So Long Willow Trail

So....we did it.  We have finally sold our townhome!  When I say finally, it's not that we've had it on the market forever or anything, but we have waited SO LONG to recover from the housing market crash and this Spring it was finally time!  So long Willow Trail....

 

We will not miss the new-ish backyard neighbor or his million disgusting outdoor cats.  We will not miss the loud muffler cars, trucks, SUVs and/or motorcycles that seem to converge on the neighborhood.  We will not miss dealing with an Association to maintain the exterior and the lawn (although, I am NOT going to mow - no thanks).  We will not miss all of the giant dogs that live in the neighborhood.

But, I will miss some things.  This is the home that we brought Ella home to, where we enjoyed (survived!) those first newborn days and nights, where a lot of "firsts" happened.  I will miss the convenience of the trail system (although I think we'll have a similar trail system right down the street at the new house).  And if I think of anything else I will miss, I will let you know.  :)

To say we learned a lot in this entire packing and moving experience is an understatement.  I am blown away at how much work it has been to pack up a family (living in a townhome) and get it all in storage (or in Jay's parents' basement - ha!).  No idea where we kept all of our stuff - seriously....no idea.  You would think we had 3000 square feet of living space or something!!   But, it's done (temporarily)...housed in 3 different locations, which makes me laugh because clearly we did not anticipate the amount of space we'd need to keep everything stored until we move.  Oh well, live and learn, right?!

Thursday is Ella's graduation from Kinder Kollege!

Can't wait - with all of the emotions of the past week, I anticipate I'll be a hot mess.  

Good times.   But check back for pictures!

We Survived: Packing and Mother's Day

Well people, we survived the weekend of packing and loading up a portable storage unit with our stuff!  The closing on the sale of our place is fast approaching (FRIDAY!!) 

 So, the before (with a mattress loaded in)...

and then it got so crazy I never took another with it filled up!

We didn't get everything to fit (boo!) but thankfully Jay's dad thought this might happen and brought a trailer along to load the remaining stuff and haul it to their house for a few weeks.  UNloading all of our stuff will be a whole new round of craziness.  A good and exciting crazy though.  

So our townhome is sort of cleared out, however, we still have probably way more stuff than we need for the week.  Tonight's agenda is to box up more stuff that we'll take with us on Friday as we wave goodbye to Willow Trail.

My mother's day was just fine!  

Ella made loads of fun projects for me, so that was fun to see and she was SO excited to tell me all about them. 

The bag with the flower and sayings on it is my favorite.  She made it at Kinder Kollege and those are things she loves about me.  "Pretty all the time" and "Great" made me smile. Why do you love your mom?  She's great.  HA!  I finally have some new perfume and even a matching lotion - sweet!

And, we ended the day with Famous Dave's for dinner.  Delicious.  I think this restaurant may be our GO TO location to celebrate mother's day and father's day....I think we've been there almost every year for one or the other or both!

While we waited for food, we took some selfies

Peace out.

No Farting Around!

Happy Monday - Cinco de Mayo too!  What a weekend!  I thought I should get an update done now before the madness of the week starts.   

Friday morning we had an inspection done on the home we're buying.  We didn't learn anything that made us want to walk away, however, there are some things to be done and a LOT more cosmetic matters than I originally thought.  So...if anyone wants to sign up for a day of painting, just let me know.  :) We keep praying it all falls into place and we are able to close and move in the last weekend of May!  

Saturday, Ella and I headed to The Home Depot for the kid's workshop.  

  

We had a good time!  

We accidentally started the project by putting the legs of the plant stand on the wrong side, but we were able to start over and get it done right!  

Saturday afternoon we had dance pictures for Ella's upcoming recital!  

This was a trial run on hair & makeup and I think it went pretty well...

 

I think she has grown up so much in the past few weeks!  

My little girl is going to be 5 soon!

Sunday was spent packing up!  There was to be NO FARTING AROUND (per Ella) HA!  We made some good progress, but there is still quite a bit to get boxed up before the big move.  Ella has been great through it all though.  Yesterday I snapped a picture of her enjoying a tea party with Lambie and Sophia!  :)

To a week of progress!  

No farting around allowed....but tea parties are encouraged.  :)

April Happenings...

I have been getting subtle hints about how the blog hasn't been updated for a while.  I promise "update the blog" has been an item on the TO DO List for weeks!!  So, here I am.  Let's do this.  A recap of April 2014.

Ella has been busy!! Our new "normal" has Grandma Jolyn coming over on Mondays and Wednesdays to get Ms. Ella to and from Kinder Kollege.  Of course, I think they both LOVE having this additional time together....sort of like the old days!

 

We had a busy month as well.  We listed the townhome for sale on the market the afternoon of March 31 (so long FSBO sign) and believe it or not, it's under contract with the very first people who came to see it on the evening of March 31.  Crazy talk!  We've been through a lot of houses since, although the pickin's have been slim.  We (finally) found a home we like and we spent loads of time negotiating the purchase agreement (like an entire week!).  We have the big home inspection tomorrow, so we shall see!  Life is about to get even crazier with packing and moving!  But....it will be so nice to be in the new house to enjoy the summer months!  

(HA! - Ella insisted that she stand next to the SOLD sign for a photo op)

We spent Easter in Worthington.  It was nice to get out of town!!  The weather was pretty great too (windy, but it's ALWAYS windy there).  We got to see a lot of people while we were in town, even running into Gretchen at the gas station on the way home - RANDOM!  We woke up bright and early for Sunrise Service at American Lutheran, which is the only way we roll on Easter Sunday.  :)  We took a few pictures, but then lost track of it all and never got any with grandparents.  Boo.  Next time!!

