Vacation delay and sick kids

We are surviving here at my parent's house. This living out of a suitcase is for the birds though. Actually, we wouldn't have to live out of a suitcase, but my mom's clothes have overrun her closet (including my dad's side of the closet) and into the second bedroom closet. I went to hang up our stuff and there was no room and no hangars! Good thing I brought my own hangars. Mom took some of the clothes out and put them in her front entry closet for now mumbling, "I know. I know. I HAVE to go through these clothes!" Pretty funny.

As for our vacation, we have postponed it for a couple days and cancelled the first leg. We had planned to spend three night in Red Lodge, MT and drive the Beartooth Highway, tour Yellowstone, and then head down to Salt Lake City. We were going to leave last night (Friday), but now we're re-evaluating our plans.

The girls have been sick and two nights ago, Sydney couldn't sleep and was complaining of her ear hurting. I gave her Tylenol throughout the night and yesterday I took her in to get it checked. Yep, infected, and her throat is red and tonsils enlarged. She's not good with medicine, so I had them giver her a shot, and now I just have three days of Zithromax to give her. She's feeling A LOT better! I can't believe that since they left the NICU, this is the FIRST time they've had any antibiotic and it's the FIRST ear infection. Pretty good, if you ask me. They are almost four! I just hope Lindsey's doesn't develop into anything else either. She is still coughing, but not complaining of anything hurting.

So, I think we will leave tomorrow morning (Sunday) with the intention of heading to Cheyenne, WY. We may stay there a couple nights or move on down then road. It's about 12-13 hours for us to Cheyenne, and then another 6 hours to SLC. We have reservations in SLC on Tuesday & Wednesday night.

The rest of our itinerary goes something like this:

8/24-8/26 Brian Head, UT at our timeshare (I'm looking foward to the spa Cedar Breaks Lodge & Spa) We may tour around Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon, too.

8/26-8/28 Las Vegas, NV, our timeshare was booked (and why we are spending two days in Brian Head), so we are staying at a local hotel. Our friends our celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. We're looking forward to visiting with all of our friends and for them to be able to see the girls. They did get to see them back in 2004 when we were out for a week, but the L & S were only 7 months old then.

8/28-8/31 Head home, no set plans, but we're fairly certain we're heading back the southern route this time via I-40. We're probably stopping in Albuquerque for the night, and then on through Oklahoma City where we'll pick up I-35 and head north home, making one more overnight stop around Kansas City. We need to be back by 8/31, but may try to get home on the 30th, just in case something comes up with our closing.

We are set to close on our new home on September 1 at 10 a.m. My mom is already mentioning to me about possibly having Thanksgiving at our house this year. We'll see.

I'm a little bummed that we had to cut out the Yellowstone part of our trip, as I was really looking forward to it. I think we'll make another trip out there sometimes and just stay in the area for a week. We have a timeshare in Big Sky which sounds VERY nice. Seems like a good plan for a future vacation.

In other news, it was Brian's 47th birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday Brian! We had a nice evening. My dad grilled some awesome steaks on the grill. Mom cooked garlic mashed potatoes and we also had fresh green beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers from my grandma's garden. We topped it off with cake from the local bakery which is well-known around here. People come from all over to our little hometown bakery. The girls sang Happy Birthday and he opened his cards. We love you, Brian!

We're Homeless!

It's done. We closed on our Wisconsin home yesterday at 10 a.m. It was pretty uneventful, only six pieces of paper to sign and then it was back to the house to load up some final things. The guy who bought our home just retired from the Navy after 23 years. He's been stationed in San Diego the whole time and is moving back from there.

We did have a little excitement and anxiousness in the morning though. The truck came to pick up the container and it broke down. The hydraulics sprung a leak and when he tried to load the container, the front end of the truck went up and it slid backwards toward the garage. We thought it was going to HIT it! Note on the picture how close it is to the garage. It was at least 3-4 feet away before.



