Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Hardacker's Big Move

A few weeks ago the drama here intensifying, I was feeling a little battled scared and bruised but all hope was not lost!  Stay tuned to see if the Hardacker's sell their house, get moved into the parents, stablize their schedule and are able to buy a new house!

Well you have stayed tuned long enough so I thought I would write up the latest chapter in this continuing saga.

Since our last installment we have indeed successfully closed on the sale of our house.  We are officially homeless.  It was sad but we still feel confident it was exactly what we were supposed to do.

My car which was last seen at the repair shop, was returned to the shop the following weekend and is now running wonderfully, new brakes, fresh oil (and all other fluids, apparently every fluid level was low), tightened coolant lines and a new thermostat.  Almost immediately upon getting my car back from the shop John's truck started leaking coolant.  One new water pump later and his truck is also good as new.  No more coolant leaking on the driveway.  And with that this story line fades into the background.

After 3 weeks of avoiding the realtor and ignoring her calls and emails, the people in charge of selling the house we had an offer on finally answered the phone and agreed to look at them and pick one.  Unfortunately they did not pick ours.  While we were sad, because of the amount of work the house needed and school starting in a couple weeks it was probably for the best.  In the mean time we find ourselves wondering where we should look and where we will end up.  Stay tuned for more on that continuing drama.

John attended transfer student orientation and is officially registered for classes at the University of MN.  After mapping out a couple options with the counselor, he now has a plan to get a BS in psychology in 2 years.  It was the only option he had that would be done in 2 years.  Despite telling all the students that they would be separating from their parent/guest after the opening session because they wanted the students to start developing a relationship with their counselors I still got up and followed John right out the door.  I am not his overbearing mother!  I am his overbearing wife!  The counselor took one look at the 40 something student and his wife, reached over and gave him the form to fill out giving me permission to all his records and got right down the business.  We fully embrace our non traditional status and don't play by the rules.  After the meeting we sat at a computer to do the actual registering.  A student helper was there to assist people in understanding how the system works and find the classes.  We laughed at ourselves through the registration process and as we left I told the poor kid working there, "this is what it would be like if your parents were here.  We have a son your age."  He managed to give us the exact same, "why are you talking to me, I do not care" look that our son would have given us.  A good day. We realized the U was designed for younger people when we couldn't read a single word on the map they printed on the orientation book because it was so small. I believe a pair of cheaters will be on John's school supply list this fall.  This story is still being written and there will be many more chapters before it is over.

Isabelle spent 4 days/3 nights at Trout Lake camp.  John had gone to Trout every year of his childhood, Jake attended from 1-5th grade and I grew up spending summers at a cabin across the lake. Even Isabelle's birthparents attended this camp. It is a great camp that we love.  She had a wonderful time, became best friends with all the girls in her cabin, and can't wait to go for a whole week next year.


The following week Isabelle and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  We had gotten a free ticket because she attended camp at the theater earlier in the summer.  This show has a unique feature in that they choose 2 kids from the audience at every performance to be part of the show.  The whole thing.  Isabelle desperately wanted to be chosen.  Honestly, I think a big part of why she even wanted to go to the show was for the chance to be on stage.  I was worried what would happen if she didn't get chosen.  I worried unnecessarily because she was chosen!  I sat alone in the audience as she carried props, wore costumes, and tried to follow along as the other actors danced and sang.  It was an awesome opportunity.  They even had 2 built in photo ops in the show and sent me the photos.  A star is born.


Overall the transition out of our house and to my parents has gone quite well.  I am finding ways to organize ourselves, enjoying getting my whole "house" cleaned in 20 minutes, have found a lovely trail to run in the mornings and enjoyed a couple afternoons at the pool.  Plus my parents have been helpful and gracious hosts.  As comfortable as it is and as easy as it would be to stay, we are quite a ways outside our usual sphere and while the area is lovely, we are finding ourselves doing a lot of driving.  With Isabelle starting school soon I am preparing to drive 20+ minutes back to our old neighborhood each morning to drop her off each day.  And John is an hour or more away from the U.  Not an ideal commute.

So Stay Tuned!  Don't touch that dial!  Another exciting episode of the Hardacker's big move is coming soon.

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