House Hunting

Oh where do I even begin on this post. House hunting in Memphis has been quite the adventure. Ryan has made probably 10 trips to Memphis to look at homes and I'm going to count them to get a serious number, but if I had to guess, I think he has looked at at least 75 homes in person. He has probably looked at 1000 online. Seriously - it has become a full time job for him and he spends every free minute looking online - Trulia, Zillow, and any other real estate site. I am convinced that he has looked at every possible available home in Memphis that meets our needs.

I've made several trips to Memphis as well and have probably seen 40 - 50 homes in person myself. Each home has a name - there was the White House, the suicide house (don't ask), Prestancia #1, Prestancia #2, the Island, the church pew house, the White House #2, the builders home, and on and on. Baby Mac was a trooper on all of these trips, getting in and out of the car a million times a day to look at these homes - one day even in the rain! Annie & Madison Claire were also troopers hanging out at the Four Points by Sheraton (our home away from home the month of June) while we were out looking.

We have been high maintenance clients for our very kind, patient realtor, Mary Anne Gibson. We are looking for a 5 bedroom house with an office and a playroom = hard to find!!! In a perfect world, we also want a pool (it's bloody HOT in Memphis), a big back yard for the kids to run around and play, and one of the bedrooms to be in a separate living space for Annie (think in-law suite, pool house, guest house, etc.). Add to that our high expectations from building our last home and the fact that Ryan is 100% set on finding the deal of the century (i.e. he wants the house that is 50% off!) and it's a TALL ORDER!

We've actually found a few homes that we really like and have made 3 offers, but they've all been declined. We are trusting that means that we haven't yet found the home where we are meant to be! I have such confidence that God wants us in Memphis, so I know the right home will come along...we just haven't found it yet so are having to be patient.

We have found a home that we are going to live in temporarily. It's through an organization called Showhomes. Basically, the home is on the market and they will stage the home with our furniture (and us!). We get to live in it for about 1/2 of what we would normally have to pay to rent in Germantown, and in return, we have to keep it clean and show the home to perspective buyers whenever they want to see it. We also have to move as soon as the house goes under contract. The good news for us is that it is only a 90 day commitment, so we aren't locked into a long term lease. We are hoping to be able to find a home to buy in that 90 days! Please pray that this happens!! We move in to the Showhomes house on August 1st...I'll post pictures once we are in. Right now, we are just excited to get to Memphis and be with Ryan. We've missed him terribly!!

SOLD!

With the pending move to Memphis, we were planning to rent our home here in Nashville because the real estate market is so bad in 2011. We have had homes in our neighborhood sit on the market for 6-12 months...I'm actually not aware of any homes in our neighborhood that have sold in the past year. That, combined with the fact that we knew we would have to take a big loss due to the value of homes now with the market plunge, made us decide not to put the house on the market. We met with a property management company and had the house listed to rent in early June.

We had one person inquire quickly about renting the house, but they were only interested in a 2 year lease and they wanted to pay about $200 less than we were asking per month. We were hesitant to commit to both of those conditions, so decided to say no. In the meantime, we started looking for homes in Memphis and realized that the rental market there wasn't great so we would want to buy (look for a post on that process soon!). We took out a home equity line of credit on our Summit Oaks home so we would have a down payment. I started getting nervous about having 2 mortgages in this real estate environment and also thought that our home would sell easier with our furniture. Ryan came home from Memphis one Friday and said, "I think we should put the house on the market". I laughed.

He convinced me to at least try and see what happened - he said, we'll see if it rents or sells first. I again told him that the house would rent before 1 person even came and looked at it to buy, but we went ahead and talked to Kara Moore, the wife of one of Ryan's friends from CPA, about listing our house. She put it up on the MLS on a Sunday night at 9:30pm and she got a call at 8am the next day with some people who wanted to look at the house. We had an offer by 12:30pm for $5,000 less than our asking price! It was totally a God thing and an answered prayer! He sure showed me!!!

