For Sale

The sign's up...

We're officially on the market! All I can say at this point is "Whew!" What a lot of work the last few weeks have been. (Our realtors did say they thought we'd done a great job and think the house will show really well.) I only hope the "maintenance" aspect isn't terrible, although I know it's going to be stressful on everybody.

We took pictures this morning, so I thought I'd share a few. I don't know which ones will end up on the Internet listing or flyer yet. (And if you've ever been in my house much, you know that getting it to look like this is a big undertaking!)

Another view of the front...



The porch...


The dining room...



The office...



The family room...




The kitchen and breakfast area...




The game room (a hard room to photograph)...


McKay's room...


Hayley's room...


Hannah & Courtney's room...



Hall bathroom...


Master bedroom...



Master bathroom...

Is It Summer Yet?

This morning I had some "kid-free" time so I ran a couple of errands. I wanted to check out a new Target that's not too far from us. I found some swimsuits for the kids and decided to buy them now (they all need new ones), even though I doubt we'll do any swimming anytime soon.

Hayley was the first home from preschool and was so excited to try her swimsuit on. Then she wouldn't take it off! I must admit, I'm not entirely thrilled with the spaghetti straps, but the choices in swimsuits are so limited, I decided she's still little enough that it's not that important. And she is pretty dang cute too!

I'll have to get pictures of the other girls modeling theirs too. Although I think Hannah has changed her mind as to whether she likes hers or not (no big surprise there). She was so excited when I first showed it to her and immediately tore the tags off. After wearing it around for a few minutes, she started complaining about not liking the style in the back of the swimsuit (it has the "hole" look) and the complaining grew louder and whinier. So I might have to keep looking for her.

House Pictures

Tomorrow morning the realtor is coming over to take pictures of the house to get it on the market. She asked me today if I felt ready for this -- and I told her I'm certainly tired of the "getting ready" stage!

I snapped a few pictures of the outside of the house today since the sun wasn't shining real brightly. Plus, I took one of the garage cabinets while the van was parked outside.

The front of the house (we might need to try a different angle so the trees aren't blocking so much):

And a couple of the backyard:

Tonight I'm busy cleaning up, putting away, and vacuuming for the inside pictures tomorrow. So I'd better get back to work!

"Wild" Courtney

Yesterday Courtney had to go to preschool dressed up for a "Wild West" theme picture. They were taking a class picture to auction off at the preschool big fundraiser auction next week (I could probably write a whole blog about my feelings on school auction fundraisers, but I'll save that for another day...)

So we found what we had in the dress-up box and she was good to go!

Thinking about the "Wild West" theme has me reflecting on how you could probably classify Courtney as our "wildest" kid. She has always had those escape-artist tendencies, is rarely afraid of anything and loves adventure. She can also throw some pretty good tantrums (and still does).

This morning she and Hayley were out in the backyard while I was cleaning (story of my life these days) and she came over to the door all excited to show me her latest find:

She put it down several times to watch it jump and then would chase it around until she could catch it again. (Poor frog -- or maybe it's a toad.) We sure love our wild 'n crazy Courtney!

Carpet and Mulch

Well, we survived our weekend! Saturday was a very long day -- we were all so tired and sore by the end of the day. But now we have nice new mulch and nice new carpet -- and we really hope the two of them don't mix! :-)

We've still got a few things to finish up before we actually get the house on the market, so I'll just share a few pictures this morning and get back to work.

First, here's the new chandelier we bought for our dining room. We have to raise it up since we don't have a table under it and we don't want to bonk our heads constantly. (Our old chandelier got pulled apart by some little "monkeys" who decided to try swinging from it once.)

We had to get creative in where to put all the "little" stuff before the carpet guys came.

Here is the "food tower" the kids made as we emptied the food storage closet:

We put things in the laundry room...

And the bathrooms...

And Brian moved the entertainment center into the kitchen beforehand...

Saturday morning the mulch was delivered (one smaller load of a slightly different type to put under the swingset):

I put the girls to work bagging pine needles from our huge pile. (We have been dumping needles and leaves here in sort of a homemade mulch pile but we need to get rid of it.)

And then the carpet guys got here and got right to work ripping out old carpet and putting in the new (there were 4 of them and they finished by 4pm!).

Mulch is almost done! McKay was a SUPER worker and worked hard all day long doing loads of mulch.

Mulch under the swingset...

And NEW carpet in the whole house! It's a very similar color to our old carpet, just a little higher quality.

The kids enjoying a card game on the new carpet.

Now the stress begins of trying to keep it as clean as possible. But I'm sure glad this weekend is over!

Here We Go...

Tomorrow (and tonight) is going to be a crazy, chaotic, exhausting day. They are coming to install our new carpet AND we are crazy enough to have a huge load of mulch delivered the same day. So we are working diligently to get the house ready for the carpet.

We have to move all the "smaller" stuff into the kitchen, bathrooms, garage, etc (anywhere that does not have carpet). Yesterday afternoon I had the kids all help me unload our food storage from the closet under our stairs and put it in the kitchen. They had fun making food towers! (I had a cute picture to add here of the food towers, but I just realized that Brian has already turned off and moved our file server for the carpet project, so I can't access it. I'll post it later when everything is back up!)

