I love it when things work out exactly the way I hoped they would. Even though it was a major pain, the last minute problem with the appraisal turned out to be in our favor because the relocation company (in record-breaking decision-making time) just decided to drop the price on the house. So now we’re getting the same great house for less money and hopefully we’ll still be able to close on time. We won’t know until the last minute, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

And in other news, I was sitting at my computer when I started hearing these strangely suspicious popping noises coming from the living room…

It has now been confirmed that the innate obsession with popping bubble wrap has nothing to do with learned behavior and can only be instinctual.

Caught!

My daughter has a new pet. She has selected a “baby bean” from her dinner plate and has been carrying it around the house for the last 20 minutes.

She holds it as though she’s handling a baby bird, hand cupped and held close to her heart. She has introduced Baby Bean to her doll Timmy, and apparently Timmy is rather impressed.  She talks to it, coos over it, hugs it, tells it how sweet it is and how much she loves it.

That is one spoiled bean.

I keep sitting down and starting to write an entry, but get a little overwhelmed so I give up. Life has been a whirlwind recently, so rather than try to document it all, I’ve been avoiding the computer. I think I’ll just start with some bullets and hopefully get everything down. And come back later to add more bullets for the things I’ve forgotten.

I like bullets. They make me feel organized even when life seems a little out of control.

• We’re in the waiting game on the house selling thing. I think everything is pretty much taken care of and now we’re just waiting for the closing date. Hopefully we’ll close on time because we have the closing of our new house (which is dependent on the closing of our current house) set up for the same day, so they will both be delayed if anything goes wrong.
• Speaking of going wrong, the people we’re trying to buy the house from are being relocated, which means that a relocation company is handling the sale from here on out. Which means 3x as much paperwork and everything is taking 3x as long. Which means that we’re really pushing it to make the aforementioned closing date because they’re TAKING FOREVER.
• The good news is that we had the inspection done Saturday and even though there are several things we’re requesting they address (or pay to have us address) there was really nothing major wrong with the house.
• Half our computer supplies are packed away so I don’t have my card reader and therefore can’t download the pictures I took in New York (or any other pictures I’ve taken recently) so that’s kind of irritating me right now.
• The trip was fun and I loved hanging out with Stereoette and I got to eat some great food and do a ton of walking around the city and it was a much needed break from the stress of house. I tried not to rub it in that our mortgage payment for our new humongo house is going to be the same as what she’s paying for her efficiency apartment in NY. Ah, Texas real estate…
• LB is really growing up. She’s now the traffic light enforcer. Wherever we go, she’s sure to point out “Uh-oh, it’s red! We have to stop now,” and “Green! The light is green! We can go now! Go green go!” through the entire car ride.
• Her repertoire of complete sentences and appropriate phrases seems (to me) to be remarkably advanced over the other kids her age. She’s still substituting “t’s” for all her “k’s” which is only a problem because her name starts with K. Well, that and it’s a little disconcerting when she starts talking about “kitties” in public.
• She’s very polite and uses “please” and “thank you” often. When we go to the public play areas in the mall and she gets mowed over by other children, she always says “Excuse me.”
• She’s still in love with her Grandmommy and Grandpa and would happily move in with them if we let her. I might let her when she hits the rebellious teenager stage.
• I think I’m going to have to give in and read Harry Potter. Even though I already know what happens in all the books. I’m not very good at commitment so long term projects rarely get finished, and reading is no exception. Maybe I’ll get the books on CD and listen to them in the car.
• I have a ridiculous amount of laundry that needs to be done. Ridiculous, I tell you.
• Moving Company is coming tomorrow morning to give estimates. Hopefully they’ll be able to see past the piles of laundry everywhere.
• Need to clean the house again top to bottom. We got out of the habit since we’ve stopped showing the house. But the appraiser is coming this week and we need to make a really good impression.
• Having so much laundry and cleaning to do makes me feel overwhelmed.
• I am totally annoyed that “maternity” is the “in” fashion right now. I was appalled when I went to Old Navy yesterday. I’m short-torsoed and store my fat around my middle - do you know how hard I have to work already to avoid looking 12 months pregnant? Every piece of clothing I saw was formless and rendered my body completely devoid of any feminine shape whatsoever. Grrr…
• I played 4 back-to-back softball games Friday night. Apparently we’re so behind in the season (due to rain) that they decided to have the entire playoff tournament in a single night.
• Consequently, every muscle in my body hurts. I could hardly get out of bed this morning. I’m getting too old for this.
• We came in second, in case you were wondering.
• The last game we played was a game we lost (hence the 2nd place), and we actually didn’t mind losing because we were so worn out that we didn’t want to play another game, which we would have to had we won.
• Actually, as beat as we were, we probably wouldn’t have minded playing another game too much if we felt like the teams were evenly matched. The other team had 4x as many players to rotate through and got to rest for an hour before the final game, so they were full of energy. And all of their guys were 6′4″ and built like athletes. We didn’t have the same advantage, so every minute was a fight just to stay in the game. That said, we did pretty well and might have won if they hadn’t hit that grand slam.
• I managed to close my knee in the car door today and it’s starting to bruise. It hurts.
• Thanks to the stress of buying/selling/moving/etc, I have 3 ulcers in my mouth. Yippee. Now I just need my face to break out so my whole head can be swollen and aching.
• My superstitious side is thinking I probably shouldn’t have said that.
• It’s after 11:30pm.
• My brain is starting to shut down.
• Good night.

We’ve been painting and cleaning and caulking and clearing out for days, in the effort to make our house look like a model home. Garden Ridge has become my best friend. Despite the fact that it was in the Garden Ridge shopping cart where LB suddenly made the discovery that apparently it’s UNBELIEVABLY HILARIOUS to reach out and pinch Mama’s boobs when she’s not paying attention.

I’m having guilt right now because LB has been forced to watch an embarrassing amount of television over the past few days. It has rained nonstop for the past 40 days and 40 nights and TV is the only indoor activity that will simultaneously allow me to get stuff done and keep her from tearing apart everything that I JUST NEATLY ORGANIZED FIVE SECONDS AGO.

But lo and behold. The house is officially on the market as of today.

The past few days have been the most exhausting days EVER, but in my personal opinion we’ve done a great job. And we’re hitting ourselves on the head for not doing all this stuff sooner. All the things we’ve wished for since we moved here are now in place - like an actual dining room. With actual dining furniture. And it’s actually quite spectacular. Seriously, if we were looking at this house, we would buy it in an instant because the dining room is THAT COOL.

Hopefully everybody else that views the house will feel the same. Please. Please feel the same.

In the meantime, will somebody please tell my daughter that when we’re in a public restroom and there are other people in there, it is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY to narrate everything Mama is doing? And no, that is NOT “juice in the potty.”

(While lamenting my recent purchase due to manufacturer incompetence. I mean really, how hard is it to make lids that actually FIT the bins you’re selling them with?)

Me: I hate these bins. They’re so stupid and I wish I had never bought them.

Button: Stupid Mama.

She really knows how to kick you when you’re down.