Keeping Our Underwear Off the Floor

The Mr. and I have been trying to sell our home for the last 15 months.  Yes, 15 months.  (okay, actually that is not true, because I got totally fed up last spring and we took the house off of the market for about 4 months and I enjoyed being able to leave my underwear on the floor, but if you look at the original listing date till now it's been 15 months). 

A lot (I mean A LOT) of folks assume that our house is on the market because we are 'over our heads' or 'underwater' or 'just avoiding forclosure'.  But actually, (just for reference those of you who are so nosey and in our business) we are above water, making our payments just fine, and we figure if we stuck it out for a few more years, we would actually be able to recoup what we have put into the house. 

So why are selling you ask?  Because I was stupid.  Pretty much.  When we bought this house, my kids were little (Girly Girl was 3 and Little Man was 18 months old).  The Nana and The Papa were watching the kids for us, I was working as a principal, and the Mr. had an engineering job with a consulting firm.  Life was good.  And I couldn't see past what life was AT THAT MOMENT.  So, we bought a house that was close to The Nana and The Papa, a house in a great neighborhood except there weren't very many kids (it didn't matter because our kids weren't really old enough to need friends), a house that was right then, just right.

Fast forward.  Kids are now 9 and 11.  The Nana and The Papa have closed up their daycare shop.  I've left the principalship (a great decision for our family) and work at the district office for a mid-sized school district.  Mr. has changed jobs and now works for 'the man' (General Electrics).  And here's the kicker... I take the kids with me to my district every day to go to school.  30 minutes one way.  Mr. and I wanted to ensure that our kids had a great education, and we also wanted them to be close to us, so we decided that having them in my district (their school is half a mile from my office) was the best decision.  And for the first few years, this was perfect.  But now Girly Girl is getting older.  Friendships are becoming more important.  And she's about to.... enter MIDDLE SCHOOL.  (shudder).

And now, now my perfect house that fit us so well... just doesn't seem to fit anymore.  Kids have homework and sports and such and we waste amazing amounts of time in the car every day (and I am SO sick of the drive, not to mention the MILES on my car..).  Kids have established great friendships... with kids at their school.  This means that they only way they can have 'playdates' is with lots of parental involvement, prearrangement, and LOTS and LOTS of driving.  In addition, the space in the house is all put into the living areas, rather than the bedrooms (which wasn't a big deal when they were little because they always wanted to be with us) and they have tiny bedrooms that don't allow them to spread out very much.

I didn't plan ahead.  So here we sit.  And wait.  And keep our house immculate.  And make our beds every day and pick up the laundry every day and wipe down the kitchen counters every morning and never leave a mess (never ever leave a mess because that will be the one time that they come to show the house...).  We get decent traffic through the house- as I am writing this we have already had two showings this weekend and there are two more scheduled.  This is also a pain in the tushie.  To schedule our Saturdays around the showings... both of which today happened at mealtimes.  So... do you eat out?  Just let them see the house while you are eating dinner?   I know that when we have gone house hunting, I always hate to see the people who live there.  It makes me feel uncomfortable, it makes me feel like I am intruding.  So usually, we try to be 'gone'.   Lately 'gone' has translated to us driving down the street and sitting in our car reading books.  How sad is that?  And I have to admit that because we have had SO MANY showings... you just start to feel like the whole thing is hopeless and one more person is just going to walk through the house and not like it.  (And it's a beautiful home.. it really is... it is clean and well kept and has a great layout.  We've remodeled the kitchen, kept up with the yard... I love this house.)

Anyway, we are patiently waiting for the right person to buy our house.  I know that it will happen.  Someday.  I just hope it happens BEFORE our situation changes again....

Have a great Saturday...
C

InstaFriday

This is my first post at InstaFriday... here's some of the fun things that we did this week...

My mom gave me this donut maker for Christmas.  One of my memories of childhood was when my mom would use her own Sunbeam donut maker to make chocolate donuts for us when we were snowed in.  I was SO excited to get this... and I tried it out for the first time on New Year's Eve.  I used a recipe that I found on the internet... (Unfortunately... the donuts weren't that good.  Even my kids, who are usually REALLY into donuts just ate about 1/2 of a donut each... Little Man actually told me they were TOO chocolately.  I need to do more research....)

Here is the Mr. on New Year's Eve.  Yes, he is doing a puzzle.  It's a tradition in his family that the family receives a puzzle as a gift on Christmas. New Year's Eve was the first chance that he had (Translation... the first time since Christmas that I had cleaned off the dining room table so he had enough room to lay out all the pieces) to do the puzzle, and his Mom, Step-dad, sister and her boyfriend were over to lend puzzle expertise (Since I HATE puzzles, and despite the fact that I BUY this puzzle every year for the family, I NEVER participate in putting it together).

