I haven't updated about our current living situation or house hunting for awhile. Altho, if I am friends with you on fb, you probably know everything I am about to say. =)
Let me start by saying just how much we appreciate Brad's gma for making room for 5 people in her house. I'm sure it is just as big of an adjustment for her as it has been for us. You already know she lives about 20 steps from the house we just sold. Our two houses were built by her brother back in 1998. They are almost identical on the inside. We both built on in 2007 and added a room so they are kinda different but not much. So she has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms like we did. As soon as we knew our house was sold, she started cleaning out closets and dressers and the master bathroom to make room for us.
Now we have 5 people and all our necessities crammed in 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. So imagine a master bedroom that is 12x12 (I give you the dimensions so you realize it isn't a huge room even tho it is the master), in it is our queen size bed, 2 tall dressers and 1 long dresser. That basically leaves only a walk way. The other bedroom, I'm not sure the size but it is smaller than the master, has a full size bed (Hannah and RYan share it) and a twin mattress on the floor beside it for Abby. There are also 2 tall dressers and a long dresser in their room. The twin mattress takes up the walk way unless we stand it up. The closets couldn't hold one more piece of hanging clothes if my life depended on it!
So let's back up to Jan 8, the day we closed on the house. We still had about 5 boxes to get out of the house and the washer and dryer. We didn't hand over the keys (we forgot them at home) at closing but told the new owners that the doors were always open (don't forget we live in Buffalo), they could start moving in whenever they wanted. SO we were getting out the last of our belongings while they were bringing in the beginnings of theirs. I like to think we have a pretty good neighborly relationship with them.
Once we got everything out, we spent the rest of the day packing for the cruise and left the next morning. So we never really had time to mourn the loss of our first home. I still haven't thought about it much. I guess it will really hit us when we make it to NC.
And when is that, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine! We are going to let the kids finish school up here, which has been moved back to June 11 with all the crazy weather and water crisis. We have been searching the realtor sites and craigslist about every day for either a house or a piece of property on which to put a modular. There is something about every single property we find that doesn't fit our criteria so we are still looking. I'm hoping as soon as it gets warm down there, the market will pick up and we will have a lot more to chose from. Until then, we continue to pray for God to show us the right house or land and just help up be mindful that our wants are not that important. I try to stay focused on the fact that serving God in our new neighborhood is most important.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Cruise news
Last time I wrote we were headed to SC for our first cruise. We had a great time. So, here are some highlights and maybe lowlights for anyone interested.
Going without was kids for the first time was a good idea. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. That being said, we definitely want to take them the next time. Altho, we are hoping to go on a more kid-friendly ship next time.
There was plenty of drinking (not from us), but we never saw anyone out of control. Of course, we didn't spend any time in the bars or casino or areas that would be likely to attract drunk people. We had waiters asking us if we wanted a drink as early as 9am! But a simple shake of the head sent them on their way.
The first 24 hours after we left the port, I was dizzy and had a hard time walking on the ship. I guess that was my form of motion sickness. I never felt like I needed to throw up, so that's good. It didn't take long to hardly feel the movement.
Our room was on the first floor (which was deck 3), it didn't have a window. That was bad and good. We wished we could see out sometimes but when we were sleeping, which was often-even during the day, it was very dark and made for good naps. =)
The rooms aren't made for spending a lot of time in. Unless you pay top dollar for one. But that is ok as most people don't spend much time in their rooms.
There were family friendly shows every night. Those were the ones we went to. The comedy club had adult only shows late in the evening as well. All the shows we went to were very good.
We got a newsletter every evening that had all the next day's activities listed so we could plan ahead.
You have access to free food (sandwiches, pizza and ice cream) and drinks (water, lemonade and tea) all night. All the food is free but you have to pay for pop or alcohol. I am sad that we only made it to the formal dining room on the last night. It was a lot of fun to meet the other people at our table and the waiter.
Getting off at the Bahamas was a great experience too. The water was cold but the weather was nice for January. We want to go during the summer next time so the pool on the ship won't be so cold. The native people had all their shops set up right off the port so you had to be very persistent unless you really wanted to buy something.
Overall it was great and I would recc anyone go at least once. It was not any more expensive than a week at the beach.
Going without was kids for the first time was a good idea. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. That being said, we definitely want to take them the next time. Altho, we are hoping to go on a more kid-friendly ship next time.
There was plenty of drinking (not from us), but we never saw anyone out of control. Of course, we didn't spend any time in the bars or casino or areas that would be likely to attract drunk people. We had waiters asking us if we wanted a drink as early as 9am! But a simple shake of the head sent them on their way.
The first 24 hours after we left the port, I was dizzy and had a hard time walking on the ship. I guess that was my form of motion sickness. I never felt like I needed to throw up, so that's good. It didn't take long to hardly feel the movement.
Our room was on the first floor (which was deck 3), it didn't have a window. That was bad and good. We wished we could see out sometimes but when we were sleeping, which was often-even during the day, it was very dark and made for good naps. =)
The rooms aren't made for spending a lot of time in. Unless you pay top dollar for one. But that is ok as most people don't spend much time in their rooms.
There were family friendly shows every night. Those were the ones we went to. The comedy club had adult only shows late in the evening as well. All the shows we went to were very good.
We got a newsletter every evening that had all the next day's activities listed so we could plan ahead.
You have access to free food (sandwiches, pizza and ice cream) and drinks (water, lemonade and tea) all night. All the food is free but you have to pay for pop or alcohol. I am sad that we only made it to the formal dining room on the last night. It was a lot of fun to meet the other people at our table and the waiter.
Getting off at the Bahamas was a great experience too. The water was cold but the weather was nice for January. We want to go during the summer next time so the pool on the ship won't be so cold. The native people had all their shops set up right off the port so you had to be very persistent unless you really wanted to buy something.
Overall it was great and I would recc anyone go at least once. It was not any more expensive than a week at the beach.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Time
Well, I haven't had much time for blogging but if you are my fb friend you know plenty about my life!
Right now I'm riding shotgun next to my honey so I have a few minutes before my battery dies.
We closed on our house yesterday. Met our new neighbors. Moved into grandma's house. And now we are almost to Charleston SC where we will board the cruise ship tomorrow.
When we get home it is time to get down to business with house/proper hunting. We have decided to stay in WV until the kids are out of school for the summer. They have misses 4 of the last 6 days so there will be make up days added to the end of the year, which puts us into June.
But at least that gives us plenty of time to find property and have a modular put on it.
That's all I've got for now. See ya in a week when I'm returning from 80+* weather.=)
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