Life with the Kubacki Family

Wow...How Times Flies

2012-02-25T01:11:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. I was checking my security settings for Facebook and noticed I had been doing a blog. So much has happened in the last year I am not sure I can consolidate it into one post. I maybe I will make this a Sunday evening (after the kids are in bed and the house is quiet) ritual.

More to come.... stay tuned...

Getting itchy for another Family reunion.... more about this later.

Kenn

June some highs and some lows

2010-08-06T00:05:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

I know that you are glad that I am breaking this up. So June was a month of highs and lows for the Kubacki family. After we got the move out of the way we went straight for a trip to Seiverville Tennessee for the Marbach family reunion. None of us have seen each other is one setting since our Beach Reunion in 1999, so it had been more than 10 years since we were all together. My Aunt Dottie got us a great place called the The Oak Haven Resort. It was beautiful. Even played a round of golf with my Uncle Rob and cousin Robbie on a 4 star golf course. what a beautiful course on the French Broad River. Had a great time. Anyway, the Tuesday before the reunion my Grandma, the matriarch of the family, had multiple strokes. She survived those and showed signs of improvement in rehab, so my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mike made the long trip (10hours + drive) to attend Friday and Saturday. We waited up for them until 5am when they arrived. It was good to have all the family together. One of the highlights was the picnic that we had at a local park/picnic shelter. All the kids and families all in one place, eating, playing games, and catching up.. What a great time.

The Marbach children and spouses
l-r: ROB and Katy, Mike and MARYBETH, DENNIS and Dottie, Ken and PAM, PHIL and Donna

(children are in caps)

and here is a picture of the entire family...

3 generations of Marbachs
Marbach children seated in order of birth.
Phil, Dennis, Pam, Marybeth, and Rob.

And then the first cousins in order from right to left - Michelle (old), Kenn (less old), Paul (missing), Denise (old and pregnant), Karen (missing), Korey, Kris, David, Cheryl, Laura, Mike, Melissa, Robbie

Of course, it wouldn't be a family reunion unless we did something as a family. My Uncle Rob brought a 16" softball (requires no glove) and all the family got into the action.. Here are some actions shots although I have a lot of my Uncle Mike in all sorts of poses (not by my choice).

Uncle Mike shows Ryan how to play 1st base

Aunt Beth and Uncle Dennis "coach"

Michelle strike one

Ryan tells (great)Uncle Dennis "I am safe!, Look!"

Ryan says "bring it on"

Uncle Mike talks "junk" to Ann Marie on First!

David waits for the pitch!

Uncle Rob delivers.

a little horseplay at 2nd... always happens with our family.

Aunt Beth and Uncle Dennis coaching the bench.

There was a lot more that happened.. Just not enough room to post all 300 pictures I took.. It was great to see family and hang out.. I heard someone say that it WILL NOT BE ANOTHER 10 YEARS before we do this again. Our families change so much everyday... We need to have all of our family together every 3 years. I hope we can accomplish this.

Unfortunately, Grandma didn't fare so well.. She passed on on July 10th, 2010. To read her incredible obituary go here. She is and will be greatly missed. Thanks to my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mike who opened up their house to all the family that needed a place to stay is never enough. I imagine my Aunt Beth never really got a chance to grieve while we were there and I appreciate her more than she will ever know. Did I mention she is my God-Mother.. I love my God-Mother..

I will call it a night and continue with June in the AM..

Stay Tuned

Kenn

OK sorry Heres a long update.

2010-08-05T21:30:00.001-04:00

K so I am sorry.. I kinda left everyone hanging... Needless to say things got very very hectic after my last post. A lot of things have happened, and I have had a couple of fellow bloggers get on me to update. It was actually Phils Post that pushed me over the edge.

So here goes my last blog date was May 18th.
Here is what happened.

May 19th we went to their lawyers and sign over the house to the new buyers.. Yea!! We sold the house and we did it on our terms.. That actually went pretty smoothly. For a brief second we were, in our eyes, rich. In the same vein we were homeless as well. By this point the POD that was in the drive way was filled and ready to be moved to the new location. Bye Bye 205 Cross Hill Lane we hope you will serve your new owners proudly.

