Trip to Indy

So, I am definitely delayed in this post, but am still recovering from the trip to Indianapolis. Overall, it was exhausting. We arrived on Saturday afternoon about 4:00 p.m. James was an absolute dream in the car. We actually only stopped twice on the eight hour drive and Grandma Jo was a big help. We then had dinner with my mom, Alice, Jay, Aunt Jen, and Aunt Anne. After dinner, we headed to Aunt Jen's hotel to swim in the indoor pool. It was James' reward for being so great and mommy's way of getting all that energy out.

Sunday we spent house hunting. We saw some good stuff.

Monday was a grueling day spent apartment hunting. It turns out that most places expect you to sell your soul to terminate a lease. Let me begin with the fact that due to the fact we are moving in June, 3 month leases are almost impossible to come by. So, I decided to look at 6 month leases. However, in order to get out of a six month lease, most properties required 60 days notice PLUS 2 months rent. In case you are counting, if you give notice the day you move in, you are still on the hook for four months rent. Other places tried to be cagey about the fact that there was no way to terminate a 6 month lease. From a legal perspective, this irked me, b/c technically, if they rent your apartment a month after you move out, then you should not be liable for the double rent to the landlord, and I certainly was not going to sign a contract allowing a landlord to do so. Ok, that tirade was over. So, after Monday, I was feeling very discouraged and concerned that Alex, James and I were not going to have a place to live. So, I got a hold of the realtor and decided to look at more homes on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Jo, James, and I went again with the realtor Stephanie to do some more house hunting. I had decided to up the maximum price range we were willing to look at to see what a little more could get us and it turns out a lot. I really liked three different houses in a subdivision called Spring Meadows. It is off Spring Mill in Carmel, in between 131st and 146th. I am not quite sure where exactly, but I was told it was close to O'Malia's, which is nice. So Tuesday morning was fun, Tuesday afternoon was more apartment hunting. Since nothing in Carmel, Castleton, and Fishers was working out, I jaunted up to Noblesville (I was desperate) and actually Noblesville revealed (around 4:00 p.m.) a brand new apartment complex offering 3 month leases. So this was a definite possibility. However, we had one more that we had called in Fishers. So off we went to that one. Trust me, this was as terrible and as boring as you can imagine and as writing is about it. But, at the last complex visited, approximately 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, there was an apartment in Fishers offering 3 month leases! YEAH! The rent is astronomical as far as 2 BR goes, but 3 month lease as kind of the priority. And, this complex is at 96th and Lantern. For those of you familiar with Fishers, if you are heading north on Interstate 69, exit off of 96th Street and turn right, go past Mejier and all of that. The fourth light is Lantern, there is a Marsh grocery store on the corner. The apartment complex is about 1/2 mile up on the right from Lantern. It is called Wellington Place Apartments. The plan is right now to sign the lease if the house has not sold by June 7th. If it has, then we forfeit the deposit, a $150.00 risk we had to take.

Hopefully, our house will sell, because in the end house hunting was much more fun that apartment hunting.

As far as our house selling...we have had a total of 8 showings, 7 of those to prospective buyers (one was a realtor preview). So far no takers. And, after having a showing almost every day since being on the market, we have not had one since Wednesday evening. They are doing the realtor open house on Tuesday and hopefully this will generate some more showings. In the end, it is in God’s hands and I trust that God will decide what is best for my family.
Well this is post really long enough, so I will end it!

Updates

Well, I have meaning to post since Friday, but just got busy.
Baby Update:

I went to my first pre-natal visit on Friday. My doctor is currently on maternity leave, so I got to see somone else. He was great though. Things seem to be ok so far. I am currently seven weeks along and my tentative due date is December 1st. Fortunately, the doctor had a plan in place since I miscarried relatively recently. The first thing he did was to give me a prescription of proestrogen, which is the pregnancy hormone. He indicated he would check my levels, but to start the medication anyway. Furthermore, since I am seven weeks this week, I will be getting a sonogram to see if we can see heartbeat. And finally, given my apprhension the doctor agreed to see me in two weeks, instead of making me wait a full four weeks to be seen again, which gives me a certain amount of relief. So, right now, I have a songoram on April 17th at 4:00 central time. My next doctor's appointment is April 29th. I did get my lab report back and it turns out my levels are fine. They apparently look for something at 15 and mine was at 17.5. The doctor told me if the levels were good this was a pretty good indicator that the pregnancy would be fine. However, I do not know what they were last time, so I am still nervous. I am looking forward to and am very nervous about the sonogram on the 17th.

Indy Update:

We are just about all set for our trip to Indy this weekend. I have set up the appointment with the realtor to look at about 8 houses on Sunday. We are getting an early start at 9:30. Aunt Jen and Aunt Anne are both coming into town and have agreed to take their nephew on a jaunt to the Indianapolis Children's Museum, so that should hopefully be fun for everyone. As for who is on the house hunting crew, I know myself, my mom, my mother-in-law, but I do know if mom 2 is also coming? Let me know, I already warned the realtor she would have contingecy of people. The only other thing we have been looking into is apartments. After making some phone calls yesterday, I am not sure that furnished living is the way to go. Mainly because most places require you to pay more for the furniture then they do for rent. So...we are still trying to work out what we are going to do. I am going to contact DFAS and see if they have any agreements or any suggestiongs for temporary housing. Of course, it would be nice if the house just sells, but always be prepared is this girl scouts motto! (Ok, I may have been a lousy girl scout, but I still want to be prepared!)