The next few weeks ended up being a little crazy as the new owners wanted to move in before closing and after a lot of back and forth we decided to not take that risk and took an offer that was $10,000 less than our asking price with a later closing date. We also ended up having a small structural issue come up during the inspection so had to have some work done on the house before closing. We got it all done and officially closed last week! I still can't believe it. Look for a post to come on the moving process. In the meantime...this is what I'm going to miss about 473 Summit Oaks Drive:

My little fashionista

Madison Claire has had so much fun dressing herself lately. This is what she was wearing when I went to get her up one morning...she had gone in her closet and put this little number together. TOO CUTE!

Random pics

Madison Claire has been fascinated by taking pictures lately - she will walk around with my phone, Annie's camera, my old camera and say "I take picture" over and over. Here is a shot she took of me and Mac...not too bad!

I am crazy about this little guy....I just think he is the cutest!!

My 3 favorite people in the whole world....they complete me!

Madison Claire putting her princess hat on daddy! He'd be a good princess!

I mean...seriously, is he the cutest or what?
Okay...his big sissy is pretty stinking cute herself :)

Going to miss them!!!

Ryan and I are so thankful for all of our friends from Cumberland Church. God blessed us tremendously with friends who have been with us and supported us through ups & downs over the past 3 years. We met the Nevels & Mowerys in our first small group and developed friendships that I'm certain will last a lifetime. They are both ahead of us in life (just a little :)) and we have cherished their wisdom. We are going to MISS THEM terribly in Memphis!

High Heels

Annie brought her things over to our house over a period of about 2 weeks so they could be packed for Memphis by our movers and Madison Claire discovered her box of shoes. Annie has taught her all about stilettos, wedges, t-straps, flip flops, etc. Madison had fun walking around the house in various pairs of high heels. The crazy thing is that she can actually walk in them really well! It must be all of that tippy-toe walking that she does!

Atlanta trip

Ryan started his job in Memphis in mid-June so we hit the road for a trip to Atlanta. We stayed for about a week and had fun playing with MiMi, PaPa, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Ryan, Baby Jacob and even got to see Aunt Meredith and Uncle Ben when they came in town for Austin's wedding.

Madison Claire found an old barbie car of mine...and her little butt fit right in it!
My mom saw that Chick-fil-A was having Princess night and Madison Claire has been obsessed with Tinkerbell ever since she played with Kate & CeCe Robinson in Memphis so we took her to meet Cinderella. She was in heaven - with Cinderella, her own costume, and the ice cream!

Zoo trip!

Ryan and I took Madison Claire and Mac to the zoo a few weekends ago for an outing. Ryan had never been so he had fun seeing Madison Claire react to all of the animals. Her favorite is seeing the monkeys (or as the zoo lady corrected us...chimpanzees). I love this picture...it about sums up our life right now...Ryan pointing one way and MC looking the other:

We had a blast and survived the heat...and most importantly, ended the day with smiles:

Hydrangea bush

I LOVE a hydrangea bush! I've always wanted one at the house and a few years ago Costco had the most beautiful hydrangea bushes on sale. I begged Ryan to get us one and he said no because he wanted to do all the landscaping at once. I told him the big beautiful ones would be gone by then and he promised he would find one. Last year for our anniversary, he finally got me my hydrangea bush. He has watered it and cared for it with love but it didn't bloom last year. This year it bloomed!! Just in time for us to move :(. But it was beautiful anyway! Here is a picture of our hydrangea bush...and a picture of my first hydrangea flowers inside from my very own bush! Ryan promises he will plant me a whole garden of them in Memphis....we'll see!

Cutie Patootie

Loves having his arm by his face

Not about to let that paci go anywhere

What he has to look forward to growing up with a big sissy - notice the Dora sticker on his diaper :)

Annie multi-tasking...getting a taste of taking care of 2!

G-MAMA

When we drive to Atlanta, we usually stop in Chattanooga to feed the baby and see my Mama Howard - it's the perfect half-way point! We love you Mama!

Photo Booth

Meredith & Ben's Wedding Weekend!

This post is so long overdue! Meredith & Ben's wedding weekend was such a blast! Annie, Baby Ryan, and I went to down to Atlanta on the Tuesday before the wedding and spent a few days catching up with my family. Annie enjoyed some nice bonding time with Baby Ryan - she got some good snuggles!