Call Tara if you need help selling or buying.. She did so much for us! Thanks Tara!

On the same day we had our final walk-thru on our new house. That went ok, but there were still issues that needed to be resolved. I had paid a home inspector to go and check things out(even though home inspectors, according to our builder rep were just leeches on the whole building industry and a waste of time), did I mention that he found a light in the on position in the bonus room that was not connected to a switch so it couldn't be turned off? Just saying, maybe not such a bad idea to have one done.

May 20th 10am We are headed to the new house builders lawyers to do the same to our new house. We are told it should only take an hour maybe an hour and a half to sign all the papers and get the keys. As we are going through the papers and signing them Susan notices so discrepancies about the funding, about $2600 worth of issues. So we call the Mortgage lender, she is out until 1pm. We call the VP of the builder and he isn't really helping any, just sounding like he is. So we sign what we can and I take Susan to lunch (we're rich remember) no McDonalds this lunch. We wait as long as we can and return to see if we have heard anything from Wells Fargo about the mistake THEY have made. Around 3:30 it all comes down to these two options: 1. Even though Wells Fargo made mistakes in the paperwork concerning our mortgage they can redo this paperwork, but it will take another 7-10 days to get it done and approved and the will not be able to guarantee our "preferred" lending rate. OR option 2 they are willing to forfeit the Mortgage Lenders agents commission and put that towards the price ($1300) and we can sign and leave today (keeping in mind that it means we will have to eat $1300).
Since we had already sold our house and the new owners were nice enough to let us live in it rent free we knew we wouldn't be able to stay another 7-10 days. It also meant we would have had to rent the POD for an additional 7-10 days, we would have to load all of our stuff into a moving truck that Saturday and rent it for 5-7days, and then rent a hotel for the Kubackis for a week, and board the dogs for a week, it wasn't worth the $1300 so we took our losses and ran with keys in hand. So nice to have one less stress in our lives.

In the mean time, Ryan and I are still doing U4/U5 TBall..

The YMCA Bees did really well. They all came a long way from playing in the dirt and not being interested, to the last game when we were going home, Ryan says "Daddy, I really like T-Ball can we play again next year?" Of course I said sure we can and next year you will be much better than this year because you practiced.
Saturday May 21st. Moving Day...
Thank you to all that came and helped us move our entire house, clean, and get things into the new house. Friends like you are few and far between. If I can do anything for you please let me know how I can repay this huge indebtedness.
The move itself went very smooth. 10-11 great guys showed up and took care of the heavy lifting and moving. Only one fatality and it was a piece of furniture I have been wanting to get rid of for a long time.

So when we moved into the house the sod was dead. I mean brown, ugly, never going to live again dead. It took the builder a month to decided if it was going to live or die before it was replaced.

Also had a fence installed which, in my opinion, looks really nice.

So we have moved.. We are in and finally things are "normal"

More in my next post coming right up.

Here is a preview: A trip to Chicago -

The end is near!! I see a light at the end of the tunnel

2010-05-18T23:29:00.000-04:00

We finally have closing dates...

Tomorrow morning the buyers of our house will do their walk through before we meet with the lawyer to finalize the closing of our house. I must admit a little surreal for me as this house is my first house that I purchased.. I watched it being built, put ethernet cabling in myself before the drywall went up, and it is my first house. I am a little sad. On Thursday however we close on our new house. Twice the size of here.. Places to hide, and a garage to work on my vehicles.. Oh! did I mention my office? I can't wait.... We will close on our new house on Thursday.. Then the moving begins. We have been boxing and packing the "Packman" for three weeks now.. Its almost full. It gets moved to the new house on Thursday.. Cable is installed on Friday, New Refrigerator is delivered on Friday.. Then Friday night after work, and Saturday morning we will move all of our stuff into the new house.. (are you available? we need your help!!!)

So a major source of stress is about to be a done deal. Its been a long road.

