Almost there...

My dad plans a trip every summer and rents a home in Kachina Village for the weekend. It just happened to be this weekend (which obviously was planned over a month ago). So we made the most of not being able to be home to get things done, to be there getting things really done. I enrolled Tatum at Sechrist over the internet and the principal gave us a private tour on Wed. What I didn't know is that her new kindergarten teacher would also be there to meet her. What a wonderful principal and teacher. I couldn't have been more impressed with the school. Just the fact that they opened it up for us when it was closed said a lot. It's also an excelling school. She will have P.E., computers, science lab, art, music and library time. We met at the school after dropping Marley off at her new home. So far so good...

Then the following day we were hanging out at our new home in Flagstaff and I got a call from my friend Nicole (her daughter Mia went to preschool with Tatum) and she said she was in Flag and wanted to stop on by to check it out on their way to New Mexico. It was so much fun for Tatum to have her first official play date with a friend from home and we haven't even moved in yet. I'm sure they will be up here lots to play. My dad and Kay also came over to check it out as well.

And one of my favorite things to do (so far) in Flagstaff is to go downtown for dinner and actually eat outside and enjoy the scenery, music, people and most of all, the weather.

Yes, I did take him to get his haircut (yet again), but this time, I had her go much shorter. I just got sick and tired of fighting him over combing the knots out. I also had them chop 4 inches off of Tatum's hair. It's still shocking when I look at both of them, but she had some nice split ends going on herself, so this will help as well. Her hair grows so fast, I'm sure it will be grown back by her birthday.

So I checked out Coconino (the main campus) where I will be attending. I am SO excited. I peaked around the school and was really impressed. It's nice and small and well...the whole thing is just so exciting. I was however, not impressed with the preschool that is connected to it (The YMCA), so he will not be going there while I attend (which would have been so easy and really nice to get to check in on him in between classes..but like I said, not impressed). He does still qualify for the special needs preschool at Sechrist. But unfortunately, it won't work out either. The days/hours are Mon-Wed from 8:30-11:30 and I will be in school for the first 2 months on Tues and Thurs starting at 11:30. But I spoke with the speech therapist already and she said she would meet privately twice a week (for free) at the school for one on one speech therapy with him until she feels he doesn't need it anymore. I've been calling on some preschools and man are they expensive there. I did find one that is a little more price friendly and plan to check it out next week. The speech therapist said she's heard good things, so hopefully that will work out.

A new home for Marley

Because of our new situation, Marley could no longer be apart of our family :(. We really had no other choice and sometimes you do what you gotta do to make things work. I posted an ad on craigslist in Phx and in Flagstaff and worked really hard on finding her the perfect family. I had about 5 people contact me in Phx and 2 in Flag. I'm so glad I posted in Flagstaff because the new family we found for her couldn't have been a better fit. She is not yet house trained on chewing up kids toys and it's perfect since they have college age kids. They also have a 1 1/2 year old Boxer mix named Ozzie. The family is extremely active and spend the majority of their time being outdoors doing things like hiking/camping/canoeing and they take their dogs with them. We met up with them on Wed. Tina had some of her friends/family over to meet her for the first time. They had a welcome home party for her today (Sunday). She gets to share a room/bed with Ozzie now that her son has moved out. She honestly couldn't have had a better deal. Now she gets to live in cooler weather, have a nice bed to sleep on and she gets to get royally spoiled with her new lifestyle. Tina called me today to say she definitely misses us, but they are very happy to have her. She went on her first big hike yesterday with them and another one today. In a few months once she gets settled, we are going to go over for a visit. I'm glad she's agreed to keep in touch and will send pictures and we will get to visit on occasion. She really has a much better deal with them and it makes my heart feel good that we were able to find her the best situation for her.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New tenant update

