Moving.. again

Foreclosure sucks.. and not just for home owners.  It bites for renters too.

Last year around this time we moved into a larger home.  With baby #5 on his way we were bursting the seams on the condo.  Just two short months of living in our new place we started getting notices on the door.   Notices of foreclosure...  I was livid.  We went through a realtor, who guaranteed us that the house was up to date with the mortgage.  

We had to fight to finish out our 1 year lease.  Even after we signed a contract to finish our lease, we were still harassed with people from the bank.  Fannie May had hired so many companies to oversee work with the property that we were harassed monthly with random workers.  To make matter worse when we needed work done on the house it was full of hassles and delay.  It took 2 months to get the microwave fixed. (they just ended up replacing it..)

I am very disgusted that we have to move so soon.  Yet again my kid's change schools, all except Lauryn who is home schooled.  I tried to find a house in the same school zone but there wasn't any houses with the right price per square foot.  The kid's are very excited to move.  It seems all they are getting from their current public school is how to deal with sneaky bullies.  The ones that put gum in your hair, or trips you on the bus, or defaces your school work.

It's not all bad that we have to move.  Our new house... it's just amazing.  It's less than we were paying for that tiny condo just 2 years ago.  The house is set up for entertaining.  Nice open spaces and great foot traffic flow.  Nice backyard for entertaining as well.  The master bedroom is actually a Master suite.  In this house we can't even have our bed on it's real frame, there just isn't enough room in this room.  The entire downstairs is tile floors and the front room has tile work up the walls.  The hubby is going to be only a 10 minute bike ride from work.  We are going to be extremely close to shopping, not only for us but our pets needs as well.

This time I did my own checking up on this property.  I do not want another foreclosure fiasco.  The owner paid for the house in full with cash in December.  No worries about foreclosure. I am tired of being treated like this was my fault, that we have to move so soon.  Everyone I know is pecking at us to buy a house right now.  What's saying we want to live in Las Vegas in 5 years?  

Moving Madness

All the excitement of our new place hasn't even started to wear off but instead is being overshadowed by this unpleasant feeling of "ugh, yet another box to unpack" I wish I could just wiggle my nose and everything would magically fly to it's place in our new home.  Tabitha I am not so back to the tedious task of unpacking by hand.

Don't get me wrong I am still in love with our new much larger home.  Actually everyone in the family is.  Nadia says "This is the best day ever!" she has said this at least 3-4 times a day since we moved in.  The oldest girls are in love with their new school.  Daddy is loving his commute to work. (it's about the same distance but might as well be miles different with the huge difference in terrain) Cooking in my kitchen is no longer a chore, but enjoyable again.  (I still haven't rolled out some dough on the counters though) Mezmo our parrot loves the layout of the downstairs.  He now has much more room to fly through.  Even my house plants are loving it here.  In just the few days since we have moved in they have all had an explosion of new growth.  (It's all the natural light and great airflow in this house)

The only thing that was lost in sacrifice to the moving gods was my large glass bowl.  My kids broke it the night before our move. It was my go to bowl for everything.  The perfect size for whipping up cakes, mixing ingredients for dinner, or preparing snack chow.   My husband doesn't think it was such a bad loss.  He believes I have too much kitchen stuff anyway.   I had to put it this way for him.  "You never complain about what comes out of my kitchen, so don't complain what I put into it."

The worst part of moving is the packing.  As your wrap up all your favorite treasures and hope that you will see it whole again on the other end of the move.  All  the things you keep hidden away from little hands are now out in the open.  All the small decorative things that has survived having children only because it has stayed far out of their reach.  I definitely prefer unpacking everything to packing it all up.  There is just something about having to unpack everything and still manage day to day living with 4 kids that makes it a daunting task.  I am more grateful than ever for my laptop, because the desktop computer is still sitting in a box under my dining room table.

Am I the only one that feels that cardboard boxes suck the life right out of your skin.  My hands have never been as dry as they are after handling the boxes.  Thank goodness most my stuff is packed into plastic storage tubs.  I have to take a break more often then not because my hands are becoming so dry and sore rather than my aching back.  I can't wait to see the last of the cardboard boxes.

We are still waiting to get the mailbox key.  I had to take my lease to my local post office.  After checking the USPS website I was sent to the wrong post office.  Instead of the 2 offices that are within 2 miles of my home I had to go to a newer office over 5 miles away.  (the new office isn't even on the USPS website) It's rather annoying to have to go to the post office to request my key then find out that they only key the boxes once a week and I would have to wait until the following Thursday to return to this same Post office and pick my key up.  After the hoops they had me jumping thru I was fully expecting them to tell me they were going to mail me my key.  It's no wonder the post office is threatened with massive cutbacks with this being the standard of service they provide.

