Category Archives: Moving

random stuff that is probably not nearly as funny to anyone else

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Since I think the mood is in dire need of lightening around here:

1. This post of Sally’s from 5 years ago. Read the comments. Had me laughing until tears ran down my face.

2. This video, no matter how many times I see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

3. Oh, and while I’m linking videos, let’s really hope that this isn’t the house we’re buying. (Thanks, Angie. I love this one.)

4. Catie, who in the past couple of days:
4a. Has started trying to sing the alphabet song, and OMG I have to get a video of that, because it’s hilarious.

4b. Was really good at the gym’s nursery while I worked out yesterday, so as a reward we went to the pool afterward. We haven’t been to the YMCA’s pool yet this year, I forgot how nice it is. They have a “splash zone” which is basically just an area of fountains that shoot water out of the ground in various formations. Watching Catie run around sticking her hands and feet in the water was so much fun. (She never jumped into the fountains, she’s way too cautious for that. And she got pretty mad when she stuck her hand in one fountain and it splashed water in her eyes.)

4c. Bashed me in the face with the back of her head during a particularly overzealous toddler bounce and split my top lip open. When I told her that she hurt me, she wanted to kiss it to make it better, which was sweet, but my lip was gushing blood at the time, so, NO. I let her kiss my lip when I finally got the bleeding under control, and she said, “All better now?” I said, “Thank you, sweetie, but no, it still hurts.” She said, “No. It all better now.” Well, thanks for setting me straight then. Guess there’s no need for this ice pack I’m holding to my face.

4d. Got irritated with me for getting too interactive during our bedtime routine. We lie in her bed together and read books, and the Curious George alphabet book has a line about “C is for a crab with two clamping claws,” and I tried to do a crab claw and tickle her tummy. Usually she thinks that’s funny, but I guess she was particularly tired and grumpy on this night, because she pushed me away, sighed exasperatedly and said, “Mommy, go to bed.” Nice.

4e. Has started calling me “Mom” as well as “Mommy.” It’s cute because using “Mom” makes her sound like a grown-up, but I thought I’d be Mommy for a few more years. I’m not sure I like it so much.

4f. Sang “Do-Re-Mi” in the car this morning on the way to daycare. I didn’t realize that she knew all the words, but she does – complete with holding her hand to her chest during, “me, a name I call MYSELF.” It was so cute I almost cried.

how I rock Friday nights these days

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This morning we had an appointment with our mortgage lender. We were already pre-qualified for our mortgage, but there was a lot of paperwork we needed to sign to make our application official. I woke up early and headed to the bathroom to start putting on my make-up (a process that is so. much. easier. without toddler interference).

Suddenly, the door opened and there was Catie, with her hair in her eyes, and whining, “Mommy, milk pwease!” This made me realize two things: 1) she is getting really efficient with opening doors (a relatively new trick; must remember to lock doors in situations that demand privacy, if you know what I’m talking about and I think you do), and 2) she’s figured out that she can climb out of her big-girl bed. Crap. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

It took a while, but eventually we all got out the door and over to the mortgage lender’s office. I felt bad for Catie, because I know that not much in life could be more boring for her, but I had brought a bag full of distractions: toys, books, Color Wonder markers & paper. Overall she was pretty good; she got a little whiny, but she did way better than I expected. Toward the end of the appointment, the guy left the room to photocopy all of the paperwork so we’d have copies for our records. While he was gone, I put Catie in one of the swivel chairs in his office and spun her around. She laughed and laughed, and thought it was so much fun. At least, she did for a while, until she got dizzy and took a flying leap out of the chair, and face-planted on the floor. Ouch. I had to carry her outside to calm her down, and the secretary brought her some M&M’s, which was very sweet.

Since Catie had been so good at the mortgage appointment, afterward we went to McDonald’s and let her have some chicken McNuggets and play in the indoor (read: air-conditioned) playground. She had an absolute blast running all over the place, I think we were there for about an hour. On the way home, both Dave and Catie fell asleep in the car. It was only maybe 10 or 15 minutes, but unfortunately, that meant that when we got home, Catie was all refreshed and ready to go. No more nap. Oof. Somebody kill me now.

So, this afternoon has mostly been comprised of whining and meltdowns (on Catie’s part, not mine, although believe me I was tempted). I gave her a bath around 4 p.m., then we came downstairs and had an early dinner. She asked for “milk and book” afterward, which is our bedtime routine: I lie down with her in her big-girl bed, and we read books together while she has her sippy cup of milk. Honestly, that’s like my favorite part of the day, even if it does mean that I can now recite “The Cat in the Hat” from memory. Tonight, though, Catie fell asleep while I was still reading to her. She was officially out before 6 p.m. Hell yeah. Mommy FTW!

