This and that

When we were looking at houses, Bjorn really wanted a pool. My problem with the pool was I was nervous the kids would get into it when I wasn't around and that shit just scares me. So we started only looking for houses that had a separate pool fence so that it was separate from the rest of the yard. That meant the kids could have a yard and still have a separate pool. The first house we put an offer on did have that already. Then that fell through and we fell in love with our house. It didn't have a separate pool fence, but it looked it did at one time. So we made a deal with ourselves that we would add that fence.

So we did! And it looks great. Now I can open the door to the backyard and send the kids out to play without having to supervise the pool area. We were also able to padlock the pool with a combination lock. I feel better already. Now we need to find some toys to put in the new fenced area.

This picture is evidence I have the coolest mom ever. We had tickets to see the supremely hilarious David Sedaris at SMU a few weeks ago. I stopped to pick up mom and we prepared drinks to put in our purses to have at intermission. She's just awesome. And so was the show.

Also awesome? These guys. The other night, we had a terrible thunderstorm so they both converged in our bed. I snuck out to watch the news about Bid Laden and came back to this picture. I think I love them more than ever. Plus, sleeping children are sometimes superior to awake ones that stand over me in the bathroom stall asking if I'm done yet over and over and over and over again.

Said thunderstorms produced a ton of rain. Our creek is a major artery during times of storms so Meggie and I went down to check it out. Check out her little fashion statement, too. Who doesn't wear a striped dress with striped pants of a different vintage with a raincoat to match?

More backlog

This is our master bathtub. Sure, I haven't actually taken a bath in it yet, but all the kids love it!

Doesn't this look like an album cover?

This is the kids with Miss Ayesha on Meg's last day with her. We were all in tears. She was a huge part of our lives and we miss her!

Flowers Bjorn sent me for my birthday, you know, in June. Note the "Happy Birthday Princess" balloon my equally sarcastic colleagues got me.

This is just a pretty picture from the top of the stairs looking at the entry. Looks like we have a grown up house now.

I know! How cute is she? I also love her pajama shirt "Dancing Makes Me Happy."

I miss this jokers a lot, too. These is a group of us getting some fine inexpensive beer after an indoor soccer game.

I miss these guys from outdoor soccer, too. What I don't miss? All that pesky running around outside without the promise of beer afterwards.

The guest room is finally furnished with a bed. When are you coming to visit?

See? An even better reason to come visit!

One step closer

Big day today -- we close on the new house this afternoon. Granted, we can't move in until next Wednesday evening at the earliest, BUT we are (almost) one step closer. Bjorn called yesterday and got all our utilities set up and I have settled on a childcare center for the kids. I have them starting a week from Monday. Andy will only have two weeks at "camp" until school starts, but I want him to get a chance to meet a couple of kids who will go to his new school so at least he knows someone before he starts.

I kind of can't believe it!

House!

And we have a house! Check it out. I am not sure we can afford to air condition it, but we certainly have room for visitors. I hope you're planning your trip.

The 36-hour adventure, or why buying a house is harder than it looks

I flew to Dallas on Friday for a 36-hour trip so I could look at the finalists in the house hunt and hopefully make an offer on something. It was quite the whirlwind. It didn't help that Meg had decidedas  sleeping in her crib is for babies and under penalty of death or Benadryl she is not going to stay in there. That meant I was going on like six hours sleep for the whole thing. I know, no pressure there.

It was so cool to look at the houses though. We have found a neighborhood we like with great schools and apparently a very good football team (it is Texas, ya'll). My biggest complaint is apparently Texas wants to put the master bedroom on the first floor. That might be fine if the kids were six and nine, but with Meg and Andy both still getting up too often for my taste and the thought of them also falling down the stairs at 3 a.m. doesn't thrill me. It also has wallpaper -- the bane of my existence. After spending seven years here removing wallpaper, I vowed never to do it again. And then I fell in love with a four bedroom, four bath with a pool, a study and a three car garage. It will be heaven. Assuming we can negotiate a deal. You know, before we leave for a two week trip on the other side of the world.

