Someone signed to lease our house that we had rented! It was down to the last business day of the month, we would have had to pay another month rent if they hadn't signed by today. We had leased the house until July, so there was the possibility that we would need to pay thousands of dollars more if it wasn't rented sooner. Several people were interested but this was the first one that qualified financially and actually signed.
Details still need to be worked out and I'm not too hopeful that we will get very much of our deposit back due to some floor damage that was not really our fault. I cleaned the entire house right after we moved out. So this is very good news, we are completely done, we don't need to go back and clean or do more there. At this point I'm not too worried about the deposit-we'll either get it back or we won't-but we're done with everything else.
Ram is currently making phone calls to disconnect utilities there. It will be nice to just pay for utilities for one house. Internet is free as part of the housing association dues in our new house. We disconnected internet at the old house after we moved out. It will be nice to not pay for internet each month.
This was the first time either Ram or I ever rented a place and it was a big learning experience for both of us. I'm glad to be done with that learning experience and in our own home now. It helps that our house payment is $200 less than our rent payment each month too!
It was also nice that someone rented before we needed to do yardwork at the old house. We moved in November so we never mowed the grass there.
This weekend we will work on getting settled in our new home some more in between some church activities, and celebrate Lamb 3's birthday with Ram's parents, and celebrate that the house was rented!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Letter writing
Rev. Weedon has been posting some letters he found from dear family members while he is cleaning out things getting ready to move.
I've moved a box around a few times since we moved to our new house. My dad wrote me a snail mail letter every weekday that I was in college. My classmates were a little jealous of that. They fill one small moving box. I don't want to get rid of them. After college when we got e-mail then he started writing one e-mail letter a day. We've changed computers and I don't have copies of all of the letters after college. But I still have my written copies from college.
What does dad put in these letters? Nothing special, mainly just telling every day happenings at their house, town, and church. It takes dad a long time to write these each day. But it is both a journal for him and helpful for his daughters. Since we live so far from home now (ID and HI) it is nice to hear what they are doing.
Rev. Weedon reminded me that I also have some treasured letters from my great aunts in one of those boxes in the garage. One of my goals in cleaning out and unpacking is to find some of those letters and organize them/scrapbook them.
Also, in today's electronic age, perhaps it would be a good idea to write a written copy more often. It is fun to look back like Rev. Weedon did. Another goal of mine is to organize/scrapbook some of these written letters from the last 8 years for the Lambs.
I've moved a box around a few times since we moved to our new house. My dad wrote me a snail mail letter every weekday that I was in college. My classmates were a little jealous of that. They fill one small moving box. I don't want to get rid of them. After college when we got e-mail then he started writing one e-mail letter a day. We've changed computers and I don't have copies of all of the letters after college. But I still have my written copies from college.
What does dad put in these letters? Nothing special, mainly just telling every day happenings at their house, town, and church. It takes dad a long time to write these each day. But it is both a journal for him and helpful for his daughters. Since we live so far from home now (ID and HI) it is nice to hear what they are doing.
Rev. Weedon reminded me that I also have some treasured letters from my great aunts in one of those boxes in the garage. One of my goals in cleaning out and unpacking is to find some of those letters and organize them/scrapbook them.
Also, in today's electronic age, perhaps it would be a good idea to write a written copy more often. It is fun to look back like Rev. Weedon did. Another goal of mine is to organize/scrapbook some of these written letters from the last 8 years for the Lambs.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
A comment
I started to leave a comment on this blog post and then decided to blog about it instead of writing a really long comment. (You may want to read that post first for this post to make sense.)
If you would have asked me 4 years ago, I would have assumed I would be in that ten year club, well, at least in the 9 year club by March 2012. I was in the 5 year club in March 2008-pregnant 4 times; nursed 2 children a combined total of 32 months before having a third child and was completely dairy and soy free for 22 months for them. Pregnant and nursing times overlapped by several months and became a blur.
