Sold. A War Story of Sorts.

We finally got our house in Manassas sold.

I still can't believe how awful that process turned out to be.

But it's done.

Up until the money showed up in our bank account, I doubted everything every step of the way.  We were supposed to close November 30th, although with Thanksgiving right before then, we figured that wouldn't happen.  We hoped for later in the week, but no.  Our buyers needed more time to get the money for their down payment (which apparently they got as a grant???  How come I never get grant money like that?).  We gave them two more weeks (but told them we'd give them a little less back for closing costs, since we now had to pay December's mortgage).  They sent us an addendum to sign because their names were wrong on the contract (???).  We signed it.  They sent us another addendum because their names were STILL wrong on the contract (???).  We signed it. 

I gave up completely.

And then that Friday-- the 11th-- my agent called and said they'd closed.  I was like-- wha???  Really???

Apparently it was true!  They'd closed the deal.

Then I immediately freaked out since we'd given power of attorney to someone (our agent's broker's lawyer?  I think?) and worried that somehow we'd given our house away.  The next day I spoke with our agent and felt reassured that this had not happened.  Then I freaked out that the money we'd get would be less than I'd calculated.  After playing phone tag all day long with the title company, I finally got a number and it was a few thousand more than I'd thought, so that was a relief.  And then the money finally showed up in our bank account Tuesday night.

Phew!

We ended up getting $19k less than when we'd originally "sold" the house, a fact which still stings.  I have to remind myself that we got enough for a down payment on our new house with a little left over, and what a huge blessing that still is-- plenty of people lost so much with the market crash in 2008.  Who am I to be greedy and demand more than what we got?  But this is totally one of those times where I have to work to see the glass half full, or else I get angry and/or depressed.

The thing I was most excited about was that it was DONE.  One less thing to worry about.  No more paying utilities on two homes!  No more stressing about if we should lower the price or wait until spring and see if the market would pick back up.  No more worrying about what else might break while the house sat empty (so far the water heater and the shed door had already broken, and then there was that tree that kept threatening to fall on our neighbor's house...).  So many things to worry about!  And-- added bonus-- it was done before Christmas so we could buy presents for all our extended family.  Because I do enjoy sending presents to people at Christmastime. 

The other thing I can never stop being grateful for is that my sister was willing to loan us the down payment money on our new house until the old one sold.  I honestly don't know what we would have done for 6 long months without her help.  Lived in separate places?  Rented a place?  It could have been SO much worse.  Tracy's help was a tremendous blessing.  And nothing made me happier than sending that money back to her!

So yes, we're down a house now.  And that feels wonderful!  Hallelujah!


I am never moving again.

Christmas Parties Galore

In case you were waiting on pins and needles, my Relief Society Brunch last week went splendidly!  I managed to get the house all cleaned up, the Relief Society president brought a bunch of chairs from the church which Craig and I got all arranged, and then the entire presidency showed up early to set up the food (which they provided; all I contributed was a fruit bowl from Costco).

What you don't see here is how decorated the rest of the house was-- another tree, holly all down the banister, wreaths and candles in the windows...  We go all out for Christmas!

The first people to show up were all the older women in the ward and I have to admit that I felt a little out of place.  But eventually people a little closer to my age came, too, and then it was great.  People sat around chatting in small groups while everyone was arriving, and then it was time to eat-- lots of quiches and breakfast meats and good stuff.  I totally skipped my fruit bowl.  Once that was wrapping up, I handed out slips of paper with numbers on them and we began the gift exchange!  Because of the numbering, I had to take a count of how many people we had, and was pleasantly surprised that (including me) we had 24 people!  And everyone managed to be sitting comfortably in our family room with a few people spilling into the kitchen-- so that was great!

The gift exchange was fun.  Not as raucous as the one in my old ward, but I think part of the difference there was doing this in the morning.  Everything is more lively at night!  But we had a nice time.  And then, everyone stayed sitting and people shared Christmas stories-- mostly silly ones about kids opening all their siblings' presents and stuff like that-- with the whole group.  I usually don't like large groups precisely because it's impossible for everyone to talk together, so I thought it was really cool that that actually worked!  It made me happy.  I'm counting that party as a huge success.


