Our house, our home... OURS!!!!

The culmination of our crazy obsession with buying a home came to fruition exactly 2 months and 2 days ago! We are so incredibly freaking thrilled to be in this home of ours. It has been a massive thought in our household for months and months and months - maybe even was pushing the "years" territory. During the middle months of this year, we really got serious. We made the decision to take the leap and move out of Orange County, something we had been wrestling with for a verrrrrrry long time. Back in 2013 and the beginning of '14, there was even a small chunk of time where we were seriously considering Denver, and even more seriously Austin, Texas! Based on my reaction from moving 40 minutes away from my family, I can wholeheartedly say that I'm glad we didn't remove ourselves an entire airplane ride away from them!

Anyhoo! It's been so darn nice. The last 2 or 3 years of our renting lives were pretty miserable. Not only did we never achieve that "homey" feel with any of our places after our first apartment in Irvine, but we were constantly PO'ed at the whole renting institution. The thought of our payments going up after a mere 12 months was agonizing, especially after we got down and dirty with our budgets. The fact that we pretty much had to choose between the kids sharing a room and living in a less desirable part of town really was a kicker. Apartment/rented condo living with a man child was slowly beginning to mean soccer balls, tennis rackets and hockey pucks slamming into every possible wall imaginable, including the ceiling. Thinking about neighbors down below us while two toddlers sprinted into the kitchen every other second? No thanks. It was becoming unbearable! Our (my) poor families had to endure our complaints - I was beginning to think that we were becoming the pariahs of the family get-togethers. Sorry guys! 

The "looking" process was pretty speedy. It's like as soon as we gave ourselves over to moving out of the OC, the smoother things went. We put in an offer on one short sale that we later found out was not bank approved, and then we put another offer in on a different home in that same neighborhood, only to find out that the whole tract was not FHA approved. On our 3rd or 4th day out, we found our little home on Autumn Lane! Save for a horrendous kitchen and a little TLC on pretty much every portion of the home, we were in love! Best of all: it's in walking distance to Carter's preschool and the elementary school! LOOOOOOOOOVE! Chad is now 10 minutes away from work - MAJOR HEART EYE EMOJIS. Before we found our house and we were in the "looking" process, I was telling one of my Body Back moms about the trepidation I felt moving out of the OC. She told me that I had no idea how much less stress I would be under with a hubby who works close by, and how, surprisingly, less stress the kids will hold because of it. I thought that I probably wouldn't experience that nice feeling because I really didn't think I was stressed out from any of Chad's commutes in the past. Turns out she was right! We are all so relaxed knowing that the dude is right down the street - I can't explain why. It's just freaking nice! 

I will admit there was one week of pure misery when we first moved. We closed on October 3rd, did a massive kitchen face lift, and then moved in on the 12th. I kept Carter in his preschool in the OC because (wait for it...) I felt really bad pulling him out during the Halloween festivities! There it is! Everyone was making fun of me for spending the night at my parents' house during the last few weeks of October after we just bought a house but I just couldn't handle switching his school during those fun times at school! I was clearly an emotional wreck. Anyway, come the last day of school in Orange County, I truly was a crying mess. I spent the night at home in Corona, then on Thursday morning woke up early, hit the toll road and dropped Carter off at school, all the while trying not to burst into tears because "this was it" regarding our life in Orange County. After the drop off, Kota and I had some time to kill before visiting a friend who had just had a baby, so I took her to get a doughnut and to watch the ducks at the RSM lake. During the picturesque mommy-daughter time, I was straight up crying! Like HUGE tears just coming out of my gosh darn eyes! I must have looked like a crazy woman sitting there with a little girl! Thank goodness for sun glasses, but still, it was weird. When I picked Carter up from preschool, one nice mom asked me where we were moving and I just started crying. Next, all the kids came out of the classroom to tell their parents, "CARTER IS MOVING TO CORONA!" "CARTER IS MOVING TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY!" Tears, tears, tears, tears, tears. I was semi embarrassed but I truly COULD NOT stop. Then we had a lunch picnic date with our best buddies at the park and even there I really couldn't stop crying! After that I headed home, swiftly hit traffic on the 91 where the kids fell asleep and I was left alone to stew in the misery that was me driving on that damned, traffic-prone freeway. My mom called and I started crying again. That was the last of the hysterical tears, but I assure you, they threatened for a week. During said time, I swiftly began searching "Corona Real Estate Trends" where I learned that I could sell our home, make a profit and high tail it back to the motherland. I was pretty hysterical and was probably making Chad nervous and crazy. Hahaha now it's laughable, but back in those dark days, there was NO laughing going on.. hahahaha!

^^^Carter running some football plays on "his" new drive way.

^^^Kota showing us her moves.

Now we're chill and loving it!!! It's such a wonderful feeling to be settled. It also probably helps that I have the coolest 3 humans on the planet to hang out with everyday so.... YEAH!