We are leaving for Disney World in just over a week. The kids are excited and I am in full planning mode.... trying to work out the details with our housesitter (yes, there will be someone here, so don't go and try to break in now....) ;)... trying to plan our daily activities (yes, I'm THAT anal).... and trying to convince myself that driving to Florida with two kids is still a great idea. Cadence asked me tonight if we could take a plane - even SHE doesn't think this is a good idea. :-/
So, let me tell you about Gabriel. We were leaving daycare and he tried going down the brick stairs on his own. I said, "Gabriel, hold my hand." He shook his head. I said, "You are going to fall." He shook his head. He made it down the stairs and took off running down the brick path that leads to the parking area. He made it about ten feet before my prophecy came true.... down the poor kid went. He fell flat on his stomach, and then the worst thing that a parent can watch happen happened.... his head bounced off the pavement. I have seen both of my kids do this and no matter how many times they do it, my heart still stops for a minute. I ran to him, picked him up and did the first thing any parent does.... I counted teeth. All there. No blood. That's good... He managed to hit the center of his forehead. No scrapes, but he does have a pretty good bump going. I asked him if he would hold my hand next time. He shook his head. Boys....
Excitement, Nervousness and Sadness
Tomorrow is Race for the Cure. I am running in memory of my Grandma Billing and my Aunt Linda and also in honor of my children's Nanny and my dear friend Barbara. This is my very first 5K and I am excited and very nervous!
I attended a seminar today for the paralegal association of which I am a member. I was excited to learn that a friend and wonderful paralegal won the coveted paralegal of the year award... and floored to find out that the award was being giving posthumously. I had no idea that he had passed away just over a month ago... It was very surreal and sad for me. I wish I would have known earlier.
I attended a seminar today for the paralegal association of which I am a member. I was excited to learn that a friend and wonderful paralegal won the coveted paralegal of the year award... and floored to find out that the award was being giving posthumously. I had no idea that he had passed away just over a month ago... It was very surreal and sad for me. I wish I would have known earlier.
Our gloriously busy weekend
Things have been very crazy over the last month of so and there's been a lot of family stuff going on that has been very stressful. This weekend was the first weekend that felt 'normal' in a while. My phone hardly rang and Chris and I were able to enjoy some quality time.
Friday evening Chris and I headed downtown to walk around the West End. We never make it that far into downtown and thought it would be fun. We stopped at Liberty for a beer and some blue cheese chips (yummy!). The last time we were at Liberty was during the post-wedding limo party when we did mango vodka shots (not so yummy....). After that we stopped into Pomegrante on Main. We saw a news clip about this restaurant the day before. Apparently, one of the bar tenders had oral cancer and had just come back to work. She was learning to talk again after having surgery and the servers wore t-shirts that said "the good news is she can't talk. The bad news is she will." ...or something to that effect. ;-) Anyway, we thought it was really sweet how supportive they were so we stopped in for a pomegrante martini. Although generally I am not a martini fan (they are too strong for me), I liked this one. It was really cute with a little flower floating on top. Even Chris had one... His was equally as 'cute.' ;-)
The next morning we hit up the Greenville Literacy Association's Really Big, Really Good, Really Cheap Book Sale. We found Michael Jackson's Guide to Beer for Chris and Christy found me a copy of the New Kids on the Block Autobiography. Hells yeah!!!
We went back downtown to try out a new Indian restaurant. They have a lunch buffet every day for $9.98. It was AMAZING! I love Indian food and, although yummy, the other Indian restaurant that we frequent is a little more pricey.
After lunch we stopped into The Bakery Bistro, a doggie bakery on Main Street, to pick up some cookies for the puppies. Then we did some window shopping and drooled over amazing backpacking gear at the Mast General Store. We decided that it was best not to spend $300.00 on the awesome packs that we had tried on and celebrated our shopping self-control by stopping into Blue Ridge Brewing Company for some local beer.
We came home to give the dogs their presents and then relaxed for about thirty minutes (me with my NKOTB book, of course) before heading out to the Forrester Woods Club House for a low country boil sponsored by our church. Nothing beats low country boil.... except low country boil and a keg of Fat Tire. :D After we ate waaaaay to much, we met up with Christy and Erin and hung out for a while at the restaurant where Erin works. Christy came back to the house with us for a Stella from the kegerater and we enjoyed that on the back porch.
