Friday, November 22, 2013

The New House

This month has been insane for me. A lot of back and forth and trying to decide things and wondering if it's the right thing and trying to make good decisions quickly.

As soon as we got notice that we had to move, we started looking for a place. I scoured ksl and found a lot of workable places. We could live anywhere between Provo and Lehi, we were looking for a home with enough room to bring Cami with us (ideally) but we couldn't swing that it would be ok too. We had a wide price range and not a lot of solid specifications.

But finally we narrowed down the search and I thought I had found a couple of places that would work. Then I mentioned to a friend that we were looking, and she said she was moving out of the house she was renting and they were looking to replace themselves as tenants.

So I went over to see Katie's house in American Fork not really knowing what to expect. I walked through and noticed some oddities (a playroom downstairs with a totally tiled floor...weird? or cool? useful?) but mostly it was just a nice normal house. So I told Josh about it, and since the weird things were still puzzling me (laundry hookups in the downstairs bathroom?) I think overplayed the weirdness. But I still really liked the place. And asked Katie if she'd let us intrude one more time so I could just show it to Josh instead of trying to explain it.

We went over and our boys played in the yard with her kids while Josh and I wandered through the house. This time through I looked more at the things I remembered liking.
Room for my piano! - the only thing we own that I am unwilling to sell
Master bathroom!
Walk in closet!
Food storage room!
Covered back patio!
Big dining room!
Covered sandbox!
Dead end street!
Close to the freeway!

And as we pulled away Josh said "I don't understand why we wouldn't want to live there..." so I called the landlord.

3 days later we met George and he told us we could have it, so we turned down the others and started our plans to move there.

We continued filling up boxes, but stopped with the generic box labels "play room?" and got specific "tile room!" The garage is so full of packed boxes that we'll have to boot both cars from their warm homes and get them used to the cold of the driveway.

Cami will come with us, we'll enjoy our master bathroom (yay!!!) and figure out some way to soften up that tile floor for the play room. I'm looking forward to the change, a fresh start and new (and old) friends.

So, Tuesday is the big day, we'll load up the truck with the majority of our stuff after work and haul it to the new place and never look back. (Until Wednesday, when I'll spend the day cleaning at the old house in a pathetic attempt to get our security deposit back - which I simply don't believe will happen.)

The boys have been in heaven with the ridiculous stash of boxes we've accumulated. Everyday is fort day and when Tommy sits in a box, he's allowed to color on the walls (heaven!)

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The First Fist Fight I Ever Saw

You think this is a flashback post going back to my Jr. High days when everyone crowded around the intersection of D and E hall and watched while Tyler the cool kid beat Eugene the nerd boy into oblivion over Lauren the cool girl.

But it isn't. Because when that happened I was in the band room - where nerd girls hang out between classes.

Well if I didn't see a real live fist fight in Jr. High, surely I caught one out by the track in high school right?
No. No I did not. I stuck with nerdiness well into my....oh wait. I'm still a nerd.

But tonight. Well, wow.

Wednesdays are Josh's favorite day because he leaves well before anybody who wants anything of him (me, the boys) is awake. and comes home after the boys are fast asleep peacefully in their beds.

On Wednesdays he has the perfect (sleeping) family. (lucky man.)

That's why I was wrangling the 2 Wild Ones on my own.

I was OK with the demand of sandwiches for dinner.
It was a relief that they wanted a show instead of a dance party.
And when they begged to go straight to jammies instead of baths I wiped my brow and audibly said "whew".
I sat in my usual place on the bed - with room for each boy to get to sit by climb on me, I naively thought we'd just choose some stories and say a few prayers and go to sleep.

Which was apparently WAY too much to ask. Because when Little John started hoarding all the new library books Tommy "The Banshee" Egbert wailed like he'd been shot in the eyeball with an arrow.
Which was fine, until Little John "The Whacker" Egbert decided he'd heard enough of that and took it upon himself to grab a big board book and play whack a mole with The Banshee's head.
The Banshee wasn't going down without a fight, and full on sucker punched The Whacker who crumbled on the spot, but army crawled over to get his revenge....with his teeth.

That's when I finally grew my go go gadget stretch mom arms and managed to keep them in separate corners of the ring room long enough to yell "ENOUGH! You're going to have to put yourselves to bed!" Then using my herculean strength I launched them both into their respective beds, turned out the light, closed the door and told them I hoped they'd make happier choices tomorrow.

Currently Tommy is brushing his teeth (which I gratefully count as putting himself to bed) and John is wailing in his crib because he wants to be allowed to brush his teeth too. He's alternating between requests for "teee teee" (teeth) and "uuuuug uuuuug" (hugs) both of which I typically get him out of bed for.

Hard to believe these boys


just showed me the first real live knock down drag out fist fight I've ever seen live.

This article is much less funny now that I suspect it's true.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Worst Breakup Ever

I've complained in a lot of venues about our landlord because living here has been....slightly less than thrilling in the landlord/tenant relationship.

We've had strangers show up to the door asking to see our home because it was listed as a short sale on the MLS. We've had notices of default on the mortgage posted on the front door. We've been to trustee's sale twice only to learn that Gabriel had filed for personal bankruptcy in order to stay the sale. But he never completed the bankruptcy, so it was dismissed, restarting the trustee's sale process.

We've had floods and water problems which he ignored (or took 3 days to respond to). We've worked hard to make the yard a little better, and show this house a little love and our efforts are typically....well unappreciated is the generous way to say it.

We've sortof known that this house could be foreclosed on at any moment and we'd have 90 days to find a new place. But moving is expensive (and such a pain) that we figured we'd just wait for that to happen. Or until we were ready to buy, then we'd give Gabriel our 30 days' notice and bolt.

On Halloween night while we were at my mom's with the whole family that HE was giving US 30 days and we had to be out so he could "move in" in order to qualify for a loan modification.
I saw the text and immediately started sobbing. Because I'm a sissy and I felt totally rejected.

It's like when you're in a crappy relationship, but you put up with the guy even though he's a jerk and then he breaks up with you before you can beat him to the punch, which leaves you feeling like even a jerk doesn't want you.

I cried for at least 3 days, and I keep getting weepy when I see the things I love about here.

I'll miss our ward. I'll miss our house. I'll miss the stability I was finally starting to feel here. I'll miss the neighbors and the mountains out my front door and I'll really really miss the sight of Tommy crouched under the apple tree stirring the dirt and being a little boy.

But I won't miss the floods, the broken water pipes, the bees (oh the bees!) or the crazy tree stump that looks like a person in the front yard. I won't miss the sumac shoots that will. not. quit. or the weeds which will likely take over the lavender bushes in front. I won't miss the insane utility bills or the constant draft in the winter. I won't miss wondering if we can keep living here or if we're going to get notice that we're out. I won't miss the front of Provo Courthouse waiting for a trustee's sale that won't happen. And I won't miss the landlord.

So I suppose as is usual, change is good. And as soon as we find a place to live, I'll be looking forward to that change.

Now I have to try to find my living room which is currently buried in boxes and attempt to get some packing done. If I don't leave my house for the next 3 weeks, just forgive me. OK?
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