Category Archives: House & Home
Waterslide Playdate
We had invited everyone back over today but no one could make it…so I was glad that I had talked to another pre-k mom at the end-of-year party and had invited her and her kids over. Owen loves the slide, but enjoys it SO MUCH MORE when there are other kids to play with. 🙂
Izzy (Owen’s classmate) and her sister, Cory:
After awhile I convinced Vicky to go down the slide as well. She agreed it was a blast!
Waterslide Day 2
Yep, we splurged on two days of the waterslide—why not? (Yes, it was mostly guilt—I still feel bad we have no back yard (per se) at the new house and they lost their playset.) And what fun is life if you can’t spoil your kids now and again? 🙂
Unfortunately, Katie was NOT into it today…this is all she wanted to do:
Then Katie climbed up this far then stopped and wanted help getting down. She refused to go up and refused to go down and wouldn’t let Owen help her. I wanted her to figure it out herself so just left her there for awhile while I watched Owen play.
I eventually had to go up and get Katie down because she would. not. move. And then it was time to go inside to rest for a bit before more friends came over for a waterslide play date! 🙂
Until We Meet Again Party
We decided to have a going away party before we left—but I called it an “Until We Meet Again” party because I HATE goodbyes. It was also a perfect excuse to rent a huge waterslide for Owen because he loves them and our new house has zero place for one.
As it was being set up, the kids were VERY excited watching out the window. Katie was saying “Slide! Katie slide! Katie slide please!” 🙂 I was busy getting the last few things ready for the party and Tom was running our last errands so I made the kids wait until he got home…but then it was game on! Owen had no issues with it, of course, but Katie was a poop. She loves climbing on things but put her on the slide where she HAS to climb (and can pretty much climb without much caution) and she wanted NONE of it. This is where she’d stop:
Even after Owen went down a few times, this is the farthest she’d go:
Finally I had enough of trying to verbally coerce her into climbing up, so I got on the slide with her and basically pushed her up each rung of the ladder. Once we got to the top, she didn’t want to go down…so I put my arm around her and we went down together—AND SHE LOVED IT! And immediately went to the ladder…and climbed up all on her own (the little shit!)! I did go up again behind her to make sure she didn’t slip backwards, but she did it just fine!
And then at the top of the slide…I realized my phone was still in my pocket!!! @$&#%! I obviously hadn’t planned on going on the slide (I was still wearing clothes, too) but got caught up in the moment of being frustrated with Katie. 🙁 I yelled at Tom to come get it and instead of coming up the ladder calmly, he was a bit upset and wasn’t being careful…and instead tried to come up over the side of the slide and pulled a leg muscle while getting back off. Like pulled it badly enough that he was limping. 🙁 But the slide was a blast and I knew I’d be on it more throughout the day…so I just gave in and put my suit on right then. And since Katie was still going up and down, I put her in her suit, too.
This is where she liked playing the most. And she was pretty good about moving out of the way when you said “Katie, watch out!” She’d go wait on the side until Owen came down, then she’d go back in the water. 🙂
Even though the slide was fun, I thought it might be out to kill me. After the kids had been playing for a bit (while I was working on party prep), Katie refused to come down (it was her naptime but she didn’t know that—she was just being stubborn). I told Owen this was his one chance to push his sister down the slide—and he tried but he said she was too strong and he couldn’t do it…so I had to go up the slide again to get her down. So I climbed up and we came down together—and I smashed right through the end buffer and landed on the ground with Katie on top of me! HOLY CRAP. I knew it was possible (other adults have done it before) but I had already gone down “successfully” a handful of times so definitely wasn’t expecting it. Katie wasn’t hurt (or crying) so that was good, and for the most part I was okay, but I had actually smacked my head on the ground. Ugh—instant headache. Then Katie was trying to get back onto the slide so I had to grab her…and I slipped on the wet tarp while carrying her! Thankfully she wasn’t hurt and I wasn’t really, either, though my butt and back hurt. Good times, right? I handed her off to Tom and took some pain pills. AND THEN…I was going down the slide with Owen and we were having a blast…and he was excited and wasn’t following the rules (waiting for the area to be clear before sliding down) and just rammed his feet straight into my side. Needless to say it was time for me to take a break.
Once the other kids arrived, things got a little more hectic. Pool toys came out and were part of the slide and kids were going down together (as you can see here)…and the “rules” kind of went out the window. 🙂
The girls loved Katie and basically thought she was their own little doll. 🙂
Ursula was the first adult to go down and she went tandem with Virginia! She agreed it was a blast!
