Great Day

I had the best day with the girls yesterday. Our school had a Fun Run to raise money and after I worked out at the YMCA, I went to their school so I could watch them run laps around the track. Fiona's class was first and after she went around once, I figured out that I could hop up there with her. Fiona took the word run seriously and baby girl actually ran a mile. She has some serious moves. It was pretty impressive. I helped her get some water and a "popstickle". We took some pictures of her class and then Buttercup's class came out. Buttercup is more of a stroller. She said it would have helped had they not just had recess and Brendan had not been chasing her. I walked a few laps with her and her friend.
Then I went and got Fiona's meds. We are having to get everything together before we leave. Fiona and I came home from school and hung out a bit before picking up another prescription. We were nice enough to bring Daddy some Dr. Pepper.
As I was driving home, I was grateful for a husband who appreciates that spending time with the girls and supporting them is more important than coming home to a spotless house. Which would be hard in our current condition. I just so enjoyed doing the fun run with them. I might not have worked out so hard had I known I would be on the track an additional mile and a half!

SOLD!

It has been quite the roller coaster with the buyer of our house. They started with the sales price of $299,999 and said they would pay $295,000 and have us pay $5,000 worth of closing costs. We countered back with the full price of $299,999 and their closing costs of $5,000. So then their realtor said they would pay the price of $299,999 but they wanted $6,000 back. We said sold. Then our realtor called back the next morning and said the offer was actually $299,000 with $6,000 paid on the closing costs! We said sold and then they took another $999 off. I was livid. That wasn't what we had agreed to. Hubby said that we were going to go down to Texas and lowball people as well. I said, hey it's their right to lowball all they want, but to change the offer after we had verbally accepted it was dishonest. Their realtor knew what they had done was shady and she actually took $500 off of her realtor's fees. But we went ahead and accepted their offer. I am just so glad not to have to OCD clean the house everyday. I guess I am not much of one for endurance, our house sold in just a little over 3 weeks! But we were having at least one person come through the house everyday. So, I couldn't just clean the house, I had to stage it everyday. Even the girls were getting on board. I went to make their beds one morning and I just had to snap the covers and the beds were made. I didn't want to turn the girls OCD as well!
But, the house closes 3 weeks from today. I am so excited about that.
I have also made the decision to home school the girls until we buy a house, which shouldn't last past Christmas. We are just moving to an apartment whose elementary school is more than 50% economically disadvantaged children. I don't want to dump the girls into the middle of that, as well as a new school, a new place to live, new state, etc. I found some really great websites, including one 3rd grade class that lists their daily calendar of studies. I mean, from 8:30-8:40am, they do free writing in their journals and then 8:40-9:10am phonics and word study. It's that detailed. It will make my job much easier and relieve my mind when it comes to worrying about my girls. So we can study for two hours in the morning and then take a break for lunch and swimming and then study for two more hours in the afternoon.
Things are definitely falling into place. Hubby has really taken the initiative to pack things. Unfortunately, that includes the canned goods that help me make dinner and my cookbooks that do the same. So, he has been nominated for KP quite a bit!

Selling a House

We have never sold a house before. It's been quite the roller coaster. Listening to people's ideas about houses has been quite crazy. People wanted more land, some said this land was too much. Location wasn't great. But they all loved the actual house. We have another house that just went on the market in our neighborhood, which we thought was great. It would bring more traffic and our house would show better. We walked through it during an open house and it didn't show very well. They had our old carpet in it, which was nasty. Our house is about 10 years old and they didn't put great carpet in it to begin with. The rooms were smaller and the landscaping was non-existent. Plus, their house is $6,000 more.
We had someone come in on Wednesday, unannounced and then came back with an appointment on Thursday. We were really excited about then because they had already sold their condo and came mortgage pre-approved. They really liked the house and also went through the other house. Our realtor talked to theirs and she told us that if they bought in our neighborhood it would be the other house, because of the sprinklers....THE SPRINKLERS! Our lot is less than 6,000 square feet. Do you know what kind of sprinkler system you could buy for $6,000? One that is run by computers and features a pond with fountain. Hubby told our realtor to offer them $1,500 in a contract for a sprinkler system.
We got an offer today. They were coming by for a second look this afternoon. They made an appointment for 3:15 and we had an appointment, for another showing, at noon. We ate lunch with hubby at his work while the first one came through. So, I decided not to spend too much time at home between so I didn't have to reclean the house. Buttercup gets out at 2:15, so I figured I would pick her up and we would play at the park and come home after the 3:15 appointment. She called about 45 minutes before and said they got a late start and wouldn't be there until 4:30. Entertaining the girls that long is painful! I do refer to myself as head of the Entertainment committee. We ended up at the library with the girls surfing the internet. I figured it would be safe to head home around 5:30pm. We ended up across and down the street from our house for over half an hour. During that time, I got a call from our agent saying they were there writing an hour. They were taking only $5,000 off of the asking price and asking for $5,000 for closing costs. Their house is California is pending sale right now, which gives us pause. It's pretty easy for a house sale to fall through and we really need the money in hand. They are coming over tomorrow to officially offer. Our agent is going to call everyone who came through and let them know we are going to be receiving an offer.
So, that's where we are at. Having an offer, any offer, on the table is quite a bit of relief. Hubby and Buttercup are leaving in two weeks! Fiona and I leave 3 weeks from today.
One nice thing about sitting across from our house for over half an hour was that we bought a new magic school bus this weekend. That's what the girls call our van. We first had a 2000 Honda Odyssey. We upgraded over the weekend to a 2005 that has to be the coolest car I have ever been in, much less owned. It has the DVD system with wireless headphones. Awesome! Where we sit in the driver's seat feels more like a cockpit. I also bought a GPS navigator for Hubby to drive half way across the country and not lose my Buttercup and new magic school bus.

