Another Issue

On 7/13 my amazing mother-in-law was diagnosed with uterine cancer. It was a huge blow to all of us, but especially Sam's dad. Ray, who is not in the best health himself, finally had a little more on his mind than it could deal with. He began having extreme tiredness to the point that he'd fall asleep sitting up in mid-conversation. He was very unstable and unpredictable. The doctors in Yakima couldn't seem to find a cause. Poor Madge was beside herself with worry and fear. Sam's sister Tracy made arrangements to have him seen in Tri-Cities where again the good news and the bad news was that there was nothing major going on. As of today, Ray is doing a little better, but still not himself. Madge has a pre-op appointment and some tests scheduled at the UW on Thursday with surgery to be 8/7. Please keep them both in your prayers. Sam and I know that they have a huge support group and will never lack in people to be with them and help, but we feel uncomfortable leaving in the middle of all of this *sigh* I keep telling myself that we have to trust that there is a reason that the house sold when it did, and to have faith that everything will work out for the best.

Home Selling

Okay, I'm even worse about this than I thought I'd be. I can't believe it's been 3 months since my first and only post, acckkkk. I thought about it sooo many times, but never got around to posting. I WILL do better.

So much is going on I'm not sure where to begin. Let's go chronologically. On 6/28 we put the house on the market! In the first photo the kids and dog are looking out the window as the "For Sale" sign gets put up! We are doing fsbo and will see how it goes. A neighbor put their house on the market one week before we did and had their house sold at full price within 10 days. I am still in shock at the amount they got. It should sure help us though. We decided to list a little higher than we originally planned, what the heck right?! The night the sign went up a couple drove by and asked if the could have a look. It was nearly 9pm, so I asked if there was another time they could come. They said they'd be back at 5pm the next night. The morning after we listed I got a request for a showing. I agreed to have her over that afternoon. She seemed to love the place and wanted to bring her husband back later in the evening. Well, nobody came back. I was disappointed, but figured as much. The following week we got a call from the agent that sold the neighbor's house. He had a client that wanted to come see our place. She came the following day and spent an hour and-a-half inside. When she left, the agent said to expect an offer in a few hours. He called that afternoon and said his client decided to think about it some more. Arggggghhh! I already wanted of the roller coaster of home selling. The weekdays went by and I kept filling up the brochure box, but got no calls. I decided to do an open house the next weekend. It was a lot of work, but 7 people came through so it wasn't a total flop. Another week was almost passing us by when Sam got a call from another agent that had an interested client. Sam had just stopped by the house to pack and I had left in a hurry earlier so the house wasn't in the best shape. Smudges on the windows, no fresh flowers out..... but, the people fell in love and within 3 hours I had an offer in hand! It wasn't a bad offer, but we (consulting with Sam by phone because he was out of town) decided to counter the next day. Later that afternoon, the buyer's agent gave a verbal counter that I rejected and then I didn't hear anything back. Down goes the roller coaster again. Our offers were pretty close and as much as the buyers loved the house I was doubtful that I lost the deal, but I was still nervous. At 9 am the next morning I got the call that they accepted! While we're excited to be at this stage, it's brought about a whole 'nother bunch of stresses. After just 3 week on the market, we have a closing date of 8/10 and no place to live after that! Sam is swamped everyday of those 3 weeks and we need to get rid of things, pack things, get our things either stored or in the trailer to head down the highway. There are so many decisions to make and things to do it's incredible! If we close on the 10th, there is still time to get back to NC and have the kids start the new school year there, but there's another issue...