I have been sharing pictures and goings on from our journey on Facebook. It is such a quick and easy way to keep our friends up to date (especially with our fancy new iPhones!). But for the non- FB'ers I am attempting to also document here.
We are day 3 in the Extended Stay and it is as difficult as anticipated. Made all the more so by not having Craig's car here yet and me coming down with a nasty illness. I actually went into an immediate care place to get my tonsils swabbed on Thursday. My throat has been killing me and when I looked in it with a flashlight I saw a lot of nasty stuff. Obviously an infection, but the strep was neg so it could be viral. They are doing a culture which will take a few days. My other symptoms are terrible, terrible body aches, fatigue and no appetite. Having to drive the 50 min round trip from the hotel to school at least twice a day (3xs the last 2 days) and caring for the little ones has left me fighting back tears several times a day. But I am now taking Tylenol and ibuprofen around the clock and that is helping a lot.
But on too more cheary things! Katya had some tears on her first day of school, but she came home very happy! She wanted to ride the bus the very next day and did so Thurs and Friday to and from school! I am so proud of her. She likes her teacher and is slowly making friends. I have met four of our neighbors, all very nice. And I made a friend yesterday at the park who has three little ones, (5, 2 and 8 weeks). We exchanged numbers and are going to try to meet up at a park next week. Yeah!
I have been exploring some great parks near our new home. And just across the main road from our subdivision is a strip mall with several restaurant, and the immediate care place that I went to, a Starbucks and a few other places. We tried the Mexican restaurant already, it was pretty good. Last night we rented Hotel Transilvania from a Redbox and watched it in our hotel room. It was a super cute movie ( the girls are watching again this morning), and a fun way to end the first school/work week. Our plans for the weekend include checking out the Children's Museum, taking the kids downtown, and going to Mass at Our Lady of Mt Carmel.
Thanks for all the prayers and support!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Pausing in Colorado
Never have I been more grateful to have a home (usually) than this last week, the first of three that we are homeless. After vacating our house on Hudson street we spent one night with our bestie friends, one with Craig's parents, three nights camping in the Gorge, one at a hotel in IDaho, and three at my parents place in Colorado. It has been really nice to have a few days here to regroup; do mounds of laundry, clean out and reorganize our van full of belongings, and see my sister and her family. And we are half way to our destenation! My parents drove in today, they stayed camping in the Gorge a few nights longer than us. We get one more day here tomorrow before our final two day drive to Indiana.
Elsie got pretty sick out camping and ran a fever for two days. Sweet girl was so miserable and she kept saying, "I want to go home." It is a weird feeling to not have a home to go to, and it made me all the more thankful for our very blessed life. We will spend 10 days in an extended stay hotel before our house in Carmel closes; during which time Craig will be starting his new job and Katya's will be starting the first grade at her new school. I am praying for smooth transitions for both of them.
Loves, Brenda
Elsie got pretty sick out camping and ran a fever for two days. Sweet girl was so miserable and she kept saying, "I want to go home." It is a weird feeling to not have a home to go to, and it made me all the more thankful for our very blessed life. We will spend 10 days in an extended stay hotel before our house in Carmel closes; during which time Craig will be starting his new job and Katya's will be starting the first grade at her new school. I am praying for smooth transitions for both of them.
Loves, Brenda
Monday, July 29, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
New House in Carmel!
Our last week has been exhausting as I thought it would be. But productive! We are under contract on a beautiful home in Carmel. We flew to Denver Friday night, arriving after 10pm mountain time. My parents picked us up and of course we stayed up to late talking (SO worth it!). On Saturday mom and dad hosted a lunch with dad's slow cook short rib burritos with mole sauce as the star. Oh. my. gosh. They were amazing. We got to visit with Rena, Carsten, Grant, Robin, Ross, and even Chris, Pam and Maureen who all happened to be in town. It was awesome.