TBall has started and I decided to coach Ryans team.. Interesting(Challenging) to say the least.. Ryan and I have a game on Saturday, so we will go play the game and then rush back to the house to move...

I would be remiss if I didn't say we are thinking about Grammie, Terry, Mom and her quick recovery from her surgery.. We know how tough you are.. You are in our thoughts.

Thats it for now... Pictures next time of new house, tball, and things happening in our life.

Got an extra couple of hours.. come help us move this weekend.. I'll feed you good and make sure that you are watered good too...

Kenn

Buying a new mattress?? Check out what Consumer Reports has to say!

2010-04-25T21:31:00.000-04:00

Moving Day getting close... Need your help!

2010-04-25T20:44:00.000-04:00

Alright.. Closing on the new house is set for Friday May 7th in the AM.. That afternoon we will have the PODS storage container to the new house all loaded up So if you are available Friday afternoon we could use your help. We will also be renting a moving truck for Saturday to move the big and bulky... Furniture and whatever we were unable to get into the PODS container.

Susan and I have been working feverishly and we have the PODS container loaded a 1/4 of the way.

We are excited that all of this is coming together. So if you are able to help we will need your help on Friday afternoon and or Saturday @ 10am. Let us know that you are coming so I can prepare pizza, beer, soda, and water.

Yes, I am aware its Mothers Day... I didn't pick the date.. Sorry.

Hope to see you May 7th or May 8th

Kenn

Closing and Moving Day

2010-04-22T23:03:00.000-04:00

ALRIGHT.. The stress level in the Kubacki house is coming back down to normal.. Initial inspection of the new house set for 8am May 3rd. Final Inspection scheduled for 8am May 7th and then 9:30 close on new house. PM of May 7th.. packing and moving. The end is in sight. Just wanted to update everyone.. We are so excited. Somewhere in the middle there we have to close on our current house..

Thanks to my mom and dad and their generosity and the 15% off from the feds we have a new refrigerator.. Thanks Mom and Dad for the AWESOME housewarming gift.

More later.
Kenn

House Update - The saga is over

2010-04-19T20:52:00.000-04:00

We found out today that the builder is willing to work with us. He has agreed to the appraised value of the home as the contract price (YEA!), unfortunately all of the appliances that we thought we were going to roll into the mortgage aren't going to happen. SO that means in a matter of 10-15 days we will have to purchase our own Refrigerator and Washer and Dryer. An expense that we didn't plan on. On the positive side we will be closing on our new home very shortly. I visited today and the house was clean and appeared to be ready to go. It even had gutters.

Here are two pics...

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch and life updates

2010-04-18T23:02:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,
Its been a long time since I last wrote. When you hear all the things that have been going on you'll understand why its taken so long.

