The Move

Not many people outside our family and our friends here in CO know, but we have moved. And we are SO happy with our new house. Yep, we moved a little less than 2 years after buying our old house. Honestly I didn't post about it all before now on the blog because I didn't want to jinx it if you know what I mean. And it's weird to people why we would move so soon (almost 2 years) after buying our house. The short answer to why we moved is that we wanted a different house, enough that we went through the enormous ordeal it is to sell a house, buy another one and move all our stuff. Tons of work. Tons of stress. And yes all that considered we wanted a different house that much. So we staged our house, put in on the market, went under contract 5 days later, found our new wonderful house, and moved a month and a half after putting the house on the market. Whew. It was fast. The closings were a nightmare that I'm trying to block out, but it was worth it. We love our new house.

But for those of you really wanting the long answers for it all read on:

Making the Decision
After buying our former house we were happy with it. I loved the kitchen. I loved the floor plan. I loved the view. Watching fireworks from the porch on the 4th of July was awesome! BUT there was always the problem of the location. It backed to a huge open field... I don't know if field is the right word actually - more of a big huge open space that is commercial property. We thought that all the wonderful things about the house would make up for the fact that it backed to commercial property, but it didn't. It started to be a constant stress that was added to by neighbors and casual acquaintances asking us if we knew what was going in behind us. Ben had a playdate about 6 months after we bought the house and the mom of his friend asked me what I thought about King Soopers (local grocery store chain) going in behind us. I asked her if she knew for sure and she said yes. Oh my, I started freaking out wondering what we should do. She was wrong at least for now. We called the city and found out the property hadn't been sold and King Soopers was not going in. But that was all I could think about for a long time. It was scary to me and I started to think we had made a mistake. We never knew how much that commercial property would bother us and stress us out until we were in the house and really started contemplating how we would feel about that land being developed. Someday that property will be developed and it isn't zoned for houses, it is zoned for a King Soopers, or a gas station and other businesses, or whatever. Some kind of commercial something. Of course something fantastic like a library could go in too, but what are the chances and it's hard to take a chance like that. Our answer was that we would feel better if we found a different house. It was hard. So about a year after buying the house we were close to selling. We talked to a real estate agent. But at that point it was just too much to think about after so recently moving to CO. So we decided to hold off for a while longer, but at that point we knew we were going to sell someday.

Selling
So this spring we started to feel like it was time. We spent a day driving around looking at houses and even seeing a couple open houses. It felt good. So we found an a great real estate agent, he sent over a stagger and we staged the house, then listed it. The "staging" part was actually a lot of work. We had about 6 showings and we got an offer 5 days after listing. We of course were SO happy, but also stressed to find our "forever house" (a house we can picture ourselves in for a long time) in the time before we'd have to move. But after seeing LOTS of houses we kept coming back to one and it felt like home every time we saw it. So we put in an offer, went through the negotiation process and got our new house under contract. Everything was butterflies and sunshine until the closings.

Closings
At the closing for our former house we found out there was a problem, as in when we were all sitting around the table ready to sign the papers. We were told not to worry that everything would work out and we would close sometime within the day. So we went to our other closing for buying our house and signed everything, but the first closing didn't go through that day. We were assured it would go through the next day. So the next day we loaded everything onto the moving truck expecting to hear that it had all gone through and we could have our keys. That didn't happen. We had to move everything back into the house and were told the deal was probably going to fall through. We would not sell our house, and not be able to get our new house. It was heart breaking. I spent a lot of that day crying. It was horrible. So then we get a call that we should extend the closings through the next day, and we did. The next day we waited all day and no word. Our real estate agent started talking to us about unpacking and getting the house staged for selling again. It was so hard to comprehend. All that packing and and moving just to unpack. Ugh. Then as Adrian was talking to our real estate agent about all of this and my sweet friend Ganelle was at our house delivering a wonderful dinner our agent got a text that the closing was going to go through. The issues with our buyers were resolved and we were going to sell the house and get our new house. It was almost surreal and we were so happy. Adrian got teary and I was overjoyed. So then the next day after that (day 4) we actually closed, funded, and recorded on both houses and got our keys. We kissed the house when we walked into it the first time. The whole ordeal made us appreciate our new wonderful house even more because we realized just how much we loved it and didn't want the deal to fall through. It is our happy house and hopefully we will get to live in it for a long long time.

So there's all the gory details. Nothing seems to ever go completely smoothly, but we feel very grateful that we were able to sell our old house in this economy/real estate market so quickly even if there were hiccups at the end. Hopefully I'll be getting our "we've moved" cards out soon so you'll have our new address. Shoot me an email if you'd like our new address sooner.

