Baby "Pistachio" Blog: It's moving time!!

A quick update on the Smile and Giggles blog. For some reason the video isn't loading on the page. I'll keep working on this and hopefully will be able to get it up for all to view!

This year has been the year of changes and transitions for me and Jason. First we got pregnant with Miss Brianna, then our lives were changed forever (in a good way) when I delivered Bree in August, and now just before the New Year, we're finally buying and moving into our new home!!! This is definitely an exciting milestone in our lives, but unfortunately the manner in which it all happened made the whole thing a bit overwhelming. Why buying a house can't be more simple is beyond me! Of course, I did tell Jason that the "other shoe had to fall" since we found the house we wanted in less than a blink of an eye. So here's how the whole home buying/closing bit went....

We were hoping to close on our home on December 15th, so that we could have Jason's parents help us move into the home that same weekend and be up and running before Christmas. Well, deadlines were not made, mostly by the VA and/or the bank, but it was still looking like we could make the December 15th deadline. We got everything set up and scheduled, only to get a phone call from our attorneys telling us that the sellers' attorney was not able to attend the closing on the 15th, therefore no closing on the 15th! Bummer. So that left us in a pickle, as the following weekend was Christmas and Jason's parents were unavailable to help. We scrambled to work with the sellers to see if we could create some kind of deal. It turns out that the sellers were willing to allow us to move our stuff into the garage the weekend we were originally planning on moving. We would then move our belongings into the house immediately following closing on Monday, December 19th. And since closing was set for 9am, we would have plenty of time to move. So, that's what we did. Jason's parents came up and helped us move all of our belongings to the new home. Apparently, that plan had to be complicated a bit, when Jason received a call from the rental truck company, who informed him that the truck that he had reserved weeks ago was no longer available. We could have tried to pick up a different truck at a farther location, but the schedule that the truck rental place was offering was extremely difficult for us to work out. So we cancelled with our original company and went with U-haul, but of course, U-haul didn't have the truck size we needed, so we had to go for a slightly smaller truck. Not that big of an issue, except that this caused Jason and his dad to make 3 trips down to the house and since our new house is an hour (one way) from our old place, it added to our struggles. And finally the ceiling came toppling down, we received a call from Bree's daycare on Friday the 15th to inform us that Bree had a bout of diarrhea and would need to go home early. Apparently a pretty nasty strain of the stomach bug was going around the daycare center causing kids and staff to get pretty sick. Jason picked Bree up on the 15th and by halfway through the day, he was flat on his back with the same stomach bug. I of course had to experience the most stressful and chaotic day at work ever, and was unable to leave early to help him out. In fact, I ended up leaving work an hour late! Talk about feeling like a guilt-ridden mommy and spouse. Here Jason is trying to take care of Bree when she's sick all the while feeling sick himself :( So the move finally starts to happen and of course the day that we are moving the large furniture, is the same day that Bree decides she's going to be the sickest. She must have vomited after every feeding and vomited after the baby Tylenol that the doctor okayed me to give her. She then proceeded to scream and act uncomfortable as she was trying to nap on my chest. I must have spent the entire day upstairs in her nursery rocking her to sleep as Jason and his dad moved furniture around us. It was awful to see my poor baby so uncomfortable and to know that there was nothing I could do to make her better. And even after she napped for what seemed like forever, she would wake up and scream, only to be put back to sleep for another nap.

Thankfully, we got all the furniture to fit in the garage and on Monday afternoon (another change...the bank didn't have our paperwork ready for the 9am closing, so it was bumped back to 1pm) we finally closed on the house and were given the keys to our very first home!!!! After the closing, I went to work for a few hours while Jason and his dad moved all of our furniture from the garage to the home. The next several weeks have been very chaotic as our home is filled with boxes and as it has become very difficult to find things, but at least we have a place to call home now! We're in the process of fixing up the house (minor repairs) and unpacking. I never thought buying our first home would have been so complicated, but then again, the more people I talk to the more I realize that home buying may really be the most complicated process ever. I've heard horror stories of banks losing paperwork, not calling back, etc. So at least I can rest assured that it wasn't just us.

P.S. Just a few days ago, Jason and I received a message via certified mail that our home-owners insurance was being cancelled as a result of lack of payment. Now we both know that we made a large check out at the time of closing to pay for the first year of home-owners insurance. Low and behold, after Jason made a few phone calls, this was a mistake and it turns out that our attorney mailed the check to the main office, instead of the local office....nice. I swear this hasn't been an easy process!!