Bruised, Blistered and Totally Exhausted...

The last two weeks have been complete insanity. I have lost track of the days and feel like I am just getting off an amusement park ride - one of those rides that jerks you around, has unexpected twists and turns and has the kind of G forces that stretch and flap your facial skin to the back of your skull. (Do you know what I'm talking about? (o: Ever been on one of those?) And I'm taking a break from the ride today, but I know we are back in line to go again. The "fun" is not over yet! Thank goodness for Sundays - a day of rest.

In the last two weeks, I have photographed a wedding (at the time I committed I had NO idea that a move was on the horizon!), taken the girls to the dentist and doctor, taken Twilight to the vet, threw a birthday party, attended as many gatherings with friends as possible - park outings, a relief society meeting, a surprise party for a dear friend, shopped for school clothes . . . at the same time in between all this Ned* and I have: sanded/stained the deck, painted our downstairs ceiling, painted the downstairs bathroom, fixed the flooring in our attic that the Barrier guy stepped through during a routine visit, pruned, mowed, planted flowers, met with 2 realtors, packed about 1/3 of our belongings, moved several huge pieces of furniture including 4 bookcases (We have four bookcases??), a treadmill, a desk and a futon, completely organized and streamlined every closet and drawer in the house, filled a 3 cubic yard dumpster (the best investment ever!), made 3 huge trips with donations to Deseret Industries and the Salvation Army, made a trip to IKEA for a small table and a few smaller trips to Home Depot, Target and Michael's for little finishing touches on the house, cleaned all the windows inside and out and moved our piano and dining set. I'm sure there are many things I am forgetting in that long list, but that gives you an idea of what we've been up to lately. Especially to our family members who wondered what in the world happened to us as the phone calls from Oregon almost completely ceased during this insane ride.

We have a few bruises, sore feet, paint under our nails and blisters from the crazy ride, but I am happy to say that we are now ready to list the house. It is officially going up on RMLS Tuesday. We met our realtor Friday, August 24th and 6 days later with several visits from Patty in between to coach us on staging the house - the virtual tour guy and photographer were ready to do their thing. Patty was amazed at the amount of work we did in such a short time. Her last client took 3 weeks to do what we did in 5 days (taking Sunday off in the middle). By the amount of work we did, you'd think that my house must have been a disaster. It wasn't! Maybe a little cluttered, but as Patty says - "beauty sells" and we need to sell!

So here are a few pictures I took Friday before taking the kids on a much deserved outing to the zoo. (Now we are trying to stay out of the house so it will STAY clean!)

From Blog Favorites August/September

I LOVE our kitchen. The cupboards are huge and we practically live at the bar.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Does anyone remember the color of this downstairs bathroom before? (o: It was kind of a teal that I always meant to repaint. Amazing what a move will motivate you to do. This tan is much more neutral and calming.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Our dining table looks so great in the dining room. (o:

From Blog Favorites August/September

I've always loved our entryway. It was a huge selling point for us when we bought the house.

From Blog Favorites August/September

And here's where we put all our extra stuff. This goes to show what a good size garage we have. We can still fit one car in between all the packed boxes and furniture on one side and our huge food storage shelves on the other. I love our house and will be sad to leave it. I hope someone else will come to love it (buy it) soon!