Summer flew by!!
Seriously, before I knew it - it was school registrations, volleyball
tryouts, back to school shopping and dreaded thought of homework!!! I thought about writing every week but was so
consumed with the amount of activities we had going on. The kids enjoyed their summer, it was just busy.
Jayden attended a
couple of basketball camps, Great Adventure Camp (Christian camp), time at the
lake with friends and he got the responsibility of babysitting Taryn while
Kiarra was away at her activities.
Jayden turned 12 in June and we threw him a surprise b-day party. We got him - AGAIN! He really enjoyed that time with friends and
family and want’s another “surprise” next year…. Not really a surprise if he’s
already planning or thinking he’ll be surprised but we’ll see… I just may come
up with something good (suggestions welcome J).
Kiarra attempted SACC (Strength and Conditioning Camp) but
tore the ligaments around her ankle on day 1, so that didn't work out so well
for her. She still continued to attend
most days and just did upper body workouts (boring!!) The trainers thought it was a sprain at first
so had her take it easy for 2 weeks, when they realized it wasn't getting
better they had me take her to the doctor. She was in a boot for 3 weeks and got it off just tin time to attend
volleyball camp. Just a week or so after camp was tryouts and this was quite
stressful because of our house situation (you can read about that below), not
to mention Jeff had been out of town as well (you can read about that below as
well).
Taryn, oh poor Taryn… she was SOOOO bored all summer. Kiarra and Jayden were awesome babysitters
and she enjoyed them taking care of her but with Kiarra in a boot, she couldn't
take Taryn to the pool and Jayden isn't old enough to take Taryn by
himself. She’s the only one that didn't
have a bunch of activities so we filled up the time with sleepovers, and
activities at the house.
Jeff was out of town working in Austin the entire month of
August. With all the activities going on, working full time and now living out
of zone for one of our kids schools, this made things quite difficult. We drove up to Austin twice to see him. He
was working 6 days a week which left no time for him to come home on the
weekends so it was nice little get-a-way for us to drive up and spend time with
him at the hotel. We didn't do much
while we were there; a little shopping, went and saw the State Capitol but the
best part was sightseeing. Austin is
beautiful… gorgeous actually!! We also took
Jayden to see the UT campus and football field but he could care less about
them since he wants to go to A&M. He was not impressed and made that very
clear. He cracks me up! I don’t think he’ll go to A&M anyway, but
that’s what he thinks at this stage in his life so we’ll just encourage
it. Before Jeff even got home from
Austin, they were already talking about sending him to another city. His boss wouldn't let him go but their
Director wanted him to go to Dallas. He
wasn't even home a week and he was told he needed to go to Dallas…. Here we go
again, I’m getting quite good at this single mom thing, but it’s NOT something
I want to do on a full time basis (or even more than a week at a time for that
matter).
Rewind a few months
I’d made it quite clear to everyone that I was not happy
with the house we purchased last year.
In April I started snooping on HAR to look for another house. The market
was great and we had friends selling their homes within days (sometimes hours)
of putting it on the market. We looked in
a few neighborhoods to build, in our neighborhood for another house (because
after all I LOVE the neighborhood, just not the house) and even looked in other
cities… YES, other cities. I do love
Katy but would also welcome any opportunity to relocate. In May we found a neighborhood just a couple
of miles from our home in Firethorne, I loved it….the kids loved it but Jeff
was still very adamant about staying put for a few more years. I asked him to pray about it and he still
insisted that we needed to stay in this house.
Finally, one day I begged him (ok-ok, I didn't’t beg - I only asked once)
to go with me to look at a house. He
saw how happy this house made me and suddenly he heard from the Lord that maybe
we should consider moving. YES, thank
you LORD for speaking to my hubby!! The
only downside was that Kiarra would have to go to the new High School and not
Katy High School where we always thought she would go. I mentioned to Kiarra that the house we like in the new neighborhood is
zoned to the new school and she was so excited. She expressed how she would
love to go to the new school because so many of her new friends will be going
there… AMEN! This is huge. I reached out to an old colleague of mine who
is a Realtor now and we put the house on the market. We had showings immediately, quite a lot of
them actually. As you know, selling a house is stressful - always keeping it
110% picked up and clean is no easy task when there are 3 kids home all day
long and the oldest-most responsible one in a boot! We went to the new neighborhood and signed
paperwork to being the process of building a new house… Let’s hope 3rd times a
charm. This is the 3rd house Jeff and I have built together so as long as we
can keep our sanity through this process, I think we will be in this house a
very long time.