We meet our real estate agent on Sunday. I just knew we were going to really like her and sure enough we did. We started at a Pulte home builder rep in Zionsville and toured a already built home with the floor plan we like (though no basement which is a must for us). We really love the house and priced out the basement and a bunch of options. But of course we would have to wait 4-6 months for it to be built. Plus we were not crazy about the new subdivision. After that we headed out to look at homes for sale.
I was surprised at the condition of the places we looked at. They were really, really dingy and none of the floor plans were very good. I was doing my best to remember how much a little paint would help these places, but our agent was also not impressed and reminded us that it is never a good sign to see a home that has not been well maintained. Soon we made it too *thee* house. I already had it in mind as my favorite. And sure enough it was! Our house was purchased and flipped by the current owner. He has done a really nice job on it. Here are some stats and things I love:
Built in 1995
2700 square feet on main and upper levels
1400 square feet finished basement plus unfinished storage area (woo-hoo)
4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
2 car plus tandem garage
0.23 acre lot
Matures neighborhood and low HOA fees (It is all but impossible to find a home without an HOA in Carmel. Welcome to the burbs)
NO BRICK!! ;-)
Awesome wrap around porch
NO vaulted ceilings or ginormous master bedroom!
4 year old roof
All new flooring, carpet, hardwoods, tile in the bathrooms
9ft ceilings
upper level laundry
White cabinets in the kitchen
All new stainless steal appliance, including a fridge
All new cabinets and counter tops in the bathrooms
New light fixtures
New back deck
Tile backslash in the kitchen
Granite in the kitchen (not my favorite solid surface, but def a step up from laminate!)
The kitchen sink is open to the dinning and living space
The "breakfast" dinning area is big enough for our dinning table and we are making the formal dinning room an office (I don't care for two dinning areas).
Utility sink in the garage
Central air conditioning.
Um, yeah. I like a LOT about this place. I really didn't think we would find as many things on our wish list for a home as we did. It is amazing.
That is all for now, we are in go mode around here. The movers are coming on Thursday so we are busy, busy.
We meet our real estate agent on Sunday. I just knew we were going to really like her and sure enough we did. We started at a Pulte home builder rep in Zionsville and toured a already built home with the floor plan we like (though no basement which is a must for us). We really love the house and priced out the basement and a bunch of options. But of course we would have to wait 4-6 months for it to be built. Plus we were not crazy about the new subdivision. After that we headed out to look at homes for sale.
I was surprised at the condition of the places we looked at. They were really, really dingy and none of the floor plans were very good. I was doing my best to remember how much a little paint would help these places, but our agent was also not impressed and reminded us that it is never a good sign to see a home that has not been well maintained. Soon we made it too *thee* house. I already had it in mind as my favorite. And sure enough it was! Our house was purchased and flipped by the current owner. He has done a really nice job on it. Here are some stats and things I love:
Built in 1995
2700 square feet on main and upper levels
1400 square feet finished basement plus unfinished storage area (woo-hoo)
4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
2 car plus tandem garage
0.23 acre lot
Matures neighborhood and low HOA fees (It is all but impossible to find a home without an HOA in Carmel. Welcome to the burbs)
NO BRICK!! ;-)
Awesome wrap around porch
NO vaulted ceilings or ginormous master bedroom!
4 year old roof
All new flooring, carpet, hardwoods, tile in the bathrooms
9ft ceilings
upper level laundry
White cabinets in the kitchen
All new stainless steal appliance, including a fridge
All new cabinets and counter tops in the bathrooms
New light fixtures
New back deck
Tile backslash in the kitchen
Granite in the kitchen (not my favorite solid surface, but def a step up from laminate!)
The kitchen sink is open to the dinning and living space
The "breakfast" dinning area is big enough for our dinning table and we are making the formal dinning room an office (I don't care for two dinning areas).
Utility sink in the garage
Central air conditioning.
Um, yeah. I like a LOT about this place. I really didn't think we would find as many things on our wish list for a home as we did. It is amazing.
That is all for now, we are in go mode around here. The movers are coming on Thursday so we are busy, busy.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Elsie is 2!
Our baby turned two on Monday, dang how time flies when you are having fun:-) Here are some favorite birthday pictures.
