When we sold our Brunswick house in 2002 it was on the market for one weekend, and we got a contract. We had no kids, and it was a small house. So keeping it clean for that one weekend was not at all difficult.
Last year, when our current house was on the market for 9 months, we had a bigger house and 2 young children. (And the "Stager Lady" of course.) Keeping it clean was much more of a challenge that time, but we only had a showing maybe every couple of weeks, and we always had a couple days' notice.
This time, we put it on the market last weekend. We had a showing on Monday, a showing on Tuesday, and a showing Thursday evening! Then today, I had just finished school work with Ethan and checked email. It was 9:20, and there was an email saying there'd be a showing between 9:30 and 11:00! AAAAHHHH!!!! How do you clean up and get 3 kids out of the house in 10 minutes?!?!?! Fortunately, the house was in pretty good shape since we'd just had a showing last night. (Although that's not a guarantee . . . it's amazing how quickly the house can go from perfect to disastrous!) Ethan and I managed to get it looking pretty good within 20 minutes, and we all loaded into the van and left. Now we're at the library killing time. Ethan has a Kindermusik class at 12:30, so I don't think we'll be able to go home, make lunch, and then leave again. Hmmm....I think we'll be forced to eat out. :)
I'm truly amazed at how much activity we've had on the house this week. No offers yet, but one person seems interested. Please pray with us for God's timing and a great sale price!
OK, my children are disturbing everyone in the library...must run!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Hallelujah!
Well, after 38 days as a one-vehicle family, we finally have our van back! It was so exciting to drive it yesterday. . . smooth, quiet, smells good, door handle works, I can get in and out SO easily . . . aahhhh.. . . it's wonderful! I will never take our van for granted again! We are truly blessed to have two vehicles, and I will try to remember to thank the Lord EVERY DAY for that blessing!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Us
Well, I've been slacking a bit on keeping this updated. And I can't remember which family members and friends I've told what to . . . so here is a brief update on everybody:
Tabitha
Tabitha continues to adjust and settle in. She's picking up more and more English, and our communication is getting better and better. She had an MRI on the 8th. We're still waiting for her Chinese hospital records to be translated. As soon as that's done, the doctors can give us a plan of action as far as what surgeries she'll need and whether or not the neurogenic bladder will be correctable. Her temper tantrums have greatly diminished, and we're working on the whining. She's making great progress on all fronts.
Jesse
Jesse's a happy 4-year-old who's excited about life and learning and having fun. He's constantly making us laugh with his off-the-wall comments. He's learning his letters and loves doing his school work. He's in AWANA Cubbies and really enjoys that too.
Ethan
We just joined a homeschool co-op this month, and Ethan is loving it! He's taking Ancient Civilizations, Physics, and Art. They're really fun, hands-on classes, and he's so excited every Monday when we come home. It's great to see him loving it! He is really into art lately and loves any kind of craft/art project. He also just started a Kindermusik class, which I'm very excited about. And he's in AWANA Sparks and doing a great job learning his verses there. It's been fun seeing him come out of his shell a bit and make friends.
Heath & Erin
We've been busy trying to figure out how to parent 3 kids. You'd think we'd have it down after the first two, but it's been a big adjustment. I do feel like we're finally getting the hang of it, and are almost functional. =) We try to have a date night at least once a month, and we're hoping to be able to go on a cruise later this year to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Heath's been doing a lot of side work while his main job has been very slow. He's also been around to help me with the kids a lot, which has been great! I just resumed teaching piano lessons last week (one day per week). It's nice to be back to teaching, though sometimes I wish I were less busy. But it's a nice change of pace from the rest of the week.
Our Vehicles
This past August (after I killed our camry) we bought a used minivan. I was thrilled! Fortunately Heath was wise enough to buy the after-market warranty, because the week before Christmas the transmission decided it wasn't going to function correctly anymore. So, we took the van to the place the warranty people would work with. And . . . it's still there. One week of no cell-phone service at the beach where they couldn't reach us, and the rest of the time is waiting for the auto shop and the warranty company to work things out. Supposedly we'll be getting it back early next week.
So...in the meantime we've been a one-vehicle family, that one vehicle being Heath's beast of a truck. Let me share my feelings about this machine. It's loud. It smells. It jostles one's insides. If the back isn't filled with thousands of pounds, it might jostle one right into oblivion. It's too tall to get in without a ladder. It can't fit in a normal parking space, and it's so high up in the air that the ground around it is not visible while driving or trying to park. And did I mention it's loud and it stinks? Oh yeah, and the inside driver's side door handle broke, so after I put on a hillarious show of trying to park the monstrocity, I can't even get out without another circus display of maneuvers.
