A great day!

I just had to document a great day!!!  I had a list of things to do and have accomplished most of them. It helped that Landon didn't have school, so I didn't have to leave the house. While I was getting the kids motivated to get up, I was folding clothes and put some of them away.

Landon and I took our time to get ready, eat, and get out the door. We went to the bank first. I've had a check from Ms. Laura for like a month, so figured I better get it deposited. Landon is always thrilled to go since he gets a lollipop. Next we went  to Michaels. I wanted to find something for the project I'm doing with the kids tomorrow. I am going to read the book The Rainbow fish, then we are making fishies out of paper plates. I got glitter foam sheets and cut out fish fins.

Next we went to the school to have lunch with Jordan and Spencer. We stopped to get him a slushie, so he was thrilled. Everyone kept telling me that Landon looks just like Spencer. He resembles him for sure, but I can see differences. Spence was thrilled to have us there, but Landon was antsy. He kept putting his hands over his ears. I don't htink he likes a lot of noise and stimuli. He kept saying "I want to go home." HOpefully that isn't a problem for when he is in kindergarten

We then had lunch with Jordan. She is always happy to see us. I got her a chocolate milk, so she was happy. We left before her lunch was over since Landon had enough.

When we got home, I sat down to do my project for tomorrow. Landon was right at the table with me and made a few of his own fishies. I need to do stuff like that more often. I used to do way more with Jordan and Spence hwen they were littler.

Next up was to put a roast in the oven. I'm trying to go through all the food in the freezer and cook it all before our move. I don't want to have a ton of fridge and freezer stuff to move. I cooked a roast and it was pretty old, but I turned out excellent, if I do say so myself!!! I haven't made a meal that tasty in a long time, and Darin loved it. I always love it when he really loves the meals I make.

I got ahead of myself-before we actually had dinner, I took the kids to the library. The actually did really well. Landon is a bit too loud, but he didn't yell at the top of his lungs for me like he did last time-that's a whole other story. We got new books and tapes to listen to in the car. The  worst part about the library trip is when I am checking the books out. It takes a while and the boys get so antsy. They go outside and want to climb on the walls. I told them not to today, so they didn't.

When Darin got home, I had to sign a billion pieces of paper for the mortgage. My hand hurt by the end, and he said it was only half the packet!!! But I was pretty excited because we got an awesome interest rate-3.625% I think. We also went over the inspection report. There are mostly little piddly things that need to be done. We aren't going to ask for all of it, we don't want to make it seem like we are asking for too much and make them not want to fix anything, so we are asking for the most important things. We are having the appraisal of the house on Saturday, so I'm very curious to see how it comes out. Our buyers did their appraisal on the townhouse the other day, so I'm interested in that one as well.

I've been working on my blog book as well, but it is a horrible program. I'm doing it on blurb and I do not like it at all. I've been told of a couple other places that I am going to try next. I have to get it done and ordered by Oct. 5th so I don't lose out on my coupon! I'm over half done, so I want to get a bunch done tonight.

We have a "Panda" in the house!

Landon started preschool a couple weeks ago. He goes to Lee District Rec Center Preschool. It is his second year at this preschool. We really love it and are excited for one more year.

Landon is a "Panda" with Ms. Kelly and Ms. Lori. It was hard to convince him that he wasn't 

a dolphin anymore and that he didn't have Ms. Watson again. We LOVED his teacher last year, but

so far we love Ms. Kelly as well. 

Smiley boy on the first day.

 

and the backpack shot. 

A house story.

Once upon a time, there was a family who started the process to sell their house in about January of 2011. They loaded a POD, had the house painted, put in new carpet and tile, as well as new lighting fixtures. They got it all spiffed up and finally put a "for sale" sign up in the front yard.

Then they prayed and  waited and cleaned and prayed and  waited and cleaned and prayed and waited and cleaned and prayed and cleaned and waited and prayed some more. And there was plenty of moaning, groaning and complaining in there too.

Well, after 5 months of this passed, they had waited enough and are now...drum roll please........
Under contract!!!!

