Some observations about kids and change and moving, a year later

We have been in our new house just 12 months now, and Abby is wrapping up her first year at her new school, and I have learned a few things about my children, and maybe (?) kids, in general, with how this whole change and moving things went.

I should say that we only moved 10 minutes away, but did have to move elementary schools because of the way the boundary lines are drawn.  Same school district, different elementary.  Abby was able to see some of her old friends, and still does.

The beginning of the year was hard.  She did great academically.  Socially, she had a hard time.  And, she is a happy little girl who always has lots of friends.  Friends have NEVER been a problem.  At her parent/teacher conference after 9 weeks of school (in October), her teacher told us she was just starting to see the "spark" of Abby that we had told her about.  9 weeks!  And, I would say on the friend thing, it took longer than that to not want to go back to her old school.  Now, as in May, she says that she would miss her school if she left.  That's the whole school year.

This picture is from the second week of school (August) when I was so worried about her not playing with anyone at recess that I went in to have lunch with her.  Things are so much better now.  Earlier this month she had her first sleepover with girls from her class.  That was a big step.

Also, a funny story about Lily's little mind.  This spring, we drove past our old house, and she had no idea which house it was.  I had to tell her.  She recognized the front of the neighborhood, but not the house.  When I told her I found that insane, she replied, "Well, it's been a year!"  

So, if you worry about your child missing the actual (physical) house, don't.  :)  

And, I guess school just works itself out.  Not much you can do except pray, and be involved at school.  Volunteer.  Check in with the teacher.  Ask lots of questions.  Make your child talk to you.  At least that's what I did.

We're looking forward to summer now, but not dreading next year!

Pass the salt?

So. It's a new day.  As a family, Matt and I tried to hit the "reset" button last night.  We hooked up our new TV (which I'll explain), and watched some movies at home.   Ate dinner in front of the TV.  No iPads, no iPhones, just hanging out.

One of the silly things that has made the last week tough for the girls and I has been that our regular living room television broke.  Nice timing, right?  It's bad, but for us, we unwind and have "movie night" all the time.  So the most stressful event ever (moving) and we haven't had our normal routine OR what we do to unwind and relax.  We haven't been able to watch the morning news while we eat breakfast, and we miss our GMA!  I know it's bad for you, but we've missed our couch time in front of the TV.  I would imagine if it had happened any other time it probably wouldn't have mattered as much, but right now?  When like is crazy.  We needed that normal.

Last night,we finally got the new one kind of hooked up (we're missing one cable for DirecTV -of course it had to be different from the old TV), but we could watch DVDs.  We hit the video store and rented Return to Nim's Island.  By the way, it was horrible.  We loved Nim's Island (Matt and I like it too-for a kid's movie).  The sequel?  It was bad.  Even Abby agreed.

After the girls went to bed, we finally got to see Silver Linings Playbook.  Sooooo good!!!  Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were excellent.  I get why it was so acclaimed at the Oscars now.  Sooo good. Highly recommend.  We loved it.

So, where am I now?  Hopefully not on the verge of a nervous breakdown anymore!  :)

I'm trying to let go of the bad stuff today and roll with the punches.  I'm finding the positive.  If we have to have a new furnace, at least it will be efficient, and clean, and better than the one we have now.   That all said, I'm not sure I can talk about yesterday's bad news anymore.  It sucks even when you are trying to be positive.

I have friends who check in on me and ask me if I need help and I usually say no.  This week, I am in no place to refuse help.  We move on Friday.  It's D-Day.  

Today however, is G-day as in Girl Day.  We have haircuts scheduled and gymnastics and a birthday party.  So, D-Day starts tomorrow.  

Thanks to everyone who checks in on me.  I feel very loved. 

Worms, Tadpoles, and Furnaces

Today was a very, very long day.

It started great.  I joined Lily's preschool class on a field trip.  We went to a local cooperative farm market that is redeveloping a former concrete facility.  It is in the beginning stages of a multi-year plan, and now they are focused on growing worms.  Yes, worms.  Why?  Because worms make the soil fertile for the future.  It is a really neat project.  There is a ton to say about it and I know about 1% of the information, but the kids learned about worms and how to plant a seed.

Here, Lily held a worm.  I couldn't believe it!  She didn't have to, but she did.  She said it tickled.

Their leader, Miss Rosie, also had tadpoles to show them.  They were crazy!  Look how big there were!!

The field trip was very fun.  The bad news is that after that, my day went downhill...

First, the house we are selling as hail damage that was discovered by the inspection.  So, I'm dealing with roofing contractors and insurance adjusters.   The roof guy comes highly recommended by someone I trust (and was very nice), but it's still more to balance.

And, second...

We had an appointment scheduled for furnace/AC cleaning at our new house and they found a TON of problems.  Like a lot.  Like it's a trainwreck.  Our new house has 2 furnaces and 2 AC units.  I don't think the original owners ever did routine maintenance and they weren't very good units to start with.  It's not good.  

I'm in one of the moods where I'm thinking being an adult right now isn't very much fun anymore.  When did I get old enough to have to be this responsible?

Painting at the new house

Last night we painted at the new house.  We aren't done yet, but we got a lot done.  Our list includes:  the girls' rooms, an accent wall in the living room, and the inside of the front door.  The girls each picked their own color and then Matt and I picked the shade.  Abby's room is going to be green and Lily's is going to be purple.

They very much wanted to help paint.  As you can imagine, they could only help so much....but I did get a couple pictures.

We owe our friends Lacie and Lauren big, because I had to leave and get the girls to bed, and they stayed and worked with Matt for 2 more hours.  They finished the first coat in the girls' rooms, and put a first coat on the door!  We decided to go a little crazy and go red.  It's a little homage to when we painted our living room red when we first moved into our first house (the one we're selling right now).

We had the inspection of our current home yesterday, but haven't heard anything yet.  We're hoping it went well.  I think we may get that email today.  Now, just pray we get all packed in time for moving day!

We're New Home Owners!

We did it!  We closed on the new house yesterday!

Life has been cuh-razy, but here we are in front of it last night.

We had a pizza picnic on the floor of the living room.  :)

Today I had the locks all changed and we have exactly 2 weeks until the big move.

We have lots we want to do by then, including painting the girls rooms, getting some cleaning stuff done, and more.

And.... if you didn't catch it on Facebook, we sold our house!!!!  Though, I think I had over 35 "likes" so I felt all your support and prayers.  Keep 'em coming through this crazy time!  God is making this all work out, but it doesn't make it any less exhausting!  :)

Selling our home update

So, this is not new news, but our house is for sale.  We really thought by now, it would be sold and this process would be over.  However, in hindsight, I think we listed it at a really awful time.  Unless, you HAVE to move in the fall, you just aren't going to. We had some showings over the fall, but there were weeks of... well, crickets, if you know what I mean.

That being said, the traffic on our house has picked up dramatically in the last month.  Like, I know you can't sell a house without showings, but I am so sick of showings.  My poor carpet is tired of the vacuum cleaner!  :) The most miserable part is that we get really good feedback, but no offers.  Seriously... we haven't gotten any bad feedback.  Stuff like- shows well, clean, in our top 2, priced well, and so on.  Soooo frustrating.  It would almost help if there was something you could do something about.

We really think we have to be close with all the traffic we're getting right now.  Surely, right?  Say a prayer for us!  I may have some other house news for you soon as we are in the process of taking a calculated risk.

If you know someone looking for a home and we're friends on Facebook, please check my Profile.  I have a link to the listing there.  For security reasons, I'm not posting it here.