The whole thing is coming together. Well, at least the big pieces like the jobs and selling our house (fingers crossed it closes!) Things we still have to do include buying a house, packing and moving. I swear, we've talked to a dozen movers and each one seems crazier and more expensive than the rest.

Hrmph

So the house has been on the market for approximately 72 hours and hasn't sold yet. What gives, universe? Don't you know how totally impatient I am? Don't you know how impossible it is trying to keep the house clean with 2 1/2 children in the house? I feel like I'm following behind a bull in a china shop, constantly trying to put things back in order and prevent disaster. Plus, Bjorn's down in Dallas finding all these amazing, 3,500+ square foot monstrosities with pools and playgrounds in a great school district and begging me to come down to make an offer on one. I know these things take time, but I really don't much like waiting. Sure we've been waiting to make this move for five years already, but now that we're here, I want to go now, now, now!

Speaking of going somewhere, my friend Catherine is headed to South Africa. for the World Cup and blogging about it. How cool is that?

The big, big purge

Remind me again why we're moving? Oh right, higher standard of living for less money and the chance to be near my family. That's good to remind myself because moving sure is a huge pain in the neck. I have spent the last several weeks cleaning, purging and rearranging. I've practically got Purple Heart on speed dial just to get all the crap off my front porch. I really had no idea how much stuff I have. Really. I know everyone says that, but I have actually been working on getting rid of stuff for a while. When the big kids moved home, I got rid of a bunch of furniture then. I also routinely go through mine and the little kids' closets to donate and pass along to other kids. Yet I still have an enormous amount of stuff to get rid of.

My attic is just about filled with boxes. Fortunately we're just about ready to list the house next week so I think I've gotten up there just about all that is going to go up there. Jennifer moves into her new place first of next week, which gives me about a day to then clean up the basement and rearrange some furniture from other parts of the house. I have invited some friends over allegedly for my birthday, but in reality everyone is going to help me get the place ready.

It's going to be a real challenge keeping the place neat so it can be showed. I had a long talk with the kids about it last night -- how there can be no laundry not folded, dishes have to go in the sink, beds made and everything off the floor. Mark mostly groaned. The little kids I can boss around, but Mark, well, not so much. My realtor has said she'll throw away any of his stuff he leaves on the floor so that should be interesting.

I have survived okay without Bjorn. I miss him terribly, but I'm excited to hear the new job seems to be going well. I know he was pretty choked up when he left so I felt pretty sorry for him headed off to the big unknown as the advance team until I spent all last weekend cleaning windows and shampooing carpets. Then, well, not so much.

Now, who wants to buy a four bedroom, 2 1/2 bath on 1/3 of an acre in Fairfax? Come on, it's walking distance to Royal Lake, Laurel Ridge Elementary, Robinson Secondary and Commonwealth Swim Club. Plus, it's right off the bus line with easy access to the Pentagon, VRE and DC. I'll make you a deal!

Report card

Andy got a report card of sorts this week. It's an interesting preview of what's to come, that's for sure. The good news is he seems to be right with his peers in terms of language development, speech, interaction, socialization, math, motor skills, etc. He's even above average in his counting, being able to count solidly up to 41 was apparently impressive. Bjorn is thrilled about this part. It cracks me up to see his delight in his kids excelling at something, anything.

I was worried about the socialization part. He's new to this school, well, a few months now, and when I ask him about who he played with, he won't tell me much. But his teacher said he's got a core group of buddies -- Leonard mostly, followed by Elliot and sometimes Matthew. That was good to hear.

Things have been chaotic here otherwise. I was out of town for a week for work, which was both good and exhausting. I'm always glad when it's over as I don't have to do it again for a year, but I've been working toward this for at least six months so it's always nice to see the fruits of my labors.

Jennifer also moved in last weekend. Right now the house is still brimming with too much stuff so we're still sorting out what furniture to keep, what to put in the attic and what to get rid of all together. She's taking over the basement and it's been interesting to see all her stuff mixed with ours and trying to find the best way to give her privacy and space while keeping the TV and Wii station and access to the laundry room. Right now I am bumping into furniture in the wrong places still, but we're slowly getting it all situated. The bonus? She makes coffee every morning and occasionally folds laundry and does the dishes. I can get used to that.