But...nonetheless I'm very thankful that we have a way of getting around, and that Heath's work schedule was quite flexible to allow the kids and me to make it to all our planned destinations.
Our Home
Well, here's where it gets interesting. Two years ago we bought land, planned on quickly and easily selling our house for a great price and then building our new house. Turns out God had other plans. With the drop in the housing market, we were unable to sell our house, and so here we are two years later paying interest on both loans, running out of money, and not getting any closer to building. We considered the options of refinancing, renting out our house, selling the house, selling the land, etc. After much deliberation and number crunching, we have decided to put both our house and our land on the market. I'm a bit sad about giving up the land we've been planning to live on these past couple years. But it's for the best. The hope is that we can sell both, walk away with a lot of cash, rent for awhile, get a great deal on a new piece of property (or a house we can rebuild), and then build the house we've been dreaming of. Not the way we wanted to do things, but necessary. And I'm hoping that God has something even better than we'd ever imagined in store for us. If not, we'll just wait for our mansion in heaven. :)
Well, those are the latest happenings in the Runkles home. Thanks for reading!
Tabitha
Tabitha continues to adjust and settle in. She's picking up more and more English, and our communication is getting better and better. She had an MRI on the 8th. We're still waiting for her Chinese hospital records to be translated. As soon as that's done, the doctors can give us a plan of action as far as what surgeries she'll need and whether or not the neurogenic bladder will be correctable. Her temper tantrums have greatly diminished, and we're working on the whining. She's making great progress on all fronts.
Jesse
Jesse's a happy 4-year-old who's excited about life and learning and having fun. He's constantly making us laugh with his off-the-wall comments. He's learning his letters and loves doing his school work. He's in AWANA Cubbies and really enjoys that too.
Ethan
We just joined a homeschool co-op this month, and Ethan is loving it! He's taking Ancient Civilizations, Physics, and Art. They're really fun, hands-on classes, and he's so excited every Monday when we come home. It's great to see him loving it! He is really into art lately and loves any kind of craft/art project. He also just started a Kindermusik class, which I'm very excited about. And he's in AWANA Sparks and doing a great job learning his verses there. It's been fun seeing him come out of his shell a bit and make friends.
Heath & Erin
We've been busy trying to figure out how to parent 3 kids. You'd think we'd have it down after the first two, but it's been a big adjustment. I do feel like we're finally getting the hang of it, and are almost functional. =) We try to have a date night at least once a month, and we're hoping to be able to go on a cruise later this year to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Heath's been doing a lot of side work while his main job has been very slow. He's also been around to help me with the kids a lot, which has been great! I just resumed teaching piano lessons last week (one day per week). It's nice to be back to teaching, though sometimes I wish I were less busy. But it's a nice change of pace from the rest of the week.
Our Vehicles
This past August (after I killed our camry) we bought a used minivan. I was thrilled! Fortunately Heath was wise enough to buy the after-market warranty, because the week before Christmas the transmission decided it wasn't going to function correctly anymore. So, we took the van to the place the warranty people would work with. And . . . it's still there. One week of no cell-phone service at the beach where they couldn't reach us, and the rest of the time is waiting for the auto shop and the warranty company to work things out. Supposedly we'll be getting it back early next week.
So...in the meantime we've been a one-vehicle family, that one vehicle being Heath's beast of a truck. Let me share my feelings about this machine. It's loud. It smells. It jostles one's insides. If the back isn't filled with thousands of pounds, it might jostle one right into oblivion. It's too tall to get in without a ladder. It can't fit in a normal parking space, and it's so high up in the air that the ground around it is not visible while driving or trying to park. And did I mention it's loud and it stinks? Oh yeah, and the inside driver's side door handle broke, so after I put on a hillarious show of trying to park the monstrocity, I can't even get out without another circus display of maneuvers.
But...nonetheless I'm very thankful that we have a way of getting around, and that Heath's work schedule was quite flexible to allow the kids and me to make it to all our planned destinations.
Our Home
Well, here's where it gets interesting. Two years ago we bought land, planned on quickly and easily selling our house for a great price and then building our new house. Turns out God had other plans. With the drop in the housing market, we were unable to sell our house, and so here we are two years later paying interest on both loans, running out of money, and not getting any closer to building. We considered the options of refinancing, renting out our house, selling the house, selling the land, etc. After much deliberation and number crunching, we have decided to put both our house and our land on the market. I'm a bit sad about giving up the land we've been planning to live on these past couple years. But it's for the best. The hope is that we can sell both, walk away with a lot of cash, rent for awhile, get a great deal on a new piece of property (or a house we can rebuild), and then build the house we've been dreaming of. Not the way we wanted to do things, but necessary. And I'm hoping that God has something even better than we'd ever imagined in store for us. If not, we'll just wait for our mansion in heaven. :)
Well, those are the latest happenings in the Runkles home. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
All I Want for Christmas . . .