The wedding festivities officially started on Friday evening with a fun Mexican dinner with the bridesmaids....it was complete with a lap dance for Meredith from a Mexican server (no joke!) and a proposal from an old man who was dining there (also no joke!).

Ryan, Madison Claire, and his parents made it in on Friday afternoon. Here are my 2 boys snoozing in the morning...love this pic!

Saturday we started the day off with the rehearsal at Country Club of the South. It was hot out, but we survived! Madison Claire wanted to be running all over the place and Annie captured this picture RIGHT BEFORE she completely busted and skinned up her knee and nose! Of course...right before the wedding and she had a scabbed nose...oh well...kids will be kids!

After the Rehearsal we headed to the Sewell's house for the bridesmaids luncheon. It was so special to have some quiet time with Meredith and her wonderful friends!

That night was the Rehearsal dinner. Madison Claire stayed with the McSwains, but we took Baby Ryan with us - he was 11 days old!
The soon-to-be Mr. & Mrs. Telfair!

Ryan McSwain and Ryan Fetz gave a toast at the dinner to tell Ben the things he needed to know about marrying a Howard girl. Highlights were: they like to sleep so you'll cook breakfast, drug of choice is caffeine, we are always late, we pack way too much for trips, we like to shop a good sale but don't ever really save any money, dad snores, mom will provide furniture, providing them the What to Expect when you are Expecting book - and predicted they'd be expecting by spring, told Ben his place in the family to the tune of "This Little Piggy went to the Market" and finished by presenting Ben with an official name change form because the Howards only allow people named Ryan into their family! It was a lot of fun and got some good laughs!

Sarah and I on the other hand, talked about how special Meredith is and how we are excited for her & Ben to start their life together. We talked about how Meredith has always had such a sweet spirit and has the ability to "touch" peoples lives. She is so special to us!!!

After the rehearsal dinner, we went back to the house for the lingerie shower and a sleepover with the Bridesmaids! Baby Ryan was the only male in attendance :)

Sunday morning, dad cooked breakfast for all of the girls and they ate out by the pool. I say "they" because apparently no one wanted to wake up Annie and myself so we totally missed it! After that, we got ready and headed to Country Club of the South to get ready for pictures and start the wedding. I have a few pictures of the getting ready process but they are on my nice camera and the charger has been packed for our move to Memphis, so they will be posted later. Meredith looked gorgeous and I can't wait to see the formal pictures! Madison Claire was the flower girl and because I was in the wedding, I didn't get one single picture of her from the wedding day...but trust me...she was ADORABLE! We did have a scare before the wedding when Meredith got a nose bleed and blood got on the front of her dress. Luckily nurse Morgan (one of the bridesmaids) knew that Hydrogen Peroxide would remove the blood so after a few test spots, out it came! All of it! You could never even tell it was there...amazing!!!

The ceremony was outside and was gorgeous! Pics to come later! Madison Claire threw a small fit when we were waiting in line to go down the aisle because she wanted to be with her "AAA-EEE" (Annie), but once we got up there she was fine. I walked down the aisle with her holding her hand and with the other hand she tossed the flowers. At one point, she picked up the basket and dumped it all out! Once they were all gone, she looked at me in the aisle and said "Pick Up" and turned around to go back and pick up all of the petals! It was too cute...even though she wasn't happy when I pulled her on down the aisle! (Looking back this is totally my fault because we were practicing her throwing the flowers before we went out and I would say "okay...lets pick them back up" because we were inside! I didn't think of the consequences!

After the ceremony, we went right into the reception. Ben and Meredith were glowing, everyone was dancing, the food was great - all in all a great night! I'm excited to see how the Lord will use Ben & Meredith as they both go into ministry and can't wait to "do life" together as married couples with them! Here are a few reception pics:

About an hour before the reception was over, I hit a total, complete wall. All of the exhaustion caught up to me and I felt like I had to sit down or I would faint. I think all of the activity finally caught up with me - I really did too much for having a baby 11 days prior - but what are you supposed to do when it's your sister? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I definitely couldn't have made it through the weekend without Annie's help with the baby and the McSwains help with Madison Claire. THANK YOU!!!