I think (hope!) we finished up the painting today (finally). I did the office this morning and tried to touch up some other areas. I will be happy to not see another paint roller for a long, long time.

I had best get back to work trying to move stuff out of closets and other rooms. I hope we survive tomorrow!

Flat Stanley

We had a little visitor over Spring Break - Flat Stanley. Actually, his official name was "Flat Michael" (the kids had to think of a new name for their own version). He came from McKay's class to spend Spring Break with us.

I think most 2nd or 3rd grade classes do some sort of Flat Stanley project these days. Many times the kids have to send Flat Stanley out to a relative, who then takes pictures with Flat Stanley and returns him. But for McKay's class, they were just supposed to take Flat Stanley with them on their Spring Break, take some pictures, and make a small poster to share with the class.

So here are the pictures we took of McKay with "Flat Michael":

Love Notes

Hannah & Courtney decided to write me some little heart-shaped notes this afternoon (among other paper craft "projects" going on at the kitchen table). I just have to share them!

Hannah wrote me this note (I've corrected her spelling, which is getting better!):

Dear Mom
Here is a poem of why I like you.
Mom looks up at the blue blue sky,
And you will always be loved as the love passes by.
Here is a song of love.
Constant stars of you above,
Always know that you are loved.
As my love shining in you,
Will help your dreams come true.
Love,
Hannah

So then Courtney decided that she wanted to write me a love note too. She has been trying lately to write more on her own and sound out words, but at this beginning stage it is usually just letters on the page. The other day she wanted to write a story and had written a couple of lines of letters, but apparently forgot what she had already written, so she asked me to read it to her. I couldn't decipher any of it, so I told her that she was the one who needed to read it to me. She couldn't decipher it either!

So I was quite impressed to get this note from her today. And I will leave her spelling exactly as she wrote it:

DEER MOM
YEEW UR DHE BESD MOM

(Translation: Dear Mom, You are the best Mom)

I love getting love notes!

Bug Catching

The kids were outside in the backyard yesterday when they managed to catch this moth (at least I think it is a moth -- we're not sure exactly). A neighbor boy was over in the yard playing with them and they were bug hunting. They were pretty excited! It is quite big and has a pretty camoflauge pattern on its green wings.

They kept it in the bug jar for awhile (they named it "Abby") and decided to let it go. Only it didn't want to go anywhere, so they got it to perch on a stick they had. (I wonder if they somehow hurt it or damaged its wings.) Finally it disappeared somewhere.

This afternoon Courtney was outside again and saw the same moth, so she caught it again! She let it go after a little while and it flew away pretty quickly this time!

100%

McKay came home from school today very excited with the news that he got 100% on the recent TAKS test. This is the state-mandated reading test that all the kids must pass to move on to 4th grade. I knew he would do just fine, but he was a little worried because they make such a big deal about this test. He said all the kids in his class passed, but he didn't know how many others also got 100%.

Way to go, McKay!

A Ghost Story

Hannah came home from school yesterday telling me that her friend had told her a scary story about a ghost on the bus ride home. Later in the afternoon, she sat down to write her own ghost story (I think a small part of this comes from her friend's story).

She asked me to please type it up here. (Sorry if you're getting tired of Hannah's stories!) She also drew pictures to illustrate her story, which won't be included here.

So, here is the story (with the spelling corrected and some punctuation added). :-)

The Howling Ghost
Written by Hannah and Illustrated by Hannah

Once there was a little girl named Sally and it was the middle of the night so she was sleeping when she heard a howling sound. It sounded like a ghost!

It was a ghost. Sally was so scared that she screamed! Then the ghost chased Sally all over her room. Sally was so scared that she did not call her mom or dad. Then finally the ghost went out the window and was gone.

In the morning Sally found blood on her covers! Then the next night the ghost came back all in blood!

The little girl had had enough of this silliness so she threw water at him and he turned into a cute bunny so Sally had a pet.

The End

I love her ending! (I think the blood-covered ghost is what she got from her friend's story.) She definitely enjoys creative writing much more than McKay ever has.

It's Springtime!

You know it's Spring in Texas when you start to see these pop up along the roadsides:

I love when the bluebonnets come out! I love that they seed many of the roadsides here in our community with bluebonnets so we can enjoy them as we drive around.

There is a patch of bluebonnets this year within walking distance of our house, so this morning I had the kids get their Easter church clothes on a little early and we walked over for bluebonnet pictures. This has become an annual tradition for us -- I really hope there are still lots of bluebonnets when we move!

It was fairly breezy this morning, so the wind kept blowing the girl's hair and McKay's tie around, plus they were squinting a lot because of the breeze, but I thought overall the pictures turned out good.

On our way back home, I had the kids stop for one more Easter picture in our front yard.

Hayley & Courtney also wanted individual pictures in the front yard too!

I hope Spring is starting to show where you are -- Happy Spring!