It is pretty awesome, really. Here is how it all has happened. The buyer saw the house on a Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday the 13th to be exact. I went to my friend Sharon's Tastefully Simple party, and received a call from a realtor who wanted to show the house. I left and flew home with Landon to clean up more-the house was in ok shape, but I wanted it to look even better. Well, only after I stopped to get the much cheaper gas:) So I cleaned up a lot and they can toward the latter end of the time slot they had given. I was very relieved for that. We saw them as we were leaving, so that is why I know which ones they were. Two men. Not sure the relationship, though. 

So a couple days later our realtor's assistant calls and tells us that we had a realtor who said an offer would be coming. I was, of course super excited. I waited and it came a couple days later. It came in on a Friday. We sent back a counter offer on Saturday, then we heard back on Sunday and ratified the contract that night. 

Needless to say, I was totally thrilled. 

In the mean time, that Saturday we went out house hunting with Steve again. We had a list of about 5 houses we wanted to see, just to make sure we really liked the one in Lorton-more on that later. So Janna watched the kids for us and off we went. Complete waste of time. The houses were all awful. I knew in my heart that I wanted the house in Lorton. So when we knew we had a contract on our house, we decided to go see it, plus one other one very close to it, on Monday night. The minute we pulled into the driveway and the kids got out and ran around the yard, I know it. I wanted this house. So we showed the kids the play area, and went inside to look more with Steve. 

But I already knew it-this was our home. I loved it and it felt so right to me. 

When we left, we set up a time to go to Steve's office on Tuesday to make an offer. It was nice, though because Steve had been in contact with the agent for a couple weeks and let them know there was a very high chance we would be making an offer. He got a bit of info on the people who live in the house, etc. We made an offer on Tuesday and finally heard back I think by Thursday. We hadn't signed the papers, and Steve called and told us they were going to make more revisions to it, so he and the other agent had more talks. I guess they originally marked the washer and dryer, but then the wife said that the father in law had given it to them, so they wanted to take it.

Oh yeah, in between all the stuff with getting the new house, we had the inspection on our town house. I cleaned for about 6 hours straight and prayed about every half hour that they wouldn't ask for crazy expensive things. Well it went extremely well, and they are only asking for very minute little things to be done to the house. Darin told me in the car on the way to a store, and I think I shed a few tears. We also passed the HOA inspection on the outside of the house.

Whew, Whew, and Whew again!!!!!

Back to the new house.....We went back and forth for a couple days, one of which our realtor could not get a hold of theirs. Finally he called the buyer directly, which he says he rarely does. He again got more information. They did not want to convey the patio furniture we wanted because, again, the father in law gave it to them for a gift so she did not want to offend them. I guess I can totally understand that.  But Steve reassured us they are still interested and that we would very soon have a contract.

Finally on Saturday, amist our million activities we had going on, I was driving Jordan to a birthday party and decided to check my cell phone. I had it on vibrate so it wouldn't ring during one of our many activities. There was a message from Steve, who had the paper work to sign..

Once again.....I think I may have shed some tears in the car.

Looking back, getting such good news in the car may not be the safest thing ever.....

So we have a contract on an amazing house that we really love. We will close on out townhouse on October 27th and the new house on Nov 1st. We will plan on moving in to the new house the weekend after we close. So just a little over a month away. 

I am just in awe at how the last couple of weeks have been. What I also must say is this:

Prayers are answered. 

The week our buyer looked at the house, Darin was in Denver and he would call me at night and tease me "did you sell the house yet?"  We had been having a lot of showings, so I began to pray that we "would have a contract by the weekend." We were official by Sunday night. I prayed that our inspection would go well and that they wouldn't ask for a new roof or a new furnace. Check. 

When we pray, we are heard. Things happen when the time is right.

So I am sitting here overwhelmed with gratitude and am so excited. In the end, Heavenly Father has prepared the way for us to have a wonderful new home for our family to grow in. If we had sold before this particular time, we wouldn't have found this amazing house that I love sooooo much.  All the months of work and stress will have been worth it once we move into our new home. 

 

Utah trip catch up: A day in Salt Lake City

When we were in Utah, the second Sunday we went to church, then into Salt Lake City. We knew the kids would enjoy the temple and the Visitor Center. And yes, they did for sure. 

Darin and the kids by the reflecting pool.

 I absolutely love being on Temple Square. It is so beautiful and serene. The kids really loved 

to explore as well. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Me and my sweet boy.

And the sweet princess.

