Hello hello hello! I’m back! I took an unexpected blogging hiatus for a couple weeks, but in hindsight I should have totally expected it with all that our calendar has had lined up for us this month.
Let’s play catch up. I have a lot to tell you about, though I’m warning you that it’s nothing too exciting. 🙂
Like I mentioned in my last post, we closed on our new home here in Manhattan, Kansas on the 2nd, and we spent the first six days twiddling our thumbs around the empty house looking for things to do. I painted the master bathroom and sunroom while Jamie did a few other odd jobs. On the 7th, we ran over to Kansas City to see my in-law’s new place and help them load up a moving truck with furniture that they graciously gifted us that they no longer needed or are replacing. Tonya & Keith, thank you so, so much all of the beautiful pieces! We are very thankful.
On Monday morning (the 8th), our moving truck showed up bright and early!
It took the guys four or five hours to get everything off the truck and into the correct rooms and another couple of hours for them to unpack all of our boxes. I knew that the movers were supposed to unpack your boxes if you asked, but I was nervous to ask them to do the extra work. After some encouragement from some fellow spouses, we asked the movers if they’d unpack just the inside boxes (not the garage boxes). They agreed with no problem.
Having the movers unpack our boxes (ahem – dump said boxes into massive piles all over the house) and take the overwhelming load of packing paper and boxes was such a huge, huge help. We’ll definitely be going this route from now on.
The next day, instead of beginning to sort through the heaping piles all over the house and actually unpack, we threw a bunch of stuff in whatever luggage we could find, loaded up the Jeep, and set out on a 880 mile trip to Birmingham. We’re kind of insane, but that’s nothing new.
We had to get to Birmingham for a wedding; Jamie’s cousin Madeline got married to Jamie’s high school best friend Chris, and the best part is that they met at our wedding almost four years ago!
We were so pumped for months about their wedding, but getting in the car to leave for a week while our new house looked like a tornado hit it was tough. We could have easily flown down and made it a quick trip, but we knew that if we were going to be in Alabama that we’d want to spend time with my parents for a couple days. We knew our house wasn’t going anywhere and that the mess could wait one more week.
We ended up having a really fantastic QUICK trip and were so glad we drove instead of flew so that we could spend that extra time with our loved ones. The wedding was beautiful, and not only did we get good time with our families but also with a couple of my best friends and Jamie’s best friends.
We both breathed a couple huge sighs of relief when we pulled back into our driveway at 6:40 Monday morning (we drove through the night on the way back so Hadley would sleep the whole way).
The last three days have been super productive. We’ve sorted through the six most lived-in rooms and made them “livable” – our master bedroom/bathroom, Hadley’s bedroom/bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen. Our two spare bedrooms, office, basement living area – those are all a complete disaster, but we have a plan to slowly but surely tackle them.
We’ve also pulled weeds, mowed/edged the yard, explored the local farmer’s market, enjoyed home-cooked meals (finally!), got DirecTV up and running again, met a couple neighbors, etc. We are very happy to have a house to call ours again.
The curveball of the week (so far) was finding a fairly substantial leak in the basement guest bedroom’s ceiling on Monday (yes, just hours after we got home); Our master shower is right overhead. High five for owning a home! We did not expect issues this early. Yikes!
Less than 24 hours later a plumber arrived to do the dirty work and figure out what was up. After cutting out the soggy ceiling tile and running all kinds of tests, he determined that the leak is 100% not from any busted pipes. He figured out that the hand-held shower head in our master shower had been pointing at a tiled area within the shower that had a sliver of grout missing, and that that was enough to cause the leak! We were so relieved. His visit ran us $80, but besides fixing the ceiling tile and re-grouting that small tile area, our expenses should be nadda. Praise the good Lord above. We are definitely feeling like we dodged a bullet with that one!
The leak issue was just the fire we needed to sign up for a home warranty plan first thing this morning. We ended up going with American Home Shield after seeing how well they took care of a situation in my MIL’s home a few months ago, and we could be happier with how far our dollar is going to cover us. I’m definitely breathing easier about owning this 27 year old home knowing that any big issues in the future will be covered.
As far as tomorrow goes, I have a to-do list with eight things on it that we’re ready to tackle. Y’all know I can’t function without my lists! Jamie goes back to work next week, so I’m definitely soaking up my time to tag-team various tasks with him. He’s a rockstar, and I love that he’s loving this house just as much as I am.
I’ll leave you with a 10 month picture of our little love bug.
I can’t believe we’re in the two-month countdown to celebrating her birthday! She’s been such a trooper throughout all of the moving chaos, and I’m so glad that her days of sleeping somewhere other than her crib are over for several months. We DeSpains aren’t going anywhere for a while. Time to settle in!
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo