Getting started on resolution #3

One of my resolutions for the year is to "Spend less time on the computer and more time on the house." 

Here's part of the reason why:

Okay, so the bed is normally cleaned off.  I just happened to be getting ready to go scrapping with a friend the next day.  BUT, the table seems to always look this way anymore.  Note the many boxes too!  They are all under the table usually but should really not be there at all.

The table is a 6 footer made of hard plastic that is supposed to be used for my scrapbooking.  Clearly it's been a while since that has been possible.  My first goal is to finish unpacking the 5 boxes under it and then figure out how to organize the top so it is useful again.  I also have to plan a way to keep it cleared of paper clutter and other things that don't belong.

This is along the same wall, just opposite end of the room and the desk faces the opposite way.  There are 5 boxes, 6 tubs, a laundry basket half full of stuff, and the big mesh toy box full of stuff.  When J took this picture I was on the phone with a friend while trying to find something in the tiny filing drawer in the desk.  I could barely move back there, and that was after I had moved stuff out of the way!

I need to unpack the 5 boxes and get everything put away in its spot or get rid of it.  A couple of the tubs are clothes the kids are currently outgrowing.  One tub has stuff like lotions, shampoos, conditioners, etc that I am getting rid of.  I would like to donate it somehow, but some of it has been opened and even used a little.  The rest of it is stuff I have cleaned out of the kids' rooms and need to sort through to freecylce and/or store for next time.  Eventually this desk will hold my computer and also allow me to do bills and other important household business at it.  Again though I need a way to actually keep it cleaned off and organized.

I am getting started on this all tonight and am assuming it will take till pry the end of next week to actually accomplish (maybe longer, but that's my goal!).  Wish me luck!!

Officially homeowners!!

We did close on the house today! Everyone involved was very stressed out this morning though. We finally got the underwriters approval at 9am, the closing was at 1pm. This approval was due back to us last Friday. Everything ended up going smoothly though in the end. We move Saturday afternoon and it looks like the weather will cooperate! Here are pics of the house for anyone who is interested. It has a 2 car garage (it is yet to be seen if my van will even fit), 3 bedrooms, and 2 baths upstairs.

The whole block of houses is the color of the one on the right side of the pic, ours is blue though. It sure will be easy to find. The window above the front door is in a nook in the master bedroom that I will be using to scrapbook. I am so excited to have a dedicated area just for me!!

The 2 top windows are in the master bedroom and the bottom 2 are in the living room. It has great light on both the front and back. Sliding door opens to the dining area.

Dining area - it is great sized considering the whole house is only 1400 sf.

Living room.

Kitchen - all the appliances are new!

Master bathroom.

Kid's bathroom/guest bathroom.

Friday Photo - At The Zoo

We go to the Zoo very regularly, but this trip in February was the first time either of them got to play in the wagon. They thought it was great fun! It is always either too hot out or too many people for them to stop and play on statues and such.

Side notes:

Noelle's newest thing she says to us is, "I'm not in the mood." She says it so matter of fact, not mean. She had a great time getting to stay at Grandpa Ron and Grandma Sheri's house for two nights this week. But boy was she a tired girl when she got back! She did get a good scrape and some bruising on her face from Jedi (the dog). Something set him off and he tried to get her face. Fortunately she is just fine and was not at all scared of him afterwards. Although I am told she kept saying, "Doggie attacked me." and "Bad doggie." for the rest of her time there. LOL

Adam is doing wonderfully!! He is eating great, lots of Popsicles and smoothies still, and drinking plenty. I am still giving him the Codeine round the clock, but am starting to cut back the dosage to wean him off it after a few more days. I just don't want the poor little guy in any unnecessary pain. The oddest thing about the whole ordeal is his voice. He just doesn't sound like my little boy anymore! He actually sounds more babyish right now, I'll have to wait till he is fully healed after a few weeks to know what he is really going to sound like I guess. I am also anxious to see if his speech improves, I actually already think I hear a difference. But considering all the therapy he gets it could just be that since I am paying special attention to him I am hearing his improvements more than normal. Time will tell!