Construction

We are replacing the tiles in our two upstairs bathrooms. We had a random leak the precipitated the replacement in our bathroom. And while we had the guy in, it was just another few hundred to replace the tiles in the kids' bathroom. All fine, right?

Well, it never occurred to either of us that they would remove the toilets to put the tiles down. Or that it would take more than one day. So we're down to only the half-bath off the kitchen. Not great for me with my small bladder and a kid that often needs to be walked to the toilet at 3 a.m. As Mary would say, this is suboptimal.

As the work began, they naturally discovered that the problem with our bathroom tile is not the source of the leak, but something in our shower. So we're spending $1,000+ to replace something that wasn't broken. Oh sure, the tile was old and yucky and in definite need of replacement, but we didn't have to do it. We still would have had to cut open the ceiling in the kitchen, but that would have been a far cheaper project at a time where it appears we're hemorrhaging money. Personal property taxes are due, yearly insurance rates are here, Mark needs a lot more money for college and Jennifer has decided life on the outside is too expensive and is moving in. Bjorn's got a few deals in the works that, if they work out, would ease our pain quite a bit. Fingers and toes [or legs, as Armando prefers to say] crossed.

Mundane excitement

The new washing machine arrived yesterday. It looks surprisingly...just like a washing machine. The difference is this one doesn't leak and is more energy and water efficient. The rest of it, well, eh. It was a nice Christmas present to ourselves though.

I initially really wanted one of those fancy front loaders, but the reviews from my friends and Consumer Reports was pretty mixed and for the additional $700, I wanted to get something I really loved that worked great. So instead, I have this basic white one.
The best surprise of the whole thing is the laundry room. I spent some time yesterday cleaning and organizing getting ready for the Sears guys. The result is a room that at least looks a lot bigger. I even figured out how to finally fold up the child bike trailer so I can eventually get it up into the attic.

Holy storms, Batman

It's been a wacky week in Washington (a lot of alliteration already). The weather gods gave us three days of thunderstorms, including some of Wednesday that produced tornadoes and tennis-ball-sized hail. Crazy. Our house was fine, but our neighbor across the street wasn't quite so lucky. There were also reports of a tornado touching down not far from my office where, sadly, one person died when a tree fell onto a car.

At Andy's school they even got all the kids into the hallway until the storm passed. Hearing about that certainly brought back memories of growing up in Texas and lining up in the hallways of the elementary school with our heads between our knees during a tornado warning.


I'd love to say the weather is the reason for the lack of posts recently, but truthfully, this working and taking care of kids thing has been kind of kicking my ass lately. We're slowly getting into a groove. The kids are doing fine at their respective places and I'm enjoying (mostly) being out of the house and doing something other than changing diapers. But at the end of the day, once everyone is snug in their beds, I'm finding I'm exhausted and ready for bed. When did I get so lame that being able to go to bed at 9:30 p.m., with the goal of sleeping until 3 a.m. is the highlight of my day?

P.S. New pictures posted to the right on Flickr.
P.P.S. I have spent the past several weeks slowly taking down a wallpaper border in Mark's room. God, do I hate wallpaper and that Dif crap that you spray to take it off. I swear I've spent the last five years taking down wallpaper in various room. When it comes to buy our next house, I'm going to demand one without wallpaper.

Keyed entry

My friend Viv recommended we get a realtor-esque lockbox like they use in the business. She assured me they had them at Home Depot and she was right. For about $30, we know how a permanent combination key box. Now if only I can get an alarm that goes off with the user fails to put it back after a few minutes. It is a nice piece of mind now that Andy is increasingly getting bold putting and turning knobs and locks.



We've had an exciting weekend filled with family who came in from California and Sweden to surprise Bjorn's mother for her XXth birthday. She was thrilled with the whole thing and there are lots of good pictures to share. Unfortunately, our digital camera is currently missing is action with all the activities going on between her house and ours, but I'll upload them as soon as it materializes.



Andy has been having a great time singing happy birthday all weekend and eating birthday cake. He's somewhat obsessed with birthday cake in general (whenever he cooks in his kitchen, he's always making birthday cake and wants to sing once he's done) so this has been a great few days for him.