Ryan and Juliet

Late August, 2010, when the real estate market was at a low, Dan and I were lucky enough to find a family in our neighborhood who wanted to buy our home. With four floors, no parking, and two babies (almost toddlers), we clearly jumped on the opportunity. It was a good deal. No real estate agent and a decent offer. We accepted. After looking at 15+ homes to buy we chose the one we loved and put in our offer. In a matter of two weeks, we had a contract to sell our home and a contract to buy a new one. Next began a series of very stressful weeks of packing, finding a mortgage, paperwork, lawyers, buyer drama, inspections, etc. At the same time, Dan had to juggle a boatload of work, a stressful wife, and two teething babies. He did an amazing job and balanced his priorities beautifully. I spent every opportunity the babies allowed me to pack boxes and make my daily phone calls to annoy everyone I could in order to ensure our sale stayed on track. After what seemed like the longest two months ever (looking back, of course, it doesn’t seem so bad) we moved out, closed on both houses, and moved into our new home in Saratoga Springs.

To say our new home is totally awesome, would be a understatement. We own two acres of land. The majority of which consists of woodland with evergreen trees and a river marking our back yard border. We can walk out onto our deck through our green room or family room French doors to the enjoy the peace and serenity of our backyard. Our home is filled with so much light that even on a dreary March day I should feel rejuvenated. Ryan now has his own bedroom and no longer needs to get kicked out of the guest room for our overnight visitors to sleep in the office full of computers, wires, boxes, and books. The babies no longer need to scream up the stairs for me to return back from the upstairs kitchen for a treat or bottle. I can travel back and forth from the kitchen to the family room a hundred times a day without going up and down stairs. To put Ryan and Juliet down for their nap, I went from from three flights in the old home to one flight in our new home. I fear I might lose my slim, sexy figure. To top it off with whip cream, cherries, and rainbow sprinkles, we have a two car garage. What a beautiful sound that makes… two car garage. There are countless reasons for how wonderful our two car garage is, and as lovely as they all are, I won’t bore you with them.  Two car garage is enough said.

Meanwhile, a parade of events pasted us by like a whirlwind, giving us only a few precious moments to stop and savor it before going back to work on settling into our new home. We quite literally savored Thanksgiving at Gramee and Grampa Turkenkopf’s. Christmas started with the four of us and we were later on blessed again to have Gramee and Grampa Turkenkopf and Uncie Drewbie here to visit. The new year rolled in quietly. Well, sort of anyway. I was up to answer the cries of Ryan and Juliet in the night. There was, however, a distinct lack of streamers, alcohol, noise makers, and giant balls dropping from the sky. Instead I rocked Juliet in her chair and cuddled with Ryan (separately of course) until they decided it was OK to sleep again in their cribs. Dan took vacation from Christmas Eve through January 3rd. 10 days of bliss where mostly we stayed at home and just simply enjoyed each other.

So here we are, January 5th, and I am able to sit down and write again. There is still so much I could say about the last few months, but alas, I try to console myself with the words of Grampa Tom, “You can live it, or you can record it”. For the last few months, I’ve been living it. There have been days of stress, days full of food, days full of presents and wrapping paper, and days of complete and utter happiness with my family.