Tuesday, January 13, 2015

And The Unpacking Begins

So Josh left four days after moving in to go to HALO school in Arizona which left ALL the unpacking up to me.  It took me forever! I guess knowing all the work that had to be done slowed me down because I didn't know what to do with everything cause I knew we would have to move it again to do work so i just stacked boxes everywhere LOL Then in the middle of unpacking I decided before I got all my dining room stuff out I would just paint it. I HATE PAINTING LOL but it needed to be done.  It took me a whole week to do one room. Some days I would paint for an hour then quit because I was being messy and just didn't want to do it.  After it was finished it was totally worth it. Before I thought it felt very depressing in there but after it was so bright and happy :)
Before




After

After I got finished with this room the unpacking started again. I had told Josh I wasn't going to touch the upstairs until he got back but I can't work in one place for to long so I had the entire house a wreck but things came together one by one. When we were working on the toy room Jack wanted me to go outside with them and I said we could after we got this room straightened up and he looked and said "Yep everything looks nice and tidy" LOL I don't have an after pic of this room either but it looked great at the end of this day.  We don't like the color of blue on the walls but someday this will be the boys' room so I'm just going to wait till they are older and paint it when they move in so I only have to do it once.
I bet our neighbors hated us at first because it took me so long to get everything unpacked so the boxes just stayed on the porch until I was done and had the movers come back and get them. 

I have to admit this made me smile when he sent it to me lol It's good to know that he's not having fun all the time :)

Moving In

We came home from WV on Sunday and the movers were here bright and early Monday morning.  loading and unloading is always a hassle because you have to track every box that comes in the door so you know if everything is there and watch to find broken stuff.  Of course Josh had to work most of the day so that left me to deal with the movers and keeping the kids out of the way but we survived.  Luckily our movers were all really nice and didn't mind the kids talking to them all the time. Then the fun started. Our living room was PINK! Now I love pink but not in my living room. Josh was leaving in four days so we started as soon as we could.  I didn't take an after photo but we painted it a blue/grey, and it turned out great! We also had great little helpers :)



Of course things couldn't keep going smoothly. One night we were on our way to pick up a playground that we had bought off of craigslist and decided to stop at best buy to get phones, because we hadn't had a house phone in years, and when we were pulling out the truck died!!! Luckily we still have it under warranty so they sent someone to tow it but we had the trailer on the back so Josh had to call a friend to come and get us and bring the trailer home.  Now every time we drive by that best buy Kaleb or Jack says "Look daddy that's where your truck broke down"   Fun Times :)



Friday, January 9, 2015

West Virginia

We closed on our house on a Thursday but our stuff wasn't being delivered until Monday so we decided to go to WV for the weekend. It was a good get away.  Josh was really in some need of some down time.  Mello was still at the lake so we went and hung out down there. I just loved having my family at the lake with me.  I have sooooo many great memories there and I was so happy to see that they enjoyed it also.

 Of course no trip to the lake would be complete without working on something :)












A New Home

After spending a little time in WV the boys and I headed to VA.  We spent two weeks living in Josh's apartment while we finished everything up on the new house.  Josh was working a lot so we just hung out and cleaned getting ready to move out.



Josh had a few days training in Fredericksburg so one of the days the boys and I drove down when he got off work and we went to their fair. It was so much fun!! I rode all the rides with the kids. Jack wasn't afraid of anything. After riding the rides we went and watched the truck and tractor pulls. The boys Loved it!!! It was a great day :)




July 30 2014 we closed on our new home. Excited to finally have a place to call home but knowing that we had a lot of work ahead of us.  The house was built in 1968 and had an addition put on in 2005 and needed some updating.  We also didn't like all the trees. I wanted to be able to see my house when I pulled up to it.


Sunday, January 4, 2015

The next step

After leaving CO we went to WV for a few weeks because Josh was still gone and we didn't close on our new house until July 30. Luckily Uncle Mello was camping at the Lake so we went camping! It was so fun taking the boys to East Lynn cause I have so many fun memories from when I was a kid and we would spend so much time there.  We picked up Ethan and camped for a few days with Mamaw Kathy.



 Another great thing about Mamaw's is her neighbors Kirby and Becky. Kirby takes the kids four wheeling and they have a ball.

 This is how I grew up. Playing right beside the road :)

And the Adventure Begins!

Tuesday May 13, 2014 started out like a normal Tuesday. Jack went to preschool and I was organizing stuff to get ready for our move in July.  The plan was for me to Fly to Graduation in VA and Josh and I look for a home then come back to CO then the boys and I head East in July. Around noon Josh calls me and says "I have a four day weekend put the house up with a realtor and meet me in WV Thursday."  I thought, are you kidding me but I did just that. It was so exciting to know that our family would all be together in a few days.

