May 14, 2012
May 02, 2012
A hunting we will go!
Dave and I left the girlies with Auntie Lisa and jumped on a plane (or 3) and headed all the way across the country to Connecticut! This is the furthest and longest I've ever left the kids (MYBABIES!!!) before... but we all managed to survive. We flew all day and all night and landed in Hartford about 9am... grabbed the rental car and headed towards the Groton/New London area. We had a realtor lined up (found through the Dave Ramsey website) and ready to start showing us houses at 1pm. It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip!! We went in and out of SO many homes! I had crazy jet-lag and the less than fabulous Groton Inn and Suites (listed on Priceline as upscale and comfortable... not so much!) made it hard to ever really feel rested. We shared a wall with someone that snored ALL night long... even the heater and TV didn't drown out the noise. GAH!! But that is beside the point. Back to the houses... as you can see from the photo album there were some really nice options, and some really NOT so nice non-options. I think the worst one must have been the house that had about 4-5 people (mostly military guys) living in it. Pictures aren't enough to show how bad that one was!! Our top pick from the first 2 days was:
The brown house has been lived in by the original owners and they are motivated to sell and move to Arizona. On just over an acre has a nice large yard for the dogs and kids! Inside was in perfect condition with an in-law suite (these are new terms to us!) and a walk up attic ready to finish into more bedrooms or living space. Sunroom, semi-finished basement... hardwood floors. Very nice! A little more modern/formal than either of us thought we would like but I think we could make it feel homey AND enjoy all the space! It's in a nice neighborhood made up of cul de sacs so no traffic and will give us great bike riding/ dog walking options.
We had the weekend off since Pat (the realtor) had open houses to host in other areas so we just drove around and got a feel for the area. Somewhere along the way (perhaps in one of the houses?) I had lost my glasses. I am not very helpful at reading street signs without my HighDef eyeballs!! So our Saturday afternoon was spent at the LensCrafters in the mall. Of course my prescription was JUST over the year old mark so that meant I had to get an eye exam (naturally they don't take Tricare) before choosing new frames. Later, we poked around the base some more and stopped at the Submarine Museum. Here is the circumference of the USS Ohio vs. USS Holland.
. The next morning we attended church.
The congregation there is RIGHT across the street from the base and is very tiny... like 50ish members, mostly elderly. I counted less than 10 kids that morning...this will be a big adjustment from Pearl Harbor! After service we met up with Bill and Denise Moore (friends from the boat in WA) who were passing through after a trip to Rhode Island. What a great surprise, we enjoyed catching up and look forward to seeing more of them when Bill travels (and Denise joins him!) for work this Fall.
That night we stalked our potential homes in the dark to see what was happening after the sun went down! Did drive time tests to the base, and scoped out nearby shops, etc. I had already checked all the addresses against the sex offender registry and they were clear.
We started Monday out by checking out of the hotel and meeting up with Pat for our final day of looking. First stop was one of our top 2 picks. This one had a gorgeous yard! Veggie garden, play-gym, kid play house with loft! We actually hadn't seen the inside yet since the key-box didn't work on Friday, but the yard/location had it high on the list!
It had many issues inside that would be expensive to repair, mainly kitchen related. Oven, sink, counters, and bathroom. Nothing that couldn't be taken care of BUT not as well kept as the outside was! We were thinking that unless she showed us something that really wow'd us that day we would either make an offer on this house or the brown house. Earlier I had posted on FB that is would be nice to get a neon sign from heaven showing us which house (if any!) to choose!! Some kind of sign to make our decision clear! Well, we didn't get a neon sign, rainbow, or angel messenger... but as we stood in the back yard a HAWK flew over the trees/bushes blocking the neighboring yard and we discovered that they must have at least 5 HOUNDS living back there! Oh my goodness! They made quite the racket!! And it took a long time for the howling and barking to stop. I think that may very well have been a hawk from heaven! ;) We looked at a few more houses and then ended up back at the brown house for a 2nd viewing (and careful listening outside!). We met with the finance guy and did some paperwork then had lunch with Pat as she helped us write up our offer for the brown house! She was surprised when I asked to take her picture...said no client has ever asked that before! Clearly, it's all about the blog and scrapbooks! ;)
She left us to turn in the paperwork and we headed back to Hartford to check in to the hotel there. A few hours later while we were at dinner she called to say the sellers needed more time to think about it since they were nervous that our orders would get changed at the last minute and then they would be in trouble! I can understand that. A little bit later she called back with a counter offer and news that the seller didn't want to include his snowblower. ( hmmm... what will he do with it in Arizona?!) We countered lower, and said he could keep the blower. It was late and we didn't hear anything else till the next day as we were sitting in the San Fransico airport. We got an email with a signed purchase agreement, but hadn't heard from Pat yet so we weren't sure if it was the first one or what. We arrived home travel weary and were met with 3 excited little girls!!
House update: They accepted our offer and we are in the inspection/paperwork phase now! Exciting and terrifying to think about becoming homeowners!
April 27, 2012
April 23, 2012
April 22, 2012
April 06, 2012
Check out those baby blues...
Anual eye-exam time around here.
Everyone survived "the poof" of air into the eyeball
Dr. Mike has seen us for the last 3 years. He is very soft spoken and patient with kids and always makes the visit go by quickly and painless.
We found out at our very first visit all 3 girls are farsighted like their Daddy, and either it would self correct... or get worse as they started reading/doing more school work.
Last year Kelsey got reading glasses... this year Kenzie is getting some! Emma goes back in a week or so to get her eyes dilated so that he can get the perfect Rx for her eyes. I guess for younger kids their eyes can really pull it together and correct vision problems (but is exahasting for the nerves) so we think that her random "morning barfies" are actually headache (possibly migraine) induced nausea. She does a couple hours of workbooks, drawing, looking at books, and other close up activities during the day so I can see how her eyes would get tired! She is the kid that wants to "do school" on the weekends! haha. Dr. Mike was nice enough to let me bring her back for an evening appointment for the dilation so that she can go home and sleep off that blurry phase afterwards.
I'll post an update when they all have the real frames!
AHG night: new t-shirts and the Cooking Badge
Here are the Tenderhearts waitng for the meeting to begin.
Finally our troop T-shirt order arrived! Now the girls have an alternate outfit to wear when uniforms are going to get messy!
Saluting during the Color Guard ceremony...
A consutant from Pampered Chef came to the meeting and gave a cooking demo and finished off their requirements to earn the Cooking Badge. The next badge ceremony will be in May... both Kenzie and Kelsey have been working hard to get quite a few completed!
