Zoo!

We visited the zoo last Saturday and ended up enjoying it enough to buy a membership and return again today. They have lots of pictures to put your head in for a photo op, which is Natalie's favorite thing ever...

And they had tons of Halloween decorations up, which was very fun

The zoo is much smaller than Atlanta, but still has some awesome exhibits, like the giraffe dock where they come right up to you. They actually have employees lining the walkways nearby because you have to back away from the edge when the king of the herd (pictured) comes by- he can swing his head and easily hurt someone. They had quite a few Cheetahs, which were very exciting, as well as an aviary with multiple rooms full of birds who come right up and land on you and you can feed them seeds on sticks or cups of nectar. The only thing I didn't love was how draining the heat was- the girls were fading after only an hour and a half! Fortunately, they have a neat little kiddie pool to cool off.

There is a confusingly huge concentration of furniture stores near the place we're staying, so we went to get a feel for what pieces we might like to plan on buying once we're in our house. We will have 2.5x the square footage of our last home, so we may have a few empty rooms for a while as we collect pieces. One exciting development- I reached out to the buyers through our realtor to ask if they planned to get rid of any furniture. They're downsizing, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask. It turns out the want to get rid of a lot of stuff, so we're going by tomorrow to see what we might buy from them.

In other news, our temporary housing situation has been up and down- as of last Friday, Harris had not responded whether they would cover the cost of extending our stay. Our 30 days was going to be ending on Monday, so over the weekend, I was researching some alternative places. We asked the relocation company how much it would be to pay ourselves to continue in our apartment, and it was pretty pricey. We could have stayed at a 3bd house nearby from airbnb and saved about $500. We decided to go ahead and commit on Monday that we would pay ourselves to continue to stay in the same apartment to spare the hassle of moving our things twice, as well as putting out kids through one extra adjustment. Then, we found out on Tuesday that Harris approved our extension and so they are paying over $2000 for us to keep staying here and the cost of storing our belongings before the delivery. It was just amazing because if we had been focused most on trying to save money and moved to another accommodation, Harris likely would not have covered the bill because they will only pay their relocation company, who only does business with certain approved facilities. So, there was some anxiety and uncertainty, but it's all worked out so well. Another nice perk- we close on our house on 10/30 but the moving company's closest available date to deliver our stuff was on 11/2. If paying ourselves, we were only going to stay until 10/30 and then spend the weekend in a house with no furniture or bedding or cooking implements. Now that Harris is paying, we asked to stay until 11/2.

 While I was in the shower the other day, Natalie found my camera and went on a shoot. Here are a few of her best pictures:

We've gone to goodwill and salvation army thrift stores this last week and they are LAME. They have tons of clothes and glass things and curtains, but hardly any toys! We did find a few good books that are keeping the girls from going crazy. I tried to get a library card but was told that I can't until we close on the house. If I have to read Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See one more time, I'm gonna go crazy! And the girls are so sick of the toys we brought. I did find this little partial set of dominos for $.19 and it has entertained them for several glorious hours!

Natalie has been trying hard to get attention lately and not always in the best ways. Daddy say her down on Sunday to discuss some ways to get positive attention. He drew this for her reference and put it on the fridge.

When you go from one to two, life requires a bit of adaptation...

Too Good to be True!

Getting a house is all falling into place so perfectly, it almost seems too good to be true. The sellers of the property we wanted- the one we saw on our house hunting trip back in August that was overpriced- accepted our offer, $35,000 below their original listing price. No back and forth about it- they just straight up took it. We were able to get our loan application in quickly and we're on track for an October 30th closing. We had our inspection within a few days of being under contract and found a few issues- some rotted wood around one door frame and a few windows, but we planned to replace the windows anyways since they are original to the house (1977). Otherwise, the inspector said that the place was in really good condition for its age, which is exactly what we wanted to hear. While we were at the house during the inspection, I felt so happy picturing us living there that it almost brought me to tears. I love our house! I love that it has 2 stories! I love that it is 2 miles from Micah's work! I love the great big yard and the way that the front door faces west so that the back yard will have shade in the afternoon and evening! I love that the bonus room over the garage looks like a room from a doll house with white beadboard wainscoating and the walls tilting in towards the ceiling along with the pitch of the roof! I love all the closets and storage space! I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

In case you haven't oogled at it yet...
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1061-Knecht-Rd-NE-Palm-Bay-FL-32905/43498391_zpid/

Some other things are going not-so-well. Natalie's been a pretty big mess lately. She's totally regressed with her potty-training and she is being super in-your-face loud, like screaming at me all day and getting super impatient if I can't immediately give her my undivided attention. She has had tantrums in primary and had to be brought to me twice this last Sunday and once the Sunday before general conference. Overall, she's just been unbearably obnoxious and I'm struggling to get her to understand that the consequence of being annoying is that I want to pay attention to her even less.