STS-131 Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery trip to Florida
At the beginning of April Ryan and I had the opportunity to head south to Florida with my Mom, Dad, and brother Korey to see one of the last space shuttle launches to ever happen. History in the making. A little background to this story: In December of 1985 the Kubacki family were in Florida for a trip to Disney World when my mother caught wind that the Space Shuttle Columbia would be launching. So we headed to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch (STS-61-C).. Long story short.. some how, someway we ended up at a VIP launch viewing area. we could see the shuttle all lit up on the pad ready to go. I can't explain or describe the excitement of that countdown waiting for the shuttle to blast into the sky and we had a front row seat. We went through all the holds and finally the count down continued... 20..19..18..17..16..15..14... and then the words count down on HOLD. We waited and waited and waited.. This particular mission was riddled with problems History of STS-61-C click the link to see all the problems. So for 25 years its been a dream to see a shuttle launch. With only 5 left (at the time) we made the trip.
So it was a 9 hour drive from Raleigh to Titusville FL. Thankfully, we took breaks (thanks Mom and Dad) and didn't try to make it all in one night. We did some sight seeing on Saturday spent some time on the beach and int he ocean which Ryan absolutely loved, and then back to the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center to view the launch of Discovery at 6:21am. Ryan was a trooper the entire trip (I was really scared that the trip was going to be a disaster with him melting down for many reasons). Anyway, we arrived at the KSC VC at 11:00pm to get a great spot to see the launch. So imagine sitting in your camp chairs from 11pm waiting for 6:21am and a couple of thousand other people trying to see the same. Not much sleep happens, although we brought Ryan a sleeping bag, put it on the ground, got him in it, and he was the only one that got a good nights sleep (which was bad in a very specific respect, more in a sec).. so in between some cat naps and getting some hot coffee at 5:55am I woke Ryan up.. We were in for a special treat the Internation Space Station would fly directly overhead and be visible just before the shuttle launched that morning. That was exciting... and then they started the count down.. You can watch my video of this event (8 minutes long but well worth it) STS-131 Launch. Again.. I can not explain or describe exactly how I felt when it went up although I think you might get a good idea if you listen to the audio of the launch. What an incredible experience.. Mom and Dad made this possible for Ryan and I to go so we can't thank them enough.. They have given us so much.
So back to that little issue of Ryan getting a good nights sleep.. The intent was to go back to the campground and get a couple of hours of sleep after the launch.. We stayed at Jetty Park Campground ( Jetty Park CG ) which is a really nice campground.. I wish we had some time there. So we get breakfast and head back to the campground and I can tell that Ryan is beginning to get ready for the day. We all attempted to take a 'NAP' but there was no way Ryan was down with that.. I think I laid my head down for an hour at th emost and Ryan was ready to eat and get the day started. Bad planning.. Not good.. We got through it though. We headed back that morning drove straight through and arrived at 9:30pm. Everyone is still speaking to one another so I say it was a great trip..
Here are some pics: Enjoy!

Dad and Ryan -Space Cadets

Grandma and Ryan Jetty Park Beach

This is taken early.. Notice Ryan crashed out, I should have done the same

Space Shuttle Discovery just coming over the treeline

Close up shot of Discovery- Lens is fogged from being out all night

If you would like to view all of my pictures here are the links:

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

Astronauts Hall of Fame

OK so if you are still reading..All that in just one weekend... WOW what an experience....

New House updates.

What a damned roller coaster... We thought that selling the house was stressful, this whole process has more than its share of stress. So we entered into this trying to get 100% financing through the USDA program... We did all the paperwork and we were ready to go. Then the appraisal for the house came through. The appraisal came in almost $10k less than we are under contract for... SHOCKED? is not even a word that covers what we were.. So what do we do now?? Well the builder is just as shocked as we are. The builder suggests to Susan that we apply for another loan at a different bank to get another appraisal.. The catch as she is talking to this rep at 3pm on a Friday, the apolication needs to be done by 5 pm becuase the USDA financing program ends that day they suggest getting that application in the same day in 2 hours. I believe that is the first time I have heard my wife use an expletive that starts with a "f" since we have been married. So that didn't happen and for good reason. The builder gets an "independent" appraiser to appraise the house. That appraisal comes in approx $2500 over our contract price.. So Susan and I decide that its time to try the VA loan route. Same bank, different appraiser, so again we wait, and wait, and wait. Finally this Friday the appraisal is ready... It comes in $2,000 more than the original appraisal and ~$7,500 less than our contract price. So they are having a meeting on Monday to discuss it and we should know more on Monday morning.. Rumor has it that the builder wants to pull all the appliances to try and get close to the difference in price.. We will update as soon as we know. But it does appear that we will definitely close on our new dream home. It looks awesome.. they are putting the finishing touches on it and getting it ready for inspections.. We are very tired (very very very tired in this process) and excited at the same time.

Follow this link Latest House PIcs and Kids Together Outing. to see the most recent pictures of the house as well as our outing for the Kids Together Family Fun event.. We joined up with some other Jaycee families and close friends to raise money for this worth cause and then we grilled out.. We really had a blast.. We are looking forward tot he next event.

So this is it for now.. Ryan and I start YMCA T-ball next week... It should be interesting.. and I am sure that there will be plenty of pictures...

Take care until next time.