The appraisal is done for the house and we expect to hear back from the underwriters by the end of next week. Our closing date is still set for March 27th. We have a little bit of flexibility there since we don't have to be out of here until April 2nd, but I don't want to move during the week AND I want to use that time to get the apartment cleaned up so we get our deposit back.

Adam's surgery and new house update

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the big day!! Adam will have his tonsils and adenoids partially removed.

We have big hopes for the surgery:
-stop his sleep apnea, if he is in fact having it like we think he is
-lessen or stop his snoring
-help with his speech articulation

My biggest concern all along has been the sleep apnea. I was just concerned about behavioral and concentration issues when he starts school next year. Then the Pediatrician told me all the other problems sleep apnea causes within the body and my concerns were nothing comparatively. The ENT Dr. who is doing the surgery also believes that it will help his speech problems a ton. He did a very interesting test on Adam the day we went in. He had Adam speak like he normally would, then he plugged Adam's nose and had him speak again. There was No difference in the nasal tone!! That was really interesting to me, I had never seen it before. He even thinks Adam's mouth issues from the time he was a baby could have all stemmed from the enlarged tonsils and adenoids (we have no clue how long they have been enlarged or when it started). My only real concern with the surgery is that Adam will lose weight afterwards since he will not want to eat. He is only 35 pounds (at nearly 5 years) to start with so he doesn't have anything to spare! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow and wish Adam a speedy recovery.

On the house hunt front (thats sounds pretty silly, oh well!) we are officialy under contract! The inspection is done and there were no big issues and the couple we did have they agreed to fix. They were pretty minor, just replacing some panes of glass and having the furnace cleaned and certified (they told us this had been done, and it was very clear it hadn't). I think the appraisal is getting done early this week and I am getting one last set of papers for the mortgage broker. We have a closing date set for March 27th! I still have a lot of stuff to get done, but since today is my last day of work until March 23rd I will have some extra time to hopefully get everything moving wise in order. I know I just moved last May, but I'm still lost on what I need to do and how to do it!!

Acceptance!!

We went and looked at a paired home Saturday morning, made the offer Sunday night, and had it accepted Monday afternoon!! We are very excited to move into our own place. It will be so nice to be able to paint, hang pictures, and generally make it ours! The house is in Aurora just a few minutes from Smoky Hill Road and E-470. A little further than we originally wanted to go, but we are familiar with the area and love it (plus it keeps us in the Cherry Creek Schools). It has 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 car garage, and a backyard that faces fields for the middle and high schools. It sits near the end of the development so it is like a culdesac and there is lots of room for Adam to ride his bike and lots of trails to walk on. It has new carpet, paint and appliances in it and is very clean. I think they must have had a professional come do the kitchen and bathrooms. The inspection is Wednesday, we don't expect any surprises and the furnace is already certified and all. The charity it is owned by wants to move fast and so do we. Please wish us luck that everything goes smoothly!!

Nothing like 4 in the morning

Being woken up at 4 am to a neighbors smoke alarm is NOT on my list of fun things to do in the middle of the night. Even more so when I can hear them yelling "FIRE!" All I could think about was getting the kids out. Apartment fires can be really bad. Then it occurred to me that the building alarm was not going off (if it was all the alarms in our apartment would be going) just the alarm in the apartment above us. I grabbed all our coats and threw them in the living room, made sure I had our keys, and then watched out the door and windows to see what was going on. I really didn't want to wake the kids and take them out in the cold if it wasn't necessary. Finally I got my coat and shoes on and walked outside to see if I could figure anything out. There was quite the ruckus in the apartment above ours and their sliding door was open. Once I decided they were just idiots I went back in and relaxed a little. I decided to go back to sleep, or maybe I should say lie down since I didn't think I would actually be able to sleep since I would be worrying. Went into the bathroom and the alarm started again! I was downright irritated at that point. So of course I did the looking around thing again and went back to bed. Then they start vacuuming, at 4 AM!! That lasted about 10 minutes or so and then I finally fell back asleep (I had taken Benadryl the night before and it hadn't worn off yet).

