Buying/Selling

When they say moving and buying/selling homes is stressful they aren't kidding.  I'm trying not to focus on the anxiety that comes with selling.  I dealt with that two months ago when we were originally supposed to put the house on the market.  Right now I figure if ignoring the selling part makes me feel a bit better, that's what I'm doing.  Well, until I cannot ignore it any more that is.

But I did mention in my last post about how my in-laws were going to look at some of the houses on our short list this past weekend.  We had a list of 8 houses, 3 of which were having open houses.  Of the 8, 6 bit the dust.  The two that remain were not open houses, so they are allowed to stay on the list based on location alone.  Although one of the two isn't the most ideal kind of street for us.  Of the 6 that are gone, one was said to have 4 offers on it.  (And it had only been on the market one week.)  The other 5 had location issues.

I'm bummed out--not because I expected to find our home, but rather because this leaves me feeling pessimistic on if this the right area to be looking.  We're moving to a high cost of living area, so our budget is tight.  We've narrowed down the area we are looking in because it seems to have the best houses for our price, there is a school that Ryan could get into right away, and the location for the two possible future commutes is the best that our money can get us.  I was just hoping that I'd come away from the weekend knowing that a few houses are good and will definitely work for us.  You see as soon as our house here goes under contract, Pat will have to fly up to spend a three day weekend finding and offering on a house.  If we don't get it done then, we'll likely end up homeless for a period of time.  I may or may not get to go house hunt with him, depending on timing.

So now I'm super nervous that what if when we go to buy there are no good houses on the market just like at this moment?  We plan to keep this home for a VERY long time so it's really important to me that we don't settle.  Time just isn't our friend in this situation.  I can only cross my fingers and hope one of the great houses comes at just the right time for us to snatch it up.

I had thought the buying wouldn't be as stressful as the selling, but it seems in the situation it may be just as bad.

Past, Present, and Future

This week I've been reflecting a lot.  Yesterday was an anniversary for me and Pat.  It isn't one we celebrate, but we like to at least acknowledge the day.  Yesterday was the 9 year anniversary of when we got engaged.  We were still in college.  I remember the joy and excitement of that night so well though.  I think I've blogged about it before.  You can read about that HERE.

It is funny to think of how much we've grown and changed since the night I said yes.  We were just naive college kids then.  I'm not saying we are all wise now, but I guess I feel confident enough to call us adults now.  We've survived 3 deployments, we have two little boys and a girl on the way, we've bought two houses and are getting ready to move again within the year.  We've learned to communicate, we've supported each other in the tough moments, and we're best friends.

I don't think I give Pat enough credit in real life or on my blog.  He has been my rock this year in so many ways.  The whole are we moving or are we not has been really hard these past few months.  When I am upset about all the unknowns and the challenges, I know I lash out.  Pat has managed to accept that and also calm me down.  For the first four or so months of this pregnancy when I was feeling sick, tired, and just extremely hormonally crazy, Pat took care of me and filled in with the kids whenever possible.  When I don't think I can make it anymore, Pat gives me the strength I need.  I don't mean to make this whole post a tribute to Pat, but he does deserve so much more gratitude than I give him.

I'm finally feeling like I can start getting excited for the future.  It's getting close enough and I finally feel like we are moving forward.  We got the baby bedding (more on that in a later post), we picked out the absolute perfect color to paint the nursery in the next house, and my in-laws are going to check out some open houses this weekend of houses we are interested in.  I know it's still early.  We don't put our house on the market until next month, and it's sale determines when we buy.  However, I just feel so happy that we are finally getting close to the dreams we've been hoping for for so long now.
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I'm joining the Ultimate Blog Party 2012.  If you're stopping by from UBP 2012, I'd love for you to say hello so I can be sure to visit your blog too.  You can read all about me in the ABOUT section in the header.  Thanks for stopping by.

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend together.  It was so nice to have quality family time.  I wanted to make the most out of doing some of the cute traditions, and the kids loved the activities.  While somethings didn't go completely as planned, it was a perfect weekend that we celebrated as a family.  Here's a little recap of some things we did with a few pictures.  

I was inspired by a pin on pinterest to make "bunny bait" with the boys.  It was an easy and fun treat to make together.  I couldn't stop eating it as soon as we made it.  I've decided this would be best when we have people over to share though because quite a bit is still sitting on my counter going to waste.  I think this would also be fun to try for other holidays too. 

We dyed Easter eggs with the boys.  Growing up I didn't really do this because no one in my family was big on eating hard boiled eggs.  So it was almost as exciting to me as it was for the boys.  I look forward to making this a yearly tradition.  

For Easter we had a traditional ham dinner.  The good thing about not having company over for the holiday is that it didn't matter when we didn't have the meal ready at our planned time or that we had slightly crisped the outside of the ham or added too much milk to the potatoes.  It was still delicious.  We followed dinner up with my Easter cake.  It was supposed to be a checkered pattern for the cake, even though you cannot really tell.  It was probably the biggest cake I ever made.  The pans said to use 3 boxes of cake mix.  It was a bit excessive, and as a result of the large layers it kind of looked like the mad hatter's hat from Alice in Wonderland.  I learned quite a few lessons for the next time I use that pan.  And while it may not have won any awards for aesthetics, it tasted moist and delicious.  You should have seen Sean gobble up his slice in under two minutes, no utensils required.  

So that was our Easter in a nutshell.  I hope you had a great time celebrating with those you love too.  

Lastly, I recently gave in and started using the instagram app on my iphone.  I've had it for a while but never really understood it.  I'm trying to figure it out now.  Anyone else use that?