Lame Duck

Well, I am officially in a lame duck position and bored to tears. After giving notice, I have been wrapping up my open files. The problem is, I did not have that many open files and it is certainly not taking me a full ten days to place status memos in these files. I am also of course not getting any work, with a couple of exceptions. Furthermore,my complete lack of energy has also not motivated me to ask for any short term projects. So, I have admittedly been sitting here looking at houses on the Internet, for lack of anything better to do.

As the houses go, Alex and I have picked out some houses I definitely will look at in Carmel. There are also a couple in Fishers that are nice. Finally, we actually saw one in Fortville, along the Geist Resovoir which is nice, it even comes with a deeded boat dock, which could be fun. This is still in the Hamilton Southeastern school district, but it appears that there is alot of annexing and redistricting going around along there, so we shall see.

The news on our house is not much. The painters powerwashed it yesterday. As I was driving home I was wondering if I would be able to tell if they powerwashed it or not. When I drove up, there was no question. It looked like we lived in a hovel. They were going to attempt to work today, but there has been alot of rain, so I am not sure what they got done. They are also apparently going to work on Saturday to try and get it done. It is only a two person crew (husband and wife), but once the weather breaks, it should not take long to complete. The goal is to have the house in the market by next Friday!

I am going to the doctor tomorrow for my first prenatal visit. I am very apprehensive this time around, of course knowing what can happen. I think, for peace of mind, I may ask the doctor to be seen again in a couple of weeks, instead of waiting the full four weeks before another check-up. I am not sure what dates the doctor is going to give me, but according to babycenter.com I am approximately 6 weeks pregnant. I lost the last one at nine, so I am probably going to remain pretty nervous for a while. In the end though, there is nothing I can do except to take of myself and put my faith in God and let him/her decide how this one is supposed to turn out.

Ok, well that wasted some time. I hope all of my readers are doing well.

Shortly after crossing the Rubicon I got a surprise

My little surprise came in the form of a positive pregnancy test. Alex and I are very excited, but of course apprehensive as well. After last time, we are attempting to hold back our enthusiasm. I go to the doctor on Friday afternoon. It is difficult to say how far along I am, but probably in the four to six week range. This obviously brings a new dilemma with my new employer, but again, we will remain in a wait and see pattern for now.

In other news...Alex and I worked very efficiently this weekend to get the house ready for market. The only major rooms to completed are the basement and office. Alex will be working from home on Tuesday to work on these, so hopefully, it will be ready soon. They are supposed to start painting the outside of the house this week, but it is also supposed to rain all week, so we shall what happens there.

Alex and I have also continued to look at houses on-line. We have broadened our search to Fishers, but, this may not be ideally located for Alex. It turns out that two of the three J.B. Hunt accounts are located in Lebanon and Plainsfield, so going further East to my work, may not be best for Alex and his work. We think we have plenty of options in both Carmel and Fishers, and are excited about getting a new place, but that will not happen until our current home sells. All of this means, I may be looking at apartments, instead of homes. Only time will tell.

I have crossed the Rubicon

This morning I crossed the Rubicon and gave notice to my employer that I am taking a position with DFAS in Indianapolis. The response has been supportive and understanding. Obviously, my family has always been important to me and getting a little closer makes a big difference. My mentor was very supportive and indicated that he was sorry to see me go but personally thought I was making the right move for the right reasons. Others were a little more surprised by my announcement, but still supportive.

My start date at DFAS is set for June 9th. This will give me plenty of time off in between to get ready for the move and to just relax and spend time with James. I am looking forward to it, but needless to say, I am scared, because, well this is scary, but also exciting.

Right now the plan is to travel to Indy on April 19th, go to open houses on the 20th and hopefully meet with a realtor. will be staying until the 24th. James will be travelling with me, as well as my mother-in-law, Jo. I will also be setting up a bank and looking at daycares. I am optimistic though about getting James into the daycare located on the DFAS campus. I spoke with the office manager this morning and went ahead and got on a waiting list. DFAS employees receive first priority, so this is good news. I also learned that there should be some openings in the two year old room in June, as soon as a couple just turned 3's get potty trained. I will obviously tour the facility but hopefully it will be a good fit.

That is all from here!

Preparing a house for market

So, while I am still awaiting word from DFAS, Alex and I have begun to prepare the house for market, just in case. The first thing to do was hire a painter for the outside of the house. When we first moved in, we noticed that the previous owners had attempted to "touch-up" the paint, but with the wrong color. Two years later, with sun damage, this looks even worse. So, we got some bids on the paint job, both reasonable, but one was $1,000.00 cheaper. However, the painter that we liked, and recommended by our realtor, agreed to match the lower bid. So, Alex and I were very pleased and it is costing us alot less than we thought it might.

Second on the list was replacing all of the hardware in the house. Most of the hardware in the kitchen and bathrooms had the finish rubbed off after 19 years of use. So, we have bought new kitchen hardware, this we paid a little more than we liked for, but I am relying on HGTV and the promise that I will see that return. We are not quite done with this project yet though, becuase they were 8 handles short of what we needed, so those are on order. We also have to replace all of our external hinges to match the hardware. All in all, we only need 60 hinges! Luckily, those are sold in pairs.

Finally, our realtor came and did a walk through and we discussed what needs to happen in each room. For the most part, it consists of removing a piece of furniture or possibly rearranging. We will most likely get a storage facility to remove the excess furniture, but it is not really too bad.

So, that is what is going on here in KC. Hope all is well elswhere in the country.