++Homeless++

We have some great photos of Christmas and the move...but I have no idea where my camera cord is. Typical. I do know that our cable box is securely packed in a box and on a truck bound for Memphis...exactly where we told them not to put it.

So far things are going well. Being homeless isn't so bad. Only a few tears were shed when we left the house. I shed a few more after lunch with my best friends today. I would have cried harder but we were in Macy's and people were looking. Thank heaven for that.

We should be in the new home as early as Sunday afternoon but definitely Monday. I can't wait for Wyatt to cruise around the new place. Speaking of the little one. He has spent the last three days with his Grandparents in Wisconsin. It has been heaven for everyone involved. Mark and I loved not having to worry about his schedule amidst all the chaos...and Grandma and Grandpa are so good to the little guy it's like summer camp for toddlers. He comes back to MN today and we will fly down together on Sunday. Tennessee...here we come!

++Mini Goodbyes++

Wyatt's best buddies (you see them in all the photos) threw him a fabulous goodbye party. Now that the kids are mobile it's really challenging to get all four of them to sit together for a photo, much less have them all looking in the same direction. Wyatt had his very first playdate with these kiddos when he was about two weeks old (we jokingly called it a meeting of La Leche League). It's so sad that we won't be seeing them weekly anymore.

Playing a goodbye tune
No party is complete without a cake. He LOVED the trucks (the icing wasn't bad either!)

++Signed, sealed, delivered++

Last week we officially signed this house over to the relocation company. Today we signed the papers to buy our new house. So, technically, we are now citizens of Tennessee. Sure doesn't feel like that yet.
Yesterday we had our first day above 20 in a while so I took Wyatt out to play in the snow. Don't call child protection services on me since he doesn't have boots or snowpants...we were only out there for twenty minutes. He loved every second of it. I am just too practical to stock up on all that stuff since we are heading to the tropics (ok, not really, but compared to 10, 50 feels pretty tropical!) Here is our little snowman.

++The long goodbye++

The farewell festivities have begun. I am still in denial. I made it through our first goodbye party without any tears. They have been coming more frequently in recent days. Can't wait to see what 12/30 brings...

Our great friends Brad and Emily (to whom we are connected in so many ways: Michigan, Carmichael Lynch, Neighbors...and kids who are 3 weeks apart) threw us this great going away party at The Loon Cafe downtown. We enjoyed the kitschy Minnesota decor and their famous chili. I had a beer...A BEER...and realized if I was going to get up with my son at 6 in the morning, I should stop there. So sad.

Gotta love the cake. I guess it started as a High School Musical design.

Brad and Emily (not sure who took this...kinda looks like a prom photo...)

The guests were mainly my fabulous girlfriends and their husbands. I have been so blessed to have each of them in my life over the past...wow...ten years for some of them! It has been so fun to be with them as each of us has gotten married and many of us has continued on to have kids. We meet every other Wednesday night under the 'guise of a knitting club. I can't remember last time anyone actually brought out their needles. A few of them still bring their bags though. Hopefully we'll still be together when we all should be knitting as old ladies.

The girls

Our dear friends Shawn and Kelly

The long goodbye continues. Coming up next: Wyatt's going away party.

++Snapshots from the trip++

Here are a few highlights from the trip. I have more to add about the details of our move, but I thought I should cover this event first so stay tuned. The boys had a lot of fun together. It made us sad that they don't get to spend more time together. We had Larson-a-palooza while we were down there with a celebration in his honor every day. He is going to be let down the next time he heads to Florida and doesn't get gifts every day. So these are my favorite shots:

The audience watching the post-dinner entertainment (a.k.a. two boys running around the living room chasing each other)

Larson's vocabulary never stopped cracking us up. This is Larson checking out the "dead gecko" Note the lack of swimsuit...this is due to the lost luggage.

The big boy at his Birthday party.

Aunt Kate found this great train conductors hat. Doesn't he look so cute in it? Note the train in each hand. The green one (Percy for the Thomas novices) never leaves his hands.
Do these boys look like troublemakers or what? All dressed up for Larson's re-scheduled Baptism (due to the cancelled flight).
Wyatt checking out the lawnmowers on the golf course. I just loved the shot.
Playing on the golf cart with dad.
We can't wait for Christmas. It was so fun to see Wyatt react and get excited as he opened gifts. This is the fire truck he got from Nana and Bompa.
Boys being silly.
Wyatt LOVED the beach (read: giant sandbox). Heading to dip their toes in the ocean. Bompa, Wyatt and Dad.
Boys in the box. Note their matching shirts. I'm the one with too much time. We'll let Susan off the hook.

