I'm Back...Where Did I Go Anyways?

It has been way to long since I have posted and can't believe that summer is all over and kids are back in school. Lets get you caught up with the highlights of my life since my last post...later I may add photos.

June 1st- Our house went up for sale. I learned real quick how unfun it was to have your house on the market with two little walking tornadoes...aka Ryann and Addy. Having to up and leave all the time and where do you go in the mean time...lets just say parks got REAL old!

June 9th- Ryann turned 4!! Elliott was still out of town and I had Elliott's parents over for dinner and cake. We also go an offer on our house!! I was so thankful because I was going to go crazy!

June 15th- Around this time Elliott came home for a short weekend and then went off to Warsaw IN where he would live until October. This left me as a single mom packing and getting ready for the move. Lets just say I am not a single mom for a reason...I HATE IT! Occasionally it is nice to have simple dinners like cereal, pancakes, grill cheese, etc BUT I would take a hubby home in exchange if it meant cooking gourmet meals every night.

June 22nd-Miss Addy-Patty-Pat turned 2! I decided to get her one of those plastic cars (little tyke type) I did a different brand because it was pink. I had to assemble that thing all by myself..NOT FUN and do not recommend that...and another reason why I love my hubby around. Again Elliott was gone and we had Elliott's parents over for cake and ice cream.

July 3rd-Elliott came home for the weekend! Yeah...lets just say him being gone for weeks at a time makes for a fun first night home...wink..wink. It was so nice to have him to help with the last minute packing because we moved out on July 7th...so I thought he would be able to help...

July 4th-We spent the morning at a huge neighborhood party/breakfast...I will post pictures later. We left and after lunch I dropped Elliott off at the hospital...his dang lung had partially collapsed again. Luckily, he only stayed one night and the Dr let him leave with the chest tube and just come back everyday for the next week to get xrayed until it could come out. His worked was so good about this and told him to just take it easy and meet them in Vegas for their meeting.

July 5th, July 6th, July 7th- Packing, Packing, Packing, and more Packing....holy crap we have a ton of stuff even after two garage sells and trips to DI and selling stuff online. I am so grateful for friends that had come over to help me pack and clean since Elliott was on "bedrest". It is very hard for me to let people help me because I feel guilty for some reason but I really needed it and am very grateful for it. July 7th the mover came and of course because we have too much such needed another truck. Thank goodness that evening friends and neighbors came and gave us a hand and finished loading up the rest of our stuff...which was garage stuff. I had never been so utterly exhausted at the end of the day. I know Elliott felt bad and wished he could have helped.

July 9th-We closed on our house.

Oh yeah can't forget to mention my rude grouchy old neighbor. We used ABF for transporting our stuff. When we needed another truck I had them place the 2nd truck in front of our side yard. There was plenty of space and it did not block my neighbors drive way (and he was out of town). The next day I received a phone call on my cell phone from the police asking about the ABF truck. HE CALLED THE POLICE! They wanted to know when it was getting picked up because my neighbor couldn't get his RV back up his driveway. The said it wasn't illegally parked and just wanted to be able to tell him something. JUST for being a jerk I didn't have it picked up the next day. The next day ABF called me and said my neighbor called them and threatened them. At this point I needed to go back to the house for the last few things and to clean the floors. He was in his driveway so I felt the need to go over and tell him what a jerk he was...oh and his RV was parked up his driveway after all. I wish my life was as simple as his that the hardest things I had to complain about was a moving truck "encroaching 6 inches onto his property line"...like I said Jerk.

We at this point became homeless!

July-Having Elliott around we left for Vegas to go house hunting. Yes at this point we never made it down there to find a house. I didn't know how long it would take to sell ours and I didn't want to fall in love with a house and lose it because our house hadn't sold. My cousin lives in Vegas and her husband is a Realtor and helped us find a house. I don't find it so fun house shopping in the situation we were in. We were on a tight timeline to find a place ASAP. We narrowed it down to two homes. Elliott was "in-love" with one but because it was a "short sale" we decided to go with the other home. We hung out in Vegas for the rest of the week and then he went back to Warsaw and I headed to CA.

Newport Beach, CA- I took the girls to Newport Beach. This was the first beach that Ryann and Addy had been to (or at least to remember). The look on Addison's face when the water came up over her feet was priceless! It was the coolest thing ever to her! My girls loved it and we stayed until dusk.

Driving I-5-The next morning we headed up to Northern Ca to spend time with my family. So I thought. I was up early and we get out to the car for a dead battery!!!! AHhhh...SO an hour later we were on the road. After driving I-5 I now have and idea of what hell will be like...and it is called driving on I-5 over and over and over again! Traffic goes from 85 mph to 35 mph over and over and over again because of the semi trucks and other dumb drivers. We stopped off to have some lunch...well it was so gross we didn't eat...thanks Jack in the Box (it was between that or Denny's and we didn't want to take the time to eat there).

Breast Cancer and Dumb Kaiser- My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and went in for a lumpectomy. Her surgery was delayed and delayed for hours only for her to get in there...put under...for the Dr to realize the guide wire was out of place and had to reschedule her. Lets just say I never want to live in CA for one reason being I would never want Kaiser Health care. They have dropped the ball more than once with my mom I guess you almost expect them now to mess up everything. I was there to help clean and make a few dinners before I headed back to UT.

First Airplane Ride Alone- Kylee and Alyssa got to fly to UT all by themselves for "Camp NanaPaca" (it is a camp Elliott's parents put on every other summer for certain grandkids). So I only had two kids for a week. Life is easy with two kids although Kylee and Alyssa are the easier ones.

Happy Birthday to Me- While I was in CA I had my birthday. My brother's family and sister's family came over to celebrate and we had lots of good food! Elliott was in Warsaw but surprised me with having flowers delivered.

The next night my parents watched Ryann and Addy and I headed to San Francisco to have dinner with 3 of my high school friends. It was sooooo nice to get away without kids and spend some time with old friends.

Road Trip to Utah- The very next morning I left with Ryann and Addy and drove 11 hours to UT. I stayed at my brothers house until it was time to pick up Kylee and Alyssa. They had a blast!

Road Trip to Wyoming- The morning after I picked up girls we headed to WY. We were going to go at an earlier time but Elliott getting sick changed our plans. We were in Casper M-TH. It was so fun to see old friends, our old houses, schools, etc. Lots of great memories! Wednesday afternoon when I headed back to my hotel room I notice my portable DVD player was missing. Inside was a new DVD the girls hadn't even watched all the way through. The w-t maid took it. She was living in a half-way house and on work release. The police got it back for me and I got one night free. The funny thing about Casper hotels is that it costs more to stay there then in Vegas and not because they are nicer.

Back to UT-Again I loaded up the girls and headed back to UT for one night. The next morning I bought Elliott a car and headed out town.

Las Vegas-It was time to head to Vegas because our house was suppose to close in two weeks. Elliott met us in Vegas for a short weekend visit. We had so much fun that weekend...it was just too short! Little did I know when I checked into that hotel that I would be living there for 3 WEEKS!

Embassy Suites...our home- The lender for many reasons was not on top of things and because of this our closing got put off for 1 week. The stress and all the calls was too much to deal with. Why can't people just do their jobs that they get paid to do? It wasn't until I went higher up and complained that something actually go rolling. So the girls and I lived in Embassy Suites. The staff was amazing! They were always bringing us stuff. One of the cooks (Billy Ray) made our mornings! He was such a happy guy with lots of energy. Ryann was amazed because his skin was black. As much as I didn't want to be living in a hotel with the girls I couldn't have been in a better hotel. Eating out did get old. We went to Jason Deli every Monday night because kids eat free...how w-t is that! And some nights we had cereal. You know you have lived in a hotel to long when your 2 year old can work the elevator all by herself.

Weekend with my Dad and Brother-The house was suppose to close and my Dad and Brother had plane tickets to come and help me for a weekend. Their were some minor repairs needed on the house so we decided to just do them anyways. They fixed all the small things for me, hung up towel bars, TP holders, needed hooks for kids towels and backpacks, etc. It was a huge help for me!

First Day of School- We were still living in the hotel for their first day of school. I had to drive them 35 min away for school unless their was an accident (which always happen) then a little longer. For one week I did the drive there and back...yeah not much fun.

August 26th- I finally got to go and sign papers! My appointment was at 3 pm. Around noon I realized I hadn't been contacted by the title company to know the exact amount of money to bring to closing. At 2:30 still no word there was an issue about the lender not receiving the power of attorney so I could sign for Elliott. They had a week to send it to the lender and for what ever reason forgot (or didn't do their job). At 2:45 they let me know the amount. So I was still at the bank getting my check at 3 and the title had the nerve to wonder why I was late. So up until the last minute it was hell buying our house. I almost didn't even want it and wanted just to rent but the idea of moving again was worse. So on August 28th it was officially ours. August 31st I had new carpet put in upstairs and Sept 1st the movers moved us in and then headed to the airport to pick up Elliott for a week of working in Vegas.

This has been my life in a nutshell since my last posting...and add in my kids getting on my nerves in between this all....oh and having to do laundry wasn't fun either.