Everyone had fun and the slide was (of course) a hit. There were a few minor bumps and bruises once all eight kids were on the slide at the same time and Owen ended up with a sure-to-be bruised eye. But it was super fun and it all went really well. The only minor bummer was the weather—in the middle of the party we had a downpour just long enough and with just enough thunder and lightning to send everyone inside…for 15 minutes! So then it was back outside! It started to threaten a storm again about 7:00 which sucked because all the adults were going to get on the slide (and I had planned on being able to use the slide most of the evening)…so we just sent the kids inside and a few of us went down a few times in the rain. There’s even video of me catapulting over the end (which may get posted privately) but I’ll gladly post the one of Tom! 🙂
Once it started storming and we were all inside, the kids were watching a movie and the adults were visiting and snacking…and Jacqueline was doing my dishes. There was plenty of room in the dishwasher but she actually LIKES doing dishes so who am I to stop her? 🙂
It was a really great time and I am so glad we did it…and it wasn’t until everyone was gone that I got really sad thinking about how much we’re going to miss everyone. (It’s always sad leaving, but the last time we left, we were just going to be missing two families…this time, we have more friends that we’ll be missing so it will be even harder.) But at least we have some great memories!
Busy back yard morning!
The playset was coming down as the waterslide was going up! I couldn’t watch too much of the playset teardown because I was really very sad about it. I worried how Owen would handle it…but he literally looked out the window and said “Awww, I’m going to miss the playset…BUT THE WATERSLIDE WILL BE SO FUN!” And we didn’t hear another word about it.
Our looooong day. Yay?
Today Tom and I did a long round-trip to the new house to drop off a FULL 14′ U-haul. Why, you may be asking?
Well, we somewhat recently found out that our last move was about 5,000 pounds over our allotted weight limit. Technically we could have been charged for it—but weren’t—so we didn’t want to take any chances this time. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff (see the #40bagsin40days posts) but it still just felt like A LOT. Yes, we likely wouldn’t have been charged…but this way, we can make 100% sure AND we also get paid to do a “partial move” ourselves (they pay gas plus a per pound price, if I recall correctly).
So we had loaded up all of the small heavy things that we could—everything from his garage cabinets to pantry goods to tools to golf clubs to cat litter. We even took the garage freezer (so we wouldn’t have to empty and defrost it) and our new refrigerator (we were NOT leaving a $3000 refrigerator for our potential renters/buyers). We managed to stuff just over 5,000 pounds in the truck (quite impressive, I thought).
The original plan was for Tom to go up himself and unload then drive home. But once we decided to take the refrigerator and realized we needed to upgrade to a full truck vs. just a trailer, that meant Tom would need a way home (since it was a one-way rental). I could follow him up, but it didn’t seem to make much sense to drive if we could tow the car instead. Loooong story short, we ended up with a full trailer (vs just a tow dolly) which likely ended up to be more difficult than the dolly would have been…but it was nice not having to drive two cars.
So this is how we traveled to Virginia.
Unfortunately, the whole road trip part SUCKED. With such a beast of a load plus towing the vehicle, our speed was limited—and then of course we hit traffic around Stafford (the parking lot that is 95) so it took us 6.5 hours to get there (best case scenario the trip should take five hours). So, ugh.
The unloading didn’t go too badly—it was warm but not ungoldly hot. We met a neighbor who was very nice and has a 4yo and 2 week old and was excited someone was finally moving in (it’s been empty for like six months). She told us the street is mostly Army and Air Force—we’ll be one of the few Marines. We met with the landlord to pay our rent and pet deposit. We asked about the fence (as it wasn’t up yet) and he told us he was just waiting for the association to approve his request. It’s been 1.5 months since we signed the paperwork so either he didn’t ask right away or the association is slow—neither of which is a good thing in my mind.
I had also taken some measurements of our stuff to the new house so I could see just how things would fit—and some stuff is going to be TIGHT. The space looks big, but once you put our big stuff in it, it doesn’t look quite as big. Our table and chairs will fit in the eat-in kitchen space, but it’s going to be close—and we may not be able to open the leaf…because our huge sectional will be taking up ALL the living space. (I’m going to have our real estate lady go back and check measurements of a space in the basement to see if there’s room for the sectional there instead. We may end up selling it if it won’t fit nicely. We bought it for this house with the HUGE bonus room…which most houses don’t have a room that big and it’s very hard to fit.) Our table would fit fine (with the leaf, too) in the actual dining room space, but I honesty don’t want to eat there every day—it’s not convenient to the kitchen at all plus it has white carpet. There’s also no room for our current island (where we have the dog and cat food) in the kitchen…so not sure where we’ll be putting that food or the island. It’s just bizarre that this house is SO huge but the space isn’t allotted quite how I’d prefer (like our master bedroom is twice as big as it needs to be). So, time will tell on all that stuff. It will all work…it will just take time.
