A Week's Work

Last Tuesday, we moved into our new house (well, condo, but you know what I mean). After seven very long months, we finally got the place we wanted. I checked HUD listings everyday, hoping and praying the condo would be relisted after our initial purchase fell through. To my everlasting joy, I saw the condo was relisted the last day of January, and we immediately placed a bid. Two weeks later, our realtor called. I saw her name on the caller ID and said: "Tell me good news." And she DID!

This was miraculous for a number of reasons:
A) The house was relisted for less than 24 hours. Thankfully, I saw it.
B) There were multiple offers in this time period, but the two in front of us fell through.
C) We lost about $2,300 dollars the first time we tried to purchase the home. So, this time, we offered 3,000 less than we originally did. Our realtor told us to offer more because the real estate market had changed, but we knew we didn't want to spend the rest of our saving. Nathan kept telling me: "If this works out, then it really is meant to be." I guess he was right!

Only four hours before closing, we had a scare that some of the paperwork had not been properly completed. I handled the situation after speaking to the supervisor of the closing company and apologizing for my lender. Long story short, I resolved things 22 minutes prior to closing. April 15th was the last day we could possibly close and retain the home, and I finished signing paperwork at 6:15 PM that night.

As I drove home that evening, I couldn't stop smiling. The condo is officially ours--even though I keep waiting for someone to call and say, "Just kidding! Move out!" I know that can't happen, but this entire scenario has been ridiculous. Lessons learned:

A) Find a good lender,
B) Never trust that someone is doing their work
C) It's okay to ask questions and stay involved when purchasing a home.
D) Purchasing a HUD home is no walk in the park
E) I have the best real estate agent ever. If you are moving to Utah, call Stephanie Summers. She will fight for you. She let our lender have it, and she took care of business.

Final lesson: Sometimes, wishes come true.

About four years ago, Becca and Kyle moved into the same complex. I was obsessed with their kitchen the moment that I saw it, and I often joked that I would buy a condo of my own and live there one day. Nathan and I had just purchased our first home in Provo around that same time, and he said he would never live in a condo, so I would have to live there alone. I love how things change when the price (and the neighborhood and community) is right.

Nathan had finals, so we didn't start moving until Monday. On Tuesday, about 10 men from our church showed up to help move us across the parking lot and up three flights of stairs. This was some serious service. These guys are lifesavers, and I am so appreciative that they spent 2-3 hours helping us. There is no way we could have moved alone.

We spent the next few days going through boxes and trying to organize our lives. Again. We have moved 3 times in 3 months, and we are exhausted. This time around, Becca helped me do some thorough dejunking. I donated bags of items to DI, and it feels so good. 

In four short days, we went from this:

To this:

Progress, right?

The kids have had a hard time with all of the chaos of life. The twins, of course, got sick this week and were diagnosed with croup. Elliott wants to be held all of the time, which made moving difficult. Ezra feels a bit better than his brother, but spent a lot of his time taking cues from Elliott (which meant walking around the house crying).

Eliza has had the most difficult time adjusting to the change in routine, though. She spent the past few nights screaming (not crying) until 2 AM. The stress of moving combined with her refusal to go to bed has almost given me a nervous breakdown. I don't know what to do at this point because she will not back down and isn't afraid of any consequences or  disciplinary actions. It's intimidating.

On Thursday, she finally fell asleep after an especially long temper tantrum. Nathan and I have learned not to give her attention during these episodes because it just makes her even more agitated. Somehow, she managed to get the iPad (while we were unpacking somewhere) and played it until she fell asleep--with it on her face.

She had slept only 4 hours the night before, so we made sure to keep her sleeping even though she fell asleep in the middle of the room! Get around THIS barricade, twins!

We unpacked as much as we could before Monday morning. We woke up at 4:40 AM and headed to the airport. My brother-in-law, Ty, dropped us off at the Salt Lake City airport around 7 AM and my sister, Marian, picked us up in Charlotte around 5:30 PM. It was a long day, but the kids did great (for the most part).

I sat with Elliott and Eliza for both flights, and Nathan wrangled Ezra. Fortunately for me, Eliza and Elliott slept.

Ezra cried for about two hours before finally settling down. Nathan was able to keep him quiet by continually bouncing him, so not too many of the passengers were upset with us.

In fact, about a dozen people told us our kids were wonderful and handed us snacks and toys. Other people even offered to take a baby for us. My faith in humanity was restored!

Overall, it was one of the craziest weeks we have ever had. A couple of other highlights:
1) Finding the remote control that was lost for a week. I woke up one morning and had the thought, "It's in the shower." And yes, it was! Silly babies.

2) Using space bags. Kyle and Becca promised they would change my life and they did. We packed SO many blankets, maternity clothes, and baby clothes away using these nifty storage bags. I also used a space bag to pack all of the kids' clothes, blankets, and some of my clothes into a carry-on bag for our flight. Success!

Lowlight of the week: Stepping on a dozen blood-filled, round, hard yet squishy earthworms. I am not exaggerating when I say it was traumatic. There was blood all over my TOMS and feeling them squish underneath  my feet makes me want to always look down to make sure I am avoiding any insect life.

That picture doesn't do it justice. Really.