Here's the whole family right after the ball dropped on New Year's Eve.  It's fun to have kids old enough to make it to midnight (They actually made it way past midnight, but as soon as this picture was taken, I went to bed.  This momma is getting OLD).

Here's the Mr. and Little Man as they were heading out the door to Little Man's sleep study.  Nope, for those of you who are wondering, we haven't heard any results just yet (And yes, it is driving me crazy... but I'm trying hard to just roll with it and know that we will have the results soon).

Okay, I'm cheating a bit... this isn't an Instagram... but I didn't get to go to the sleep study with Little Man, and the Mr. refuses to use Instagram.. but here's Little Man attached to all the equipment for the sleep study.  (Can you imagine sleeping like that???)

And finally, Happy Friday.  It was a rough week.  We ended it at Red Robin (the kid's favorite) and I indulged in a lovely beverage.  (YUM!)

Happy InstaFriday everyone!

C

EMBRACE 2012!

I have read a lot of blogs recently (seemed like my cure for not blogging was to read other folks blogs... which just made me miss blogging even more... kinda defeated the purpose I think...) Anyway, I have read a lot of New Year's Resolutions, a lot of posts about 'I am going to have a better body, a better mind, a better life'. And yes, I think that I'd love to have a better body (more posts about this to come, I promise) and I am always trying to improve my mind (I might have to stop watching the Real Housewives shows-yes, I watch ALL of them- if I actually want that to happen), and I think we all desire a better life- one that is more than what we have... isn't that the human condition?

However, I think that I am going to opt out of the specific resolution making this year. I have made New Year's Resolutions in the past- it isn't that I'm anti-resolution, it's just that I do have short attention span (note the need to improve my mind) and I tend to not hold onto those resolutions for very long (either it's the mind thing or I am incredibly weak willed... you be the judge )

I am, however, going to follow the 'Word of the Year' trend and select a word that I am going to try to live and follow in the year 2012. See to me, this isn't about CHANGING necessarily or STOPPING of doing something (which most NY resolutions actually boil down to... the stopping of a negative habit) but rather the openness to trying to live life in a new way, a new way of seeing things, a new way to...

EMBRACE

That's my word. To EMBRACE- life, love, friendship, work, whatever comes my way during the next 366 days (yes, it IS leap year my friends...).

To EMBRACE me- the true me, the person who I am deep down inside that I don't always let out for fear of judgement or ridicule or even for fear of rocking the boat with my family or friends. Thus, my return to blogging even though I told my former readers that I was stopping (I am still not sure if this is wise or TOTALLY stupid and only time will tell. I showed my dear husband, we will refer to him as Mr. from here on out on this little blog... and he just shook his head. I don't think he thinks this is a good idea, but I don't think he has the heart to tell me not to do it, because he knows it means a lot to me).

I started 2012 by embracing me... in Target (because if you knew me, you would know that I have experienced most of life's epiphanies in an aisle in Target, like the day I told my mom that the Mr. and I had stopped using birth control prior to the birth of Little Dude- child #2. But I digress....). I embraced me... wait for it... in the contact paper aisle. Because you see, there are still rather odd folks like myself that line the shelves in their pantry with contact paper (we are a RARE breed). My pantry has needed new contact paper for like a year now, and I decided that the time had come to actually undertake this task (and clean out my pantry goods... I actually found something that expired in 2008!). As I stood in Target I examined the 4 choices of contact paper. Plain white. Tan with speckles. Plaid tan. And black and white bold patterned craziness. In the past, I would have chose the tan with speckles. It's a neutral. No one would notice it when they were in my pantry (cause there are normally SO MANY folks in my pantry). It would just blend in and be 'appropriate'. So, because it is 2012. Because I am EMBRACING. Because I am being me... I now have AWESOME black and white patterned contact paper for my pantry shelves. Because, you see, 2012 is about EMBRACING... me. :)

I now have the entire contents of my pantry strewn about my kitchen as I wait for the Mr. to help me with said contact paper (I may be the person who thinks that we NEED contact paper in the pantry, I may be the person who picked out the crazy black and white contact paper, but I am NOT the person to measure and install said contact paper because I'm embracing fun, not totally crazy with all the seams crooked and contact paper running up the wall) so I should close up and actually be productive.

Hope your first day of 2012 is going well and that you are EMBRACING you!
C