So then, the ride home. Ugh. It was worse than the ride up. Apparently there had been construction on 95 South so traffic was already backed up. Then there were storms farther South so that had backed up traffic even more. And then there was an accident somewhere along the line… The parallel road (Route 1) which we can sometimes take to escape 95 was also backed up due to trees down from the storm. It took us almost two hours to go 38 miles…and took us seven hours to get home. We had hoped/planned to be home by 8 but it turned into 10:30. At least the kids were in good hands—Virginia was babysitting. 🙂
Please keep every appendage crossed for us!
(This should have been posted on June 15 but it’s been crazy so I forgot about it.)
We have had a few showings lately (for sale and rental) so had our fingers crossed that SOMETHING would work out. Part of us wished we’d get a good rental so maybe the house prices would go back up in a few years and we could sell for a profit (or at least without having to have a short sale) but then part of us wished we’d just sell the damn thing so we could cut our losses and stop being stressed about it all the time.
So imagine our surprise when…we got an offer! For sale! HOLY CRAP. Of course, we had imagined we’d be excited about ANY sale offer, but honestly, we were a little gobsmacked with the offer—it was for $7,000 BELOW listing, which was already a pretty rock-bottom price. Plus they wanted almost $6,000 in closing costs, an $1,100 stainless refrigerator, and occupancy with pets prior to closing at a low daily rate plus no deposits of any kind…
My first instinct (after the ball of stress immediately appeared in my stomach) was UMMMM, NO. Did they really think they could get all that because they know we’re desperate to sell? There’s no way I’m giving them most of what they asked for. But after talking with Roger and discussing things, we ended up only countering with a few minor changes (a small price increase, a decent rental rate and deposit, and a cleaning addendum). We were kind of screwed with the refrigerator issue because they wanted prior possession—and since they’d technically be renting, we needed to have a fridge in the house. We also wanted to take up our fridge and we’d need one in the meantime… AND worst case, if this deal falls through and we end up having to rent it, we’d need a fridge. So there’s more money down the toilet for this damn house. We figure we’ve put in about $10-11,000 in the past three years (shed, deck, stainless appliances, wood floor), not counting all the other minor upgrades we’ve done since we bought it. Just to make ZERO of it back since the housing market is in the toilet (when all is said and done, we’re technically set to lose about $37,000 on it—though with the short sale hopefully none of that will actually have to come out of pocket). But, as Roger said, it was stuff we needed to have done to even get people interested (pretty much every comment on the showings were about the floor and deck).
So now we wait to see if our mortgage company accepts the short sale offer.
Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Arms crossed. And anything else crossed would be appreciated…
Refrigerator #3
We’re taking our awesome refrigerator with us, so (long story) we had to replace it in case we got renters. This is the third refrigerator we’ve bought in three years. 🙂
Katie didn’t like the door being off—at first. She was confused yet surely thinking about how she could escape.
Then she realized she could play with the buttons!
It looks nice, but we hate it (compared to our AWESOME one).
It’s garage sale time again! Yippee.
I know, I know…every time we have one I say I’ll never have another…but I can’t stand the thought of losing out on some cash so we inevitably have another when it’s time to move.
It didn’t seem like quite as much work this time, though—maybe because we’d already pre-sorted lots of stuff while getting the house ready to list. It was still work getting it priced and set up, of course—and things got hot and sweaty more than once—but it just felt like less work overall. (It also helped that a mommy friend came over to help me get started—I had just been STUCK.)
We had advertised the hours as 7a-2p with NO early birds, so of course the first people showed up about 6:15.
Tom: Sorry, we don’t open until 7.
Earlybird: Can I just look around?
Tom: Sorry, we’re not selling anything until 7.
Earlybird: But I have to be to work at 7!
Tom: Sorry.
Guess who then said they’d be back at 7? 🙄 I think we turned away three people. We gave up at 6:50 because the street was full.