So, since I am old and lame, I am going to bed early for the first time in weeks. And I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about that. I know it’s Friday night, and the Cindy from 10 years ago would not even recognize this version of myself. But honestly? I don’t care. I am so looking forward to sleep, glorious sleep.

Now, let’s just hope that Catie stays in her bed all night. Fingers crossed!

Under Contract

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About the house thing. We made an offer on house #2. To help jog your memory, it’s this one:

House #2

This is the house that while I was walking around looking at it, I felt a lump in my throat and I almost started to cry. It’s perfect. It feels like home to me. And unlike every other house we’d seen up to that point, I couldn’t find a single thing that I didn’t like about this house.

Plus, there’s the kitchen. Oh man, let me tell y’all about the kitchen. This kitchen basically sold the house, as far as I’m concerned.

kitchen

The photo is a little blurry and doesn’t really do it justice, but that kitchen is amazing. It’s freaking enormous. I can imagine us having huge dinner parties with our friends in this house. It’s so beautiful and open and inviting. I opened the (double!) doors to the pantry, and Dave said the look on my face was as though I was suddenly bathed in a warm soft light while a chorus of angels started to sing. It’s fantastic. I want to make sweet love to that kitchen. (And no, I don’t know how the mechanics of that would work. Shut up. Don’t crush my dream.)

And look! It even has a little built-in workstation.

kitchen workstation (and Catie)
Cute toddler (who apparently has a mouthful of animal crackers) sold separately. Weird shadow brought to you courtesy of Cindy’s Crap Photography Skills. Get your thumb away from the lens, moron. Jeez.

There’s also the backyard, which is perfect for us: it’s flat, it’s shady, and it’s big enough for a playset. And besides the deck, it’s also got a really nice little patio area underneath a cluster of trees in the yard.

backyard

Love it. It’s just so pretty.

So we made a pretty low-ball offer, and they gave us a fair counter-offer (they met us more than halfway). We agreed, signed the paperwork, and we’re now officially under contract.

The sad part is that the house is being sold because of a divorce. The first time we saw the house, it was obvious that there was only one guy living there, so we wondered if maybe he was gay. (For the stereotypical reasons: the place was immaculately decorated and absolutely spotless.) But then our realtor noticed some wedding china in the dining room, and when Dave opened a cabinet, he saw several “how to save your marriage” self-help books. Sure enough, when our realtor talked to the other agent, the house belongs to a (currently, but not for much longer) married couple. So it’s sad, but it doesn’t appear that they have any kids, which I guess makes it slightly less tragic. And they’re obviously working together on selling the house, because they got back to us REALLY fast when we made our offer.

My sister suggested that I need to burn some sage in the house when we move in, to get rid of all of the bad karma floating around in there due to the divorce. I have no idea how to burn sage or what you’re supposed to do to get rid of bad marriage juju in a house, but I’ll look into it. Isn’t there some religion where they’ll bless your home? I can’t remember if that’s a Catholic thing or if it’s Hindu. (Because, you know, the two religions are so very similar, it makes total sense that I’d get their customs confused. Er?)

I am completely scared, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because we’re voluntarily putting ourselves in debt – even though we got a really good deal on the house because of the economy. Maybe it’s because this is the first time I’ve ever been involved in a house-purchasing decision. (Dave already owned our house in Washington when he and I first met.) I think it’s also because this house is so beautiful, and so perfect, and I’m afraid this is all too good to be true, so I’m waiting for something to come along and blow up in our faces. But I really, really hope I’m wrong about that last one.

Stay tuned for my next series of posts, tentatively titled “OMFG are you kidding me I have to pack again, why didn’t we just leave our crap in boxes for the past year?!?!!”

(To be fair, quite a bit of our crap is, in fact, still in boxes. Laziness and procrastination FTW!)

real estate update

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I’ll write more about our weekend later (because man, it’s been a fun one), but forgive me here while I talk about buying a house and hopefully don’t bore anyone to tears.

Last week, Dave and I went house-hunting with our realtor again. I was trying not to panic, but it was looking like we were going to be homeless after July 31st unless we magically found our dream house. On Thursday, Dave had to work, so it was just me and Cara (our realtor friend) looking at houses, and pretty much everything we saw, I hated. A few of them were nice enough houses, but it just wouldn’t have been a good fit for us. Either they were too small, or they didn’t have any trees around (a pet peeve of mine; I hate it when neighborhoods are built and all of the natural foliage is cut down), or there wasn’t a place that we could’ve turned into an office for Dave, or the driveway was too hilly (visions of Catie in a few years learning to ride a bike and wiping out in the street = no thank you). There was always something that made it a no-go. So I was starting to get a little discouraged.