Spencer and Landon loved the lions on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Visiting the Tabernacle

The kids always love to see the Christus statue. It was nice, until Landon was running around when people were trying to listen and be quiet. I loved the shot on the right.

After we finished at the temple, we had a wonderful time at my friends house. I was soooo excited to see the Brewers. They are the senior couple from my mission that I had lived with in Ogden before I moved out and got my own place. I had lost touch with them for a few yeas so it was super fun to get back together with them. We had a nice dinner with them and a few others from the mission.

I love Joe and Carol soooo much. I was so thrilled to see them and for them to meet the boys. We haven't seen them since we visited when Jordan was 1 year old, so it was wonderful to visit. And they hadn't changed a bit. 


Me, Muriel Dampt Frank-one of my companions, Brent Frank-one of my district leaders, the Brewers and Francois Giraud-Carrier-on of my AP's. It was so fun to catch up!

Playdate with my buddy.

I decided that Landon and I needed something fun to do today! Especially since we 

had a realtor coming in the morning. So, since we have never been there, we head out to 

Oxen Hill Farm. Turned out to be an excellent choice!!

 Here's Landon climbing on a fence at the entrance of the farm. He loved seeing the cows. 

 More fun with the calves.

 Now we move on to the horses. 

These were some seriously huge horses!! The must have been the kind to work in the fields. I forget the names. Anyhow, their heads were huge. Landon and I both had fun petting them. the just stayed still and let us pet them .

Landon gradually got there attention by putting holding his hand through. Here is when he first walked over. 


Look at the size of that head


Then one got jealous! He was a bit further back and wasn't getting any attention. Landon was standing on the fence, then this horse walked over, pushed the other one away, and was nuzzling Lanny with his head. I was taking pics, then I had to grab Lan because the horse was pushing him up against the fence with his head. It was really amazing to watch-the horse then just stood there as if saying "my turn." He let us pet him for another 10 minutes or so, until we needed to go. I just couldn't believe it. That horse knew what he wanted!!

This is the pic I took right before I had to grab Landon off the fence:)


more petting pictures.



After we left the farm, we went to National Harbor. I wanted to try Elevation Burger, and we had lots of time to kill before we had to pick the kids up from school. I also wanted to go to the Peeps store and let Landon play on the "awakening" sculpture. Another great choice! We had lots of fun. Oh, and it was fun because we ran into a friend who used to be in our ward at both places so it was fun to catch up and let the boys play together a bit.

Lunch time. Our first stop was Elevation Burger. I had heard so much about it, that I wanted to try it. Landon was happy to have a shake, that's for sure. I ordered a burger for me, and a grilled cheese for him. He wasn't too thrilled with his, so unfortunately he had a shake some fries for his lunch.....My burger was good, but not anything to rave about. I wasn't too keen on the fries. They are fried in olive oil, and are really soggy. Although we did manage to eat most of them....



 And then a quick trip  to the peeps store. Yum. I had my eyes on chocolate covered ones! I got the kids some Halloween themed ones. (a little side story here is that when I picked the kids from school, I was out of the car asking where Jordan was and Spencer got into the bag and started eating mine!! Stinker. I managed to get a bit of one and salvaged the second one I got.

Landon first finding the statue.

Nore fun playing on the "giant", as we like to call him. We used to go to play on this when it was at Hains Point in DC. It was a much better location than here. There were dead fish that had washed on shore, and I couldn't keep Landon off the rocks and was certain he was going to fall into the Potomac River!! The other location had a playground, and was much more amenable to the needs of little kids. Ah well-it probably sees many more visitors than at the old place.

I have always loved this view of the hand. Very cool.

At the moment......

......the kiddos are in the basement trying to have a sleep over, but Landon is driving everyone crazy. We have a friend over whose parents went out of town.
 
At the moment, my ears are still plugged. I finished my antibiotic for my ear infection, but my head is still muffled. Very annoying to hear everything inside your head; with the worst being brushing your teeth and washing your hair!

At the moment, our house is still on the market. We are having an open house on Sunday, so hopefully that will generate some interest. Darin says we give it a few more weeks, as long as the houses we like are still on the market, we will keep trying. (more on this below.)
 