Come on out of the woodwork!

So, we have another open house and we are literally this close to getting an offer. Hubby and I were having a discussion about what scent would make someone more likely to buy a house. I am debating between brownies and cinnamon bread. The smell of cinnamon bread was pretty amazing. I made some yesterday before someone walked through. I also made brownies a couple of weeks ago before someone walked through. So, post a comment and let me know, what's your favorite baking smell. I am quite the baker, so if you have another idea let me know. It's time to get this house sold!

How quickly reality returns!

So, this morning, I wake up Fiona and her little inner ogress comes out! Starting last Thursday she has had a shot of chemo, and about 50 pills and I think it just all caught up with her. She had a massive meltdown, crying and screaming. We decided to keep her home. I think if school had started a bit later and she had an appetite when she woke up, then she would have made it okay. But it's frustrating to deal with her big mood swings. I feel bad for her, but I had my morning all planned, a trip to the YMCA and the dreaded Winco weekly trip. She perked up shortly after I dropped Buttercup at school. It has been tough only having one car. Hubby has been getting rides with my sister, so I have to take the girls to school no matter what.

Fiona had to make the trip to Winco with me and we made it out of there with a lot more square boxes than we normally do. It will be easier to make dinner and lunches with the extra help. It's also cheaper than eating out all of the time.

I worry now about how Fiona is going to take to all day kindergarten. We might just have to regularly take this day off every month. I know that school is tiring for her to begin with. It's tough to sit still and behave for so long everyday. I did notice that the school she is going to has a 30 minute nap period every day around noon. That will be very nice for her.
PS This is a picture of Stoner Fiona. Less happy times, but a happier girl.

School Days

So, I remember telling hubby that the 2 and a half hours of kindergarten weren't nearly enough. But today, I really had my first day of freedom and I cannot describe the joy of doing what I wanted for that length of time. I went to Winco for what has to be the shortest trip ever. I wasn't waiting for short legs to keep up, or arranging food around someone sitting in the cart. No one distracted me or asked for 10,000 inappropriate things. Then I drove to Barnes and Noble, where joy of joys, I got to browse for what I needed. Bookstores are hard with Fiona. She won't stay put and she rearranges a good portion of the inventory. Buttercup, on the other hand, has recently discovered the joys of a good bookstore and is a good companion.
Then I drove down to Fry's, of the previous post. I only went in for a DVD. I had no problem buying it. They had James Bond DVDs for $5.99. I couldn't resist a copy of Goldeneye. Then I went to Riteaid and picked up a prescription and then I got the car washed. I got to listen to music as loudly as I wanted, and after all of this, I still had time to stop at the house, unload most of the groceries and arrive early to pick her up. It was great.
We put the house on the market last week and have had four people come by and see the house and another visit postponed. Hopefully, the house will be snapped up soon. There are two ladies who love it and just have to convince someone that they need to buy it. Let me know if you want the rmls number and I will send it to you. It looks so pretty. We haven't had any negative feedback, which is good. Our timeline is just so narrow! Hubby is the most stressed out and I hope we get an offer soon, especially for his sake. I did sell his car this week, which was great!