Love you and Miss You Grandma

Yesterday afternoon I got the phone call you never want to get. My mom called to let me know that she had gone over to see my grandma and after knocking a few times my mom went in and saw that she was not alive. Needless to say, I was devastated and felt horrible for my mom. Of course being the amazing woman that she is, my mom was so strong and put together on the phone. As I broke down, she telling me to remain calm for the sake of the baby. She said she was doing well and my grandma would finally be with my grandpa who she has been missing desperately for 3 years.

For those of you who did not have the pleasure of knowing my grandma she was an amazing woman! Carol Schatzman was a woman full of life, the life of the party and always dressed to the nines (with a glass of Chardonnay in her hand). She remained active and vibrant until the very end and will always be remembered that way. I'm so thankful my boys had the joy of knowing GG (as they called her). They loved her so much and will miss her as well.

GG and Andrew on her 80th Birthday, May 22, 2009

GG and Matthew at Sunday dinner August 2, 2009

Baby Girl Keeping Things Interesting

Well yesterday after the boys woke up from naps I was having some contractions but didn't think much about it. But then they didn't let up. Should I call the doc? He told me to call if I had more than 6 an hour. These were pretty consistent but not unbearable. I knew if I told the nurse I had more than 6 an hour they would make me come in. Drew told me he'd leave work and I should call. I called and was on hold for about 10 minutes. I took it as a sign that I would be fine and hung up and went on with the evening. The contractions continued through the night, not horrible but every time I woke up my stomach was tight.

This morning I woke up and had to take Matthew to the pediatrician to get a couple of shots that we put off at his 18 month check up since he had a virus. I was still having contractions and told Drew I would call when I got home from Matthew's appointment. I called and left a message for my doctor's nurse. She called back and was like "Why didn't you call yesterday?" Oh great! I knew this wasn't going to end well. She said she was going to talk to my doctor and see if I should go to the office or right to the hospital to the Women's Evaluation Center. She called back and said to get to the hospital ASAP.

I called my dad and he came over to watch the boys until Drew got out of a meeting. I got to the hospital, got checked in and hooked up to the monitors. The baby was doing well so that was a relief. I didn't think anything was wrong but on the way to the hospital I began to worry. Luckily after the monitored me for a couple of hours, checked me out, and gave me some medicine to slow the contractions; I was free to go. And luckily, I'm not on bed rest! Can you imagine?!

So I came home from the hospital and Drew told me he was going to take the boys to the zoo while I rested. What a good hubby! The contractions have really slowed down and I hoping it stays that way.

wow, Wow, WOW

So much going on!

wow: I've come to the conclusion that the people buying our house might be a tad crazy. The requests they came up with after the inspections were quite ridiculous. MAYBE if we had a multi million dollar brand new house it would have made sense but WE DON'T! We have had more inspectors, electricians, handy men, plumbers in our house this past week than the ENTIRE time we've lived in this house. And they were just here to give us estimates and opinions. Everyone pretty much came to the same conclusion...CRAZY! So what do you do in this situation? Obviously their realtor is not giving them good advice. Every time Kathy talks to them their realtor says, "well they are first time home buyers, they are just really nervous." GIVE ME A BREAK! I could go on and on but I won't bore you. We finally came to an agreement tonight at 9, 3 hours before the deadline. The positive of this is we are one step closer to closing on our house.

Wow: Finding a preschool for Andrew has become the most stressful, time consuming project since deciding to make the move out west. How does being 35th on a waiting list sound? I mean I understand registration for preschool is in January and the sought after preschools fill up quickly but I was not able to find one opening in our new little community. Talk about having contractions all week. I could not justify driving 45 minutes to Andrew's current preschool. WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO?! Well I ended up calling a preschool the next district over and they had ONE opening! The drive will be 15-20 minutes but Andrew will be in preschool AND as an added bonus, it's Catholic!

WOW: Drew resigned from his current job today and starting a week from today he will be taking a new job! We decided we should have as many changes as possible in the next 3 months just to see how strong we really are:)

Oh man...I almost forgot. Matthew got his first haircut on Saturday. Let's just say he had a pretty good mullet going. We continued to put it off because he had the cutest curls in the whole world. But Friday night we were headed home from our Friday Pizza and stopped to let Andrew put some money in the fireman's boot who was collecting money. He gave Andrew a sticker and said, here's one for your sister! Well that did it! We headed in the next day to the Hair Saloon where Drew and Andrew usually go. I was a little embarrassed because it's really just for guys but I wanted to be there for his first hair cut! Once he got a sucker he was really good and Andrew was the perfect big brother. He sat on the floor in front of Matthew and read him books like a teacher. It was priceless!

