We have a rental! And athlete's foot cream for breakfast.

We are really in the trenches of packing and selling our house now. I pulled an extremely late night and then an all-nighter getting the house sparkly and beautifully staged the night before the photographer came to get pictures for listings. The selling market in Granite Falls is pretty slow right now, so anything we can do to improve our odds at attracting buyers is worth it. I think our home will show really well--hopefully well enough to get a buyer quickly even though we're in the off season for selling homes. I will share pictures of our house next week when our Zillow listing goes up. 

I keep reminding myself that this is a good kind of stress. I would rather be up all night making our home beautiful to sell and move to Utah, than be up all night vomiting, or in active labor, or studying for finals, or any number of other reasons I've had to pull all-nighters in the past. It is starting to feel real that we will be in Utah soon, and we are getting SO excited! I can't wait to have lunches with my grandma, and for Jack to have regular play dates with his cousins, and to spend lots more time with my parents and siblings. 

Things are starting to come together! Not only is our home photographed and mostly packed, but against all odds, we were able to sign a contract last night to move into a rental home we're really excited about. The landlord initially wanted to go with a renter who was willing to sign a 16-month contract, but the people he chose backed out at the last minute so offered it to us a few days later. And it's not just any rental home, but one that is (presumably) Jared's dream floor plan, and in my (presumably) dream neighborhood. We are excited at the opportunity to "test out" what we hope will be an ideal home and in an ideal neighborhood. If we are happy there then we will feel good about building or buying a home of our own there next year. And we'll have a better sense for what Jared's commute for work will be like, if there's any chance of him transferring to a clinic further south at some point, etc. Me and the kids will likely be moved to Utah by the end of October. We're rolling down a hill and the speed is picking up. Here are some fun pictures from our week:

^^This picture is a pretty good summary of the current state of our parenting. We're in hustle/survival mode getting everything packed and ready! The kids have been watching a lot of tv, wearing a lot of jammies, and apparently sneaking into the athlete's foot cream for a snack🥴 Alice desperately needs a haircut, but it's going to have to wait another few weeks. Good thing she's cute with sheepdog bangs.

^^We watched Jared's parents' dog for a couple days while they had a weekend getaway. Jared's mom left some fresh dog food in the fridge for her, and one afternoon I came downstairs to find Jared tucking into a big plate of it with ketchup on the side😂 It did look weirdly similar to the turkey pot pie we had for dinner the night before. 

^^Trying to use up the last of the gas in our propane tank so we can pack it up with our fire pit. We've been reading a chapter of Stuart Little around the campfire as we roast marshmallows.

^^The view from my late-night home staging session. Built-in bookshelves take FOREVER to get right. This wasn't the final version, but pretty close. It's fun to be able to stage our home during October. If I'm ever stumped on what to put somewhere, I just add a mini pumpkin. (We don't own bookends and I didn't want to buy any, so mini pumpkins saved the day.)

^^Alice carrying around a bucket of goldfish snacks on our walk around our neighborhood to find skeletons. Alice loves going on drives or walks to look for skeletons, pumpkins, and ghosts. We love this fun little girl so much!