Houston House-Hunting

Life doesn't get much crazier than this.  We listed our CA home for sale on Friday, June 8 (the same day Braden graduated elementary school and we hosted 25 6th graders at our house for an end-of-year party).  We had 14 showings in a little over a week.  Luckily our great friends and neighbors Scott and Rebecca Harris let us crash at their place while our home was being shown and the Harris' were on vacation.  Anissa's nephew Nate got married June 16, so Anissa flew to South Carolina on Thursday the 14th to help her sister prep for the wedding.  This was less than a week after our house went on the market.  On Saturday I dropped all 4 of our kids of at a different friend's house so I could fly to Houston Saturday night, the 16th to start our house-hunting trip.  Yep, I was not at home for Father's Day on the 17th.  I had to go check out the Mormon wards in the area we were looking for homes in!!!

On Sunday the 17th, back in California, Braden gave a Father's Day talk in church.  He was asked to give the talk only a few days before, otherwise I wouldn't have missed it!  Here is the text of the talk that he wrote by himself with no input at all from me or Anissa (kind of scary to think that he gave a talk in church without Anissa or I there at all!!)  He wrote it on his iPod touch.  So picture our 12 yr old Braden getting up in church and reading his talk off of his iPod. Here's what he said (I LOVE IT!):

"Hello, my name is Braden.  You guys probably all know me.  And again, like I said on my last talk, I wish more people slept in.  

I was asked to give a talk on Father's Day, so I'm going to talk about my awesome Dad.  My Dad does 3 things that makes him awesome:  
 1.  He works hard so we can have a happy family and things we need throughout the day.  
2.  He is very fun.  We play games.  Like play board games, fly kites, and go paddle boarding.  
3.  He pays for food.

My Dad is an awesome scout leader too.  We did fun activities, went on awesome camp outs, and passed off many fun requirements.

My dad works hard at his work too.  He wakes up every morning (and I can tell he never wants to), goes off to work, and comes back with hugs and love from his family. 

He also has hard times, like now 'cuz we're moving.  But he still has a good attitude (sometimes) and keeps on going.  He is a great leader, has great responsibility, and uses his responsibility to help others.  

I know my Dad isn't here 'cuz he's out house hunting, but I just want to say I love you, and I know he loves me too, and whatever you do, don't change.

I say these things humbly, and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I can't believe I missed it! But I'm so glad he wrote it out so I knew what he said.  

So our crazy week continued...Anissa flew from South Carolina to Houston Sunday evening.  On Monday morning we met our real estate agent, John Lange (he is AWESOME).  I think we were looking at the 3rd house of the day when we got a call from our real estate agent in CA, who informed us that she had quit her job, and that we had 2 full-price offers on our home the previous Saturday.  We scrambled to get everything ironed out - we had to get a new real estate agent over the phone, and then respond to the offers we had received on the CA home.  Long story short - we sold the home!  We also looked at probably 25+ homes before finally settling in on a new construction home in Katy.  Without going into all of the boring details about signing documents, sending faxes, and piles and piles of paperwork involved with both selling a home and buying a new home, we got everything ironed out before we flew back to California on Thursday.  The icing on the cake was a 5 hour delay of our flight back to Oakland, but we did make it back safe and sound and back with our family Thursday night.  Here are pictures of the new home (still under construction):