At the moment, Landon is asking me to read to him. (which I do and finally have the4 kiddos in the basement calmed down. The boys are sleeping, and Jordan and her friend are quietly talking. )

At the moment, I'm feeling blessed and grateful that our basement did not get flooded; while at the same time my heart is breaking for those in our ward who were completely flooded and had to evacuate. I just feel so very sad for them and others who had any amount of water in their homes. We've been there-it's horrible!

At the moment the mouse on my laptop is driving me crazy-the key you click on sticks so it won't do what I want unless I click at precisely the right spot.... very frustrating while editing pictures. 

At the moment I'm getting excited about my night out with friends tomorrow night. We are going to Wolf Trap to see the Sound of Music Sing along. Yay!!

At the moment, I'm thinking of my sisters and wondering how a certain family issue is working out. I miss them a lot and many times feel so bad that I'm not there to help them and take the burden off. Missing my mom, too.

At the moment Darin is upstairs, the kids downstairs and  I am sitting in the dark in the living room alone. It is quiet. What do I do? Go to bed....sit her a bit longer....keep typing.......

Keep typing wins out. I just heard giggling, so I'll wait a little longer to make sure the girls go to sleep. I just wanted to get a few things down to remember this time in my life. It has really been a rough couple of months. Summer flew by-and I mean flew by. It seems like it was just the last day of school, and here we are starting again. Seems like our summer vacation is so much shorter than other places.

Darin and I were able to go to the temple last weekend, thanks to a great friend taking our kiddos at the last minute.  We did a session and Darin happened to have one card for each of us in his bag-we were going to do sealings, but got half way there and realized we hadn't grabbed the cards. Good thing he had the ones in his bag. Anyhow, the name were from Darin's family and I had the name Lanora. I really fell in love with it-it would be so cute if we ever had a baby girl. We could call her Nora. I love it. Darin had the first name Presley. He was not as excited to use that one:)

But I digress...I wanted to write about leaving all my cares and concerns at the temple. I really tried to focus and feel the spirit and know what we should do about the house, kids, etc. Then Sunday was fast Sunday. I realized that I am forgetting the important things in life.

I am letting go. I have to. I am now putting the selling of the house completely in the Lord's hands. I have done my best to get it ready, keep it clean and ready to be shown. Emotionally, I must stop torturing myself. Each time we have a showing, I wait and wait to see if our realtor calls. I can't do it anymore. I now feel that if it is meant to happen for us...at this time...the Lord will make it possible. If not, we aren't meant to move right now. We will try again in the spring.

It's really trying to strike a fine balance-I'm not saying I'm giving up hope-just changing it from us making it happen, to more divine intervention.. I want desperately to have a larger home for our family-that has not changed. Believe me. But I now know that comparing our situation to others (so and so got a new house, so and so's house sold so fast), taking the rejection of potential buyers personal, and stressing out  and yelling at the kids about keeping it perfectly clean are getting me nowhere. We are where we were 5 months ago, so obviously it is less effective.

So, here we are-facing Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines and potentially Easter with no decorations, photos, momentos,  etc. I have thought a lot about this-almost ending in tears-well, ok, I have cried about it.  It makes me so sad to not have our things for these special family times, but then when I look on the bright side-it will be fun to make new traditions. Maybe we can have Christmas tree with all homemade decorations! Things shouldn't make our home, anyhow. We do. I have my family with me, and that is what is important. 

Well, I think that's enough deep thoughts from Wendi  for now. The kids are pretty quiet and I'm tired, so goodnight!














 
Wow, as I type this, it feels more real to me. It's true-there's a plan for our family, and if we aren't meant to sell our house right now, I accept it. I'm moving on.

Fort Washington

On Labor Day we decided to head to Fort Washington in Maryland. I have been wanting to take the boys there since my friend took her boys there and they enjoyed it. It wasn't a long drive, either. Just over the bridge. We used to see it all the time across the river from the GW parkway when we would drive to church in Mt. Vernon. Also figured a little history would be good on Labor Day. 

When we got there we went to the marina area first. It was a big hit. I didn't realize there was a little lighthouse down there. It was a nice little area. I also didn't notice that it was right at the river. The kids really loved that part as well. I was a bit nervous about the guys fishing and my loud kiddos....ah well!

 We had lots of fun throwing things in the water.....until we realized that it probably wasn't 

conducive to the men fishing actually catching something....

 There's something about throwing sticks and rocks into the water.......

