11th Birthday, 12th Anniversary, and Our New House

Elliott doing pushups after learning he was nearly 21 lbs. already!

Well, after last Sunday’s big update, this will just be a quick blog entry of some big events during the past week.

MADDY’S 11TH BIRTHDAY

Madison’s birthday was on Tuesday, but the big family party was at Amanda’s mom’s house last Sunday night. She got some fun presents from everyone, but the 2 she was most hoping for were the original “Parent Trap” movie starring her Aunt Libby…I mean, starring Haley Mills (and Haley Mills!!):



Also, she got a big set of LEGOs (and now there’s SLIGHTLY less fighting over the LEGO pieces):



She asked for a “Golden Snitch” cake—for those of you not familiar with Harry Potter, the snitch is a winged golden ball integral to the sport of Quidditch in the wizarding world. Ours didn’t fly, but it did have candles on it! (And yes, that’s only 10 candles, but they’re in the shape of an 11):



I’m not sure if she’s blowing out the candles, or trying to catch the snitch in her mouth (like Harry Potter once did):




OUR 12th ANNIVERSARY

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary, and our theme this year was “Cheaper by the Dozen.” Because we’re tight on money, especially with the move (and what would we get anyway?) we didn’t buy presents, and we used some free movie passes to go see “A-Team.” We did eat at Chili’s for lunch, which was our one “splurge” but it was totally worth it (the burger in the previous post is nothing compared to the Ultimate Burger I ordered).

It’s been a wild 12 years so far, but we’re happy with life and excited to see what the next chapter of our life has in store for us and our family.

OUR NEW HOUSE

So, while there was nothing particularly wrong with our plan of staying in a hotel for a month while looking for a house to rent, it presented some problems:

1. Staying in a cheap, one room hotel room for a month with a family of 6, including a baby, had us worried we’d be driven crazy and Elliott would never get a nap (and that none of us would get a good night’s sleep).
2. Since we’re a 6-person family with a 5-passenger car, we were going to have to come up with interesting house-hunting solutions, some of which included leaving the 2 older kids alone in a hotel room—that idea made us uncomfortable, especially knowing other people have keys to the room.
3. The money for a month’s hotel stay could be put to better use in a house.
4. The thought of unloading the truck into a storage unit then loading it up a month later and unloading into a house seemed really annoying—especially wondering what to do with the kids while unloading/loading.

So although renting a house without actually walking through it presents its own challenges and risks, we went ahead and found a place that seems really nice, is in our budget, and we can move into on the day after we arrive. It’s a little further from my work than I originally had hoped for, but it’s still only a 19-minute drive, 16 of which is freeway—still a shorter drive than I was making to 8fish.

Here is a collage of pictures from the rental listing (and a view from above, via Google Earth) [CLICK TO ENLARGE]:




It’s in a housing development called Augusta Ranch, and it’s only a ½ mile walk to the kids’ elementary school, and the church building is only about 1 and ½ miles away. Also nearby: Albertsons, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Jamba Juice, and a 12-screen Movie theater (including IMAX). And we’re only about 5 miles from my friend Jana’s house (she’s already offered to let us come swimming at her pool!!)

So we’re now in the final stages of packing and getting everything together. Amanda only wants to drive a 17-foot truck, so we’re hoping it all fits. We’ve sold or given away most everything we don’t want to take with us (or don’t think will fit) and we just put our washer and dryer up for sale since the house we’re renting has one already.

This is most likely my last blog entry until we move to AZ, so expect the next update to be really hot and desert-y!