The haggling wasn’t TOO bad—I actually expected it to be worse—except someone wanted a discount on the very first item that I knew would go quick. Nope, sorry. (It sold full price about 30 seconds later.) And the people who would hold out an item to you asking how much it is when the price tag is right in plain sight. Or the people who just hand you money trying to shield the tag just hoping you’ll take the money. Or the people who asked for a bag for stuff they were carrying, then tried to bury other little stuff underneath. Or the lady who asked “How much for the whole bin of clothes?” And I said “Well let’s count them and then I’ll give you a deal. I can’t give you a fair price otherwise.” And she refused and said she just wanted a price. So I said $30 (there was probably 50 pieces in there and they were $1 each). She looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well. I don’t have time to deal with stupid crap like that. And I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’d rather donate it then take the pittance I’m sure she wanted to pay—which she never even offered anything! Frustrating.
The only other bad thing was the weather sucked. It was humid from the get go, but at least it was overcast. But about 10 or so the clouds disappeared and it was hot. as. hell. You could stand in the garage to get out of the sun, but then there was no air movement. If you stood outside to hopefully catch a breeze, you were in the blazing sun.
And as usual, some of the things that sold/didn’t sell just baffle me. An old swimsuit of mine that I put out on a lark sold…but a ton of kids’ toys didn’t. A St. Augustine koozie sold…but a Little Tikes slide didn’t.
Even though we said we’d go until 2, it was dead at 12:30 so about 1 we started packing up boxes to take to the donation center and we were all done by 2! The back of my car was FULL with about four huge boxes and a huge lawn waste garbage bag of kid clothes. There was even stuff in Owen’s car seat! I think that was worth at least six days of #40bagsin40days. 🙂
40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 25
A friend came to help me get jumpstarted on the garage sale prep and she picked out a bunch of stuff and took a bunch of other stuff I was getting rid of…so I’m counting it as bags for the challenge! It probably equated to two days worth, but I’m only using one. 🙂
A Pinterest project non-fail thanks to a friend!
I had wanted to do an ornament wreath like I’d seen on Pinterest and had actually bought all the ornaments on clearance after Christmas! But I was afraid to attempt it on my own—I’m somewhat crafty, but Owen’s Lego cake fail seriously made me rethink my abilities to do anything crafy. So I enlisted the help of one of my friends and took all my stuff to her house. She was just going to help walk me through it while I did the work and we visited. Ha. HA HA. After I burned a hole in the ribbon during the first three seconds I was using the glue gun, she kindly took over. I felt bad, but she said as long as I didn’t mind her doing it, she had no problem because this type of stuff IS HER THING. Okay, you go, girl! I helped a tiny bit with the placement of ornaments, but she honestly did 99.5% of the work. And it turned out AMAZING!
She got to keep all of the leftover ornaments and ribbon, and I left with a tiny wreath to see if I can attempt it on my own. If I don’t do it before I leave, I told her I will give her all those supplies, too! 🙂
Helping daddy haul brush
Fun, but kinda sad night.
We had our good friends over tonight for dinner…fun, because we love them and always have a great time…but kinda sad because it will be one of the last times before we move again.
Owen’s light sabers get everyone involved:
And the guys—missing the third musketeer who is currently deployed.
My little mess maker.
She usually doesn’t get snacks on the way to school. This is why.
Another hot day, another day in the pool.
I’m letting the kids spend every possible moment in the pool since we won’t have it quite so convenient when we move… It was SO hot today I even got in! 🙂
And a sleeping Katie. 🙂
Kitchen Duty
I had zero energy yesterday so I made up for it today. Among other kitchen duties like emptying the dishwasher, reloading it, and cleaning up…I made my first batch of pesto!
And salmon schmear. Mmm.
Katie even liked it. 🙂
I forgot the dolphins!
As we were packing up to leave the beach we spotted dolphins! I forgot about it until someone mentioned dolphins elsewhere and I thought “Hey, wait, I took pictures of the dolphins, why didn’t I see them?” Yeah, I had to REALLY zoom in…I had deleted the pics because I thought there was nothing in the pictures! 🙂
A showing + a pool + daddy = FUN!
We had a showing today for a potential renter, so we just took the kids out back in the pool. Of course, they had a blast.
Then Owen was being crabby about something so Tom decided to do this and more fun ensued:
I then posted this still on Facebook with the caption “I love this man.” 🙂
Dancing & A Shark Attack
40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 24
We’re down one extra pool pump, half a box of clothes that Once Upon A Child bought, and we have a cleaned out glove box!
Intrigued by the bubbler
From May 18. 🙂
How hard is it to park really?
Apparently VERY hard for these three people on the left.
Bug watching
Owen found a roly poly out in his playset and asked if he could bring it up. Of course! Then it fell off the table and Katie got involved…and excited! 🙂
Then Owen had to go put him back so his mom and dad wouldn’t miss him. 🙂
Moving guilt.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again—I hate change. Most changes I can roll with even if I don’t like them—or I get used to them—but moving is always ALWAYS a big change.
