Concrete Footers

Checked out our house and we have the concrete footers in! Our house has been started! It is so neat to watch a house being built from the bottom up! We were lucky enough to build our first house and now we are watching as the house we will live in forever is being built! It is so exciting! And mark my words...we are not moving for AT LEAST 30 years!!!!! Although building a new house is very exciting, the work of moving is not worth it in my eyes!

Uncle Bobby and Auntie Nikki

Today was a nice day! Bobby and Nikki came home for the weekend and spent Saturday afternoon and evening with our family. We chatted about pregnancy and I took them to see where my house to be will be located. That was the first time they saw where the land was. It was nice to show it off! Since it will make me house poor for the rest of my life I need to feel good about showing it to people! It is just land and foundation right now, but it is my land and foundation!!

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We headed to Olive Garden for an early supper as soon as Morgan woke up from her nap and ate lots and lots of yummy food. I absolutely love their bread sticks and salad. Of course, I filled up on them and only ate a bit of my food...but I enjoyed my favorite part! Morgan was very well behaved as always at restaurants! After supper we hit Babies-R-Us and came home. Bobby and Nikki hung around and played with Morgan until it was time for her to go to bed. It seemed like everyone had a good time! It was so nice to spend time with my brother and sister-n-law...they don't take the expensive trip back to PA that often! We all must savor our minutes with them!

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I attached a shot we took of the three of them at the shore! It turned out really nice and I never got it up here yet!

Awesome Shoes!

Thanks Aunt Meggie for the awesome shoes!! Too cute! Do they come in adult sizes? Morgan modeled for the website!!

SURPRISE TO BETH!

Wow! What a wonderful day I have had! Although it still feels old to be turning 30...even though I don't turn 30 until between 11-12 tonight...I had a wonderful day! I started out by heading to get a prenatal massage that I was given a gift card to (Thank you Bobby and Nikki!) in the morning! Nice and relaxing!! I decided I wasn't going to unpack anything for the day, so after I got home I relaxed and watched some brainless TV! Mom said she had made reservations for an Italian family style supper for 4 o'clock so I dressed up and we headed out! Figured some good 'home' cooked Italian food is always a win-win deal! When we showed up, SURPRISE! I was completely shocked to see Mom had put together a big table of friends and family for me! I had no clue! All I really wanted was to have a cook out for my birthday so needless to say I was completely shocked and overwhelmed with emotion! I was actually speechless...for a few seconds...not too long! It was so wonderful to see all of my friends that had come close and far to celebrate with me! It again made me feel so loved! Morgan was well behaved after she was allowed to sit between Bob and I! What a wonderful time we had both with company and food!

Settlement Friday

SETTLEMENT TODAY!

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The house is no longer ours! It went smoothly, we only had to sign a few papers! Nice being on the selling side...we are not the ones signing our lives away!!

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We had stopped one last time at "our" house to say good bye! That was hard!! Bob pointed out that I had forgotten my wind chimes...so we grabbed them before we left. We had some wonderful moments in our house! It was the first house we ever owned together...our first big investment we made as a married couple...the first place we really furnished with new things, the first place we became parents to our first babies, our English Springers, the place we brought Morgan home to...and the list could go on, but I won't bore you!

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After settlement we headed back to Jo and Sean's house who had been watching Morgan. Jo and I went out to the nail salon to get our toes and fingernails done in celebration of my birthday...I think we should do that more often just for fun!! The men watched the kids, even better!!

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We had a nice supper together and then headed home. Long, sad but exciting day! Overall idea...the house is not "OURS" anymore and for the moment we are nomads living with my parents!

Waste of Time Thursday

Morgan and I had to sit at our house from 12-5 to wait for the PECO guy to come and turn off our gas...so we waited and waited...

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In the meantime the cleaning service called back (after I put in 2 more calls) and with a bit of attitude said they would be back on Friday to finish up the missed sections...for the price I paid they were either going to come back or I was going to cancel their check!!

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About 3 o'clock I decided to call PECO and see what time the guy anticipated on getting to the house...my parent-n-laws had very generously come over and taken some more stuff/trash out of our garage, but also took the last chair I had...so I was getting uncomfortable sitting on the ground...when I finally got a customer service person she explained that I didn't need to be there after all because the new owners had called to have the gas turned on so the guy would only have to take a reading outside versus turning the gas off and back on inside...thanks for the HEADS UP PECO!

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Packed the car up to the brim and headed back to my parents. Before leaving we went around the house one last time to make sure I had gotten everything. When we went into Morgan's room I told her to say Bye to her room, as she responded, "Bye Bye oom" and then blew a kiss and said again "Bye". This was the last straw...some tears somehow managed to roll down my cheeks! I worked so hard to create that room and I loved it...so for her to say good bye (even though she has NO understanding) it was very hard!

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Continuing to unpack at our temporary home!

DONE!

It is done! The movers came yesterday and took everything out of the house! After six hours my wonderful home only looks like a house now! It doesn't even smell like home anymore! I am exhausted! Several nights of 3-4 hours sleep isn't cutting it! Morgan and I got up bright and early this morning to get back to the house for the cleaners! I was not about to start scrubbing the house...if you have never moved...the mess that comes with moving is disgusting! Not only dust and grim...but with two English Springers...mounds of dog hair was piled under every single piece of furniture and appliance. Maybe even cat hair from the cats we haven't had in two years!! The emotions are starting to come now! This was our first house we bought together and we really enjoyed it! We had a lot of firsts in the house!