She had a check up on Monday morning. She is still 95th percentile for height and about 55th for weight. She got a few immunizations and that was that. Afterwards, the girls and I took her to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday gift since I had not gotten her anything. It was kind of a fun thing to do. She chose a new Melissa and Doug floor puzzle and she loves it. She is obsessed with the other big puzzles we have, and though she needs some help with them (they are for 3 and up), she is getting pretty good at them. They are constantly in various states of completion all over the playroom floor:-) Elsie took a super long nap on her birthday (probably thanks to the shots) so Katya and I took her out for some sunset birthday pictures that evening. She is such a little cutie!
She had a check up on Monday morning. She is still 95th percentile for height and about 55th for weight. She got a few immunizations and that was that. Afterwards, the girls and I took her to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday gift since I had not gotten her anything. It was kind of a fun thing to do. She chose a new Melissa and Doug floor puzzle and she loves it. She is obsessed with the other big puzzles we have, and though she needs some help with them (they are for 3 and up), she is getting pretty good at them. They are constantly in various states of completion all over the playroom floor:-) Elsie took a super long nap on her birthday (probably thanks to the shots) so Katya and I took her out for some sunset birthday pictures that evening. She is such a little cutie!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Pending!
We got an offer on the house on Monday, after 6 days on the market. Woo-hoo! It was a good offer, we countered with just a little bump and they accepted. Lots of paper work has been flying around the last few days. We hope the buyers will sign and it will be official today. Once they sign, even if the sale falls through (though hopefully it won't), it will be Dow's problem to deal with and we are fee to go. The movers are coming August 1st to pack the house, they load the stuff on the 2nd. On Sunday the 4th we vacate our house and head out to Mary Hill State Park for a week of camping. On Friday Aug 9th we will start the drive to CO, caravan back with mom and dad. After a few days in CO we will drive 2 more long days to Indy! I can't believe how fast it is all happening now.
Next Friday Craig and I fly to Indy to house hunt. I am praying that we find the perfect place, but if we don't we will be looking at rentals. I know it will all work out in the end. We will probably have to spend a week or two in an extended stay hotel. Which will not be fun with 2 adults and 3 small children, but we will make it work.
Next Friday Craig and I fly to Indy to house hunt. I am praying that we find the perfect place, but if we don't we will be looking at rentals. I know it will all work out in the end. We will probably have to spend a week or two in an extended stay hotel. Which will not be fun with 2 adults and 3 small children, but we will make it work.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
House is listed!
It is still a whirl wind of activity around here, but I am so happy that our house went active on rmls this morning! Way to go Nathan (our agent)! It was a real push to get it up so fast but he made it happen. The other agent we "interviewed" with said she could have it up July 8th, and I feel like every week counts at this point.
There are still a few things to do, but most of the house stuff is done. Our hard work is apparent, the house looks great. Mostly deep cleaning, fresh paint and organizing helped to spruce up the spaces. I did the biggest change in our master bedroom, which has always been a crappy hodge-podge of furniture and decor. I painted the accent wall to match the rest of the room, changed out curtains, a bedspread, bought side tables and lamps and hung some new wall decor. The huge mirror was given to us by Jen and Ben when they moved (perfect for a big wall!) and I bought a canvas and did the painting myself. I think it came together well and for the first time I really love our bedroom! Now to keep everything clean and perfect for showings....ugh.
We are heading up north for the 4th of July, hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!
There are still a few things to do, but most of the house stuff is done. Our hard work is apparent, the house looks great. Mostly deep cleaning, fresh paint and organizing helped to spruce up the spaces. I did the biggest change in our master bedroom, which has always been a crappy hodge-podge of furniture and decor. I painted the accent wall to match the rest of the room, changed out curtains, a bedspread, bought side tables and lamps and hung some new wall decor. The huge mirror was given to us by Jen and Ben when they moved (perfect for a big wall!) and I bought a canvas and did the painting myself. I think it came together well and for the first time I really love our bedroom! Now to keep everything clean and perfect for showings....ugh.
We are heading up north for the 4th of July, hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!
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