Because Nathaniel missed it...

... and you might have, too. If you don't have a kid of an age to be obsessed with Dora, it's possible this is less funny. But if you do have a kid that age, then it's pretty much priceless.

Nathaniel's favorite part will be when they mimic using a bike pump to fill a hot air balloon. He can't stand the scientific impossibility of a balloon floating with regular air pumped into it.

(Don't watch it with your kids within earshot. Because they will come running. And then they will learn some language you'd wish they hadn't. I don't want to be blamed for that.)



"Don't question it. Just DO it!"

Cleaning, sewing, and snow

My house is a MESS! Okay, compared to pre-listing standards it's still reasonably clean. Compared to how I've kept it the past two months, though, it's working toward pig-sty level. It can't stay this way long - we have a playdate here this afternoon, company coming for the weekend, and the inspection on Monday. But for a few days I had a reprieve from cleaning. It couldn't have been better timed. I overslept my alarm on Tuesday, when I had to be to work on time because my boss flew in from LA, so for the first morning in months I ran out the door with the beds unmade and the kitchen sink full of dishes. It felt good and sad at the same time. Like the end of a very short era.

For the past couple mornings I've made a point of making my bed. That was one thing I was happy to be forced into doing. I never made my bed growing up unless we had company, and I'd continued that trend until now. During my youth it was mostly because I had a waterbed, which, if you've ever owned one you know, is not easy to make. You either just toss a blanket over it all, or you spend a lot of time tucking things neatly in around all the edges. No fun. In college my roommate (Hi, Bridge!) made her bed meticulously every morning. I imagine that out of respect for her I at least tossed my blankets in the right direction, but I can't honestly remember. I bet she can. I know I never made much of an effort when my bed was lofted nearly to the ceiling, because who could really see up there anyway? Not to mention the logistical challenges of making a bed that high over my head. Bridget had a good four inches on me, so I hold that it was much easier for her. Since getting married I've always lived under the "if he doesn't care, I don't either" mentality and I would either pull our bedroom door closed or make the bed, time allowing, when we had company. More often the former. I love the look of bed well-made, though. Of some tasteful throw pillows and a pretty duvet cover. I can't wait to help pick out bedding for all the kids in our new house, and I'll probably ask them to make their beds, at least a little, each morning. I think it's a good practice even if it's new to me.

*****

I've been sewing again this week. I finished Marianne's and Ruth's dresses in time for the wedding we weren't able to attend, and now I've moved on to Elizabeth's. I need to finish it by this weekend so I can mail it to her in time for Easter. As you can see, it's coming along nicely. I just have some hand-stitching to do along the zipper and shoulders, a hem to sew, and the sash to make. I think the fabric is gorgeous and will be fantastic with Elizabeth's coloring. I can't wait to see her in it. Unfortunately, that won't happen till sometime after Easter, so I won't have a picture of all three girls in their fancy new gear for a few weeks. I'll post one as soon as I'm able!

I'm officially taking a break from sewing anything that involves zippers now. I'm so tired of that game. I don't know if there's some way to make it easier that I just haven't discovered yet, but zippers really are a pain. I usually end up having to do each one at least twice before I get an acceptable look, and even then it's far from perfect. No one would mistake these dresses for professionally made.

*****

I woke up to four inches of snow this morning and it's continued to fall since then. The pavement is melting it as fast as it falls, but the trees are piled with the heavy, wet stuff. I hope it stops soon, before it starts breaking branches. It's beautiful and all that, but I'm ready for spring. You could argue that this is just a natural part of spring in Colorado, but don't bother. I don't want to hear it.

God is GOOD

Nathaniel had a lovely time at the wedding this weekend. I'm sure you were all dying to know. He spent a fun filled day with an assortment of his college buddies, including one, Stephen, whose ordination we'll be attending in a couple weeks. (That will be a child-free road trip, so no chance of a replay of the airport day from every mom's worst nightmare.) The wedding was beautiful all around, with a stunning church and an impressive reception site on the ocean. At least, that's what I'm told. I had our camera in the diaper bag when I left the airport, so we have no digital proof. I'll have to wait for the online pictures from DB and Hillary to see it for myself.

Nathaniel's return flight went off without a hitch. The girls and I spent a relaxing morning at home, followed by a picnic lunch and outdoor play at a nearby park. We retired back to our home (once we'd been gone long enough to allow a couple realtor showings) for naptime, then picked Nathaniel up at a bus stop near our house. I'd wager to say Nathaniel had a better time at the wedding than he would have had we all been with him, albeit a different kind of fun than showing off his family would have been... As for myself, Marianne and Ruth, we had a reasonably lovely time ourselves. We'd never have gotten away with watching that much TV if Daddy had been home regulating!

We went to mass last night at the Cathedral, where Archbishop Chaput presides over the Sunday evening service. He's an amazing Bishop and gives excellent homilies. Truth be told, I don't know how the one last night went. We were late, so seated in the far back of the church, and I couldn't understand most of what was said other than the time the old man in front of us turned around to, um, suggest (forcefully) that we remove Ruth to the vestibule of the church. Nathaniel very gracefully replied that she was quieting down, and magically, she did. Then the old man stood to fulfill some duty as an usher and we were both taken aback at the thought that we had perhaps been officially reprimanded, rather than just had a grumpy old man complaining to us. At the sign of peace, though, he was smiles and sweetness and all was forgotten. On the way out of church, we passed through the line to greet the Archbishop, and Nathaniel commented to him that after eight years in his diocese we were moving. Without our asking it, he made the sign of the cross on each of our foreheads and blessed us in our move. It was thoughtful and welcome and powerful.

(Now begins the part of the story you'll kick me for not having started with...)

I got a call from our realtor this morning. He received an offer on our house. And now, less than twelve hours later, we're settled. He brought the paperwork over, we reviewed it, we countered their offer, and they accepted. We're officially under contract on our house! And on the one we've wanted since Christmas in Nebraska. It's so many blessings, with such impeccable timing. Yes, things could still go awry. We have our inspection of the house we're buying set for tomorrow. Our buyers will be sending an inspector here within the week. (We hope there won't be much to note, but it's hard to think he won't notice the patches of trim that are as yet unpainted. That's right - we've never finished that project. But we have every intention of leaving the bucket and a half of paint in the garage for the next owners!) But I am truly overwhelmed by how good God has been to us through this all. Overwhelmed. Undeserving. And exceptionally grateful.

As an aside, the buyers for our house are big University of Nebraska fans. Among the other requests in their offer, they asked us to leave the framed print that hangs in our dining room of an architect's sketch of the Nebraska state capitol building. It wasn't actually written into the contract, but requested through the realtor, so we felt comfortable saying "no". As random and funny as that is, though, we'll definitely look into making a copy of it at Kinko's and leaving an unframed copy for them. The wife actually admitted to her realtor that she thought it was probably the show of Nebraska support in the house that convinced her husband to purchase it. While I'm not a Huskers fan myself, this could be enough to make me feel good about cheering them on when they play someone other than ND or a Kansas school.

8:00pm Friday, at the airport

Nathaniel: At least this should make an interesting blog post.

Me: That's why I've been taking pictures since eight this morning.

*****

Is it bad that I think about most of life as it passes in terms of how I'll write it up for you to read?

My trip to Seattle

Things went a tad awry with our trip to Seattle this weekend. I have some photos to help illustrate.

We arrived at the airport at 7am to discover lines like none we have ever witnessed thanks to spring break travelers. Since we had a lap child, we had not been able to check in online, so were forced to get into the crazy line. 50 minutes later we were at the counter, two minutes too late to check in for our flight. This was the first time Nathaniel or I have ever missed a flight, so it was new territory for us. The extremely nice Frontier Airlines lady put us on standby for the already overbooked 12:30pm flight, and told us we could come back in half an hour to check our bags, because they can only check them four hours prior to a flight.
First things first. We got some muffins and coffee and had a picnic breakfast near the check in area because we were dragging around three large suitcases that we wanted to hand off as quickly as possible.