Next on the list was Craig's work party.  Morale has been low at his school (because of his evil boss, of which we will say no more at this time), so he thought that bringing the kids might add a little cheer to the party.  That meant me bringing Ryder, Colton and Camille and trying to keep them on their best behavior, which is no small feat right at nap time!  Craig took me around (while he held Camille) and introduced me to all the staff, mostly because it gave him a chance to tell them (to me) how great they all were.  I think it was a good political sort of move, and I smiled and tried to compliment people as best I could.  Camille was super cute and would reach out a hand to each person, and then shyly snuggle back against Craig.  And the boys were good and mostly well behaved until the end, when I quickly left with them before they could get really bad.  I think it was a good thing to do, but I'm glad Craig isn't planning a career as a politician.  The whole thing was exhausting!


Finally, last night was our ward Christmas party.  They were having the primary perform the nativity which I have NEVER gotten to see my kids do before!  (I absolutely loved my previous ward, but we threw about the lamest Christmas parties ever.)  When we moved in, we were told that the primary desperately needed more kids and we were a huge boon to them, but I didn't really think much about it until we got the list for who would be playing which parts, and realized that my kids would be representing a wise man (Bentley), Mary (Kendra), a shepherd (Ryder) and a sheep (Colton)!  We really did build up that primary a lot, didn't we?

Ryder and Colton with their friend Martin (an angel, as you can probably tell)

Ryder and Martin with all the other sheep

The nativity was kind of a zoo.  They didn't have a lot of time to practice, and even they'd had more time, whenever you've got twenty kids on a stage (a lot of whom are three years old or younger), you know it's going to be nuts.  I wasn't prepared for how hilarious (and embarrassing) Ryder would be for it.  He was okay at the beginning, but they didn't even put the kids up on the stage until after 8, and Ryder typically goes to bed at 7.  And he just kept getting weirder and rowdier as it went on..!  First he wandered to the middle of the stage, plunked himself down on the floor, and then laid down.  He looked drunk.  Then he sat up and squinted up at the stage lights for a bit.  Then flopped back down on the floor.  Then he began running and sliding on his knees across the stage.  (At this point one of his teachers tried to get him to settle down, but it didn't really do any good.  I thought about grabbing him, but was busy with Camille and it was nearly over by then...)  At one point Ryder sat down again on the edge of the stage and Colton sat next to him.  So Ryder scooted away and Colton followed and they scooted across the whole stage this way.  Ah, brotherly love!  I was so wrapped up in watching this (and trying not to laugh hysterically) that I barely saw Kendra, as Mary, kicking away the nursery kid "sheep" and "angels" as they kept trying to come near her to see the baby doll she was holding.  Gotta love Bossy Mary!

Love this one

And this one!

At the rehearsal-- we found some better shoes for the performance

Ah, so wise!

Joseph and Mary were super giggly and cute around each other.  It made me laugh...

Last but not least-- this is my very favorite picture from the whole thing!

I can't quite make up my mind how embarrassed I should be about the whole thing.  But I loved it too much to care. We did beat a hasty retreat as soon as it was over, figuring we were helping the most by removing ourselves!


The kids had their last day of school and Craig had his last day of work and they're all off for the entire week!  If that isn't the best Christmas gift, then I don't know what is!

Ooh-- Craig uploaded one of the videos he took onto YouTube.  It's a bit long, but if it doesn't make you laugh, you don't have a soul. Especially of note is the little girl sheep showing her tummy to Colton and playing with his ears.  And Ryder, wandering around with his sippy cup and generally acting like a small drunkard...

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Proving Ourselves

I keep finding things that I forgot to blog about.  I make the mistake of posting a picture on Facebook and then figure that's good enough.  But it's NOT, because I like to be able to tell (and record) the full story.  Mostly because my Mom reads this and isn't on facebook.  This one's for you, Mom!  (And you, too, Jen!)



