Slowly Moving In

We closed on our new house last Wednesday and beginning the day after that we have slowly been moving over what we can. We usually fill up the back of the van with boxes, but we also bought a trailer to hitch onto the back of the truck to transport big things, like the sectional couch, and also to transport the riding lawn mower back and forth between the two houses so we can cut the grass. We usually get in two trips a day moving things. We still can't completely move in yet, but that time is getting closer. Last Friday the carpet guy came and measured the bedrooms and hallway that we are replacing the carpet in and Saturday we ordered the carpet we want. Now we have to wait until that comes in and then within 2 days of that they will install the new carpet. To cut costs, we are removing the old carpet and padding ourselves, but that is no big deal at all. Once that's done we can start living there. By that time we should have most of our stuff already moved over except for the really big things that we will need help with. Then, we can start fixing up the current house in order to get that on the selling market. Busy, busy, busy. Plus, with the temps finally reaching into the hundreds for every day of the week, that heat just makes you want to stay inside and makes you feel so tired that it's difficult to even feel like wanting to move. But, I am thankful that we can do this slowly right now and not overstress or over heat ourselves. Here are a few before and after pics of the new house...

We had fireplace shelving and cupboards just like this in the old house, so I simply brought everything I already had on those shelves over to the new house to place onto the new shelves.

We brought over our china hutch and dining table and chairs.

The sectional couch, and tv and wii game system were brought over to keep the kids busy while hubby and I work on other things. Also, that arch way you see leads into what will be the school/play room and we have also already brought over board games and the doll house and train system for the kids to play with.

Slip N Sliding Away

I bought a two-laned slip n slide for the kids to start enjoying their summer water fun. Even though they said the water was freezing and our ground isn't all that smooth, they enjoyed it for about an hour. I kept hearing a lot of "OWs" and I felt bad for them and told them to stop if they were getting hurt. But, of course they weren't going to do that--I guess the fun of it outweighed the bruises they might get on their knees or other body parts. I wonder if I bought them one of those body-sized floating-raft-type-thingies and they used it as a body board if that would help? I have hope that our new house's lawns are a lot smoother and I know they definitely are more padded with grass, so the slip n slide will work better there. Oh, to be a kid again.

The New House

I am just bubbling with excitement! For a couple of weeks we have been taking the steps to buy a new home. This home is in a closer location to all of the places we frequent and friends and it will cut off some driving time from my hubby's long work commute. We just got the appraisal results today and it was good news. Plus, the inspection is done, and all of the paperwork has been gathered and submitted. It just needs the final approval from the loan underwriters and we can close. I am hoping we will be closing at the end of this week; the original closing date was scheduled for June 22nd, so a week earlier would be awesome. Before we can move completely in we have to replace the upstairs bedroom carpets in the new place which will take at least 1 or 2 weeks (getting people out to measure, buying the carpet, and then waiting for it to be installed). While waiting for that to happen, we can start moving other things in though, like all of the things that belong downstairs--office furniture and all of the items in storage. Once those things are out of the current house, it will be easier for us to do some work on the downstairs of our current house. A couple of our rooms need dry walled, and then taped and painted. Then, once we can move all of the upstairs things into the new house we will be able to fix up that part of our current house which is a little bit of painting, replacing the kitchen flooring, and just cleaning. It will be a lot easier to do all of that work in the current house once everything is moved into the new house. Here are a few pics of the new place. I have lots of pics of the inside, also, but maybe I'll show those in another post later on.

Busy Weekend

Last Friday and Saturday were very busy. On Friday I went to the homeschool convention from 8:00 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon and then on Saturday Roger went with me to the convention from about 8:00 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a great one this year. The key speaker was fantastic--Todd Wilson from Familyman Ministries. I attended some really valuable workshops too. And, I was able to buy some curriculum. The entire time I was there, the kids were in Adventures in Character. They were in that last year as well and really enjoy it. It is held at the same place as the convention and they are assigned to a group with teen aged leaders who engage them in skits, songs, and games. I pick them up at lunch, and then check them back in afterwards. Believe it or not, the convention takes a dinner break and then you can check your kids back in after that for another couple of hours, so if you really wanted to, you could be at the convention about 12 hours. We didn't do that because Friday night we ended up going with some friends to see the parade that starts off our River Festival celebrations here in the city. Saturday we left the convention earlier because Evan had to get to church to rehearse for the next days church service which was being held in "big people's" church with the kids doing the praise time and the children's leadership conducted the service, sermon, skit, and games just like they do in kids church. Our pastor's sermon series has been We Are Family, so for last Sunday we were celebrating the children. It was so much fun, and you can read about it here.

I don't have any pics of the homeschool convention but I have some from Friday night's parade. We really enjoyed it.

Working on some logic puzzles before the parade starts.

Yes, we had jackets. It was June 1st in KS but only 60 degrees--very unusual!