WW- Peaceful

(Lake Michigan)

Let's Make A Deal

We received a counter offer from the sellers. They came down quite a bit and we countered back coming up just slightly from our original offer. This whole process made me realize how much I actually like this new house. I've been picturing all the ways we could make it our own. I think this house would be a very good fit for us. It was actually much easier on me when I was more flippant about our offer. Add emotion to it and it is difficult to keep a level head. Luckily the hubby is a master negotiator, and does this for a living, so he is able to keep his emotions in check and keep it strictly business. Me? Well, I get nervous. On many different issues.

I guess I hadn't thought about the sellers keeping their house on the market until we actually sell our house. Basically that means that even if they accept our offer they can accept another offer if we haven't sold our house yet. Yipes! That is a scary thought. Could you imagine if we just sold our house and then they just accepted another offer? We'd be homeless! Fa-reaky! It seems that everything has to fall into place just right to make this work out. We'll see.

I suspect we will have this whole thing settled one way or the other by the end of the week. We'll either be staying put in our lovely but small house, or we'll be moving on up to the big and beautiful house in the "country". And then the real work would begin.

Whatever happens we'll be fine. Que Sara, Sara! Right? Still, I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed.

Church Chat?

It is always a crap shoot to predict how the boys will act in church on any given Sunday. For the most part they are pretty good. An hour is a long time to expect a small child to behave so we try not to be too strict. As long as they are fairly quiet, not climbing on people, and not fighting with each other we consider that pretty good.

This day the boys were all being very well behaved. It was a pleasant surprise because I knew they were tired from getting to bed later than usual the night before. The people in the pews surrounding us nodded and smiled in approval of the boys' good behavior. I nodded my head and beamed back at them as my head swelled. Then, halfway through the mass Tommy began whining that he had to go potty.

"No you don't. You went potty right before we came to church." I reminded him.

"I have to go poop, ma!" Tommy whispered back.

"No you don't." I tested him.

"Yes I do!" Tommy insisted.

Seeing that he wasn't giving up as he usually does when he is faking a potty break I asked Todd to take him to the restroom. A few minutes later Todd and Tommy returned from the bathroom and during one of the most solemn parts of the mass Tommy announced in his NONchurch voice, "Mom! I had a honking huge trucker turd! You should have seen it!"

I blushed a few shades of red, patted Tommy's back as I told him to hush, and listened to the ripple of laughter that spread through the surrounding pews. Head swelling remedied.

Haiku Friday

Thanks everyone!
Your wise words and advice helped
I am less stressed now.

Feeling much better
Very calm and reassured
Home's where the heart is

So, we decided
Put in a low-ball offer
We'll see where it goes

Indecision

My head hurts. I'm thinking too much. But I can't stop it. It just keeps spinning and spinning. Do we move, or do we stay? I just don't know. I'm beginning to loose sleep over it. I keep thinking of all the work that goes into selling a house, buying a new house, and then *nightmare* moving. Every time we are ready to put an offer on the house I second guess myself. Is it simply because of all the work that would need to be done? Am I really that lazy? Or am I being too emotional?

The house we looked at has most of the things we want in a home. Still, the thought of leaving this house is hard. And I know I can't make this decision on emotions alone. Clearly our house is not everything that we need. It is small. Only 1500 square feet. It has a one car garage that I can't even fit the minivan in. It has a smallish yard, and only 2 and a half bedrooms (very, very small 3rd bedroom) with little closet space. Still, we made it our own. We updated the baths, the kitchen, and just about every other room too. We painted it the way we like it and it feels like home.

This other house, well, it's great. It has a massive yard, three car garage, FIVE bedrooms, a fireplace (which we've ALWAYS wanted), three full baths, a second floor laundry room, an obscene amount of closet space and storage, and a master suite with two big closets. The kitchen is just okay compared to ours. The family room is a bit small. And the basement is not finished which would have to be done.