++A walk on the beach++

We're in Florida this week with my entire family. After a rocky start for Susan's crew (which included a night on the floor of O'Hare airport and another day without luggage) we were able to start "vacationing." I put it in quotes because it seems there really are no vacations when one- and two-year-olds are involved.

This year for my parents' Christmas gift, we hired a photographer to take some photos of our family at the beach. Here are a couple of other fun highlights.

The cousins are enjoying each other. It's so fun to see what we have in store for us in less than a year. Larson never stops talking. Yesterday Bompa took the boys on a neighborhood excursion in the golf cart. The highlight was seeing diggers at a building site on the golf course.

Thursday it's back to reality...and snow. Hopefully we won't have to dig our way back into our house. Leaving Minneapolis in January will be so much easier than June!

++What a Difference a Year Makes #2++

Wyatt saw Santa today with his buddies. It was bittersweet as this will be one of the last outings we take with them. Wyatt was the only one not afraid of the strange man dressed in a costume with a huge beard. Not sure if this is a good thing or not...

Santa...you better bring me trucks for Christmas!! Oh, and maybe a new house in a warmer climate. I'd like that too.

We're off to Florida tomorrow. Wish us luck with the busy one on the plane. I should have some fun photos and stories to share about the Adventures of Larson and Wyatt when we return!

++Snip Snip++

Life goes on amidst the chaos and our little one continues to grow up a little more every day. Yesterday he greeted the morning with a series of "hiiiiiiiii, hiiii-yeeeeee, hiiiiii"s for us. Both Mark and I had to smile despite the early hour. On Wednesday I took him to get his first hair cut. He doesn't have much hair, but what he did have was getting a little rough looking. We decided it was time to clean up. Especially since we are heading down to Florida next week for all sorts of special events.
Wyatt didn't seem to mind the haircut. I couldn't get him to look at me (or the camera) since he was too enthralled with Thomas on the little TVs they have at each station. The resulting haircut is ok. I give the lady credit. It can't be easy to work on a moving target.

First snip

The finished product!

++S-O-L-D++

Yippee! It's done! We got to hang the sign today. Our neighbor was out across the street as we were documenting the event. I think he thought we were weird. That's ok. We're moving. We thought the event was worth capturing for all time. Wonder how many more houses we will sell in our life.?

We spent the morning at Home Depot and the afternoon doing all the nit-picky fix-ups the buyer requested. We said "no" to about half of them and she didn't push back. Phew. Oh, and the little furnace that could passed all of it's tests. We've never been so proud of an appliance.

Tomorrow we put the house back to the way we like it.

++My Sentiments Exactly++

Here was the scene outside our back door last Friday. Funny, but recently I have felt like I would like to do the same thing. Selling a house is no fun. Our buyer has turned into a pain in the butt. The inspection report came back with a laundry list a mile long of nit-picky things all of which existed when we bought the house almost 3 years ago. To add insult to injury she has also asked for us to coordinate a list of additional items that she will pay for while we have the electrician, plumber, etc. out here. Last time I checked, making sure she gets the pedestals added to the washer and dryer really isn't my problem. Just cross your fingers and toes for us that the furnace passes its check-up tomorrow. It's a senior citizen. We really don't want to buy a new one.

Back to the story on the little one pictured above. Our usually smiley and agreeable child has begun to express his opinions. He takes after his parents (surprise, surprise). He is very persistent and determined. This scene took place after he insisted on climbing into his car seat in the car. He clearly wanted to go somewhere. My guess was that he wanted me to take him back to the toy store (which had lots of fun trucks and trains to play with) that we had been at earlier in the day. I was treated to one of these tantrums when we left the store as well. (am I a bad parent that I found this tantrum so humorous that I took a picture rather that try to console him??)

It has been fascinating for me to raise a boy and see how certain interests must be hard-wired in them. We never really talked about trucks much until I brought home a book from a used book sale with pictures of all sorts of trucks. He immediately insisted we read it over and over and over again. When we go places in the car he grunts and points when we pass trucks on the road. Today in music class Wyatt's buddy Samuel came wearing a shirt with a truck on the front. Wyatt spent the entire class basically in Samuel's lap touching the wheels on the truck. In all honesty, as much as I never thought I'd get excited about trucks, I've been finding myself disappointed if Wyatt isn't with me and I see a neat truck. Isn't it amazing how parenthood changes us?