So, anyway, when we first moved here, Craig got the idea that we should go to a UVA game.  I'm all about growing roots wherever you're planted and all that, so I'm happy to become a UVA fan.  My kids worried that maybe we need to be loyal to BYU, but I assured them that we could like both schools just fine.  And I guess Coach Mendenhall agrees!

But going to a game...  Honestly, stuff like this always sounds like so much work to me (even when it's just Craig and I).  But Craig pointed out that we needed to do things like this just to prove to ourselves that we can do fun things, even with five kids.  Yup-- he appealed to my competitive nature.  Or my desire to have a good story to tell-- that got me fully on-board.  (It's a good thing Craig is fun and knows me well, or else we'd never do anything at all.)

So it was decided!  We were going to a football game!  The one against William & Mary was the cheapest, and in the summer so we wouldn't have to worry about freezing, so that made it an easy choice.  Craig bought the tickets, I tried to figure out what we needed to make this work, and away we went!

As we were parking the car, I said to Craig, "Well, if we make it to half time, we'll call this a success!" and Craig gave me a puzzled look.  "We're gonna stay the whole time," he said.  "WHAT???"  I said.

I thought for sure we'd agreed to just stay until the kids were crying and/or absolutely crazy and then we'd leave with no hard feelings or disappointment.  Apparently we were not on the same page on that one.  I gritted my teeth and decided we'd just have to see how things went.

We had to walk for forever to get to the stadium (good thing we had a stroller and the ergo carrier), but then the kids were pleasantly surprised when they were given free backpacks as we entered the stadium!  It turned out it was Kids' Day!  So that was fun.  We got all settled and quickly learned that our seats were in the glaring sun.  We sat.  We squinted.  And we sweated.  And it was a bit miserable.  Craig noticed that the opposite of the stadium was getting shadier as the sun sunk, so we moved over there.

AND THEN WE HAD A BLAST.  The kids had fun.  We had fun.  It was great.  I was so pleasantly surprised by the whole thing.  We stayed the whole time, UVA won, the kids were thrilled, and it was a great day.  I can hardly wait to do it again!

I'd even managed to make dinner in the crock pot, so we ate as soon as we were home and then sent everyone to bed.  It was a great day.  We can do fun things.  Even with five kids!

Go Hoos!!!

Always Learning (Part II)

Last year after Thanksgiving, I tried my hand for the first time at making homemade stock.  I remember an essay by Marjorie Williams where she talked about her mother making stock for her, and the entire concept was completely foreign to me.  She could just as easily described her mother flying to the moon for as much as I felt I could relate to that.  Who knows how to do stuff like that?  And then who even bothers? was pretty much my attitude at the time.

So I take it as a measure of how far my cooking skills have come over the years because now making stock is actually something I've done!  Not only that, but I really enjoy making it.

BECAUSE IT'S SO EASY!!!

It's like making soup, except you hardly have to chop or measure anything!  Quarter the onion!  Throw in the skin, too, if you want!  (I heard that it's supposed to add a rich color to the broth, although I haven't actually tried...)  Chop that carrot in half (width-wise, not even length-wise!) and toss it in the pot!  Yup, use the entire carcass, don't bother those bones a bit, just cover it with water and let it simmer for a good long while!

Easy-peasy.

I made more than 2 gallons this year, and I'm sure I could have done more, but I was worried about running out of freezer space.  And-- extra bonus-- your house gets to smell lovely all day while it simmers away!

Straining it is a bit of a pain.  I ended up using two stock pots to do this-- one for the cooking and then a slightly smaller one to strain into.  And I've found that it's important to measure it into freezer bags very carefully (I do 2 cups each, but anything would work as long as you label your bags).  Last year I just sort of scooped broth into the freezer bags until they looked full enough and then I never wanted to use my stock because it was too much work to thaw them out and then measure.  So I'm learning from my mistakes.

I'm making this tomato basil soup today, and I'm totally excited to use my stock.  I feel like a pioneer woman or something.