It seems we always get these neighbors that you just have to wonder, "What do they do in there??" These people above us vacuum all the time, day and night. Being cleanly is one thing but come on! I've never known someone to vacuum THAT much. They are also always moving furniture around, day and night. I would love a look in their apartment to see what it is they are always moving, I can't even explain the noise of it this morning. So far as I know the floor is carpeted yet it sounds like the are dragging really heavy furniture across a wood floor. And did I mention they have a little girl, pry about a year old, in the apartment!! What person in their right mind is up partying, vacuuming, and moving furniture at 4 am with a kid in the house.

I really can't wait to move!! And on that note, we are looking at a place this morning that is a direct sell instead of short sale or foreclosure. YEAH!! It has been fixed up by a charity and is ready to be sold so it is supposed to be in great condition with new carpet and paint. Also it backs to fields for the Middle and High schools. Lots of room for kids to run!

New offer, Same house

It's kind of a weird story, but we ended up putting in a second offer on the house we already had an offer on, and the second offer is for a lower price. (If you want to know the whole story just ask!) We hope to hear back ASAP so we can get the ball rolling , especially since we originally put the offer in January 12th. If we get the house there is some work that HAS to be done before we can move in. Mainly the downstairs and stairs carpet has to come up, the sub floor treated or replaced a little, and new carpet laid. I would also love to paint Noelle's room BEFORE we were to move in, just to make it easier. She has never had a room done for her, even though we have the decorations we want for it. Oh, and furniture, she'll need that too! I would love a daybed with a trundle bed for her room.

Our hope would be to close on the house about mid March in order to have time to get this stuff done and NOT have to pay market plus $350 on our apartment for a 2nd month. Should have good news by mid week next week!

Lots of exciting news

Adam has wanted Batman pj's ALL winter, well technically since the end of last winter when he outgrew his old hand-me-down pair. I went ahead and got him a pair today and he was SOO excited when they were waiting on his bedroom floor for him after bath. It feels good to make someone that happy, definitely worth the $10.

Now that that's done onto the more exciting news that Adam is officially reading. We started working on it at home a month or so ago and he has really caught on quickly. He does really well at "Hop On Pop" and also read a phonics book called "Clifford Can" tonight. The "k" sound is one of the sounds he is working on in speech therapy right now so he also got a lot of that practice in since he is supposed to be working on using it appropriately in sentences instead of in single words now. He is so proud of himself when he sounds out a word and gets what it is really supposed to be on his own. We think he is going to be a reader just like his mommy and daddy are.

So I complain a LOT about how much Adam and Noelle fight like typical siblings, or worse. I have been really excited this last week or so that they are starting to do more playing together instead fighting. It seems that Adam is always asking Noelle if she wants to play this or that with him, usually it is sword fighting. Yesterday they played Hide and Seek for AN HOUR AND 15 MINS. With no fighting at all, and Noelle actually got how to play even. She would come stand by me when it was her turn to count and repeat the numbers 1-10 after me then say "here I come". It was so precious to see. I also helped her find some more challenging spots to hide so that it was still fun for Adam. It is actually amazing how many great hiding places there are in a little apartment (their tiny size probally helps that).

My last bit of exciting news is that we put in an offer for a house Friday night. We gave them 2 weeks to counter, accept, or decline so wish us luck! It is actually a duplex (the offer is for only one side of it) and located about a mile or less south of where we are now, still off Jordan Road. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, has some hardwood floors and a 2 car attached garage. It does have a perfect sized backyard, enough for the kids to play in but no so much that there would be a ton of upkeep. We hope to have the offer accepted and close on 2/24/09 since we have to be out of our apartment on the 28th. Please wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes smoothly!!