House hunting update

We didn't get the house in St. Peters.  So sad because I really loved that house.  We returned to St. Louis on Wednesday, July 1st and looked at three more houses.  We bid on two of them and we didn't get those either.  We have bid over the asking price for all three houses (on one, we bid $7,000 over!!!).  Rejected by all three because our offers are on a contingency (meaning we cannot buy until we sell our house here).  The old saying "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush" rings true in this situation.  And so, we have decided to shelve our house hunting until after the 24th of July when we close on our house here.  The inspection happens in two days and we pray all goes well because our buyer could back out if there is anything on the report he doesn't like. This coming week I will start looking for an apartment to rent for the month of August.  Hopefully for just a month!  We already have most of our belongings in a storage unit (since March) and we can fit even more inside.  I am working on a temporary home for the grand piano.  And the rest of our stuff will just go with us to our short-term abode.

Honestly, these past two weeks have seemed like two months!  It has been so stressful that I am relieved to have things ease up a bit.  And, I have plenty to keep me busy until the 24th.  The weeds keep coming, the house needs packing, I have sewing projects to do, and there is always Disney + 😁

Steve and I kicked off the 4th of July holiday Friday night by watching "Murder on the Orient Express".  We have now both decided we need to read some Agathe Christie...

Independence Day morning, we hosted breakfast for the Ellingson family, some good friends of ours who moved away nine years ago to live in Alaska.  Derek is a pathologist and he is going to receive additional medical training in Iowa so they have come back to the lower 48 for a year.  It was so fun to catch up. 

They departed mid-morning and our next visitor was Julina!  She left Indiana on Friday and drove as far as St. Louis where she spent the evening with Beckie and Emily, Joe, Noah, Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin watching Hamilton in an outdoor theater setting in the Southerland's driveway.  She came to spend the afternoon/evening with us here in Columbia.  We walked around downtown Columbia in the afternoon following a portion of the Parley P. Pratt Freedom Run path that took us to several sites that represented the freedoms found in the First Amendment to the Constitution.  It was a hot, humid afternoon so we didn't visit all the stops.  Thankfully, there was lots of shade along the route.  And, surprisingly few people so we went mask-less.  

That evening, we went to Steven and Tamara's house for grilled burgers and homemade strawberry ice cream.  Yum!  Julina left to drive back to St. Louis at about 8:30 and we all went home.  No viewing fireworks this year.  But, we could sure hear everyone else celebrating all around us.  Good thing we don't have a sound-sensitive dog anymore or he/she would have been miserable.  Here's to a good, fast-moving month of July!