An hour later, we were set up near the gate and working to entertain the girls. Thankfully, I had my fully stocked airplane fun bag with snacks. We watched the planes, colored, and brought out the first snacks. The girls were reasonably content.
When the first snack ran out, the contentment ran out as well. Until the crackers were supplemented by fruit snacks. Fruit snacks will make everything better. (This is the Ruth death-look that I've been trying to capture for a while. She doles it out liberally these days).
New toys (shown here, a metal Diego case with assorted jungle animal magnets to arrange) kept the happiness level reasonable for a time. But once it was clear that we were not getting on the noon flight, things got more complicated. We waited in line at customer service, where a very kind woman searched for ten straight minutes only to find the only flight she could get us three seats on left Saturday morning at 8:30am with a four hour layover in San Francisco, arriving in Seattle at 6:15pm. That's fifteen minutes after the post-ceremony reception would start. We walked away with those exceptionally useful tickets in hand, Ruth asleep in the stroller and Marianne asleep on my shoulder. Once outside of security we decided to try the ticketing line one more time, on the off chance that a different person would be able to come up with a different option for us.
Another half hour of assistance later, we still had our Saturday tickets, but also were on the top of the standby list for the 9:30pm flight that night. Our luggage, by the way, had gone on the noon flight and would be waiting for us in Seattle, should we ever manage to get there. Nathaniel spent another half hour or so on the phone, warning DB he might need someone else to do the readings at the ceremony, confirming late check in at the hotel and for a rental car (or Saturday check in if we couldn't get there sooner), etc.
Diego was still working his magic for Marianne. She loved having her own tiny suitcase to carry. But clearly there was tiredness working it's own brand of magic, so smiles were losing frequency. Also, I had checked the bag with all the pullups and diapers other than those in the diaper bag, and we started to get concerned about making it to a 9pm flight. With careful rationing (of diapers? sweet!) we had just enough to make it. We debated going home for a few hours, but it takes us almost an hour to drive each way, and it had been nearly impossible to find parking when we arrived at 7am. In the end, we decided we'd just keep hanging out.
We rode the airport train to the end of the line and then back to our terminal, which bought us a few minutes of kid giggles. Then we found a quiet place with an electrical outlet, and set up for a guaranteed hour and a half of calmness - The Little Mermaid. And twizzlers. I only wish I'd brought more twizzlers, as I'd brought a dozen or so with me and checked the rest of the package to snack on in Seattle and on the way home. {sigh} This was, by far, the most relaxing part of the day. I sat and read my book, while Nathaniel watched the movie with the girls and dozed off occasionally.
I still had some exciting new toys that I'd been holding back for in-flight entertainment, so every couple hours I'd pull out something new and the girls would be riveted for about 10 minutes. After some dinner at the food court, we headed to the gate for our 9pm flight shortly after 7pm. The girls were showing their wear, but with constant application of goldfish to Ruth, and so long as Marianne had her "Diego bag" in hand, they were being the best sports I could imagine.
As the time for the flight approached, the girls gazed longingly at the plane parked at the gate. Marianne's day long plea of "I wanna get on a plane, Mommy." got a little more urgent, and I had to tell her repeatedly that we hoped to get on a plane, but we didn't know if we would. But if we didn't, we'd go home and get to sleep in our own beds. The girls were getting more than a little slap happy. Here's a very short video as evidence:



The 9:30 flight loaded, and the Frontier folks were requesting people to give up seats, so we figured we were out of luck. We'd discussed all our options and decided that if Nathaniel could go alone tonight, we'd do that, and the girls and I would stay home. If none of us could get on the flight, Nathaniel would take the flight Saturday alone so he'd get a few hours with his friends, and be able to pick up our bags and bring them home. When it seemed all our chances had failed, Nathaniel went to talk to the gate employee about our tickets and ask some question. A minute later, he was running back toward me letting me know that he'd gotten a seat. Just him. Within 60 seconds, he was handing his ticket to the gate agent, with Marianne screaming and teary over her need to get on the plane as well. I pulled her away, we waved goodbye, and he headed through the door.

I tried to soothe Marianne and get her into the stroller and gather all the stuff Nathaniel hadn't taken with him. Another extremely kind Frontier employee came over and asked if she could call someone to drive us back to security and I gladly accepted. She showed us to some seats to wait and asked me just enough kind questions that I broke down in tears. Seriously. I assured her that I was fine. That I wasn't really upset even, just over-tired. She nodded and said nice things that made it harder to stop the inexplicable crying. I did my best to pull myself together before the man driving the little airport car showed up. The girls were angels as we rode through the airport and the man was friendly and helpful. We had to walk the length of the main terminal to get to the shuttle to our car, and Ruth was the epitome of helpfulness as well.
She insisted on pushing Marianne the entire way, only grudgingly allowing me to help aim the stroller in the right direction when she got off course.