We've had a few bumps- bad days and bad moods and a bad car battery- but otherwise things are going alright. We still haven't heard back from our relocation coordinators whether we will be able to stay here in our temporary apartment until our closing date or if we'll be kicked out next Monday and have to stay somewhere else. Micah's first paycheck came on Friday and we celebrated by going out to eat. I've started organizing a budget now that I know what our paychecks will look like and it's sooooooo nice- I can't help but feel that I'm forgetting about several huge usual monthly expenses because there's such a cushy distance between our income and expenses that I'm just not used to!

Finally, some pictures:

This is rush hour on the main road by our house. It's the most amazing feeling in the world to be able to leave the house at 4:30 and not worry that I'll get stuck for an hour in traffic.

Angela climbs on the table. All. The. Time.

I'm learning to make balloon animals. I've got the dog down, worked a bit on a cat and a bear. 

Snuggling in a homemade tent

Daddy daughter technology usage

We have breezeway trash pickup. The girls love helping Dad put the garbage out in the container.

Micah's halloween costume arrives. Natalie and Angela are Elsa and Anna. I'm going to be either Sven or a snow flurry. I didn't have anything ready to wear to the Witch Way 5k I did this last Saturday with the girls, so I borrowed this costume. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots because we forgot the camera.

Natalie. Eating pumpkin roll for breakfast, because... October.

Angela's favorite spot to chill

Painting time!

The girls love to play hide and seek. Natalie can never wait until you find her, she jumps out once you get close and yells "here I am!!", but Angela seems to understand it a little better. She just goes in a closet or something and waits there until you find her. Here she is hiding in the bathroom cupboard waiting patiently to be found. Look at those sweet little feet!

Sometimes it's just too hot to go to a playground. Who thought this was a good idea?

Angela was helping me make enchiladas. I turn around once and she was taking chunks out of the cheese block!

And finally, one of the reasons we're looking forward to having hard flooring in every room of our house: so Angela can figure out how the heck a windup car works.

And, yes, Angela growls like that all the time. She still doesn't have many words. But she will roar to get her point across!

It's HOT

You see the effect that your example has on these girls, Micah?

Yay! Daddy's home from work! Now we can go to the swimming pool! (Yes, the pool is still open and it is still hot enough to swim.)

Angela does a lot of this lately. She won't eat anything but cheese. And she's very angry when I try to offer her other things. Even things she has loved in the past. Every meal/snack/moment is pretty traumatic for both her and me because of this.

Girls are obsessed with this chair- they constantly remove the seat cushion to jump on the springy bottom or lounge in the extra-deep seat.

Left peeled, hard-boiled eggs on the counter. Returned to find small nibbles taken out of each of them.

"I look stupid in that picture. You should not post it." Says Micah
This was Micah on Saturday morning after surviving his first week at his first real job. 

Check out our sweet digs. Actually kind of liking the open-concept thing. I can wash dishes while keeping an eye on the kids. But it's also hard because I'm hyper conscious of every single little mess and clean all day long every day. This is where Harris is paying for us to stay until October 19.

Yay! A park down the street. A really big, fun one. We were the ONLY people there. I guess it's still too hot for any of the locals to come play. Or, for some reason, this park is dangerous or otherwise tainted and the locals don't use it....

These poor girls were drenched in sweat by the time we went home.

Look at my cute ponytails!

We put in an offer on a house. If we can't get the sellers to come down to our price, we've got a choice #2 already lined up. We're trying to get under contract asap so that we can have a 30-day-closing The truth in Lending Act that goes into effect and we have to do a 45-day-closing, which will mean 2 additional weeks in a hotel or something. Closing on our condo went through last Friday, so now every time I look at my bank account, I feel the urge to run to a branch and withdraw several thousand $1 bills so I can roll in them. We made a 97% profit in 4 years. Buying that place=best financial decision we will probably ever make.

It has come to light that I need to have my vision checked. I can't read road signs very well until I'm pretty close, which has been tricky as I'm learning my way around. I thought that I was pretty normal, until driving around with Micah, who can read signs from 2-3x farther away. Good thing we're getting a vision plan through Harris! Vision problems might also help explain the headaches that I get on a nearly-daily basis. Unfortunately, vision impairment would make my dreams of becoming an astronaut unattainable. Shoot.

Natalie is handling the transition pretty well. She is drawing on some familiarities for stability- a lot of things that are the same here as where we used to live, such as the cookies at publix and having a playground in the mall. Angela is figuring out how to sleep in her packnplay and it hasn't been as big a hurdle as I was expecting. Micah is liking work so far and is coming up with more and more reasons why Harris will be a good employer for him.

