Go Go GO!!!

It's official!!  After a month of paperwork, the army has determined that Chopper is indeed qualified for his job and has extended a firm offer of employment to start in Bavaria July 10!  That's fast - especially considering everything that needs to be done!

That all happened Friday morning.  Chopper immediately got another ream of paperwork to fill out and a request for the kids birth certificates/passports and a copy of our marriage certificate.  So so glad that we got that worked out already!  He also called our realtor to talk about putting the house on the market.

Two years ago we had a wild hair to get a bigger house.  The market was already going up here and we weren't really finding anything that we loved enough to pay the higher prices for.  We did make an offer on one house and our realtor went ahead and took pictures of our house to be ready for sale should our offer be accepted.  Well something weird happened with the other realtor and our offer didn't happen.  At that point, Chopper and I decided to be content with our blessings and wait for a different job opportunity.

Two years ago.

Friday afternoon our realtor listed our house with the old pictures -- biggest difference being that I have painted the ENTIRE house since then! -- and I FRANTICALLY cleaned, packed, and decluttered our very lived in house.  I had already been purging all month but I filled several boxes with stuff that went into the garage just to make our house sparse and clean.  It looked really good but we couldn't have pulled it off without help from friends!  Friday night I took the kids to have dinner and play at the park while Chopper cleaned the carpets and then we drove to a hotel and had a little Frisco "staycation" for the weekend.

Saturday our house had 7 showings and an open house.  Sunday we had 3 showings -- including 1 that showed up 15 minutes early and prevented me from sneaking in to get all the church stuff I forgot to pack.  We had church clothes but pretty much nothing else.  At least we're good at winging it!  Monday we had another 3 showings and our realtor came over that night with the offers.  Eight of them!!!

That's how hot the market is in North Texas -- there's a shortage of housing, especially affordable single family homes that aren't huge.  The building in this area is not producing those kinds of home which I'd imagine is very frustrating.  It would be for us if we were buying -- when we moved here were felt like we got a nice house for an affordable price but now I doubt we could afford anything more.

Monday night after we accepted an offer (which took an hour of discussion and a possible coin flipping), Chopper and I sat on the couch and absorbed the ramifications of this.  Selling your house certainly makes it real.  And just to put it into perspective a little bit:

This is the first house we have purchased in our marriage.

When we moved here, Megan was 2 1/2 and Abby about 6 months old.  William and Aaron were born here.  It's pretty much the only house our kids have known.

We have suffered through the grief of losing Chopper's dad and Grannie and Aaron here.  That's a lot for a space of 6 years I think.

We have potty-trained all our children here, had innumerable tantrums and fights, lots of getting hurt, lots of tears.

We've also had first steps, first days of school, first lost teeth (only from Megan -- Abby's STILL has not lost a single tooth!), and lots of laughter and love.

We've hosted a lot of parties (and I find that I like that!): fairy parties to watch Tinker Bell movies, birthday parties where I went overboard, Downton Abbey tea parties, Harry Potter parties, baby showers for friends, etc.

We have played outside in the grass and on the swing set and swam A LOT every summer in the pool.

We have been regulars at the Arboretum and explored a good chunk of Texas.

I knew that as we came to the end of our time here in Texas that I would be emotional about leaving my friends and our ward and our elementary school.  I guess I didn't really expect to be emotional about the house, but I am.  Because it's been a home!