Thankfully we had opted to try our chances with rental carseats in Seattle, so ours were still in the car. The girls passed out immediately upon the car starting and barely woke when I changed them into jammies at home.

Nathaniel made it to Seattle sometime after midnight here, and was at his hotel maybe an hour later with all our luggage. He's enjoying a day among friends now, and I'm home with the girls. We're enjoying a rainy, lazy day with donuts and movies and our house to run around freely. I'm sad to be missing the wedding, but by the end of the day yesterday, I had resigned myself to this idea and am content to be home. I couldn't bear the thought of another day at the airport right now. Marianne is still sad about not getting on the plane, but we rode a train and a bus/shuttle in the parking lot and had lots of new adventures, so the trip to the donut shop this morning was all the icing she needed on that cake to make it okay. I can't tell you how proud I am of both girls for being amazing troopers yesterday. Of course there were a few instances of crying or running away through a crowd of people, but overall, I am in awe of well-behaved they were. For fifteen hours at the airport. Fifteen.

Now I'm just bummed that all our favorite clothes and toiletries are in Seattle till tomorrow. That, and that we blew $500 when we can least afford it on tickets that didn't get used. But it was worth the chance. It would have been a great trip.

I wish DB and Hillary all the happiness in the world, today and every day. Sorry we couldn't all make it, but I'm glad your reader got there to assist in your celebration. We'll be here, toasting you with the box of donut holes.

*I'm not being sarcastic about how great the Frontier employees all were. The ones we worked with were incredibly helpful and kind and humorous through everything. My only complaint is that it turned out late in the day that the problem with our initial check in time had been only that we were too late to check bags for that flight, but they could have tried to get us through security quickly to make the flight, and sent our bags on later. Had they told us that, we would definitely have made a run for the plane. But it seems they don't like to do that, so bumped us to the later flight. Ah well. What's past, is past.

A very (very very) fine house

For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the house we're under contract to purchase. (I fear using words that are too concrete, because I really don't want to eat those words later if something falls through).


It doesn't look very large from this angle because the original house was not particularly spacious. Some previous owners, however, put an addition on the back of house which added two very large rooms. There's a small tiled staircase leading into them that I think is lovely. One room is a carpeted family room; the other is a smallish ballroom. At least that's what Renee and I thought the best use for it would be. It has wood floors with the same raised wood panel walls from the photo at left and some amazing built in bookcases. Once we take over, the ballroom will be transitioned into the master bedroom. And since there's already a formal living room and a basement family room, the additional family room will someday become a walk-in closet, master bath and probably a small office at the base of the stairs. That's in a distant future, but that's my dream for the space.

There are two bedrooms on the main floor that will be for Sara and Jacob. Sara is old enough that I think she deserves her own room. Jacob, as the only boy, defaults into a room of his own. That leaves the three little girls. This house's biggest selling point for me, apart from the adorable brick exterior, was the perfect attic dormer for the three girls to share. It's "t" shaped, with windows at each of the three ends. There's easy space for three single beds in the main length of the room, with the branch of the "t" left open to serve as a playroom area. Yes, this means small people having to travel up and down the stairs regularly. All three are good with stairs, though, and they'll get used to the set up. It's exactly the sort of room I would have LOVED as a little girl.

If you know me well enough that I'd give you my address and you're interested in flipping though all 40 pictures in the realtor listing for this house, let me know. Or wait a month or so and come over for a visit. I'll give you a personal tour. I look forward to it.

Finally (almost)

We heard from our realtor at 5:30 this evening informing us that the contingency buyers signed the paper saying they cannot remove their contingency, so we get first dibs. The sellers are out of town, so haven't technically signed that statement, so something could still go wrong... but barring something very unexpected, we're set. We have a house. We have a rental truck reserved. (I went with a Penske 26' truck thanks to all you U-Haul naysayers out there. It looks enormous, but it was the same price as the next size down, so why not upgrade, right?) Two weeks from tomorrow (today if you're in Central or Eastern time) we'll be loading up said truck and the next day we'll officially make the move to Nebraska. I truly cannot wrap my arms around the reality of this, but I'm sure it'll smack me upside the head soon enough.

If you have access to Renee's site, check out her photo and description of what is soon to be my new home. I'll update this site with more info soon, but it's been a very long day of waiting for the phone to ring. I don't have the energy at the moment.

ps. Thanks to all of you who've kept us in your thoughts and prayers over the past weeks and months. We feel the grace raining down on us every day. Keep up the good work - we'll have more need of you in the future no doubt.

Leaving on a jet plane

This Friday we're flying to Seattle to celebrate the wedding of our very good friend, and Nathaniel's college roommate of four years, DB. (That's not a super-secret internet nickname. It's really what he goes by.) I am very excited to be making this trip. Given the timing of the wedding with our house selling, house buying, job quitting, and moving, we'd been unsure of whether Nathaniel would make the trip alone, or if we'd be able to travel as a family. A couple weeks ago we decided to make an executive decision and all go. It was shortly after the RSVP deadline, I think, so hopefully DB and Hillary aren't too upset with us for changing our numbers on them.

The most adventurous part of the trip, in my mind, is the flight. I've flown a few times with Marianne, but all when she was between the ages of about six months and ten months, so mostly immobile and still nursing (a.k.a. easy to lull to sleep). This time we're squeaking in just under the two year line for Ruth, so we only had to purchase three tickets, and we, thankfully, were able to secure three seats together in a row. That'll save us the joy of having to beg someone to swap seats with us so we can all be together as a family. I would say that it's not as though anyone would opt not to swap seats when the other option is to sit next to me with my preschooler and my lap-child, but I just witnessed a crazy situation last time I flew that taught me otherwise. That's a story for another day.

I've picked up an assortment of new travel toys to take on the plane, including new coloring pages with those "magic" markers that only write on the stuff they're supposed to write on, some magnetic dress-up Dora and Diego sets, and some matchbox trucks. Hopefully the newness of the toys will result in longer play time than the same old, same old stuff. In addition to those, we'll have Nathaniel's laptop and an assortment of old favorite movies. I figure with the movies something they know is the safest bet, since the girls aren't used to using headphones and I'm not the sort of traveler to turn the volume up on the plane (again, I wouldn't have thought many people were that sort of traveler, but my last flight gave me all sorts of new perspectives). With something they know by heart, if they don't want to leave the headphones on, they can basically recite the movies to themselves.

One of the best parts of this trip is that a friend who recently moved from Denver to Seattle (along with his girlfriend who is visiting him that weekend) has offered to babysit the girls on Saturday evening so that Nathaniel and I can attend the reception unencumbered by children! We'll take them to the dinner on Friday night and to the ceremony. Then they'll stay at the hotel and watch movies, maybe go swimming, while we flit off for some dinner and dancing. Fun! A tiny piece of me feels bad for depriving the girls of a chance to dance in their awesome new dresses (I finished Ruth's last night, so both of them are completed and ready for wear!), but they'll have more fun swimming and jumping on the beds in the hotel room anyway.

We're renting a car while we're there, and we're still debating whether to take our own carseats (two very heavy pieces of luggage to carry around an airport...) or use the ones the rental company provides (who knows what brand or quality, and they don't have you reserve them ahead of time so I have a terrible fear that when we arrive they could be out of carseats...). Anyone have experience with rental car company carseats? Any travel suggestions other than lots of fruit snacks and goldfish crackers?

THANK YOU!

No word on the house yet, but in all my house-stressing I realize I've been remiss in not sending out a huge THANK YOU to the hosts of the amazing farewell party that was thrown for us this weekend! Jenni, Heather, Carolyn and Meredith - you guys are such wonderful friends! The party was a huge success. Jenni's house and yard were filled with people, the food was incredible, and the gift was more than we could ever have hoped for and completely perfect for us. Thank you, thank you! (And of course, to the husbands who helped with party preparations and babysitting along the way, thanks to you as well!)

And to all of our friends who were there to wish us well and celebrate with us, thank you also. It's overwhelming to be surrounded by so many dear friends and to truly feel how loved we are and how much we'll be missed. That came across more conceited than I intended. What I really meant was that we're honored to have such fantastic friends and colleagues, and it hit home for us this weekend just how blessed we've been here in Colorado and how sad we'll be to move away from you.

For those of you who don't live out here so were unable to attend (or, you know, those of you I don't actually know...), let me tell you a bit about what went down on Saturday night.

Months ago our friends asked if they could throw a party before we left, both to say farewell and to give our friends an opportunity to help us out with all the changes we're preparing for. They wanted to assist us in setting up the kids (all five of them) with the things they need in a new house and a new life - room decorations, school supplies, etc. We were flattered and grateful and happily consented. Saturday, it all came to pass. On the drive to Jenni's house, I looked at Nathaniel and said, "Are we really on the way to our own farewell party?" He confirmed that we were. It gave me a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach because it made it so real and the time we have left here feels so short.