Today has been pretty much nothing but housework and yardwork and catching up on all the stuff that we did not do yesterday. My vacuum broke today, so there was a trip to Lowe's thrown in the mix as well. That worked out okay though because I was planning to go to get shelves for the garage. We have lots of garagey-type stuff and no where to put it. At least now it is somewhat organized.
The kids (and Andrew) were waiting for us when we got home. Apparently Gabriel threw up a few times yesterday and once during the night. Andrew said that he's been fine since then so hopefully he stays that way. I love my son for timing that on his father's weekend. :D
Friday evening Chris and I headed downtown to walk around the West End. We never make it that far into downtown and thought it would be fun. We stopped at Liberty for a beer and some blue cheese chips (yummy!). The last time we were at Liberty was during the post-wedding limo party when we did mango vodka shots (not so yummy....). After that we stopped into Pomegrante on Main. We saw a news clip about this restaurant the day before. Apparently, one of the bar tenders had oral cancer and had just come back to work. She was learning to talk again after having surgery and the servers wore t-shirts that said "the good news is she can't talk. The bad news is she will." ...or something to that effect. ;-) Anyway, we thought it was really sweet how supportive they were so we stopped in for a pomegrante martini. Although generally I am not a martini fan (they are too strong for me), I liked this one. It was really cute with a little flower floating on top. Even Chris had one... His was equally as 'cute.' ;-)
The next morning we hit up the Greenville Literacy Association's Really Big, Really Good, Really Cheap Book Sale. We found Michael Jackson's Guide to Beer for Chris and Christy found me a copy of the New Kids on the Block Autobiography. Hells yeah!!!
We went back downtown to try out a new Indian restaurant. They have a lunch buffet every day for $9.98. It was AMAZING! I love Indian food and, although yummy, the other Indian restaurant that we frequent is a little more pricey.
After lunch we stopped into The Bakery Bistro, a doggie bakery on Main Street, to pick up some cookies for the puppies. Then we did some window shopping and drooled over amazing backpacking gear at the Mast General Store. We decided that it was best not to spend $300.00 on the awesome packs that we had tried on and celebrated our shopping self-control by stopping into Blue Ridge Brewing Company for some local beer.
We came home to give the dogs their presents and then relaxed for about thirty minutes (me with my NKOTB book, of course) before heading out to the Forrester Woods Club House for a low country boil sponsored by our church. Nothing beats low country boil.... except low country boil and a keg of Fat Tire. :D After we ate waaaaay to much, we met up with Christy and Erin and hung out for a while at the restaurant where Erin works. Christy came back to the house with us for a Stella from the kegerater and we enjoyed that on the back porch.
Today has been pretty much nothing but housework and yardwork and catching up on all the stuff that we did not do yesterday. My vacuum broke today, so there was a trip to Lowe's thrown in the mix as well. That worked out okay though because I was planning to go to get shelves for the garage. We have lots of garagey-type stuff and no where to put it. At least now it is somewhat organized.
The kids (and Andrew) were waiting for us when we got home. Apparently Gabriel threw up a few times yesterday and once during the night. Andrew said that he's been fine since then so hopefully he stays that way. I love my son for timing that on his father's weekend. :D
A thirty-minute window into my Saturday...
This is the series of events as I recall them:
1. Used spreader to fertilize the back yard
2. Set up sprinkler in back yard
3. Walked inside
4. Locked sliding glass door
5. Grabbed Gabriel and wrestled him into his last remaining clean outfit
6. Went back outside and moved the sprinkler to the other half of the yard
7. Walked inside
8. Put Cadence in the shower
9. While Cadence dried off I stepped out of the bathroom and heard squeeking sounds coming from the downstairs hallways followed by a two-year-old voice saying "I dirty"
10. *palm to face* I suddenly remember that I had forgotten the "Locked sliding glass door" step after # 7 above
11. Ran downstairs to a fully-clothed soaking wet two year old, an open back door and a wet kitchen (the sprinkler has GREAT distance)