The Drama of Buying and Selling a House

So last Friday we headed out to the O'Fallon/Winghaven area (for those of you that aren't from St. Louis, this is about 30 minutes from where we live now, technically not in St. Louis County). It was a breath of fresh air for us. We had looked at so many homes that just didn't suit us. Finally we were looking at homes that felt to "fit" our growing family. We were surprised at how quickly we made it out there and looked at 6 homes that night. Let me say, the boys were troopers! The first and last home were our favorite. We came home slept on it and were back at it on Saturday. We ended the day by looking at our 2 favorites and invited my mom out to give us her opinion. After discussing lots of pros and cons we decided we had a favorite. We decided to take ONE more look at it with my dad on Sunday morning. Thankfully, my mom kept the boys. My dad liked the house as well and we decided to write an offer. We were really excited because it looked like everything was going to work out.

We gave the owners until 5pm Monday to get back to us. At 6pm Monday we still had not heard. Their realtor told us we would know within the hour. Well the countered back, which we expected, but they only came down $1,000 and took out some very minor things we included, which we did not expect. It was disappointing but we knew we would just counter back and see what happened. One of the things the owners took out was a contingency we added for us to put in a fence and we would abide by the subdivision guidelines. We thought this was quite bizarre and knew we would not be able to buy the house if we could not put in a fence (the house backed to a pond). We were wondering why they couldn't just "fill us in" if there was something we needed to know. Between that and a few other inconsiderate things they did Drew was becoming quite irritated with the owners.

To add to the drama of Monday, we were having a lateral sewer inspection as ordered by our buyers. Well it ended up the guy couldn't get through the outside line and need to come in. Apparently he knocked (as hard as an ant) and didn't think I was home. So he called the realtor of the buyers and the next thing I knew the other realtor and the buyer were standing in my MESSY house. I was so embarrassed; I mean I was feeding the boys lunch, there were toys everywhere, I hadn't cleaned all weekend because we were looking at houses...oh it was horrible. Anyway they were here for over an hour and they guy doing the inspection was unable to do it...it was drama.

I spent the entire morning Tuesday trying to get ahold of someone from the subdivision "board" to answer my questions about a fence. They were actually VERY kind about it and helpful and told me a fence would be no problem. Once we got that taken care of we countered back and to make a really long story short they didn't budge much after that and we were becoming more and more irritated and realized these were all signs that this was not the house for us...even though we LOVED the house and the area. Guess it was time to get back on the horse and keep looking.

Drew and I got back on the internet and made yet another list of homes to look at. Thankfully, Kathy was able to take us out on Wednesday night to look at 4 more homes. Oh man, talk about depressing. Of course we were comparing everything to the house we wanted so the bar was set high but still...it was depressing. I tried to be a big girl on the way home but lets just say thank goodness my sunglasses were on.

We decided to give it one more try on Thursday. Soon we had a whole team working for us trying to help. My good friend Tracy who I played soccer with at TU just bought a house in the same area and was so helpful. We came up with a good list and headed back out. Thankfully my mom came over to stay with the boys, they can only take so much house hunting. Before we went out we had Kathy talk to one of the realtors about our situation. We loved a house in the neighborhood next to the one our original house was in and it was the exact same floor plan. This house was priced higher but had a fence and some other "extras". After talking to their agent Kathy discovered we could probably get the house for a price we could afford. Drew and I were so excited but thought it may be too good to be true. So we exhausted all of our options and looked at 4 more homes before going to this one. The second we walked in I said, "can we write and offer tonight?" Drew agreed, there was no reason to drag it on. We were writing another offer!

Side note: On the way home from looking at houses Kathy called and told us the new owners of our house wanted to come over the next day at noon to check our shower. REALLY? Obviously they don't have kids but of course we complied and got out of the house so they could check our "shower". Not sure that was the whole truth since I came back at 12:50 and they were just leaving our house from the shower check. But whatever, we're doing whatever we can to keep them happy until September 16.

