Checking In

Eden's annual cardiology check up was today and everything relating to her is great. The main cardiologist she's been seeing since she was about 2 months old, Dr. S, let me know that she'll no longer be traveling to Abilene for the clinics. They've had a lot of issues with the airplanes and timing and other things, so they're changing their schedule and routine and as a result, we'll be traveling to Dallas for Eden's annual exams. Not terrible, but not the greatest news, either.

She charmed everyone present, of course, and was extremely cooperative, which was a relief. Sometimes she get a streak of stubbornness (god only knows where THAT came from) but today she was amazing. Even after we had to wait for about an hour because the doctor's flight from DFW was delayed. And then when we had a bit of a problem delivering our last Christmas gifts. And then had some wait time at Michael's and again at school pick up. I'm afraid of when the sass will come back....lol

We've entered the busy time of the year and I'm already exhausted from it all. Our plans have changed so many times I can't even remember all the iterations of them. Normally, we celebrate our family Christmas on Christmas Adam, December 23, but since we're going to Arlington for the holiday this year, the Walke Christmas was graciously rescheduled for the 23 so we could leave after church on the 24. Which means our family Christmas was rescheduled, too. It would have been the 22, but Asher has a school program we can't get out of (with only 11 kids in the school its pretty obvious when someone doesn't show up...) So we're doing ours on Christmas Adam morning, with a nice breakfast and presents and stockings (for the first time ever since we won't be at Oma's for stockings) and then we'll load up for Mom's last Christmas on Orange St. Then the only Christmas in Arlington.

We've had doctor's appointments, sick kids, missed school, Christmas parties, a frustrating school project, LOTS of cooking and shopping and wrapping and decorating and I'm just. over. it. all. Tonight is the last evening of just us for a while, so instead of making the mashed potatoes or putting away the three laundry baskets worth of clothes and sheets or packing or making cookie dough or helping Austin and Elijah organize the playroom, I'm sitting. We've got pizza on the way and our new-to-the-kids Christmas movie (Home Alone) in the blu-ray player. I'll make some cookies from already made dough and maybe we'll do some popcorn, but for the next couple of hours, I'm taking a little break.

This is Rebekah's first Christmas ever, and our last in this house, so I want to savor it as much as I can. If you need me, I'll be in my chair with a beverage (adult or not, it's a toss up at this point) and my feet up, possibly cross-stitching, possibly snoozing, possibly nursing, likely yelling at the kids to be quiet and enjoy the movie.

Merry Christmas, from the Mullins Mob to you and yours

Big News!

First off, I'm not pregnant. Just getting that out of the way. My baby-making business has closed. We did pretty good work with only a couple hiccups, but we've closed up shop.

Y'all know how I am about secrets. I hate keeping them, but I've been sitting on one for about three weeks now that's pretty darn huge. I had to wait until all the important people were consulted/informed and several discussions were had, but that has happened and now I can tell you...

Drum roll please....

My mom is giving me her house!

Insert shocked faces here. I'll wait for you to wrap your brains around that.

For those of you who don't know, my mom has a large house. Fifty-five hundred square feed, seven bedrooms, two bathrooms...and it's just her, Bob, and their four cats. We have four children and two cats and live in a 2500 square foot house. We're utilizing the space a lot better now that the boys are upstairs, but at Mom's, everyone (including the adults) will have their own rooms. We won't have a mortgage and we'll still have the income from the current renter in the carriage house. We're happy for him to stay as long as he wants.

This isn't going to happen overnight, we're looking at a maximum of five years. Mom and Bob need to find their own house first, and they have a pretty strict list of what they want and it's hard to find. They are interested in a house, so we'll see what happens there. At the absolute soonest, I think it'll be about a year, if everything with the house they're looking at works out.

We could be spending next Christmas in our "new" house!

This will be my inheritance, and since I'd be getting it before my siblings get theirs, the most important thing was to talk to them and get their opinions/thoughts on it. Luckily, my siblings are all awesome and saw what a great thing this is for my family so they had no objections. The brothers did voice some concern over the cost of living in the house, but that's our problem. And really, having no mortgage will help tremendously. They did also say that if I get the house, I'll be expected to bake all the Christmas cookies.

I say that's a fair trade. I'll have two ovens to make it easier.

We have a few options on what to do with our house when the time comes. Part of us/me want to keep it and rent it out. I did some basic research and houses in Abilene rent for about .75/$1 per square foot. Not having a full second bath and being where we are, I think we could ask $1200-1500 for rent and that would cover our expenses related to the house and then some. That way we could keep the house around for whenever we're interested in retiring, but that's so far down the road, it's maybe not the best idea. We could turn it into an Air B&B and if we priced it about like some of the ones in town, it would pay for itself with just a few nights a month.

Or, we could sell it. If we got what we paid for it, or slightly higher, we could pay off the mortgage on it and potentially pay off our cars, possibly even having extra at the end to put into the Orange Street house if we sell it for even more.

I've already got ideas on what to do at the house, where everyone is going to go, how things are going to be arranged. It's entirely possible we'll have empty rooms for a little while as we get settled and figure out what works and what doesn't. If Mom takes her dining table, that room for sure will be empty until we've saved the money to get a good sized dining table.

Depending on when we move in, my kids will be the youngest residents of that house in over 30 years? Or longer? A family lived there from 1964-1984 but I'm not sure how young the children were when they left. It was a business from 1984-1993 and my younger brother turned 7 the summer we moved in. So if we move in next year, three of my kids will be younger than that. So that's kind of cool.

It's big and exciting and a little overwhelming in some ways and stressful in others. I'm looking forward to this. I know I've said several times that I don't want to leave our house unless it's on a stretcher, but, as a friend this week said when I told her about this, Mom's house is the house to change my mind.

I need to recreate some pictures we took when Mom and Dad took ownership of the house Mother's Day weekend of 1993. They're of Caleb, Mom, Dad, and I acting like complete fools with a calendar in every empty room of the house. I'll find those and scan them in so you can all bask in the glory of my 1993 permed hair and homemade clothes and giant glasses (oh lordy the glasses). We'll get in there with our own goofballs and create some memories and traditions. I can't wait.