Well, I guess Ethan will have to wait for NEXT Christmas for his two front teeth!
Friday, January 1, 2010
At the Beach
There's nothing quite like the Stuenzi's week-at-the-beach. 50-some people all in one 18-bedroom house, playing games, making music, talking, eating, an endless supply of chocolate, a little sleep, and lots of fun! It's always a great time. This year has been challenging for us though. When you're a parent of young children you never really get a vacation because they're still with you! The boys have really connected with the other cousins this year and had a great time with them, but Tabitha has been up several times a night and very needy during the day. Fortunately, she warmed up to everyone quickly and they're all fighting over chances to entertain her.
This year we're in Corolla, North Carolina, at a house accessible only if you have 4-wheel drive. We literally had to drive on the beach and over the dunes to get to the house! It's been too cold to spend time on the beach this year, but from our bedroom we had a perfect view of the awesome sunrise over the ocean. I wish I could wake up to that every morning!
Tomorrow we'll head back home and get some rest while we look forward to the next Stuenzi-family gathering.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Good Report Card!
Yesterday I had my first homeschool portfolio review. (In Maryland, if you're not under an umbrella group you have 2 reviews each year to make sure your kids are really learning something.) I was a little nervous, but the lady doing the review said everything looked great and she had no concerns! She was really friendly and even gave me a couple resource lists of ideas to use. I was fairly confident that Ethan's schooling is going well, but it feels good to have someone else say so!
Today we're having a big snowstorm, so of course the entire area has shut down. Our church meets in a school so the county makes the decision on weather cancellations. Yesterday--before there was a single flurry--the county cancelled all weekend activities, which means we can't have church tomorrow, even if the roads are totally clear! Good ol' Maryland. The grocery stores were all packed too, everyone stocking up for the coming apocalypse of snow. It's just funny because when I lived in Illinois we could have 3 feet of snow coming down and we'd still have to go to school. (I do remember school being closed for a "cold day" though--negative 30 windchill.) But despite the terror that seems to hit the masses here, the snow right now is gorgeous! I even went sledding with Ethan this morning...I hadn't done that in years! Ethan could stay out all day and never get tired of it. Right now he and Heath are still out shoveling (which is kind of pointless since it's coming down faster than they can scoop it up).
Tabitha, on the other hand, is terrified of the snow. She was completely bundled in snow gear so she couldn't even feel it, but if I tried to set her down instead of holding her, she'd scream like I was putting her down in hot lava. Jesse enjoyed the snow for a little bit, but he gets cold fast so he usually comes in pretty quick, much to Ethan's dismay.
Mmmm...such a nice day to be snowed in. Right now I'm in my snuggly sweat pants and ready to do some baking and hot-chocolate drinking. And then maybe I'll sit by the fire and read for a few hours while all the children play quietly and peacefully without disturbing me. (Well, I can dream anyway.) =)
Today we're having a big snowstorm, so of course the entire area has shut down. Our church meets in a school so the county makes the decision on weather cancellations. Yesterday--before there was a single flurry--the county cancelled all weekend activities, which means we can't have church tomorrow, even if the roads are totally clear! Good ol' Maryland. The grocery stores were all packed too, everyone stocking up for the coming apocalypse of snow. It's just funny because when I lived in Illinois we could have 3 feet of snow coming down and we'd still have to go to school. (I do remember school being closed for a "cold day" though--negative 30 windchill.) But despite the terror that seems to hit the masses here, the snow right now is gorgeous! I even went sledding with Ethan this morning...I hadn't done that in years! Ethan could stay out all day and never get tired of it. Right now he and Heath are still out shoveling (which is kind of pointless since it's coming down faster than they can scoop it up).
Tabitha, on the other hand, is terrified of the snow. She was completely bundled in snow gear so she couldn't even feel it, but if I tried to set her down instead of holding her, she'd scream like I was putting her down in hot lava. Jesse enjoyed the snow for a little bit, but he gets cold fast so he usually comes in pretty quick, much to Ethan's dismay.
Mmmm...such a nice day to be snowed in. Right now I'm in my snuggly sweat pants and ready to do some baking and hot-chocolate drinking. And then maybe I'll sit by the fire and read for a few hours while all the children play quietly and peacefully without disturbing me. (Well, I can dream anyway.) =)
Monday, December 7, 2009
The New Normal
Well, I am very excited to announce that we have been home for one month! And I'm even more excited to say that life is getting easier! I no longer feel like we're recovering from travel and adoption . . . I feel like we're settling into our "new normal."
