Glamorous & Spoiled

Last night J was yelling at her tooth to "just come out already!" and around 9 PM she got her wish! She ate an apple, we wrapped floss around the tooth and pulled, and a bunch of other tricks but there was one root that just would NOT let go. B told J to leave it alone and it would come out when it was ready (by this time it was hanging down and was twisted backward!) and as soon as he said that it came out! So she got another visit from the tooth fairy (last one was two weeks ago!) and got another $1 bill!



I had wanted to get my haircut at my favorite place here before we moved and Jill needed a cut too, so we went together and it was so fun to share a "salon day" with my grown up girl. She asked if we could get our nails done too but we didn't have time or money left for that. Maybe another time!



I feel very spoiled today because a couple of friends threw a "farewell" party for me and it was a lot of fun to sit and chat for a couple of hours. I have great friends and I hope I can find new friends that are just as great in A-town! :)

We're packing the computer tomorrow, so ta-ta for now!!!

All wrapped up!

I was on the phone with my brother as I was cleaning out a closet in the office and I said, "How am I supposed to pack wrapping paper? It's kind of long and skinny and I'm not sure I have any boxes that size." He started laughing at me and said, "Throw. It. A-way! It's a dollar a roll, B!" I said, "Yeah, but there's still paper on all of the rolls and I don't want to waste it! Maybe I can find a friend to donate it to." He had a good laugh over that and we went on talking. A few minutes later as I was in another room, I hear some ripping going on and walk back into the office to find this.





So I DID find a good use for it and after they'd pulled all the paper off of the rolls I realized there wasn't that much, so I don't feel too bad about wasting some. :) I guess this is how my kids are "dealing" with their moving anxieties. Hee hee!

All packed up with nowhere to go!

Well, my awesome mother-in-law called yesterday and said she thought I might want a little help packing. Yeah! So she said she'd be here in an hour and spent about four hours with me yesterday packing up my kitchen! I didn't know it would take so long, so I am SO glad I had help. So we left out a few dishes to use but nothing to cook with. So we're finishing up all the frozen stuff we can microwave and we have sandwich stuff and chips and applesauce for lunches, so we'll have to get inventive for dinners, but it's kind of fun living a minimalistic life! ;) B will be home TOMORROW!!! Hooray. We haven't seen him in almost 2 weeks and the girls are going crazy. We get to pack up the garage on Saturday (yippee) and hopefully relax in our boxed up house on Sunday. The movers are showing up at 9 a.m. Monday and I have two good friends who offered to watch my kiddos, so they won't be getting in the way of the movers. I just can't wait for this to all be over and to be surrounded by boxes in my new house. :)

We spent several days in Kansas last week to attend my brother's wedding reception and visit with family. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I got to "get away" for a bit, so I could come home ready to pack. We'll be in A-town soon!!!

Our new house

In case anyone is interested...

A picture a few months back with leaves still on the trees.

Backyard a few months ago.
Recent picture from front

WWF at the Bryner Home

There was weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth! An arm was pulled out of socket, a hand was smashed in a door, a tooth went flying, and in the end they were all best friends again. :) No, we didn't have a knock-down drag-out fight between the lovely Bryner sisters. There sure is a lot going on to keep me on my toes though!

On Friday evening, J ran up to me to tell me that her tooth was really loose. I figured she meant the one that's been getting looser for about 3 weeks but it was one of her center bottom ones and it was barely hanging on! I wanted to get my camera to take a picture of my little beauty's last baby tooth smile but before I could get it, out the tooth came! She was SO excited. She put the tooth under her pillow that night and the tooth fairy left her a one dollar bill! I was actually checking on the kids before I went to bed and saw her start to roll over and put her hand under the pillow. She pulled out the strange feeling material and looked at it and realized the tooth fairy had come! What a fun moment to witness! The tooth right next to that one has been hanging on my a thread since Friday and I just know it's going to come out any minute now!

On Monday morning we went to the park to play with our good friends Mer & Syd and as we were leaving J hopped in the front seat of the van (something I was experimenting with for short rides because she likes being big stuff) and shut the door but didn't notice little M had tried to climb in with her and got her hand stuck in the door. I got to her in about 10 seconds and amazingly her hand was fine but J got a big lecture and will NOT be sitting in the front seat anymore for a long while. It's just too much temptation to play with the vents, buttons, mirrors, etc. There's a good reason kids are safer in the back!