Love and Happiness of the Fourth Kind

Happy 4th of July!! I love my country! I love that we celebrate that love with fireworks and barbecues. I loved sitting out on my porch last night with my family watching the town fireworks below. (Good thing the town fireworks were on the 3rd because there's a big old thunder storm going on tonight.) It was hilarious to hear Nina wowing and aahhing and exclaiming very loudly "OOh a PINK one!!" every minute or so. Then there was also the throwing of pops at the ground by Sophie and Ben (Nina opted out of throwing pops - she still doesn't like loud sounds), followed by them stomping around to get any pops that hadn't popped. We all took turns taking pictures of the fireworks and of course I made everyone pose for a couple of pictures too. We had fun. Hope your 4th of July weekend was fun and full of love too!

Eclipse Fest

I still have a bit of an Eclipse hangover, but it's coupled with complete Twihard giddiness so I'm okay. On the 29th I got to go to a fabulous Eclipse party at my friend Tracy's house that started at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Wonderful friends, food, and treats and every possible surface and wall in her house covered with Twilight paraphernalia (she has 4 very Twi-enthusiastic teenage girls). It was awesome in every way! Thanks Tracy!!

Jenny and I went together (and quickly became known as "the Jennys" - the curse we share having the most popular name from 1975-1985). After the party we all headed to the theater where we watched not just Eclipse, but Twilight, New Moon and then at midnight Eclipse. Oh it was heaven! I was the only person in the theater to cheer for Edward's horrible pastiness when he takes off his shirt in New Moon, but that's okay, he deserved a little cheer after the applause and hooting that Jacob gets during his Chippendale's moment in the motorcycle scene. I couldn't believe how quickly Twilight and New Moon flew by. You would think watching 3 movies in a row would be too much, but no it was absolutely fun and the time passed so fast. Of course the intermissions were also lots of fun. Chatting with fellow Twihards. Nice.

Then Eclipse. Oh it was GREAT!! Really really. I loved that the whole movie had lots and lots of Edward. The newborn fighting was fun times and there was even a plug for waiting until marriage during the famous (and yes quite steamy) "compromise" scene. I thought the whole thing was awesome. Okay now, the most awesome awesomeness was about a 25 second scene with the original vampire the Quileutes faced played by none other than PETER MURPHY!!! He really was in it!! He was billed in the credits (which I stayed to watch on my second viewing) as "The Cold One"!! Ha!! Don't I know it! Yes, Peter Murphy is The Cold One and always will be! I want to make myself a "Team The Cold One" shirt!! Woohoo it was great! And Bryce Howard as Victoria I think was a good choice. If you remember in the books she has a sweet child like voice which I think the other Victoria chick didn't even try to do, whereas Bryce Howard nailed that evil sweetness. Rosalie's and Jasper's back-stories were just awesome. Jacob's and Edward's fire and ice scene in the tent was pretty good (I wish Edward would have been a little more verbose shall we say, but hey I guess at this point I really shouldn't expect Rob to be book Edward so I let it go). One problem. Can they please figure out what color they want the good vampires' eyes to be??! In this one they were almost orange and that bothered me a little. I think I like the color in New Moon the best and of course think Twilight with their brown contacts clearly visible was the worst. We'll see how it will be in Breaking Dawn though I cringe to even think of that book becoming a movie - Monster Baby pregnancy?? Oh it's gonna be gross. But of course I'll watch it anyways. Anywho, I thought Eclipse was fab. And it was so fun to see it with Jenny and Tracy and other new Twihard friends. I swear half the theater was Mormons.:)

And of course as per tradition Adrian and I went and saw it last night again (in IMAX!!) so I could see it twice on opening day. It just wouldn't have been right not to. We had Olive Garden before, with mushroom ravioli again and it was great. Adrian still refused to fully embrace the part of Edward and not eat and give me his Coke, but oh well.:) We had a great time together and Adrian genuinely liked the movie. He smiled at my reaction to Peter Murphy's 25 seconds and laughed that I wanted to stay for the credits just to see Peter's name up there as a vampire. I also think he liked that TwilightSagaEclipse (we say it like that now too Cami!) was more of an action movie than the other two.

So there you have it. My 32 hours of serious Eclipseness. It was great. It was fun. It was fabulous. And I'm so glad I got to share it with good friends and my ever supportive husband.