MOVE!

So much to recount!

Micah experienced major stress at school as Micah tried to disentangle himself from his adviser's grasp and get his thesis in. With days before the move, his adviser kept trying to get him to make changes and Micah was crazy mad because he was wasting so much time justifying why such changes were not necessary. But, Micah survived without blowing up at Dr. Gaylord, so that relationship is still intact. Phwew!

Amid that chaos, we got all organized and packed and then the movers came and took away all of our stuff. Our movers were cool and did a great job. The place looked great once it was all cleaned and empty.

We stayed in a hotel in Atlanta on Friday night, then drove on to Orlando all Saturday. There was miserable construction and the drive took about 9 hours. We stayed at a hotel near seaworld/disneyworld because it was on our route and I was overwhelmed; lots of people and traffic and places to waste money. Sunday morning we drove into town and it was a very interesting drive- once you're outside of Orlando, nothing but cattle ranches forever and then suddenly- BAM, you hit Melbourne. We went to church that afternoon in the palm bay 1st ward (there are 3 wards within a couple of miles of work). This would be our ward if we buy this home that we like:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1061-Knecht-Rd-NE_Palm-Bay_FL_32905_M51262-41795

Micah knows a ton of people in that congregation, from BYU or Georgia Tech or from interviewing at Harris. The guy at work who he immediately reports to is the bishop. There are a ton of Mormons working for Harris, specifically in the optics department. They hire a lot of BYU grads because BYU has a research program that is related.

Tuesday, our realtor took us out to search for more places. We found a couple of homes with potential, like this one:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/765-Hawser-St-NE_Palm-Bay_FL_32907_M65806-66749
They are affordable and in good in good school districts (which our the downers of the knecht rd house) but in the 2nd palm bay ward. We don't know much about it, so Micah doesn't want to make any offers until we've checked it out ourselves. He said he didn't know anyone in that ward, but then upon further reflection, he remembered that the guy who works in the office two doors down from him is actually the bishop of the other ward, so he's got a resource there.

I am getting more irritated by the day because it will take so long to get into a home once we're under contract and we only have an apartment provided by Harris until October 20. It's already too late to close by then, so I need to figure out where we'll stay during that gap.

The girls have been doing great. They were very good while I dragged them around to see homes with the realtor. They like our temporary apartment, but Angela doesn't like sleeping in the packnplay and has been very tired and cranky. Natalie already has a best friend for whom she has proclaimed her love, a three-year-old boy in a family from church who invited us over for dinner on Sunday. She is going to be in a preschool group starting next week with 8 other three-year-olds from the palm bay 1st ward. So, she's handling the adjustment pretty well. Both girls love the lizards that are everywhere here. Natalie loves the palm trees and is very attached to the idea that even though the publix stores are a little bit different here, they still have the same cookies that you can get free for kids at the bakery.

It's really bright and hot here. My head pretty much hasn't stopped hurting, from either the light or the lack of sleep or both or something else entirely. More exciting and much more concrete updates to come, I am sure! Our closing for our condo is scheduled for this Friday! Woohoo!

Angela Pictures & Venting

First, some photos, since I've been bad at capturing the cuteness and stature of our youngest blossoming toddler here.

Angela trying to spoon feed the dog

Offering kibble by hand 

Toddler hug

When Marty and Charlotte arrived to watch the kids this week, Angela went right up to Marty, reached to be put on his lap, then leaned in for a snuggle. So sweet! We're really gonna miss the weekly visits from Grandma and Grandpa when we leave!

Angela finally went to the doctor for a doctor visit last week. She hadn't been since her 6 month checkup because I planned to just skip the 9 month and go at 12 months, but there was confusion over her medical coverage when she turned a year and i took two months to fix, so we just waited for the 15 month milestone! She had to get 6 shots, which was sad. After 3 months of breakouts on her face, back, arms and legs, she finally got some prescription stuff for her ringworm, so hopefully that will be taken care of before long.

We're under contract to sell our condo and things are looking good. Our due dilligence ends tomorrow and then we have one more week for a financial contingency during which the buyer can back out if he isn't able to secure financing, but things are looking good. Annoyingly, we do have to put like $600 into fixing stuff that ain't broken. 

