We Moved!

Well, we managed to sell our house in record time. I really wasn't expecting to sell in the winter, but we found the right person at the right time. And because they were anxious to get moved in before the start of the new semester (ie. gave us two weeks to move) we had a bit of leverage to get close to our asking price. Amazing! So we have moved into an apartment until our new house is built. Ashton and Tobey took a little bit to get used to the new place but I think they're feeling more comfortable now.

We got a place with three bedrooms so we can have lots of storage - we plan to keep all our books and things we don't use often boxed up until the next move. That way there's not so much packing to do for next time! :) And I have big plans to use the extra space to spread out and organize and toss even more so we don't have as much to move. Unfortunately I'm not sure I can attain that goal. It may be a bit more than I am capable of...

We sold our washer & dryer with our place so had to get new ones. There are hookups at our apartment so we figured we'd buy them to use at the apartment and move them with us to the house. We were looking at all the options and were considering a fairly nice regular type top-loader and then for fun checked out the front-loaders. The low end of those ended up not being too much more expensive than the top-loaders so we decided to try something new. I LOVE my new front loading washer. It's AMAZING. It uses such a small amount of water in comparison to my other one and it's so quiet! The loudest part is the water draining. I sat there in awe the first time we ran it. Scott asked if I wanted some popcorn while I watched my washer wash. :) The only issue that I read about online is that sometimes there is water left in the gasket between the door and the wash basin that can get moldy if you don't clean it out or leave the washer door open. So I use a cloth to wipe out the gasket after I'm done using it and leave the door open a crack to let it air out. So far I haven't had any problems with funny smells or mold.

So the whole memory of Christmas kind of got overshadowed with moving and selling our house. But Christmas was very nice this year. We had a nice time with both sides of the family. Unfortunately my parents couldn't make it back to the US, but we got to chat with them on Skype and with the webcam they managed to 'participate' in our gift exchange and meet the two new babies that joined my extended family this past year.

When we were up visiting family is when we got the offer on our house and had to send back our counter offer the Sunday before Christmas. Then we had to get back to town the day after Christmas when apartment places would be open to be sure we could find a new place to stay. So it was pretty crazy but it all worked out just perfectly. Thanks to our realtor who called around to find a good lead on an apartment and all the people who helped us move. I ended up having to work extra at work the week that we moved, so Scott and the others did most of the move without me. But I tried to get as much packed as possible beforehand, whenever I was able, so I didn't feel like a total slacker...

I got to had to give up my position as President of our homeowners association. So that's a big stressor that is out of my life. I enjoyed having a say in what went on in our neighborhood, but there were just a few too many things that were out of our control that caused a lot of stress. It's nice to not have the added responsibility anymore. I do feel bad leaving my neighbors at a time when they were depending on me, but the board had developed into a larger team and there are enough of them to pick up where I left off. Plus I'm still around if they need to ask questions or anything.

So yeah, that's whats up with us. We're enjoying living on a different side of town where we're close to different stores and things. The commute to work is a bit longer but not too bad. And we've had more people over for meals at our new place since we've moved in than we did probably all last year. I'm not sure why that happened, but it's been nice to have guests again.