12. Attempted to dry kitchen
13. Stripped Gabriel
14. Looked for clothes for Cadence (who is still drying off).
15. Found Gabriel's clothes in Cadence's dresser.
16. Put an outfit for Cadence on her bed
17. Repeated step #5
1. Used spreader to fertilize the back yard
2. Set up sprinkler in back yard
3. Walked inside
4. Locked sliding glass door
5. Grabbed Gabriel and wrestled him into his last remaining clean outfit
6. Went back outside and moved the sprinkler to the other half of the yard
7. Walked inside
8. Put Cadence in the shower
9. While Cadence dried off I stepped out of the bathroom and heard squeeking sounds coming from the downstairs hallways followed by a two-year-old voice saying "I dirty"
10. *palm to face* I suddenly remember that I had forgotten the "Locked sliding glass door" step after # 7 above
11. Ran downstairs to a fully-clothed soaking wet two year old, an open back door and a wet kitchen (the sprinkler has GREAT distance)
12. Attempted to dry kitchen
13. Stripped Gabriel
14. Looked for clothes for Cadence (who is still drying off).
15. Found Gabriel's clothes in Cadence's dresser.
16. Put an outfit for Cadence on her bed
17. Repeated step #5
Pictures of the new house
Our house is finally presentable enough to post a few interior pictures. It still has a long way to go, but here's a little taste of the Hall-Smith house:
Entry way:
Kitchen:
Living Room:
Kids' TV Room:
Entry way:
Kitchen:
Breakfast Area:
Living Room:
Kids' TV Room:
Kids' Play Room:
Gabriel's Room:
Cadence's Room:
Laundry Room:
Our Room:
Our Bathroom:
Cadence's Room:
Laundry Room:
Our Room:
Our Bathroom:
There's another bathroom upstairs (the kids' bathroom) as well as a half bathroom downstairs of which I did not take pictures. We also have another bedroom that is storing the few boxes that we have left that I haven't been motivated enough to unpack. I've already posted outside pictures... that really hasn't changed much.
The big move
After one cancelled closing, a no-show moving truck and three days spent moving in 95 degree heat we are finally in our new house. The original plan was to close on both loans at the same time on Friday June 26th, so I my last day in the office was Wednesday. Thursday Brandon (Dianne's boyfriend) and I went to pick up the 24-foot rental truck. When we got there we were told that they could not provide us with a 24-foot truck because they were all rented out - which really sucked since I had reserved it almost a week prior. The lady at the counter told me that my townhouse should fit into a 16-foot truck and offerred to give me a huge discount and let me return it at lunchtime on Saturday (instead of 9am as my contract stated). I agreed and we took the truck home.
At around 1pm we had the truck completely loaded. The only problem was that we still had about 2 rooms worth of stuff still in the house. So much for all of my stuff fitting in a 16-foot truck. :-/ Normally, this wouldn't be a problem because we could just make more than one trip to the new house, right? Wrong. We had to have all of the stuff out of the old house by the end of the day Thursday so we could go to the closing first thing in the morning on Friday and then move it all into the new house. So we went back up to the rental place to get another truck. Just as I had signed and paid for the second truck I receive a phone call from Jack, the realtor selling my townhouse. The closing on my townhouse on Friday has been postponed until Tuesday because of a problem with the buyer's mortgage company. Well this wouldn't have sucked too much except for one major issue: I needed the money from the sale of my townhouse for the downpayment on the new house. Which meant that the closing on the new house would have to be postponed until Tuesday as well.... and I had 80% of my house loaded into a moving truck and had just paid for a second moving truck.
Now the buyers of my townhouse wanted to know if it was okay to go ahead and move in that Friday anyway - even though the closing was postponed. I did not really have a problem with that as I was assured by the mortgage company that the closing would take place on Tuesday. The only problem I had was where to go if I let them move in. So Bob, the realtor helping us buy the new house, called the seller's realtor to see if we could move into our new house on Friday as well. The realtor couldn't located his client (a situation that has arisen a few times in this transaction) so he didn't know if this would be a possibility. So here we are at 9pm on Thursday with 80% of our stuff in one truck, another truck that has been paid for and we may not need and now we realize that our utilities are being turned off in the townhouse first thing in the morning. Crap.