Sale/No Sale
We received an offer on the house and although it wasn't a
full price offer, it was decent. We went
into contract but before the 10 day option period was up the buyers backed out. It was
devastating. It’s now August and decision
time, do we keep the house on the market or take it off and just remodel. With school starting and volleyball tryouts
weeks prior to school starting, we needed to make a decision, however Jeff is
out of town, I’m working 60+ hours a week and time is just flying by. The
biggest hurdle is keeping our house on the market and still allowing Kiarra to
go to the new school. This means she is
out of zone and will need transportation to/from school each day. Getting her to school in the morning isn't a
problem because we are headed to work but neither of us can leave work at 2:30
every day to pick her up. It was
weighing very heavy on my heart. I simply didn't know what to do. I’d pray about it but wasn't getting the
answer because honestly, the answer I wanted was to just sell the house and
move into temporary housing until the new house is ready, oh yea - about the
new house, they've barely started building it at this point… I think we only
had the slab!! Of course I wasn't in a
rush for it to be built because we hadn't sold the house anyway but it was
still another burden in my mind. Jeff
and I finally made a decision to take the house off the market and stay put,
we’d remodel, put in a pool and just be content with this decision…a decision
we thought was coming from our good Lord.
Answered Prayers…
I text a dear friend of mine, who also has a daughter going
to this new school, and explained to her that the buyers had backed out and
that we wouldn't be able to get Kiarra into the new school because although
they would allow it, I just couldn't get her home from school every day. Her response to me blew me away, it made me
cry and I fell to my knees. She told me
she would be happy to take Kiarra home from school each day until we move. Friends, this is HUGE. We don’t live far from each other but this is
a big deal to me and to Kiarra. I just
didn't feel right accepting this offer but she insisted. What a blessing she is to our family.
Enrollment
So now that we had transportation sorted out, there was no
time to wait. We literally had to get
Kiarra enrolled within a couple of days so she could attend volleyball tryouts.
I thought school sports didn't start until school started, boy was I wrong (OMG,
I think I just sounded like my Mother).
I’d been talking with the school for months so I knew everything I
needed to do, the registrar went over it with me many times. Kiarra and I walked into that HUGE, seriously
GINORMOUS school to register her and I hadn't followed the right steps. I
thought we were “pre-registering” her but what I actually needed to do weeks
ago was go to the Administration building, and pay a fee and apply for her pre-registration…or
something like that, I don’t even remember. Seriously, it was all so stressful.
Just when you think you have everything you need, birth certificates, contracts
for new build, physicals, etc…. not to mention Jeff had just left to go out of
town. Then, once the board or whoever
approved it I could officially register her.
I remember this very clearly, it was a Wednesday and tryouts started the
following week. Eeeek! They said it can take up to 10 days to
receive the approval… TEN DAYS!!! As
much as I’m trying to stay calm and collective, this panic came over me and I
got very frustrated. It had already been
so emotional from the moment we put our house on the market I just thought
maybe this was Gods way of telling me that we just need to stay put. Then out
of nowhere, a very nice lady at the administration building approached me promised
to help us and see this through. She was another blessing. Before noon on Friday, we had the
approval. AMEN!! I was working that Friday but as soon as I
got the email, I was off to the school to get her registered. We arrive to the
school and there is not a person in site. It’s practically empty, only a few
construction workers finishing up some last minute touches. What am I going to do now? She can’t attend
tryouts on Monday if she’s not registered…
We waited around a few minutes thinking maybe everyone was out to lunch.
