So the month of August has been pretty ridiculous, and most of it is due to our rental house. You see, we've been staying in this super tiny, super awful house for the last year. Totally okay, because it's just temporary, and as these things go the rent was cheap. But we were only planning on our house to take a year & it's not even close to ready yet. Our lease is up as of Sept 1. So even though this place was awful & we were all on top of each other (all three kids sharing one bedroom!) and it was super ugly & depressing, we really didn't want to go through the trouble of moving just to move again. Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt. But our landlord was being kind of a jerk. We've never given him any reason to be, but I guess that's just how he rolls. So, as I mentioned in my last post, we were kinda in panic mode trying to find an option for a place to live or suck it up & agree to his ridiculous terms. Well, in a rare moment of luck for us, we were able to find the impossible: a house to rent month to month that was twice the size of where we were with close to the same rent and ready for us to move in!!
Minor snag though: the house is for sale & can be sold at any time & we'll be screwed... Details. We've decided not to dwell on that part and assume that it'll all work out. Not really any other choice!
Sooooo.........
We packed up in a matter of a week or two and moved out. (OMG we've got a lot of stuff!) Mark's birthday was on the 23rd, we moved out the majority of our stuff on the 24th, moved a little more the morning of the 25th, then had a birthday party for Mark (more on that in a minute) in the afternoon. Then we had to have the house unpacked & nice looking for two Monday morning showings!! Gahh! Then working nights for three nights & today I get to go to the old house & scrub carpets & touch up paint. You SO wish you had my life, right?! lol!! ;)
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| We're getting entirely too good at this. :/ |
But now we're in a much more comfortable house that we are much happier to be in until our HOME is finally done. Matt has been working nonstop getting as much done as he can before winter hits. We're still hoping to have it livable in a few months. Fingers crossed! And if we quit running into major issues that we weren't planning on it would be more likely to happen. Like needing a month to re-pour the foundation on the porch because it's standing on A brick... or needing to reinforce all of the floorboards because they are not stable enough or close to current code... or tearing off all of the siding just so Lowe's can take two months to get the siding we need in stock... You know. That kind of stuff! lol But Matt's doing to best he can & that's all I can ask. It'll all get done and it'll all be worth the headache (and the backache!) This is what it looks like now.
A little siding & paint will make a world of difference. But as you can see we're making progress! All of the grunt work is almost done & the more fun putting-it-all-back-together part will come next. I think I'll have a happier hubby at that point. ;)
So anyway, as I started to say above, amidst all of our chaos, life goes on & we definitely had some fun stuff happen this month too. My birthday was the 9th & my family spoiled me rotten. I had to be a grown up & work despite my birthday, but that's okay. My work family is pretty awesome too. ;) Then on the 23rd my oldest baby turned TEN!!! Holy cow where did the time go! He's more than halfway ready to leave the nest & I feel like we're just getting started! :'( But instead of dwelling on that I'm going to enjoy every moment with him now and I think despite the move & the craziness we did a pretty good job of celebrating him.
Well first I need to tell you the story of his party. It's even more comical because seriously we can't even manage to have a 10 year old's birthday party go smoothly! lol So we were planning at first to have a laser tag party. Contacted the place that does it, waiting for them to open for the season, and then we were about to send out invitations. Then I get an email: Sorry, we're not doing laser tag this year. WHAT!?! Grr! Okay, I have an easy going kid & he says, "no problem Mom. Let's have a pool party instead." Cool. So I call up the local pool, tell them my plans & they say "No problem." (Even better! The pool is free! Bonus for Mom!) So invitations go out, life is good. Well thank God the boys happened to be playing with a neighbor the Monday before who happened to mention the pool closing early!! WTH!?! Sure enough they closed on the 19th unexpectedly. So then we had to scramble for plan C! $150 later, we arranged a pool party at the indoor pool at the local hotel, called all of his friends & all was right with the world again. Saturday we had his party & it was lots of fun!
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| Why yes. Yes I did make a cute little cake with complicated fondant people despite being in the middle of moving. Yes I did. |
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| Mark approved! :) |
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| Swimming pool fun! |
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| Mark & his goofy buddy Jeremy |
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| Pizza! |
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| Give them pizza & cake & a balloon fight riot ensues! |
Phew! I'm exhausted! lol And in just over a week it'll be Gavin's birthday! Thankfully we started an "every other year" rule for birthday parties years ago. He'll just a have a couple of friends over instead... though that may wear me out too! lol
Thanks for reading my novel! Now I'm off to scrub carpets. I live such a charmed life. ;)
