Penchuk.com

On Saturday around 1:30 Laura and I received a phone call from our realtor. She told us there were new listings waiting for us in our email. We got home, put Ben to sleep and then took the next few hours to look them over. We decided we should go look at 4 of them…and do it that day. Are we glad we did because the first house we saw turned out to be a great one.

After seeing the house, which you can see on my pictures page, we fell in love with it and decided to make an offer that night. We scrambled to find a mortgage broker who could write us a pre-qual letter so that we could be the first ones with an offer. We got one and the offer was in. So, it was waiting time.

Sunday morning around 7:00, I asked Laura if she was awake. She said yes. I said, what are you thinking about? Of course, I knew because I was thinking the same thing. We had to wait until a little after 3:00 to hear that are offer was rejected, but that if we came back with a different offer at a certain price, it would be accepted. We decided to meet that afternoon at 5:30 with both realtors, the sellers and us.

We signed the updated offer and we’re very happy to move to our new house, just 7 minutes from our offices. It’s located in Cary, just minutes from Preston Corners. It’s exactly where we want to be. The house backs up to a Greenway that leads to Bond Park. All in all, we’re thrilled to be moving.

Just this morning, Laura and I signed the papers to accept an offer on our house. We’re very happy that we’ve made this progress and that we’re getting the opportunity to move closer to our jobs, but we have mixed feelings. This is a great house in a great neighborhood. We will miss it.

Anyone selling something closer to Cary, NC?

Not too long ago I read that some folks with websites were posting the names of long lost friends in hopes that those friends would do a Google search and reconnect. The idea sounded intriguing so I’m going to put the theory to test. Here’s a few folks I’d like to hear from:

• Matt Pantaleoni
• Emily Weinberg
• Laura Finkelson
• Erik Kuja

• Chet Curry
• Gary Wiecenski
• Tim Madden
• Michael Kammen

• Michelle Baker
• Stayci Bardoni
• Eric Boghen
• Debbie Dziok
• Carolyn Keating
• Chelsea Smith
• Michelle McGregor (MF)

This afternoon we purchased a twin bed so that Ben could make the transition to a real bed. I put it together this evening and we brought him upstairs to see it. The sly smile on his face was great to see. Me thinks that he felt really important and, for lack of a better phrase, like a big boy. He slowly crawled around the bed and then got up and did a few jumps and leaps as he normally does on Mommy and Daddy’s bed.

Maybe more than anything, he seemed to be proud to sleep in a real bed. It was cool to see the whole thing. Wish you could have been there.

Before bed every night, we read a book called Good Night Gorilla to Ben. He loves it. It’s about a zookeeper that says good night to all of the animals in the zoo while the title character, Gorilla, steals Joe’s keys (that the zookeeper). Gorilla lets all of the other animals out of their cages and they all follow the clueless Joe home and go to sleep in his bed and around his room. Mrs. Joe (we don’t know her name) wakes up after all of the animals wish each other “Good Night”. These two pages are completely black except for Mrs. Joe’s eyes that are clearly surprised.

Every night, Ben turns the page and feigns surprise. Somedays are more dramatic than others but no matter what, it puts quite a smile on our faces. It’s the little things in life, right?

One of my best buddies, Rich and his wife, Julissa, are expecting. They’re due in November. We’re very excited for them. Stop by his website and drop him an email.

There are some things about being a parent that bring unbelievable joy to life. Just yesterday, Laura and I found out that Ben likes hummus. We were a little stunned. Not only does he like it, he also wanted more…and more. Laura finally made the comment, “This kid is addicted to hummus.” There are some things you just don’t expect to hear.