The House Unveiled

OK. For those who've asked (and those who haven't), here are some quick snaps I took of the house while we were there this afternoon. Not the greatest quality (I was being bombarded with excited questions from the kids: "Mom!!!! Mom!!!!! Mom!!!!").

This picture taken from the driveway - not the best angle.

One of the giant boulder walls in the yard...Noble's dream.

Looking into the great room from the kitchen

The Kitchen

Sorry I didn't take more photos (like I said I was kind of preoccupied). But this will give you an idea. Some specs: 3376 sq. feet, 5 beds (one will be used as a library/office), 3 1/2 baths (one is totally shoddy - will need work), 0.4 acres (large, beautifully landscaped, but kind of a strange lot configuration), 3 car garage (which will be nice since there's no shed for tools & stuff), basement family room, basement kitchen (which was totally stripped by the previous owners) & a weird home theater room that I want to take a sledge hammer to. So - there you go. A quick summary of the house.

The Suspense Has Ended

The way I spend my days...packing up.

We received word today that we were the high bid on that house we were sweating about. (!!) We're looking into next week, possibly the week after that, for our big move. Check one thing off our list. Now we have a place to go.
Even though we're only mid-way through the moving process - we have a lot of people to thank for helping us out. It means a lot to us. Even my little brother, Sean, who left last week for basic training in the Army, is helping us out long distance. He's lending us his truck while Mike's is in the shop.

The garage converted into a storage unit.

You Never Count Your Money When You're Sittin' At The Table...

In the past several weeks we've had an education in the high stakes world of buying/selling in real estate. More than once I've felt like I was in a poker game calling out my opponent's bluff, making my own blind bets. Tomorrow we will find out if our biggest gamble will pay off. The bidding ends tonight on the house that sits at the top of our list. We just had our realtor up our bid... because we're not the cool customers we wish we were. The process of bidding on foreclosed properties is harrowing. We have no idea what the other bids are - or even if there ARE other bids. So, there's a possibility we're just bidding against ourselves, ratcheting up the stakes for no reason.

It's a big psychological game.

I'm not so good at psychological games. If you put me on Survivor Island, I'd walk off (or swim, as the case may be) before anyone had a chance to vote me off. 

Is there a diagnosis for this?

Now I know how I might react in the event of a major crisis:

stunned inaction.

I admit it. I would be a crappy paramedic - or any profession where the stakes are relatively high and the environment is chaotic...wait a second, that's MY job. Great.

I'm totally discombobulated.

We have a bunch of unknowns before us, as we wait to find out where we're going, but knowing we have less than 2 weeks to move. I'm dealing with the emotions of leaving, the nervousness of arriving somewhere else (but where?). I compulsively think through the possibilities for each of the houses we've made offers on. My anxious thoughts wake me up early every morning and I lay there trying to figure out the un-figurable. Finances are up in the air. Add in the demands of a busy family that don't stop for us to get our bearings. Help.

I called my mom and my sister, Kay, yesterday to beg for their help. And to whine. I need their superior organizational skillz, and one of those 'Get-a-hold-of-yourself!!!' smacks to the face. (Holly, I really wish you were here.)

I realize I sound like a wuss. I know I'll survive...but...

A Good Day for a Race

Lone Peak in the morning sun. Could you ask for a more beautiful morning?

We had our 2nd annual NPA 5K /1 Mile Fun Run on Saturday. Overall, things turned out really well. Elevated Racing (Royson & Bendy) did a fantastic job timing our race, and everything on our end went pretty much according to plan. We ran into a few glitches including runners switching races without notice (messing up some of our results), & me misplacing my GPS just when I needed to measure out the mile course with our volunteer.... but other than that we had a great race. I think we had 260 (ish) runners this year, and well above that for breakfast. It looks like we raised over $10,000 again this year for the school - and that's cool. Thanks everyone who supported us / our kids. Noble wasn't able to repeat his Mile win of last year - (some teenager took it this year) but he was close. Tillman wasn't far behind Noble. Mike stayed with Grace - who spent the race repeating the word "PAIN" as she ran (ha ha ha). They finished in about 13 minutes. The awesome part is that a 13 minute mile earned Mike first place in his age division. We were laughing pretty hard about that. He was able to pull it off mostly because the other guys in the race his age were pushing strollers. Jess ran the 5k with her friends - and did pretty well. This was her second 5k ever.

We spent the rest of the day watching our little nephews (Mike hooked them up with a little something from the ice cream truck.)

AND we went out to see another home...we put an offer on it yesterday.

Hang-on Tight

A recent refrigerator Noble-ism.

No kidding: All systems are go. We officially went under contract on the house a few days ago. Our deadline to close is May 19. It's crazy-town around here. I know I've got to get on the ball with moving logistics ASAP, but our priority has been FINDING a place to go. We put a couple of offers out on short sales today. There is a possibility we could end up homeless for a few weeks if our closing dates don't line up. (Mom & Dad....) Anyway, I'm definitely more up-beat today than yesterday (because finally we found some houses that could work).
Tomorrow is a big day with the NPA 5K. Right now I need to turn my mind to that, and get that under our belts. Next week we'll start planning the move in earnest.

The News of the Day & Where do We Go From Here?

