The Case of the Missing Blogger

Hello! Did anyone miss me? I have been "gone" from Blogger for awhile, but I've had a good reason...... I decided to sell my house and buy a new one! And I succeeded in both (well, so far, so good - home inspections to follow in the next 3-5 days). We will be saying good-bye to our current house (yellow w/brown shutters, 1300 finished sq ft), which has been home to me for the past 17 1/2 years, and saying hello to this new house (beige with blue shutters, 2134 finished sq ft with an unfinished basement), which is only 10 yrs old and has had only one owner:

It's almost too much house for us, and I'd hoped to find a ranch-style house, but it was tough to find a ranch available except in new housing, which was WAY TOO expensive and in high tax areas. I'd been watching this neighborhood - I'd zeroed in on it because it was fairly new but still in a reasonable tax area (comparable to the rate of my current neighborhood) and in the school district I wanted.

Anyway, YEA! Very exciting. It's my sister Barb's fault, really. January 17th, Amanda & I went to Lincoln to go to open houses with her and Cindy while her house was having an open house showing. Her house sold that day and she made an offer on a great house that she felt was just right for her. It made me think about that tax rebate which is available thru April 30th (altho' they might extend it). I've known that I want to move someday - why not now? $6500 would pay for closing costs and/or moving costs... So, 5 weeks later my house was on the market and 6 days later it sold! And I'd found a house I liked the previous day, so I met the realtor over there the day my house sold (Sunday), and my sister Cindy and her husband Keith were in town shopping so they came over to check it out. I signed the papers for the offer on my house, and we wrote up an offer on the new house (with Cindy & Keith's stamp of approval). The sellers countered the next day and I accepted. So exciting! Closing isn't until April 22nd, so now I have six weeks to pack. My house will be inspected Tuesday (fingers crossed). The new house (well, it was built in 1999, so it's fairly new, but mostly I'm saying new to me) was inspected yesterday. God arranged it to be a snowy day, so the inspector couldn't check the roof. He did find some things that we'll ask the seller to fix, and he's going to inspect the roof tomorrow (I haven't looked at the forecast, but hopefully it won't be more snow!).

Exciting! In the meantime, Keith & Cindy decided to buy a house they've been watching for over a year. The builder made them an offer and they decided to go for it. They're moving in this week! CRAZY!?! Barb, look what you started. It's worked out nicely for Barb to get rid of her empty boxes to Cindy, and I'll take some when Keith & Cindy are done with them. It's just crazy. Amanda & I did go down to Lincoln to help Barb unpack some. Not sure if we'll be able to help Cindy & Keith pack or unpack. They have been wonderful helping me get my house ready, taking extra furniture to store at their house, helping me get the basement ready (painting, organizing) and going through the garage junk that has been packed since I moved to Hawaii in 2000. Lots of junk to go thru! Barb helped for awhile, too, and they all looked at some houses with me and my realtor. Nice to have family involved!!

We went ice skating last week with our church group. Amanda loves ice skating and she's such a natural and has no fear. We skated for 2 hours, and toward the end, she said her feet hurt. Well, not great boots, 10 more minutes and we'll be done skating. That night, she said, "Look, Mommy" and showed me her shins. Augh! She didn't tell me her skates were rubbing off her skin! Yikes. I need to be thinking about things like that and check on her. They're healing up fine - but they don't look good!

It was a fun day, though, and she had a blast skating. She only accepted my help the first 3/4 circle around, then was on her own the rest of the time. I skated backward a little while I recorded her on my phone video (forgot my camcorder), so she kept trying to stop and turn backward. Mostly she would skate, then slow and make a turn in a circle, getting so she could turn 360 without falling. She was very entertaining when she fell, though. She was just entertaining most of the time, actually, falling or not. I know it's good for your mental health to laugh and smile, and my mental health got a big boost after skating with Amanda for 2 hours. =)

Feb 14th was our planned celebration of my mother's 75th birthday and we gathered in Lincoln to celebrate. Unfortunately, God again had plans for the weather, sending us strong winds which blew the snow from the fields across the roads, causing white-out conditions. I had no idea it was so bad. We went down Saturday night to enjoy some family time but went home to sleep and go to church. It was pretty scary driving down to Lincoln after church with occasional whiteouts. Then the interstate traffic came to a stop as they were diverting everyone off to a highway due to an accident on the interstate (found out the next day that a young college gal was killed - so tragic). I'm really thankful to God that we got to my sister's safely, and my sister Patty and her family made it safely.

We had a great day celebrating my mom's birthday. Cake and tears:

Cindy again planned some great games, since we had so much fun at Christmas and not everyone was with us. A reprise of the wrapping contest, and cereal box limbo (had to pick it up with your teeth).

Here's my attempt at box limbo, and Meagan's take on the hula contest (well, there were no rules stated as to how you had to hula!):

This was trying to put socks on while blindfolded and wearing gloves.

Amanda wanted to play, so we thought it'd be more fair if she wasn't blindfolded. She mostly just sat there and watched the show. Very entertaining! Who knew how difficult it was to even find the top of a sock while wearing gloves, without being able to see the sock?

Standard group picture:

Even my sister Lynnette and her husband Don were there from Virginia! Luckily (thanks to God) they made it to Nebraska between record-breaking snowfall in DC and Nebraska storms. My niece Amber came from DC as well (unplanned, got a good deal on a flight), and nieces Meagan and Brittany came from Manhattan & Topeka, KS as well. It was great to have almost everyone together (missing brother Mike and his family).

The weather was still not great later in the day, and Amanda & I both had Monday off (work/school - Presidents' day) so we stayed at Cindy & Keith's until Monday around noon. The Kansas people made it home safely, but Mom & Dad stayed until Wednesday of that week, I think - northeast Nebraska was hit hard so they stayed safely in Lincoln until they heard conditions were better for them to get home.

Then the snow started to melt, temperatures got up to the upper 30s and even 40s, and we started to get excited about spring... Did I mention it snowed yesterday? *sigh*

1/16 - Pic from the talent show at church - Dorothy herself.

1/20 - Wacky Wednesday - how do you think we did? Is she wacky enough?

1/23 - Playing at the school playground with Taylor and her brother Parker. Fun in the snow!

1/29 - Celebrating 100 days of school (she wears flip flops at home, but not to school except for Wacky Wednesday, and I had to carry her in that day through the parking lot slush):

Did I mention we had a lot of snow this winter?

Tough to swing in the backyard, but she can still have fun:

(these pics are different days - Jan 13 & Jan 14)

Pile in front of our house by the street. It's almost gone now! My rose bush and garden flag are under there somewhere.

And the "Let it Snow" sign that seemed like a cute idea earlier in the season:

January 10th - this girl's got Spring fever!!

Cute story? I was driving us to the store and she (ahem) passed gas. She said excuse me, I excused her, and then she said something. I asked, "Did you say, 'Pee me'?" She said, waving her hand back and forth, "Yeah, pee me! Stinks!" It took me a minute - P.U. - P ME. I just had to laugh. I couldn't even correct her, because I couldn't come up with a good reason why we say "P.U." when something smells. I know the explanation is out there on the internet, but it doesn't matter, really. She can say "pee me" and I'll just chuckle. I'll explain it somewhere down the line.