12 more days

The days are so full of appointments, phone calls and paperwork it seems almost impossible to me that we will be on a plane to Denver in 12 days! This week we are having some home repairs completed and making sure that we have changed our address with everyone, mail forwarded, and the movers scheduled. The girls and I will be out of the house for a few days while we have another home repair taken care of, termites. We have to bag up all of our food and medications, even what is in the refrigerators. I have a good head start on this so now I will pack what we need for a few days while we stay with Keith's parents. The movers arrive a week from tomorrow to start packing so between now and then we need to decide what goes to the apartment and what goes into storage for 3 months (hopefully only 3 months).

Sunday, a few of my friends took me out to tea! It was such a wonderful, relaxing afternoon with no schedules or time limits. Thank you so much again girls for a fantastic afternoon!

Keith, is off to Salt Lake City for a few days this week but he was able to go out to visit the home site yesterday and said that some lumber had been delivered to the site over the weekend. Hopefully, that means framing will begin this week. The forecast says rain all week and I do not know if that will impede progress on the house. We feel like it is really taking a long time for them to get to this step but we keep hearing that this builder works hard to stay on schedule. It will be fun when the girls and I are out there to go and watch the progress every week.

It is time to get back to work. I will update again soon!

A Fantastic Disney Day!

Well, yesterday I took the girls to Disneyland. I had a very special surprise for them for lunch so we started our day inside Disney's California Adventure which is their other theme park in Anaheim. Our lunch reservations were not for an hour and a half so we started the day with the Monsters, Inc. ride. I classify this ride as a typical fantasyland ride like Peter Pan or Pinocchio. The girls loved and I think it is boring. We still have time to kill and we walk up to "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" I have always wanted to go on this ride but I never have anyone to ride with and now we are moving away, oh well. But then I notice that Tori is tall enough for this ride (never mind that she may not be emotionally ready for this ride) so I ask the cast member what it is like inside. He (easily) convinces us that she will be fine on this ride. So off we go. The special effects on this ride are amazing. The premise is that this very old famous Hollywood hotel gets struck by lightning and a family gets stuck in another dimension. The ride is a group of us sitting in what appears to be a service elevator for the hotel, it takes us up to the top and then we free fall, totally out of our seats, stop, then go up again and down again over and over. Meanwhile while we are going up and down the elevator doors are opening and closing on different floors, some open to the outside looking over Anaheim. It was fantastic!!! Madison and I loved it!!!! Poor, poor Tori. Bad, bad Mommy! She was trembling. I held her sooo tight. When we got off she said, "Maybe I will go on that ride never, ever again forever."

We then walked over to Ariel's Grotto, a special restaurant where you dine with the Disney Princesses. The girls were on their best behavior and we were served a three course meal on china with linen napkins. While we were eating a page came in and announced each of 5 princesses which, after being introduced, visited with each table in the restaurant. The girls were so exctied they could barely eat as they anticipated each princess that was coming closer to our table. He are some of the pictures.

The rest of the day was spent mostly in the Disneyland park and finally we went back to California Adventure to watch the Disney Electric Parade which was retired from Disneyland many years ago and was one of my favorites. After the parade we walked out of the park and watched the fireworks and then headed home. We are all a bit tired and groggy this morning but it was worth it. The rest of our photos are on our photo site, just click on the link.

Moving Right Along

Well things are certainly busy for us here. I am glad I am waiting to start school until after we are in the apartment. In the last week and a half we have had 12 different house events....3appraisals, 2 home inspections, 4 termite inspections (you don't want to know!), one moving survey appointment, one open house and one offer. Whew!!!
We did set up our official move date. The movers will come and pack on September 5th and 6th and load the truck on the 7th. We did find out that they will take some of our things to our apartment for us while putting the rest into storage. This is really great because we thought that whatever we wanted to take to our apartment had to be brought with us on the airplane or shipped by us. Now I don't have to figure out how many clothes I can fit into the suitcases. So now I just have to separate what goes to storage, to the apartment, or with us. Which will take some time but will allow us to live a bit easier while we are in our apartment. The newest prediction on our move-in date for the house is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It looks like we will fly out to Colorado on September 9th for our final move. It seems so far away still but I know it will come before I know it.

We're in Escrow

Well, the housing market out here is pretty slow. We have had our home listed for about a month and it has been very slow. However, we have accepted on offer on our home and opened escrow on Thursday. Things will probably move pretty quick from here on. They are trying to have a 3 week escrow. So, we will be busy with inspections, etc. Then it will be sorting out what we will bring with us to the apartment, we are flying, and what will go into storage until we can move into our house (hopefully) in December. If we are truly going to close on September 7th the girls and I will probably stay here an extra week so we can be here when the movers come. We feel very blessed that we received an offer this week and that we are in escrow.
Keith has been in Colorado now for 5 days and it feels like forever already. We miss him so much. The evenings are really dragging without him home. Well we know it is not forever so we just have to keep our chins up.

The Next Step

Well, Keith is off. He is on his way to Denver right now and has to be in the office first thing in the morning (Monday). It is still a bit up in the air as to when the girls and I go. Most likely the first week of September. We will really miss Keith and we need to get started on school. The next few weeks will be filled with going over appraisal reports, inspection reports and figuring out what if anything needs repair before we can sell our home. The girls and I want to try to do a few some trips to Disneyland and the beach also. No big news on the California home yet. We held another open house today but I do not think many people came. We have a new picture of the new "house"that I will add. That is all the news for now. -jane

WE ARE BACK

WOW! What a trip we had.