++From the outside++

Mark was able to stay in Memphis for the inspection of the new house yesterday. Of course, he had a long list from me to take pictures and video of all the things that I can't remember (what does the laundry room look like? What are the fixtures like in the bathrooms?, etc.) Poor guy. If we could have changed places yesterday, we would have. He also met a carpet and granite person at the house. Our realtor arranged to have them come. Again---wish it could have been me. I may have to pick carpet before we move in. I just have to hope the colors on film are an accurate representation of what the colors really are...

Here are a few photos of the house from the outside. Fortunately, it does not come with the Grand Prix parked out front (that's Mark's rental car). In fact, I think it's one of those neighborhoods with so many rules that you probably aren't allowed to have any cars parked out front. I quickly glanced through the by-laws and my favorite so far is that you are only allowed to have your garage door open long enough to pull your car in or out of it, or if you are actively doing yard work. If you stop for a break...you better put that door down!! Hopefully we are generally reasonable and respectful by nature that rules won't bother us.

Here is Casa Pacyna numero dos:

Just waiting to get all the papers finalized for our current house. Because the relocation company is covering the commission, we technically have to sell the house to them and then they sell our house to the buyer. Sounds fine but we are really not appreciating the fact that they sit on the paperwork for a few days. We want to put our house back the way it was before...sad that taking my TV out of the main floor has affected me so much.

A little aside. As expected, Wyatt did fabulous with his caretakers. His Grandma and Grandpa are so good to him. I knew he would be well cared for, but I had no clue that he would pick up new skills as well. Yesterday I turned on the CD player while changing his diaper and in it was a CD that we hadn't listened to in a while. The first song was "Itsy Bitsy Spider". I look down at him and he is trying to do the "spider" action with his fingers!!! Sure enough, we asked and Grandma taught him that. I was informed by my husband that I need to step it up. Clearly our little sponge is ready. (He said he was kidding but I know he wasn't). So on tap for today...the alphabet. Ok---maybe we should work on getting him to say more words than "hi" first.

++Done and Done++

Mark has this admirable ability to trust that things will all just work out. I, on the other hand, lose sleep and worry about every last detail. The great thing is that when it comes to Mark, things often do just seem to work out. I like being married to him as I get to ride along on his coattails (ok, we all know I don't really follow so well---so could I ride on his lapels?). Things never worked out like this for me before I linked up with him. I hesitate to even write any of this with the fear that something may fall through...


So, in the age of "home sales down 20%" and "expect it to take six months to sell a house", we sold our house in a week and had multiple offers. The best part, we ended up getting more than our asking price. Are you kidding me??? We got the news in the parking lot of the Collierville Starbucks. Our realtor was waiting inside for us to write an offer on a new house in Memphis.

We were blessed with a great realtor in Memphis. She knew that we were enamored with this one particular neighborhood but pretty bummed that there were no houses in our price range that would work for us. She happened to meet with a family who was thinking about listing their house and saw their floor plan, etc. and thought it just might be exactly what we were looking for. She was right. Once again, within a minute of walking into this house Mark was hearing "I really like this house". He knew he was in trouble. Almost three years ago he heard the same thing and we ended up buying a house that day too. So, I let my negotiator work his magic. I think we are all happy with where we ended up. I don't have photos of the outside yet (we were a little to embarrassed to take them). Mark is going to try to get some during the inspection this week.


Here are a few interior previews. Remember, it was never on the market so they clearly didn't do the de-clutter thing (did I mention the Halloween decorations including the fake owl that totally creeped us out?)

"Keeping Room" or family room off the kitchen (where I can finally see Wyatt when I cook)

Dining Room (notice the plantation shutters---so excited about those)

Wyatt's room--on first floor with our room

Kitchen--we plan to add granite countertops, a permanent island and stainless appliances

Living Room

Master Bedroom

++There's a sign up in our yard++

It's official. The house has been organized, reorganized, purged, staged and cleaned. It looks really good. Sadly, it just doesn't feel much like our home anymore. It's been a long week (did I mention that Mark has been out of town since Tuesday morning?) Let's just hope someone falls in love with it just like we did. If you want to see the listing go here and search by our address. I'm not putting it up here. I watch too much Dateline.

Here are a few shots of our newly staged place:

Here are a few shots of the little one who has no idea what's going on but senses something is up. He's been a good trooper during all of this. His favorite place is outside these days (watching for trucks and calling the neighborhood cat). Good thing that we'll be able to have a lot more outside days in Memphis!

Doesn't he just make you smile?