I had the house on the market by owner for three weeks with only two showings but they weren't moving till late summer so I was feeling discouraged about the whole thing and very nervous about the whole thing but at the same time I knew it would all work out.

We got to West Virginia on Thursday and Josh came in Friday night. The boys were so excited to see their dad and he brought his bow and arrow in and they shot in Kelly's back yard and had so much fun. The next tuesday I got a call from our Realtor with an offer on our house. We only had to counter once and they paid what we wanted but the deal was contingent on us leaving our trampoline. LOL That was a blessing I wasn't even praying for cause I was dreading moving that thing.  Of course  we said ok and the home inspection came back good and appraisal good and we were set to close July 3. Josh left the next week for four weeks to California on a no contact trip so the boys and I stayed with Kelly until June 8 then went to Josh's apartment in VA.  He graduated from the course June 12.

Next the house search began. I went out with our realtor first to eliminate the bad ones then Josh went out with us and we did this a few times.  We thought we wanted to live in Stafford because you get a lot more house for your money and you get land but the more we were here we realized the commute was not worth it. We started looking north in Triangle, then Dumfries, then Woodbridge and we just couldn't find anything we wanted.

One weekend we were out in this area Josh had found while driving around one day and there was an open house so we stopped by.  We liked it and it had a pool and a big back yard but I didn't care for the house.  Josh loved it and said it was the one. We thought about it that night and I cried cause I really didn't want this house. I told Josh that I thought we were buying it for the wrong reasons because we loved the land and the neighborhood. This neighborhood is tucked back away from the main road and has it's own Marina, which was the selling point for Josh.  We went back the next day and met the owners and talked to them and looked again and I felt better so we made an offer on it.

 can you see why we loved the yard :)


The next day the boys and I headed back to WV picked up my mom and headed for Colorado and Josh headed out to NC. I had actually gotten excited about the house because Josh had said we could make changes eventually to the house.  The main things I hated about the house was the master bedroom wasn't big enough for our furniture, the master closet was a single door with one rod and the master bath was 5 feet by 4 feet and that included the shower, no tub, and no outlets. the kitchen was small too with no dining room and no pantry anywhere. Only one car garage that did not connect to the house but I was trying to be positive.  It surprised me when our agent called me while I was driving and said they took someone else's offer because we wanted to close now and the other people had to sell their house first and the owners of this one hadn't found a new one yet. I was actually disappointed.

On the second day of traveling, June 18, 2014, Annie text me and said she was in labor and heading to the hospital because Miss Emma decided to make her grand entrance :) I didn't get home until late that night so I had to wait till the next morning to meet her but she was perfect.



Jack loves seeing the state signs and he was so excited to go home. He didn't quite get that we were not going to live there much longer. Anyway I had to stop and let him get a pic with the welcome sign. He was so excited. He ran under it and said "look mommy I'm in Colorado before you!"





July 1 the the packers came and packed up the house. July 2 the movers came and our house was empty. This was so hard for me. I love that house so much. In the meantime in VA Josh had called me June 30 and told me all about a house he had seen in the same neighborhood as the other one and how it was definitely "the one" it was on a half acre and 3000 sq feet and he told me the master bed, bath, and closet was hugh LOL I looked it up online and was not impressed but I knew he wanted in this neighborhood so I said ok since we were going to be homeless in four days.  He kept telling me "Remember we can make it our own." Little did I know just how much we would have to make it our own :) We put the offer in and we got it!

It was really hard for me to leave our Colorado house. We had amazing friends there and this was the only home our boys remembered. We closed on July 3 and hit the rd to West Virginia


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Dad's my Hero

I know I haven't posted in a while and I have a lot to catch up with the move and everything but I had to write this one tonight because it was so sweet. Today we were at a park on Fort Belvoir and the boys were playing and Jack yelled and told us there was a tree on the slide. Kaleb then freaked out and Josh went over and took the frog off.  About thirty min later this is the conversation that happened between Josh and Kaleb,

Kaleb: Daddy, you're my hero
Josh: Why????
Kaleb: Cause you got the frog off the slide.

He is so sweet and brings so much happiness to our home.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Happy Birthday Annie

Annie's birthday is April 21 so of course we all got together for a delicious dinner. It is really starting to hit us that my time is winding down here. I'm going to miss these girls so much. 

Happy Easter!

The easter bunny made it to our house :)
Saturday we went to an easter egg hunt at the church and the boys had so much fun.