I never would have dreamed that I would have "graduated" from that club after 6 years. Well, I have added 9 months to that total of pregnant months, but Jesus is holding those children and the basketball practice moms don't know about them. I feel much much older than the other preschool moms when I pick up Lamb 3 from preschool. I think part of the reason I feel this way is that I don't have an infant car seat along like many of the other moms do.
If I could go back and do things differently, I would have not assumed that I would be part of that club for many more years. I would have treasured those "last" moments a little more with Lamb 3 instead of being overwhelmed with 3 Lambs age 4 and under.
I don't know what God has planned for our family. Perhaps I will be part of a different club that has a big break between Lamb 3 and Lamb 4. Perhaps God's plan is for me to permanently join the club of basketball practice moms now. I only know that I am not and will never be part of that ten year club.
So whatever "club" you are part of, do not despair. God has a plan to whatever club you are part of even if you can't see it. God will continue to bless you no matter which club you have joined. Thank God for his forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. And if you aren't part of the ten year club, offer to help the moms at church that are in the ten year club. They could definitely use some help and you probably have the time to help them. You might even get to snuggle with their baby for a little while!
If you would have asked me 4 years ago, I would have assumed I would be in that ten year club, well, at least in the 9 year club by March 2012. I was in the 5 year club in March 2008-pregnant 4 times; nursed 2 children a combined total of 32 months before having a third child and was completely dairy and soy free for 22 months for them. Pregnant and nursing times overlapped by several months and became a blur.
I never would have dreamed that I would have "graduated" from that club after 6 years. Well, I have added 9 months to that total of pregnant months, but Jesus is holding those children and the basketball practice moms don't know about them. I feel much much older than the other preschool moms when I pick up Lamb 3 from preschool. I think part of the reason I feel this way is that I don't have an infant car seat along like many of the other moms do.
If I could go back and do things differently, I would have not assumed that I would be part of that club for many more years. I would have treasured those "last" moments a little more with Lamb 3 instead of being overwhelmed with 3 Lambs age 4 and under.
I don't know what God has planned for our family. Perhaps I will be part of a different club that has a big break between Lamb 3 and Lamb 4. Perhaps God's plan is for me to permanently join the club of basketball practice moms now. I only know that I am not and will never be part of that ten year club.
So whatever "club" you are part of, do not despair. God has a plan to whatever club you are part of even if you can't see it. God will continue to bless you no matter which club you have joined. Thank God for his forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. And if you aren't part of the ten year club, offer to help the moms at church that are in the ten year club. They could definitely use some help and you probably have the time to help them. You might even get to snuggle with their baby for a little while!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Window treatments
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| School room before-this was the most important window to do, it looks right out to the front street! |
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| Eating area and living room before-the fence helped for privacy, but I looked forward to shades here! |
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| Lambs bedroom before-another important one, looks right to street, right where they change their clothes! |
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| Guest bedroom before-(with many boxes to unpack and pictures to hang yet) |
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| Library before |
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| Master bedroom before |
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| Master bathroom before |
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| I had to add a photo of the view of the mountains from my master bathroom! |
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| Eating area after with shades up |
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| Living room after with shades down |
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| School room after-easy for Lambs to put shades up or down |
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| Boys bedroom after-room darkening! I can hope this helps them sleep in! |
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| Master bedroom after-this shade is actually broken so they ordered a new one and will install when it arrives. It is also room darkening. |
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| Master bathroom after-top down/bottom up-let's light in but still privacy |
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| Guest bedroom after-also room darkening |
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| Library after-still working on shelving all the books! *I didn't take the time to play with my camera. Taking photos of windows is difficult! Hope this gives you an idea of what we did. |
Thursday, March 22, 2012
New house
I have lots to blog about and finally had time this morning but for some reason our internet didn't work. I will try to post photos soon.
Monday: We had complained that the dishwasher leaked and the builder said it was repaired. I was so surprised to open the door to a repairman with a new dishwasher. He had tried to fix it but couldn't so he ordered a new one for us. It was in and was it a good time to install it? The builder had lost track of what the request was and told him just to stop by our house to see if we were home. I would have felt bad if we hadn't been home when he came from a few towns over. Covered by warranty.
