Sold!

It happened! Right at 8 weeks, we got an offer. Hooray! 

Fun story... I got a call at 5pm from the showing scheduling service on a Monday evening. We were just finishing eating dinner early because everyone had swim lessons, and Collin had taekwondo, and we had to leave by 5:20pm. The operator informed me that a realtor had just placed a request for a 5:30 showing. 

I said, "Do you mean in 30 minutes?!" 

He said, "Yes, but you can decline it." 

I replied, "Not if I want my house to sell!" 

I quickly got off the phone, and as the kids finished eating, I told them through my panic-induced shortness of breath, "We have a showing, and we have to have the house ready in 20 minutes!" It was 5:02pm. 

And you know what those amazing little monkeys did? They cleared their places, loaded their dishes, and got into their swimsuits/gi. Before I knew it, Collin was wiping bathroom counters and folding nap-time blankets, Brennan was wiping the kitchen table and counters, Ethan was loading the dishwasher, and Kate was putting my shower bottles under the counter in the bathroom. I honestly didn't even tell them what to do.

I've never seen anything like it! I didn't even think they KNEW what to do! But after two months on the market, they just knew what had to happen, and they did it without a single tear, complaint or yell from Mom. 

I sent them to the car and did the final vacuum and mopping and then joined them. I got in the driver's seat and backed out of the garage, and... it was 5:17pm. I pulled over on our street - to put on my shoes! - and gave the most sincere, appreciative compliments to my little team. We had come together and got it done. I was - and still am! - so proud of them. 

The next day we learned that the family who had come that night - the wife is the realtor's daughter - was putting together an offer to buy our house. And we had done it together! It was such a tender mercy that the showing that became "the one" was the showing where we had to work as a team and do the impossible. 

My little guys can move mountains! 

Anyway, a few days later we made an offer on a home in Boerne, TX. It is a bedroom-community on the NW corner of San Ant. The schools are great, and Ryan's commute should be only 30-45 minutes, (rather than one hour drive of most high-rated schools) depending on traffic. We have successfully gotten through the inspections on both ends, so that's a relief. Now we just have to submit documents and sign, sign, sign. 

We will close here on May 24th, take a final farewell tour of southern Colorado, and then drive to Texas. We'll have about a week in a hotel or VRBO there, and then we close on the new house on June 5th. It immediately needs new carpet - before the truck arrives, hopefully - so we'll still have a few more days of unsettledness. It'll be crazy and exhausting, but then it'll be all over. I'm so grateful to see light at the end of the tunnel! 

Eight Weeks

Obviously, I didn't figure I'd be using that title. Other than a "bomb cyclone" blizzard, snow day, bladder infection, four kid colds, three vomiting bugs, two price reductions, one house-hunting trip, one braces removal, six haircuts, quad gum graft and a mother-in-law visit... Nothing has changed. Still on the market. Still no offers. Almost no activity the last week either. Sigh. That's the update... or lack thereof. I'm still standing.

Three Weeks

Today marks three weeks since Ryan left and that the house went on the market. I am doing better than I expected, but there have definitely been some tears and lost-tempers. Showings - which I can't plan ahead for - are frustrating, and Open Houses are generally poorly attended. It is super cold - got down to -11 without windchill last night - and we got about 6 inches of snow Friday through Sunday.  (I had an Open House on Saturday.) The weather isn't really cooperating, to say the least. I hope Spring is around the corner.

I'm tired of cleaning, especially mopping these beautiful floors. I'm tired of running all the car-pools by myself. I'm tired of doing dishes and making beds. I'm tired of staying on top of fingerprints and other messes. I'm tired of giving all the consequences and breaking up all the fights. I'm tired of entertaining the kids in restaurants, movie theaters and libraries - after cleaning the house for hours - only to be told that our house is "too close to the school" or their "second choice."

I have been so blessed to be served by the members of our ward though. A family from the ward came both Saturday and Sunday mornings to clear the snow from our driveway and sidewalks. Our ministering brother came last Friday evening with a massive ladder to change the battery in the chirping smoke detector at the top of our 20-foot vaulted ceiling. When I failed to be able to install the new control panel on our humidifier, another member of the ward came over to confirm that it was factory-defective (which I then returned and installed the replacement in 5 minutes). We have also received four unrequested dinners from three different families, as well as being invited to eat at two different families' homes (and feeding my four children is no small feat). We have crashed in two different homes during showings - each with only a moment's notice. Many more people have offered their homes for our use, and I'm sure I'll still have a chance to take them up on their offers.

Ryan is super happy with his new job and responsibilities. He spends his free time looking at houses with his new best friend, our realtor Jeff. He also goes to the temple (which is in the neighborhood he is renting in) and for bike rides. Of course, he is also working. The weather, unlike here, is almost perfect, and he's loving it. His accommodations are less than ideal (loud tvs until 1am accompanied by obnoxious laughter and multiple cats in the bedroom next door), but he's a trooper. In order to save money, he is renting a room in a home of a member of the Church. They are an older couple whose children are all out of the house. It's a short-term solution, of course, until we can buy a house and the rest of the family can move down.

My plan was to move as soon as we close on this house, even if the kids were still in the middle of the school year. Unfortunately, it's looking more and more like the house won't close until school gets out anyway. So much for being able to get them started before summer break. The best laid plans...

Please pray for us to be able to cope with being apart and for someone to buy our house, so we can be together as a family again.

We really are doing better than I expected, but of course it's still hard. There's our update. Love you all!

Xcaret 15-year adventure!

