Thursday, December 31, 2009

2/3rds Moved and Eat From The Pantry Challenge

Today we moved more stuff out of our house, but this time it is being stored at the correct house (yeah!) so we still have more packing and all of our large furniture and garage stuff to move, but things are going along okay with the contract on our old house. Hopefully we will close on it by the 12th of January.

We also have officially moved into my MILs house, bringing suitcases with clothing and most of the contents of my pantry (which are now combined with her overflowing pantry). I just saw that Money Saving Mom is doing an "Eat From The Pantry Challenge", so I mentioned it to MIL, and she said that it looked like we had plenty of stuff in the pantry. So, I figure that since I am here for a while (I wish I had a move in date for the new house...but I am hoping we will move in before the end of January.) the two of us will try to make meals from the pantry...our rules will necessarily be slightly flexible (since we do want both of us to survive the combined living arrangements) but here's my thoughts:

No purchasing pantry items.

Dairy products will be purchased, as will produce.

Eating out will be allowed (if only to make sure that the six of us keep our sanity).

I'm not going to put a dollar amount on the groceries, since I have no idea how our different methods of shopping (me with my couponing and generic brands, my MIL buying name brands that she and FIL prefer).

The "Eat From The Pantry Challenge" will end when we move out of MILs house, since most of my pantry items will probably stay here at MILs house, and I'll have to restock at the new house.

I'll try to remember to blog occasionally about how things are going, both with the living all together, and with the pantry challenge.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Quick Takes Friday - Leaving on a Jet Plane

1-
We've had a lot of lasts in the past week. Eva's last ballet lesson, Eva's last story time at the library...it's been a little tough, and maybe not just on Eva. Hubby and I are pretty nervous about the impending move.

2-
Things appear to be going okay for the sale. Two days ago we had the appraisers show up. We don't know what their verdict is yet, but since one of them told me that she liked our house, I'm taking that as a good sign!

3-
I'm not sure if I mentioned the not so good news portion of the sale. We had to amend the contract because the lender said that we forgot to put in the $2700 of seller concessions. It wasn't forgotten, it was the first we or our realtor had heard of it, but we figured that a buyer where we have some expenses is better than no buyer.

4-
We found Eva a piano teacher in our new town, and the teacher is willing to give it a try with Eva, even though she is pretty young. I know that my childhood piano teacher normally didn't take kids until they were 7, but I started around 6 (when I inherited the piano that hubby is dreading moving again!) She'll start lessons on January 5th.

5-
Bags are packed, we are at the in-laws to leave off the dog, and after lunch we will be heading off to my parents house to have a Christmas celebration with my brother, then stay the night. In the morning my brother will drive us all to the airport and take possession of our car for a week (I'm only a little bit nervous about that!). Then it is a 12 hour travel day. We fly to Portland, then have a 4 hour layover, then we are on the plane to Hawaii (we will get in late at night, then drive across the island to our resort.)

6-
It is kinda funny that my non-religious parents managed to take us for a week long vacation during which we will need to attend Mass three times. We'll see if my mom and dad come to any of the services...my mom might come to Christmas, but I'm having a hard time imagining my dad there.

7-
So, here comes a week with basically no naps and too much to do, I think. We'll see how Charlotte holds up with all of the activity. She's cranky this morning because she missed her nap yesterday. I'm really hoping that both girls end up sleeping on (at least some of) the planes.

More quick takes at Conversion Diary!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Checking in...

Well, it's been a little while since I blogged at all...not even quick takes recently. We have been busy.

Hubby is done with work, and has started to learn his new job.

We are splitting time between our house and the farm, staying at MIL's house, which required some cleaning out of junk to fit the four of us at night. We have the new office pretty close to set up now!

Our house is under contract and if everything goes as planned (*fingers crossed*), we will close by January 12th! Not sure if we will be able to move directly into our next house, but at least we have enough space to sleep here at MILs.

Details are finally being hammered out about the new business (not sure I want to ask how things are going with the split of the old business!) Yesterday, we had a meeting about health insurance, so it looks like we mostly know what we will have coverage for.

We have a bunch of snow today, so I am not really sure if my plan for the week will work out. We are supposed to go home tonight so that Charlotte can go to preschool and Eva to ballet tomorrow. Then, Thursday I have Bible study, and Friday we are doing a family Christmas with MIL, FIL, hubby's brother and his wife.

We are less than two weeks from our Hawaii trip...getting a little nervous about packing for all four of us from two different houses when most of our summer weight clothes are in boxes somewhere in MILs basement.

That's about it for now, I guess. I'm not sure if I'll be blogging much for the next couple of weeks, but maybe I'll get back into the swing of things (if only for Quick Takes!)