There were around 40 adults and something like 15 kids (mostly under the age of 4) at the party, and we had a blast. The kids ran around the backyard and played with Lily's toys in the family room while the adults mingled through the house and into the yard and reflected on how different our parties are now than they were four years ago when the noise was from CDs on the stereo, not from little girls screaming in stereo. I've never seen young children attack a vegetable try like they did when one was set out back. The carrots and tomatoes and celery had no chance against their tiny, grubby fingers, and double dipping ran rampant. But they were happy, and so the adults were as well. The rest of the food inside and out was fantastic (I'm waiting on recipes for parmesan-spinach balls and some sort of cream cheese, chocolate, graham cracker crust bar cookies...) and drinks flowed freely, as did conversation. I didn't eat as much as I might have, as I was in full social-butterfly mode, but that's probably for the best.

Toward the end of the party, Nathaniel and I were presented with a bouquet of giftcards (think cookie bouquet, only with little envelopes on each stick). It included sensible, necessary giftcards like Target and Home Depot, as well as fun ones specific to our new home city, like a local coffee shop, a couple restaurants and memberships to the children's zoo and children's museum. We were blown away by the thoughtfulness and generosity of our friends, and still are as we work on the more formal thank you notes. I can't wait to get to my new home and start putting the gifts to good use, since I know that each time we use one we'll be reminded of our awesome friends.

Once the formal party wrapped up, we helped put away the leftover food, and then spent a couple more hours with the party organizers and their families playing trivial pursuit and generally enjoying one another's company. I could not have wished for a better way to spend the evening.

Again, thank you!

The odd luck continues...

Say a little prayer for us as you're reading this. Both that we stay sane and that we succeed in obtaining our first choice house. We made a higher offer on it on Saturday. They responded this morning with a counter offer that we're happy to accept. The problem lies in the fact that they already accepted someone's offer last week, with a contingency on that person selling their home. So now, once they receive our acceptance, the other people have 24 hours to either remove their contingency or bow out. Please bow out. Please bow out. Please bow out. (There's no place like home. There's no place like home...).

Needless to say, I'm in a bit of a tizzy this morning and finding it hard to focus on anything. What are the freaking chances?! Another offer just after ours. After the other house got picked away on the same day we made an offer. The strangest of luck, or some serious divine intervention. Whatever the case, I'm still praying that this is the house that comes through for us.

I'll drop you an update when I have one, or maybe blog about something else if I can make my mind change track. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Not again

Ruth wants to use the potty like a big girl. You heard me. Just when we're trying to keep a house full of brand new carpet spotless, and just when we're getting ready to pack up and move and go through major life upheaval, Ruth wants to potty train.

It's possible this will be a short-lived adventure on her part. In truth, I sort of hope it is. I hope that within a day or two she'll run away shouting "no!" or give me one of her eyebrows-drawn-together, lips-pursed, don't-you-tell-ME-what-to-do stares when I suggest she sit on the potty (I tried to capture a photo of this face yesterday, but failed. I'll keep trying). Because then I can, with a clear conscience, put the little potty away and continue happily to change her diaper for another month or two or six before I give it another thought.

What I canNOT do with a clear conscience is ignore the fact that every time her diaper has even the tiniest bit of moistness, she pulls it off and demands to be dry. Or the fact that she wants to sit on the potty, and very often she produces a positive outcome (if you take my meaning) while she's there. Or that she follows her big sister into the bathroom every time Marianne goes and wants to try herself. Ruth has all the motivation. I'm not sure she has the ability yet, but I have to let her try.

Mind you, the new carpet necessitates that we "try" at a slow pace, with diapers still worn rather than big girl pants. I'll wait till there's some evidence that this is more than a whim before I risk carpet.

A lighter note

All this home-buying talk is bringing my blog down, I think. To remedy that, I had the girls try on their partially made Easter dresses this morning. Could they be any cuter?! Even with their bedhead-hair-pulled-back-so-it-doesn't-get-in-the-oatmeal hairstyles.

The next picture makes both the fun the girls have in the dresses and all the work left to be done more evident.

The status of the dresses has changed little in the past week or so. Last night I hemmed the outer layer of Marianne's, but I didn't want to do the lining till I made sure I liked the length on her. I also intended to install the zipper in Ruth's dress, but when I pulled out the purple zipper, I realized I had not been thinking clearly at the store. The color is horrible! And given how much I see Marianne's zipper, I need a color that's more complimentary. Once I get a new zipper in, the skirt hemmed and the sash made for Ruth's dress, I'll just need to learn how to tie an attractive bow and these two will be ready to go for the wedding next weekend! Since I don't feel like taking the girls to the store today, though, I'll probably focus on finishing Marianne's hem and the start cutting the pieces for Elizabeth's dress.

Is it tacky to put girls this young in white dress sandals for a wedding two weeks before Easter? Their brown church shoes are so beat up at this point, and all around too frumpy for the dresses, and I don't really want to spend $14 each on cream colored dress shoes. Since they'll most likely need to wear the white cardigans I picked up for them a few weeks ago, I figure the white shoes will be the best option I have. They're little. They can get away with it. Right?

My least favorite game

I am exhausted today! But it struck me that I hadn't told most of you the outcome of our offer on the second house, and I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats.

Well, against all odds, it seems that on the very same day we chose to make an offer on this house, the one that had been on the market for nearly a year without a single offer, someone else made an offer as well. And not just any offer, but one that was nearly the asking price!

Sadly, I'm not joking. The sellers accepted the other offer outright, and we were left in the cold yet again.

Now the questions come flooding in. Do we make another offer on the first house? Do we have our friends in Nebraska look at some houses for us in the hopes that they'll find something we've missed, in particular, "for sale by owner" properties? Do we consider renting a place for a while, if we can find something suitable, to give us more time to find the right house to buy? I hate the idea of moving all of our stuff into a storage locker just to have to move it again a short time later when we have a house, but I also don't want to rush into the purchase of a HOME! That's not a rushing matter.

Personally, I really like the house that's still on the market. The one we tried to low-ball. I'm leaning toward going back to them with a higher offer and trying to get them to negotiate with us, except that I feel weird since they already chose not to entertain us once, and I don't know how that might play in to the negotiations. I hate this whole real estate game. If I ran the world, we'd just approach the family and say, "Hey, we like your house. What's the lowest you're willing to take, and the highest we're willing pay? If there's a middle ground, let's meet there." You know, kind of like putting together a Venn diagram to see if there's overlap. If there is overlap, then we can move ahead. If not, we walk away. But no. We have to fight for the lowest possible price, and they have to fight for the highest, so we may never know if our sets overlap at all. It makes me tired.

Or maybe that's all the alcohol I drank when my boss and I went out for dinner last night. That definitely makes me tired!

Entertaining? Hardly.

We spent the weekend in Nebraska, viewing homes and visiting with family. It was a strange weekend because we were staying at my in-laws' house, but they were out of town. Nathaniel's two youngest siblings still live at home and were there, but the parental units were away. In addition to our visit, another of Nathaniel's brothers, George, and George's girlfriend came to town from Minnesota. And, of course, Phil and his family live just around the corner... So we had a bigger family gathering than most people have when the whole family is home for Christmas although we weren't even close to fully represented.

The strangest part, I think, was that the weekend basically progressed as though my in-laws were there. Sherri (my MIL) had left behind a fully stocked fridge and freezer, with a list of several potential meals. One night we went to Phil's house where Renee hosted us all for dinner. The next night the whole crew pitched in making dinner where we were, although Nathaniel and I were little help as we were stranded at the dining room table filling out paperwork with a realtor (more on that shortly). And it was, in the end, just the sort of dinner Sherri would have made for us had she been there, including a big salad with home made vinaigrette in her huge wooden salad bowl. Oh, and a pound cake she'd made and put in the freezer for us. She thought of everything.

Maybe if Sherri had been there, the older guys wouldn't have all ended up smoking cigars on the porch late into the night... but maybe they would have. It's hard to say.

All in all, it was a very good weekend. We had fun with the family, and we saw quite a few houses. There's one we've had our eye on since we first looked at a few homes over the holidays, and it's still on the market. Thankfully, we also found another house that could easily serve in all of our expanded-family-ness. It feels better to have more than one option.

