Christmastime with Shutterfly

Hi there!!! I was informed that Shutterfly was giving away 50 cards if you just talk about them...so here we go!!! I am so excited to have found out about this. I love sending cards, and I love even more sending cards with pictures of my kids. Cards help keep all of our family and friends up to date with our family, and it allows them to see pictures of the kids. I am so excited to try Shutterfly out for our family Christmas card!!! If all goes well, I imagine I will use Shutterfly for all of our cards!! They also offer many other exciting things such as:

wall calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

canvas wall art to http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art

new years cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards

All you have to do is blog about Shutterfly and how you are going to use their products or a past experience with them...and you can get 50 free cards also!!! Come on...let's get busy designing our cards!!!!

Catch up!!

Well, this has been the longest break ever. So much has happened since my last post. I think I will just give bullet-points and then I will pick 1 every day or so and talk about them. That will help me not be on here for hours tonight...and it will make me come back here and actually talk about things. Here we go:

*Moved to San Antonio
*Kids and I came back to Illinois for the entire month of July
*Mom was in and out of the hospital and in a nursing home
*Doctors said at the end of August that Mom had about 3 weeks or so
*Jason the kids and I went back to Illinois to spend about 5 days with Mom
*Mom died September 23rd
*Back to Illinois to prepare for visitation and funeral
*Back in San Antonio for the longest period since we moved
*Began doing the C25K...am in week 3
*Kids are doing well is school and seem to enjoy school here
*James is in Zoo School
*I am a Stay at home Mom

Well, I think that is the list I will work on. I will be back hopefully tomorrow to take on the first bullet point!!!

Hope all is well with everyone!!! I am back, and I will hope to stay up on this blog!!

Long overdue post

So, this post is SO long overdue...sorry to those of you that read!!!

So, this morning we closed on our house here in Champaign...and it was COMPLETELY bittersweet!! Selling out house was the craziest thing we've done lately!! That house meant so much to me and our family and I was SO sick to my stomach leaving the bank that I thought I would be sick. I was brought home to that house after I was born, and my mom and I lived there with my grandparents and my Uncle until I was 5 years old. After my grandma died we had the privilege of buying the house...and I was able to bring my youngest home from the hospital to that house!! It was amazing and I was lucky to be able to do this. I always felt close to my Grandma while we were living there...I knew that she was our guardian angel and she was looking out for us. Will she still watch over us all in Texas?? Man...I hope so!!

The movers came on Wednesday to pack up our house, they were suppose to bring a semi to take it to store until they bring it to Texas on June 11th...however, they showed up with a 24 ft truck and laughed when they saw how much stuff we have. They ended up working for 14 hours that day and it took 2 trucks to get all of our stuff packed up. But they did it...finally!!! Cleaned the house and visited with family that came by on Thursday...which was really nice...and closed today. It's been a whirlwind of emotion and a lot of things have happened that I am still trying to take in.

We are in Champaign until June 9th, and then we make the trek down to Texas...and I don't know how I am going to do it!!! I am so scared to leave my mom. She is doing better, but the thought of not being able to see her whenever I want is so overwhelming. She is my BEST friend (beside Jason)...and I love her so much...I know we are just a plane ride away...but it's not the same. It is going to be so hard, but I am trying to keep it all in so the kids don't see how sad I really am. I want them to have everything in life...and this is such an amazing opportunity, I have to focus on the positive, and not the negative. That will be a new thing for me. :)

Kids are done with school...so now we are just busy visiting people and "hanging" out. It's been GREAT!!!

My last day of work ended up being the 19th instead of the 21st. I took my mom to the Dr. on the 19th and he sent her immediately over to the hospital to be admitted, and I wasn't leaving her side. He was concerned about a cyst in her groin being cancer...it's NOT, biopsy was negative!!! and he wanted a "filter" put in her groin because she has a blood clot in that area. She had the biopsy and the filter put in and she got to come home on Monday. :) Did I feel bad about not going back to work...NO!!! I miss the participants so much, and the Part time staff and Decka...but that's it!! The new boss was terrible and she made everyone feel like they weren't worth anything and that was really hard working for someone like her. I think the Champaign and Urbana Park Districts made a HUGE mistake hiring this person to be the Director of CUSR...but they didn't ask my opinion...so... It's nice not having to work and be under stress and deal with people that you don't want to. Oh well...that part of my life is done...and I'm glad!!

So...I will update again soon...however it might be after we are in Texas!! We'll see!!!

Updates...

So...the house has been on the market for 5 days so far. We have had 1 offer already, however it didn't work out...here's what happened: The house is on the market for $142,900, their offer was $135,000+washer/dryer (which was not on the list of appliances we are leaving), we countered with $140,000 with no washer (dryer can stay...we can't use it in Texas, it's gas, we need electric), the counter-counter offered with $138,000, we came back with $139,000 which was in between both offers, and was right in the middle of asking price and 1st offer...and it was the lowest we wanted to go, being the 1st day it was on the market. Well...that's where it ended. We heard nothing back from the buyers, nothing, not a darn thing...not even a "no, we will only go $138,000"...they didn't even put it back in our court and let us REALLY consider the offer. UGH!!! Then on Sunday at 4pm (4 hours after the offer ended) their realtor called our realtor and said her buyers were going to look at other houses...THANKS!!! And...this is the couple that knows friends of ours, they found the house, etc...we will be paying their realtor $4200...for what...opening the front door for them...OMG...that IRRITATES me!!!