Later that evening the kiddos were watching Scooby Doo and M was laying on the floor right in front of the tv. Bossy big sis J told her she needed to scoot back (I was vacuuming in the next room or I would have told her to as well!) but she wouldn't move, so J took matters into her own hands and grabbed M's hands and pulled her back. The screaming ensued. I wasn't sure if she was just a little hurt and a lot mad but when she stopped using the arm completely, I knew something was wrong. I wasn't sure if it was a dislocated elbow or a wrist sprain but she told me it hurt from her wrist to her elbow. We got her through the night with some pain meds and then this morning we took her to the doctor (who I swore to that we were REALLY moving and I PROMISED we wouldn't come see him again! -- I've done this 4 times and my kids keep getting sick or injured!) and he said I was absolutely right about the elbow dislocation and he told me to hug her and he lifted her arm up above her head and pop! She cried for a minute because he had touched that hurt arm but then she realized it didn't hurt anymore! Hooray! We love you Doctor Scott! She is about ten times happier than normal right now because she has use of both arms again!

One cute thing happened as I was putting her in the van after the appointment. She looked over at the medical building and said, "B-A-Y-L-O-R R-E-G-I-O-N-A-L M-E-D-I-C-A-L C-E-N-T-E-R." It still amazes me when that little girl just starts spouting off things as if she's known them forever but the really cute thing is that I remember J doing the EXACT same thing at the same age when I was pregnant with M and leaving my OB appointment. But J also said, "That spells doctor!" :) I can't believe how fast time flies!

N managed to stay out of the fray thankfully!

So we are all doing ok but I do NOT, repeat, do NOT like being a single mom right now! I don't know how people do this all the time! I need support and assistance sometimes and there's no one right there! Of course, I have great friends and that REALLY helps!

So, we're closing on our house in two weeks from today and I still have a lot of packing to do that I'm trying to just put off until the last minute. :) Not really, I'm going to get started on it today, I promise! :)

Hip Hip

Hooray! We submitted an offer on a home yesterday morning and they accepted within 12 hours! No negotiating even and we think we got a great deal! Of course, B said, "Man, we should have started lower, I guess!" But I know how these people feel and I hope they're happy it sold without a lowball offer! This isn't the house that I've been telling my friends about for the last month or two. That one is great but it was just a little too small for us. And it isn't the house we put an offer on last week that was about to go to foreclosure and was trashed but was in an awesome neighborhood! We decided to withdraw that offer before we knew whether they would accept it or not because we decided a much bigger but older home was the right one. We had looked at it twice and both times felt like it wasn't the one. But then we both had a feeling we should look again when the price dropped some more. And this time we saw the potential and thought about how we could change things to make it work for us and we went for it! It's really close to EVERYTHING which I'm not used to, being way out here where we are but it's about 1 minute to J's soon-to-be school, the mall, McDonald's (very important to M!), Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, our new credit union, etc. Church will be about 10 minutes and B's work is 15. Not bad at all. Plus A-town has NO traffic issues. Heaven really! There is a great park and lake in walking distance and the yard is much bigger than what we currently have. Of course, the house is 765 more square feet too, so I will have to clean a bigger house but that's really the only downside. :) And it's a year older than me, which will be an adjustment since I've had a nice, new home. But a lot of things have been replaced recently (roof, windows, etc.) to make it energy efficient and we'll have to re-paint pretty much everything but I'm excited. So... hip, hip, hooray, things are falling into place so well! Oh and our realtor said that the sellers initially didn't like that we asked for some money towards closing costs without giving their full asking price, but their realtor said, "Well, they are making an offer on another house, so if you don't want to lose them, I'd accept this. It's a good offer." So... maybe the whole reason we felt we should put an offer on the other house (only to change our minds two days later) was so that this offer would work out! I feel very blessed and VERY nervous about all the changes coming but I'm excited! Please everyone come visit! A-town is on the way to everywhere! :)

House Swap

Well, hallelujah, our house is under contract! If all goes well (please everyone cross your fingers!!!), we will close on our house on February 26th! We put an offer (contingent on this one actually selling) on a home in A-town this morning, so we're waiting to hear back on that. It's an older home but in a nice area and the size we wanted, so we'll get to do some HGTV-esque renovations. I hope they'll come "spice up my kitchen" for me! :) Of course, you have to have $40K to $50K for them to use to do that renovation, so... yeah, it'll just be us. I am so excited that we might be able to "move on" and live with B again soon! J was a little emotional about the thought of leaving her house. I told her we'll take all of her things and the most important part is that she'll have the people she loves coming with her. She'll definitely miss her friends and the familiarity of this home but I think just having EVERYTHING change at once would be hard on anyone. I think it will be exciting though and I'm trying to encourage her to see it that way too. We're going to A-town again this weekend to set up our bank account, mortgage pre-approval stuff, and attend church there. I can't wait! :) Am I going to miss it here??? Yes, of course. But I can't think about that or else I'll get too sad, so I'm just focusing on the positive! :)