First Night in the House

Surprise, we closed on the house a day early!  That meant a Chick-Fil-A dinner and a lot of excitement on Harbor Lake.  We weren't able to stay in the house on our first night, but I did manage to paint one room, the wrong color and get up bright and early the next day and start working.

As I mentioned I painted Adelaide's bedroom the wrong color the first go around which meant my first trip to Sherwin Williams, my cleaning lady had to cancel on me which meant a lot of cleaning I wasn't expecting to do and there was a potential tropical storm on the way that could really delay the unloading process.

I'll get into all of that later, but for now lets look at the cute stuff.

Getting all packed for the move.

Don't like the fireplace?  Agreed!

House Saga

I've been posting tidbits here and there about our housing situation starting back in December.  It is now August and I'm finally getting around to some updates.  Everything started with selling our little prebaby house a lot faster than we expected.  The great part was we weren't worried about being stuck with two house payments once we found a new one.  We had multiple offers and then once we accepted a cash offer a few days later we got another for a lot more money than we had accepted, too bad we were already under contract.  Chest pain number one.  Oh and at the time I was working in Lakeland for a few weeks at my new job and had to do all of the packing on my weekends off, chest pain number two.  Thanks to the help from our families the house eventually was packed and we said so long to Fairway Village.  Yes, after seven years in one house including saying bye to Buddy and hello two babies I did shed a few tears as we closed the door on our second house.

Moving on...to the folks house.  Thankfully my parents live in the neighborhood that we've been trying to buy a house in, a whole three miles from our Fairway house.  Originally I posted about a house on Commodore Point that was a short sale and our future home.  After five months of waiting, making offers on other homes and looking at every home in our price range that popped up on the market we finally got down to the last weekend that was do or die for the offer.  That weekend happened to be when we were in Tennessee.  Surprise, no deal deal - boo.

Considering we were in a different state and my babies were at home sick with my parents we rushed back to look for yet another house and this time we weren't messing around with short sales or foreclosures.  We spent the next two days on the internet and in the doors of just about every house on the market within a five mile radius.  Finally on Tuesday night we found a few that we liked.  So we made offers, many offers and none of them worked.  At one point I swore that if I walked into a house it automatically meant the owners would get a full price offer.  Chest paints three, four and five.  Finally we thought that we found a house that would work, but of course nothing is easy, this house already had a contingent offer on it and when we finally settled on a price we then had to wait three days for the seller to get back to the potential first buyer.  Chest pain number six.  Thankfully the first buyer wasn't able to sell their first home and the house was ours.  In 25 days we were moving out of my parents and on to Harbor Lake.

These are a few of the photos that were on the listing and that we took when we went back for the inspection.  Funny little side note, I could hardly remember what the house looked like when people asked until I actually went back for the inspection.

The For Sale sign is now gone and we are now getting settled into our new 5 bedroom, 4 bath home that is working perfectly for our little family.  Adelaide thinks that the extra long driveway is the best biking trail, but she isn't sold on digging in the dirt yet.  She is a little too girly for pulling weeds, but we are working on it.

As we get the rooms decorated I will add more pictures.  For now we are adding chandeliers, painting walls, getting a fireplace face lift and much to Grant's dismay looking for furniture.

Blacky Wedding

There is one thing about travel that I really don't like and that is the driving.  My new job has my furthest store about 4 hours away and by the time that I get there I am about to go crazy.  I was fortunate that my trip to Hilton Head in May included a passenger, Grant.  We were already planning on driving to Knoxville and then when I had a work issue pop up that meant a trip for me, Grant was able to take some extra time off of work and join me on the trip a day earlier than anticipated.  

Sounds like a great way to start a trip, right?  Not so much, Grant caught a really nasty stomach bug on Wednesday night which meant a horrible start to our Thursday morning trip.  After a delayed start we did finally make it to my meeting in Hilton Head where Grant slept in the car and a little while later we were officially on vacation without the kids for a few days.  Of course vacation meant working from the car as Grant drove, but none the less we were on the road through the Carolinas and off to Tennessee.

