moving faces

 We've been spending lots of time outside lately, the boys have been soaking every last bit of the sandbox up.  Papa plans to make a new one at the new house, but I'm sure we'll have some "wait" time in between.  Nana and Papa came down over the weekend and we cleaned out the garage (mostly) so at least there isn't a whole lot in there to move out.  Who am I kidding, there's still crap in there.  We got an official closing date, May 15th, for the blue house.  May 17th for ours.  Should work out perfect... hopefully.  We had an inspection done on the blue house today.  Everything looks great, nothing major, just a few minor issues. So, at least we can start with a clean slate and know what condition the house is in.  Down below is a picture of our cute little mudroom... every house we looked at, I looked for a space to be able to do something like this, or at least a closet to remodel into cubbies of some sort.  This house had them already!  Now if that isn't meant to be.  It needs a lot of cosmetic work, but it should be fun starting from scratch and figuring out what we want to do with it!  I'm sure I'll post lots more "before" pictures once we officially have the keys in hand.

come full circle

 Logan woke up from his nap this afternoon resembling Elvis a bit....  The details should be worked out this week, but it appears as if we bought a house!  According to our Realtor, the party accepted our offer on a home out in the neighborhood we first wanted to be in.  After a couple heartbreaks with homes in the 'hood selling before we were able to get them, this one has always been on our radar.  We've actually been through the house 5 times since probably October.... we've had a love/hate relationship with it for months!  Sometimes when we've looked at it, we think it's ok and look at all the positive things about it.  About a month ago we went through again and hated it!  Time is running out, so we went through again on Thursday night.  It showed better this time than the previous, so we figured out our max price we'd pay for it, considering the improvements it needs, and threw it out there.  They accepted it.  We got a good deal and feel comfortable with it.  It's a 5 bedroom with over 4000 sq. ft., has my main requirement of 2 main level living areas (formal/family living plus a sunroom), a formal dining room, a separate little office space for Dave, a guest room, a spacious lower level laundry room (I've never been a fan of the cramped main level laundry rooms that are popular), a utility room for rocket and airplane building and a 3 car garage.  Granted, it needs a hell of a lot of cosmetic work, but it really has everything we could have wanted for space and rooms.  The kids' rooms are a little small, but definitely workable.  Can't forget a big (for Winona standards) yard!  Apparently, a party had put in an offer and it was accepted, but their deal fell through.  So, it must have been meant to be.  First order of work will be new carpeting and paint in the bedrooms so we can at least get some bedroom sets up there.  After that, hmmmm... draw out of a hat?!

shhh... don't bother the girls.

This is how I caught Em and Stella out the kitchen window the other day.  Stella has been such a good girl, we can tell she's maturing because she no longer pulls on walks.  It's about time she's actually enjoyable to walk.  We haven't found a house yet.  34 more days until we hand over the keys.  It's getting a bit scary.  Who knew house hunting was such an emotional process.  There is such a drastic range of emotions daily... excitement, worry, anger, hope, disappointment, relief, and then worry all over again.  We put in an offer on a house the other night.  Beautiful home inside, but the driveway was literally a 45 degree angle straight into the garage.  You wouldn't even be able to get into your garage in the winter. We tried parking the car in it and it bottomed out.  Not on the best kid friendly lot either, nice cul-de-sac to play in, but not much for yard.  It's empty though, so desperation set in. If only the driveway was more flat.... it was priced right and tons of square footage.  Disappointing!  We ended up withdrawing the offer.  Back to square one.  If only the folks that have the nice 4 bedroom homes in nice neighborhoods didn't think they were worth $300K+.

careful what you wish for....

Well.... I guess we're moving!  And not a moment too soon either.  We accepted an offer over the weekend and signed the papers today.  Very happy to have a buyer with such a clean sale, no inspection needed, cash sale.. only wants the playset out back.  And if you know our old house, it needs a lot of big and little fixes, just stuff we have no ambition or desire to do.  So... whew!  But, when I said I hoped this all happens soon, we weren't expecting this.  Our closing date is May 17th.  I think we felt that if we don't take the offer, how long will the house sit for sale?  Or what if the next people who put in an offer ask us to do all these crazy things we don't want to do?   I think we're looking at a couple homes tomorrow, but I don't think they'll be the one.  Our Realtor has an apartment building and she said if we haven't found anything by then, we can move there until we do.  So, at least we won't be homeless.... sleeping on mattresses only.... probably.  But a roof over our heads.

coughs and snots

Logan has had a cough and runny nose for a couple days now, but otherwise in good spirits!  No fevers so far.  Maybe just the weather change?  Emily went to a birthday party today in La Crosse at the roller rink.  Her first time there.  She had fun and came back in one piece.  I admit, I was a nervous wreck having her that far with people I don't know very well, but the birthday girl is a good friend from school, so...    House is still for sale.  We're having a second open house tomorrow, have a showing in the books for Tuesday night and getting rental certification next week also.  Maybe some slumlord will buy the place.  I'm hoping the rental certification will boost the interest.  Even if we sold our house at this moment, there isn't anything out there we love. Sue took us out this week browsing and the only nice one had an offer put in that same day we saw it and the other 2, eh.... nothing special.  We've had our eye on this blue house for several months now and we just went through it again.  Third time seeing it and we're realizing it's too much work for the money and just not very nice.  So, it feels like it's back to square one since that kind of felt like our "back up" house.  I hope this happens soon, having a house for sale is stressful, especially when you have 3 young kids, a dog, a muddy yard and a husband with a crazy work/sleep schedule.  I've been nothing but a crabby bitch these past 3 weeks.

easter bunny

We ran into Walmart a couple weeks ago and the greeter said the Easter Bunny was back in electronics taking free pictures.  It took a lot of convincing for all 3.  Logan only would if he sat with Em and when she let him down after the picture, he ran across electronics yelling "I don't have to!"  

Logan's favorite lunch

Annie's shells and canned grean beans.... he can't be the only toddler that devours a big bowl of room temp canned green beans for a snack, could he?

"egg"speriment

 At ECFE a week or so ago, Miss Chris had a table with eggs of different stages... raw, hard boiled, etc...  She had a raw egg (still in the shell obviously) that had been soaking in pure vinegar for a couple days.  It was so neat and squishy that we tried it at home.   After about 24 hours, ours was squishy too!

"see you next week!"

Emily and I found a few neat things this week at the Salvation Army. Luke is into maps, so when I saw this, I thought it would make a cool wall hanging, or just a map for fun.

 I've had a mancala game in my Amazon cart for a while now, but found this deal at only .50!  And it's a nice one.   I'll have to get a different set of stones though since I don't think there are enough here.  Emily has mentioned that she's played at school before so she'll have to teach us.

3 neat books for the boys.  When we checked out, she says "See you next week!"  I think we might be considered regulars.