Aren't the ribbons in our hair cute?! That was Jenny's fab idea to match the ribbon on the cover of the book. Jenny had a very cute "La Push Cliff Diving Team" t-shirt that she made herself. The necklaces were favors from Tracy's party - little tiny Eclipse book covers on scrabble tiles. So fun! I got Eclipse party swag!:)

Brace Faced Cutie

Yep, Sophie got braces and now officially looks like an adolescent child to me. Between that and middle school she is making me feel old! She opted for silver braces versus clear ones which is a mystery to me, but I think most of her friends have metal braces so they were cooler to her. Go figure. Sophie's orthodontist is very nice and all the staff is very friendly so we are really happy! And on top of that the office has a cute little play area for Ben and Nina to hang out in while we wait during her appointments. Sophie I think you look adorable with your braces and you will be so happy with your new smile when they come off! (Isn't that a classic mom thing to say?! But it's true!)

Father's Day 2010

I'm behind as always in posting, but here's a couple of the most embarrassing pictures of Adrian on Father's day. (Sorry Adrian, we forgot to take better pictures later in the day!) We have 9am church so breakfast in bed was bright and early, but I think the chocolate donuts smoothed it all over with Adrian. Adrian you are an amazing dad to our kids and an equally amazing husband. Thanks for being you!! Happy Father's Day!

Wishing I Was Here

I would love to be in Florida right now! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened up today at Universal Studios! I'm sitting here glued to The Today Show and their coverage of the opening! Wouldn't it be awesome to be there?! I'm sure it's not as spectacular as I would want it to be (I wish it was like a whole amusement park and not just a section of Universal), but it looks like a lot of fun and I need to start planning a trip there, for someday... All the hoopla is also making me excited for movie number 7 to come out in November (#7 part 1 that is, don't get me started on how annoying I think it is that they are breaking book 7 into 2 movies - LAME). Did you know that Caius from the Twilight movies is playing Grindelwald?! And that he and the chick that plays Ginny are engaged?! Fun little bits I discovered from a little trip through the HP blogs out there. Funny how many 7-Degrees-to-Kevin-Bacon-like links there are between HP and Twilight. Fun stuff.

Well I guess I'll get over wishing I was somewhere else with some distractions. We're planning on seeing Toy Story 3 today or tomorrow with the kiddos. Fun. And I still haven't watched this weeks SYTYCD episodes so there's that too. Is anyone else freaking out with complete glee over Maaarrrkkk!, Pasha!, and Neil! being back this season!!! YAY!! And then of course there is my growing Eclipse mania to help with the coping. Only 12 more days!!!

Sting and the BEST concert EVER

Last night Adrian and I went to see Sting at Red Rocks. I can't even explain accurately how amazing the concert was. It was hands down the best concert that I have ever been to (better than the Tori Amos concert for Under the Pink, just Tori and her piano, which I believed was the concert to beat all concerts until last night). It made me love Sting even more than I did before. Sting is AWEsome. His voice was as clear as a bell and because of the acoustics at Red Rocks it sounded amazing. AMAZING! He sounded better live than he does on his albums. How is that even possible? It was incredible to witness.

This Symphonicity Tour is a world tour that Sting is doing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. It was like the "Best Of Sting" live with a full orchestra. Each song was just different enough with all the beautiful layered sound that it took a minute to figure out what song it was. Fields of Gold - so beautiful and touching. Why Should I Cry For You - gorgeous. And then Moon Over Bourbon Street - SO cool. I was tickled pink when he said "And the next song is about a vampire..." I started clapping and "WOOO"ing! You can't imagine how cool it was to see Lestat singing Moon Over Bourbon Street!! Let me 'splain. As you may know by now I like vampires. I love vampires. This love did not start with Edward or even Dracula, no it all started with Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire in about 1993 and my mental image for Lestat was Sting and always will be Sting (sorry Tom Cruise, but you are no Lestat). So to watch and listen to my Lestat sing Moon Over Bourbon Street live was indescribable. Cool cool beans!

Then there was Red Rocks which was in itself an experience. As we watched the concert we also could see all of Denver down below us and lightning lighting up the distant clouds. Breath taking. Put that with Sting and it was just a spectacular night. And it was a 2 1/2 hours of music with 4 encores. Wow! I'm so glad I got to go and share it with my best friend and fellow Sting fan hubby. We had such a fantastic time. I wish it was like a movie and we could go over and over again. Is there such a thing as a Sting-head? I think we should be Sting-heads and follow Sting's tour around the world... I think we both wish we could after last night!

As you can see I had an extra-special kind of person in front of me who kept standing up at the beginning of each song because she was "feeling it". BTW Red Rocks isn't a good venue for standing because you totally block the person behind you if you stand. But I didn't let "my-favorite-lady-in-the-world" as she became know through-out the night ruin it for me. I was feeling it too and began to appreciate her grooving - it was funny!

This was from Moon Over Bourbon Street.