So, now we are doing the whole...what the HELL did we just do?? I know in my heart we are still OK...it's only been on the market 5 days, it'll be OK. But, man would it have been nice to be DONE, not have to worry about the house being in "show status", etc. Well, that's it so far...we've had 4 showings...1 offer...and we still own the house. :) My goal is to be positive...it has been so hard the last couple of days, but I'm really trying!!

We still know nothing about the house in Texas. We are hoping by the end of the week we will know something. The sellers realtor is going to really push BofA...they keep saying that only a few more days, they have all of the paperwork, it's just reading it...come on darn it...read the paperwork. I hope that by the end of the week we'll know something. Keep your fingers crossed!!

That's it for now!!!

Packing and waiting...

So, the house is scheduled to go on the market on Monday, March 15th...yep, that's right...in 10 short days our house has to be ready!!! OMG!!!! Only 10 days?? Well, we've gotten a lot done, lots packed for garage sale, lots packed to go to Texas, but there is still LOTS to do. Jason and I made a list, but we keep adding to it each time we cross one off we add 2 or 3 more. I'm not so worried about actually putting it on the market, or about how long it will take to sell. I'm more worried about actually doing some "heavy" cleaning, and keeping the house looking spotless while it's on the market. That is very overwhelming and scary!!!

So, news on the house in Texas...NONE!! We put our offer in and the seller's accepted, however since it is a short sale it had to go to the sellers' bank to be accepted (basically they are wanting to sell it for less than they owe on it, so they will still be making "house" payments even though they won't be living in it). The sellers' are close to foreclosure, so they are wanting this to move through just as quickly as we do....but both sides are in a "waiting game" while the bank decides. There are LOTS of horror stories on the internet about short sales...and I think I've read A LOT of them, I got a bit "freaked out" earlier this week and I'm sure our realtor in Texas thinks we are crazy!! Oh well!!! This house is WONDERFUL, it is our DREAM house...but we HAVE to be patient!! Patience is not in my vocabulary. :) I know it will all work out if it's suppose to...but waiting is killing me!!!

We are all VERY excited about moving...that is everyone except my Mom. I'm hoping that she will come around before we leave so we aren't leaving on bad terms. I love my mom and I know she loves me, but the understanding of "why" we are doing this, she just doesn't want to accept. We'll see what happens with the hopes that everything will happen smoothly and everyone will understand WHY.

What are we going to do...??

Ok...so the news is: WE'RE MOVING!!!! I'm still in shock and can't believe we are actually moving. We got preapproved today for the house that we fell in love with while we were there. It's a short sale house, the owners are trying to stay out of foreclosure. I'm hoping our realtor will get in touch with their realtor tomorrow and we can put an offer in. It's been on the market for a while, so hopefully it will work out. Keep your fingers crossed!!! It's 2800 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, formal dining room, living room, HUGE pantry and utility room, kitchen with all newer appliances, huge deck on the back with a decent sized yard. Of course I forgot my camera...so I do have the website and I'll try to put it on here so you can see it.

So, yes I am excited, but at the same time I am scared out of my mind. I'm scared to leave our family and friends and our entire support system. We will be moving and it will be just US. I know we will be fine and we will make it through, but at the same time who am I going to call when I need to get away?? The good thing is I won't have to work for at least a year or so, I'm trying to hold out of going back to work till James is in kindergarten, so that's my plan...Jason's may be different. :) Well, there you have it...we are moving to San Antonio, Tx. WOW!!!!!

Ramblings...

Well, in 5 days we will be taking the family down to San Antonio, TX to make one of the biggest decisions in our lives. I feel like overall we have pretty much made our decision, however UTHSCSA has to come up with the numbers and the details. It is kind of exciting to think about, however the stress of an actual move makes me SICK to my stomach.

I have been trying to put stuff on Craigslist, Goodwill, or throw away all of the "junk" in our house. Trying to do this has been harder than I thought when it comes to some stuff, but we are getting there. I just wish it was nicer out so we could have a garage sale. We have LOTS of boxes so far for garage sales that we will HAVE to have this spring. Even Becca has been pretty good with getting rid of stuff, she went through her toy box of dolls, yes an entire toy box of dolls, and we got rid of 1/2. I was impressed!! There are a few parts of the house that are going to be really hard to go through. With James and Becca sharing a room, their room is very full, not sure how we will get it in "open house" status, but...we'll see. The other thing will be the basement. That is where all the kids toys are, and the back room is all of our "stuff". You know...the "stuff" we all have that we don't have any space for. Yeah...it will be hard!!!

We do have a realtor in San Antonio, so hopefully she will pull some houses together for us to see and we will find something that we like. It would be awesome if we can sell our house within a couple months and then buy something so when Jason goes down he can move into a house, and not an apartment. I don't want to move down there until we have a house. So...the waiting game, selling the house game, buying a house game, making decisions about the kids/schools game...oh yeah...LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!