Catching Up

So…I’ve been MIA for a bit due to a whole lot of activity going on here in the H household. Since I last posted, I went on a business trip to Chicago, we closed on the new house, and we headed out on vacation. The last item, of course, being the most important!

We’re currently in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, completely enjoying our vacation. We’re here with Brad’s two sisters, Melissa and Darlene, and their respective families. None too small a group, since there are a lot of cousins between our three families! But first things first…

The house closing went off without too much of a hitch. Other than the previous owners not being completely moved out by the time of closing (what the heck??!) and then asking if their two cats could spend the night after our closing in the garage (again, WHAT?!?), things went as planned. We did discover in our final walk-through that we need to replace all of the carpet, pretty much, which is a bummer. But I have developed a pretty intense allergy to cats over the past few years, and we had no idea they had two of them. That’s what happens when you house hunt from 1,600 miles away, I guess, and spend a total of 15 minutes at a time looking at your future new home. But now that we’ve spent some time in there, I’m DYING. Add to it the big stains that were revealed when they moved their furniture, and it’s pretty much a necessity to replace the carpets. Sigh.

The night after we closed, we brought the kids over for picnic pizza and their first swim in the pool. So much fun! We pulled up a spot on the kitchen floor and brought out the paper plates, then headed for a dip. The kids thought it was all very exciting to be picnicking (sp?) on the floor in the new house with no furniture, and Madelyn took all of about 20 minutes to get up enough courage to jump off the diving board in her lifejacket. They went back and forth between the pool and the fantastic new playhouse, which is seriously as sweet as any toddler/preschooler could want. Maddie is all excited about decorating it inside, which I think it just too cute. Guess she’s got a bit of Martha Stewart in her…so we’ll see what she comes up with! Move-in date is the 11th.