We've had a lot on our minds.
Our big race is this Saturday. Things seem to be in hand. But we had a near-miss this weekend. My brother-in-law (the one timing our race) survived his second car vs. bike accident in a year - with only a little road rash. His beloved bike (which rode in the ambulance and stayed in the hospital room with Roy) was also largely unscathed. He's very happy about that.

Mike's brother and his family are stuck in London with all those unfortunate travelers grounded by volcanic ash, waiting for a train to Hungary. Then they'll be coming back home to the States from their 4 month teaching stint in Vienna. Mike talked to them Sunday. They have it better than most, staying with friends in London, travel insurance covering the train, etc. All in all, I thought it sounded like a cool adventure. Enjoy the rest of your time Jim, Tami & boys!

Back on the home front...
We had our first house showing on Friday evening. (That's a funny story by itself.) I didn't think much of it until our realtor informed us this morning that they were making an offer. So....
We're hitting the pavement tomorrow to try and find a place.

That was unexpected.

The Most Interesting Date Night Ever...

Yes, that's a girl giving that guy a boot to the head.

(For the record, in general I wouldn't condone this.)

Let me explain...

There's this guy who works for Mike who moonlights as a professional wrestler (I'm not kidding. Stock broker by day, pro wrestler by night.). Apparently he's a big deal in the local minor league wrestling world."The Half-Breed Heart-Throb", "The Reflection of Perfection". Anyway, he's been after Mike to come and see him in the ring for a while now. Mike finally agreed to go - and I came along (reluctantly) Saturday night.

I am SO glad I didn't miss this. Here we have "The Deacon of Doom" body-slamming "Junior X"

This is "Dallas Murdock" coming in for the kill from the ropes.

I learned a lot. First, the crowd is half the draw. They get into it so much that they become part of the show: hurling insults at the wrestlers they don't like, playing along like the whole thing is un-scripted and spontaneous - conspiring together to create this magic (like how the whole world conspires together to keep Santa Clause going). They were definitely a rough bunch, straight out of the trailer park. Lots of missing teeth, seriously unhealthy, and all of them having a fantastic time. Everyone we met was very nice to us (observing that we were first timers), explaining things, moving over and showing us the best places to sit to experience the match, etc.
I also learned to predict how things would play out after a few matches. There was usually a "come-from-behind" part, and also a "revenge encore" after the fight was over, consisting of the loser sneaking up behind the celebratory winner to smack them with a folding chair or something.
The coolest thing was that "The Reflection of Perfection" scoped us out in the crowd early on, and then when his match came, he had scripted the fight so that they ended up duking it out literally at our feet. ("Reflection of Perfection" is the guy in tightie whities - the ladies' man of the local wrestling scene. This was the main event fight, a three-way free-for-all. I still cannot stop laughing.)

Wrestle Mania from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

I know.

Remember, it's pretend.

Literally, I cried laughing. Again, and again.

"Reflection of Perfection" with Mike after the match. (yeah, that's blood...or maybe fake blood...)

This was moments after he staggered off like he was half-conscious. Everyone clapped, and he returned fully cogent to sign autographs for kids and talk to a line of scary-looking women. Ha ha ha ha.......................................
"See ya at work on Monday, man."

Here Goes Nothin'

This graphic has nothing to do with the subject of this post...but... I discovered it on my desktop one day... it made me laugh. Kids rule.
Ok, here we go again... Back in the saddle... Round 2.

Pick your euphemism.

Our house is for sale again.

I'm not sure how we'll manage the process with everything else going on...but you do what you have to do, right? I might have lost a little REM sleep last night over it - I feel a little wasted today. We're looking for .5 acre +, a big enough house with at least the potential of becoming something cool, good feng shwei...all that. Preferably in SoJo - the land of our nativity. Adding to my emotional state, our dream house came on the market a few days ago too (thanks Mom for drawing my attention to that info). We've loved this house for years. (My sibs will recognize it as the Holtkamp's place.). Unfortunately, though it's dropped 50% in price, it still taunts us from a couple of hundred G's outside our range. Oh well.

Back in reality: there are some good things out there. We are optimistic. (Even if we hate this process.)

Dance Riot

One of the kids FAVORITE made-up family games is something we call "Dance Groove Tag" (invented by me). I might get reported to DCFS for this - but the idea is everyone boogies around the house; if you're caught not boogieing you get "tagged" (i.e., a whack to the back side with a rolled up magazine - usually the Ensign). It's about as chaotic as it sounds: blaring dance music, uncontrollable giggling, "tag-ees" riotously dodging in every direction, and the dance moves (and attempted dance moves) that result are priceless. Tonight, after getting hyped-up with a lively round of Dance Groove Tag, the kids were in rare form. Since I was worn out from chasing them around, I picked up the camera instead. (You'll want to click pause on the music player in the side-bar so you can hear.)
A little dance collaboration during their cool-down set.

Dancing Fools from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

(My favorite part is where Sully's just standing there in line in his backpack trying to decide what to do.)

I'm not just saying this, I seriously have some of the coolest people in the world for kids.

...and after this we wound down the evening with three chapters from The Secret Garden...(I had to win back some parenting points in case I do get turned in.)

;)