Kindergarten Under Way

This is old news but I wanted to document a few details before the moment is long gone...
Logan started Kindergarten a  few weeks ago and absolutely LOVES it so far!  He made a count-down chain to the days leading up to his first day. 

When we were picking out  back-to-school clothes for him he really had zero opinions. But when it came time for his first day of school he all of a sudden cared about what he looked like.  I picked out a SUPER  cute outfit for him that made him look like a mack...

see? Pretty hunky, eh?

But he informed me that all the girls would think he looked dumb. 
Fine then, have it your way.  
This is what he actually wore instead...

still pretty handsome if I do say so myself. 

 

His big hold up was the shoes. He had to wear his new tennis shoes of course.

And who wouldn't want to wear tennis shoes that make you ultra fast when you run??

His other favorite part of his outfit was his survival bracelets. He wears them faithfully everyday.  Heaven knows if he gets stranded on the play ground he'll have 16 feet of parachute cord to help him survive.

Super serious pose

And when the big moment came he didn't show an ounce of nervousness until the car ride over. He told me he was excited but he might be a little nervous too.  I told him that we could say a little prayer before getting out of the van to help him do good on his first day.  Well in all the hussle and bussle I forgot, but Lo remembered when we got up to the gate to walk in and whispered in my ear that he still wanted to say a little prayer. So we stepped aside and said a little quick prayer that he was satisfied with - it was a sweet little moment.

Ben came down on his lunch break to be there for the first day and Logan was SO excited and felt proud that his dad was there to walk him to the gate.

And I only cried a bit, when it came time for him to walk into class by himself. 

 
He loves everything about being in school. He loves his teacher.  He loves library time and crafting time. He even loves sitting down to do his "homework" each night.  He's even made a bosom buddy, Rob, which I was so happy to see. He's out of these school boundaries so I was a little nervous about him making friends but he and Rob came walking out the first or second day of school holding hands and they've had a couple play dates since then. 

It makes my mommy heart proud that school has been a success thus far. Let's hope it stays that way!

Timeline

We are officially under contract to buy a house in (hopefully) 5 weeks.  I really want to put an exclamation point after that sentence, but I'm a little too frazzled to appreciate where we are in this whole mish-mosh of a house buy & selling process. It feels like there's a little bit too much mountain to climb before the idea of living somewhere totally different is going to sink in. 

Ben and I were going over our timeline for the next 2 months and I think it will be amazing if we survive through the end of the year... with the better half of our brains still in tact.

For the sake of being able to look back at this time in our lives, here is a rough outline (which I'm sure is likely to change at least 10 times):

Tomorrow (Sept 11): 
1.Counter offer our buyer's addendum for repairs (some things here and there that need to be done for their FHA loan to be approved)

2. Meet with loan officer to lock in our rate and get our loan underway

Tuesday (11th) - Thursday (13th) :  Ben is finishing up siding the garage

This week sometime: 
1. The appraiser comes (and will hopefully tell us there's nothing else that needs to be done for the house to qualify for an FHA loan... namely fixing the back garage wall that has been cracked by our neighbor's intrusive tree growth) and hopefully the house ends up being "worth" enough so we have money in the end to pay for these little repairs.

2.  Plumber comes to fix the exhaust venting on our water heater and strap it down (stupid FHA loan...)

3. Electrician comes to adjust the power line between the house and garage that apparently hanging too low and not installed correctly (stupid FHA loan...)

Thursday (13th): Schedule inspections for our new home for next Wednesday (19th)... ensuring that it will happen after the appraisal deadline on our own house. Heaven knows we don't want to pay $500 for inspections if our own house doesn't even come close to valuing where we need it to...

Friday (13th) - Monday (17th):  Sanding down the garage doors and painting garage front. Done with garage front - wohoo!


Wednesday (19th): 
1. Inspect our new house for mold, radon, sewer line, and general inspection (with emphasis on the electrical)... did I mention we're buying a house built in 1959?

2. Ben installs rain gutters on our current house (stupid FHA loan...)


Friday (21st) & Saturday (22nd):  Ben gone all day at parent-teacher conference weekend


Monday (24th) - Friday (28th): 
1. Ben goes to CA for business trip

2. I try to stay sane and pack all week


Friday (28th): Hopefully  NOT closing this day any more being as Ben won't even be here...


Oct 1st - Oct 5th: 

1. Pack house

2. Try to do a few last favorite things around our neighborhood... like bike rides to our "special place" and park playing and walks around the block and fishing. Right. 

3. Close on our current house

4. Move our stuff... somewhere short term

Oct 15th:  Close on our new home and move in some time that week

Oct 22 - Nov 6th:  Try to stay pregnant during blessed 2 weeks to unpack and set up a nursery of some sort

Nov 6th:  Have a baby

Then thanksgiving... then I turn 30... get Lincoln signed up for a new early intervention program... then Christmas... etc. 


If I forget to call you back... or forget your birthday... or lose something of yours... or even forget your name and become a crappy friend over the next two months... then please forgive me and understand. 

This past week has been a whirlwind but we have been SO blessed by SO many people offering to help us and gladly agreeing to watch the boys, feed us dinner, etc.  We're so blessed to be surrounded by so many friends and family who care so much about us. My eyes would be tearing up thinking about it right now, except they're dry because it's so late at night. :)  So many people have done so many favors for me this past week and I usually hate that feeling of "owing" people... but it really has saved my sanity and I'm so thankful.

And our lesson in Relief Society on Sunday was on the topic of faith... exactly what I needed to hear. 

And while a change would have been ok, I'm so glad we found a house in Orem so I can still be close to my friends that I've made over the past 7 years, and still be close to everything in the area that is a part of our lives (doctors, parks, community programs, libraries,  schools, favorite restaurants, etc).

Everything's coming together and I'm sure will all end as it should.

Just an Update

Well it seems stress and anxiety have set in full force these past 10 days. 

And what a broad spectrum of emotions and experiences we've been through...

-10-year anniversary  & trip to Manti

-Logan starting kindergarten!

-Getting a contract on our house

-Looking at 20 houses for sale

-Putting 3 offers in on different houses and almost 1 more

-Getting extremely attached to one house only having to learn that we're, once again, just a back up offer. 

-Talk about heartbreak. 

-Lots of babysitters.

-Lots of driving around inspecting neighborhoods. 

-Lots of printing, initialing, signing, scanning and faxing paperwork.

-Lots of tears.

-Not much sleep and lots of scouring KSL and real estate websites.

-Accepting that we have one last project on the house to complete... replacing the siding on our garage front (our buyers are going FHA and we didn't think the chipping paint would pass FHA inspection).  

Ben's already torn off the old siding and with the help of his Dad, he's got new plywood, Tyvex and trim up!

-And now tomorrow morning we're backing out on an offer we have on a house in Springville after 3 days of truly not feeling good or settled about it at all. It was the perfect house and neighborhood, but apparently Heavenly Father knows better than we do. 

So pretty much we're back to square one, and I'm now 31 weeks along and Ben has LOTOJA relay race this weekend.  I try hard to fill my blog with uplifting things and avoid grumbling. But amidst all my complaining and whining, there is still a sweet ending:  I've never felt so humbled, blessed, closer to Ben, and grateful for all the help we've received this week.  Faith... I'm still trying to have more of that on hand.  Getting there.