Moving

Where does all the stuff come from? I tried so hard to be organized and purged/donated a ton of stuff. Obviously,  it's hard to pack with the kids. Quick, tape the box closed before the kids unpack it! I'm really thankful that I had a babysitter who came a couple times a week to entertain the kids so I could pack.  I would pack during the day and then Gabe would take a load to storage at night. We filled half of a huge storage unit with stuff we moved over ourselves.

Moving day was a busy day to say the least. For some unknown reason Gabe didn't take the day off. I think we thought there couldn't possibly be that much to do since we'd been working our tails off for weeks packing. Wrong! Luckily my dad came down to help with the kids. Although Blake was being so clingy and moody, he was like a little monkey attached to me. He knew something was up!

My dad took Campbell to her last day of summer preschool and then took Blake to the library to get out of the house so I could direct the movers who arrived bright and early. I couldn't believe that it took them 4 hours to move. It's like stuff was multiplying or something. Then I went with the movers to the storage unit. We filled 2 huge rooms. Actually, to say it was filled is an understatement. They barely got the doors shut. There was maybe an inch clearance. Amazing how they got all that stuff to fit - packed like a puzzle all the way to the ceilings. Only our patio furniture wouldn't fit, so instead of renting another room, Grant let us keep it in his warehouse. More about that later....I'll have to title that post 'Breaking and Entering'. Or something along those lines.

This is a fun jungle gym!

Very clingy Mr. Blake, who only wanted Mama.

Thank goodness for movers! They moved all our furniture plus a ton of boxes.

King mattress is a tight squeeze down the steps.

Very rainy moving day. Good thing the movers wrapped everything in plastic.

I got back from the storage unit just in time for our good friends, K, L, C & D to come visit from Across the Pond. The L's were only in town for a short time and between both of our busy schedules, I'm happy we got to see them at least for a little bit!

Loaded up more stuff in Grant's trailer and then off to Campbell's first ever tball game. Her first organized sport! Can't miss that! A cleaning lady cleaned the house while we were gone at the game. So glad I hired her! I was exhausted and it was nice to relax and watch Campbell's game for a bit.

Campbell's first at bat. The kids were so adorable. Coaches were doing a great job with the kids, but it was pretty hilarious to watch. Kids roaming around, kicking the dirt, putting dirt in hats, etc.

Paparazzi in full force.

Lil Slugger!

Campbell kept yawning. Come to find out she was getting sick....read on to find out the awesome details!

Blake wants to join the team.

Good game!

GG to the rescue. Our new roomie! GG came a couple times to bring loads over to our temporary housing.

After the game we unloaded the trailer at Grant and Dede's house, set up the kids' beds, put the kids to sleep, and went back to the house to clear out the last of the stuff. We did it. The house was all cleared and cleaned out by about midnight the night before we closed. Go back to Grant's to find Campbell had puked in her sleep and it was everywhere. Nice! Hey, can we come stay in your basement and puke all over everything the first night we're there? For goodness sakes!

The morning of our closing the kids and I went to say good-bye to the house. Taking a silly picture, trying to make it fun.

Good-bye 222 Harrison, you've been a good house.

Some ramblings about the closing. It wasn't exactly smooth, but it's all signed and we're D.O.N.E! A couple hours before we closed, we found out that the buyers said our oven and microwave weren't working and they didn't like the nail holes we left. So, we had to pay repairman to come look at the appliances to tell us the oven was fine, but the microwave needed a new turn table motor. $150. Arg! Our realtor was awesome and sent his wife to go patch and paint the holes for us. I think he was having mercy on us because I was sick. (See below) Come to find out that weeks after our closing the new owners were still complaining because she didn't do a good enough job. He paid them $100 to go away and leave us alone. So that was nice. But so annoying. Our house was in perfect condition, if I do say so myself. Carpet still looked like new - not a stain anywhere, not a scratch on anything, walls perfect except for a few nail holes - my goodness! Not to mention they basically bought it for what we paid for it when we built it - 9 years ago - and we put all that money into finishing the basement. Seriously! Yes, I'm a bit bitter.

