Farewell

We have been without internet for weeks. I have nearly died. It's related to a closing date that kept getting pushed back and pushed back. We were nervous to do much of anything until the money was in the bank. THANK THE LORD we officially closed today. What a relief. We went to the old house and said good-bye yesterday. Reread my "We're outta here!" post. I believe I said something about being completely unemotional about the move. I lied. I cried my eyes out at the other house as I walked from room to room. I might have been a little pregnant hormonal. Still, there's been a lot of life in that house and it was so weird to see it go.

Next project: make the new house our home and get some memories here. I think Mojo ought to do a little of both.

We is OUTTA HERE!!!!

The Jones Family is moving! Tomorrow, Saturday, April 10, is the official move day. We will be disconnected from the internet for a few days so the best way to reach us is on our cell or home phone. (For privacy reasons I'm not going to list those here. Call around if you are desperate to reach us!)

Our official closing date is most likely Wednesday, April 14. We are so excited and I have been amazingly unemotional about it all. I'm sure I'll shed some tears once we hand over the keys but the whole move is so good for our family it's hard to be sad . A fun new chapter is beginning!

Look for pictures of the house as we get moved in. You'll be amazed at the transformation!!

Moving update

This post is to keep people in the loop since I know you are dying of curiosity. You know, since you don't have your own life to lead and are anxious to live vicariously through my pregnant moving life.

The house selling process continues. Things look very good but we are waiting on the appraisal of the buyer's house as well as ours. Due to the nature of the buyer's situation our closing date is FAST. We are outta here on April 15. Between now and then the kids and I are making a trip to see my grandparents and then we're all heading to Yakima for Easter and then having a moving weekend. It will be here in the blink of an eye.

All this moving stuff is making me forgetful and disorganized. I forgot about my hair appointment the other day until I glanced at the calendar two minutes before I was supposed to be there. Thankfully I have been seeing Rachel for a long time and she laughed and even allowed me to reschedule. Thanks for the grace there Rachel. I only have two brain cells left and they never fire simultaneously.

We are starting to unpack. We have many boxes already over at our new house so Greg and I spent a few hours last night getting some things put away. I know we are in a unique situation but this is such a nice way to move. Gradually.

My folks are coming this weekend to help. My dad is going to help Greg dismantle the swing set and my mom is going to help me work on some misc. packing, moving of boxes, and unpacking. Sometimes I look at the things my parents still are always doing for one of their four kids (or Greg's parents and their two kids) and I think, you never stop being a parent. That's cool with me, I hope my kids still need us when they are all grown up.

When are you pregnant, you can pull all sorts of weird muscles that you didn't know you had.

I haven't felt overly anxious the last few days but my dream life indicates otherwise. The past three nights I have had variations on my classic stress dream. They always involve school, me ignoring or not knowing about a particular class, and then realizing I still have to take the final and oh, shoot, it starts in ten minutes. Last night I had forgotten to write that pesky Ph.D. thesis that I was scheduled to defend in an hour. The night before I realized the day of the final that I had been enrolled in a particle physics class. The night before that I chose to blow off a semester's worth of classes only to find myself attending all the finals. Do you have a specific dream when you are stressed? I call mine nerd dreams because, as you can deduce, my nightmares are made up of doing poorly in school. THE HORROR!!!!

Time for a nap. Happy trails to you!

Caught with my pants down

UPDATE, UPDATE!!!!!!

As of today, the people that made me work my tail off, stayed for one minute, and didn't appreciate my three bedroom house, have put on offer on that house that we accepted and we have signed the preliminary signing agreement. They want a close of April 15. God works in cool ways. HOORAY!! Now Mojo won't have to be naked and sleeping in a box.

Metaphorically speaking that is.

We have found this whole house selling/move thing rather tedious, laborious, and currently, disappointing. We are trying to sell the house by ourselves and it is SLOW going. Few calls and fewer showings.

The first few weeks we were listed I about killed myself keeping the house constantly sparkling. Not a fun way to live but I was sure that THE BUYER was going to show up on my front door and I'd have five minutes to prep.

Then there wasn't any action. A few phone call, not a single showing, and my dedication slipped. The house is still clean but not oh-yes-please-stop-by-in-the-next-five-minutes-and-I always-have-fresh-baked-cookies-on-the-counter-and-my-kids-never-have-snotty-noses clean.

We have had a bit more action since but imagine my horror when I get a phone call today from a realtor who is hoping to show the house in fifteen minutes. I took a look around and thought to myself, impossible. To the realtor I said, "Can you give me an hour?"

Here are a few tricks I learned in that hour.

1) Shoving the five loads of clean clothes you had spread out to fold into garbage bags and throwing them in the back of the van works.

2) You can rinse dirty dishes in a sink, place them nicely in a cupboard, and take them back out later to really clean.

3) THANK GOD for beautiful, sunny days. I threw the kids outside, acted like I had planned a picnic lunch all day, and made them eat on paper towels. No dishes, no crumbs, no mess in the house, and the kids think I'm awesome.

4) You need at least ten minutes of rest after an insane hour of cleaning because if you are pregnant your entire head will glow neon red from the exertion and the prospective buyers will be more concerned about you keeling over than the condition of the house.

5) You son will, two minutes before showing, throw open the garage door and re-ding the wall that was so recently patched and repainted. This, with a door stop in place and everything.

6) Your hopes of a nap will be GONE. Your kids naps will be all off. You will be frazzled and grumpy.

7) The buyers will walk in, spend six minutes looking, say, "Is it really only three bedrooms?" and leave. With never knowing that you nearly died trying to make the house look pretty for them. You know, because with three little kids and pregnant belly it always looks like this.

And Greg wonders why I think doing this with a newborn would be impossible. Not hard, not challenging, not even horrible, but IMPOSSIBLE. IMPOSSIBLE I SAY.