Packing and Moving

It feels like we just got here and yet it is already time to move.  3 years spent building memories and growing our family.  We are now faced with a family too large for our small space.  It was a tight squeeze when we moved in due to the lack of storage and now we are bursting at the seams.

I have already found the house I want to move to.  The bedrooms are smaller but instead of 3 we will have 4 of them.  As well as having a lot more storage.  I also fell in love with the open layout of the downstairs and the extra half bath.  Plus the kitchen is just amazing.(it was a deal breaker with other places)  Granite counters, cherry wood cabinets and flooring.  ::drool::  I just might dream of rolling out some pies on that counters as I sleep tonight.
 ::prays nothing goes wrong in the application process::
I'm a worrier.. I can't help it, I've tried.

I have been slowly wrapping and packing all my breakables and purely decorative items over the past few weeks.  My walls are bare of picture frames and my china hutch is minus all the many serving plates.   All the papers that we have collected over the past three years have been sorted, stored or shredded.  ( I use the shredded paper to help protect my breakables)

I am only limited on what I already have packed by the amount of boxes I have.  We usually just use the big plastic storage tubs for the majority of our packing.  The tubs work great for long term storage without worrying about water damage or pests.

I have never been so excited to actually pack all my family's worldly belongings up as I am this move.  I still have the anxiety of new schools for the kids, utilities to sort out, and doing something special to help make the kids excited about the new house.  They want to start a garden and get a dog.

I am most thrilled by all the storage at the new place.  Being the anal retentive person that I am I have our clothing separated by seasonal requirements.  Not all of the 4 different seasons just the two we see here in Las Vegas.  (summer and winter)  I also love decorating for the seasons.  Now my many boxes of decorations will no longer have to take up room in my bedroom closet or force us to climb into the sketchy looking attic to retrieve them.

There are so many big changes going on in my life right now.  A new business, moving to a new house, and One Nutty Mama blog has moved to a personal domain.

Mama Needs a Break

All weekend I was ready to lock myself in the bathroom and just marinate in a bubble bath with a long book until after bedtime has passed.  Have you ever had one of those weeks when everything hits you at once?  This is that time for me.  The week before last just set the stage for the crappy week that was this week with the seemingly never ending sickness with my two youngest.  Nothing like having to play nurse for two outbreak monkeys with a chest cold that don't have the social graces not to cough directly in your face.  I'm shocked I didn't come down with a worse cold than I did. It must be the minor immunity I acquired from having been through this unhygienic stage with my oldest two.

Just as Maxx's cold went away teething hit him full force and he's been taking it out on me ever since.  I've lost count how many times he's attempted to bite my shoulder through my clothing while in the middle of a meltdown.  (even with baby sign language they still happen)  He is drooling non stop so every shirt I wear is covered in slobber.  I've gotten to the point I've considered donning a bib or smock to protect myself.  He's been so clingy that I haven't used the restroom alone in over a month. (I'm beginning to forget what the bathroom looks like with the door closed.)

My older girls come home every week with another school project due.   Not just normal projects but ones that are under a short deadline thanks to their lack of planning and poor communication with their teachers.  I may offend someone with this but I hope you'll accept this apology now.  Male teachers at a elementary level suck at communication with parents.  When projects are assigned in a female teacher's classroom you get a packet of paper sent home describing in detail their requirements and even examples of work that is acceptable. With the male teachers you get a piece of paper that your child dictated from the teacher verbally explaining what they expect. (good luck, understanding it if you have a child like mine that doesn't learn well only verbally) Since they rotate classes (to prepare them for middle school) the students only have 1 hour to get their daily classwork done and take notes for any projects.  Another pet peeve of mine is that male teachers are less imaginative on project ideas as well.  My 5th grader did the same exact reading project that she did in fourth grade and that her fourth grader sister did not even a month before.

If only that was all that was swirling on my mind I could handle this like every other day.  Add to the fact that we will be moving soon and I feel like a complete nut job.  It's not that my husband isn't helpful, he just doesn't understand the full aspect of what needs to be accomplished.  He is under the false belief that we can just toss everything in a few boxes and be ready.  After living here for over 3 years and adding another person to the family we have so many things to sort out. We don't need to drag broken kid toys, clothing that doesn't fit or random papers along with us.  Then there is the matter of actually finding a place for us to live.  I've been the one to choose where we live with almost every single move we have ever done in the history of our marriage.  It wouldn't be so overwhelming if he didn't expect us to move closer to his work, but at the same time it is important to be close to the kid's schools, shopping, and doctor's office. (We live less than a mile from all this right now, minus being close to his work. Which is the main reasons I loved living where we live now. )

I wish I could fast-forward time to when we are moved in to our new place.   I hate this in between feeling.  I can't even place any orders online to have anything shipped since we are so close to moving and I would risk it not making it here in time due to horrible weather everywhere but here.