Friday morning rolls around and I frantically call the power/water/sewer company and the cable company to make sure that we still have utilities. I cancel the appointment for the cable guy to come out to the new house. Less than fifteen minutes after I made these calls I receive a call from Bob saying that we can go ahead and move into the new house. I frantically call everyone back again. The power/water/sewer people say that there is no problem transferring the service that day. The cable people however, have already filled by appointment. They stopped service on the old house, but can't make it out until Monday to install the service at the new house. I have no problem with this but Chris has a huge soccer game that he wanted to watch on Sunday. Poor Chris.
We receive a call from Jack asking if the people can move into our townhouse on Friday as well. I told Jack that since we didn't finish loading on Thursday (because we didn't want to unload it in the event that we were not able to move) it would probably be best if they waited until Saturday. This also meant that we could make multiple trips and didn't need the second truck that we had rented the day before. What a waste of $20.
We returned the truck and spent the majority of the day moving the contents of our townhouse to the new house. I would like to give a big shout out to Erin, Jessica, Josh, Michael and Mark for helping us on Friday. It was soooo hot and we really appreciate the help that we received from everyone. Friday evening after we unloaded the second truckload we said good-bye to our friends and headed to the pool. There was a man named Scott and his two sons up there who were kind enough to let us in (we didn't have a gate code yet). We swam for about 30 minutes and then went back to the townhouse to vaccuum and clean. There is nothing more disgusting than cleaning behind a washer and dryer that has not moved in 5 years.
We got up early on Saturday and met Rob and Abbie at our house around 10am. We had to go clean out our storage unit and then go by my mom's house to get some boxes out of the garage - and by some I mean 20 or 30. We brought the truck back to the house and unloaded. We sat down for a celebratory beer. We now officially had all of our belongings in the house. They were all in boxes, but they were in damnit. We drove the truck back to the rental place and returned home to begin unpacking.
We continued to unpack throughout the day on Sunday until it was time for the soccer game. You know, the one that Chris couldn't watch because we cancelled the appointment with the cable guy? We met Josh and The Lube and spent the next 2ish hours watching soccer and working on our 100 oz beer. Let me repeat that.... a 100 oz beer!!!
On Monday we received a call from the attorney's office confirming that the closings were to take place the next day at 3:30pm and 4:30pm. Then I receive a frantic call from my mortgage broker. She had tried to reach me on my cell phone and then at my office. The person at my office who answered the phone told her that I didn't work there anymore. That's not a good thing when you are about to close on a house. Technically I did work there. My last day was the previous Wednesday; however, I had almost two weeks of vacation time remaining so as of Monday (and the closing on the next day) I was still an employee of that company. Wednesday I was going to be an employee of another company. My broker was not so happy with this news. She said that the mortgage company may call again to verify my employment and that if they get a response like she had just received they probably would not fund the loan and the closing would fall apart. Not good. So I called my old (or technically current) employer. They understood the situation and said that they would handle it. That didn't mean that I wasn't freaking out all night though...
Tuesday came and both closings went off without any major issues. The closings were so late in the day; however, that the loan on the new house did not fund until Wednesday morning. We are VERY glad that the stress of moving and closing is over with. We have the house in somewhat liveable condition, but it isn't quite ready for pictures. We will post some soon though.
We are also planning a housewarming party for July 18th. More details on that to come.
At around 1pm we had the truck completely loaded. The only problem was that we still had about 2 rooms worth of stuff still in the house. So much for all of my stuff fitting in a 16-foot truck. :-/ Normally, this wouldn't be a problem because we could just make more than one trip to the new house, right? Wrong. We had to have all of the stuff out of the old house by the end of the day Thursday so we could go to the closing first thing in the morning on Friday and then move it all into the new house. So we went back up to the rental place to get another truck. Just as I had signed and paid for the second truck I receive a phone call from Jack, the realtor selling my townhouse. The closing on my townhouse on Friday has been postponed until Tuesday because of a problem with the buyer's mortgage company. Well this wouldn't have sucked too much except for one major issue: I needed the money from the sale of my townhouse for the downpayment on the new house. Which meant that the closing on the new house would have to be postponed until Tuesday as well.... and I had 80% of my house loaded into a moving truck and had just paid for a second moving truck.
