New Years is the one time of year that Aaron's family would get together with family friends. Meaning that it is the one time of the year that I can invite people over and he doesn't fight me.
Waiting for the count down the kids played the candy bar game that I used to play with cousins and family on Christmas Eve. I didn't do a very good job getting pictures of everyone, so this is it.
Poor Abs went to bed early with a headache, which is really unlike her
We are ready to leave 2012 behind us and excited to see what 2013 holds. While 2012 had its good moments, it was also a full of stress. For journal purposes I am going to do a quick recap, due to the fact that I don't tend to blog about the times of chaos.
After spending the new year with family in Idaho we arrived home to find that someone had kicked in our front door, tossed the master bedroom and stolen Aaron's car. To add to the awesomeness I spent a number of hours with the detective on the case providing proof that we were in fact in Idaho and that we were not trying to commit insurance fraud. Good Times!
We were officially offered the position in NC. We had no intention of buying a new build again. But after looking for 5 days with no luck and only 2 days left, we opened the search. Our flight home was at 5am Saturday morning and we were making the offer at 5 pm Friday night the night before. The house was suppose to be finished in 6 months.
Now it was time to put our home on the market. We had 30 showings in the one month that it was on the market. So the good news was that it sold in one month. That being said, 30 showings is A Lot of showings. Not quit one a day because many of our Saturdays would have 3 back to back, and we would have to leave from 11 a.m to 6 p.m. I was the crazy lady who freaked out over every crumb or toy that hit the floor, making it a very long month.
Things seemed to be working out, we suppose to close on our house two months before the new house was to be finished. Our relocation package gave a 60 day corporate housing allowance. Seemed like it was all just falling into place!
The packers came Monday, and loaded on Tuesday. This was so that we could have the house "professionally cleaned" on Wednesday, per request of the buyers. (they would have been better off just letting the Relief Society come and help me) The closing was Thursday and our flight was on Friday. Ultimately we were homeless for three nights. My friends were so sweet and we were taken in and well cared for.
We arrived in NC 12am. We arrived at the apartment to find that the key would not unlock the door. Finally after I don't know how many phone calls and convincing whoever that we HAD tried all different jiggling, pushing and pulling things to get it open, they finally sent someone over around 2 am. Turns out that the corporate housing people prepped the apartment and then left the key in the lock box. Then the apartment complex management came in and changed the locks. What are ya gonna do!
The next day I received a phone call from my bank in Colorado asking me if I knew an Andrew so and so. After telling them it was not a name I recognized, they proceeded to tell me that he was at the bank trying to cash a check for $600. The signature did not match what they had on record, so that is why they were calling. The guy took off while they were making the call. So Good that he didn't get away with it, Not so good that they had to close my account, and we didn't have a bank in NC yet. We didn't have food in the apartment yet either. So as we are thinking that we had dodged a bullet, I was checking my account Monday and see that a $400 check had cleared, even though the account had supposedly been closed. The guy got away with cashing another check at a Cash and Go place. We had initially thought that a check book had been taken when they broke into the house back in January. Turns out they were able to link the guy who cashed the check with one of the people who packed our house. What a mess!! Dealing with a Colorado bank in NC was fun on top of fun!
The kids left Colorado with one month left of school. Because our apartment was no where even close to the school that they were going to be attending in the fall, I chose to home school for the month, 4 hours a day. I really have been SO SO blessed with the children I have been given. They were going though all this change right along with us, but there was no complaining. They just smiled and went along. Three months of apartment living with all four kids home was....well it made me so grateful for the space that I have come to take for granted. We were on the top floor with a three year old! Amazingly enough the guy from below only came to our door once, and that was the day before we left.
It was one thing when we bought the house in Colorado. It was new, but already finished. Watching the house being built was painful. As we watched weeks go by with no change, I began to stress! We had only been given 60 days of housing and while that meant that we saved two months worth of mortgage, the furnished apartment we were in was $3500 a month and our stuff in storage was $40 a day. (Way more than we were saving with no mortgage)
We were given the official closing day and I was able to get the relocation to pay for the extra month of rent and storage. GREAT!! Who can complain right!
We had to leave the apartment on Monday and were suppose to close on Wednesday. Aaron had some Hotel points so that was not going to be a problem....Until we realized that the bank had totally dropped the ball. The appraisal HAD been done the week before as it was suppose to, but the report had not made it to the banks hands. We had scheduled the movers to deliver our furniture a month before because it was July and they told us we needed to grab a day because of how busy they were. We did not close on Wednesday and because we did not close we were told that the soonest we were going to get our stuff was two weeks later. Eli was in the hotel room napping so I was out in the hall on the phone with the Realtor Yes, I was the crazy lady in the hall. I was sitting on the floor hands on knees just bawling when a lady comes walking down the hall. Yeah, it was the primary president in our ward, she had rented a room (the one across from us) for family that had come into town. AWESOME, a witness of my crazy!!!
As it turned out it really was a blessing that she was across the hall. We closed on Friday. After yelling, screaming and all the while crying to the relocation representative, they contracted out to a different company so our furniture was to be delivered Saturday. I ended up going to urgent care and then to the hospital for stomach pain Friday night. We didn't have to worry about someone to watch the kids, Nicole was already across the hall. Throughout everything things always ended up working out, just not before causing major ulsters :)
We had to buy a refrigerator. We had had three months to shop and wait for a good sale, so all seemed well once again. It was delivered, setup.....and never got cold. I called on Sunday, they told me that it could take up to 48 hours to cool properly I had to wait until Monday to call and then they were willing to schedule a repair man for Wednesday. He came and said, "you have a dud, you need a new one." When he called in they told him they didn't have ours in stalk and it would be two weeks before they could get another one delivered. We could however pay an extra $500 for the upgrade. Buy now I am to a point where there is no calm, I would go from 0 to 100 at the flip of a switch. We had finally made it into the house, and things were still just...Hard! We ended up refrigerator shopping in the middle of the week, no sales, just desperation. It was a week we ended up eating from a cooler. Doable for sure, but making the crazy, crazier! We had similar situations with the internet and TV, but I will spare those equally long and ridiculous stories.
I do have to note that while it seemed like one stressful situation after another, we were blessed through the whole ordeal. I know that hard as it seemed to believe at the time, it could have been worse. We made friends who were a Huge help and support, and without them I am pretty sure I would have been committed indefinably. They would joke when I tried to watch their kids that they didn't know if it was safe. With the luck I had been having the earth might open up and swallow me and their kids:)
All is well now. We feel good about where we are, and are looking forward to the year to come :)
