More on moving

Raj has all kinds of ideas on things to do to make it our own - adding even more cabinetry in the kitchen, a 4-seasons room (waaaaay down the road).

The public school district has a great reputation, so we won't have to pay for Goddard anymore.  (Looking forward to that savings, though I've talked their price down by helping them with Freecycle treasurers and volunteering at events, which it still seems like NO OTHER PARENT DOES!) ANd, we won't have to worry about sending the kids to Keeneyville District (here), where I found all those typos in the preschool screening information! I already sent an email to the elementary school principal saying that we're potentially / hopefully moving into the district in February. He called me almost as soon as I hit 'Send!'  He invited us to come in for a tour whenever we're ready.  We just chatted briefly, but I'm already impressed.

FersonElementary has a choice of half-day (2 hr 15 min) kindergarden or full day (6 hrs).  (Not sure how 2 is half of 6, but...) Full day has a tuition that is less than Goddard's 1/2 day (4 hrs) 3 days a week, even with my discounted price! We're leaning towards that option, though *I* don't feel ready for my baby boy to be in full day, 5 day a week school! While Ferson also has a preschool option (for pay), we're planning on taking time to settle in and getting familiar with the new town, parks, library, local programs, etc. Then, we'll start the new school year in the fall.

Keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have a blizzard in February again so we can close on Feb 3 and visit Atlanta from the 9-16 while the movers do their magic.!

Celebration time

We went out to dinner to a new restaurant in Roselle that has been getting a lot of rave reviews. It's called 8000 miles, which is the distance from Roselle to a city in China where the main chefs and their operating partner met. (Here's an article from the Daily Herald.)

The menu was Chinese - Japanese fusion. While there were a lot of sushi choices, there were still plenty for non-sushi eaters like us. I had a mildly spicy basil chicken; Raj had garlic chicken; Shawn had sweet & sour chicken; and even Lilly feasted on a few grains of fried rice. Shawn hijacked my pomegranate & lime mocktail and I got stuck with his apple juice - I really got gypped!  The whole meal was all really flavorful and we understand what all the excitement has been about.  I'm sure we'll be going back.

Little did we know, but the evening out was actually a celebratory one. While we were eating, Mr. Haque, our realtor called. Our offer on a house in St. Charles was accepted!

We placed an offer on the house in late September (admittedly low-balling their asking price), but they came back with a counter-offer that was higher than what we were willing to agree to. We were under the impression that their counter-offer was as low as they were willing to go - take it or leave it.  After our offer, they held an open house, but it must not have been productive. We had also been told that the owners were going to take the house off the market for the winter, since it's such a slow time in the housing industry. I guess the owners didn't want to sit on it for another season and start over again in the spring. (We think they already live somewhere else.) They ended up accepting our original offer!

Moving on up.