Tuesday: We went on a field trip to the aquarium with some Looper friends.
Wednesday: Our blinds were installed. One was broken (wouldn't go down all the way) so it will be reordered and they'll install a new one when it comes in.
Today: The builder turned on the furnace when he was building. Today we got our air ducts cleaned out. Covered by warranty.
We are still waiting for someone to come repair a broken shelf in our kitchen cupboards. We still would like to do some more things if we have the money-have custom built bookshelves built in the library, shelves built in the playroom closet, cupboards with glass doors built for my china, etc. Also we need to do something about our water both getting a water softener and for drinking. We were told the water is so hard without a water softener it ruins your dishwasher in 1 1/2 years. But I think I can finally say that we have all the necessary things done that the builder was responsible for. I can finally take a break from unpacking-instead of being necessary to get to windows or vents etc., I can unpack what I want to unpack in the order I want to unpack it.
I had no idea that buying a new house that was already built would involve all this. We have a 3 year warranty so this will continue for 3 years, hopefully not as much as this week. I just wonder if I worked outside of the home how in the world we would have gotten all these repairs/installing done, who would meet all these people?
Now that some of this is done it's time to start contacting people with our new address.
Monday: We had complained that the dishwasher leaked and the builder said it was repaired. I was so surprised to open the door to a repairman with a new dishwasher. He had tried to fix it but couldn't so he ordered a new one for us. It was in and was it a good time to install it? The builder had lost track of what the request was and told him just to stop by our house to see if we were home. I would have felt bad if we hadn't been home when he came from a few towns over. Covered by warranty.
Tuesday: We went on a field trip to the aquarium with some Looper friends.
Wednesday: Our blinds were installed. One was broken (wouldn't go down all the way) so it will be reordered and they'll install a new one when it comes in.
Today: The builder turned on the furnace when he was building. Today we got our air ducts cleaned out. Covered by warranty.
We are still waiting for someone to come repair a broken shelf in our kitchen cupboards. We still would like to do some more things if we have the money-have custom built bookshelves built in the library, shelves built in the playroom closet, cupboards with glass doors built for my china, etc. Also we need to do something about our water both getting a water softener and for drinking. We were told the water is so hard without a water softener it ruins your dishwasher in 1 1/2 years. But I think I can finally say that we have all the necessary things done that the builder was responsible for. I can finally take a break from unpacking-instead of being necessary to get to windows or vents etc., I can unpack what I want to unpack in the order I want to unpack it.
I had no idea that buying a new house that was already built would involve all this. We have a 3 year warranty so this will continue for 3 years, hopefully not as much as this week. I just wonder if I worked outside of the home how in the world we would have gotten all these repairs/installing done, who would meet all these people?
Now that some of this is done it's time to start contacting people with our new address.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
News from the new house
Saturday, March 10: Our church members came over and helped us move EVERYTHING in about 4 hours. It was amazing! We moved 20,000 lbs here, some was now in Ram's office and we had made several trips over to the new house ourselves. One lady was in charge of making sure the nice furniture was carefully packed and taken care of. She was more particular about this than I would have been. About a dozen people from church came to help us with several trucks and trailers. They loaded the garage in less than an hour where the majority of our boxes and all the book boxes were at. We formed a chain of people up the steps of our house and passed 88 book boxes up to the library. They hooked up our washer and dryer, cleaned the back of the refrigerator before plugging it in, and hooked up our TV/Blu Ray player. After they ate the pizza we ordered we made one more trip to the old house for some items that we forgot to pack. We slept in our beds in the new house on Saturday night.
Sunday and Monday I cleaned the old house. We went shopping as I had tried to use things up before moving.
Tuesday Lamb 3 had his turn to bring snacks to preschool. The letter of the week is K. I cut letter K out of cheese and he took K cheese and crackers.
Today we got internet hooked up and tonight Ram set up the computer so we're back in business. I had a few days of internet withdrawal and had over a 100 e-mails.