The a/c compressor (the outside component) is on a concrete slab that has settled and tilts slightly side-to-side. The inspector noted this as a potential problem. Since we needed to have an a/c professional come and do a routine tune-up anyway (another suggestion from the inspection), we agreed to have it fixed if the service dude determined it was necessary. So the guy came and looked everything over and mentioned that the intake area under the filter was a bit dustly and the antifreeze was slightly low, but it was an insignificant amount and the hvac was having no problem producing cool air. He mentioned nothing about the slanting compressor, after looking at it thoroughly. So, I thanked him and asked him to note on the invoice that the compressor pad did not need to be straightened. He was confused and so I explained that it was part of a buying agreement and instantly everything changed. Not only did he suddenly insist that the pad WAS NOT okay and DID need to be replaced, he also said that the intake filter needed to be removed and cleaned and the antifreeze topped off. URGH. Should have known better than to leave it to the opinion of a professional who could stand to make a profit off of saying that there were necessary repairs. He also pressured me to buy a contract instead of paying for the one-time tuneup, saying it was transferable to the buyer and with the contract discount on repairs it would be cheaper, but after he left, I did the math and it was slightly more expensive to pay for the contract, PLUS we're already buying an appliance warranty for the buyer, so it is just completely useless. ARGH. And to add to my frustration, I made an appointment for Thursday for them to come back and do the repairs and I received a call from the dispatcher around lunchtime telling me that I was next on the schedule, so I waited around all afternoon and they never came. Around five, I called to ask what was going on, and the secretary just told me that I was scheduled for the following day. I know that I did not schedule for that day because I had plans the following day and plus the dispatcher called me that afternoon, so I knew I wasn't just confusing the time that I scheduled, but the lady was really condescending and just kept repeating that my appointment was tomorrow instead of offering any excuse as to why it would have been changed or why I would have received a call that afternoon. ANYWAY, I have been very irritated about this whole experience. And it's not even over. Now I have to wait until the middle of next week for the guy to actually come back and do the repair. And who knows what other non-issues he will uncover during the repair that he insists are necessary to fix as well. Customer service and professional integrity are dead. I look forward to the day when micah ONLY works 40-50 hours a week and can be home nights and weekends to learn how to take care of problems around the house himself.

Micah was supposed to have his thesis submitted to his reading committee this week. He has failed, but hopes to make it by next week. He stayed overnight at school Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. We're both exhausted and still have a lot of work ahead of us before we head out. Movers will be packing up our stuff on the 17th, loading it out on the 18th, and then, 2 weeks from today on the 20th, we'll be driving down. I'm struggling to decide what to pack to bring with us in the car, as this will be all we have for the next 1-2 months. The rest of our stuff will be going into storage until we can find a house and then we'll have it all delivered. I was worried about clothes, since I already packed away all of the girls' long sleeve shirts and pants in storage. I was thinking, "If we get well into October, maybe even November, we'll be needing cold-weather clothes", but then I looked up the monthly forecasts for Melbourne. HOLY. CRAP. This place that we're moving is like a firey pit of hell! It NEVER gets cold! The high NEVER goes below 70. I knew that the winters were mild, but I never actually bothered to look up specifically what that meant. I am going crazy now. I'm never going to get to wear pants or sweaters again. NOOOOOOOOO! 

I'm at a frustrating point right now when it comes to clothes. My weight and shape has fluctuated so much in the last 3 years. Right now I weigh about the same as I did when I was graduating from college before having children, but nothing fits me the same and I have no idea what size I really am. I get so upset trying to shop for clothes because it really seems like nothing fits me- I try on the same thing is different sizes and one is too tight in one area, but the next size up is way too baggy in another area. And it's already tough to find comfortable, modest clothes for hot climates. I sweat a lot and it's really embarrassing. But I don't want to wear black in the frikkin-hot Florida sun. I really need new temple garments, but the styles and sizing have changed in the last year and are about to change once more, so I can't figure out a size that really works, especially in bottoms that can be worn with shorts. And exacerbating the issue is the fact that I generally have the girls with me when I go shopping and so I can't spend more than 60 seconds looking at any one thing or Angela will start screaming. How do I keep myself from slipping into sloppy T-shirts and baggy men's pants!? 

I'm worried about our house search. I keep going back and forth in my mind over what my priorities should be. The market seems high right now, so it might not be the time to really invest in a more expensive home if prices are inflated. It makes more sense to purchase a cheaper home that will be sufficient for our immediate needs so that we can purchase more when prices are lower. But at the same time, I really want a stronger sense of permanence. I feel like, living here for the past 4 years, I feel as if our future move was always on my mind. I want to enjoy living in our home, not worrying about where I will live next. I want a place that we won't outgrow as easily as we have our current place. And I don't want a split-plan ranch, which narrows down the possibilities quite a lot. 

I'm feeling really pessimistic right now, if ya can't tell. Hopefully working through a busy couple of weeks will get me focused more on the present and I won't feel so anxious about things!