House stuff and housesitting

We don't close on the house for a month, but we still spent the first part of the week doing time sensitive parts of the close--the inspection, finding home owners insurance, and getting a loan. Maybe t's because we have lots of family to help watch the girls, or maybe because it's such a long time until we actually get to move in, but the closing process hasn't been too stressful so far.

Wednesday I met with our loan officer and then Chris and I met at the house for the inspection. The house was pretty clean, with no major problems, just a leaky faucet and some rusty nails (but no rot) from where the sprinkler hit the side of the house. We looked rather quickly before we made the offer, so it was nice to spend some time inside the house getting to know it. In my memory it was a ton smaller, but the more time we spent there, the more I think it's not so small, it just doesn't have wasted space.

Indulge me as I try to explain what it's like. In the middle of the house is a great room with a fireplace in the corner and a sliding glass door leading out to the backyard. Ajacent to that is a dining room and then a kitchen with a breakfast bar. There's a hallway leading to the laundry room and the two car garage. Off the kitchen/dining area is the master suite (I know, a suite!!) with a nice sized bedroom and a 3/4 bath (that means there's a shower but no tub) and a walk in closet that Chris is really excited about because he's the clothes horse of our family. On the other side of the great room are three bedrooms and the full bathroom. Right now the plan is to put one girl in each room and then use the third bedroom as our office. However, we'll have to see how Ellie makes the transition from sleeping in our closet to sleeping across the house from us--there's always the possiblity that the master suite will become office/guest room.
(Which means, of course that you'll have nice digs when you come to visit us! So come.)

Aunt Chris invited me to her bookclub Thursday night and it was nice to talk about books, even though I hadn't read Kabul Beauty School (although now it's on my list). We're also planning to read Three Cups of Tea, The Thirteenth Tale, Book of A Thousand Days, and some others that I can't remember. I love bookclubs.

Then we spent Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday at Chris and Shawn's house with their kids and their golden retriever, Clark, and their cat, Ella Bella. It was really fun for us. Ellie, Moira, and Ashton played mermaid twice in their jetted tub, and then the girls chased around the cat. I think their animals would have been much happier if we hadn't been around. It took Ellie and Moira a lot of time to get used to Clark the enormous puppy--they both loved to get his attention as long as he was in his kennel, but he sure looked bigger wandering aound. Clark and Moira had a few encounters, with Clark the 40 pound dog staying on his feet much more than Moira the 18 pound one year old. But she got so used to Clark licking her toes while she was in her high chair that she asked to have her toes licked when we got back to Grandma's house later on. I didn't oblige. Ever since we left Ellie has been asking to go back to Ashton's house. And Moira learned to say Aubrey. Very cute.

Cousin Jenny's here for her birthday, and Moira has taken a liking to her as well. She climbs up on Jenny's lap to "read" Dr Seuss's The Nose Book and calls Jenny "Bappy"--the same thing she calls Aunt Beth. Ellie and Jenny and Emily spent the morning making oat flour with a hand grinder, or, as Ellie calls it "Grinding O's".

That's it for now. Now that things are figured out with the house, I'm excited to start reading again. I'm not sure about keeping my book reviews here on Ruby Reba, or putting them on a new blog called Reba Reads. Make up my mind for me, someone.