Tales of a Fulltime Mom: Settling In

I feel so far behind with everything that I don't know where to begin. That's pretty much how I feel about the house too! But seriously, we do have all our boxes unpacked so that's a start. I just wish I could wave a magic wand and every wall would be painted, every curtain hung, everything in it's proper place. If only it were that simple.

I won't recount everything we've been up to but I'm going to try and touch on a few things. The first thing is that we are just so thankful to be here. The week at the condo went well and we actually really enjoyed being in a new part of town to discover other things that Orlando had to offer. It was an adventure of sorts. It all was leading up to our big closing day on Friday, September 7. That Thursday evening was our last night at the condo. Spirits were high but then it all came crashing down when our lender contacted us with the amount of cash we needed to wire for the closing the next morning. It was significantly more than we had been told in our good faith estimate two weeks previously. That really deflated things for us. Of course, being the accountant that I am, I had to tick and tie everything between the two documents to find what happened. The biggest thing we found is that they were trying to charge us for 13 months of property taxes up front which was ridiculous because taxes are paid at the conclusion of the year, not in advance. We were able to get that adjusted and although that only equated to about 60% of the increase in closing costs, we could live with it.

Our closing was on Friday afternoon at 2:00 so we headed up from the condo mid-morning to Ron and Elaine's. As we got into familiar territory on 436, Aubree remarked with excitement "We're back in Florida!" Before we went to Ron and Elaine's, we spent a good hour going to all the post offices in Winter Park trying to find where our mail had been held. Since we were obviously without a home for a week, I had our mail held for pickup at the post office and then I was going to change the address at that time. Needless to say, it became quite clear to me why the USPS is in financial straits. Each place told me to go somewhere else, the phones lines were busy every time I tried to call, and then the guy at the last place basically berated me for having mail delivered to a place where I no longer lived (but that's just the point sir...I didn't live there any more so I wanted it held. Duh!). Two weeks later, I still haven't gotten mail from that time. I wasn't expecting anything important so I concluded that it was what it was. Well, before the closing, I had to go over to our Winter Park rental (now that we have two, I'll have to differentiate them by town) because of a little bug problem I had to deal with, and the tenant told me that mail had been delivered for us on Thursday and Friday. What do I see there but a jury notice for Duncan! So much for nothing important coming. I guess we can be thankful that the USPS was incompetent in holding our mail through the 7th and delivered it on the 6th when they weren't supposed to. Luckily for Duncan, we now live in Orange County so he is excused from serving. This is the second time he's been called in the last few years. I'm the one who wants so serve!

Anyway, the closing itself went fine and although I don't think our lender handled things exactly right with the good faith estimate and our little financial surprise there at the end, I'm amazed at how quickly it happened. We calculated it to be nine business days. Plus, we found out that the appraiser had told our lender that looking at things initially, they didn't think they could get it much higher than the first appraisal. Our lender put on a little pressure and it came out where it needed to be. Quicken claims they couldn't have contact with the appraiser but I guess when you have a local lender, they know the appraisers and they talk. Lesson learned.

Duncan and his parents had already emptied our small storage unit out on Thursday evening and put it in a U-haul truck so we were ready to move some of our stuff in right after closing. And so began the busy weekend of the move. I'll just say that we have an amazing group of friends and I have two terrific in-laws. We really couldn't have done it without them. Ron worked his tail off helping Duncan unload the truck late Friday afternoon and then we had dinner at the Isidros....just a half mile away now!! We ate at their place after church and then the men were struck with the idea of moving the rest of the stuff on Saturday night after sunset rather than Sunday morning. So Allen and Bruce took off with Duncan while the ladies and the kids hung out here helping me unpack the kitchen. All said, it took them until about 11:15 to unload the truck but it was a nice feeling to have it done. Then, Sunday, everyone came over again and Allen, Jennifer, Bruce, and Duncan painted our living room and kitchen. They were all a godsend and we were so grateful for the help.

It's now been two weeks now since then and it's starting to feel more and more like home. Brady spent the first two nights in our closet because we only had one baby monitor and now we need two (girls are right above us but it's a LONG walk to their room). It was a little rough so I decided he was going to his own room no matter what. Since then, he's slept through the night every night without any problems. I guess being back in his own crib has done wonders. The girls have adjusted just fine. They haven't had any issue with being upstairs while we're downstairs and in fact, love the idea of talking to us through the monitor. I've been a bit apprehensive about the stairs though wondering what would happen if one of them woke up during the night and came looking for us. I don't want anyone falling down the stairs. But I've kept the lights on over the stairs and the main one I'm worried about, Aubree, would probably cry for me before coming down in which case I could get up there before she tried coming down. Neither of them has woken up at all though so we're looking good so far.

It's been interesting driving around town and figuring out where everything is. We get excited when we come across a new store ("Look, there's an Old Time Pottery right here!" etc) and I've found a few thrift stores so happy times for me. There is a Publix and a Walgreens right across from our community so that works out nicely although I've discovered the closest CVS is a little drive. Not good for couponing but we'll make it work. There are plenty of nice playgrounds around and of course, the big draw for Duncan is that the West Orange bike trail is practically in our backyard. It's a whole new world for yard sales and I've discovered after the first two weeks at it that our new area is probably going to be Apopka. Ocoee is not a very big town and I wasn't impressed with one of the sales I went to today. I was buying a tray to use for our couch and the man selling it was puffing on a cigarette when I went to pay. He gave me a weird smile which did not contain all the teeth that typically come in a mouth and said "Serving your man breakfast in bed I see." Gross. So yeah, I guess every town has it's areas that aren't the prettiest. I'm learning. That said, we may still go over to our old neck of the woods if Winter Park/Casselberry has better yard sales than around here. That way we can visit Grandma and Grandpa.

Since we have enjoyed the closing process so much, we have decided to go through it yet again. I can't even believe I'm saying this but yes, we are refinancing our Casselberry rental with Quicken Loans of all people. We haven't been eligible to refinance but when I called our payment processor to change our address, they said we were eligible after all and that they were working with Quicken Loans. Thankfully, they are good at refinancing and it's a pretty painless process. We are excited because the interest rate is so much better, obviously, and we're reducing to a 15-year mortgage.

I think I will end the narrative here and just do the rest of this in pictures. Have a Happy Sabbath!

Calleigh and Braelyn playing "chicken" at our condo pool.

I took the kids to Sea World one day since it was right next door. It was so hot even Calleigh told me "Mom, this was NOT a good idea. We need to come back when it's winter."

Brady was big enough to go on some of the kiddie rides whether he wanted to or not. I think this one ended up being a "not."

We ate at the world's largest McDonald's (so they claim) which is on Sand Lake Rd. Trying to order vegetarian items (which their menu does not contain at all) almost made it more trouble than it was worth.

Closing Day/Moving Day supper at the Isidros. Indian food!

The strange fruit that Allen buys.

Girls playing dress up Saturday night while waiting for the dads to get back.

Finally had to resort to letting them watch something on my computer.

Brady getting in on the dress up action.

Allen took us to this playground last week.

The girls had Adventurers last week and Allen took Calleigh with them. Huge help!

Last week Calleigh was looking for a towel and when I asked why she said she wanted to run laps around the yard and needed a towel to put on her shoulder while she ran. And then she proceeded to do just that. Weird.

Checking out bunk beds at Ikea. This is a no go. I decided I'm not into a lot of the Ikea stuff. I'm much more of a traditionalist.

Uncle Kevin, Bob, and Bruce McDougall were in town to help Yully and David move to Boston. This was our last meal together and they have the distinction of being our first official dinner guests. This was last Sabbath. A sad day.

Marley and Macey's birthday party last Sunday. They got to plant their own flower to bring home.

Already looking after his sisters.

Playroom. Obviously not the finished product.

Girls' room. They'll probably be sleeping on those mattresses for awhile.

Another new playground this week.

Brady was quite taken with this little girl. I guess he goes for blondes and older women. Hmm...

Our newly minted office courtesy of Ikea. This took Duncan nearly a whole day to put together. The walls are painted gray although it may be hard to tell.

Backyard.

Master bedroom. This needs to be painted and decorated.

The pantry. Looks pretty typical from this angle until you turn the corner and see...

...all this. This is my favorite part of the house. So much room!

We were parked next to this car at Publix the other day. If you can't read it, the little magnet says "I love my Italian Greyhound." The Patriots license plate is the same as ours. However, the similarities ended at the big "MADONNA" on the top. Calleigh wanted to sit in the car and wait for the person to come out so we could see who it was.