Greetings from the Comfort Suites!

Well, Dick and I have almost sold our house! It will close tomorrow around noon and we will become renters (in our own home) until January 21st. It makes me sad.

What makes me annoyed and tired is the fact that we're all staying at the Comfort Suites for two nights while the house gets tented and sprayed for termites. Ugh. It had to be done before the buyers' loan would close. So, I spent Tuesday night removing the kids toys from the house, double-bagging all the food in the fridge and freezer and taking the pets to our friend Pete's house for two nights (Dick did that). I've been taking the kids' to our nanny's house every day since we can't go home until Friday afternoon. I had to pack us all for three days, including packing the Christmas presents I needed to mail today. Unfortunately, I was expecting some deliveries that needed to go out with the rest of the presents I needed to mail - but they can't be delivered to a house with a giant tent over it! So I'll send the rest of the gifts later...

Along with this fun (not), tiring fiasco, we had our new home inspection Tuesday afternoon, I had an important check being fed-exed, had to get a cashier's check from the bank, Dick's at a Charger's game tonight... what else!? We've had so much going on I can't keep track!

Update on the new house: We made an offer! The seller has officially acknowledged our acceptance of their counter offer. (This is realtor-speak for "the house is ours!") The house is a "bank approved short sale" which means it won't take as long as a "short" sale because the bank has already approved the price. But, they wanted a 75 day escrow because B of A (Bank of America - lovely!) takes a while to process the paperwork. We hope it's ready sooner, though! Either way it's likely we will have to find some furnished executive housing or a vacation rental for a week or two (or three). Ick.

However, we're really excited about the house! It has *almost* everything we wanted - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, on a canyon, on a cul de sac, in a quiet area, close to good schools and close to parks. It's a good layout too, and has a great commute for both Dick and I. What it doesn't have: central a/c, a 3 car garage, and it will need some updating. But... it's not terrible inside. It's fine. And we'll have fun sprucing it up! We're currently deciding what work we want to do first... In a way we'd like to do some things asap. And in a way, it might be nice to hang out and not do anything for a while! This home selling/buying is tiring!

I'll post some pics of our new place soon.