I also realized a big OOPS in my posting. Thanksgiving Day was our one-month anniversary of adopting Tabitha, and I didn't mention it! On October 26th, we signed the papers and were given an official certificate saying that she's ours. Such a special thing to be thankful for this year. And the best part is, I'm finally coming out of the "fog" and actually feeling thankful!
This past week or so has been much better. Tabitha's sleep is improving, and her tantrums are diminishing. Not gone of course, but more like a typical 2-year-old rather than the outrageous ones we had been experiencing. We haven't had to go to any doctors appointments for her since the strep throat, and that's been a nice break. She seems to be settling into her new life pretty well, and I'm feeling more attached to her.
Tabitha's no longer afraid of Shadow and even tolerates her being around while we're eating (without attempting to kill her with dirty looks). The catheter is no big deal now--she even tries to help! She also plays with her dolls and isn't afraid of them anymore. (But if you try to tuck a furry friend or doll in to sleep with her she violently throws it on the floor. I guess she doesn't want to share her bed!) She holds her silverware like an American adult--we can't figure out how she learned that since Chinese adults usually use either chopsticks or spoons with a different handgrip. She also continues her favorite pasttime that we first discovered in China . . . she loves to stack papers into neat little piles. She also loves to write with pen and pencil on them, but heaven help anyone who tried to give her crayons and a coloring book. I guess that's seriously beneath her dignity! I still have little success on doing her hair, but I guess I'll keep learning. She's picking up new words and learning a little bit of sign language VERY quickly. She also falls asleep faster than any child I've ever seen (as long as she's not having a temper tantrum at bedtime). If we let her hold onto one of our fingers she'll be instantly asleep in less than 2 minutes. It's really quite precious. She definitely knows who Mommy and Daddy are now, and has started to prefer us to strangers. Yay!! She does do fine in the nursery though, so Heath and I were able to relax during the church service this past week.
Heath and I might even be able to go on a real date next weekend. (Tabitha doesn't have to be cathed at night, so if we go out at bedtime we can stay out late!) Ethan and Jesse are still treating her pretty well, but you can definitely tell they're all siblings now--complete with the squabbles and tattling and all.
So, as we move on with life, this will conclude my posts with the label "adoption." From now on, it'll just be LIFE!
I also realized a big OOPS in my posting. Thanksgiving Day was our one-month anniversary of adopting Tabitha, and I didn't mention it! On October 26th, we signed the papers and were given an official certificate saying that she's ours. Such a special thing to be thankful for this year. And the best part is, I'm finally coming out of the "fog" and actually feeling thankful!
This past week or so has been much better. Tabitha's sleep is improving, and her tantrums are diminishing. Not gone of course, but more like a typical 2-year-old rather than the outrageous ones we had been experiencing. We haven't had to go to any doctors appointments for her since the strep throat, and that's been a nice break. She seems to be settling into her new life pretty well, and I'm feeling more attached to her.
Tabitha's no longer afraid of Shadow and even tolerates her being around while we're eating (without attempting to kill her with dirty looks). The catheter is no big deal now--she even tries to help! She also plays with her dolls and isn't afraid of them anymore. (But if you try to tuck a furry friend or doll in to sleep with her she violently throws it on the floor. I guess she doesn't want to share her bed!) She holds her silverware like an American adult--we can't figure out how she learned that since Chinese adults usually use either chopsticks or spoons with a different handgrip. She also continues her favorite pasttime that we first discovered in China . . . she loves to stack papers into neat little piles. She also loves to write with pen and pencil on them, but heaven help anyone who tried to give her crayons and a coloring book. I guess that's seriously beneath her dignity! I still have little success on doing her hair, but I guess I'll keep learning. She's picking up new words and learning a little bit of sign language VERY quickly. She also falls asleep faster than any child I've ever seen (as long as she's not having a temper tantrum at bedtime). If we let her hold onto one of our fingers she'll be instantly asleep in less than 2 minutes. It's really quite precious. She definitely knows who Mommy and Daddy are now, and has started to prefer us to strangers. Yay!! She does do fine in the nursery though, so Heath and I were able to relax during the church service this past week.
Heath and I might even be able to go on a real date next weekend. (Tabitha doesn't have to be cathed at night, so if we go out at bedtime we can stay out late!) Ethan and Jesse are still treating her pretty well, but you can definitely tell they're all siblings now--complete with the squabbles and tattling and all.
So, as we move on with life, this will conclude my posts with the label "adoption." From now on, it'll just be LIFE!
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