Speed Bump

Selling a house is brutal. This was my first experience selling and I don't want to have to do it again for a long, long time. It is so incredibly hard not to take things personally when your home has been a labor of love. As I said before, we thought this was going to be our forever home (until the reality of Missouri public schools really set in for us) and we treated it as such. So much of what we did to improve the house amounted to intangibles when it came time to sell - things that didn't translate to the bottom line when it was all said and done. Everyone commented on the 'lovely house' but never acknowledged the labor and cost that went into making it that way. I just wish we could have shown before and after pictures, then maybe buyers would have recognized the value. Before. After. So different! Plus this project made a huge difference. In the end, we are moving on and I won't waste one more ounce of energy on the issue. It's done, ...

We're leaving our cheery, lovely home in a few days. Crazy to think we won't be living there anymore. When we bought it, we thought it would be our forever house. Ryan and I weren't yet married at the time, no kids in the picture. It will be almost 5 years to the day since we moved in that we will load up all our boxes and leave it empty. The house is changed by our time there, and yet not changed at all. Our five years is only a blip in the history of this 100 year-old house. Yet it was so much more than that to us. This was the home where we had our first big fight as an engaged couple and I slept in the guest bedroom for one lonely, long night. This is the house where we celebrated with a brunch for family and friends the morning after our wedding. We brought home first one tiny bundle of joy to this safe place, and then another. We walked the creaky wood floors at night and played musical beds til early morning during that newborn haze. We splashed ...

Today is a big day in the Maniger household. Our house is under contract (after 80 some days on the market and 50 showings) and the inspection is today. AND, we are closing on our new house - today! Big.Time. We planned to sell our house first, purchase second. But life doesn't always go as planned. I haven't posted much about the selling/buying process here on Speed Bump, I think because it was just too nerve wracking and I had to keep it all inside. It has been exhausting to show the house that many times with two toddlers under foot. Keeping it clean has been a daily battle. Staying out of our house nearly every weekend with two small ones that still take daily naps has been grinding (we napped at Ryan's parents' many weekends and are so grateful for that option). We feel a little beat up from the process, but really glad to be done (fingers crossed about the inspection!). You know it's bad when you hear your 3 year-old telling your 1 year-old to not get an...

I need a do over for this week! The littlest one was sick and the week was a wash. I feel so torn when one of my kids is sick. I have deadlines and meetings at work that need my attention, making it hard to drop everything immediately. But I also feel quilty if one of them is sick and I'm not right there to take care of them. I spent a day and a half at home and was lucky Ryan's dad and my mom could cover another two days for me. But even with loving grandparents to help, there is that mother's guilt lurking around - unwelcome and uninvited. Because everyone knows that what a sick baby or child needs and wants is for mom to be there, to hold them - all day if necessary. Izzy wasn't even that sick this week but I still feel bad if I'm not right there. I try to be the one to care for them when they're sick. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. Just like these photos...sometimes they come out, sometimes they don't. So I'm glad this w...

Where are we going?? We have no idea at this point. Eventually, west, over to the Kansas side. I'm excited but also really nervous (and a little sad, we love our home). It is a brand new adventure, a new chapter in our family story and for now, the page is blank -  ready and waiting to be filled. We have some ideas, some tentative plans - I will share those here for sure. But for now, we're taking one step at a time. The house is ready, the sign is up, and it's really happening.