Successful trip to NC!!
We flew down to Raleigh on Thursday afternoon. I talked to Gail Turner on Wednesday and she said to give her a call as soon as we landed and then she'd make arrangements for me to come to the school for a tour. We ended up arriving right at rush hour and it took longer than expected to get to the school.
The whole trip was surreal. When we got to the school I met Gail and the Instructional Resource Teacher (Julie) and they gave us a tour of the building. I got a weird vibe throughout the whole tour-- I felt like they didn't want me anymore, but Steve said he got just the opposite vibe-- they were trying to sell me the school. I remembered that when Gail offered me the job I was still interested in North Ridge Elementary and I told her that I would need to see the building before making my decision. Anyway-- after seeing the HUGE building and hearing how it all works, I accepted the job and they were both excited.
After visiting Oak Grove, Steve and I went to the hotel and checked in. We went to Mama Mia's for dinner and it was excellent! I had lasagna and Steve had chicken marsala. The area seemed SO BIG as we drove from place to place!!
We got up early on Friday and started our house-hunting expedition with Mindy (our realitor). We went to many homes and all morning were growing more and more disappointed. It appeared that our price range wasn't "high enough" for a nice house. We were very upset and decided to go get lunch.
After lunch we had several more houses to look at and it actually started to get better. We found home after home that we liked and were really impressed with. We finally found our house at the end of the day. We had three more houses to look at and Steve was most eager to look at this one that was located on a pond. We almost didn't go into the house that we picked because we didn't think it was worth it. BOY WERE WE WRONG!!
I won't bore you with the details, you will have to come and visit to see how great it really is, but it is an amazing home. We have four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a computer loft. It's got a gourmet kitchen, laundry room, formal dining room and a two part deck. One part is open and the other is a screened-in room. We're having hardwood floors put into the formal dining room (there's carpet there now). We're also getting a nice fridge and our garage door hooked up.
Friday night we went to the grossest seafood restaurant for dinner (Ocean Stars) and were very displeased with their food. It was a cross between a Red Lobster (which I love by the way) and a Long John Silvers. Very weird.
Saturday morning we went back over to our house and signed all the papers and got everything going. Most houses take at least 30 days to close but we need our home to be done and ready by June 9th/10th. They were a little concerned about the time window, but Steve's job starts the 11th and we HAVE to be moved before then.
The plan is to have the movers come Thursday and Friday and pack up the house and then early Saturday morning we'll drive down. The house is closing on the 8th and we should be able to just drive to our house and be there for good on the 9th. We went to the Bass Lake Ale House for dinner (very tasty).
Sunday we spent the day driving around and relaxing. Steve got a new Blackberry (since he has to turn his in on June 6th) and he has a new number (a 919 which is good). We had lunch at Fireman's Subs (very cool place) and then we went and saw Pirates of the Carribean 3-- it was very long and hard to follow. I guess I'm just really spoiled by closed captioning!! We also checked out of our hotel... drove from our new house to my school (8 miles and about 20-25 minutes to drive) and then back to our house and then drove to Steve's work (20 miles and 30-50 minutes to drive). We met Monica (the lady that brought Steve into Burt's) and went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner.
We stayed at the hotel right by the airport last night and then this morning got up at 4am and had to catch a 6:09 am flight. We arrived in Detroit at 7:30 this morning.
This week is going to be crazy... tomorrow is field day (provided that it doesn't rain) and then Wednesday is our trip to Rolling Hills... and then Thursday is the rain day for field day and then we've got a HUGE thing going on Friday for our Patricia Pollacco visit!! This weekend we're supposed to be getting together with Aimee and Matt (it'll be our last time) and then going to dinner with Jim and Bobby Boldger.
Then the following week (the week of the 4th) is our last week of school. Thursday night is the 5th grade promotion ceremony and Friday is the last day of school. We move on Saturday.
So as you can see... it's all crazy and hectic and moving at warp-speed!!! I don't know when I'll be back on to post, maybe this weekend but if not, definitely once we're settled in North Carolina.
Until next time...
>^..^<
