Whirlwind of a Week

Are we sure it's only Wednesday? Holy unexpected week! If you had asked me on Sunday morning if I thought we'd be making on offer on a house this week I would have peed my pants laughing so hard. If you have been keeping up with our family adventures then you are more than aware of my grim outlook and less than good attitude about this whole housing ordeal since we left Mustang. After moving two times in less than eight months I was beginning to transition into toxic stress mode. After we moved into this "level two" rent house from the cave I fully expected to be here for a year or more. I imagined a frustratingly long drawn out search for less than desirable homes and eventually having to say "ok fine, I guess I like that house enough to live there." I guess life has given me a big wake up call this week. "HELLO ASHLEY!!!! NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE DIFFICULT!" Well it's about time life!! ;)

As I mentioned in a previous post, we took a family drive this past Sunday to look at houses. Riley suggests this every now and then and I usually roll my eyes behind his back and go along for the ride just because I enjoy the family time. I can't even begin to count how many Sundays we have spent driving around town and even outside of town to search for houses. The easy way would be to do an internet search or even get a real estate brochure for the month. Nope, we literally just drive around town, every inch of it searching for For Sale signs. Sunday we finally found the For Sale sign we've been dreaming of finding. That night Riley made a call to our realtor to ask about the details. It seemed too good to be true. At the risk of sounding corny, I really believe that this was meant to be. The For Sale sign had just been placed in the yard but the seller was not allowing viewers yet and the listing had not been made official yet because they still had to get some things squared away. Somehow we managed to get a showing before anyone else. I made sure to get home in time on Monday to meet Riley for a viewing with our realtor, Vicky. Hallie came along too of course....after all, she makes the decisions after here. From the moment I pulled into the circle drive I knew I was right where I wanted to be. Hallie had a funny way of showing her interest in the home. Poor baby was dealing with some big monster teethers breaking through and all she wanted to do was cuddle at home. But she was a good sport as we walked through the house several times. I already had the furniture laid our in my head and the paint colors picked out before we even moved onto the bedrooms. This. Was. The. One. We fell even more in love after walking out onto the back patio. It wrapped around the back of the house and had me dreaming of cookouts and seating areas and pots and plants and hammocks....oh my!!! This is the house I've been picturing in my mind forever....I just never thought I'd actually be able to check all of my wants off of my checklist. You may be wondering what Riley was thinking this whole time. Well it's safe to say that his mind was on the garage and the big open space out back and the driveway that goes to the back of the house. I didn't want to leave but we needed to get Hallie home and ready for her bed....the girl was dunzo! But before we left I stood there outside the house picturing our family for years down the road and I asked the realtor, "how often does a house like this pop up in Woodward for this good of a deal?" Her answer: "never, honey." Had it not been for Riley's Sunday house hunting idea we would have probably never even known about our house. Our house. Our house. I love saying that.

From that point it went something like this....we talked and talked and talked about it, drove by it a billion times, made an offer on Tuesday night, drove by it five more times during my day off with Hallie, got a counteroffer on Wednesday morning and it was a done deal mid afternoon. Ok, can we rewind please? That all seemed way too easy. Did that really just happen? We looked at one house? It might sink in when we walk through the door with the keys in our hands for the first time. I could go on and on about why this is the house but most importantly.....it is a family house. It is a place that we can grow into and fill up with more squealing children, they can have plenty of room to play and be safe, and it's a great neighborhood for our kids to grow up in. Say hello to our soon-to-be home......

Casa de Fanning

Honey, I'm home!

I'm on cloud nine making lists in my head and planning for the future, Riley is in business and budgeting mode and Hallie remains in teething mode. Speaking of little miss teether, she has been unimpressed with life this week so far. Unimpressed with mama, dada, Gman, Papa and Nanny. Monday was a blur...I really can't remember anything besides looking at the house. Tuesday started out a bit unusual....I had to work that morning to play catch up while Nanny came over to the house to play with Hal. Her body language said it all that morning as she ate breakfast. Not even Nanny could bring a smile to her squishy face.....

Bummed out

Sometimes I wonder how such adult postures and expressions can come out of such a little body. I felt bad laughing at her but Nanny and I were so entertained. That afternoon Gman surprised us when he called as he was pulling his truck into town to pick up a load. I broke a cardinal rule and woke up a sleeping baby so that she could see her Gman. Turns out that she still wasn't impressed. It took a good thirty minute trip to Sonic and a swing by the dream house to drag one smile out of the teething tot. After we left Gman I needed to do some quick shopping for some church clothes for fall and luckily the babe obliged and sat contently in front of the mirror in the dressing room. She's a good critic....

"Are you really going to wear that mom?"

Riley was busy reffing his last football game that evening so Hal and I spent a very cooped up evening battling a fever and some supreme grumpiness. Pinterest was on the top of my mind as I rocked Hallie to sleep that night. The house wasn’t even ours yet and I had already moved in in my head. Wednesday was a very exciting morning and afternoon. Problem is, Hallie was still not on board. Still teething and not happy. Work flew by so fast because I was so anxious about getting a phone call about the seller’s decision. Riley called to tell me the counteroffer and he insisted counter offering again which I was game for…either way, WE WERE GETTING THAT HOUSE! I went through the rest of the afternoon trying to focus. You can see just how well that went....I had a 4:30 meeting at the clinic that I barely made it to because of this little issue…..

Gas is important.

Ssssh. Don’t tell Riley. If I had been in town it wouldn’t have been a big deal….but I was out on the road in between Woodward and Seiling which offers no gasoline for dumb blonde drivers. I got back just in the nick of time and actually made it to my meeting on time. Right as it began I got a text from Riley that said “It’s ours!!” My focus was a little off after that point as I’d moved from paint colors and furniture to re-staining the cabinets and picking out window treatments. Lord help me!

I'm sure I'll be sharing every last detail of our journey into our home home. Wanna know the very best part about the timing off this????

WE WILL HAVE A HOME BY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Hallie was still not on the party train this evening. This has been a very tough week for our growing girl...growing teeth that is. Papa was able to see her state of mind tonight when he stopped by. No smiles from this girl. She's managed to give all grandparents and parents alike the cold shoulder this week. Go ahead and break through little teethers and leave my baby alone!