So after that lovely post about our supposed lovely new tenants...well it wasn't a happy ending after all :(. I am so glad they weren't meant to be because if they weren't, we wouldn't have found who we now have. Basically what happened was we were talking with our friend Ryan (who happens to be a Realtor) and he said that we needed to get first and last months rent, a $300 non-refundable deposit, run their credit/background, verify employment...We e-mailed them the list the following morning and then didn't hear anything. I thought it was really odd since they were so excited and kept calling us to say how they couldn't wait to move in yada yada. Then 6 hrs after that e-mail, they pretty much sent us a John Deere letter in a sense. They started off with "Unfortunately, those extra costs are going to be too much...good luck.." So I immediately called them because I couldn't understand how they could be all excited just hours before and then they were getting cold feet. So Daryl spoke with them and said we would waive the $300 fee and let them do first and half of last but we still needed to check their background. They said they would think about it..but it still didn't make sense. In the meantime, I called back the previous people who were interested and one other whom I pretty much blew off since we thought it was a done deal. Both were very excited to come back and see it (the other ones wanted to buy..but we weren't interested in that at this point). So the previous couple called and asked if we would consider $100 less a month in addition to no deposit, no background check and first and half of last months (which was nuts). We told them we had two appointments and would let them know. The first couple that showed up walked in and immediately fell in love and wrote us a check to go towards their deposit and first and last months. They agreed to maintain our large yard which is awesome. The really want to lease for 2 years and then buy it and we had to have it in the contract that they get first dibs to buy it after two years..maybe three (which obviously we had no problem with since we plan on selling it when we are done renting). Ideally, they would rent it for 3 years and then after I graduate, we'd sell it to them and then buy another house (we still aren't sure if we will stay in Flag, move back here or even move to another state). Ryan wanted us to do a year by year lease in case our taxes go up and we have to adjust the rent. They weren't thrilled with that, but I assured them if they took good care of our house that we would take good care of them and that seemed to ease his mind a bit since they really didn't want the rent to skyrocket. Not only that, he knows we are going to be in Flagstaff for a minimum of 3 years and wouldn't plan on moving back in before that.
They are the most ideal renters. They are in their 50's with college age kids and one older Labrador. Ryan even said we lucked out with these guys. I love that they love our house and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and I know it was worth my time of being anal retentive on keeping it so clean all the time...I guess it really paid off lol. They don't need us to move out until Oct 1st, but we need to be out by the first few days of Aug just because of school and getting set up. So they agreed to meet in the middle and we would pay for Aug and they would start paying in Sept even though they don't need the house then. We are truly blessed we found them.
It's going to be very interesting living as minimalist for a while. I look around Corbin's room with only 3 toys that have not been packed and it's quite nice. He plays with them, doesn't complain or make a mess and well..it's just nice. Plus, we don't plan on really needed that many toys when we go there since the kids will have plenty to do with school, sports, dance, gym, etc..etc..We plan on being a very active family once we move there...and very, very busy.
The quality of life will be so much better for us. We can't wait!!

Aren't they the cutest?!

Seriously..flashback to 1982 and this is what I was doing with him. We were all about building forts, playing in the mud and of course, I always had to pull the wagon with the two boys riding along. My mom baby-sat Rusty (who now lives in Las Vegas) from the time Dan and Rusty were in diapers until they were around 5 and we've remained in contact ever since. Love him!!

Flagstaff Here We Come!!!!!!!!!!

Well it's officially and I can finally blog about it. We have until the 24th of this month to get outta here! Daryl's Aunt and Uncle have decided to move out of the basement and to another state and so we will be taking there place at the Flagstaff house. I have been selling so much of my stuff on craigslist. The bunk beds went in an hour...same goes with most of our other furniture. A few things we are going to try and store somewhere and I'm giving away and selling most of the toys :(. The basement is full furnished, so we can't bring too much up. We had been worrying about what to do about the house because honestly, we can't really sell since we owe more than it's worth and renting kind-of scares me...so for kicks, I took a few pictures and slapped it on craigslist for rent and sure enough, we've had 5 people interested. Two came out to look at it and we fell in love with the first couple. They wanted it the moment they walked in, as well as the 2nd couple, but we really want the first to work out. They want a long term rent (2-3 years) and will take care of our yard for us as well (we are giving them all of our lawn equipment). I will be attending Coconino in the fall and Corbin will attend the preschool there as well (YMCA). Tatum will attend an amazing school up the street from the house and Daryl will most likely try and get a job and take online classes the first year until he can quit and go to school full time with me next year when we can both apply for financial aid and be good financially since we won't really have any bills other than a little on our mortgage and our van payment... I have one year or prereq's and then 2 years after that of Nursing School and should be done in 2012 if everything works out (just like Jen *wink*). I can't wait for the weather. Unfortunately, we can't take Marley :(. There is no yard for her and we wouldn't be allowed to regardless since she is so big. I found a wonderful home for her in Flagstaff with a huge yard, dog door and another boxer for her to play with. They are a very active couple who camp, hike, go fishing and take their dogs with them everywhere they go. So honestly, she'll have a better deal with them. We can also visit her anytime which is always nice. I will keep you updated though. My house is turning into shambles (especially Corbin's room right now), but hopefully we can get our act in gear and get a lot accomplished each day. :)

Time for a few randoms...

Cousin Devin's 6th birthday party!!!

I found him sleeping like this the other night. Corbin and Marley are such good buds.

We went over to Eric and Marissa's a few weeks ago and because of the time of day, my freakin' camera wouldn't work too well. We hung out with Ryan and Christine and our kids played until pretty late. It was nice because Marissa, Christine and I hid on the front porch with our wine/beer and chatted while the guys manned the kids.

Tatum has a really good friend from preschool named Mia. The girls are constantly getting together for play dates since we all live so close. Tatum has some really great girlfriends in her life and hopefully these two will remain friends for a really long time :).

Gotta love Flagstaff!

Last weekend we went to Flagstaff and stayed with the in-laws for the weekend. Daryl's brother, Byron was having a white trash 4th of July bash and we all had to dress up. Note the (new lol) tighty whitey tank top I'm sporting.

I left my camera at home before we left for the party and need to still get the pictures from Jen, but figured I'd post a few for now.

Posing with Aaron and Jen's new doggy, Freddie.

Umm...yeah, you can ignore the previous post lol

So I thought about deleting the WW's post, but figured most of you have read it by now. I just wanted to clarify that I did do weight watcher's for 3 whole days and then a Wed night freakin screwed me up. I lost like 2 lbs (I'm sure water weight) in those 3 days, but it's all back and then some. I guess I'll just stick to the gym a few days a week and call it good :)).