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When the cleaners finally finished...we were quoted 3-4 workers, 2-3 hours...it turned out to be 2 workers and 5+ hours...needless to say I hadn't taken lunch for Morgan or I...or the most important bottle of milk...so when they asked me to look through the house Morgan was fussing (she hadn't had a nap either) and I looked real quick...I should have looked better...after they left and I did a full look through the cleaners had not done the job I had anticipated! There was still grime in the shower, the trim still looked dirty, the oven wasn't cleaned out...I could go on, but I won't! I put in a message, so hopefully I will get a return call! I wanted to see a house I would want to move into...but that is not what I found! For the amount of money I paid and for the comment on my cleaning slip 'Deep Clean' I guess I expected more! We'll see...

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Now it is time to unpack and settle into my parents house. Lots to get organized before starting back to school next Tuesday!

Crunch Time!

It is count down time...a bit more than 24 hours and the movers come to take it all away! It will be a great feeling and a sad feeling all at the same time! I will write more during the week after everything is over with...b/c of course with being pregnant my emotions are crazy! . The following pictures are here for Aunt Meggie's viewing pleasure! (She was sad no shore pictures of her were posted...here you go!) More beach pictures!

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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

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Our new house

I am putting up a picture of a house that will look very similar to ours! Our house will have an added front porch! We are thinking about the same color siding/stone as this house but maybe a different color shutter...possibly maroon?

MOTIVATION

Hoping that staring at our SOLD sign long enough will give me the continued motivation I need to get this house packed by Monday night! Movers come on Tuesday-8 am...3 days and counting!

Grange Fair

Amongst all of our packing Bob wanted to go to the Grange Fair in Wrightstown (Council Rock school district). We packed up and headed for the long drive there. As we went it down poured and I prayed that it would clear up by the time we got to the fair! The fair is a large farmer's fair. It has everything from tractor displays for cutting your grass to tractors for farms to shed displays to farm animals to yummy greasy food! Every year they host a chicken supper which entitles you to a whole chicken (not really, but too much chicken for me to finish!), a corn on the cob, potatoes, a roll and of course ice cream for dessert. It is definitely filling!

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We walked around the fair and Morgan was infatuated with the rides...she would say 'ooohhh' everytime she saw one of the big kid rides...guess she will be a dare devil when she gets tall enough...maybe by 16?! Speaking of being big...she liked watching the pony rides too...only problem...they told Bob you have to be 100 pounds to ride...wonder when she will hit that mark...

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When visiting the animals she hated the pigs and the sheep! We put her stroller close to their cages and she turned her head away and said 'bye bye'. If we made her stay longer she started whining. She loved the cows, horses, chickens, and rabbits!

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We got a picture of Morgan and her Daddy on a tractor...for her sake or for his?

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As we were leaving it started to sprinkle so we made it out of the fair before getting rained on!

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Now back to packing...

Packing

As I reach a boiling point and just want to give up on the packing I can't help but smile when Morgan does something like in the above pictures. Gives me a reality check, we play for a few minutes and then I get back to work with a better attitude! Packing with her helping UNpack can get a little frustrating, but how can you get mad at a kiddo with that smile?!

Shore details

We had such a nice time at the shore! It was actually time away from reality! We got down on Saturday around 11. It had rained earlier in the day but by the time we got down to Ocean City, NJ the sun was shining!

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Because Morgan was sleeping in her pack-n-play in our room and it was a strange place for her she was awake around 7 every morning. I got up and went for a fast paced walk with her almost every morning except for the morning Bob took her on a bike ride and the other morning we went for a surrey ride (For those of you who don't know, a surrey is a two person wide, usually two row big bike). It was a way to keep Morgan from waking the rest of the house, whispering has not caught on yet! We got to the beach everyday around the 11 o'clock hour. Stayed on the beach until between 4-6 depending on the day. Most days someone took Morgan back for a nap around 4pm. Too much commotion going on on the beach for her to snooze, but she did snooze two of the seven days! We ate some suppers in and some out. Morgan was a trooper! Even with shorter naps and messed up sleep patterns at night she was mostly a happy camper!

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On the beach she loved to play in the sand alone and she was consistently making someone create her sand castles that were immediately destroyed. Those were her favorite things to do! She wasn't too happy to walk into the water's edge, but when someone carried her in and the adult was about hip deep in the ocean she was very content to splash and play in the beautiful calm ocean! Not many crashing waves during our time!

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It is amazing to think how a year changes a kid! I remember last year she was crawling and attempting to walk in the sand, got sand all over her and was so content, this year still content but wanting to play play play!!

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She even attempted some rides with her Daddy and her Aunt Meggie! I really wanted to go on them but the rule abider that I am...even the kiddie rides said do not ride if pregnant...so I was the happy photographer! Next year it's my turn!!

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Enjoy the pictures and there will be more to come!

Just a few shore pictures

Until I have time to write, enjoy these pictures from the shore!