Busy Weekend - Birthdays -Birthdays- Birthdays and Lots of Fun!!

2010-03-22T23:12:00.002-04:00

This past weekend went by too quick.. Don't they all? This weekend was action packed with fun for the whole family. Friday Susan decided to have a girls night out. Cool, I thought, but there is no way I am staying inside with these two lovely munchkins on my own. As it turned out the Raleigh Jaycees (http://www.RaleighJaycees.org)had a member social that night at Adventure Landing in Raleigh. For $5 a head we got unlimited Laser Tag, Pizza, and mini-golf from 6:30 to 10pm. Perfect.. I sent an text message to my brother Korey to see if he was going (always nice to have a little support) and to the President of the Chapter to make sure that kids would be ok at this event. Got the thumbs up on both so we kissed mommy goodbye and we hit the road. Of course the first thing that we have to watch is the go-karts. Ryan, of course, is already asking if we can go.. It all depends on how you act, Buddy was my response (A response that I am using more and more these days I might add). So we went inside and Ryan goes berserk with all the arcade games, even Morgan is running around pressing buttons and "Playing" games. Shortly thereafter Uncle Korey shows up and helps Ryan with some games, while I watch Morgan fascinated by all lights and sounds. Soon Ryan is running back with Uncle Korey, I say Uncle Korey why don't you show Ryan how to do laser tag? After about 20 minutes or so Ryan comes running back, all sweaty with a huge grin on his face. Uncle Korey is a little behind him also sweaty, Ryan can't say enough about laser tag.. He wants to go back for more. SO Uncle Korey and I switch. Ryan and I head to the laser tag arena. Here is a pic of the entrace of the arena (I don't remember black light and florescent paint bothering me so much, I must be getting old). Here is a pic to the entrance.

So we played once and I remember this course with ramps going up and down, very dark, and little red dots all over the place. Ryan was two up on me as he had already played before and was off like a shot. So I have this laser tag gear on, I have a 4 year old that is charge up like there is no tomorrow and he takes off and just starts blasting people (me included! we got that remedied very quickly I promise). He was all over that arena and people are just laughing at this little kid darting out from no where and shooting them.. When that game was over we decided one more game. Unfortunately , the laser gear I was wearing wasn't working correctly so I was stuck out of the game, chasing after Ryan. Let me tell you.. it was near impossible to keep my eye on this kid at all times.. he sure is quick. So when that game ended we went in for a third this time with my gear working, but by this time I could tell he wasn't climbing the ramps as quickly as he had before. He was tired out. Finally the last game was over (and a good thing too because the "big kids" were starting to line up and Ryan and I would have been out of our league). We went back to get uncle Korey and Morgan and they were having fun "playing" with all the lights and buttons. It was time... Time for the go-karts.. I knew I wasn't going to be able to leave with out one ride.. So I paid for Uncle Korey and Ryan to take some laps. One of of the laps you can actually hear Ryans laugh OVER the loudness of the go-kart engine. Thats whats its all about folks right there.. That laugh. I am going to try and post a short movie of the trip.. Hope it works. It didn't. :(

Birthdays

Morgan turned 2 on St. Patricks Day.. She had a blast hanging out with Family. She was completely opposite of Ryan. She was ready, eager, and waiting to dive into opening presents. Thanks to eveyone that came and shared the day with her. Here are a couple of photos.

Click on this pic and look at Morgans face - Priceless!

More Birthdays!!!! Nate and Lucy our twin Niece and Nephew turned 1 this past weekend.. Geesh where does all the time go. Aunt Lisa got the twins a bounce house for the backyard.. Here are some pics of that happy event.

Whats a 1st birthday without a little mess x2 of course.

A little bounce house fun x2

All the cousins get into the action.

Finally an update on the new house. The drywall is all up, patched, and Susan says today that they primer painted them. There are interior doors and cabinets for the bathrooms and kitchen are all hung. They did put the incorrect kitchen cabinets up so we are hoping that they won't take too long fixing that mistake, but we are in the finally stretch of the house being complete. The excitement is building (sorry about the pun)

Hope everyone is doing well. Next Weekend is the North Carolina Zoo with the Raleigh Jaycees (http://www.RaleighJaycees.org) again. Until next time..... Take care,

The Kubackis

Fun Times!

