I guess that means I'm a little overdue for an update.
Let's start with the job. This week I am literally between jobs. I submitted my two weeks' notice (well, one week) at Frontier Business Products on Monday. About an hour later I was told that Monday would be my last day at FBP. I had asked to stay until Friday (today) in order to close out a couple of accounts that I thought would sign up this week, including the completion of one fairly heft deal involving an out-of-state delivery network that needed to be coordinated and then signed for by the overall account contact that I had been working with for about 3 months. However, I was informed that I would still rate the commission for that account, so I was suddenly okay with not working the rest of the week. I also had nearly 70 hours of vacation time built up, so while it wasn't the same as "terminal leave" from the Marines, it was good to walk out with a little cash in my pocket. Starting Monday I begin a new job and hopefully a new career path. I won't go into too many details here other than to say that I hope to eventually (soon) be in a place where I can have a positive impact on the lives of fellow veterans.
So the job I had for the past 20 months is gone and my new one has not started yet, so what else is new? Well, we've been a little busy to say the least.
The kids have finished school for the summer. Both passed! (We were honestly a little concerned about one of them having to repeat, but that is not required... yet.) They were both in dance classes over this past season and the end of year recitals were this past week. They did a great job and I am very thankful for the professionalism of this studio. Each recital was a time commitment, but they were smoothly run and (at least from my perspective in the seats) went well. Looking forward, Thing1 has indicated he does not want to dance again next year, but Thing2 has indicated not just a desire to keep dancing, but a hope of making it onto a competitive dance team. (Can we say "cha-CHING" here?) So that could be interesting. Camp for that starts in just a few weeks.
So, at least the home life is nice and quiet, right? WRONG!
We had looked at a new neighborhood development last year for Mother's Day (it's what she likes to do) and we went back to the same place this year for Mother's Day. This time, we decided to come back the next Saturday and officially put down some serious roots. We put down just enough to put our name on the lot and declare it "ours" and then the sales agent said we had seven days from then to get our current house on the market and it needs to be under contract within 60 days.
Wait... WHAT?? (If you look at a calendar, you'll notice that this was just before all of the end of school/dance recital stuff was about to get started.) Side note: we were seriously thinking of moving anyway, but AFTER school let out and dance recitals were over, and Grandma had gone back to California. So we cleaned. And then we cleaned some more. And then we cleaned again. The realtor who had helped us find and buy this house 4 1/2 years ago was now going to help us sell it. She gave us a list of staging tips and we got to work. Finally on Day 7 she came back with a sign for the yard and a camera. She took a few photos and we discussed the fine points of putting a house up for sale in today's market. We decided that we would "like" to spend our Memorial Day weekend cleaning some more and asked that we not have the house available for showings until Monday. Skip forward like, three days (Wednesday) and we are already on showing number 5 or 6 for the week (including one at 8:00 AM on Monday - Memorial Day) and we get a call from Wendy. We have an offer on the table. It's not quite what we're asking for and there's a slight catch in our exit plan: our apartment that we scrambled to find won't be ready until two weeks after the scheduled closing date. Counter-offer. Counter-counter-offer. And we're done. Our house is under contract for a little less than we'd listed for (but higher than we'd originally hoped to get and higher than neighborhood comp's) and our buyer will rent us back the house for the two weeks until our apartment is ready. Since that means we don't have to find a hotel or campsite, I'm good.
Oh, did I mention I start a new job on Monday and the kids just finished school for the summer? Did you catch that we had out-of-town visitor for about a week as well? And let's not even talk about Thing2's 10th birthday on Tuesday. I think there's a party somewhere in the near future, but I'm deferring to my better half on that one.
Yeah, this past month has been crazy to say the least. I guess that balances out the first part of the year when we didn't have much news to report. I will assume that at some point I'll put pictures together with words. Right now our new home is just a dirt lot, but the retaining wall that will keep the hill just behind us from sliding into our dining room has crept past our property and is making its way down the street. And just a few doors up the street there are gaping holes in the ground where our neighbors' houses will sprout over the next few months. I learned yesterday that our house will have the same orientation as the model, so we can really start to get a feel for how things will fit and where we'll put our furniture. We are excited and thankful to God for His blessings and I am sure all of this will end up in one of my wife's scrapbooks... one day.
