Keep an eye on him...

He was being so cute. I was picturing him in a Cheez-it commercial. He seemed fine. He didn't seem to understand how to get into the box, but I should have known better... Uh oh, I looked away for a second. When I turned back... If Topher was dreaming of rolling in a pile of Cheez-its, today was his lucky day. --KC

I love...

My fireplace. You can turn it on with the remote control, and you can either just have the flames (turned up or down for ambiance) or you can have flames combined with heat blowing out. I can't wait for it to get chilly enough for me to curl up by the fireplace with a good book.

My smooth-top stove. I've always heard that gas stoves are better, but I haven't noticed any difference. And it was so hard for me to keep all the nooks and crannies of the gas burners clean. Now I just wipe it off and there are no parts to take off and soak. I always want this kind of stove!!

My puppy. After living on the farm for months (where she is still loved and spoiled, don't get me wrong!), she is just loving being indoors with the humans. She seems so content here, and when I see her this relaxed, it calms me down, too.

Having 2 bathtubs. I love that Topher has his very own bathroom and bathtub. All of his supplies and toys can stay in there and he can splash around as much as he wants every night (and he does!)

But most of all, I love this family we've made. A little boy, a giant puppy, a funny cat...I can't imagine us being fulfilled without any one member. And as each day goes by, I really, really can't imagine what our life would be like without Topher. I don't want to know. He's the best thing we have ever done, ever.

--KC

Our First Week

We've been here a week now, and we still love it. Compared to the bike bar down the road and frequent train whistles (all through the night!) of Cambridge, it's insanely quiet here. We never hear anything! Topher has had a busy week, going out with me every day to nearby stores and visiting my old workplace. He loves living with Sassy, and thinks it's so funny whenever she drinks her water. I've caught him several times splashing in her water bowl and trying to dunk his own face in it. He also likes the stairs and can now get up the entire staircase in about 30 seconds flat. Going down is still a problem. Today he even made a new girlfriend at church and while she was dainty and trying to hug him, he kept trying to grab her and sit on her. What a little bruiser. Luckily, she can totally hold her own, and being a month older, she can stand up and walk while he just crawls to catch up. They were soooo cute together. I didn't hear a word of Sunday School because I was laughing too hard at the two of them. :)

Topher, getting the hang of climbing the staircase:

Our neighbors Heather and Justin from Cambridge came to visit us Friday night. They say the people who bought our house "aren't us" and their daughter has a screaming fit every night at bedtime that the whole neighborhood is subjected to. Sorry, guys! We all went out to dinner for Chinese and Topher had fun eating fistfuls of rice and making an absolute mess.

Topher, at China Moon Chinese restaurant (just down the road from us!)

Our fortune cookies came with a side of dry ice...very impressive (and mystic)

Our little city-dwelling family

What else can I say? We just LOVE it here. We love this house, we love Ankeny, and we feel so much more relaxed now. TJ's just down the road from work, we have groceries and stores nearby, our neighborhood is clean...it's everything we've been hoping for. It's funny how a change of location can change your life.

--KC

Settling In

These are all out of order, but here's some pics of our new place: Living room, Sassy lounging Topher's room (we put a twin bed in there as well as the crib in case we have to lay down with him at night...the dresser will go in his closet and we'll have a shelf up for his radio soon.) Our room, looking into the bathroom and closet, Sassy's bed

Topher's bathroom

Our bedroom...we love the vaulted ceiling

Living room

Living room, happy dog

Kitchen

Topher checking out the neighborhood

Topher and Sassy

Here we are, in our new townhome in our new town. And I have to say that we LOVE it here. It's a humble home, but it's everything we need. Honestly, it might be small and cozy, but as we unpacked, there was room for everything we own. Our stuff just fits here, and it doesn't feel crowded or crammed. Turns out you don't need a lot of different rooms when you don't have that much stuff. It's a lofty feeling, living up off the ground, and the neighborhood is shockingly quiet. We never even know that we have a shared wall. And because we're surrounded by hundreds of nearly identical units, there's no pressure to compare ourselves to the neighbors. It feels very equalizing, which is appealing when you're on a budget.

I thought that leaving the old house would just immediately lift the giant weight from my shoulders, but it hasn't really happened that way. Instead, every morning I wake up here, I feel a little lighter, like the stress is coming off in layers. It's hard to believe that all the stress of selling and moving is over, just like that. And we have our dog back! (She's been living out at Terry & Kathy's farm for months so we could keep our house show-clean and we've missed her.)This is a pet-friendly complex, so there are a lot of dogs here for Sassy to socialize with (she just needs to work on her leash manners a little bit more!) Everyone we've met so far has been friendly and welcoming, and there are even several young families from our church that live in this same complex.

I'm not trying to brag and I hope it doesn't sound that way! This is pretty much the cheapest living option in all of Ankeny (even cheaper than rent!) so it's not like I'm saying that we have some grand, impressive new home. I'm just trying to say that after our last home, we're so grateful to be here. We feel safe and settled and just so fortunate that our family fits here so well. Topher seems to like his room, we love ours, and the pets just sleep all day. I think we're all more relaxed here in general. Maybe we've down-graded in size, but we don't feel it. We weren't using half of our last house, so it feels like an upgrade to us because we use every room here. We gave up a yard, but Sassy seems deeply satisfied to go on her daily walks.

All the work, all the stress, all the tension...it was all leading to this. And now we're here. It was all worth it, as awful as it was at times. Even though we no longer have any spare guest rooms, our home is open and welcome to visitors. And if you want to spend the night, the living room is all yours and we'd love to have you! :)

--KC

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