House for Sale

Our house is for sale...again?...still?
We took our house off the market over the 2010 Christmas holidays and put it back on in April 2011. Frustrated is a mild term to explain our feelings with the lack of activity between April and July. We (Greg) decided to change realtors/agencies just to feel like we were actively doing "something" to sell our house and because we didn't feel a real commitment from our realtor at the time. Anyway, last night we had our first showing since changing agencies-amazing to us because the photos aren't even up on the MLS listing yet! Too bad I was out with friends when I got the message about the showing and only had a little over an hour until the showing!!! I couldn't pass up the chance to show our house so I raced home to clean up the mess. Luckily, Joey was very helpful, calm too. He repeatedly reminded me, "Mom, you don't have to rush." Yes, yes I did, until I fell down the steps-ouch! As I rush-limped around the house picking up and depositing under the bed or in the back of the car whatever was out of place and vacuuming, I heard, "That's what happens when you rush." Smart aleck!
We left the show-worthy house 20 minutes before the prospective buyers were expected. When we returned home an hour and a half later (2 new pairs of shoes for me, 2 for Joey), we searched the newly cleaned house for signs of visitors: footprints on the vacuum-tracked carpet, butt prints on the smoothed out couch cushions, etc. Here's hoping the house hunters came, saw and loved!

We're in Training

With Greg in Memphis to train for his new flying gig, Joey and I are having to relearn this 24/7 thing, especially with all of the snow days we've had. Since Christmas, we've only gone to school 2 or 3 days a week! The first day of homework after Greg left almost drove me to drink. "I can't" and "this is too hard" beat into my brain until I really wanted to puncture my eardrums or shake the baby. I refrained from both and used all the patience I could summon to repeat, "Yes, you can" and "no, it's not". I may have added, "Stop complaining" and "quit whining," once or eighteen thousand times, but who's counting? After posting my dilemma on Facebook, my FB friends gave me lots of good advice, the most commonly given 1. use a timer and 2. talk to his teacher (Does that count if it actually came from his teacher?). I did both and added my own twist-bribery. Hey, don't point fingers-if it works, it works. Two days later, the nine-year old in my charge explained to me that whining doesn't help him get his work done and that it actually takes a lot less time to complete the homework if there is no whining (from either of us!) He woke up yesterday-a snow day-and wanted to start his next project. Dee, I really hope you're going to do the weathering and erosion poster!!!