*Of course, there's nothing homey that Martha Stewart can't do it better.  I made the mistake after my big stock-making day of watching her how-to video, and her stock was all gelatinous at the end!  Mine is a liquid!  So maybe I'm not doing it good enough.  Maybe I'll figure out her tricks next year.  But I bet mine is still slightly better than the canned stuff...  Right?

In Over My Head

So, in my old ward, a friend starting throwing a white elephant gift exchange party and it was THE BEST party ever.  I loved it.  I don't think I ever laughed as hard as I did at this party.  That friend moved away within a few weeks of me moving away, so I decided I would start this tradition in my new ward.  If I could make it even half as fun as her party, that would still be a huge success.

So I figured out a date that would work, created an evite invitation (which was very brave of me, considering that the only other time I've tried to do something with evites, no one ended up coming), and sent out all the invitations.  I was so proud of myself!  I was going to do something FUN.  I was going to strive to make friends in my new ward.  I was going to nail this.

Within an hour, I got an email from the Relief Society president asking me if I knew that that was the same day as the Relief Society Christmas brunch and that they were planning on having a white elephant gift exchange?

I nearly cried.  There was no other weekend that would really work, so I didn't feel like I could just change the date.  I hemmed and hawed for most of the day, and finally volunteered to just host the Relief Society brunch at my house.  They said to expect 20-25 people.  It's next Saturday morning.

What in the world have I done?

Plethora o Pictures

Here are all those pictures I noticed on my phone that never made it onto the blog...  (Be warned, I'm kind of obsessed with the fall colors, so there are a lot of pictures of pretty trees.  Sorry if that's terribly boring for you...)

Looking out over our backyard, finally being able to see the hills behind us.  I loved the golden light we were enjoying at that moment...

Camille somehow got herself stuck under the moon chair.  She wasn't all that upset about it until I took her picture-- that made her furious.  As you can see!

Finally made it back to the temple after our move.  If you look closely, you can see a tiny crescent moon to the right of the temple.

Super cool model they have of the temple on display at the visitor's center.  I love that they even have the paintings in miniature!

Guess who fell asleep for the last two minutes of church?  She was so exhausted Craig managed to buckle her into her carrier without her waking up!

I found this old picture of me and Carla at the bridal shower she threw for me.  I can't believe how young we were...

I hate having to wake up a sleeping baby.  But at least then I get to take some pictures of how sweet she is!

{Sigh}

I just love how she crinkled up her nose for this picture

I was really proud of myself for taking all kids hiking on a day when they were home from school (but Craig had to work).

Here we are at the mile marker.  I wanted some proof-- albeit blurry proof-- that Camille and I were there, too.

I loved that lone red tree.

And that one just changing stopped my heart!

Right after I took a picture of the chicken nap, Eileena pecked Kendra in the eye.  Two days later it happened again with a different chicken, so we have been lecturing Kendra on keeping her face further away from the chickens.  (Her eye is okay, though.)

I just loved this painting of apple blossoms on display at the Art Museum in Williamsburg.  I later found prints of it for sale, so apparently I wasn't the only one who admired it!

Selfie with two kids!  And with Camille pulling Colton's hair!

Dressing up as his favorite Pixar character!

This tree is in our front yard-- I had no idea it would be so beautiful when we bought the house!

The view from my bedroom window.

For some reason we could NOT get that beret on her head properly.  This was the best we could manage...

I kind of love this spacey "I need a nap so badly right now" look on her face...

That's Camille's real smile, though!

I believe this qualifies as "learned behavior."

Nothing like a car nap to really knock you out...

First time on the swings!

I got a coupon for free baby leggings and have been having fun with them!

For all you Arrested Development fans out there...  I give you: George Michael.

Camille snuggles up to Casey Cramer. 

Eating mommy's skirt at the playground

When we get a lazy Saturday morning, we like to enjoy it by snuggling with Daddy!

And then everyone joined in!

And now, as I keep going further back in my phone, I'm realizing that I never posted pictures from the kids' first day of school!  Or Halloween!  What kind of mommy blogger am I???????

So I guess we're not done yet.  But I think this is enough for one post.  Stay tuned...!