You know, just a few months ago, I didn't think #41 was going to happen. I thought we weren't in a good place to buy a house, that we needed to wait until Hubby was done with school, that it was going to be near the end of the 1001 days or even after and that #41 needed to be moved to a long-term plan with some of the traveling ones.
Well, as of 11:30 on Friday morning, October 28th, Hubby and I are homeowners. We went by the house before the closing to give it one last walkthrough. I got a picture of the "SOLD" sign out in front just before the agent took the sign back and guided us to the lawyer's office for the closing. It was us, our agent B, our previous agent S who showed us the house (we ended up working with the company owner to close since we were concerned about dual agency), and the lawyer. He's an expert for first-time homebuyers and was very clear and patient explaining all the forms we were signing and answering our questions, and we occasionally got delayed just chatting. It took probably an hour and 15 minutes to finish everything, and at the end, S handed up the keys and gave us a hug. We'll be spending the next two weeks packing, painting, and shopping, and on November 12th, we're moving into our house.
We haven't had a chance to go into our new home yet; we had to run out of town after the closing for the annual battalion reunion. My Bro-in-law B and sis-in-law K hosted it in Charleston this year, and due to the plans, we went through two museums, giving me the last two I needed for #2! We arrived Friday afternoon in time to meet up with the whole family for a BBQ dinner at B and K's. Everyone was excited to see pictures of our new house. We hung out a little after everyone else had left to get some quality time with B, K and Julia and play a few games.
Saturday morning, we had to be up bright and early to take a bus to the floating museum the USS Yorktown. It's an old aircraft carrier from around WW2, given the same name as one sunk in combat. After years of service, it was decommissioned and set into the mud at Charleston to become a museum, giving tours of the inner workings of the ship, showing off various planes from the wars both inside and on the flight deck. It was fascinating seeing how soldiers lived on the ship and what all was needed to make it go. Unfortunately, Saturday morning was cold, foggy, and drizzly, so being on the flight deck was miserable, but Hubby LOVES war planes, so we went up there despite the cold. Of course, it cleared up as soon as we left.
After the Yorktown, the family got lunch at the Hominy Grill, then a few of us went to the local art museum to see a photography exhibit that had just started on Friday. We toured the entire bottom and middle floors, taking in all the paintings and sculptures, many from locals. There were a few pieces that made me think "This looks like something from an elementary school art show", you know, the kind where every kid shows off their work in a public place like a mall or art festival, but mostly there were beautiful works of art.
Our usual dinner followed the art museum, with Grandpa giving a speech that I managed to film. Sadly, only four veterans and one widow made it to this year's. When I started coming, there were maybe two dozen of them. It's sad to see that number go down so much. After dinner, we headed to the hospitality suite to watch a film one of the vets made. Somehow he managed to take a video camera with him to the war. There's no sound, but there's about two hours of footage from the beginning of the war to the end, with the soldiers returning home. It's an amazing personal look from the eyes of a soldier with both happy and sorrowful moments: from a little puppy finding them and in the next clip him being carried by one of the soldiers (they apparently gave him to a little girl), to the landing at Utah Beach, knowing from our end what was coming. It's amazing, and someone's going to make copies for everyone.
So...holy crap, in two weeks I'll be halfway done with this. 500 days left. Where has the time gone?
Congratulations! That's so exciting!
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