packing, house hunting, girls camp, photography, spring break

Thought I’d jot down a little update while I have a quick spare minute.

Taken with my phone 5 minutes ago.

Ben and the kids are outside taking apart the trampoline.  Moving is in full swing now.  Our front room is full of boxes.  Most of the nonessentials are packed now, and some of the essentials…..like my can opener.  I’ve been borrowing the neighbors.  Tile is ripped up in our hallway – Ben is replacing the few broken tiles we had.  It’s a little chaotic around here.  Next Saturday is our move out date.  So, I guess this is our last Saturday night to sleep in this house.  The lasts have begun – tomorrow is our last Sunday in Hudson Ward, right now Jax is playing on the trampoline out back for the last time at this house, and tomorrow night will be our last Sunday night walk to the park.  It’s sad but I’m also getting more excited about the move.  I’m rather sentimental, I suppose, so it’s sad to leave memories behind.

We’ve been actively house hunting.  There were two houses on auction this week we bid on.  One was in Dunedin and that’s the one we’ve been holding out for for the past two weeks.  However, on Tuesday of this past week we found another house in Tampa that had the same auction close time so we went and saw it and decided we liked it a lot more.  It’s only 10 or 15 minutes from Ben’s office, had a little more space than the Dunedin one, needed less work, and the schools were better.  So, we decided to bid on both.  The Dunedin one went too high and it was a nail bitter of a finish with the Tampa one but we got it!  Only one problem, though…..our bid was below the reserve price (minimum amount the bank will accept).  So, we had some back and forth drama with the listing agent.  We’ve got it.  We don’t got it.  We got it.  We don’t got it.  We might have got it.  Ultimately a closer at the auction site is presenting our bid to the bank and we’re hoping they’ll accept it even though it’s below the reserve.  With the buyers premium and needed repairs it’s already towards the top of our budget so we’re hoping they’ll accept our bid.  If not, we’ll probably walk away.  It will be sad to start over again.

I haven’t mentioned it yet but back in December I was asked to serve as the Stake Camp Director for the young women’s summer girls camp for church.  We’ve been planning away and that’s been taking up a lot of my creative brain power.  It’s fun to have a distraction from house stuff.  If we move to Tampa I was told I’ll still finish out the calling.

Tonight I’m excited to photograph a big wedding at Casa Lantana in Brandon with Sarah.  Photography is such a great outlet for me!  Weddings are especially fun and the one tonight should be a really good one.  It’s a lot of pressure, stress, and work; but I love the experience and creative demands it requires.  It’s also fun to have a few hours away from home where I can be something other than a mom.  I love being a mom but I also love a few hours off duty 🙂

This past week was Sadie’s spring break.  Sadly, she and the boys had colds so all of our fun plans got cancelled.  Probably for the best, though.  It was really nice to just have quiet time at home with the kids.  I’m still debating whether to enroll her in the school by my parents house or just home school for the last two months of the year.  She’s reading basics books pretty well now so I feel like I could help her through the last few months but I just don’t know.  The elementary school by my parents house is fantastic and it’s kindof fun to think of walking her to the same school I attended at her age.  She is begging me to homeschool her.  Not sure what to do.  Still hashing that one out in my mind.

So that’s a brief update about life lately.  I’m going to go help Ben take down the trampoline now.