We ended up missing Julia's dance recital because of our trip to San Francisco. However, she had a rehearsal a few days before that we were able to attend. I'm sure it wasn't the same, but it was pretty close. In fact, they ran through the number twice, so we may have seen more than if we would have attended the recital. She was very excited about getting to wear makeup with her dancing outfit.
Julia has been going to class every Wednesday after school with her friends and classmates Emma, Evie, and Avery. Emma and Evie's mom takes them home after school and then to class. Julia really likes dance, so it's possible she'll continue longer than just this session. She's obviously growing up and maturing, since she had no problem being on stage with the rest of her group. She said she was a little nervous, and you could tell she was, but overall she did great.
Grandpa and grandma took her to the actual recital. We made sure to get it on DVD and to have a bouquet of flowers waiting for her after the show.
Stacey took Jonathan to the park the other day. Another kid showed up on his bike. Jonathan's new friend followed him around for a little bit while Jonathan rode his scooter. After while of sizing each other up, both boys gave each other the look equivalent to revving your engine at a stop light. The paced gradually quickened until it was "race on". When the race began Jonathan put his head down and "dropped the hammer". Apparently, his burst of speed was quite impressive, leaving the larger kid in the dust. The other boy's grandpa wanted to know how old Jonathan was.
I heard all about the race against the "kid with the yellow bike" when I got home. Jonathan was very proud that he won. It's really funny to hear things like this and to watch him around the house with Julia. He hates losing, and loves racing. When the kids chase each other around the house, he gets this look on his face and clenches his teeth, until he is able to wrap his arms around his sister and take her to the floor. He's definitely got a competitive, strong-willed streak. That will be great going forward, as long as we can channel it in a positive way.
Today we closed on our new house! We had the final walk through at 9 and then signed papers for a little over an hour after that. I ran over to vacuum the house before the carpet cleaners arrived. In the afternoon we were able to unload two trailers before having to stop for dinner.
Three neighbors stopped by and introduced themselves. There are block barbeques and a street email list/Facebook page. Those sort of things are what we expected and partly why we moved here. Sounds like there are a lot of children on our street, so the kids are going to love that.
I'm pretty tired from moving things, but we almost have the basement completely moved out. Tomorrow morning we'll finish up that level - if you don't count the couches. We'll leave the heavy things for a later date. We have a lot of furniture, but we actually don't have a lot of "stuff". We may be able to live out of the new place by Sunday night. We aren't in a rush though, the renters don't move in to our old place until May 10th.
I was able to take some pictures before we moved things in. I know many of you have been curious to see some. The house is beautiful, yet it isn't as photogenic as in person. It might be the angles. With everything out we've really noticed some wear, so we're already talking about painting the place. We'll probably stick to a similar color throughout, but with a nice, fresh, coat and a little more shine.
Compared to our old house, the place feels like we have breathing room, both inside and out.
Today we signed a two year lease with Jan and Phil. It's pretty amazing how fast everything happened. We posted the ad on a few sites and within six days we had a verbal agreement to sign a lease. We didn't even post a sign outside the house - it was all done via the interwebs.
I started getting emails and calls within an hour of posting the house online. The next day we showed it to three parties. Over the six days we averaged about two a day looking at the house, in addition to fielding probably over 30 phone calls and or emails. The interest was so great that we actually talked about raising the price.
The people that are renting our house actually found it through the classified ads at work. Their daughter works here and sent the link to them. Jan and Phil are about the same age as my Dad, so no kids but also no pets...just the two of them. Jan used to work at Focus for over twenty years. This is exactly the demographic I had envisioned when we started thinking about renting our house. Technically you can't make decisions based on this, but it happens on the down low all the time. In all honesty, they were the only ones that actually completed and turned in an application, so that's reason enough. Jan arrived with her own copy already filled out, complete with social security numbers, copies of driver's licenses, and bank statements. Sold.
We have plenty of time to get the place cleaned up before they move in. No repainting necessary, just cleaning. We'll tackle that later after we've moved everything to the new place. We'll see how this new ventures goes. I hope it's not that difficult, because it allows us to use other people's money to pay for our next place. I can always sell the house later if it doesn't work out, but then I'm using my money. The kids don't care, as long as they get the trampoline they were promised!
