Some time to relax

I have been so busy getting the house ready that I haven't really had time to do anything else, but today Callie and I ate lunch and got pedicures. It was fun to catch up and I really never do pedicures, but I love the way they look so now I am really happy everytime I see my toes. I got flowers on my big toes that I am really loving.

9-Month Checkup

For some reason, I really love taking Joshua to his checkups.  We always try to schedule them for a time when I'm not traveling, and so far I've been able to take him to every one.  Today we went to his 9-month checkup.  Because he loves to go after cords and cables, the stethoscope cord was no exception.  Our pediatician had to resort to her favorite tactic of giving him a tongue depressor.  Joshua was fascintated by it for a few seconds.  Then he went right back for the cord.

9 Months

Today is Joshua's 9-month birthday.  Lately he's really enjoyed poking things in the eyes and nose.  Fortunately this applies mostly to stuffed animals and to pictures in books.  Here he poses for a few seconds before he delightedly attempts to gouge out the eye of his bear.

Our Fake House

Because we are putting our house on the market, it needs to be presentable at all times.  In addition to the extra stuff that needs to be moved out, experts recommend that the house be "staged", meaning you place supposedly visually appealing items throughout the house, like vases, decorative bowls, flowers, etc.  So, following the advice, Meghan went out and bought these things, and put them out around our house.  Here in the picture you see the tray, the flowers on it, and the bowl of spheres on the table.  This resulted in a surreal feeling, as it's our house, but suddenly it's missing some furniture and pictures, and there are a bunch of things that make it feel like a different family lives there.  But hey, if it sells our house quicker, it's all worth it.

Storage Wars

Although the website for our local U-Haul storage facility said it had 24-hour access, when I went to bring a load from the truck last night at 8:00, my entry card didn't work.  I went back this morning, and they said 24-hour access is available, but you have to pay for it, which would be fine, except they mistakenly never offered it to us.  So I had to finish up the last couple loads today.  Here I am with everything loaded right before we locked up.

I-Haul

Earlier this year we strongly considered moving, but we ended up deciding it wasn't the right thing at the time.  Recently we revisited it and have decided we are going to put our house on the market in hopes of moving to a different house in Olathe (or nearby) with a floor plan (and storage) that better suits our current needs.  In this housing market, some homes seemingly never sell, so it's possible ours won't sell and we won't move, but we're assuming it'll all work out.  Before listing our house, we need to get it in tip-top shape, and one of the recommendations was to clean out some of the furniture and other items that make our house look smaller than it is.  So we've rented a storage unit, and today I loaded our U-Haul with a couple loads of things to put into storage.

Tres Hermanas a Los Cabos

Since Michelle is in town this weekend for a wedding, we all went to dinner last night at Los Cabos, one of Jason's and my favorite restaurants. It was a lot of fun and the food was very good. Here are the three sisters at dinner.