Just as we started to walk back to the car, I see someone in the office. I knocked on the door and it just happened to
be one of the principles. He opened the
door and explained that no one in the office works on Fridays during the
summer… WHAT!!?? I felt my heart drop
again and Kiarra instantly had tears in her eyes. I explained to him that with tryouts being on
Monday, I really need to get her enrolled and I asked what time they will be
there on Monday so I can come back to enroll her. He was so nice and said “I think the
registrar is here, let me see if I can find her”… Seriously friends, one
blessing after another! The registrar
was there and although she wasn't super happy to help us, she took the
paperwork, reviewed it to ensure we had every I dotted and every T crossed and
then said that she’d finalize everything on Monday but that Kiarra could go to
volleyball tryouts on Monday. We both shed tears of joy on the way to the car.
AMEN!
Volleyball/Back to School
After all that craziness with getting Kiarra enrolled in
school, she was able to try out for volleyball and she made the Freshman A
team. All in all they had a pretty good
season. There were too many girls on the
team and the coach liked the “fun/fair/positive” crap but other than that they
did well and Kiarra was able to play a lot.
I always thought football was the rough sport so when she suffered a concussion
during an intense game against Katy I was quickly brought to reality and that
every sport is kind of dangerous. I
always thought it would be a rolled ankle or jammed finger but a
concussion…only my child J
The kids were excited to go back to school this year. Kiarra in high school, Jayden in Jr High and
Taryn in 1st grade. 3 kids in 3 different schools, working lots of hours,
husband out of town, house on the market and volleyball games twice a week was
all quite overwhelming but you know what, I wouldn't change it for the
world. This is my life and I love it.
Sale of House
We received other offers on our house and had many people
interested in it but unfortunately our Realtor didn't do her part to see those
through. We lost one deal over a simple
$250 neighborhood deed restriction rule book that she refused to let us pay
for. Seriously, $250? Ugh!
After many prayers, discussions and considerations we decided to let her
go. So now what?? We have to sell this house by December 20th
or Kiarra will have to transfer schools back to the school in our zone. Again, after many discussions, prayer and
tears, Jeff and I decided that at semester break, she’d just have to transfer
to Katy High School. End of discussion….
Or so we thought. I was content with the
decision and although I wasn't happy about it, I knew it was the right thing. I went to
the sales associate at the new builder and explained to them that we needed to
go ahead and cancel our contract. I hated to do it but there was just no other
choice at this point. I didn't even care
if we lost our earnest money, we just needed out of the contract. Here we go, another blessing… She was
amazing. She explained to me that we just had a bad experience (a very bad one
I might add) and not to give up yet. She
asked if we’d trust one of their preferred Realtors to re-list our house and
was so positive and refreshing about the entire situation, something I was not
used to because our other Realtor was not that way. I couldn't even contain myself, I was so
emotional. I was happy/nervous/stressed/anxious/overjoyed all at the same time.
Mario called me later that day and we talked for a very long time about what we
(Jeff and I) wanted and how we were going to tackle this. See, we missed out on the prime time to sell
our house over the summer and now school has started so I didn't have high
expectations. Our new Realtor came by
and gave me a ton of tips to make the house look bigger/better. Again, during this time, Jeff is STILL out of
town (have I mentioned that enough in this post)… so the kids and I moved
furniture around and sure enough, the house looked great. I almost fell in love with it all over again,
but shhh - don’t tell Jeff, he’d kill me.
LOL. The house went back on the
market in October and within a few weeks, we had an offer. It wasn't the best and it wasn't our asking
price but it was an offer and we were elated.
After a little negotiating, we signed the contract, inspections were
schedule and we started packing. I’d had
my eyes on a few lease houses over the months but of course those were long
gone.
Now where are we going to live??
Closing was scheduled to be within a month so now we needed
to find a place to live. There were only 2 lease houses in the zone we needed
and those were not going to work for us so I went to the only apartment complex
that is zoned to the High School and Jr High (so the kids can ride the bus). I've not lived in an apartment for 15
years. My oh my, these apartments seem
so small! Closing is scheduled for the
day before Thanksgiving and we are just praying all goes well and we can
finally be done with this house…
No comments:
Post a Comment