 (this was at about 6 a.m. - maybe that explains why the bunny purse is backwards!)

 I can't get enough of the dress and the smiles!

SQUINTING!  But, it will do.  :)

THE EGG HUNT:

 Chase and Ella had a blast collecting eggs - TONs of eggs!

 Looking for bunnies??

Of course there were Easter baskets galore!  

The Easter Bunny (thankfully) didn't go AS crazy with the candy this year, but there is still LOTS of new candy and fun toys to enjoy!

I celebrated my 10th year at the law firm (what the what?!)  The attorney I work for brought me these - hoping I can keep it alive until I can plant it at the new house:

And, the next picture may have been the last day we had some sunshine here!  

April 25th! (I feel like it has been raining ever since!)

Nothing like a chocolatey smile while enjoying an afternoon snack outside! 

(with your latest BFF little pink bunny Carrot)

Happy May Day!

March Madness continues!

March Madness continues today into the weekend, but I thought I should share a few things about our March Madness.

Like this showing up in my driveway on Saturday morning...

No, I don't need a van, but thank you anyway.  It was Jay's grand plan to remove the guest room bed from the loft and return the loft to a sitting/play area.  So, that was fun...a little more warning to me about his grand plans would have been helpful.  Clearly we are getting old because we both were complaining about aches and pains after moving everything.  I'm sure it was hysterical to see us both out in the cold (remember how cold it was last weekend?!) trying to literally SHOVE the mattress into the back of this hot cargo van. Mattresses are heavy!  But, the project is complete and I'm actually surprised at how much room we have in the loft when it's not being used as a guest room!

So, to top off the March Madness at our house, the brakes went out in my beloved Escape while I was driving (!!!!) to the Pizza Ranch last night for dinner, with my entire family in the vehicle.  Talk about panic!  No crashes or injuries but that was not cool, not cool at all.  And, it was 6:30 at night.  I got a tow for the Escape, a rental car so we could get back home, and then we ate some pizza and chicken.  :)  I had to take a picture of the car (CAR) I am driving today.  Ford Fusion.  Thankfully it's not the Focus.  I've made too many jokes about the Ford Focus and I don't want that to come back and get me.  ;)  But, this short length of time driving a car has reminded me why I do not like to drive a car.  Most important reason - I can barely get in and out of one!  It's like a turn into a 90 year old woman when trying to get in and out!  And, call me old school, but I am not a fan of the computer screen in the center of the dash. 

Let's just hope I remember what vehicle to look for at the park-n-ride today after work! 

(And we better not get any ice or snow, because I'm pretty sure I don't have an ice scraper in the rental...)

March Madness continues...

Wondering what's going on?

March Madness is in full effect over here.  Last weekend I'm pretty sure that's all that was on our TVs ALL of the time.  But, I sort of love it.  The madness, the STRESS of watching all those games come down to the last few minutes (so many close ones!) My bracket though, is another story...maybe the worst picking performance in my March Madness career.  If you want to know the truth, Ella's bracket (oh yes she participates too!) is in the lead by 2 games (me) and 3 games (Jay).  Clearly, not a winning bracket year.  And I had so many plans for my billion dollars....

In more March Madness news, we had another virus run through the house before St. Patty's day.  Ella really had a case of it!  I am hoping we can now all stay healthy and get some much-needed sunshine! Viruses are not fun.  We probably have enough popsicles in our freezer to last all summer, or feed the neighborhood.

Ella continues to grow and is having a great time at Kinder Kollege.  She loves to tell us what she's going to do when she's 5 (cause that's WAY older than she is now).  :)  And, she's already planning her 5th birthday party, but I hesitate to commit to a theme this early in the game....she loves to change her mind.  I get daily pictures of her during Kinder Kollege....here are a few of the latest ones.  

 (notice the dainty pinky - like she's going to drink some tea....)

 Disclaimer:  It was mismatch outfit day!  Those pants are so ugly!  

Disclaimer:  It was western day!  

The dollar store to my rescue since we own nothing western for her, and I'm pretty sure my vintage cowboy boots won't fit.  :)  I am not quite sure why her face is so strained...makes me laugh!

We made a spring break trip to Walmart Superstore...clearly we are in desperate need of a true vacation since we classify this trip as a fun part of our spring break (and we went twice!)

 But, I am always so excited to find crazy products that our boring Target grocery store doesn't carry and then I like to take pictures of us getting them apparently.  Like, birthday cake Pop-Tarts - come on! 

(Note, they are just "okay" but you have no idea how excited I was about trying these!) And...I know Ella is too big for the front of the cart, but I was not going to ruin my spring break trip with an argument...

 

 Clearly, we were craving non-nutritional foods....Sprinkled Donut Crunch Cereal!! 

(Note: again, not that great)

So, that pretty much sums up the beginning of our month of March Madness.

Disney on Ice Recap

We're late....we're late....for a very important update!  Way back on March 1st (whoops!) we headed to Disney on Ice, which was a gift to Ella for Valentine's Day.  :)  We all had a great time and enjoyed seeing all of the characters!  A few pictures from the big event:

 (picture not great, however, this was the best one we took - boo!)

In other events, we have had kindergarten registration, so that's happening!  We've got our house for sale by owner (round 2)!  Schools are on spring break this week, so no Kinder Kollege and Sara's will be closed the end of this week and beginning of next week, so we'll have lots of free time - ha!  Hoping to enjoy some warmer temperatures!