The girls and I drove away from the house, sad, but excited. First a stop at the bank to deposit our check and then off to Grandma & Grandpa's (my parents), where we are staying for a few days before we leave on vacation. I can't believe I am moving home! Home to Minnesota! The girls are so cute. They recognize the water tower in town and were telling me that we live in Minnesota now!

Driving into town...



And let me tell you...moving the little bit of our stuff into my parents two bedroom, well, we've taken over! LOL!

After my mom got home from the office, then I left and headed back up to the house. Brian came there from work and we cleaned the place and loaded up our last load of stuff to take to the storage shed.

Oh, by the way, all of our stuff did NOT fit into the container. It wasn't even CLOSE! Their website states that a 2-3 bedroom home should fit. NO WAY! I'll be talking to them about that. We rented an additional 10x10 unit and it is totally full, floor to ceiling, and last night at 9:30 p.m. I was dropping a few more things into my grandma's garage that wouldn't fit! I think I need to make a list where everything is at. We have our third car and our riding lawn tractor at my brother's, some Little Tikes toys at the shop, the girls bikes & trikes and some miscellaneous things at my mom & dad's, and all our photographs, keepsakes, etc. at my grandma's, besides the storage unit and the 20 foot container that's in Minneapolis. Really, though, we don't have that much stuff!

The girls have been sick, but seem to be on the mend. Brian is starting to come down with something. I'm hoping he can stop it in it's tracks though. We're planning on leaving at midnight Friday night, and he's driving the night shift. More on our vacation later...

Oh, and on Saturday, we moved our freezer to our new house. The sellers graciously allowed us to move it in early (meat & all), so that we didn't have to move it twice and find a place to put it. It was neat to see the house again and got me excited to move in. I'm busy planning in my head where to put stuff and figuring out what to buy first (I'd like some new furniture). I also have a couple projects that I'd like to do in the kitchen. I'll keep you posted on that too.

Hearing phantom children...

My girls are staying overnight at their aunt & uncle's house tonight (my brother). They absolutely LOVE going there. They love them, their cousins, their pets, their swings...all the wonderful things that come along with family. I am so happy that we are moving to my hometown, so that my children can have the opportunity to really know their extended family, to have special relationships, not just visits. I had that as a child and my relationship with my family is VERY special.

See, there I go...off on a tangent again. The title to my entry is hearing phantom children. I'm wondering if anyone else thinks they hear their children laughing, crying, talking, whatever, when they are not there. It's been happening to me all evening, and more so now, that it's nighttime.

DH and I certainly got a lot accomplished today in regards to packing and loading (one of the reasons for the sleepover), but I sure do miss my girlies when they are gone! Actually, I know I'll miss them even more tomorrow morning when it's time for them to get up. It's my favorite part of the day, when they call for me, and I'll go in their room and hear, "Hi momma, it's morningtime!" or "Good morning, momma! I love you. You're the bestest momma EVER!" No wonder I have such great days! My cup runneth over even before the day has begun!

Look what they delivered TODAY!

It just seems so weird that in one week, we'll be homeless! The time has gone by so fast! I watched the neighbor kids for an hour this morning. We were all SAD! They are leaving on vacation today and won't be back until 8/16, and we will be GONE! They are TRULY the best neighbors that anyone could ever hope to have and I'm extremely heartbroken about it. The girls started crying when Angela came to pick up Morgan & Gabe this morning. Sydney was crying at the door as they walked away, "I'll miss you so much!" We're only an hour away, so we'll still be able to get together on occasion, but it definitely won't be the same.





I just finished calling all the utilites, etc. and cancelling our services. Now off to call the other ones to set up! Oh, and guess what? We are going with the local phone/dsl/dish network bundle AND we'll be moving into the 21st century getting DVR!! WAHOO!

Beginning of a new era for me...

and for L & S. I registered them for preschool yesterday. They will be attending St. Paul's Lutheran School (the same one that their 12 year old niece goes to) and they are excited. I signed them up for three days a week, T-W-Th, hours to be determined. I think I will start them off with the hours up until lunch and see how that goes, and maybe adjust it to longer later on. So, they'll attend from 8-12.

