Somewhere to go

I've been really kind of bummed and depressed about this whole house selling fiasco.  Our summer is getting away from us.  It's past the middle of July and all we have to show for our summer is a house full of boxes and a grumpy family.  Last Wednesday was bad.  Ryan was still going to his GLAD training conference, the kids were not the happiest, and I just wanted to sit and cry.

So I got online to see if we could do something.  Anything.  Maybe go camping?  Camping can be cheap.

Most of the camping places with websites had filled up.  I guess most people plan ahead for their vacations.  There was a KOA available, but not where I really wanted to go.  This left flying by the seat of our pants and finding a campsite in the Olympic National Park.  It is first come- first served, and $12 a night.  Hopefully we could get there early enough to get a spot.

When Ryan got home, I showed him what I'd found.  He was game.  So Thursday was spent trying to find the boxes with our warm coats and camping gear in the piles of taped up boxes, and a trip to the grocery store for everything else.

It ended up being a really fun trip.  For $12 a night, we got a fire pit, a place for our gargantuan tent (it's for 10 people, so there's room for four squirmy children, two adults, and a pile of gear), and flushing toilets.  No showers, but I can manage camping with flushing toilets for a couple of nights.

Pictures to come.

The Waiting Game

It is two more days until the day we were supposed to close on our house.  We were supposed to move out last night to the rental place.

We are still here.  We won't be closing on Friday.

After pestering our realtor for a week, he finally had a face to face meeting with the buyer's agent.  And, finally, we have some kind of answer on what is the hold up.

The mortgage broker ordered the appraisal of our house about 3 1/2 weeks ago.  Days later, the appraiser died.  Which we knew about.  Getting around to ordering another appraisal with a live body took until yesterday.

I've packed up most of the house.  We are essentially camping now.  I'm waiting on the word that we will actually need to move out before I finish.  I think to finish packing and to clean will take probably 2 days.  That doesn't include the moving process.

Our realtor thinks once the appraisal is done, it will be about a week before we close.  But we don't know when the appraisal will be done.  Still.

I'm tired of the waiting.  Would someone please make a schedule and stick to it?  Would someone please tell me that there is an actual light at the end of this tunnel?

Secrets From the Closet

We've packed up most of the house.  I've gone through all of the boxes and bags in all of the closets.  In the process, I've found quite a lot of interesting things.  Books and toys that we thought we'd lost were actually bagged up in time-out bags, and forgotten.  On occasion my children don't actually clean up their room when I asked them to, and after a couple of days I will do it for them.  Those items go in a time out spot, and apparently my memory ain't what it used to be.  I blame the children.

I wasn't expecting to find a lot of forgotten things in my closet.  I have a couple of plastic tubs stacked on one side that I keep the adult off-season clothing in, so I go through the closet twice a year.  My wedding dress, two old formals, and some old costumes are hung up behind those tubs, but it's not like I use those.  Ever.

So Saturday I'm digging out the closet, putting those plastic tubs in the toy room with all the other boxes, and packing up the formals and costumes so they are out of the way.  That's when I notice a stack of addressed envelopes scattered back in the corner.  I opened one.

It was a thank you card from the baby shower before the twins were born.  A whole stack of them.  Written and addressed.

And they got in the very back of my closet... how?  I have absolutely no idea.

I think I got some kind of sleep deprivation-induced amnesia that caused me to be stupid.

I threw the cards away.  It's been almost 4 years.  I couldn't very well crumple them up a little, throw a little rain water on them, drive over them twice and then pretend that the post office lost all of them.  

So I apologized on facebook, and I will apologize to those of you reading my blog.  Thank you, all of you, who gave to the giant collection of diapers, wipes, clothing, blankets, high chairs, and everything else the twins have needed and used.  I'm sorry I'm so lame.

I think I may have Ryan apologize to everyone at church too.  Next testimony meeting. 

Mount Rainier

Ryan noticed a certain something in my eye over the last few days.  It may have been all that time I've spent with the kids without a break.  It could be all the boxes we've been packing.  It could also be the fact that at this point in time, it doesn't look like our house (the one we are in) is going to close on time.  I am in a state of limbo. 

I do not like being in limbo.  Uncertainty drives me crazy.  If I know the facts, I can plan and work.  Otherwise I obsess and lose sleep creating "what if" scenarios.

Ryan described the look in my eye as looking like a "caged animal."  He decided I needed to get away.  So this morning we drove to Mount Rainier for the day.

I was excited to go walk around at Paradise.  Even as we were driving up there, I could see the fields of flowers and was envisioning a lovely walk.

So imagine my feelings when Paradise was covered in snow.

The walkways around the visitors were clear, but the trails were covered in snow.  There were markers in the snow, but we were not equipped for winter walking. 

The kids enjoyed throwing snow and slush balls at their parents.

But seriously, there was a lot of snow.

So we drove back down the mountain to where there were clear hiking trails.  (This picture below I took on the road.  I got Ryan to stop in the middle of the road so I could get it.  Not bad, eh?)

 We took the Box Canyon trail.

Then we took the Grove of the Patriarchs trail.  To get there, we had to go over this suspension bridge.  It was a one person at a time kind, so we sent Emma and Elizabeth over by themselves.  Emma isn't keen on bridges, but she did it.

At the halfway point, we stopped for a snack.  Angry bird graham crackers.

Afterwards, we took a trail to Silver Falls. 

