps looking at my blog- which is totally fine, but it has left me totally curious!!!! PLEASE let me know who you are- a long lost friend from high school, an old girlfriend of Ben's, a college sweetheart of mine---please tell me!!!!

Make An Offer?





Here is the house that Ben absolutely LOVES and I like well enough- it doesn't have that warm "touch" that I would like, but I think a coat of paint would really help out. It is on a cul-de-sac which was the deciding factor in choosing this house. So, we think we are going to put an offer on today- we will let you know!!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Under Contract

Yes, we are under contract- for better or worse. We are losing tons of money, but I keep telling myself that many other people have as well in this market and try not to think about it. Well, we close JULY 28TH!!!! That is in less than THREE WEEKS! Needless to say I am going crazy- Ben and I are looking at tons of houses and we are hoping to find somthing that we just cant' live without- we will keep you posted!

Friday, July 4, 2008