The Final Countdown!

I can hardly believe that we've come this far. Ruston is done with school! Our moving truck has been reserved. Our house is half-way packed. Oh, but there is one little tiny problem...we haven't sold our house yet.

We have finally decided to get an agent and I feel SO much better now. She held a broker's open for agents to come preview our home. Then Saturday we will have a traditional open house. Typical turnout for a broker's open is 10 people - we had 29! I'm sure that's because we have the best agent ever and also due to the fact that I offered her an extra percentage point on commission if she sold the house by May 20th. Money talks! She is passing that commission to the buying agent that finds someone to buy our home and, as a result, everyone is clammering to get our house sold right now! I figure, the few thousand dollars we will spend to motivate all the realtors will equal out to the money we could be spending on mortgage if it doesn't sell for a few month. Cross your fingers!

Ruston is in Oregon right now checking on his future practice. This wasn't exactly the best time for him to go (seeing how I now have to prepare alone for each house showing) but I'll be fine. He just needed to check on a few things in person before we head out to Utah in a few weeks. He will fly back next Wednesday with his parents to help finish packing and celebrate Ruston's graduation (May 18th). We are so excited for the future and hope to have even more details to share in the coming weeks.

Elli and Addison are still doing great. I bribed Elli that if she wouldn't make a mess the morning of the broker's open I would take her to Chuck E Cheese until it was done (three hours later). She kept her part of the deal, so I kept mine and we had so much fun. Next time we'll take a digital camera, but I didn't want to carry it around with me! Addison got to watch all the kids running around, so she was happy too.

Well, my "to do" list is two pages long and growing, so I'll go. But needless to say we are so excited to be leaving Cleveland and return home to the West. The waiting is exhausting, but it will be done and over with soon enough I guess! Two more weeks and we are HOME!