Homeless!

Home at last? Not quite! We have been on the go since my last post and I have barely had time to collect my sanity let alone update my website. Following the birth of Casey in North Carolina, we returned to Washington, DC at the end of the month for exactly 36 hours before flying to Texas for a week of house hunting with the whole family. Our house in DC was under contract, and we were very much looking forward to buying a home in San Antonio with lots of room for our growing family and a nice big back yard for the kids and the dog. We found a great house and wrote a contract only to enter into a multiple contract situation and a bidding war (so much for a lousy housing market). Anyway, we lost and returned to DC without buying a house. After mulling over what to do, I returned to San Antonio with Casey a few days later for round two of house hunting. There were a few new things on the market and I expanded our search criteria. Casey and I put in full days searching for a home. We wrote another contract, and again found ourselves in another bidding war. We lost again, and again I returned back to DC without a clue where we were all going to live in two weeks time. At least Casey got to spend some quality time with his great-grandmother, Nana. We really appreciated her putting up with a house full of people for almost two weeks straight.However, that had to be set aside because other issues became more important at that moment...Ryan's graduation from medical school! Graduation was on Saturday, 17 May, and the festivities started on Friday. After seven years as a Lieutenant, Ryan finally got promoted to the rank of Captain, and I had the pleasure to share that rank with him for at least a couple of days. The graduation ceremony was made special by all of the family that made the effort to be there, as well as our friends who came by the house later to say goodbye before we left the area. Ryan also got me a really kick ass necklace to honor my seven years of service in the Marine Corps. On Monday, the movers showed up, and on Wednesday we packed up our few remaining things, signed the papers for the sale of our house in DC, and were officially homeless and living out of our cars. So I did what any good 30 year old, college educated person would do, I moved back in with my mother. After departing DC, we all headed up to my mom's house for a few days visit before proceeding up to New York over Memorial Day weekend for our friends' wedding (Mike and Sarah Zeola). We stayed with my sister and her family in Watertown, NY, which might as well be Canada. Their house was great and hospitality was fantastic, and our girls had a great time playing with their 2 year old cousin, Sam. The wedding was a blast. Elizabeth made an adorable flower girls, and Ryan was a handsome groomsman. (Ava, aka Captain Destructo, stayed with my sister during the wedding.) After the wedding festivities, we started our long journey from Canada to Mexico. Our first stop was in Ohio (13 hours in the car). Ryan, Sam the dog, and Ava stayed behind in Ohio while Elizabeth, Casey, and I made the remaining 18 hour drive to Texas. This is not something I want to repeat anytime soon. Note, there are not cute pictures of our cross country journey. While I was driving through Dallas on May 28, the movers called and asked where we wanted our household goods delivered. Unfortunately , we had to put them in storage, where it takes at least two weeks notice to get them back out and a few more opportunities for our things to get damaged. We resolved ourselves to renting a house in Texas only to be utterly dismayed with our options. I decided to take on more look to see what was on the market, and wouldn't you know but there were three houses that I was interested in purchasing. Why didn't this happen a month ago!!! We decided to get buying one more shot, and wrote another contract. Third time is the charm, we got ourselves a house, of course not with a few other hickups but the good news is that on 19 June we will finally have a place to hang our hats. In the interim, Ryan's family has been really great about putting up with 5 extra people and a dog. We are all thriving (Casey is smiling a lot and starting to coo).This past weekend, Ryan's dad and step mom invited us down to their house on the gulf coast. It is not the Atlantic, but we all had a blast. Plus, the kids and the dog slept very well after all that time at the beach.I can't figure out which is my favorite picture of Casey, so I will just post them all.The end. Our house hold goods will arrive on June 23, so shortly after that I should be able to get back to posting once a week. Thanks for hanging in there and still checking up on us.