Ghosts of Christmas Past, part 4

Well surprise, surprise, Trent is actually smiling in this one. Don't you love my glasses that are so huge? And the permed hair. Yea, nothing dated about this picture. The boys had the obligatory matching shirts. I couldn't pull that off for many more years so I had to take advantage while I could.

We are sitting in the front yard of our very first house. After being in school for 10 years it is an understatement to say that we were glad to be in our own home, at last.

Of course with me nothing is easy.

The letter that went along with the picture detailed how what was suppose to be a 45 day escrow turned into a 90 day escrow. Three months is an awfully long time to be trying to buy a house.

Ninety day story made short:

1. Trying to buy a Fannie Mae house means dealing with government bureaucracy, never a good or fast thing.

2. Student housing seems to think that you should move out when you are no longer students. And they think that should be sooner than later.

3.Having a realtor who tells you what you want to hear, not what is actually the truth is nigh unto having Satan as your realtor.

4. At this point that Hamster Wheel involved a vicious cycle of moving day set, calls to U-haul, calls to home teacher about help packing the truck, moving day changed, call back to U-haul, call back to home teacher, repeated until I cried every time the phone rang.

5. Finally, moving everything into a storage unit for two weeks, in order to be out of student housing. When we unloaded three year old Trent said "I don't want to live in a tiny house, I want to live in the big house." Me too, son. Me too.

6. Living with the parents of a friend (only brief acquaintances) during our two week stint of homelessness. Who says angels don't live among us?

7. Second day there, Trent jumps off the bed and hurts his leg so he won't walk on it. Fun trip to check to see if it was broken including figuring out where the doctors office was. Shockingly the leg wasn't broken.

8. A 90 degree heat wave in LA, and all our short sleeve stuff was packed in storage, so we bought two short sleeve shirts each.

9. My boys caught the chicken pox from the grandchildren of the people we were staying with. Jared came down with them the day after we moved in, and Trent two weeks to the day after that. So the first month in my new house was spent quarantined with sick, cranky kids.

See this is why I can't come up with fiction. My own life has handicapped me with such good material, who needs to make things up. Why didn't I have a blog then?

This story my dear friends, is also why whenever the word MOVE is mentioned I start to twitch. I have PTMS. Post Traumatic Moving Syndrome. If I never move again it will be too soon. And truth be told I have only moved twice since this traumatic move.

The good news however, is that I can be a moving mentor to friends who are delusional enough to think that moving is no big deal. With my warnings and careful guidance, I can help them avoid some of the pitfalls that I experienced.

But all was well that ended well. We were finally home owners and we lived to tell about it.

And I really liked this house. It had a lemon tree in the back yard that had lemons year round. I was so spoiled. The kitchen had brick in it, and the family room had a fireplace with the whole wall lined with brick. I miss that fireplace. We had been living in about 500 sq ft in student housing, and so the 1700 sq ft home felt like a mansion. It was wonderful.

Avoid moving like the plague if there is any way possible. Even long distance relationships might be preferable to moving. Just saying.