2010-03-14T00:17:00.001-05:00

With all the stress in the Kubacki household its nice to have stress relievers once in a while.. Especially for the kids sake. We have done some pretty cool things lately that I'd like to share with everyone.

I don't think Wool E. Bull knew what he was in for

1. The Durham Bulls have their season open house. If you purchase a reg season game tickets, you can goto the park on Friday and now they have extended it to Saturday and have free lunch, go out of the field, meet Wool E. Bull and Blue the Wall Monster, run the bases, they even set up a pitching machine so you can take your chance at hitting a home run. I have gone for the last 4 years and this year it was time to take Ryan. We both had a blast.. He got to play with(tackle) Wool E. Bull and we threw the baseball around, and ran the bases.. It was a blast.. I can't wait for next year.. Here are a couple of pics of the day.

Ryan concentrates on hitting the ball

Ryan Plays catch with Wool E. Bull he was in heaven

Can you see the happiness in his face? This is Blue the Wall monster.

2. We have been playing a lot of Wii Bowling.. Usually its Susan, Ryan, and Myself. Ryan being the typical 4 year old he doesn't really have the coordination to do a great job.. Although he does well sometimes, ask Susan.. I decided, since Ryan had no concept of REAL bowling, to take him out and show him its not that easy in real life(I wonder if he put two and two together between the Wii and real bowling), anyway we called up some good friends to see if they were interested in bringing Anna and Lilly out to try some bowling. We ALWAYS have a good time with Anna and Lilly... Anyway after going to one Bowling alley finding out that they had a bowling tourney and no lanes, calling another and finding the same problem we finally found lanes that would accommodate. For the Record John won, the kids almost beat us, and we couldn't remember when the last time any of us had bowled last and it showed in our scores.. Ryan and Anna had a blast, it was great to catch up with Meg and John... Even Lilly and Morgan seems to be having fun of their own.. We look forward to doing that again.. Here are some pics:

Anna and Meg line up for the first shot.. Although it looks alot like Anna helping mommy move her "walker" out of the way!

Susans first throw is a strike.."Wow, maybe that Wii bowling really is helping me" It went downhill from there.

Susan, John, Lilly, and Morgan discuss Wii vs AMF

The whole gang getting into the bowling action!!

Anna and Ryan having a blast.. Not Pictured: Popcorn

Finally, a house update.. We they are moving lightening fast on our new house. Within 2 days of the "pre-drywall" meeting insulation went up, and today we found that almost all the drywall is already up. So exciting. I am sure that there is a lot left for them to do.. The realization hit me that we were really building a house when the insulation went up and 1. you couldn't see through the walls, 2. how amazingly quiet it was with walls. We put the last escrow payment in and released the contingency to sell the our house as we are confident that these buyers are the ones that want our house. Oh and did I mention that the house next door to us... it was a concrete slab one day and then two days later it shows up... pretty amazing. Here are some pics of the house.. Cause I know you haven't seen enough of them.

Notice the pillars on the porch and all of a sudden the house next door.

The front foyer as you first walk in the front door

The living room and fake fireplace. Yes I am bitter!

Morgans 2nd birthday party is tomorrow..Our families will be here one last time in our old home before all is moved.. I can't believe that Morgan is already 2.... Where the hell has time time gone??

I'd also like to wish my sister, Kristen, a very happy birthday.. Today is her day.. She and he boyfriend are headed out to Angus Barn ($$$$) for dinner and then the $1.50 Movie Theater ($).... I hope she has many, many more.

Until next time... sooner rather than later...

The Kubacki Family.

