Kid Junk

Ah, as November 1st approaches, I am feeling the need to get rid of kid junk so it doesn't immediately clutter the new house. I am trying to do it gradually so the kids don't realize of course. I just did desk drawers and the art area today, 3 bags to trash, 3 bags to charity (whichever one will accept it, again, I am missing the junk dealers in San Antonio who would troll for this stuff). Anyway, for now I am letting the "rock" collection stay as they are obsessed with it and I am hoping to convince them to find a place for it in the new backyard. But this collection I had no trouble tossing. I realize it is at least better than the acorn collection some friends had... mmm, acorns full of maggots... Let the record show there are NO MAGGOTS in our house, just in case our buyers run across this post.

One Contract Down

Just turned in papers on the new house and am getting ready to turn in the ones on the current house. Now that it's a little more official I can show you the front of the house. To anyone in this small town who recognizes this house and didn't know the owners are moving, now you do! I couldn't fit it all in one shot, had to include one that shows you where Sean will be toiling away late at night. He is currently debating what size TV he will need for his office over the garage. For his "continuing medical education DVDs"?? I am suspicious.

Coffee, Anna?

Everyone has someone in their house like Anna, the slow motion morning person. She is beyond ridiculous though as I will find her just standing in the middle of the laundry room, in a daze. I put the school clothes in cubbies in there so there is no debate as to what they can wear and no fighting about escort service to the basement if one happens to forget a key item of clothing like we dealt with last year. Anyway, it should be so easy and a normal person could be dressed in about 23 seconds but instead it will take her 23 minutes, thus leaving 7 minutes to look at her breakfast and then another 5 minutes in the red zone when she makes a mess in the bathroom with hand soap while we yell at her that we are leaving. Meanwhile Megan is ready early and waiting in the van, reading the paper (the comics).

Happy birthday Patrick?

Bad enough being the third child, but to then have a birthday after a week of insane house buying and selling... Well, I did at least tell him it's his birthday as I debated just postponing it until next week. He has no expectations, so far so good. He hasn't even asked for presents which I had somehow bought by chance a few months ago (supposed to be incentives for potty training, hmm, did we forget that?). Now how will Anna react to her birthday being right when we move? I think those are two good bullet points for my Mother of the Year nomination for those of you still working on it.

Handy Stool

Patrick drags this stool all over the place, to get food that he wants, to play in the sink, to help him get stuff out of the bushes.... in this photo he is telling me to take a picture of his hand. He is very demanding and always tells me he wants "more pictures". The Prince is vain.

Homework completed

I finally finished my homework assignment... writing back to my sister's 4th grade students. This may be the last time she asks me to participates. My final letter:

Dear Connor,
I just told your classmate Jacob a hopefully funny story, so now I have a different one for you. One time when your teacher was about your age we went to the county fair. Mrs. Dunn was riding on the carousel that is made up of swings, so it's like you are flying around in a circle up on a swing. It is pretty awesome. However, it is not awesome when you get sick to your stomach like Mrs. Dunn did. Oh no, not awesome at all. Poor Mrs. Dunn threw up and sprayed the crowd below with vomit. I can't stop laughing as I type this. The worst part is that when they stopped the ride the rest of Mrs. Dunn's family was afraid to go claim her, she was a bit of a mess. I'm pretty sure she never went to the fair again and the crowd is quite grateful for that.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Keenan

ps I hope you are very good for Mrs. Dunn this year or else she might spray the class with vomit. Just saying you might want to keep a rain jacket in your desk to be safe.

Why so quiet?

What could keep me from my dear computer, you wonder? What do I rank above computer time?? A new house! Even casual readers know about my house obsession, my magazine clippings files, the hours of research, the hunt for a great lot to build on.... do not think that was all for nothing. No, that just helped me realize a fabulous house when I saw it. It's a small town and after the fourth person told me to go check out this one house before it went on the market, I finally allowed myself to be tempted and asked for a casual showing. I wasn't going to mention it to Sean but he asked what I had going on so I told him. He offered to tag along and prove that he can do more than golf during his time off. That will probably be the last time he agrees to do that...

I did my best to appear that I was rational and was mulling it over when really I was figuring out where my furniture will go and even better... what else I will need to buy! I brought along my two home obsessed friends for another showing, each of whom also put their husbands through an unscheduled move just because the right house opened up (and yes, because they too got bored with their old houses- we admit it yet do not seek therapy), and they too approved. They also gave me some great advice: to let Sean buy whatever TVs he needs for the new house to soften the blow from leaving his ridiculous one behind. So yes, he is on board now. He also gets himself a serious office over the detached garage and he will be able to sleep there during the day. How he has managed to sleep so much through all the noise the past 3 years, I will never know (although he is also VERY good at sleeping through the noise from the children who get up at night).

Not real confident that our house will sell before spring but I intend to be in the new one by early November. The kids are very excited now that they have seen the basketball court and the little tree fort. It is one of the nicest backyards we have ever seen and we can't believe we get to enjoy it without having gone through the pain of doing it ourselves. I will just give you a sneak peek of that and will show more of the house once we are further along in the process. Trust me, it is amazing and it incorporates so many details that I would have planned myself. In the meantime, if anyone wants a house with a ridiculous TV, I'd be happy to give you details and a good deal!