SATURDAY. We drove 750 miles and took 12 hours to drive all the way to Grand Junction, CO. It was a long day for all of us but we were excited to be in Colorado already and to have a shorter trip on Sunday. Most of that part of the trip was 75 MPH speed limit so that helped us a lot. I have to say that Utah is probably the most dramatic state I have seen. The drive was absolutely breathtaking, that really helped pass the time for us. Well, for the girls it was watching movies, coloring and poking each other. They were VERY good in the car and when they learned they received quarters for every stretch that they did not ask "are we there yet?" It was even better.

SUNDAY. We left Grand Junction and drove through the mountains and Vail to get to Denver. This part of the trip was quite a bit slower driving through the mountains but we were amazed at the number of bikers (on bicycles not motorcycles) that were riding up and down trails along the highway through the mountains. Some of these people looked to be a part of a race but on the way there we must have seen at least 300 people and children riding bikes around. This leads me to altitude. We were finding that we were experiencing shortness of breath just walking up steps at the rest stop and these people were riding their bikes UPHILL! We just did not get it. We got into town ate lunch and then went to our apartment where we signed our lease and dropped off all of Keith's work clothes that we being wrinkled by the second. Then we went directly to the Denver Mattress Co. to buy two bed sets which they were gracious enough to deliver the next day. Then off to Costco to buy hangers and and ironing board for the same wrinkled work clothes. Then off to the Texas Roadhouse (one of our old favorites from Tennessee) for dinner and to check into a hotel for one more night. Our girls were amazing troopers through all of this. They have not had any run around or "play" time now in two days.

The front of our model, same color but a bit different in the style

MONDAY. Another crazy day. After breakfast we took the girls swimming in the hotel pool while we reviewed all the options and decisions we were going to make with our builder that afternoon. We have been very focused on our budget and worked hard to choose only options that would be more expensive later on or very difficult to do after the home is complete. After swimming, off the eat lunch and finally see a model of our home. We were a bit nervous that we might not like it but rest assured we found it to look just as we had expected, only to me some of the rooms seemed larger. After that visit we drove off to see our lot and new neighborhood where we had our first options appointment. Once again we were not disappointed. We will be living in the "sticks" (which we love!) we will have a very nice view. After a 3 1/2 hour visit/meeting (once again kudos to the girls) we were finished with one of our two house appointments for the week. We were then treated with a thunder storm with lots of lightning, they girls do not remember thunder storms so this was a treat for us. Then off for dinner and to see if our mattresses had arrived. The beds had been delivered and we were off to the market for a few groceries, pots, plates, cups, etc. Phew!

A view from the top of our neighborhood

A mama deer near our new home

TUESDAY. Keith has his first day of work and it is month end. We drove him to work and he got home about 10:30 that night. They gave him a loaner car for the month so we will not have to drive to work everyday. The girls and I however took the day off! The three off us all had a bit of altitude sickness. It affects people in many different ways. In Tori it made her very tired. With Madison it was gas and diarrhea and with me it was nasal dryness and migraine-like headaches. I spent the morning deleting my headache and then we spent the afternoon swimming in the pool. The girls and I found a Chic-Fil-A for dinner and I let them play on the playground for about an hour after dinner.

WEDNESDAY. Pretty much the same as Tuesday, giving the girls a chance to play and ran a few errands. That evening we went out to dinner with Keith's new boss Dave and his counterpart Rob and his family. It was really nice to be out and meet some people and have a nice dinner. We ate at Ted's which serves Bison and Keith actually ordered a Bison burger. Very impressive. The girls were great and made a new friend Andrew who is two and absolutely adores the girls.


THURSDAY. Keith off to work, more errands for us, back to the model for measuring and off to home depot for some comparison shopping before our appointment at the design center on Friday.

S'more S'mores Please!

FRIDAY. Another crazy day. We packed up the car for the trip back and then headed off to the design center for a 10:00 appointment. This is where we pick out carpet, cabinets, flooring, tile and counter tops. If you are not careful you could EASILY drop $50,000 in this place. We were VERY careful, We did upgrade a few things but we stayed within our budget!!!! I am so proud of us. Also, the design center had a playroom (HOORAY) and that helped a lot during our 3 hour appointment. After that lunch and off to drive up to Keystone Resort for a company picnic/overnight. What a fun time! We were able to meet a bunch of people from Keith's office. The girls had a blast on pony rides, roping a mechanical calf, making s'mores around the campfire and of coarse dancing to the country band playing in the barn. We stayed in a beautiful condo at the base of the ski runs and the girls even slept in a bunk bed that night and had a TV in their room! Thanks Toyota!

SATURDAY. Another long drive today but first we decided to take a chair lift to the summit of the mountain and explore a bit. There were tons of mountain bikers taking their bikes to the top and riding the switchback trails all the way down. There were even some hikers who hiked all the way down the mountainside. We rode down! Then off to the car for a 570 mile trip to St. George, Utah.


SUNDAY. 350 miles and home at last. Keith will work here for one more week and then Sunday he will fly back to Denver. The girls and I will join him around the first week of September. Now we are back to keeping the house "show ready" and trying to eat up all our food in the pantry. I think I will need to get a bit creative with my menus. No offers on our CA home yet so keep praying. I will add more as I have news. -jane