All of us (including Catie) went out house-hunting again on Friday morning. Aaaand now, it looks at though we’ve found not one but two houses that we really, really love. One house is in the perfect neighborhood and location, the yard is gorgeous, but the house itself has a couple of (really minor) features that I’m not crazy about (i.e., the pantry in the kitchen is really small). The second house is absolutely, 100% perfect, but I’m not totally in love with the neighborhood. I mean, it’s really nice, and it has a lot of great features (neighborhood greenway, pool, playground, etc.), the neighborhood just isn’t as aesthetically pretty as the first one. So, hmm, which to choose? Oh, and both houses are pretty much exactly the same price. Way to make the decision even harder.

Want to see them to get a better perspective of what I’m talking about? Of course you do.

This is house number one:
House #1

And this is house number two:
House #2

I know, right? They’re both really, really pretty.

So, this afternoon we’re meeting up with our realtor again to look at both houses and try to do a side-by-side comparison of them. And as much as I hate making decisions, I’m feeling pretty good about this one, because I’m pretty sure that we’d be happy in either place. So I’m trying to relax and trust that God or the universe or whatever will make sure that we end up exactly where we’re supposed to be. Cross your fingers for us. I’d really like this decision to be made so I can start planning our next steps (like, you know, the actual move).

looking for my party dress

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I’ve got a bunch of stuff swirling around my head right now, but most of it is not really all that interesting. I doubt any of y’all really want to hear about:
* This chapter I’m writing, which is due on Friday, and has got me all sorts of stressed out. Oh, and how yesterday I drew the most awesome diagram of an Active Directory-integrated DNS zone in the entire history of diagrams of DNS zones. Yeah, baby.
* The fact that my house is a mess (because of the aforementioned book deadline) and it’s starting to gross me out. I’m already making a mental list of which tasks I’m going to tackle as soon as I’m done writing.
* House-hunting and my ridiculously long list of criteria, and how we sort of like this one new development, but there are a whole bunch of risks associated with new developments these days, and oh my god, how am I supposed to make a decision like this? Whine whine, woe is me and my privileged little life. People are losing their dream homes left and right and I’m debating over whether to buy resale or have a house custom-built for us. Yeah. Poor me, I know. Shut up, Cindy. God.

So instead, let’s talk about BlogHer. Because I’m going.

BlogHer '09 In Real Life

It’s next month, and I’m already getting a little nervous. As it turns out, when you go to BlogHer, it’s not just the conference itself (which is on Friday and Saturday), but there are also a bunch of parties. So, I’m flying in on Thursday evening, and I’ve already RSVP’ed to two different parties that night. And that’s just Thursday! Before the conference has even officially started!

”The

And I’m also going to the Room 704 party that night (alas, their badges aren’t working).

The parties are at different times, so that’s fine, I should be able to attend both. But here’s the thing: everyone dresses up for these events. And my wardrobe consists mostly of jeans and hoodies. Seriously, you should see the shoes that some people plan on wearing. (Hi, Heather!) It’s crazy. I’m definitely feeling the pressure to cute-ify myself up a bit. (Yes, I just used cute as a verb. Shush.)

So I’m now shopping online for dresses that I can wear on the plane, so I can arrive at the hotel looking gorgeous and ready to party. It’s only an hour and a half direct flight, but you know, it’ll be July. So the sweatiness (and ensuing shiny forehead) is a concern. And I need a dress with at least a little bit of sleeve. Because as much as I might act like my flabby upper arms don’t bother me and I’m fine and “yeah, I’m cool with my size 12-ness” in person, I also know people will be taking pictures at these parties. And if I see photos of my flabby upper arms, my whole self-acceptance facade will fly out the window, and I will cry and beg people to delete the pictures of me. So that’s no good. But it does make it harder to shop, since it seems that most dresses are sleeveless.

I did, however, manage to find these online (thank you, Macys.com – now if you’d only make linking easier so I don’t have to copy & paste everything):

black & white dress
I think this one is my favorite. It’s so pretty and looks like it would be very flattering.

black & white patterned dress
I honestly can’t tell if this is flattering or not because of that ridiculous pose the model is doing. But I think I might like it? Maybe?

brown dress with cap sleeves
I’m not sure what I think about the brown, but it also comes in black. It meets my two requirements as far as covering a little bit of arm and not being too clingy on my tummy area. And if worn with the right bra, it might actually give the illusion that I have boobs. Hmm.

black & white print dress
I don’t usually like all-over prints on me, but something about this dress really appeals to me. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s cute.

little black dress
This one might work, since I know I won’t look nearly as severe and dead-behind-the-eyes as the model. I probably won’t lean on walls like that either.