 The kids did amazing.  They did all that walking, and we didn't get the stroller out once.  We had to carry the twins over the worst of the uphill walking on the last trail back to the car (whew, I'm not in that good of shape...).  It was a great day.

We drove a little ways before stopping for a picnic dinner.  While I was assembling sandwiches, the camera was slung over one of my shoulders.  I thought Emma was knocking the lens cap off and putting it back on.  Turns out, she was taking pictures.

While we were eating dinner, a friend of ours drove past, recognised our van and turned around.  I'm impressed they knew it was our Kia on the side of White Pass when they didn't know we would be there.  They were headed to Mount Rainier to camp.  Luckily for them they found us.  They forgot bug spray, and we gave them ours.

My What?

While Ryan and Emma were away at a 4-H meeting, Elizabeth and I were having some quality time together.  As it was past bed time, we were reading, doing some math homework, and working on her 2nd grade sight words until they got home.  Elizabeth is not used to being alone in her bedroom, and wasn't keen on going to bed.

As Emma was getting changed into her pjs, Ryan and I were sharing the news of the evening.  Elizabeth, a little miffed at losing my attention, was standing behind me on the kitchen chair.  She was playing with the hair in my ponytail, and said, "Mom, I'm looking at your crack!"

I'm pretty sure my clothing was covering anything that could be considered my "crack."  I looked up at her and asked what that was.

She pointed at the part in my hair.  "There's your crack, Mommy."

"Sweetheart, that's my part.  What you see right there is called my scalp."

"Oh.  Ok.  It's pink."

That would be the only part of me that I didn't lather sunscreen on today.

Leave it to Elizabeth to find the the absolutely oddest substitution for a term she didn't know.

4-H

Here are pictures from Emma's first 4-H project.  She's got herself a pig, courtesy of one of Ryan's students.  Megan (the student) bought 3 pigs so she would have 2 good ones to show at  the fair in August.  She graciously offered her least favorite (which is still a nice pig) to Emma to get started in 4-H.

 Sunday was such a hot day.  The pigs were given some extra water, which turned the pig sty into a big muddy mess.  So, only Ryan and Emma went in.

 I asked Ryan to get some pictures.  He got a bunch of the pig.  The side view.  The back view.  (I'll spare you those.)  I asked Ryan if he got any of Emma.  "Was I supposed to?"

Well.... duh.

So he got one for me.

Check out those boots she's wearing, Grandma.  She likes them!

Hot Summer Days

I think summer finally caught up with us.  May and June both had cooler than average temperatures, but now that it is July...  Well, I think we are trying to make up the difference all at once.  It's been above 100 degrees a couple days in a row.  All I can say is: I'm glad I live now, when AC is available.

Ryan and the girls went outside the other night in search of a way to cool off before bed.  They started off with a sprinkler going, but somehow it evolved to trying to "get" each other with the hose.



I think Ryan won that round.

Independence Day

Independence Day was a busy day.  The morning started off with Ryan off to play Ultimate Frisbee with some of his friends.  (While I stayed home and got the rest of us ready for the day.)  Once my sweaty husband got home and showered, we walked downtown for the parade.

It's another opportunity to watch farm machinery drive through town.

Afterwards we walked to Safeway to buy milk.  While we were there, we ran into Joseph W who invited us to a BBQ at his place.  James, Tiffany and their family would also be there.  So we picked up some fresh corn on the cob so we would have some kind of contribution to the food.

 There was swimming after lunch.

We were home for a couple of hours (where I made up some coleslaw with one of our own cabbages, and Ryan got a nap) and then we were off to another BBQ, this time at Rachel and Sean's home.  (Where I took no pictures.  Oops.)  There were about 25 people there. The BBQ was in their backyard and the weather was so nice.

We got home around 8, put pjs on the kids and watched a couple episodes of the Cosby Show while we waited for it to get dark.  Then we drove down to the high school to watch the fireworks show.

 Someone brought sparklers for the kids to play with while we waited.  We hid between some buildings since technically.... we weren't supposed have any.  We haven't played with sparklers for ages and it was fun.

Finally after 10 pm the fireworks show began.

It was such a fun day.  We have wonderful friends, and had a great time spending time with them.

Packing

End of Day 1 of packing.  I'm a bit worried that we've accumulated a lot of stuff since our last move.

House Update

So, our house sold. 

About 2 weeks ago, we got a really low bid offer.  About $15 grand lower than our asking price, plus 3.5% to offset closing costs.  Please, people.  We did not inflate our asking price that much.  So we counter-offered the full asking price with 3.5% off for those pesky closing costs.

They accepted.

We need to be out of our home by July 20th.

I am starting to get really stressed out about getting everything packed.  Really, really stressed.  The last time we moved, I had two children.  And a lot less stuff.  I swear we have a whole load in our backyard alone.  Picnic table, play house, bikes, plastic play structure with the slide, plus a shed full of stuff.

Ryan has GLAD training that whole week prior to us having to be moved out.  Could the timing be a lot worse?

We have a house we are trying to purchase.  If everything works out, it should close about the same time. 

But there are so many variables.  We are dealing with a bank, and we had our inspection last Friday (the reason we had to be back so quickly after Ryan's conference) and there are a few things that need to be addressed.  Banks move veeeerrrrrrryyyy slowly.

We could be homeless for a bit.  We have a place lined up that we could rent if we need to.  But I would really rather not have to move, and then move again in a couple of weeks. 

All these jumbled thoughts leave me awake at night.