Project: Sell Our House

well, we're officially on the market ya'll!

we've been wanting to sell our home for about a year and we're finally doing it.

we bought this house and moved in when joey got home from army, we were 22, no kids, and newly married. perfect starter home for us. i love this house, we've put a lot of work in to it! but its time to move on to bigger and better things! the official listing with listing pictures from our realtor isn't up yet but will be sometime this week.

yesterday we spent 7 hours doing yard work  (and we're both feeling it today!). We accomplished almost everything we wanted to: weed pulling, digging up trees, weed whacking the front/back, cutting the grass front/back, pressure washing the sidewalk driveway, screened in porch, and ENTIRE house, hedge trimming front and back, and last night we rearranged our furniture to get the house 'show' ready. All that is left is some general cleaning & decluttering, and sometime this week I'm getting flowers to plant and pinestraw to put down. But we got all the hard time consuming stuff knocked out- proud of us!

we're looking to move to a 4-5 bedroom home, preferably in Lilburn. Most of our family lives out there, its where we grew up, and a good area too. We'll also look in Loganville (where we are now), Snellville, and Grayson. But before we can do that we gotta sell our house! Quite a few homes have sold in our neighborhood this summer, for great prices, and pretty quickly- I'd say in 6 weeks or less. One of our neighbors (with a home identical to ours) listed, sold, and moved out in about 3 weeks! So I hope we get that lucky and it happens quickly for us. we're excited to start looking at potential new homes, and get into something soon :) fingers crossed all goes well- we've worked our asses off to get here, so i really hope it all pays off.

I took a bunch of pictures, put all the home stats, list price, and our realtor's contact information up on FB, and up on a couple For Sale sites on FB too- just to spread the word and get some eyes on it. Our realtor will be over this week sometime to take the pictures once we finish everything, and then we'll hopefully get our home on other realtor's radars who are looking for homes for their buyers. I really hope it goes well.

we're working with Lambros Realty LLC and so far it has been an awesome experience-- they are bending over backwards to answer all our questions, and my million emails! Every step of the way they've been there for us. I have no doubt they'll help us achieve our goal!

Lambros Realty LLC

(770) 500-7386

lambrosrealty@gmail.com

http://lambrosrealty.weebly.com/

 

Hopefully we can start booking some showings and get it sold. I'm excited for whats to come in the future. prayers all goes well for us!

officially a work at home mom.

ya'll. it is happening.

as of now, i am officially a work-at-home mommy.

whoa.

anyone who knows me, reads this little blog, or puts up with me on FB knows loud & clear this is what i've been working for. in my perfect world joey will make millions and i can quit work totally to be a full time mommy & wife, but this is the real world- that just ain't happenin'. since coming to terms with that i've worked hard to find a way to provide for my family financially, while also finding the balance of work/mom/wife.

i did a trial week last week having adelynn home with me since daycare was closed. overall, it went REALLY well. i absolutely loved having her here, and felt way more like a mama then i had in a while. with her in daycare and me working- i really only got to see her for a few minutes in the morning, then when she got home we had an hour (maybe 2) of playtime/dinner/bath and then bed. so i felt like we had no quality time. after last week, it is now weird to be sitting here all alone without my girl. (she is in daycare right now).

i spoke to my bosses, joey, my mommy, my bff, etc. decision has finally been made- we're getting her out of daycare and home with me. exciting & scary! Exciting because i finally get to be a full time mommy and raise my baby. We will be saving a really good chunk of money which will help a TON. Scary cause i'm nervous about being able to really do this. yes last week went well, but i know there will be days/weeks that will just be hard and overwhelming, every day will be different and i'll face different challenges. i'm not a big fan of change, it makes me anxious! and i have a big fear of the unknown! thats just my normal kelly-ness. plus i know her spot at daycare will go quick, so we won't have that safety net of 'oh if it doesn't work out we'll just put her back in daycare'. we love and adore our daycare provider, she has quickly become part of the family.

i've also got to learn to let go a bit. let the house be a mess, realize i can't do it all, go with the flow and just take it a day at a time- figure out what works and what doesn't.

overall, this is a win.

nervous, excited, but overall ecstatic that this is finally happening. in two weeks, my girl will be by my side-always.

Thank you, God.

on the good ship, lollipop....

i have no idea who first showed me a Shirley Temple movie, but it is by far one of my favorite childhood traditions/memories.

i remember on christmas every year being so excited when my parents (or santa) got me a new Shirley Temple movie. i have quite the collection, all on VHS ha. There are still a lot i haven't seen yet though, which i'm dying to see!

and yes, i do know most of the songs from her movies- no shame.

i was looking for something to put on for baby to watch so i can work, and came across Bright Eyes on HBO! holy moly it took me back, and its in black & white too! so cool. baby climbed up on the couch and sat there watching silently with her cheerios in hand, before any singing even started. i would love for her to love these movies, i know i did. i'll have to get some to play for her when she is a little older.

in the mean time, i found out (thanks google) Shirley Temple actually wrote an autobiography! i know what i'm spending my birthday money on... ;)

my new assistant.

i hired a new assistant this week to help me with work...

ok, not really. but baby girl is here all week!

she goes to an in-home daycare in our neighborhood and the lady who watches her is on vacation this week. this kind forces me to do a trial run with having her home with me while i work. yes, this has been my goal. i think i've been scared to pull the trigger and try it out! i've been wanting it for so long i've been afraid it wouldn't work out, i've hyped it up in my mind where i was nervous. she is awesome, don't get me wrong. but i work a full 8 hour work day like i would if i worked outside of the home so i just wasn't sure if this was truly possible.

