Catching Up -- Househunting in Massachusetts

As I continue on my blog catch-up project, I'm moving to the week after Daniel and Meghan came to visit ... we scheduled a 4 day weekend (woo hoo! Homer would be happy for us!) to head up to Massachusetts and start househunting. I already had Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and the bank graciously allowed me to take the Friday and Saturday before off as well. Very sweet.

We left on Friday morning and arrived at the Embassy Suites sometime in the afternoon (same place we stayed in August ... it's so nice there! Little did we know it would soon become our home-away-from-home.) We had just purchased a Garmin GPS to help with the househunting and I had a great time playing with it for six hours while we drove. I should have realized that twisting in my seat to search for all the places we were planning to visit was going to pull muscles in my back, but that would have been too easy. Sigh.

We met Claire (the realtor assigned to us by the relocation company) at her office and off we went! Claire had taken the list of potential properties we had sent her and mapped out two full days of househunting for us. Each day's househunting was nicely bound into a packet with property descriptions and pictures for each house we were visiting. Very efficient. That's our Claire! Since she had a lot better idea where we were going than we did, we put her in the front seat next to the GPS and off we went.

Well, let's just say after 2 full days of looking at just about every townhouse that wasn't designated for "active adults over 55" within a 45 minute commute of Dave's work campus, we had it pretty well narrowed down. We decided we really liked one of the townhouses we saw over in Afra Terrace in West Boylston but knew we weren't crazy about the idea of having to wait 4 months for the builder to start and finish it.

He had another development over in Holden that was really in the beginning stages ... in fact, none of the 5 units that were up were completed. A couple were models, but they still lacked carpeting etc. While we were hesitant to build (or in our case, go with a place that was just framed in ...) in a very undeveloped location (I mean, there are mounds of dirt everywhere and a huge dumpster out front because of the building) we did like what we saw of the area and felt that the layout of the townhouse was just what we were looking for.

So -- we took a deep breath and decided this was it. Within a couple weeks we had put a reservation on it and planned our next trip up to make selections and seal the deal ... here's what would soon become our home sweet home!

And there was a really nice treat waiting for us when we got home ... Thank you Bree!

Catching Up -- Daniel and Meghan Visit

Christmas passed by us in a blur with everyone sick and so much happening in our lives. In hindsight, thank goodness Dan and Meg didn't come up for the holiday because it would have been a wasted trip!

Thankfully, Meghan had decided that the best gift she could give Daniel was a trip home so they made plans to come for the weekend of January 9th -- perfect since it was also Bree's birthday weekend.

The original plan was to surprise Daniel with the tickets for Christmas. Since Meghan lasted all of 3 (or was it 2?) days keeping the secret, we decided the best we could hope for in the surprise department was to surprise Bree with their visit.

Well -- we told Josh and Jessica, as well as Danny and Renee, so we could plan on having a family get together that night. Eventually we told Bree when she informed us she was making plans with friends to go out for her birthday. So much for surprises!

They flew in late Friday night and we were so excited to be picking them up at the airport. They had Desmo with them (they charged them $70 to let Desmo fly too!) since he had just had surgery on his legs.

I'm trying to remember what all we did on Saturday, but I know we ended up out at Barnes and Noble where Daniel bought a nook (they had just come out and were really hard to get) and put it up on eBay and sold it by the next day at a great price!

Since it was Bree's birthday, we had the family over for pizza and wings to celebrate and just hang out. Very fun.

Sunday was great ... Meghan and I went to brunch at Simply Crepes at their downtown location in the Bausch & Lomb Public Library. We had a very yummy breakfast surrounded by books and listening to an Eastman student playing the cello.

(images courtesy of http://simplycrepes.com/)

It was such fun -- even though it was freezing out and we arrived early and had to go back and sit in the car to try to keep warm (poor Meghan!!!) 

We visited with Grandma in the afternoon ... which was especially nice. 

AND then -- we got the family together again for dinner. Well -- actually Dad took his daughters-in-love to California Rollin for sushi and I took Josh, Daniel, Bree, and William to Schallers for some good Rochester eats!

Yes -- it was a whole lot of fun and ended way too soon. It was sad to think that this would be Daniel's last visit to our house in Rochester but we know it doesn't mean we can't make memories someplace else!

Daniel and Meghan flew back to Georgia on Monday. Sadly, I had to work but I did get a surprise visit at the bank so I could have another hug goodbye. So sweet!

Let's Get Into the Spirit of Summer!

Guess since I'm not getting around to doing the catch up posting that I wanted to do, I should at least change the background and get our red, white, and blue showing.

I've compiled a catch up list of blog posts I'd like to get to (with pics!) and it's on my calendar to start today. I need to get a move on since I expect to have lots to be blogging about in just the next couple of days (trip to the Cape, R & D going to doggie daycare with Kim ... excitement abounds in the New England Paines household!)

So -- here's our rendition of Old Glory.

Doing The Catch Up Blog Post ...

The past several months have been ... well ... what's the best word? Interesting? Crazy? Exasperating? Probably all of the above. The bottom line is that while I thought about blogging about the various events that happened along the way, I found myself thinking that the posts would be pure negativity and decided against it.

So at this point, I think I'll just try to sum up what our moving experience has been like and then just move on from there.

Need to get my thoughts organized and will start posting the "catch up" stuff today!