Moving Part 2

Now that we had a contract ona house, we had to finish packing up and get our stuff ready for the move.
Thankfully we had movers so we didn't have to do a whole lot.   We were going to be staying in a hotel for what we thought was going to be a week, but unfortunately it was much longer.
We left New York on the 9th of September and we had hoped to close on the house by the 21st.   We were told that we could either close on the 17th or the 21st, and I was hoping the sooner the better.

Homeschooling, 4 children and a hotel are not a good match long term and so I really wanted to close fast.
Meanwhile, because we were able to get the house for a good price (compared to what the other houses that were newer and more expensive) we decided to have some remodeling work done on the house.

Let me just say, we are not the type of people who are "do it yourself" fixer- uppers.  We had permission to go in the house early and paint etc.  We thought it would be "fun" and a good learning experience to paint the house ourselves.
I will never think that painting is "fun" again!   We started on a Saturday, went to Lowe's, let the kids pick out what color they wanted their bedrooms and bought all the necessary supplies.  Word of warning: never try to paint or do anything with 4 kids under foot.
Apparently I have "sucker" written across my forehead, because when I asked the lady at the paint counter what would be the best paint option to use when you have kids in the house, she gets the most expensive paint she can find, tells me I need satin paint and sends me on my merry way.  Never use satin paint, because it shows every single paint streak we put on the walls.
We let the kids each have a few minutes "painting" a patch on their walls- my 4 year old son was the best painter of the bunch! 
We painted all day Saturday, one room purple, one blue, and one yellow.  It was late and it was starting to look really, really bad, my hubby said don't worry it will look better tomorrow.  Sunday after night church we headed back to the house to put a second coat of paint on.  
By midnight, I was crying- it looked really, really bad.  Also the yellow that my youngest had chosen no longer looked like the cute sample, but actually hurt your eyes to look at.
Thankfully my husband saw the error of our ways and agreed for my sake that we would have someone else paint and fix it.
I went back to Lowe's and asked somebody else about paint and showed him the yellow and how we could fix it.  He said -never use Satin paint- gee thanks!  We picked out a different yellow in hopes to tame the other yellow down, and I left it to the painters to make my house livable.

Meanwhile, the whole closing of the house has been delayed till the 27th of September- that's almost 3 weeks in a hotel with four kids, trying to home school and basically keep my sanity!
Have you ever tried to do laundry for a family of 6 in a hotel- it cost me $10.00 just to do a few loads of laundry and I didn't even dry most of it. 

The 27th came and I found a babysitter to watch the younger two kids, and figured the older two could sit quietly enough through the closing.  As I was getting to the baby sitters house, my husband called and said the closing had been delayed until the next day.  (By now I was screaming silently to myself)  Thankfully the lady was kind enough to offer to watch the kids the next day as well.

Tuesday, the 28th, closing is set for 2 o'clock, I dropped the kids of at the sitter's, head to the closing and my husband calls, the closing has been delayed an hour- then another hour.  I was feeling really bad because the sitter already has 3 kids of her own and now my 2, and I thought I would be done with the closing by now.  At 5 o'clock I start to go pick up the kids, when finally the realtor calls and says it's time to close.  So I turn around and head to the office to close.  Two hours and a lot of stress later, we finally close.

We head to the babysitter's house for pizza and to pick up the kids.  My son is laying on the floor and says he is really tired and can we just go home.  The baby sitter's said he had been saying he was tired and his head hurt, and didn't want anything to eat.  So I decided he was proabably just worn out from the late nights painting, and playing with his friend all day.  I eat my pizza and he wanted to be held, now my son is 4 and a big boy, so I am standing in my friends kitchen talking and he is alseep in my arms.  I moved him so his  head was on my should and all of a sudden he vomited all down the front and back of me.
Yep, that's the kind of week it had been and it could only get better-right?

If you missed the first part of this story see Part 1 and stay tuned for Part 3.