The best part about getting to Tennessee early was the extra time we were able to spend with the one and only Matt Blacky.  A beautiful morning on the Tennessee River with some old and new friends was pure perfection.  We were able to get a sneak peak of the island that the nuptials would be held t the next day and of course drink a few Coors Light.

 We spent the rest of the day driving around the strip and campus and having lunch with Wes and the Future Mrs. Sternberg.  Grant has been back to Knoxville much more recently than I have, but it was a shock to me how much had changed everywhere.  Some of the streets had the same name, but there wasn't much beyond that that hadn't changed.
We tried to get into the renovated fraternity house, but of course it was summer and no one was home.  The new sorority houses weren't complete and we weren't allowed to drive through the construction area, so that was a bust.  The amount of construction on campus was astonishing, it really didn't feel like the place I spent the some of the best years of my life.  I know, I know, insert the you are getting old comments here.

 After a great rehearsal dinner and night out with the old friends we were on to Saturday.  I spent the day stocking up on my UT gear at the mall while Grant used his golfing skills somewhere other than Florida.
It was finally time for the day no one thought that they would ever see...a Blacky wedding!  Paige and Matt planned a beautiful wedding in a beautiful place.  It was a small group of family and friends who all rode in a ferry over to a private island where the owners dazzled us with their hospitality and Paige showed off her beauty.

 After the ceremony we went back to the Yacht Club to a reception full of friends we hadn't seen since college and a ton of fun.  We wish the new Mr. and Mrs. Blacky all of the love and joy in the world.  As for the Gasbarro's we were back to the place we call home, Florida.

Mothers Day

Yes, I'm the mother of two, but this year I spent most of the day with my big girl.  Adelaide and I had a great day starting with brunch at Panera, cookie decorating at Publix and a little shopping before we went to our favorite restaurant Orsay.  

There was no whining or crying just a million potty breaks which means a great success!

An imagination and the beach - April

Adelaide's imagination is at an all time high these days.  She makes up stories about everything, giggles and then will run away.  The good thing is that she isn't lieing about anything that could possibly be true, it is all you should have been there type stories.  Think back to your childhood when you read the story about what happened on Mulberry Street, that is our house.  Adelaide is also starting to sing us songs from school which she never did that before.  I love that all of the whining she did in months prior have been replaced with these little bits of entertainment.

As for one of our April activities, we went to the beach with our friends.  The kids chased each other, did not get a sunburn and took nice long naps.  When that happens it makes it all worth packing the car, lathering the sunscreen and then living with the sand no matter how many times you try to clean the kids, towels and car.

A little recap

This has without a doubt been one of the craziest years we have ever had and my blogging has definitely suffered because of it.  Due to all of the extra pressure from my family and friends to get back into blogging I will be catching back up, but things may be out of order for a little while.
If you don't know what I mean by busy, here are a few things that have happened in the last 12 months and if you haven't read about them on here already there will be posts to come...
Selena worked and then didn't work (thank you severance plan)
Penelope was born
Adelaide turned 3
Selena surgery
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Trip to Pennsylvania
Christmas in Alabama
lots of football
New job for Selena
New school for both girls
Found a house
Sold a house
packing
Moved in with parents
Easter
Lost a house
Bought a house
Trip to Hawaii
Trip to Puerto Vallarta
unpacking, unpacking, unpacking
Penelope turned 1
Pink and orange party
I am sure there were many other fun things that I missed, but I just wanted to give you a taste of the life of the Gasbarro's for the last 12 months.  Happy reading!

Bunny Ears Everywhere

Finishing up our Easter fun, this was A's first year that she really got into the whole Easter egg hunt activity.  So of course we had to mix things up a little bit and you should have seen her face when there were pieces of paper in the eggs and not prizes...huh?!  She quickly got the hang of things when she started picking prizes from the bunny stash, including a pair of glasses that double as a straw.  I remembered having a pair of these when I was a kid, so when I saw them they were a must have.
Penelope was happy as long as she could chew on the eggs and try to rip the ears off of her sister.  Oh and a little food on the face.
Another Easter, another great meal, another day at the Mandarin Art Festival and for Adelaide another day of golf obsession.