El Finito!

It's done. It's finished. Our proceeds check is in the bank. The house on Water Street is no longer our problem. I can't believe it. This is weird. I think the world looks a little more colorful now. I feel lighter. I feel happier. No more sump pumps, no more staying up all night every time it rains, no more constant worrying, no more flooding! It is a miracle that we sold that house. Well, a miracle we had to work really hard towards, but a miracle nonetheless. Bye, house!! It looks like we'll probably take possession of the townhome tomorrow, which would give us the weekend to move. We are very excited to start this new chapter of our lives. It's taking everything we have to put together the downpayment, but we're proud of where we are and how far we have come these past 15 months. We're so excited to get Topher into a home we feel is safe. We drove by the old house (haha, it's already our "old house") last night and saw the new owners moving in. It was bizarre to see other people in there, streaming from room to room, looking for light switches and arranging their furniture. We also said goodbye to our best neighbors, Heather & Justin and their kids Elijah & Ariela. We're really going to miss you guys but we won't be far away and we'll visit often!! We're going to miss watching Heather redecorate and Justin figuring out how to work the new lawn mower. We'll miss the kids swimming in the pool with their turtle and rescuing the dog when she wiggles out of the fence. :) Even though we're going to be broke for a little while, we know we are doing the right thing. We have a conventional loan with a low rate, and we're setting ourselves up to be able to put away savings on a monthly basis. I'm so grateful to be at this point. I'm so grateful to be rid of that Cambridge house. I'm totally overwhelmed today with a sense of relief. I think this calls for a Cheesecake Factory celebration (which we can afford, because we have a gift certificate, lol.) Also, Mat and Angie helped us move out of our house on Labor Day (so fitting, right?) and we couldn't have done it without them. We love you guys, and thank you so much for spending your vacation helping us. Topher loves his giraffe, and he loves both of you, which I think says a lot about the kind of people you are because he's a tough critic. :) And now we can focus on the things that really matter (i.e. my birthday in 2 days, haha!!!) Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend. I know we will. WE'RE FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! --KC

S-O-L-D, Sold, Sold, Sold!

Haha, we're soooo close to being out of this house. The buyer's loan has been approved and now they are just waiting for a final stamp from someone at the USDA. Our closing date should be either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. So we are using the long Labor Day weekend to move out. It's hard to believe that it's happening. I don't think I'll really believe it until I have that big fat check in my hand (which will promptly disappear into the down-payment on our new home) and we hand our keys over for the last time.

I can't wait. This past week has been extremely stressful because the buyer's bank has been terrible. They kept promising us a final answer by a certain deadline and we would count the minutes to that deadline and then we wouldn't hear a single word. Then they would just set a new deadline and it would all start over again. But we have the answer now. Even if it came a few days later than we were hoping for. And even though it has pushed back the closing on the townhome by a couple days, we can't help but be happy and grateful. We look around our street, where several properties are for sale (there's the house right next door to us that is enter-at-your-own-risk and the house right across the street from us that is way overpriced) and we see that we are the only ones with a SOLD sign. It feels good. It feels unbelievable.

Here's to our last couple nights in this house. Sayonara, Water Street (we will not miss the obvious flood jokes associated with our address, by the way)!!!!

--KC

Cup 'O Fun

Topher had some fun talking into a plastic cup this morning. My favorite part is that he actually makes himself laugh. I don't think I've ever seen anything cuter.

We are so in love with this gorgeous, silly little boy. Our cup runneth over.

--KC

Good Morning!

Now that Topher is able to pull himself up, this is how we most often find him in the morning:

He loves to explore his crib and push all the buttons on his mobile:

He's such a big boy! We desperately need to baby-proof the house, but we are trying to wait until we are in our new house before we make all that effort.

Good morning, Topher!

On housing news, the buyers for our home had a little hitch with their underwriting company going bankrupt, so they had to resubmit their loan and it has now been conditionally approved as long as they produce some minor documents by the end of tomorrow (should not be any problem at all.) Our new closing date should be this Thursday, Sept. 3rd. Then we close on the new home on Tues, Sept. 8th. It's very hard to believe that in 9 days we could have all our things packed, moved, and into the new house. It's even harder to believe that in 4 days, we'll be signing this house over to someone else and that it will never belong to us again. It will be incredibly strange to drive by this house once it belongs to another family. We're very, very excited about it, though.

--KC

Poor Man's Walker

In the absence of a "real" walking toy that normally would help a baby learn to walk, Topher got creative last night.

He's getting mobile in a hurry. And we're just trying to keep up.

--KC

10 Months

Today Topher is 10 months old. Just for fun, I'd thought we'd take a photo journey back to the beginning. And let me tell you, it feels like this journey has been a LOT longer than 10 months. Seeing Topher's newborn pictures feel like looking at myself a lifetime ago. He has changed in some very dramatic ways. NEWBORN: 1 MONTH: 2 MONTHS: 3 MONTHS: 4 MONTHS:

5 MONTHS:

6 MONTHS:

7 MONTHS:

8 MONTHS:

9 MONTHS:

And today, at 10 MONTHS:

Ah, Topher, we love you more than we can even verbalize. Even though you don't sleep through the night and even though you're incredibly messy and rough sometimes. You are really something special, and we're glad that if we had to endure these last 10 months, it was with you. It was all for you.

Love, mommy and daddy

Goodbye Truman

Last weekend our ferret took a sudden turn for the worse and we had to say our goodbyes. We've had him for six years, so it was pretty sad. Such a little rascal of a boy. Unlike other ferrets we have met, Truman never even attempted to bite a single person, not once. His favorite past-time was tipping over trashcans and going through the contents that spilled out. Once he stole a Hershey's kiss and became so excited by the shiny treasure he had taken that he couldn't even decide what to do with it (normally ferrets stash their treasures in a corner somewhere). Instead, he just hopped around and did a little dance with the chocolate in his mouth. Our favorite Truman memory was the day we brought him home. Ferret cages cost a small fortune (especially since we were full-time college students) and so we had the ingenious idea to buy a small dog crate at a fraction of the cost. We hung a hammock in there and a little litter box, scattered some toys about and gave him food and water. Then, when his "house" was just perfect, we put him in and welcomed him to his new ferret suite and closed the door, waiting to see what he would do. He walked in, sniffed around, seemed pleased, and then...he walked right out. Through the bars. We had totally underestimated how skinny he was. He was so nonchalant about it, too. He didn't have to squeeze through or expend any effort at all. We felt so stupid. Needless to say, we had to upgrade to a real ferret cage, and he loved the attached tunnels. He also loved his hammocks (he wore one out so we got him another one and he would just go back and forth between the two, he loved them so much) and slept for the majority of his life. But his waking hours were full of mischief, snuggles, tumbling around with the cat, and playing hide-and-seek with the dog. Sometimes he would squeeze under the furnace or behind furniture and the only way to get him out would be to squeak his little hedgehog toy. He always came running to the sound of that toy squeaking, no matter where he was or what he was busy doing. It was his siren song. Truman, you were such a good boy and we miss you very much, stinkies and all. Taking a bath...we LOVE that little face --KC