When we went to tour the school yesterday, I was nervous that L wouldn't want to go into the building or would be very apprehensive. She totally surprised me, staying with Sydney alone in the preschool room (playing, of course) while the principal showed the rest of the rooms to me. And then, after we were all done, she asked if they could stay longer! This makes me feel so much better! I think they are really going to enjoy the interaction with other children. They haven't had a lot of that so far, other than spending time with the two neighbor kids.

The next big thing that we're considering is...Dance Class! It's such a long commitment though, so I have to really think it through. Plus there isn't a studio in our town. We'll have to drive to the next town over, about 15 miles. I'll keep you posted on that decision!

Until next time...

We're MOVING!

Yep, that's the big news around here. Our house went on the market June 19 and sold in exactly three weeks! Unbelievable! It was a cash offer, neither of us had realtors, and my wonderful neighbor is an attorney offered to handle the closing for us as a "going away present". It all happened in less than 24 hours.

We had every intention on building. We've had lot picked out, a plan, a builder, and we totally did a 180 on it. We were very committed in moving forward with building, but then we ended up taking a look at a FSBO house. We had actually gone to look at some rentals, both would've been just fine, and then we did a driveby of a house that just came on the market that was only 5 years old. That house was really nice, but we didn't like the location. In the mean time, my brother had told me about this other house that was FSBO, so we drove out there. It's out in the country about 1.5 miles and on a half acre lot. Brian was very interested after driving by, so I called my brother to ask about it. He called the owner right then and there (he knows them, small town, you know), so they said come on over. We went over there and checked it out and it was VERY nice. It's not the layout I really wanted, but there were so many nice things about it, so many nice upgrades, add ons, etc. It was built in 1992, 4 bd/2 bath, about 2500 sq ft. That was Wed. 7/12. I won't go into all our back & forth thinking, but long story short, on that following Sunday, 7/16, we just layed it on the line, told them where we were at. We came up about $2500 where we wanted to be and they actually dropped about $12500 from their FSBO price.

I think the big thing that changed our minds is that we'd end up with about the same payment building, as with this house, but then we'd still have so much work to do on the new house (driveway, yard, deck, basement) and the built house wouldn't really be that much bigger, plus it would be in town. Also, even though with building we'd have a brand new house, it's still not the house I ultimately want or in the location I want, and after building, I'd feel like I'd need to stay there forever. Yes, it would be a very nice house, but I've BTDT a couple times with building and it's not big deal to me to do it again.

This house is all finished and there is really nothing to be done. Could something be redone? Certainly, but not necessary. It's been freshly painted, all new carpet, new tile, new appliances; they've done a great job of updating it, PLUS...the YARD is just so awesome with all the landscaping and trees, and the great playset and sandbox for the kids. And with this house, we have an opportunity to be out in the country a bit, which we really didn't think we'd be able to afford. It's gotten to be so expensive in my hometown, even with building, we would be settling.

I really wanted Brian to be comfortable since he his moving to my hometown and I think it will be an adjustment for him. He told my Dad before we had made the offer that he could already see himself mowing the lawn and planting a garden!

So, that's how it all happened! No realtors at all and everything just falling into place. I couldn't even make up a story so perfect!

We are closing on our current home on 8/15. We will stay with my parents for three nights and then we leave on vacation (already planned) for two weeks. We're coming back a day early, as we are closing on our new home on 9/1.

I don't have any inside pics, but I did manage to snap a picture of the outside. Here it is. I'm getting pretty excited!

I'm BACK!

Okay. I've spent some time updating this little ole blog, that I've only managed to crank out a couple entries per year on. I'm really going to give it a go this time. Beware though, it will probably make no sense, seeing that I am a woman of many interests. I tend to go off on tangents now and again.

I journaled quite a bit as a teenager and it really helped me organize my thoughts, and my life. I hope that by spending some time here regularly I will gain some new perspective on...well, things, life, in general.

Lots more to tell...but I'll save it for another post.