Sold!

Well the deed has been done.
For the first time in over 10 years we don't own two houses.
Our Rio Rancho house has been sold.
The process was very simple and quick.
We took the kids with us of course, because they go
everywhere we go.
It's a great learning experience, and they are usually
very well behaved, too.

We met our agent and went into the business room, did our signage
of the paperwork, which surprised us because it wasn't very much.
Jenna was given a coloring book and she happily spent the entire
time coloring and drawing within it, while Jackson played GameBoy
and Jeremiah intently and politely listened to the proceedings.

Afterward we all went out to one of our favorite restaurants in
ABQ called the India Palace, on Montgomery and Wyoming. John and
I hadn't eaten there for over 9 yrs because of our move to SC and
our 2 yrs back in NM where we lived poorer than church mice.
It felt like coming home again, and the buffet was wonderful. It was
perfect for families with children because kids can try a little of
everything and then choose their favorites and eat as much as they
like. It's the only route we take anymore! hehe
Jenna must have eaten 10 Indian meatballs with sauce and 2 pieces
of Tandoori chicken. And both boys went back for seconds, enjoying
the pakoras, rice and chicken the best.
My favorite is always Saag Paneer, basically a spinach and homemade
cheese mixture that is very flavorful. John likes everything! hehe

So we had a great time celebrating the sale of our house and the good
food. And then we stopped off at Hobby Lobby for more Rocketry stuff for Jackson, and Hastings for some new Classics books for the kids.

So, it was a very good day.
And now, one door closed, another fully open into the rest of lives.

An End of an Era

Tomorrow we close on our Rio Rancho house with the new buyers. We placed our house up for sale in late October and we finally had a buyer (actually two) in December.

I'm feeling a little bit melancholy about the whole experience. Yes, I truly do love living out here in these beautiful New Mexico Mountains, an hour from our old house in Rio Rancho. But I also have all those memories from the second house we ever owned. The house where my twin sons spent their brand new baby days. All those crazy, fun, amazing and special memories for their first two years.

Then my hubby took a transfer to the Charlotte, NC area, where we lived for 7 years.
In that house, our daughter was born, and my sons tested us through their toddler years...and we created even more memories.
When we moved away from that house, I suprised even myself, by walking through that house after it was empty and sold, and I cried and cried. I could just hear all the laughter, late night rocking of my baby girl, afternoon giggles and the special family conversations we had shared as I walked from room to room.

Then we moved back to our second house again, the Rio Rancho house, which we had been leasing out to renters during those 7 years in the Carolinas.
It felt like open arms wrapping us in their embrace, upon coming home to that house. But we also realized that it had grown much too small for us.
So we spent another 2 years living, loving and laughing (and crying, if you've read previous legal posts) in our Rio Rancho home, until the opportunity arose where we could finally move out of the city and into the mountains and a bigger house with lots of land to play on and grow on.

We went back to our Rio Rancho house the other afternoon to gather up anything we had left behind, and to say 'goodbye' to our old house and it's beautiful memories.

I will miss all those memories, some of the conveniences of living in an area with shopping close-by, those gorgeous, inspiring west-facing mountain views, and a couple of our old neighbors.

But I do not miss the traffic, the houses too close together and looking like they were cloned with only colors any different. I don't miss the noise either; the truck bearing down on their air brakes, the police sirens blaring, the boom box bass from cars shaking the walls of the house, the dogs chained up in back yards barking at all hours of day and night, and all the strange rules, like no chickens or small livestock allowed. Dogs are so much worse than a few chickens or a goat or two.

And I don't miss the sand or the tumbleweeds, especially those evil goat head thorns.
And I don't miss the asphalt and concrete roads without any sidewalks or trees where my children could never play safely and have fun.

So, in the end I know we made the right decision and I am very happy. But I am sad that this is the end of an era. The closing of a book or the turning of a page entering into a new chapter of our lives.


We had a contract through Home Depot to replace the old turquoise carpet with the real estate beige carpet, but Home Depot's contractors messed up badly. In the end they had to replace the carpet THREE times because of faulty carpet, mistakes made while installing and carelessness. It was truly a headache! And, well Home Depot now owes us some 'compensation'.
View from the living room into the kitchen.
Looking into the kitchen
From the living room towards the front door and hallway to bedrooms.
The front of our Rio Rancho House. Goodbye house.