Did I mention I got the stomach flu just in time for our closing? I basically couldn't talk because I thought I was going to yak all over the documents. Even though I was sick, I didn't want to get our hosts sick, and we had people coming to help us panel. So, we packed up and headed up north. A pit stop or two to puke, but we made it. I slept all day Saturday. Literally I woke up for about an hour, but otherwise I was sleeping through the nail gunning and table sawing of paneling. Thank goodness my parents took Blake for the weekend and Grammy watched Campbell for the day.

All and all, I'm just glad to be done with that house. The selling process was SO LONG. On the market for a whole year. 2 different realtors. The roller coaster of thinking we had a buyer who signed a purchase agreement and then backed out. I can't even count how many showings we had - usually a couple a week. Trying to keep the house in some what decent shape with 2 little ones  so I could be ready in an hour's notice for a showing.  Packing them up and going to find something to do during the showings. Then come home to find out that the showing never even showed up. Having the house in showing ready condition anytime we left for the weekend/vacation, which was quite a bit since we're at the cabin so much. Not going to miss that AT ALL!

p.s. Campbell puked 4 more times after we moved into Grant & Dede's basement. Every other night, for what seemed like forever. Combine that with Blake yelling in the morning and waking the whole house up is surely grounds for eviction.

Catch Up

Catch up is definitely needed on this blog. Although I do have some pretty valid excuses. Since my last post on 6.16, we've celebrated Gabe's birthday and our anniversary, had a week's vacation at the cabin with Troy, Lora & Alex all the way from Singapore, as well as Gabe's cousin, Jen's family of 5, and SOLD (FINALLY!) our house (which means we need to buy another car since Gabe won't be able to walk to work anymore and the minor detail of figuring out where we're going to live now). I forgot to mention that the day before we left for our vacation my email got hacked into and subsequently I got blocked out of it. My email address I've had for nearly 10 years - all my contacts/calendar....great timing!

I've been knee deep in packing since we got back from our vacation. Gabe and I also got a lot moved to storage last weekend (the first weekend we've been home all summer!). Amazing how much stuff we've accumulated over the 9 years we've lived here. Pretty certain that as newlyweds we moved into this house with the same amount of boxes as we are moving out of here filled just with toys. My sanity saver has been the babysitters who have been helping with the kids while I pack.

We only have 2 nights left in our house before we move out and close on the 15th. As much as I've wanted to get out of this place for the past year (and it's probably been even longer since the sketchy stuff starting happening in our neighborhood over 2 years ago) that we've been trying to sell it, now that the time is here, I'm feeling a bit sad and sentimental. This is where I brought my babies home from the hospital!


Don't have much time to dwell on that though because there's more packing to do - both for the move and then we're heading up to the lake after we close for a paneling work weekend. I was kinda hoping it would be a hammock relaxing weekend....aaaahhhh......some day!

Cute Campbellism: "Momma, you know how Daddy gets holes in his shirts? I'm going to use my money that I won from the shoe kicking contest to buy him a new shirt."

Moving Away Party

Our neighbors threw us a going away party. It was perfect night for a BBQ with great neighbors.

The kids had a blast playing in the pool.

And climbing.

The youngest of the neighborhood bunch. Sweet & easy-going, A.

I'm really going to miss seeing Alexis all the time. What a great friend.

Good-bye 222 Harrison! We have many fond memories of you and our great neighbors.

I'm feeling sadder and sadder the closer the move comes. I know it will be for the best, but it's hard to see that now since we don't have a new place to call home yet.

Where To Live?

Where to live, where to live? We're closing on our house soon and we still haven't found a new house to buy. I thought it'd be easier to find temporary housing, it's turning out to not be that easy or should I say, affordable. We don't know how long we'll need temporary housing. Short term rentals we found were very expensive - like double our mortgage payment - yikes! That's fine if it's only for a month or two, but if it's longer, yikes! Normal rentals needed a year lease or more. We found a town home for a reasonable price, great location, that allowed a month-to-month lease. But it stunk so bad, our clothes smelled when we left. I can't believe that I, who is uber-sensitive to smells, at one point said we should just live there. Does that tell you I was feeling a bit desperate/stressed? As in within a week we'd be homeless.


