Foley House #3

We are here in the new house, and there is much rejoicing!  Somehow right when we got here and had a million things to do, life felt even more stressful than moving, but I contribute most of this to my lack of internet-problem coping strategies.  Comcast and I are on the mend now.

West Jordan is pretty great.  Our area has lots of wide open spaces (as does our home) and I don't feel like I live in Salt Lake County.  There's an online grocery shopping option within minutes of my house.  I have a giant garden and pretty yard that we plan to rip up and make better.  I have a kitchen sink that's the size of a small bathtub.  We have space to invite large crowds of people over.  I can hide inside my pantry if I want.  There are more windows than I can manage to open and close at the appropriate times.  Life's pretty good here.

We're trying to seize the day and do all the things we think up doing right away.  It seems that if you don't get stuff done within a few weeks of moving, the only other option is to wait 4 years or just never do it.  There's no in-between.  So we're caulking things and touching up paint.  In a moment of weakness at the store, I bought an entire garden area of seeds and plants and flowers.  We also have a very long list of other things to do and buy, so although the move is over, I guess we won't return to our normal routine for a while.  Scott and I are just keeping love alive here, touching up grout in the evenings.

Anyway, what a grand new adventure for us!  I'm excited.

I should also note than we no longer own what I've been calling the "North Salt Lake Vacation Home."  As great as it is to own two homes at once in this unstable economy...I'm grateful that we are done dabbling in real estate transactions for quite some time.  We do already miss our friends and neighbors though.  I know going to church in a new ward is all "Yay the gospel's the same everywhere", but...I don't know these people yet, so it's weird.  Haha.  Hopefully we make friends soon and I start a new book club with the long lost twins of my old book club.  Small demands.

House Hunting

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I think if you are walking through a person's house, you can maybe judge them a little bit.

We've been house hunting for the past two months, and there are some very strange people in the world.  That, or they just have very strange house-selling tactics.  Some observations:

1. If you're taking time to vacuum your room for house-sale pictures, at least take the vacuum out of your picture.
2. It's probably a good idea to not only take down your framed Cosmopolitan magazine covers, but also to remove them from sight.
3. Smells cannot be unsmelled.
4. Maybe I'm the most un-fun mom there is, but...I think I'm right that most paint colors should never be sold.
5. Some street names are almost deal-breakers to me: Loch Awe Avenue???  Let's get the grid system back.  Brigham Young knew about this.
6. If you're thinking of adding a water feature to your yard, stop.
7. If you get lost in someone's basement, you can conclude the layout is sub-par.

Anyway, this process has been very time-consuming and I feel like it's the tooth-ache of life experiences.  The constant nagging feeling that you are not where you need to be and you have no idea when you'll get there?  Blech.  All 3 members of this household are excited to be done with this someday...and then we can stop discussing MLS, contracts, due diligence, and that random for-sale-by-owner guy named Regie.

On the plus side, our realtor this time around is nothing like our old nemesis realtor from our last home selling/buying sojourn.  The absence of pure evil is noted.  Also noted is the fact that we're under contract and we can count the number of days until this is all over!

10 Months

Our sweet little Ives is turning 10 months soon.  She's been a pretty busy person these last few months.  She crawls and stands and responds to stuff and will scrunch her nose and sniff on command.  Also, some divine intervention came and she slept through the night immediately once Scott started his new job!  I'm hoping this means that I will still lead a normal life although the effects of months 0-8 are not clear.

Ivy still doesn't really...like other people.  You can be her aunt or the sinister person who administers her shots, and she'll pretty much treat you the same.  She's very particular and not easily content.  Pretty much everyone who has spent any length of time with her still says, "Oh she must be teething."  ...Nope...

Speaking of crankiness, I've come to find I'm kind of sensitive to anything anyone says about my child or my parenting or any decision I've made in the past 2 years.  Haha.  Someone will make some sort of comment and I'm like...

Haha.  Anyway!  Parenthood, it makes you into a crazy person, I tell ya.

Happiest ten months to our babe.  I'll have to break out the black beans to celebrate.