Tomorrow Lamb 3 is going to take green fruit kabobs for preschool snack as they celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I bought kiwi, pears, and apples. Later we thought of grapes but I wasn't going back to the store. Lamb 3 wanted bananas so they will be on there too even though they aren't green.
2 more days to finish unpacking and get things organized before our open house/house blessing on Saturday!
Sunday and Monday I cleaned the old house. We went shopping as I had tried to use things up before moving.
Tuesday Lamb 3 had his turn to bring snacks to preschool. The letter of the week is K. I cut letter K out of cheese and he took K cheese and crackers.
Today we got internet hooked up and tonight Ram set up the computer so we're back in business. I had a few days of internet withdrawal and had over a 100 e-mails.
Tomorrow Lamb 3 is going to take green fruit kabobs for preschool snack as they celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I bought kiwi, pears, and apples. Later we thought of grapes but I wasn't going back to the store. Lamb 3 wanted bananas so they will be on there too even though they aren't green.
2 more days to finish unpacking and get things organized before our open house/house blessing on Saturday!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Happy Birthday, Lamb 1!
We've been so busy getting ready to move to the new house that I felt like Lamb 1's celebration was sandwiched in between other events and phone calls!
Thursday night Ram's parents came to help celebrate. We opened presents from them and then went to eat at an Indian restaurant followed by Baskin Robbins for those that could fit ice cream in after a delicious meal. All the Lambs ate the Indian food well. We ordered just the right amount of food for everyone to share-we'll try to remember what we ordered for next time. I didn't take any pictures at the restaurant and only a few at the present opening. Lamb 1 also received a MP3 player and he has enjoyed "being in charge" of the music today. He also received a #8 shirt, see the blog sidebar for a photo. He received a lot of little gifts too. It was so difficult for the Lambs to open up presents but not be allowed to play with their new toys or put their Legos together that night.
Friday we went to the new house and Lamb 1 built his new Legos while Ewe worked and cleaned.
Sunday night we celebrated as a family. His supper request was homemade pizza made with pesto instead of tomato sauce. We have been so busy I offered to take him out to eat instead of cook supper but he really wanted homemade pizza. He requested pumpkin spice cake and I cheated a little and used a cake mix and a can of pumpkin and the cake turned out well. I didn't know what kind of frosting so I made a carmel frosting. He said it was good but he had hoped for white frosting. His cake was decorated with candles and truck decorations-no time to make #8 flags this year. That afternoon we shopped at Walmart and they were giving out balloons and cupcakes so his party even had balloons.
His breakfast request was monkey bread, I had to buy corn syrup for it as we don't have that in the house any more. I just told myself that at least I knew how much corn syrup and sugar was in it, unlike store bought monkey bread.
Then we opened up presents from Aunt Hannah. The change/money from Korea was a big hit for all 3 Lambs.
His lunch request was something our family calls hot colored bowls. There are bowls of rice, cheese, black beans, corn, and Rotel tomatoes. Each person in our family puts whatever they want on their plate. Lamb 1 doesn't like cheese so he has everything but that. Lamb 3 doesn't like tomatoes. Ram and Ewe have something from all 5 bowls. I can't believe that out of all the foods we make this is Lamb 1's favorite lunch-it is actually something we have quite frequently. I got the idea from Loopers Jenny and Cheryl and modified it for my picky eaters.
This afternoon we Skyped with my sister and he received birthday cards from Ewe's parents and a church member in MN. My sister blogged about his present from her here. Later this afternoon we took a load to the new house and put away everything we took over there. Then we came home for leftover cake and the Lambs took baths. I think Lamb 1 had a good birthday even though our life is a little crazy right now. Maybe we can do something special for his baptism birthday-oh, I think that is during Holy Week this year.
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| Lamb 3 with new Duplo zoo truck Lamb 2 with fishing boat (that he already owned but it won't hurt to have 2 boats, especially if he gets the harbor that he asked for his birthday) Lamb 1 with Lego bank and armored car |
Friday we went to the new house and Lamb 1 built his new Legos while Ewe worked and cleaned.
