Man! Of course the morning that I actually manage to get up just a little bit earlier than usual (because I’m TERRIBLY behind on blogging), I hear a little voice chirping, “Mama! Mama! MAMA!!!”  WAY earlier than I’d really prefer.  So, despite needing a long time to blog, that just doesn’t exist these days, and I’ll have to be bullet-pointily brief.  Here goes:

• House Projects: we’ve gotten through 24 of the 25 items from our buyers’ “list of demands.”  The last thing is to install a handrail at the top of the stairs.  We’ll do this tomorrow since it requires removing the baby gate at the top of the stairs.  The buyers are coming to do their re-inspection on Thursday (MY birthday!! They better be kind, darn it!!).
• Thursday: Yes, the much dreaded re-inspection.  Ugh.  We’ll have done everything they’ve asked.  We have to leave out all receipts and proof of work-orders for the projects of which they ‘required’ we hire a professional to complete.  Basically, at this point, they can’t walk away or add new items, BUT if something was not to their satisfaction they could say, “Do it again…or pay us money…OR we’ll push back closing.”  Trying to ignore this little possibility.
• Packing: Packing. Packing. PACKING.  We’re moving Memorial Day Monday (6 days from now – eek!).  But I’m really thinking that my deadline is Thursday afternoon (again, happy birthday to me).  We can’t be here for several hours in the afternoon.  (I’ve got to take Kayli and Zach for pediatrician check-ups, then the buyers do their re-inspect, so we’ll head up to my ma and pa’s for a birthday dinner).  THEN, Friday afternoon, we’ll be 100% packed (ideally) and will pick up Mike and head to my parents’ beach house in Port Ludlow for a bit of a MUCH NEEDED weekend get-away.  THEN, come home Sunday night, have one last sleep here in this, our first house, (sniff sniff), THEN, 8am Monday morning pick up the U-Haul and the fun begins!  Still TONS to do but the place is starting to look pretty darn sparse!
• New House: They (the seller and his worker peeps) are (no surprise) very behind on all the updates/upgrades/projects at our new digs, so we haven’t even gotten to go back to do the inspection!!Tomorrow’s the day and I’m SO excited to get to see it again!  We will be taking LOTS of pictures and will be taking lots of measurements especially for the new appliances we ‘get’ to buy – fridge, washer, dryer AND furnace.  (Ouch. $$$!! Happy birthday to me!)  As for the inspection tomorrow, we hired the same guy that our picky-pants-demanding buyers hired for here.  That’s right, the guy who was so thorough they decided to basically have us do nearly every little thing that he discovered, is, when it comes down to it, REALLY good at what he does.  As Mike said, if the inspection that we’d done when we bought this house, had been half as thorough, we would’ve had a much smaller list to do for selling.  So, I guess we CAN thank the buyers for helping us find a quality inspector! (but we’re not actually going to thank them.  Sorry).
• OTHER news: Most recent and exciting is that Matthew celebrated his First Communion this past weekend.  The event was made extra special with the presence of Mike’s sister Jamie (also Matthew’s Godmother), her hubby Dan, their freakishly well-behaved and mellow dog Commando AND our sweet handsome-pants angel-of-a nephew Tucker.  They arrived from Idaho on Saturday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning.  Matthew kick-started his special weekend with a base-hit at his ball game Saturday morning (I nearly wet my pants, I was so excited.  And I proceeded to get all teary-misty eyed with pride behind my sunglasses).  Then, he made us extra-crazy proud by doing everything perfectly at the First Communion Mass, where, unfortunately, I didn’t have sunglasses to hide my proud tears!  I really didn’t anticipate crying like a bafoon, but after watching him process down the aisle, I turned to my mom all snotty and tear-soaked and said, “Mom! I need a Kleenex!”  To which my mom said, “Ya think?!” and handed me a wad of tissue.  It was such a special day and we are so blessed with the amazing family and friends that could join us to celebrate.  Happy sigh!