Yes, I’m a little excited to have a different house with a bunch of amenities this house doesn’t have…but on the same note, I just keep thinking of the little things about our new house that are going to be different…that I’m not sure how it’s going to work.
Bikes, for example, and learning to ride. Where we live now? Big, mostly flat driveway on a flat cul-de-sac road. Where we’re moving? Hilly and short driveway on a hilly road. I didn’t really think about it until I bought Katie a tricycle this morning and starting wondering just where the hell she was going to ride it?!
And Owen’s police car? I think I’ll sell it. He doesn’t ride it much and now there won’t be anywhere TO ride it (at the house). Well, there are sidewalks…but since he doesn’t really ride it, why even bother moving it with the HOPES that he will magically start riding it? I had hoped Katie would take to it but she hasn’t…so I’m ready to give up on it since it was a big waste of money. Damn kids. :p
So I’m just feeling major guilt about the kid stuff. Yes, they’ll have a bigger indoor space to run around (including a full big basement)…and a pool and playground a bit of a jaunt away…but they’re losing their own big back yard, their front yard, their awesome playset, their pool, and their driveway. I mean I could literally cry about it.
Obviously people have kids in places like these but my mind just kind of shuts down and I can’t even imagine. My friends assured me they grew up in similar places and turned out fine. They also assured me that kids are flexible, won’t care nearly as much as I do about any of it, and will accommodate quickly no matter what.
I’m sure they’re right and the kids will be fine…but still. The guilt.
I’m just having my typical second thoughts about our house selection…and general apprehension and anxiety about the move. I mean, I’m even worried about stupid things like the kitchen sink (it’s not as big or deep as what we have now), the pantry (it’s an awkward shape with those stupid wire shelves so I’ll still need my garage pantry), the gas stove (I’m excited to have gas again, but it looks old and it’s in the island without much counter space so that’s annoying), and the stupid pedestal sink in the half bath (so nowhere to store anything).
I know I’ll get over it all and once we get settled in things will be just fine—they always are!—but this is why I can’t sleep at night.
My mother’s day do-over!
Since Mother’s Day was spent house hunting/traveling, I officially declared MY Mother’s Day would be this weekend. 🙂 So our day started with a trip to Costco, Owen’s face-painting at the farmer’s market…and then since it was a GORGEOUS day, time spent outside using the deck/pool/yard/playset (we’re trying to use it as much as we can since we will have NONE of it at the new house)…
We were playing music outside.
Owen: DJ Shuffle is in the house!
Us: Whaaaaa?!?!
Owen hurt himself with that jump/landing, but felt a little better when I showed him the cool picture I got of him in mid air!
While we were outside, Tom went and got the mail…and my mother’s day present (that I ordered for myself!) had arrived! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH! (It’s an 11×14 wrapped canvas.)
Then Tom grilled super yummy BBQ chicken (which Owen tried and liked!) and I made a huge batch of our favorite tomato and basil bruschetta and we ate on the deck!
And even though I got these from Owen awhile back (done at school), I forgot to post them, so there’s no better time or place than right now!
I love his answers! And he didn’t do too badly…though I can’t believe he said salad instead of any other number of things! 🙂
So overall I had a GREAT mother’s day do-over!
Snakes. Why does it have to be snakes?
Bugs? Don’t like ’em but I can deal. Frogs? Okay. Lizards? Fine. But snakes? AHHHHH.
I don’t do snakes.
Guess what Tom just found curled up in the garage…in the very center of our garage sale pile?!
He poked at it with a stick to get it moving. It travelled around a bit—and was probably 4-5′ long. FEET.
And then, if that wasn’t freaky enough…IT SLITHERED INTO THE MOLDING AROUND THE GARAGE DOOR FRAME.
DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY.
SO IT’S REALLY INSIDE THE GARAGE NOW.
We need to move today. 😐 I’m not sure I can go in the garage again.
Tom looked it up and it’s apparently a rat snake?! Tom says it’s a good snake. Sorry, there’s no such thing as a good snake.
/shudder
Here’s the conversation that happened on Facebook after I posted…
Brrr! Cold!
A small pool is still fun
Poor Owen, the pool is just SO small for him…but he still manages to jump and swim under the water!
The extent of our garden this year.
Back to pots only this year since we’re moving… One tomato plant and four small basil plants (that are already going gangbusters).
Watee please?
We were outside and Katie wanted to use the pool but it was empty. She was smart enough to know the hose needed to go in the pool and she kept asking me to turn it on.
After playing in the pool:
