Said goodbye to the house in VA...

It's been a crazy week - I was in Reston Wed- Fri to close on the house and supervise the packing and moving.  Brian was nice enough to stay back in CA with the kids so I could use it as a "break." 

There's too much to say about that - I stayed at Shannon's and got to see her a bit, but not enough.. I saw playgroup friends, but not enough...  I saw neighbors, but not enough...  I talked on the phone or played telephone tag with other friends..  haha, for the social part I could have stayed weeks longer.  The moving part took long enough though.  The movers were great and the plane trips both ways were great - I love Virgina America!

In the meantime, the boys started preschool and apparently love it.  I'll hear more about it today and I'm sure I'll see myself as I drop off and pick up this week.

Still don't have pictures  of the new house developed, but this week should be less crazy.  :)

Sunday, Sunday

I have always hated Sundays, it signals the end of the weekend and back to "reality."  Reality changes over time, but Sundays are still not my favorite.

The home inspection for the new place went well.  Only minor stuff.  Yet, lovely California had 1000s of more papers for us to sign - all kinds of information is required for us to look over - we have mines, power plants, tsunami zones..  not technically in an earthquake zone though - too far from the fault lines.  :)

Becca went home today.  Life is different with a 12-year-old.  I learned a lot! haha.  Glad to be in my 30s, not 12!

Going to try to get my film on the house developed tomorrow and take the kids someplace fun, as usual...

 

Becca, more sand, preschool and home...

Becca came to visit!  Becca has been with us at the hotel since Tuesday - we are having a great time, the boys love her.  We went to the beach yesterday and managed to stay over 3 hours - our record so far with Anthony being so young and Joseph being so pale.  Nevermind that both boys were falling asleep on a bench with Becca while I went to pull the car up.  :)

I have put money down at a preschool - Check it out-

The boys will probably start 3 days a week as of next Wednesday.  It's the day I'm leaving for Reston, so we might postpose..  we'll see, but I'm excited!  :)

Home inspection on the new place is tomorrow.  I can't wait to get in and take some pics - disposable camera of course, since my digital is still broken.

Oh, and we got cars today - minor damage on the minivan, but c'est la vie.

:) Laura

Hermosa Beach, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Malibu

We went to the beach (Hermosa beach, our future home) yesterday which was fun.  There is a bit of a learning curve I think on how to handle the boys and keeping sand out of anything.  For now, Joseph runs up and down the beach like a madman, paying no attention at all to where we started..  and Anthony is all about his trucks in the sand.  He disregards the water almost completely until almost dragged to it...

Today we drove to Hollywood to see Wall-E at El Capitan theater - turns out there was music on the Werlitzer (my favorite part) and a small live show before the movie (Joseph and Anthony's favorite part).  They got to see Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, Aladdin and Jasmine and many others..  the movie was good too.  :)  Then the boys fell asleep in the car (go figure) so we went exploring with our GPS.  Saw Beverly Hills and Malibu by car..  wheee..

Now I'm sad because Brian has to go to work again tomorrow, but the boys and I will be off to storytime at Barnes and Noble and perhaps the pool.

We got it!

Our contract was accepted!  Can't wait!  We will have an inspection next week, and then if all goes well closing should be Sept. 21 - 45 days from today - did I count right?  The hardest work is over now, we just gotta make it happen.

Here's a link.

I will be back in VA in 2 weeks - Aug 20 - 23, but I won't have a car.  It's for packing and picking up our stuff, but touch base with me if you want to stop by the old diggs or something!

Plan to come see us in CA too - 3 bedrooms, so one will be a guest room.  Unless you want to help unpack though, give us until after Halloween.  We will be 2.5 blocks from the beach.

:)

try try again...

We didn't get the house we wanted on Avaition - they had another bidder who was paying cash rather than financing - can't compete with that!

Also, Brian had Joseph at the ER last night until about 1am, so all are tired here.  Joseph is fine - there is something going on internally that will have to be monitored.  We will follow up with a specialist in 2 weeks.

Found a decent preschool for Joseph for this fall though!  I am filling out the forms now.  They will take Anthony too once he is potty-trained, so perhaps we will start working on that soon.

We will see our realtor tomorrow to put an offer on our 2nd choice (better home, more expensive though...) so wish us luck!

Missing Friends and Family in CA!

I can't believe I haven't posted since last Tuesday, but that's how it is sometimes!  We had a blast at Aunt Shirley's - it was a party every night and the kids loved it.  I think it exhausted us all though!

My camera broke, but I got the pics off the camera - finally.  Here are a couple of the boys - Joseph with the grandparents, Anthony in the pool with his beloved Becca and in the sand at Becca's beach birthday party (she's 12!)

We put an offer in on a house yesterday and haven't heard back yet - they have until tomorrow night.  I'm scared sh*tless - not that we won't get it, but that we will and will have to pay for it!  AHH!  It's gorgeous though.

We ran a bunch of errands today, we will look at a preschool tomorrow, and then I might get brave and take the boys to the beach on Wed.  We'll see.  At the beach party, Joseph was not afraid of the waves at all (Brian and his dad followed him) and Anthony played in the sand with the trucks and occasionally hit the waves....

How are my friends and family?