Stay-cation

We're on vacation this week. Well, it officially started last Friday. The last day of school was Thursday, so I took Friday off and this upcoming week as well. And we're not going anywhere. I'm pretty excited about that. I didn't plan on gas prices being so high when we made the decision not to travel, but boy I sure am glad we didn't make plans now!

So far this vacation, we've had a 2-day Garage Sale and we went to JazzFest to see Sergio Mendes. (Of course, I forgot to bring my camera.) The Garage Sale went pretty well the first day, but the 2nd day it rained on and off all day. But my neighbor who was helping me had a nice empty garage, so we ended up using both garages and had a decent amount of customers, considering the weather was terrible.

The "big" plans for Alex and I for our week off include attending a Chiefs/PawSox game, going to Arby's for Beef & Cheddar sandwiches, trying out the new "Nothing but Noodles" restaurant, going mini-golfing and catching up on some movie rentals. Nothing major, but we're thrilled to have the time to relax. Alex is happy to just be able to hang out and play with his friends in the neighborhood. He's currently holding a "Yu-Gi-Oh" card tournament in the garage. I've started packing and cleaning things out. I'm planning on having a huge amount of garbage this week. I'm already up to about 8 giant Hefty bags. My neighbor helped me get 6 big bags of clothes and some old furniture (leftover from the garage sale) over to the Rescue Mission trailer yesterday. I'm feeling very productive, I hope it continues!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

It seems like there have been a lot of severe thunderstorms lately, but today there was a nice ending to a storm that came through. This was the view from our front steps. I really should go look for the pot of gold...

To Tuck or Not to Tuck

Alex "graduated" from 6th grade last night. He doesn't look very happy though. But I don't think it was the occasion. He's thrilled that summer is just about here and that there's no school for a few months. What he's most likely upset about is the fact that his mean ol' mom made him tuck in his shirt. Apparently, it's not cool. But doesn't he look nice?? Aside from a diploma, he received the "Presidential Academic Award of Excellence"... and we think there might have been a direct correlation between those receiving the award and those who had their shirts tucked in. Hmmm...

Miscellaneous Junk

Once again, it's been a few days since I've blogged. Life seems to be racing past me. I think the entire summer is going to go by very quickly, we've got so much going on. Alex will be "graduating" from 6th grade Thursday evening. Well, they call it a moving up ceremony, then they make them go back to school for another week. I don't think they have much work left to do though. They have a bunch of half-days, a field day and some assemblies. I remember the anticipation of summer vacation. I really should have become a teacher! I would love to have summers off...

I do have 2 vacations soon though. But they will be spent having a yard sale, packing and then moving. We had to cancel the much anticipated trip to the Poconos. The house sales were happening quicker than we thought they would and it would have been too stressful to try to do it all. So we had to "sacrifice" the vacation for a beautiful new home.

We're anxiously awaiting the Celtics game. Well, Alex is anxiously awaiting the game. I'm a fan, but not a fanatic. Not like the Red Sox or the Patriots. I like the Celtics, but I've just never been as much of a fan of basketball like I am a fan of baseball & football.

Oh, speaking of baseball, we do have one fun thing planned during our first vacation. The Paw Sox are in town again and I have tickets for that. I hope Kyle Snyder is feeling better. I'd love to see him pitch this time! Or maybe one of the Red Sox guys will be rehabbing. That would be fun too. We saw Curt Schilling pitch twice a couple of summers ago, I'd never seen the ol' ballpark that crowded before! It was great! Well, except for the annoying Yankee fans that kept saying the Red Sox sucked. (Yes, I know this is NY, but the Chiefs are a Toronto affiliate, not a Yankee affiliate, so I don't get the connection.... but whatever. It just proves how annoying those Yankee fans are!)

Well, it's 8:30... pre-game is on. Go Celtics!

Friday the 13th

I will certainly remember the events of this week for a long time, especially how it ended with Friday the 13th.

I'll start with some good news. I sold my house! It was final on Tuesday when the house passed inspection and they signed the commitment letter. On Wednesday, we bought a house! (Pending the home inspection on Sunday.) Here's a photo of our new place. It's got everything we wanted and more. And it's in a terrific neighborhood. The kids will be very happy there, as will we.

However, as all of this excitement was going on in my personal life, my work life seemed to be going in a very different direction. Our company was sold back in March and we knew changes would be coming. But it's still hard when the time arrives and the changes are announced. Or at least whispered in secrecy through the hallways. There was no announcement. Only speculation and rumor. Then little by little, we learned what was happening. This week, my company started offering buy-outs to employees. Today we say goodbye to 11 good people. One of whom has been here longer than I've been alive. It is especially hard to say goodbye to some of them because we have become such good friends. Things will not be the same without them. And with their departure, those of us left behind wonder what will be next for our company. Hoping for the best.

Mole Check, For Sale Signs & Heroes

Tonight has been nice and quiet for a change. We're waiting for the Celtics game to start and I am finding that I really don't have anything to do! The house is spotless. I clean it every morning. So I don't need to do that. This is the first night in a while that I really don't have much going on. So I thought I'd blog.

First off, I had my 6 month "mole check" this afternoon. Those are fun. It's a full-body mole check. It's a good thing I like my doctor, because it's a rather personal thing. She's very good at keeping the conversation going so that you don't really realize what an awkward situation it really is. She saw one mole in the middle of my back that she didn't like, so she ended up removing it and sending it off for a biopsy. Other than that, I got an all-clear and get to go back in another 6 months. I highly recommend everyone keeping an eye on their moles and getting an annual check-up from a dermatologist. Oh, and stay out of the sun! Tanning lotion is a good thing if you're so inclined to keep up a golden bronze look.

Secondly, I don't really want to say much about the house sales. I don't want to jinx anything. So I won't. I will say however that I'm super angry at the sign-thief in Eric's neighborhood. He has now had his "For Sale" sign stolen THREE times. I hope someone isn't trying to tell him something. It's not nice. The police have now been there twice. Tonight's thief stole the sign between 5-5:40pm. They're quite bold whoever they are. Stealing in broad daylight. I think Eric needs to install a camera and catch the thief!

Lastly, I need to thank my Dad. This past weekend, he and my mom came up to visit. And my dad (my hero!) fixed some things in my house that I believe will help make a sale happen. He spent a day and a half (on the hottest day of the year) outside working on my house. He patched up a cracked cinder block in the foundation, he filled a hole in the garage floor, he repaired the railing (and painted it) and then he stuccoed the front steps. It turned out SOOO nice. And I can't thank him enough for his hard work. It looks so good, I really wish I had done all the improvements years ago so I could have enjoyed them longer. Here is a photo of the front door area. I wish I had taken a before picture in the same location so you could see the difference. You'll just have to take my word for it! Thanks Dad!!

Sorry!

I've been super-busy lately... not much time to blog. Lots going on though. I'll update when I have definites on possible transactions and other news. Stay tuned...

A Dozen Moves

I was comparing notes with Amy the other day. On how many times we have each moved since college. I "won" the contest handily. My upcoming move will be my 12th (yes, 12th) move since I graduated from college. For those of you who aren't sure of how many years ago that was, it was 17. That's 12 moves in 17 years. That's an average of 1.4 years per home. I think it's officially way past time to settle down!

Hump Day

It's Wednesday already? How'd that happen? I've been seriously slacking in the Blog writing department and I apologize. I think the house selling/hunting has taken a good deal of my spare time.

Last night we arrived home around 6:30, hoping to get the dog out of the house before the 6:30 showing arrived. We were too late. So we parked at the neighbors house, pretended we didn't live at the house that was for sale and hung out with the neighbor. (And listened to the dog bark.) We also got to listen to the group that was looking at the house. One of the guys was obsessed with something to do with the driveway. He kept going in the house, getting a cup of water and coming back out and pouring it on the driveway. I don't know why. It was odd. And I don't know what cup he used either... there wasn't one left out on the counter or sink.

Another thing I have noticed about showing a house. People don't leave it as it was when they got there. Which is annoying to no end. Shades get pulled up, shower curtains are left open, lights are left on... and this was an odd one. My laundry basket was taken out of my closet yesterday and left on the floor of my bedroom. I assume they were looking at the attic crawl space, but they could have returned the dirty laundry to the closet.

Anyway, we have no offers yet, but at least we have lots of lookers! I hope someone buys them soon. I'm already getting tired of having to make sure my house is spotless every morning before I go to work!

And they're off...

Phew! What a busy weekend. Our houses are officially "on the market". It's been a crazy weekend, getting them both listed and searching for a new place. And of course doing last-minute projects, cleaning and organizing. We both have showings today at both of our houses, we think we might be in competition with each other! It'll be fun to see who sells first, but in the end it only matters that they both sell. And if they sold at the exact same time, that would be very cool.

However, if we have any problems, I still have a little statue of St. Joseph from the last house we sold... Believe it or not, it worked exactly like it said it would. Exactly 9 days from burying the statue and believing in its power, we got an offer on the house. So I am a firm believer in St. Joseph. I'd rather not have to use him, but he's there if we need him.