What do y’all think? Votes?

As for the shoes, I think I’m going to have to find some cute ballet flats or something, because I refuse to be That Woman who wears heels through the airport. Maybe I’ll toss something cuter in my bag to change into once I get to the party, but I haven’t figured that part out yet.

moving on

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When we moved from Seattle to North Carolina last year, it made sense to rent a house. We didn’t know the area very well, and we wanted time to explore and figure out where we wanted to live. Also, we didn’t exactly make money on the sale of our house, so we needed some time to come up with something that would approximate a down payment on a new place.

And here we are, ten months later. Our lease is going to expire in 60 days. Our landlady wants to know if we’re going to renew our lease for another year or if we’re going to move out. We have a little money that might be enough for a down payment. Our credit is just ok – it’s certainly not bad, but it’s not great either; we’re pretty firmly in the “average” range – and we weren’t sure if we would qualify for a mortgage or not. Sure, it’d be nice to take advantage of house prices being so low, but if banks are being stingy about handing out loans, we weren’t sure if we could work it or not.

(Incidentally, our pain-in-the-butt landlady is one of the primary reasons that I want to move. Everything is a headache with her, and everytime I talk to her, she’s always rude and snippy. Can’t. Stand. Her.)

I decided to contact our realtor here and ask if she knew someone we could ask about a loan. She gave me a referral, and it turns out that, lo & behold, we actually did get pre-approved for a mortgage! Which is really exciting, but now we just have to, you know, find a house to buy. No big deal, right?

So that’s going to be taking up a lot of my brainspace between now and August 1st. I’m much less stressed out about it this time than I was last year – moving across town versus cross-country? Yeah, not much of a comparison there. Of course moving sucks, and it’ll be a huge headache, and I’m sure I’ll bitch and moan through the whole process, but it’ll be nothing compared to our last move.

Plus, when it’s all said & done, we’ll have a place that’s really ours. This place has always felt like a house where we’ve just set up camp. We have our books in stacks on the dining room floor, because why bother buying new bookcases? It’ll just be more furniture to move later. This has never felt like a house where we could have people over for parties or anything; I would love to be in a house where I could have people over and not be embarassed about the visible litter box or the boxes that are still in the sunroom that we haven’t unpacked after ten bloody months. I especially can’t wait to get settled in a house that we can make changes to, so we won’t have to live with hideous wallpaper anymore.

Catie & her Daddy
Exhibit A: ugly fruit-oriented wallpaper in our kitchen. And I swear some of those figs look like testicles. It’s all I ever see when I look at the walls.

I’m worried about Catie, because I know that our last move was really hard on her. I expect this one will be easier; the people who are in her life now (her cousin Elizabeth, her friend Kiersten at daycare) will still be part of her normal routine after we move. But I also know she will be heartbroken to leave her friend McKenzie (and vice versa, really; McKenzie knocks on the door every single day to see if Catie can play). So it’ll be rough, but we’ll manage it.

whee!!

Plus, you know, an added benefit of home ownership is that we might be able to get a playset for the backyard. And judging by how much she loved playing on Elizabeth’s yesterday, I think that might be a pretty big selling point for her.

Now, off to find that perfect dream house…

3 good things

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1. MY CAR IS FIXED!!! The repair guys finished it yesterday, and I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to have it back.

See, before:
my poor car

And after:
my car is finally fixed!

Isn’t it insanely shiny? I don’t know what those guys did to it, but it looks fantastic. I was so happy to have it back, I almost jumped on the hood and humped it like I was in a Whitesnake video. Dave said that would leave a bigger dent than the one the movers caused, so clearly I will never be speaking to him ever again.

2. Cate’s asthma is way better. She hasn’t needed her albuterol in over 24 hours, so that’s what we call recovered around here.

3. We went to our very first neighborhood gathering today: little Morgan across the street turned 1 year old, so her parents threw a party and all of the neighborhood kids were there. It was kind of insane, there were kids (mostly older, our neighborhood seems to have a lot of kids in the 5-10 year-old range) running around everywhere. Cate was a little clingy at first with all of the people around, but she soon relaxed and ran around and had a great time. She even let a couple of the other moms (and one teenage girl) pick her up, which is pretty amazing given how mommy-centric she is right now. Also, I got to meet a ton of our neighbors who I hadn’t met yet, and all of them seemed really super nice, so that was great.

And the absolute best part? After getting completely overstimulated by the kids and all the activity, baby girl crashed almost as soon as I got her home. Naptime has never been as easy as it was today. Yay! Can’t wait for e-baby’s birthday party tomorrow so we can wear her out all over again!