Holes

I sense that the narrative on my blog has some gaps.

So in case you were wondering...

1. The children and I are in Utah for the wedding, to escape the Texas heat-humidity, visit with family and friends, and breath some mountain air before we settle into a decidedly midwestern life.
2. Greg was able to come to his brother's wedding. This is primarily because I literally cornered (I can show you the corner in my mother-in-law's house) Daniel and Brittany and forced them to tell me "hypothetically" when they would get married. (This was almost two months before they were actually engaged, so you can see how kind they were to oblige me.) But with this precious piece of information (June 29!), Greg was able to carefully plan and use his leave in such a way to ensure his presence here to celebrate this wedding with all six of his siblings. And, though I'm sure I earned the label "Scariest Potential Sister-in-law" that day, Brittany has been nothing but gracious.
3. Greg goes back to Honduras this weekend. He still has a job there.
4. Greg officially finishes his tour in Honduras on July 16. This is happily a week or so earlier than we had anticipated!
5. Greg flies from Honduras to Utah on July 16. We will be here in Park City anxiously awaiting his final return.
6. I feel like I should mention that my mom is here with me. I am happy to give her an excuse to spend a good chunk of her summer in the mountains! And I am even happier to have her help!
7. On or about July 19 we will begin the drive back to Texas. Once in Texas we will visit with Greg's parents, make some key purchases, try to find and organize all of our crap at my mom's house in preparation for the packers and movers, take care of some doctor's appointments, squeeze in a few play dates, and watch the movers load up the stuff at my mom's house and all the stuff in storage that I haven't seen in a million years.
8. At the very beginning of August we will drive to St. Louis to pick up our poor little red Forester that has been (hopefully) lovingly cared for at a vehicle storage facility in South Carolina.
9. Please don't ask me to explain why we are picking up our car in St. Louis if it was stored in South Carolina.
10. After retrieving our car in St. Louis, we will proceed to Madison, where within a few days we will paint, receive the movers, and start unpacking.
11. From now until the beginning of August, our house will sit empty. (This is why the neighbors have my phone number. Also, our agent quickly volunteered to walk through the house once a week. Plus, someone--yet to be determined--will be mowing the lawn weekly.) The sellers were anxious to close by June 30, and we obliged them, for a price, of course--though they are a great family and we were happy to do this for them.
12. Closing on a house in 21 days with Greg overseas was proving almost humanly impossible. Sure, some intense back and forth FedEx-ing can go a long way, but it was going to be a close call. (Everyone was very edgy, no one more so than our nice sellers and their nice sellers, who were scheduled to close their deal just two hours after ours.) Our being out-of-state was driving up the closing costs, so buying a plane ticket wasn't much more money. So, yes, for the twelve-millionth time, I know that in this day and age you don't have to be present to close on a house, but in this case it was just plain easier (and possibly cheaper) to do it the old-fashioned way.
13. A note on buying this house. We did not necessarily intend to buy a house with this move. Our intention was to do whatever made the most sense in whatever market we ended up in. Since we knew we would only live in the house for three years, we were definitely leaning towards renting, unless it seemed obvious to buy. The thing about Madison is that there is no rental market for decent single-family homes. None. It was apparent right away that we would need to buy, and so the search began. Because we know we will turn around and sell (hopefully) the house in three years, it wasn't some kind of "we've-arrived-in-life-dream-house" experience. When we were looking, Our Future Buyers were first and foremost on our minds. That said, we will get to "make it our own" more so than if it were a rental...but the presence of Our Future Buyers will loom large.
14. A note on this particular house. It's perfect for us. There's nothing super spiffy (no, this is not the house with the brand new kitchen, the geo-thermal system, the California closets, or the screened in porch). It is no more or less than what our family needs right now. We walked in and immediately felt comfortable. It was no effort to imagine living there. I love the house already; I could sense the memories we'll make there. It's not perfect--Our Imaginary Future Buyers and I wrestled with one flaw in particular--but it's just right. And it's ours!!

I hope this answers some lingering questions or clears the fog of confusion that seems to have been created by my posts (or lack thereof) recently. Now I am free to post sporadically with little or no context.

Good luck to you, good luck to me,

as the aery beat nears its end.