Trying to Stifle My Excitement

We are getting closer to closing on the house! It is getting harder and harder not to get excited, but I'm a little nervous about something happening to make this fall through. I really think this is it, though. Closing is set for the 30th of this month and we're hoping to be moved in by the end of the first full week in October. Now we'll see if it actually happens. I've been driving past this house every day taking Ryan to school and picking him up and every time I think I get a little more excited. I really love it. It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is actually a stone house and much cuter in person. It is 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath. It has a kitchen/dining room (one big room), living room, and family room. It has tons of closet space and a nice basement for storage. There's some painting we want to do and eventually the carpet will need to come out of the kitchen (who DOES that?). And the yard needs fenced in. Other than that, there really isn't much else that NEEDS done. The bathrooms are both in great shape (unlike the last house we almost got). Also, in the other house we would have had to pull up all the carpeting in the downstairs because it was nasty (among a lot of other things that needed done). Not so in this one. Even the carpet in the kitchen is in great shape...but I just cannot live with carpet in a kitchen, lol. Well, I will live with it for now, but it is going to go at some point. It would also be nice to put a small island in the kitchen, maybe....when the floor is done. I think that is all of the pictures I will post for now, even though I have more of the inside. I think I will wait until I can share pictures of *our stuff in the house :-). (The current owners are still living there.)

In other news, Ryan started his second week of school today. I am really hoping that his love of school will last a long time. It makes it so much easier to send him. And he is doing great with his school work. They are still working on getting his therapies in place, but his teacher has been pretty on top of things. I spoke to her on the phone after school the first 2 days and I have also talked to the vision support specialist and his OT. Everyone has been so nice and really seems to care about Ryan and making sure he has the best year possible.

It's been a bit of an adjustment for Brooke and Cole with Ryan being back in school. Cole isn't here all the time, but he is here a lot of the time. I know he misses having Ryan around to play with, but I think this will be a good opportunity for him and Brooke to learn to play together better and get along more (hopefully...lol). Usually when it's the 3 of them together, Ryan and Cole play together and Brooke either does her own thing or torments the boys, lol. So that's why I think this will be good for the 2 younger ones. Cole also has a habit of yelling at Brooke a lot (just to yell, lol) and taking things from her, so those are things I think will get better the more they spend time with just each other. Of course, Cole starts preschool on Friday (he has orientation Thursday), so he will be gone 3 afternoons a week, too. Poor Brooke (or maybe lucky Brooke?...to not have to compete for attention). LOL.

A couple weeks ago Ryan had an ENT appointment (bad ear infection that lead to his eardrum perforating/rupturing) and I had to take Brooke and Cole along too because Joe's work schedule changed. I was pretty nervous, lol. But we survived...well, we did more than survive. The kids were really good. We were in and out in about 30 minutes, so that helped. I think it will take some more small excursions like that before I am totally comfortable with all 3 out in public. You just never know what you're going to get and it can be a lot harder to handle meltdowns and tantrums and fighting/bickering in public, depending where you're at and all that fun stuff. But I guess that's what keeps things exciting! Right??