Survival Mode

It’s been crickets around here.  Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I was in (and still am) in complete survival mode….and somedays I’m doing a pretty crummy job of just surviving….. I thought it was time for a quick update on what’s been happening since “my life got flip, turned, upside down”!  Hopefully you sang that in your best Will Smith, Fresh Prince rap!  HA!!  If you’re new around here, you can catch up:

Part 1

Part 2

2 Month Catch Up

The quick version…..we moved, the kids have started school, and we are adjusting.  Feel free to stop there and wait for future posts…..if you’d like some details broken down, keep reading.  I’ll try not to bore you, too much.

Selling our Home

Okay, so back to June when our world was, sing it with me, “flip, turned, upside down”.  (I have to sing it.  It makes me feel better)  We instantly started getting our home ready to sell.  We thought that this would be a pretty simple process considering our home was in a highly sought after neighborhood in our school district.  Our home wasn’t in bad shape, but we do have kids and after almost 10 years of living in it, it needed a few minor things done to make it “show ready.”  We took about 2 weeks to prepare and thought we’d try selling ourselves to save realtor fees.  Remember, I told you how everything had just seemed to fall into place leading up to the acceptance of the job????  Well, we had to hit some road blocks.  The weekend we listed our home for sale…..3 more listed with us, making 4 total for sale ON OUR STREET!!!!  Instant panic mode.  One of the homes sold in a week.  Increase panic!  We didn’t have time to sit on it.  Why didn’t ours sell that week?  God, where are you???  After 2 weeks of trying on our own, we decided we didn’t have the time to sit and listed it with an agent.  YES!  We had a couple come through within 2 days of listing AND they made an offer, BUT it was a low offer AND it was contingent upon them selling their home.  More panic set in.  We didn’t counter.  We didn’t have time for a contingency.  2 weeks go by and we show it several times and everyone has the same response “it’s wonderful, but not big enough.”  Here’s where snarky me started to come out.  These realtors know our neighborhood and the home sizes.  WHY are they bringing their clients through our home?  Our home is the largest square footage plan in the subdivision…..that just added to my panic and frustration.  So, we lowered the price, and the next day had an offer…..wait for it……from the original couple that made an offer!  They had a contract on their home and their offer was now contingent free.  It was still a low offer, but didn’t appear to be as insulting considering we had just lowered the asking price (why did timing work out that way?).  We countered and had quite a bit of back and forth, but we were under contract!!!  At that point, I just wanted to not have it hanging over our heads anymore.  We closed August 25.  Super bittersweet.

Last picture before we said goodby to our beloved home.

The Home Search

I basically had 2 months to find a school district I felt good about trusting my children to, find a home in that district, and move.  Easy, right?  NO!  After doing some research and talking with a few friends from here that live (and teach) in the new area, we settled on a district.  That actually became the easy part.  The hard part, finding a place to live in that district.  The home search looks a little different when you are looking via the virtual world.  Due to our summer schedules/activities, it was difficult to find a time to look in person.  My parents went down multiple times to look at homes and always found the same thing….SOLD!  They do home sales differently down here.  They post a sign in the yard and advertise for a week or so “coming soon”.  When they go to officially list, there is a line of people waiting to throw the offer on the table.  Homes were selling for asking price or more on listing day!  As soon as we would find something, it would be gone.  Again, “Why God?  I thought you had our backs through all this”!  Okay, let’s rent.  Once we are down there, we can get in on the “coming soon” game and find something we really want instead of just praying for anything to be available……..HAHHAHAHAH!!!!  Guess What?!  They only have 2 bedroom apartments available in the area we needed.  Fine with us, it’s temporary and we can squeeze…..nope federal law says our family size has to have a 3 bedroom apartment.  Well, CRAP!  Now what?  We can enroll them in school with a building contract and find a temporary apartment outside the district………I guess that’s our only option, so we went with it.  We found 1, and only 1, short term lease, 3 bedroom apartment.  It’s been interesting….

Moving

Moving sure has been a journey…..  Due to building, we basically have to move TWICE!!!!  YAY FUN!!!  Can you feel my excitement???  The apartment we had to go with is a third floor loft layout.  Yes, THIRD FLOOR!  It’s not move in, or out, friendly.  After carrying a few items up the winding staircase, we decide this was going to be a bare bones 3 months.  So most of our things went to storage and we will move them down later.  Getting the house packed and moved was absolutely awful.  I was alone.  Creg had already left to start work.  And while, yes, he was doing what he needed to do to provide for us, I was alone, overwhelmed, and ready to quit.  I’m so thankful for my parents.  They helped me get through it.  We made it, but gosh it was rough.  At least there won’t be as much packing when we move into the house.  Just moving it from storage.

Adjusting

The children are adjusting well, I think.  They seem to like their schools and teachers.  Andrew has had the biggest adjustment with being in middle school.  He starts at 7:30!!!  He’s also out at 2:20.  He will love that once we get into our home.  Right now he (and I) hate it.  There’s an hour and a half difference between his schedule and the girls.  With our apartment being a decent drive, we have a lot of time to kill in the car.  I’ll be so ready to not spend 4 hours a day in my car just taking kids to and from school.  The girls start dance next week and Andrew starts lacrosse the following week.  We are looking for a softball team for Morgan, too.  They seem to be making friends, or at least meeting lots of new faces.  The apartment life is not ideal, but we are making the most of it.  We miss our bikes and yard, but are taking some family walks to find parks and explore.  We just remind ourselves that this is temporary.

Creg is adjusting well.  He loves his job and that’s HUGE!  It really does make a difference when you like what you are doing and feel like you have a purpose in life.  He’s missing his kids, but thankful for FaceTime and quick trips to see them on occasion.  He’s meeting people and finding his way.

Me, well, I’m struggling.  I spend 4 hours a day in my car taxing kids to and from school.  By the time I get the girls dropped off, it doesn’t leave much time before I have to go get Andrew.  Dax is either not napping, having extremely short naps, or sleeping in the car.  That make for one crabby little boy.  I’m home with a 2 year old.  I don’t have my mom or my friends close by.  I’m not going to work or school daily to have the opportunity to meet people.  I have offered my time at the schools, but it’s so early in the year that extra help isn’t really needed yet.  I’m looking forward to joining the local MOPS chapter.  Meetings start next week.  Hopefully I’ll find some friends there.  I’m feeling alone and lost.  Being a stay at home mom can definitely be isolating, but when you move to a new area….it’s absolutely awful!

Looking Up

Now that we have been here almost 3 full weeks, I’m at least settling into a routine of some sort.  I’m trying to change my attitude.  I know that God is in control and that He wouldn’t bring me to it if He wasn’t going to bring me through it.  It may not be easy right now, but God didn’t say it would be easy.  He said it would be worth it.  So I wait, and work through the hard stuff knowing that it will be better on the other side of the yuck!

If you made it through all of that, WOW!  I promise that I won’t be a “Debbie Downer” on all of my future posts.  Look for some fun and exciting posts coming soon…..Home build progress, life, and well…..see below……Dax is a 2 year old boy.  ‘Nuff said!

Tiny Tornado. I live in complete chaos. I did laugh at this, though.

Elizabeth Pierson

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