she is pretty independent for the most part, i can sit in the living room with my laptop and work/keep an eye on her. she still naps twice a day, and her lunch time falls during my regular lunch hour- so it works! i had her home a couple weeks ago when she was sick with HFM but didn't really consider that a true trial run. a sick baby is totally different than a non-sick one, i know mamas can attest to that! but during that week, i was (for the most part) able to work normally. the only difference was not working the phones at all that week. i think if i wasn't on the phone it wouldn't even be a worry or issue in my mind. but this week, i'm on the phones for 3 days out of the 5 day work week...so we shall see how it goes.

you might be wondering why being on the phone is a big deal? well, i have a very vocal and loud baby girl! she talks up a storm and babbles away, she runs around squealing in delight- which is music to my ears! but some people i speak to may find that unprofessional, and i don't want to lose business. so thats my biggest worry, being able to work the phones normally.

i pray it works out. having her home with me is the entire reason i have been pursuing at home work since i was pregnant. i mean, whats the point of working from home if she is still in daycare and we're paying all that money?

i just gotta keep chugging along, i've been working towards this goal since July 2011 when i learned i was pregnant. thats TWO YEARS. and here it is, here is my chance.

tomorrow is day one of three this week i'm on phones. pray it goes well!

you work from home? riiiiiight.

so ever since i started working from home, people are very curious about what i do. and my inbox has blown up with questions like "is it legit?" or "are you sure its not a scam?" and mostly "so what do you DO?". most often i get people asking if i can get them a job or if we're hiring- which i totally understand, that was me not long ago!

i totally understand the curiosity. it seems rare to find legit at home work that you don't have to pay some money in to, or work on a contract/1099 basis. i'd been looking for at home work for over a year. i've wanted to be a SAHM, full time mommy, but financially we can't afford for me to not work. my goal has been to find a way to be home with adelynn while still contributing to my family financially- kinda like the best of both worlds. i came across MANY scams and bogus job openings. many times i all but gave up because i was getting so discouraged. i needed not only work with a legitimate company, but wanted an hourly/salary job with consistent pay i could count on. i was approached many times about joining Mary Kay, Premier Jewelry, Pampered Chef, etc. while some of those did catch my interest, i didn't trust it to provide a consistent paycheck for me that we needed to stay on budget, pay bills, and just live.

i emailed everyone i could think of, facebooked people, got on LinkedIn, etc. i did everything i could to network and get my name out- let it be known by everyone what i was trying to achieve. probably borderline annoying, but i was determined. i poured over job openings on craigslist, monster, and various job websites. everything i thought was legit turned out not to be. it was frustrating. i cried many tears over it. but i kept on trying, i didn't give up!

finally. i got an email from a cousin of ours, that they had heard of a job opening through a friend. i didn't get my hopes up, but sent in my resume' anyway to check it out. pretty quickly i got an email back, and a couple phone calls. next thing i know i have a handful of phone interviews, webcam interviews, and started doing my research. i wanted to know everything about this company, do my homework! thank ya jesus, it is a legitimate company and legitimate work! and, even better? it looked like they were actually interested in ME!

not long after i was offered the job. holy moly, my prayers were answered. i was ECSTATIC.best feeling ever. i was so nervous, excited, scared, thankful- all of the above. this was way out of my comfort zone and so different than anything i'd ever done. but i HAD to try it. this was what i'd been working for! joey & i decided to take a leap of faith and try this out. we'd give it a few months and if all went well then we'd work on bringing adelynn home to be with me. i wanted to get all my training for the new job under my belt, get comfortable, and see how it all worked before just bringing her home right away.

so, what do i do? i'm a career consultant for Adjuster Pro! (www.adjusterpro.com ) the way i describe it to people is this: i'm kinda like a college advisor- i help students figure out the best path to take in obtaining licensing in states throughout the country to become a licensed Insurance Adjuster. we offer exam prep courses, software training, CE credits, etc etc etc the list goes on. we help license, certify, and train adjusters all over the country. we have online classes, live classroom courses, and my job is to help people figure out what they need/want and how to do it. i answer questions along the way, and basically just help however i can. i talk to them on the phone, email, and live chat through our website! all of this i do from home and work an 8 hour day just like i would if i commuted to an office everyday. our entire company is virtual, so everyone works from home. we have employees all over the country! its pretty dang cool. we have meetings on conference calls, webcam meetings, and IM each other all day long.

i've also started doing some work with our social media. i expressed an interest and they've been supportive in me pursuing that side of things. we have a social network, facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc. so i've been working to ramp those things up and be more active. LOVE IT.

so in a nut shell, thats what i do! i had adelynn home with me a couple weeks ago when she had HFM and they were very understanding and supportive. for the most part, i was able to get work done normally- granted i wasn't on the phone so that made a huge difference. next week daycare is closed so i'll have her home with me, and this will be a sort of 'trial run' to see how it goes with a non-sick baby and me working on the phone. fingers crossed it works out, i would love love love to have her home with me full time. we'd save so much money, and aside from that- i just want to be the one to raise my baby! i hate being away from her, and missing out. ever since i got pregnant with her i've been trying to find a way to do this. and i hope this is it. many prayers hoping this works how we want it to. could make things a lot easier/better for our family in many ways!


www.adjusterpro.com  --website

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www.twitter.com/AdjusterPros --twitter

http://www.adjusterspace.org/ -- our very own social network

http://www.adjusterpro.com/insurance-adjuster-blog/  -- our blog