 We were going to go back to the car and drive up to the actual fort, but Landon had a different idea. He wanted to walk up the hill to the Fort. So I gave in-either that or chase him and carry him to the car. It really wasn't that bad....but boy am I out of shape. And is was so humid that day.

Here's a view of the fort from the bottom. Looks like remains from an older fort or something.

 A view from further up the top.

 Some of the views inside the fort. I loved the wheel for the huge doors, and I loved that they were green.

 The boys had a blast on the canons.

 Awwww....brotherly love!

Noah...where are you?

I started this post last night, but as I type, it is still raining. When will it stop?

We need Noah to come build us an ark. I am watching it rain, still. It has been raining for days on end. Well, I think it is officially day 3, but it seems like forever. We didn't even have this much rain when hurricane Irene came through last weekend. It is really too much-especially when there are places like TX in huge droughts who need it desperately. We had a realtor come the other night and just before the side walk was flooded. I prayed that it would lighten up so that the water would go away. It did, thank goodness, but then rained more later.

But today it is a torrential downpour-I mean it!! It is raining so hard right now.

Are we close to the second coming?

I think so.

Here are the views out our front door:





 A more wide view:


 Yes, the yards are a marsh. Let's hope it goes down before any realtors call  to see the house.

Huntley Meadows fun

We had a fun week last week watching  a fun little boy named Sean. His mom was Spencer's preschool teacher Ms. Laura. The kids all loved him. And he was pretty easy to watch. One of the days we went to Huntley Meadows. We had lots of fun. Although we didn't realize the boardwalk was closed and the walk was much longer than I remembered. The kids were pretty tired and it took quite some time to get back. 

Here are Sean and Spencer on a fun tree stump. Sean says "dat was coowl" when I got him down.

 

Landon walking on a log. We stopped at many logs to take a walk. 

The boys have some serious log walking skills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean really loved his sticks!!

Our one spotting of wildlife for the day-a little frog in the water.

Did you know that stuffed elephants and pet shop purses are a must for a leisurly walk in the woods?

 Sean says "I diggin' for worms." He is sooo cute!

Spencer can't walk any further so he just sits down. Poor fella. Mommy made you walk pretty far!

I wanna go back....back.....

......back to school again!!

Let the 2011-2012 school year begin!!

Jordan Elizabeth. 8 years old, 3rd Grade

The new fancy backpack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spencer James, 6 years old, 1st Grade


 And the new backpack.

Brother and sister all ready to go!


 Jordan was thrilled to get an outfit with a matching one for her American Girl doll!

Great Country Farms

We spent a super fun afternoon at a fun farm last week. It was a certifikid a while back and since our friends were getting it, I dedided to as well. It was well spent money. The farm is located in Bluemont VA, about an hour and 20 min away. It was nice drive, especially since we were able to ride with friends with an 8 seater and a dvd player:) It is such a beautiful area of Virginia.

Spencer having fun on a John Deere. 

My grandpa would be so proud!

Not sure what Spencer is doing here....

It took a while, but then Jordan decided to try out a tractor, too:)

We found this little chicken coop. It was filled with little chicks. All the kids spent quite a bit of time there. Before we know it, Spence had caught one. I went to see what they were doing, and realized that they were crawling under the coop....um, gross.

This farm had sooo much for kids to do. One cool thing was a the corn bin where they could play in corn. It was pretty dirty, but they all had fun.

Here are Jordan's feet after playing a while. Nice.

Fun in the corn bin!

A fun spider's web to play in.

This is the jumping pillow. The kids loved it!! I wanted to go on, 

but it was only for kids up to 12. Bummer for me.

 

Landon loved the animals. We got some free food with out entrance fee, and he loved it. 

There were a ton of playground/structures all over the place. 

If we lived anywhere near this place, we would for sure have a family membership!

(the picture below this one is of a weird rabbit. At first I wasn't sure it was even a rabbit, but it was in the big bunny enclosure with all the other rabbits.)

Here we are on the wagon ride. Usually they would go up to the orchard for a while so people could pick the fruit. The nice driver took just us up to do a loop around the orchard. Not that there were many people there anyhow.

I'm hoping this comes up again for a certifikid next year so we can go back again! I would even consider it to pay full price! It really was such a great time.