Sunday night we celebrated as a family. His supper request was homemade pizza made with pesto instead of tomato sauce. We have been so busy I offered to take him out to eat instead of cook supper but he really wanted homemade pizza. He requested pumpkin spice cake and I cheated a little and used a cake mix and a can of pumpkin and the cake turned out well. I didn't know what kind of frosting so I made a carmel frosting. He said it was good but he had hoped for white frosting. His cake was decorated with candles and truck decorations-no time to make #8 flags this year. That afternoon we shopped at Walmart and they were giving out balloons and cupcakes so his party even had balloons.
His breakfast request was monkey bread, I had to buy corn syrup for it as we don't have that in the house any more. I just told myself that at least I knew how much corn syrup and sugar was in it, unlike store bought monkey bread.
Then we opened up presents from Aunt Hannah. The change/money from Korea was a big hit for all 3 Lambs.
His lunch request was something our family calls hot colored bowls. There are bowls of rice, cheese, black beans, corn, and Rotel tomatoes. Each person in our family puts whatever they want on their plate. Lamb 1 doesn't like cheese so he has everything but that. Lamb 3 doesn't like tomatoes. Ram and Ewe have something from all 5 bowls. I can't believe that out of all the foods we make this is Lamb 1's favorite lunch-it is actually something we have quite frequently. I got the idea from Loopers Jenny and Cheryl and modified it for my picky eaters.
This afternoon we Skyped with my sister and he received birthday cards from Ewe's parents and a church member in MN. My sister blogged about his present from her here. Later this afternoon we took a load to the new house and put away everything we took over there. Then we came home for leftover cake and the Lambs took baths. I think Lamb 1 had a good birthday even though our life is a little crazy right now. Maybe we can do something special for his baptism birthday-oh, I think that is during Holy Week this year.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Good brothers
Tonight our church had a progressive supper. The first house some of the conversation was a family with older kids, two of the boys wanted to be together in a bedroom when they were given a choice during some remodeling a few years ago. Recently they changed their mind and the parents are scrambling to clean out an office so the two boys can be separated even after they had claimed they always wanted to be together.
Some friends remarked that it is good that we are getting a 5 bedroom house because even if they want to be together in a bedroom now it will not always be that way.
At the second house the Lambs played with some toys in the other room after they ate. When it was time to go the hostess joked that Lamb 2 could spend the night and she would bring him to church in the morning because he was in no hurry to go home. Lamb 3 got very upset, real tears, at the thought of Lamb 2 not coming home with us. Ram finally had to pick up Lamb 2 and carry him out to the car because Lamb 3 was so upset.
It was the most upset that we have seen Lamb 3 in a long time. He has grown up (he'll be 4 next month!) and no longer has tears for minor things. He was really worried that Lamb 2 might not come home with us. He even went over and tried to drag Lamb 2 out of the room.
I think it is going to be awhile before it would be acceptable for all 3 Lambs for one Lamb to sleep in another room! I think purchasing a bunk bed will be a good investment.
Some friends remarked that it is good that we are getting a 5 bedroom house because even if they want to be together in a bedroom now it will not always be that way.
At the second house the Lambs played with some toys in the other room after they ate. When it was time to go the hostess joked that Lamb 2 could spend the night and she would bring him to church in the morning because he was in no hurry to go home. Lamb 3 got very upset, real tears, at the thought of Lamb 2 not coming home with us. Ram finally had to pick up Lamb 2 and carry him out to the car because Lamb 3 was so upset.
It was the most upset that we have seen Lamb 3 in a long time. He has grown up (he'll be 4 next month!) and no longer has tears for minor things. He was really worried that Lamb 2 might not come home with us. He even went over and tried to drag Lamb 2 out of the room.
I think it is going to be awhile before it would be acceptable for all 3 Lambs for one Lamb to sleep in another room! I think purchasing a bunk bed will be a good investment.
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