The Monday morning after Brennan's baptism weekend, we headed to the airport for our much-anticipated 15th anniversary trip. My mom and dad stayed with the kids 7 days so we could get away. After all the stress of Ryan quitting his job and getting the house ready to sell, it was amazing to get away together as just the two of us.

Happy 15 years to us!

We flew into Cancun, but we stayed just south of Playa del Carmen in the Xcaret Resort. It's called an "all-fun inclusive" which means our food, activities, transfers and excursions were all part of the package. It was an amazing adventure! Ryan and I did all kinds of things we'd never done before, and we had a great time being kid-less. Thank you to Grandpa & Grandma for that!

MONDAY
We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived (up at 4am, 1 hour to the Denver airport, 4-1/2 hour flight, 1-hour airport transfer followed by the 1-hour resort tour). We headed to the beach and to check out the pool. I hadn't eaten all day, so we ended up at the pool-side fresh fish buffet for an early dinner. After reading in the hammocks in a private cave, we headed back to our room for room-service (our first 1st of the weekend) dessert.

TUESDAY

Our first pick of parks was Xplor. We checked out bikes from the hotel and headed over in the morning after a bite to eat at the buffet. We went for a drive in a jeep. We also went zip-lining (first time). We did some hammock-splash zip-lines (first time). We took a double kayak with hand-paddles through an underground cave (first time). We also swam in an underground river, which was freezing cold (first time).

After lunch and some balcony hammock time, we got cleaned up and took a boat ride to the lead park for their evening ethnic show. We got there early though, so we had time to ride the scenic tower and look around the whole area from above. It was gorgeous. I totally loved the evening performance too! The first half was Mayan sport demonstrations and then a reenactment of the Spanish arriving. The second half was a dance or music demonstration from each of the Mexican states. It was awesome. We took lots of videos for the kids.

WEDNESDAY
Today we went on our first excursion. Along with about 20 other people from our hotel, we explored 4 different cenotes, underground caves. Each cenote was a different type, but since all were in the Mayan language, here's my summary in English.

The first was a cavern cenote, and we did an assisted rappel into it. We swam and I did my first cliff jump, though this one seemed more like a diving board.

After pasteries, we headed to our second which was an ancient cenote where we could choose between a strap zip-line or bar zipline. Ryan also did the optional cliff jump.

Next, we went kayaking through a semi-open cenote and then snorkeling in a cavern cenote and had a wonderful lunch in the jungle of soup and sandwiches.

Our last stop was an open cenote, where there was a water slide and bar zipline. We also floated down the river in an inner tube and did another cliff jump together, much higher and much more cliff-like.

This was our favorite day for sure.

In the evening, we had reservations to the Japanese restaurant, where I had raw fish and sushi for the first time. It was all amazing!

THURSDAY

This was our longest excursion. We took a bus to Chichen Itza, which was about 3 hours away. We ate breakfast on board the bus. Though I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the World, this was one long, hard day. We didn't really like our tour guide, and it was hot and tiring. I didn't realize Chicken Pizza (as our guide playfully called it) was such a large compound. After a long tour and a short free-time, we headed to lunch in a historical town called Valledolid. There's a semi-open cenote right in the middle of town we got to walk around too. It was beautiful.

When we got back to the hotel (12 hours after we left!), we decided we couldn't miss the chance to do zip-lining after dark, so we changed and headed back to Xplor Fuego. We were tired, but it was awesome! Like most evenings, we finished up with nutella crepes and ice cream at the hotel buffet.

FRIDAY
We needed to hit the last two parks near the hotel, so we grabbed bikes to head to Xcaret, the leading historical park. The highlights of our time there were helping make chocolate and taking a boat tour. We also saw a bunch of animals (zoo and aquarium like) and explored a Mayan village.

After a buffet lunch, we biked over to neighboring Xenses. This was my least favorite park. It was divided into two sections, and every activity has to be completed to reach the next. The first half was a topsy-turvy town, water-slide, bird-fly zip-line, salt-water bath and then mud-bath.

The second half was optical illusions with giant/midget, a pitch-black experience in 5 different biomes, garden of Eden water-fall and cave experience. I hated the mud and darkness activities so much, they tainted the whole day for me, sadly. Ryan thought it was all pretty cool though.

Friday evening we had reservations to the hotel's Caribbean show. It was nothing compared to the Xcaret show, but it was a dinner theater, so that was fun.

SATURDAY
We started early again with a one-hour bus trip to Tulum. Our guide was no better than our Chichen Itza guide, and we didn't get nearly enough free time. Our experience was much the same as our other Mayan tour, unfortunately. Tulum is located right on the Caribbean Sea, so at least it wasn't so hot.

After our tour, the bus dropped us off a Xel-Ha, another park. At Xel-Ha, we had lunch and then spent the afternoon adventuring - huge water slide, snorkeling, tubing, cliff-jumping, jungle biking, walking a floating bridge, and cenote exploring.

After getting cleaned up, we went to our reservations at the Las Cuevas restaurant, which was a Brazilian steakhouse down in the caves. The food was great, but we had a rowdy bunch at the table next to us that kinda ruined our time.

SUNDAY
Time to come home. After a little breakfast, we got checked out of our room and started our trek home - one hour to the airport, 3 hours of waiting around, 4-1/2 hours in flight, customs, shuttle to long-term parking and then 1-hour drive home.

It was cold and snowy all while we were gone, and it was a rude awakening to come back to. I truly missed the kids this trip, and I wouldn't have wanted to be gone any longer. Unfortunately, it's now time for real life - Mom & Dad left about noon today, the house officially goes live tonight, and Ryan leaves for good in the morning. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That's my motto right now.