Grant & Dede had several times offered to let us stay in their basement. We finally decided that we'd take them up on it. Just us living there is one thing, but with 2 little ones?!? I don't know if they realize what they're signing on for. Have they heard how loud Blake is?!?!

When I told Campbell that we were going to live with Granty-Baby, she said: "No! We are not living there." I was a bit surprised since I thought she'd go crazy with excitement because she loves Granty Baby so much. When I asked her why she responded, "We can't live there because Blake is going to break all their stuff." 

Did I mention that they are going to let Gabe use their truck to get to work. Like we don't owe them enough already. I feel bad. People keep telling me that they wouldn't have offered if they didn't mean it. So here we go.....I hope they know how much we appreciate it.

Week at the Lake

We had a wonderful & action packed week at the lake.

Once vacation is over we have 11 days until we close on our house. There is a lot of packing to do. Not to mention we need to figure out where we're going to live. Yikes! But we're not going to think about that now....we're on vacation!

Railings magically appeared since we were here last! Great work,  Donny!

Nothing better than helping Papa John drive one of his many tractors.

Digging fun with cousin Caleb.

Gabe working on finishing the paneling in the kitchen before our company comes. The cabin was full of tools, scaffolding, wood, etc from the paneling work weekend the weekend prior. We got it cleaned out & ready just in the nick of time.

Cousin Alex is here! We've been so excited about Troy, Lora & Alex coming to stay with us all the way from Singapore.

One night Gabe heard a noise as he was walking out to the campfire. It was a snapping turtle laying eggs right at the base of our steps. That Mama was huge! Since snappers are so mean and aggressive we dug up all the eggs.

Another turtle...this time a tiny little one.

Not sure what kind, but we were thinking it wasn't a snapper.

Boat ride with cousin Luke.

Off to see the bears!

Papa John and Blake.

Blake, this sign is specifically for you.

On the bus to see the bears. This was Blake's favorite part of the trip.

We saw a few bears very close.

As you can see, Blake wasn't having a good time. I think it's because we were trying to stop him from the aforementioned running & shouting.

Campbell adores her cousin Alex. We had a great time with Troy, Lora & Alex. We wish we could see them more often! 

Sunglasses switch-er-roo

All the Amundson cousins together.

On our anniversary, everyone came over and Troy and Lora made a huge dinner. It was SO DELICIOUS!!!

We decided it was a good time to try our first ever crayfish boil.

The kids were constantly down at the dock checking on the crayfish trap.  Amazing how many we trapped in only a couple hours - over a hundred!

Campbell had one as a pet and played with it for several hours. She took it for walks, built it a house, talked to it - you know, all the things that a crayfish likes to do.

Mini lobsters!

The first crayfish boil was a success! You won't fill up on the miniscule pieces of meat, but it's something fun to do.

Yum!

Happy 9th anniversary!
Nothing says romantic like a turned over toilet box used as a dinner table.  But seriously, it was a great anniversary shared with family.

Sleepover!

We had to say good-bye to Troy, Lora & Alex, which was sad. Once they left, we hauled over the stuff that was loaded in the trailer. I'm amazed that everything made it over without falling/blowing off the boat.

Couin Jen, Lanny & their boys came for a couple days. They picked up an air conditioner for us on the way up. It was SO HUMID - gross! A/C........aaaaaaahhhhhh.........so nice!

Nothing better than cooling off in the water! We bought a bunch of rafts one of the first years we had this land & we finally broke them out of their boxes. Why did it take us so long!?!?!

This is why we have a cabin!

Cousins.

Good bye Old Blue! Lanny bought her. Actually, we ended up trading the A/C for her. I was sad to see her being hauled away.

Aunt Sheila & Uncle Lauren stopped by to say hi. I love how Sheila often coordinates with their cruiser, the Orange Crush.

Our neighbors lighting off fireworks. Gabe & I sat on the dock and enjoyed the show.

4th of July! Gabe working on a wall & Campbell all ready to go to town to see the Virginia parade with my parents.

Gabe finishing up some insulation in and underneath the cabin. It was so muggy and hot. At least we now have A/C to make it a tad less miserable.

Now...back to the City....and....REALITY! We're going to be homeless in 11 days. Better get to it!