Saturday night, after talking our options to death, we sat down with our realtor and put together an offer on the long-standing favorite house. We offered a little low, but the house has been listed since August, vacant since the fall, and according to that family's realtor they've only received one offer in all that time. Sadly, we found out this morning that they "chose not to entertain" our offer. I like that phrase. "Chose not to entertain". It makes it all sound so civilized and pleasant. And entertaining. Which I'd say is the least likely word for the process of buying or selling a house. Rather than entertaining, I'd probably use the phrase torturous. I've hardly been able to think of anything else in months, and in the past 36 hours since we made our offer, I've been distracted beyond belief. The whole seven hour drive home yesterday was filled with conversation about houses and the possibilities and the likelihoods. I just want this to be done.

But it's not. Now we're in the process of extending a similar offer to our second choice house. If they want to negotiate, we'll probably end up there. It has a bigger yard and a bigger kitchen, so I'm sure I can be happy there. But it doesn't have the adorable attic dormer that exactly fits my dream of a "Little Women" style room for little girls. And it doesn't have the hard wood floors. Still. It has a lot of potential and a lot of square footage. And they have yet to receive an offer in nearly a year they've been on the market. I think they'll work with us. And if they don't, maybe we'll go back to the first choice with a higher offer and see what it'll take to get there. It's too much for me to think about right now, because it's all I'm thinking about right now. My head is spinning!

On a slightly different note, my boss is coming to town from LA for a couple days starting tomorrow. I'm sure I'm going to be really useful to her while she's here. "Excuse for a minute. I have to go sign and fax some more documents to my realtor!" or "Could you give me a minute? I need to plot my future on the phone with my husband." Thankfully she's VERY understanding. I'm lucky that way.

As I recall...

Drum roll please! My 1996 theme song is...

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something

And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film, And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it." And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

What's Your 1996 Theme Song?

Although I wanted Kate's song. I loved Alannis Morissete - "Head Over Feet" was pretty much "our song" during Freshman year... Nathaniel's and mine. Not Kate's and mine. I mean, she was there at ND too, but I didn't know her. Okay, I'm totally off topic. This is a random quiz, but funny. (Speaking of "random", I believe it was 1996 when I first started over-using that word, as did every student at ND at the time. That, and "golden".)

Tell me what you get.

Clearly she's a genius

A conversation at our dinner table tonight.

Marianne: Daddy, is there any more green olives with the pits?

Me (mostly in jest): ARE there any more olives.

Marianne: Are there any more green olives?

Nathaniel (definitely joking at this point, seeing as how Marianne is only three): Right, because "olives" is the subject and it's?... Plural.

Me (because we think this kind of thing is funny, so don't let it die): You could say "Is there another olive" if you just wanted one, but you have to say "Are there any more olives" because you're talking about a bunch of them.

Marianne (losing her patience): Is there a bunch of green olives left?

Me: Wow! Nice.

Nathaniel: Impressive use of the collective.

Nothing to say

I'm sure I have a million things to say, or at least that I could ramble on for the length of a couple computer screens about very little. But the truth is, I can think of nothing to say today. My mind is too full of the upcoming move and the potential house purchase in Nebraska, of Easter dresses I want to make and books I want to read when spare minutes come my way, of getting the house clean and spending time with friends so it stays that way. I'm tired, but exhilarated at the same time. I'm ready to move on to the new challenges that await, but the geographical move still feels very unreal. I trudge through my days at work because I feel so finished there, yet the work keeps rolling in and piling up till eventually I have to plow my way through it.

I had a farewell trip to LA last week, where my team was extremely kind and thoughtful and full of good wishes. They gave me a box of L'Occitane products which I love, and we went out for a night on the town. They know I'm still here for a month, but that I'll likely never see most of them again. A strange thought, to say the least, though not entirely bad. I like the women on my team, but I'm ready to move on. None of them are shocked by that.

Despite all the nothingness I have to say, I thought you deserved an update. I was quiet through my meeting and through the weekend, so it's been nearly a week. Hopefully I'll have pictures of Ruth's dress to share soon. The pieces are cut and ready for assembly. Hopefully I'll bigger news about a new house soon. Hopefully my mind will settle soon, and I'll be thinking more coherently. The last one seems unlikely, but I still hold on to the hope.

If any of you have recommendations or referrals for moving in a few weeks, please feel free to share. We'll most likely rent a UHaul and do it ourselves. If you know of a fabulous cheap moving company, though, I'm all ears!