Now the buyers of my townhouse wanted to know if it was okay to go ahead and move in that Friday anyway - even though the closing was postponed. I did not really have a problem with that as I was assured by the mortgage company that the closing would take place on Tuesday. The only problem I had was where to go if I let them move in. So Bob, the realtor helping us buy the new house, called the seller's realtor to see if we could move into our new house on Friday as well. The realtor couldn't located his client (a situation that has arisen a few times in this transaction) so he didn't know if this would be a possibility. So here we are at 9pm on Thursday with 80% of our stuff in one truck, another truck that has been paid for and we may not need and now we realize that our utilities are being turned off in the townhouse first thing in the morning. Crap.
Friday morning rolls around and I frantically call the power/water/sewer company and the cable company to make sure that we still have utilities. I cancel the appointment for the cable guy to come out to the new house. Less than fifteen minutes after I made these calls I receive a call from Bob saying that we can go ahead and move into the new house. I frantically call everyone back again. The power/water/sewer people say that there is no problem transferring the service that day. The cable people however, have already filled by appointment. They stopped service on the old house, but can't make it out until Monday to install the service at the new house. I have no problem with this but Chris has a huge soccer game that he wanted to watch on Sunday. Poor Chris.
We receive a call from Jack asking if the people can move into our townhouse on Friday as well. I told Jack that since we didn't finish loading on Thursday (because we didn't want to unload it in the event that we were not able to move) it would probably be best if they waited until Saturday. This also meant that we could make multiple trips and didn't need the second truck that we had rented the day before. What a waste of $20.
We returned the truck and spent the majority of the day moving the contents of our townhouse to the new house. I would like to give a big shout out to Erin, Jessica, Josh, Michael and Mark for helping us on Friday. It was soooo hot and we really appreciate the help that we received from everyone. Friday evening after we unloaded the second truckload we said good-bye to our friends and headed to the pool. There was a man named Scott and his two sons up there who were kind enough to let us in (we didn't have a gate code yet). We swam for about 30 minutes and then went back to the townhouse to vaccuum and clean. There is nothing more disgusting than cleaning behind a washer and dryer that has not moved in 5 years.
We got up early on Saturday and met Rob and Abbie at our house around 10am. We had to go clean out our storage unit and then go by my mom's house to get some boxes out of the garage - and by some I mean 20 or 30. We brought the truck back to the house and unloaded. We sat down for a celebratory beer. We now officially had all of our belongings in the house. They were all in boxes, but they were in damnit. We drove the truck back to the rental place and returned home to begin unpacking.
We continued to unpack throughout the day on Sunday until it was time for the soccer game. You know, the one that Chris couldn't watch because we cancelled the appointment with the cable guy? We met Josh and The Lube and spent the next 2ish hours watching soccer and working on our 100 oz beer. Let me repeat that.... a 100 oz beer!!!
On Monday we received a call from the attorney's office confirming that the closings were to take place the next day at 3:30pm and 4:30pm. Then I receive a frantic call from my mortgage broker. She had tried to reach me on my cell phone and then at my office. The person at my office who answered the phone told her that I didn't work there anymore. That's not a good thing when you are about to close on a house. Technically I did work there. My last day was the previous Wednesday; however, I had almost two weeks of vacation time remaining so as of Monday (and the closing on the next day) I was still an employee of that company. Wednesday I was going to be an employee of another company. My broker was not so happy with this news. She said that the mortgage company may call again to verify my employment and that if they get a response like she had just received they probably would not fund the loan and the closing would fall apart. Not good. So I called my old (or technically current) employer. They understood the situation and said that they would handle it. That didn't mean that I wasn't freaking out all night though...
Tuesday came and both closings went off without any major issues. The closings were so late in the day; however, that the loan on the new house did not fund until Wednesday morning. We are VERY glad that the stress of moving and closing is over with. We have the house in somewhat liveable condition, but it isn't quite ready for pictures. We will post some soon though.
We are also planning a housewarming party for July 18th. More details on that to come.
I have a gallon jug of relish and some beer in my fridge
We are moving in four days and my refridgerator looks like it did when I was 20 - full of condiments, beer and take-out! The kids are spending the week at their Nanny & Papa's house so I guess it's acceptable. It's not like we are cooking for anyone. In fact, we CAN'T cook for anyone! All of our pots are in boxes! Here is a look into my empty (yet somehow still full-looking) fridge:
