Pre-Easter Weekend

We're not going to be at home for Easter weekend so we had some of the typical festivities this past weekend instead.

On Saturday, the kids' school and our church has their annual Easter Egg Hunt. We've gone to this for several years in a row, participating through rain, shine and snow. Thankfully this year was sunny and warm. It's not much of a 'hunt' as they just lay hundreds of eggs on various parts of the school grounds. 7-10 year olds hunt in the back of the school and this year, that meant the kids were both in the same age range so they were together. (meaning that James didn't have to come..although his activity at home wasn't much more appealing, grouting the tile around the bathtub) The hunt is literally over in like 2 minutes because the kids run and fill up their baskets, and before you know it they are back over at the start emptying out their eggs. I had a chance to catch up with Quinn's longtime buddy Edward's mom and she was kind enough to share some photos she snapped after the kids were all done and had claimed their prizes (each child gets a stuffed animal in addition to their candy - ranging in size from small to x-large - Quinn and Keely both got a large prize).

On Sunday, we went to Palm Sunday mass and then I cooked some of what would be our traditional Easter dinner. I made a spiral ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, and rolls. It was so yummy and we were all stuffed. We have lots of leftover ham too, so that will be dinner one of the nights this week. As a side note, Quinn loves ham and I can't believe how much of it he puts away. It's kind of a treat though since I only make it on holidays, so I guess that's why he eats so much of it :)

So that was our pre-Easter weekend, which will have to serve as a substitute. The real Easter weekend will be spent house hunting, with any free time in the Nation's Capital :)

Housing Updates

This update is on selling of our house in Utah...and starting the process to attempt to buy a house in Virginia. There's no point in separating these two topics, as they are becoming increasingly intertwined.

On the selling side...the saga continues with our buyers. They got their money back from the IRS but then ran into a credit score snag with their lender. So at the last minute, they had to find a new lender. They have now found one, but they asked for a 2 week extension to get their new financing in place. Now we are out to April 29th for financing & appraisal (they need a new appraisal with their new lender) and May 13th for closing. Our hope here is that everything is in place by April 29th and then we could try and close earlier than May 13th. I'm so anxious to get this deal done, and just be renting this home. It actually saves us money the less we rent, but I'd rather have the peace of mind.

In the meantime, we were very focused on renting in Virginia. However, when we figured out what mortgage we could afford for the rent we are paying...coupled with the fact that after a year of renting, the home prices will most likely be higher...we decided to try and purchase a home. It's sort of in the 11th hour because it will take 30-45 days to close on a home. And that's just what we have from now until we move to Virginia.

Of course, here is where the intertwining of the selling and buying come into play. We need our house to sell in order to buy. We need the money out of it to put as a down payment on a new house. So if this deal falls through and we go back on the market, we will have no choice but to rent. And be faced with paying a mortgage while paying rent in Virginia. That is a scary thought, and one we didn't think we would have to face. Nothing seems certain anymore in the real estate world.

So for now, we keep our fingers crossed that the buyers new lending situation works out. And in the meantime, we fly to Virginia on Friday to house hunt. We have some pretty good choices and I feel confident we can find one to put an offer in on. But the offer will have to be (somewhat) contingent upon this house selling.

I'm excited to go to Virginia to look at houses, plus get the kids excited about their new adventure. I think this trip is just what they need to make this move feel "real" and see some of the benefits of the place they will be living - with any free time, we will explore DC and its attractions (mostly free!). I'm glad that James and the kids will be with me this time, and we can all experience it together.

More to come after the house hunting trip...

Steroid Aftermath

It's time for an update on me for a change. As you may recall, I was on a 10 day course of steroids (prednisone) for the pinched nerve in my neck. That regimen ended in mid-March. The good news is that the pain in my neck (literally, haha) is gone and it feels great. The bad news, or what I didn't realize about taking steroids, is that they shoot your immune system to pieces. I started getting a cold on Feb 28th and March 1st while I was in Phoenix for a work trip. I thought it was going away, but then I started the steroids a couple of days later. And then it just got worse and worse. Just when I thought I was getting over the cold, it would come back in another part of my upper body. First the right side, then the left side. Sore throat, earache, runny nose. The worst of it peaked about two weeks or so after I stopped the steroids when I ended up with not only the cold I'd had, but also a bad cough, ear infection and the flu. I was down for the count for 5 days. Not good. I was put on amoxicillin for the ear infection and a cough syrup with codeine to help me sleep at night. Amongst all of this, I had several client marketing meetings and flew to Virginia for a few days for work. Needless to say, March was a crazy month. I feel like I was literally sick the entire month. It has even dragged into April a bit, but I feel tons better than I did. The cough has lingered, and my right ear seemed almost permanently clogged until just a couple of days ago. I've been drinking OJ and taking extra vitamins to supplement my lowered immune system, and I feel like it's been working. My chest still hurts when I cough, especially in the evenings when the cough seems to persist. I have joked that at least my ab muscles are getting stronger from all this coughing! Luckily, the illness didn't spread to anyone else in the family. That was a blessing. In any event, I was definitely glad to see the month of March over and happy to start feeling better not only in my neck, but my whole body. I will most definitely think twice if I am faced with the decision to need steroids again. A decreased immune system was not on my radar screen, but it will be in the future!

Number 5

Last week, Keely lost her 5th tooth. Lost is most likely not the right word though...as she put it, she 'yanked it out'! I didn't even think it was that loose, but she had been working on it for a few days and I guess she felt it was time to make its exit. She didn't even wait until she got home...she excused herself to the bathroom at school and proceeded to pull it out. Her teacher put it in a cute little tooth container and she was so proud when I picked her up. She is bound and determined to loose 8 teeth by the end of 1st grade. I have no idea where she got this goal, but she has stated it several times. She clearly has my competitive side! Of course there are no prizes for loosing all of your teeth before your classmates...well, except for more loot from the Tooth Fairy. For this recent loss, she received some change (about 65 cents) a little early, extra credit for the "pull" and overnight, she got 3 lip glosses. Yes, the tooth fairy gets creative around here :)

House Hunting

I spent the better part of last week in Virginia for work, and while I was there did some house hunting. This is the first trip that I have rented a car and actually explored the areas we may want to live in when we move. The rental market is so fluid and it was hard to get appointments set up. I was able to see 7 houses total (and one by proxy - Annie). I saw 1 in downtown Vienna, 2 in Annandale, 1 in Reston, 1 in Falls Church, 1 in Alexandria and 1 in Oakton. Nothing was exactly what we wanted or if it did come close to working, it didn't fit our time frame. I did put in an application on a house in Annandale, but then the owners decided to sign a 2 year lease with another family. I think it was for the best though, because houses in that neighborhood are selling reasonably and we'd possibly be wasting rent when we could be home owners.

I still think renting is the best option for us at this point, but I want to find something that (a) is reasonably priced (b) close to work for me (c) accepts pet with a reasonable security deposit and (d) is close to a good school. Oh and a few other things that we would like, but those are the main things. It's a tall order in a very high cost of living, crowded area. After this trip and this house hunting, we have decided to enlist reinforcements in the form of a realtor. I thought we could do this on our own, but it's just too difficult from 2,000 miles away. I need boots on the ground, someone who can preview these homes and help us secure something if it suits our list of needs and time frame.

I'm sure everything will work out but this trip was a bit discouraging. I guess I hoped I could line something up while I was there but that didn't happen. There is plenty of time though and I really think we are going to see more rentals popping up for our late May/early June time frame. And at least now I know what would be good locations, having driven most of the routes myself. So now to find a realtor and get him/her working for us...more to come!

House Update

Well as I knew it would, the end of March came quickly. The buyers finally did their appraisal on March 23rd. We didn't hear a peep after that, until the deadline date for Appraisal and Financing. That date was last Thursday, March 31st. In the afternoon, I got a call from my realtor to let us know that the buyers needed a time extension. So now the Appraisal and Financing deadline is April 8th and closing has been pushed back to April 22nd. No one believes there is any cause for concern - the buyers just need their tax return in their bank account to add to their down payment. They filed back in February and were expecting their money last week, but it didn't arrive yet. They seem to believe it will be here this week, but I am not sure how they know that. In any event, we all await the IRS so that these people can get their money and we can move forward with the closing. Nothing came back from the appraisal so that was good news.

So that is the latest on the sale of our house. With any luck they will get their money this week and not have to ask for any more time extensions. I guess the good news is that the longer they wait to close, the less money we pay them in rent. I'd rather just be closed though and renting so I know nothing can fall through and we're free and clear. Fingers and toes crossed!

3 Down, 1 To Go

I really feel like we were just starting the school year. But here we are, three quarters of the way done. Only a couple of months and the kids will be out of school. That is just crazy. This year is flying by. I guess they all do. Report cards came home yesterday and then we went to parent teacher conferences last night. I feel like I always start with Quinn, so I will give the top billing to Keely this time. First though I should say that I am so proud of both of them. They had excellent report cards and reports from their teachers. Both either got better in, or stayed the same in each subject. Not only that, most times it was better.

Keely has made a remarkable improvement from 2nd to 3rd quarter. Her reading went from an S- (below 1st grade) to...C. She is now a fluent 3rd grade reader! She really has worked so hard on her reading and it shows. She's reading chapter books and loves to read. She still loves to make up the words, but she knows how to read too :) Her other subjects were all good grades. Her conduct improved too, and the only negative Mrs. C could find to say was that she rushes to be first in her work, often causing her to get things wrong. For some reason Keely thinks finishing her work first is more important than getting it right. Of course, she doesn't always get it wrong - obviously with her good grades and smarts, she can rush and still do pretty well. We talk to her about not being first, about taking her time...but this is Keely and unless she feels like she wants to make a change, it's not going to happen. So if that's the worst thing we're dealing with, then we are a-ok.

Now, Quinn. He got C's in all of his subjects...except for his conduct. That is an area where he continues to struggle, and sometimes makes some bad choices. Mrs. A is going to ask him to be her 'helper' (kind of like a 'teacher's assistant' as Quinn called it) so that he can be occupied with helping his friends finish their work instead of distracting them from it. He does make smart choices when he finishes his work, like free draw or reading a book from Mrs. A's library. But then he wants to show his friends his cool artwork, or an interesting thing from his book. And that's where the problems begin. We're going to be more consistent with talking to him about making better choices. I am sure he understands, but he gets caught up in having fun. As well he should at 9 years old. But he still has to learn self control. Overall, an excellent report and if some moderate misbehavior is the worst thing we are dealing with, then we are a-ok here too.

Onto the 4th quarter we go. In truth, we are probably more than 3/4 of the way through the year because the next month or so consists of a week off for Spring Break and a super long weekend for Easter. I'm sure it will fly by in the blink of an eye!