We are now four weeks into the school year, and we've got two weeks under our belts living with my parents. What in the world has happened since the last time I wrote? Well, here are just a few things:
Our house miraculously sold in THREE days. We spent all summer getting it ready. Basically, we didn't have a summer at all. We prepped and cleaned, moved items to storage and packed a ton of boxes. It was insane. We listed our house on a Saturday, I think. On Sunday, we were on our way out the door to go bowling when Patti called to see if we could do a showing. The house wasn't ready at all, so we spent about forty-five minutes of hell trying to get it to look (and smell) nice. We decided to do the best we could, but we figured it wasn't a serious showing. After he saw the house, we got a call saying that he loved it and they were thinking of doing an offer. Sunday evening comes along and we were given word that he would indeed be giving us an offer, and he wanted to know the lowest price we would take. By Monday, we had a secured offer, and we accepted.
Insane. Oh, and did I mention this?
It was a full-cash offer, and he didn't want a home inspection or ANYTHING. All we had to do was a bug check. Insane. Insane!
All cleared and our house, within three more weeks, was suddenly changed over from our home to his investment. We found out that he plans to rent the house.
We tried looking into a rental, but it was just too much work. The house was large and it needed some upkeep, and I was worried about the heating and cooling bills. We couldn't find a nice small place with the time we had. So, we went to plan B: moving in with my parents.
I called friends to get help moving, and we took one day two Saturdays ago to move the rest of our stuff (some is in J's grandparents' basement) to a storage unit in the town we are now working in. Insane.
To say I've thought a lot about our old house would be a lie. I'm purposefully not thinking about it because of how emotional it was to move. I was fine until the night before our move (a Friday night) when our two friends J and L came to help us pack the truck. I walked to the back yard to take a picture, and suddenly all the memories from our home came flooding over me. I thought of our cookouts, our walks with a little baby, our summer afternoons pre-baby with Real Simple magazines and feet up, our lights shining out of the windows, our music coming from the kitchen door, our red umbrella covering the sun, our incredible trees hugging us each day, and our walks under the moon when we were first home owners. I saw it all, and the tears started forming.
After I got rid of my thoughts, I was fine until the next day. J and I finished everything up, and we had to run back to the house to clean and leave the keys for the next owner. We sat in our living room, looking up at our ceiling. I thought about the night we first moved in, completely in awe that we finally had our home--our house--the house I said I had to have before even thinking about having a baby. I remember the lights were out and we were exhausted from the move. We didn't even have furniture to fill the house yet, but we were so, so happy. It was our house, and it felt so big, and it was beautiful. I couldn't wait to decorate it. Suddenly, here we were, only three-and-a-half years later, sitting in an empty living room, imagining what the next person would do, or if they would keep the golden-yellow wall I spent so much time deciding on.
And we were moving into the upstairs of my parents' house.
With that said, it's been going fine so far. It's only been two weeks, but we have our own space, and it's a pretty large space, and we are all so busy, there's not much time to think about the situation. We are extremely grateful because this means we'll be able to build a house.
So, on to the good news: we have a lot, and we're building! We found a builder to help us with the cost while building, so we are able to pick everything out and build a little, sweet house on a 2-acre lot. We cannot wait. It'll be a while, but it's a modular, so it's quicker than stick-built. We are moving to a neighborhood we looked at ages ago when we first explored the Culpeper area for possible "future" homes. Little did we know we'd be moving in a matter of months. We loved the neighborhood then, and we love it now. There are more houses going up, which is nice, but everyone has at least two acres, so there is some separation. The neighborhood started with an HOA and other regulations, but the home builder went bankrupt, so the bank now owns many of the lots. Because of this, the neighborhood is beautiful, but there is no HOA! We are looking forward to it so much.
We've picked everything out to the exterior roof color. It's been crazy. And it takes much longer than we anticipated. Now, we are preparing to sign the contract this week and get the house ordered. Then we just watch and wait!
Something keeping me joyous in all of this is Charlie. He has been an absolute joy in my life; it just keeps getting better and better. I love that he has a personality now, and he's hysterical. Even the new babysitter says he could easily be a class clown one day because he's so goofy and he laughs at himself all the time. I totally see it. He is such an incredible little guy. He's 16 months, and each month I love him more than the last. He's starting to talk more now, and he will, at times, repeat what we say. He babbles constantly, but he seems to have actual babble conversations with us now. You can tell Charlie understands what we say because of his facial expressions, but then he'll babble back. It doesn't make much sense, but you can tell he has a sense of what we're discussing, and he thinks he's saying something right back. It's hysterical.
He sometimes cries when I walk away, so that's new. I don't mind it because it's not often, and it shows me that he really does know that I'm his mom, even though I'm away at work all the time.
Sometimes he walks like a little old man with his hands held behind his back. It is adorable. He walks and babbles as if he is contemplating the world.
He loves eating, and he'll eat just about anything that's put in front of him. We have no trouble in this area whatsoever!
There are so many new, wonderful things about Charlie these days, but I'm not going to remember them all. He is just my blessing, and I'd be lost without him.
As far as my job goes, it's going. It's a different world, but it's a good one. It's new and different. I look forward to the day I know more teachers and students because I'll feel more "at home." Right now it's still early enough that I yearn for the love of my old students and old friends. One day...
That should get us caught up for now. This is probably poorly written because of my cold, and because I'm trying to write as much as possible without forgetting. I'm sitting upstairs now, on my mom's little couch, watching J play a game, excited for our future. There's definitely a little anxiety mixed in, but it'll work out. "Everything will be all right."
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