ALMOST DONE!!!! HOORAY!!!!

So, over the past couple days (since the closing for our home in Arkansas is coming up this week), I've been busy tying up all the loose ends. I called the Bentonville utilities & State Farm about our homeowners policy, to cancel all of those as of March 9th (HOORAY!!!). I also got all the closing docs from the title company in AR---they emailed them to us, we printed them off, and then went to a local Real Estate Law Office to have them notarized (I called banks, the courthouse, etc., trying to find a notary public to notarize our documents. They don't have title companies here, and very few notary publics. People sign all their closing docs at real estate law offices. After searching around for a couple days, finally we found someone to do it). Then this morning I went to the bank to get the cashiers check for the closing & sent the package via FedEx, with all the docs & the check in it, to the title company, so it's there by Monday or Tuesday for the closing on Friday. Then we will be FREE AT LAST!!!!!! YAHOOOOOO!!!!!! That will be a GREAT feeling. Not so great to lose so much on the house, but wonderful to know it's over and done with & we won't have to worry about it any more. We will be CELEBRATING next Saturday once this house stuff is all done!!! :)

The other thing I've been trying to do is figure out where to get our taxes done. Because we have to file in both the U.S. and Canada, it's going to be very complicated and there aren't many places around here that do both. So someone at Neil's office recommended someone in downtown Toronto. I called the office & they said that yes, they can do both. I asked how much it would cost & they said anywhere from $1000-$1200 for a basic return, and it goes up from there as it gets more complicated. I about died, and then he said that was just for the U.S. return, and it would be about the same for the Canadian return. HOLY CRAP! With all our investments in both countries, our home and land in the states, our move to Canada, etc., I figured it would be on the "more complicated" side and cost even more. That could be a $2500-$3000+ bill! NO WAY! So then I called several H&R Block offices in the area & heard that one in Toronto does both U.S. & Canadian returns. So I called them (several times, leaving several messages), and couldn't ever get a response, so we finally decided to try some offices in Niagara Falls. We figured that since they are so close to the U.S. border, maybe they would do both returns. HOORAY! We found someone who could do it, and it would only cost us about $500-$600. So, THEN I had to find another H&R Block office here in our area that would scan all our documents (which was a LOT) to the office in Niagara Falls. The lady there will do all the paperwork & call us once they are prepared, and then we'll drive to her office to go over it all & sign it. One more checkmark off our To-Do list. :)

Anyway, everything else is going great. We are looking forward to Spring Break in a couple of weeks. We are going to go to Palmyra, NY (only about 3 hours away), and Kirtland, OH (about 4 hours away--the other direction) to see some of the church history sites & have fun with the kiddos. We love family vacations!

AND...now that we know there is an end in sight, we finally booked our trip to take the kids to DisneyWorld this summer. We thought about going for Christmas or Spring Break, but wanted to wait until our house sold. We are SO excited!!! We will be gone for 2 weeks. We'll drive there in 2 days, go to all 4 Disney parks over 7 days (Disney's Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios), go to the beach, and maybe a few other things in the area like Gatorland USA, Cape Canaveral, etc, and then drive home in 2 days. And the best part is, we are going to rent a 3-bedroom home with a private pool, about 10 minutes from the Disney parks. It comes with a "welcome pack of groceries" & has a washer & dryer (which will be SO nice), and a lot more space than a little hotel room. And for the full 11 days that we'll be there, it will only cost us $1265! That's only about $115 per night! We couldn't get a hotel room for that price, because with 6 of us, we usually have to get the family suite, or 2 rooms conncected to fit all of us. We are really excited! It will be SO MUCH FUN...WE CAN'T WAIT!!! :)