More House Hunting

We took a two day vacation from house hunting this week so the girls could relax a bit. We spent a day at the water park and another day at the dog park(not pictured) and made a couple of trips to our rooftop pool (also not pictured).

By Thursday, I was ready to get in the car and head back for some more house hunting fun. Weeeeeee! Luckily, with family nearby in NoVA, the girls could relax and take a break from the car. They spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa's with the slip and slide and spent an afternoon, night, and morning at Kyla's.

It turns out we didn't get the house we wanted after 8 days of waiting. So, it's kind of back to the drawing board for finding a home for our family. I've realized getting a decent rental in Northern Virginia is quite competitive, and when you have two new jobs, you're not a property manager's first choice for tenants.

If you've ever considered buying an investment property you'd like to rent out, I highly suggest the suburbs of Northern Virginia. Multiple offers, for sure. ;)

The Good News!

I realized, after all my complaining in the previous two posts, that I left out the really good news. The news that spurred all of our house hunting last week is that I got offered a job!!! I am going to be teaching fifth grade next year! Not only do I know where I'll be working, my new principal said I could bring Madeline to work with me, too. We just have to live in the county where I'll be working, and I won't have daycare costs or drop-offs or pick-ups for Madeline anymore! I am really looking forward to that. So, now that I have a job, we need to find a home in the county, which is what has led to the hours upon hours of driving from Southern Maryland to Northern Virginia.

Father's Day, 2011

If you've read the previous post, you know we spent most of the last week in the car house hunting, and Father's Day was no different.

The morning started off with a tick. Yuck! Happy Father's Day honey, let's start off by doing a little research on Lyme disease! More fun for us! I removed the tick from Kent's tummy, and we all headed back to Nova to check out a few places.

Things went pretty smoothly for three hours until Kent's car started acting strangely. We pulled over, couldn't get it going, called Kent's parents (Happy Father's Day Ralph! Can you come pick us up?) since they were a couple of miles away for help. Then luckily, the car started, we borrowed Shirley's (thank you!), I followed Kent to the closest dealership, and we dropped it off. Wow, could Madeline's summer vacation get any better than this? I doubt it!

We made it back to Southern Maryland, just in time to relax a little. Kent bought the girls crab pots, and they crabbed for the first time out on the dock. Maddie caught one! Yayyyy Maddie!

I certainly hope this week goes well. With any luck, we'll have two functioning cars and a place to live. Hope you had a great Father's Day! We are going to "re-do" Father's Day sometime soon, along with our anniversary.

A Busy and Not Awesome Week

This is going to be a long one . . .

We began to look at rentals in the Northern Virginia area last week. Tuesday, the girls and I drove over at 2:00, picked up Kent at the metro at seven, and saw two disappointing rentals. Bummer. We got home close to 10 o'clock that night. Wednesday, around noon, I loaded up the kids, picked up Grandma, and we were off to Northern Virginia again. We saw three nice places, and I felt better about our prospects. We returned home around 5 o'clock. Thursday, I found out the place I liked best already had an application, so I loaded up the kids for the third time, around 2, headed over to Nova to complete the application and get a certified deposit check before the banks closed. I delivered the application at 7:30, and since the kids had spent the first week of summer in the car, I decided to spend the night at Blake and Jen's so the girls could enjoy a sleepover with their cousins and some fun. It was a fun evening, not a fun next morning when my car wouldn't start, and I had to call AAA for help.

Well, Friday was our anniversary, and Kent and I had plans to go out. The morning had been lame, but the evening, I thought, would be fun. Mom agreed to take the kids to the beach for a bonfire and story teller. I dropped them off at 7, and they planned to walk home afterwards. Less than ten minutes after dropping them off, Mom called and said I better come back because a storm was coming. In less than five minutes, the wind was blowing, heavy rain was pelting, and the thunder was so loud I could just picture my babies stranded and screaming. I actually had to pull over since I couldn't see in front of the car between the rain, hail, and tree branches blowing all over the road. It was terrifying. Thank God for cell phones and kind people. I called Mom, and she and the kids had found shelter in a stranger's car who had taken pity on Mom and her hysterical grandchildren. After the storm passed, we were reunited. The children were drenched. Our power was out along with most of the town, and it seriously looked like a mini hurricane had come through. The weekend was off to a great start!

Luckily, Saturday was better. We had been looking forward to a rooftop party to kick off summer Jimmy Buffet style with cheeseburgers and margaritas. It didn't rain, and the girls tore up the dance floor most of the evening. Thank goodness we had some fun. Kent and I will have to take a raincheck (ha, ha) on our anniversary out. And by the way, it's Monday, and we should find out today if we got our rental or not.

Nesting

My mom has been incredibly gracious to allow our family to live under her roof while we transition from the west coast to the east. But, I miss my own home and having a place to personalize for my family. We all miss being surrounded by our own things: the kids and their toys, Kent and his studio, and me and my "house" stuff. As a way of coping and looking towards the future, I have done a few crafty (and inexpensive) projects that I am really happy with, such as . . .

Second hand store candlestick for 50 cents and old pattern correlle plate, also bought for 50 cents . . .

became a "vintage-y" dessert plate.

My mom was getting rid of this old Pennsylvania House solid wood cabinet after 25 years of use . . .

I sanded, primed, and painted it in "Fairy Pink" for a night stand in Sophie's future bedroom . . . (more on that in a future post) . . .

I bought this revolving DVD rack at a yard sale for 5 dollars. I painted it for Madeline to use as a shelf for her chapter books (they are the same size as DVD's!). I think it will hold close to 100 of them. Just FYI, the 24 crafting scissors, each with a different edge, were purchased for three dollars. I didn't do anything special with those. :)

And the after . . .

Ian's Big Day!

We went to Ian's house to help him celebrate his big day. And by big, I mean 2 costco cakes big, and a lot, a lot, a lot of kids big. It was hot, hot, hot, so the kids enjoyed some time in the sprinkler and pools. After a passing thunderstorm, the weather was much cooler, and more comfortable. At least it was for me. I have been a total wimp about these 100 degree days with high humidity. Yuck. Anyway, we had fun, fun, fun and made some new friends too.

Water Park, Finally!

Since February, the girls and I have been driving past the water park in the morning on the way to school and in the afternoon on the way home. We have been counting the months, then weeks, and finally days until it opened Memorial Day weekend. And finally, the girls were able to venture inside the gates and explore the pools, slides, and lazy river.

Sophie wasn't too adventurous. She splashed around in the shallow water, and neither Madeline nor I were able to get her down one of the slides, not even a little one.

Our neighbors were there too! Our little friends who live in our building are ages 5 and 3 and very nice playmates.

For five hours, Madeline did not stop running, swimming, and sliding, and this is where she ended up 15 minutes after we got home- sleeping in the dog's crate.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend, the pool opened! So, we went to the pool, then we went to the pool, then we ate hamburgers, then we went to the pool, then we went to the pool again. By Monday, we were tired of our own pool, so went to Blake and Jen's pool, and then we ate hamburgers again. So, if you like pools and you like hamburgers, which we do, it was a good long weekend.

Kellen has the right idea:

Greenery

I like taking pictures of how green everything is here. It was pretty cool watching the trees fill with bright green leaves in a matter of weeks. Spring. Haven't seen it for awhile, and it sure is pretty.