My house right now is just a few short blocks to my beloved Lake Michigan. We take walks around the neighborhood, through the cemetery (don't be creeped out, it is really beautiful and peaceful and I have many relatives including my sis buried there, and grew up walking through it), and of course past the lake. My mom lives 4 blocks away. We have great neighbors. When the boys get older (if we could stay in the house that long) they could walk or bike to school it is so close. We are only 12 years away from paying off this house and the mortgage payment is far less than a new house would be. Obviously.

The new house is not even in the city. It is in the town. It is only about 8 minutes from where we live now but somehow it seems farther. Still, Iknow it would be a nice compromise to Todd wanting to live in the country and me wanting to live in the city. There is a nice bike trail half of a block from the house that leads to a lovely park so at least we would have a nice walking/biking path and a park to play at. And there are lovely cornfields (no more Children of the Corn movies for me!) surrounding the subdivision. It is quiet and serene. But my lake. Ugh. I know I would drive by the lake every time I dropped the boys off at school, and we could play there and swim there anytime, but the walks to the lake after dinner would be no more. *sniff, sniff*

What a complete spazz I am being. I do realize that, you know. I bet all the military families reading this right now are thinking, "Shut your freaking hole, you spoiled brat!" And they'd be right! It is not like I'd be moving to another country for heavens sake! Get a grip, right?

But, my house. Oh my house. The first year here it was just hubby and I. We started out with nothing here. We made this house our own. We learned how to be parents here. I brought my babies home from the hospital to this house. I rocked them to sleep upstairs. I lay on the floor in the sunroom with them and snuggled. I breastfed them in the living room. Their first baths were in the clawfoot tub upstairs. They took their first steps in our living room. They had their first solid foods in our kitchen. They had their first popsicles on our front porch. We've had 6 Christmases here. Blah, blah, blah....

*sniff, sniff*

Maybe I should think about this when I don't have PMS.

*sniff, sniff*

WW- Vibrant

Back On The Clock

It is strange after being on "summer time" for the last few months to suddenly be thrust into school time again. Always watching the clock. Always rushing. And this year even more so than last year since Joey and Tommy both start school at 8:15 but Tommy is done at 11 and Joey is done at 11:30. That is an awful lot of running around. Thankfully Tommy only has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I was so proud of my boys today. Tommy acted like such a little grown up on his very first day of school ever. While all of the moms were busy putting their child's things in their cubbies Tommy went and did it all on his own. Every time I would try to help he insisted that he could do it. After he was done settling in he got busy playing and introducing himself to his classmates. He would walk right up to them and say, "Hi! I'm Tommy!" Such a dear.

Joey fell right back into the swing of things. He waved goodbye to me without so much of a look back. My big ole kindergartner. Always the big brother he kept promising Tommy that he would come and visit him (they are right across the hall from each other) if he had some spare time. They are such pals.
I guess I shouldn't feel too badly then that when Joey came running out of school towards us with his arms wide open he ran right past me to Tommy. He hugged him and patted him on the back and told him that he missed him. He then went to Ben, picked him up and swung him around. Ahh. Brotherly love. It was so sweet I almost didn't care that he completely forgot to say "hi" to me as he rushed off to the playground.

It all went very well in the end, and I can't complain. The boys did great for their first day school (and the hottest day of the year!) after having finished out the summer on a complete high. Ben had recovered from his nasty virus in less than 24 hours and was in full on party mode for the rest of the weekend. We toured the county fair, rode the rides, and ate the greasy food. The next day we spent all day on the boat and in the sun. The boys were overjoyed. Yesterday we spent our time playing at the park and getting our school supplies ready. We have been busy and the boys sleep schedule was way off from the norm, but they handled it really well.

We also took a look at a house that we have admired for a while. It has been for sale for a couple of months and we finally bit the bullet and scheduled a viewing. It is a great house. It has just about everything we want in a house. Now we are trying to decide if we put an offer in on the house and what we can afford. My mind has been in overload thinking of all the things that go into the possibility of moving. And the emotion of it too. I am trying to keep my mind off of it for the time being but it has been hard.

After this past weekend I feel like I am running on fumes. I'm already looking forward to this coming weekend so that I can maybe, just maybe, swing back into "summer time" again.