Moving, by the numbers

16: how many times we cleaned the house for a showing
3: number of open houses

8: how many houses we walked through (one was via Facetime)
18902 (approx): number of houses we looked at online

1203: number of miles between our old house and the new one
5: number of nights on the road between our old house and new one
4: number of houses of families we'll stop at on aforementioned drive

5.5: months between first seeing the house show up on the MLS and when we finally had a deal
5.25: months between when we though we'd sell it and the actual sale date

2: realtors whose names both start with Mary
2: Marys who are SO happy to be finishing business with us

3: children who can't wait to see their new rooms
2: girls who want periwinkle walls
1: Charla who can't wait to have a master bath!

30: how many boxes are in the living room at this moment
6: how many boxes aren't completely full and are sitting in the living room

8: number of houses we put in offers on
2: houses who first said no and then came back to see if we wanted the house
1: number of houses whose owners accepted our offer. Thankfully, this is also the perfect house for us...

Heading Home

Last night, Josh and I got back to frigid Buffalo, after a lovely 36 hours in sunny Orlando. Night and day, I tell you.
The kids stayed here with my sister-in-law Elizabeth and her one-year-old son. They had a wonderful time and I don't think the kids wanted us back quite so soon. I'll try not to stay offended.
We spent time walking through our new house, hearing from the inspector the tiny things we'll need to do (the sellers have taken fantastic care of the house!) and falling in love with where we'll be living.
I didn't bring my camera; just my iPod Touch.

The house, the palm trees, and the car we didn't want to have to return:

Walking from the front yard to the back:

The living room:

We are going to be very happy here.

So now I have to get to work on this side of things. Two weeks to pack up our lives, then 5 days of travel, stopping to see all my siblings and parents and two grandparents, and then to our new house!!! 

To-Do List

Even though we had a very productive weekend and I've had a great Monday (I love getting my life back in order on Mondays!), my to-do list continues to get longer.
~One of these days I'll update the look of this blog so it's not Christmasy. That won't happen anytime soon, though.
~I have a gorgeous new watermark, but I haven't had/taken the time to update my site yet. (partly because I really don't know if anyone GOES there!)

One thing I can do to get caught up, though, is to share what I've taken photo-wise this year. I'm working on taking a picture a day. I won't get frustrated if I miss once in awhile, but I want to push myself a little and see just what I can do.

These didn't upload in order, and I really don't care. Here's our past 14 days, in no particular order!

Jasmine's Restaurant

Welcome to Jasmine's Restaurant.

Jasmine has created her own menu, full of creative and flavorful options.

Feel free to inquire about the flavors available, as well as which are more nutritious options.

You will be expected to calculate your own tab, and her prices are a little high for her sundays (sic), but it's worth it for the incredible service you'll receive. And she wouldn't think of taking a tip!

Say "FLORIDA!"

And get this from the kids and I:

Jasmine and Math

Jasmine doesn't enjoy math.
I don't understand this. I always loved math. It was my favorite subject all the way through.
Josh enjoyed it, too.

But Jasmine...she wishes people hadn't figured out math. I can't get her to realize how many other things need math, like all the luxuries we take for granted.

I sat with her and helped...and got a bunch of pictures...of course!

Patriotic Card Giveaway: Winner Announced!

Congratulations, Karen!! You won these! I'll get them sent out this afternoon!

I have one pack of 4 patriotic greeting cards that need a home.
If you'd like to be the one to receive these, leave a comment below telling me who you'd send them to.

It's a $13 value ($10 for the cards and the shipping cost)!

Giveaway closes Sunday night. I'll choose a winner randomly from the comments on Monday and will announce the winner then!

One entry per person, and please make sure you sign in under some sort of name. I can't give them to anonymous! 

Good luck!!

If walls could talk

About 6 years ago, I first saw a cute yellow house listed online.
We tried to go see it, but the key code we had was wrong so we had to reschedule it.
The reschedule date was the day I went into labor with Bekah.
So we made a third date a couple weeks later, and fell in love.
We moved in April 20th, 2007.

(picture was taking 3/17; snow in late April is NOT the norm, even for Buffalo)

This was our fifth residence as a married couple (in 4 years!!), but the first we actually owned. We made it our own!

First we put up beautiful vinyl fence.

 It didn't stay put very long.

 (note: this is not saying they were bad fences. It turns out we didn't follow directions quite to a T)

We painted the dining room terra cotta:

 And the living room two vibrant shades of blue.

(the top picture was really the brighter of the two. I was still learning about cameras ;) )

 Then our kitchen got a paint makeover, going from yellow:

to a warm shade of gray:

And changed the door and drawer handles!

Then, in June of 2012, we undid all that paint, put 60% of our life into boxes in the basement and attic, and got this:

And now, today,

It's hard to believe we'll be saying goodbye to this house. I'm excited to head to a place where that white stuff is unheard of, to find a house with a little more room to grow (not in number of family members!) and to be where we belong now. But it's definitely bittersweet to leave this house we've loved.