Well it wasn't too good to be true! We got the call Friday afternoon that our offer was accepted!!! THANK YOU GOD! We could not be happier. We knew it was meant for us to lose the first house and end up with a better house, in a better neighborhood, with a bigger, fenced yard...just perfect! Here is a link to our new home!

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/63-Blue-Sage-Ct_Dardenne-Prairie_MO_63368_1107813504

We close on both houses September 16, the day after my birthday, 2 days after Drew's birthday...guess I won't be spending my birthday at the spa:)

We also received the inspection report from the soon to be owners of this house last night. Let's just say RIDICULOUS! The report was 31 pages from the inspector. I could go on and on about some of the unrealistic requests but I won't bore you. This morning we talked to Kathy who let us know she would talk to their realtor (I thought Drew was going to go into cardiac arrest while on the phone with Kathy, his blood was boiling!). Then we took a trip to Lowes to get the things we knew we would be able to fix and put calls in to our handy man and electrician to come out and look at some other things. It's so frustrating that at any point during this process these people can "walk away". We are doing everything we can to keep them happy without basically giving them the house.

Well that was long winded but I know one day I'll be glad I wrote down these memories.

So Much to Tell

Andrew's party:

The party was a huge success! Unfortunately, the garbage men were unable to attend but everything else went perfectly. The truck was a big hit. The kids had so much fun putting garbage in the cans and dumping it into the back of the truck. I also had a table set up where the kids could decorate a flower pot and plant a seed. Then they would end up with a plant just like Walle. The other activity I had set up was wheel painting, where the kids dipped the wheels of a matchbox garbage truck in paint and then rolled it onto paper to create their own design. Then of course we had all of our outside toys to play with as well. It started to rain about an hour into the party so we moved everyone to the basement where we opened presents and played. Then it was time for cake. We had to wrap the party up promptly at 1:00 because we had someone coming to look at the house at 2:00!!! Thankfully, my parents stuck around to help distract the boys and clean and as we walked out the door, people coming to see the house showed up.

THE Showing: During the showing, we decided to just drive around in hopes that the boys would nap. As soon as we pulled onto the highway, Andrew was sound asleep...in his conductor costume that my mom had given him. It was so funny. We drove around and looked at a few houses and then headed back home. On our way home, we got a call that the couple who had just looked at hour house wanted to come back! So we drove around a little more and began to get excited about the second showing. After some more driving we came home as the couple was leaving. Needless to say, we were all really worn out from the activities of the day. So I grabbed take out and we all chilled at home. Throughout the day, we had gotten 4 phone calls asking for showings on Sunday! We were so surprised but hopeful that this would be THE weekend. Well about 2:00 on Sunday we got a call that an offer was being written. When we got the offer we were a little disappointed b/c it was really low. We countered back and then they countered back, and then we countered back and then, you guessed it, they countered back.

THE offer: All of the countering was completed at 9:00 on Monday night. We accepted their last offer and Kathy came over about 10:00 for us to sign the papers. Drew and I were both in shock, we attempted looking at houses on line but decided to just call it a night. Of course a lot of emotions go along with selling this house. I have loved this house since the day we looked at it. Our street is awesome with wonderful neighbors and kids. I just love the feel of Glendale, like a small town. We know our police officers and firefighters, it's just a good feeling. BUT the whole reason we are moving is our house is TOO small. So we need to move on and find our next PERFECT house. (If you are wondering why we wouldn't just buy another house in Glendale...that's a good question. But the answer is the difference in price between and 2 bedroom and 4 bedroom is very large. )

The Hunt:

We began our house hunt last night. We looked at 5 homes and weren't too impressed. Tonight we are headed back out to look at 2 more. The main problem is we don't know where we want to live. We are looking in Ballwin, Eureka, Wildwood, Chesterfield, South, and even O'Fallon. We'll keep you posted. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support during the selling/buying process.

Baby Update:

As you can imagine this has been a stressful time with everything going on. Sunday I started having contractions. I wasn't too concerned because they weren't consistent and they were bearable. Then the day we sold the house they started to get a little worse. I had my check up today and was telling my doctor about the contractions. He decided it would be best to check and make sure I wasn't going into early labor. He checked me out and everything looked good. He did say I was having an contraction as he measured my belly which made it hard to measure the first time. But the second time she measured right on track. He's pretty sure they are just Braxton Hicks contractions which get a little worse with each pregnancy. So all is good with our little girl.

That's all for now:)!

Video of Andrew...the BIG 4!!!