Oh my the stress

2010-03-09T23:20:00.000-05:00

I now know why people only move their primary residence once every 20 years. All the stress of selling and buying a house. So as I had blogged before we had a buyer, we were under contract and we were supposed to close on March 16th. Unfortunately that deal fell through... Thankfully, even though we were in a contingent contract with another buyer, a second buyer did a showing of our house and they loved it. They submitted their backup offer and we are again under contract.. YEA..... Some day ill explain it all but right now it just makes my head hurt. So, we are scheduled to close on April 30th which just happens to be really close to when our new house is supposed to be done. Here are the latest pictures of our house.

We had our "Pre-Drywall" meeting today and everything is moving along really well.. They estimate that 45-60 days to the finish date. We can't wait.. the house looks awesome.

This picture reminds me of when I was a kid, when my parents were building their first house. This is Ryan having a blast on the dirt mounds... Its getting harder and harder to get him away from them. Hell I want to go play on them.

Finally, I can't say enough about my Realtor, Tara Hargrove.. This truly has been a vicious roller coaster ride. I may not have kept my composure throughout the entire process, but Tara understood our frustration and continued to make things happen for us. She is a true Realtor professional and I would highly recommend her to anyone buying or selling a house. She is with Weichert Realty and her url is http://www.tarahargrove.com/

With all the stress in our lives we ALMOST forgot about Morgans 2nd birthday. Thanks to all family members who just learned of the party. Anyway its hard to believe that my little girl is 2. She is talking, has manners most of the time, knows how to tell you what she wants, and what she doesn't want.. It just happened over night. It hard to believe she is 2.

Thats it for now.. Time to get so shuteye for a long day tomorrow.

New House update

2010-02-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update.. I went by the new house today... They were finishing up the siding.. starting to look like a real house. Its quite amazing.

FINALLY! House under contract / Kids and Snow

2010-02-15T22:05:00.001-05:00

Alright! We are one step closer to being in the house of our dreams. Today, after 2.5 weeks of negotiating we have a signed contract on our Cross Hill House. We will close on March 16th (which is when I will be at peace) and then we will lease back from the new owner until our new house is ready Mid-End of April 2010. Here are some pics of where the house is as of February 13th.

The Plumbing is roughed in, Susan went by today and said they have started the Electrical rough in. Things are really shaping up It wont be long now... House inspection on Cross Hill is Wednesday..

Since the last update we had 2 snow events.. Here are some pictures:

Also during this time was Kindergarten Registration.. Susan signed Ryan up to start year round school in July. I am not sure how I feel about this.. On one hand the little boy that smiled everytime I got in his face with the camera, the little boy that looked in wonderment when we would go new places, and the little boy that always seemed so happy and carefree is growing up. It also means we will be able to afford the new house, but I can see my little boy growing up right in front of me.. It kind of scares me.

Morgan is talking more and more each day.. She is taking good notes from her older brother and is picking things up really quickly, she is however her own person and made COMPLETELY different from Ryan.

They are both precious and they are surviving Mommy and Daddys stress of selling a house, buying a house, and everything else.

Thats all for now.. I will try to be better at keeping this up.. Its hard to do when you have to leave your house for 4-5 hours at a time each weekend day.

Kids growing up so fast - A day at the park

2010-01-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

After a couple of weeks of Chicagoland weather here in Raleigh we are finally glad to get back to why we moved here (Temps have been in the 60s during the day). Monday was Martin Luther King rememberance holiday. State employees were off, day care workers were not. YEE HAW!! Unfortunately, since we are still trying to sell the house I spent 6 hours under the house putting plastic down (a.k.a vapor barrier) in the crawl space under the house. Did I mention that there is about 18 inches of clearance in any one point under the house. My whole body, and muscles that I had forgotten that I had, hurt both yesterday and today. Anyway, back to the point, we promised Ryan that we would pick him up early. We picked the kids up around 4pm and the weather being what it was, 60 degrees and sunny, we went to the park to play. Both Ryan and Morgan had a blast. Just looking at the pics it occurred to me how grown up they looked. I am not ready for that I can assure you.. I have posted some pics of Ryan and Morgan playing at the park(below). This was a first @ the park for Morgan because as hard as she tried to follow Ryan (all previous attempts @ the slide) to the top of the "big kids playground" she couldn't bring herself to go down the slide. This day she went straight up and came right down that slide and didn't even think about it.. Did I mention I am not ready for this yet? When we got to the park we ran into one of Ryans friends Charlie.. They had a blast, all three of them. As I am sure that you will see in the pictures.

House update.. We have wood. They delivered the framing of our new home, its really not all that in its current state.. As I am sure that you are painfully aware I will update you often.
Selling our house: we have had 14 showings, an open house and not one bite. Some have complained about the cemetery in the back yard, some have complained about the size of the lot, some have said it was an awesome house, we just never hear back from them. Tomorrow we advertise a carpet allowance to see if ppl that have come already were held back by that, and offer straight upfront to replace carpet that is 8 years old and well used. Once again the links if you know someone that is looking for a starter home: http://205crosshill.com

Here are the pics of the kids and our newly acquired wood:

Morgan going down the slide:

Ryan, Charlie, and Morgan having a blast at the park.

Morgan looking happy at the park.

Ryan and Charlie have fun on the tire swing

Really Dad, I am ready to drive.. Can I??? Can I???

Ryan and Charlie race down the slide. (Charlie won!)

Ryan building up the confidence to jump across the GREAT ravine.

and he makes it... "Can I play in the water Daddy?"

What is childhood without Trees?

Too cute for words...

Oh yes... Don't forget about our 'Wood'

Until next time.. The Kubacki Family signing off..

Out with the Old... In with the new....

2010-01-08T18:03:00.011-05:00

OK, so Susan isn't getting rid of me just yet... I am talking houses. I am proud to announce that we are finally ready to put our current house on the real estate market. Yes, we are trying to sell our family home. Who knew it would take 2 months of work to get it into good enough shape so that complete strangers could come in and take a look. It was listed this morning about 9:30 am, and I hope that this is a good sign the first 2 (yes, not one but two) prospective buyers wanted to see the place. The feedback we received was positive so thats a relief too. Anyway, if you want to take a look at what we have to offer here is the link to one of our listings: http://205crosshill.com .
We put a contract on a new house just five miles from where we are right now.. Take a look at this Map(click the " - " in the map to see just how close we are):
View Larger Map

Here are a couple of pictures: This one is what the house is going to look like!

This one is what we currently have as of yesterday:

Susan is calling me time to go do more cleaning... Another showing @ 12:30... Wish us luck..

The Kubackis

Visit with Santa

2009-12-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

Today was the day.. Everyone was excited.. We made the trek to the mall to see Santa. When we walked into the mall and I looked around I thought maybe we'd made a mistake. Lots and lots of people everywhere, but we were here and we were hungry. So we made our way to the food sat down and ate and now it was time. Time to see how long the line to see Santa was. I was dreading this part. I thought for sure it being 4 days before Christmas we were going to be there 3 hours. I was pleasantly wrong. we stood in line for about 45 minutes which isn't bad. Ryan made new friends with the kids his age behind us. Morgan sat as long as she could in her stroller, then I picked her up. It was then I realized that Morgan had spilled her water in her seat.. Poor Santa... he didn't know what he was in for. Anyway, as we got closer it was harder and harder for Ryan to keep his composure (hard anytime longer than 3 minutes for Ryan on a good day). When we finally got around the tree, in view of Santa I heard Morgan say "No Santa!". This continued many more times and louder with ever step closer we got to Santa. At one point I thought we were going to be ok.. A parent in front of us just couldn't pick which picture was the best.. Santa got a break and waved to all the kids in line.. Ryan nearly jumped over the railing and surprisingly Morgan started waving at Santa, "Hi Santa" she would say - "Hi Santa" until we took another step closer to being next in line.

Bottom line it could have been worse the line could have been 3 hours long, with a couple of brats in front of us and a couple of brats behind us. Santa could have been a grump. He wasn't... We got our pictures and we were off to home and bed.. Not a bad trip to the mall to see Santa 4 days before Christmas.

Here are a couple of pictures:

I love the Magic in his eye in the picture.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Morgan will get it next year.