On Pins & Needles...

... Waiting to hear back from our realtor!!

After 8 showings yesterday we received an offer this morning for FULL ASKING PRICE in CASH from a foreign family who apparently has nothing better to do with their money than buy a townhouse in cash for their three children to live in while they go to college here for the next four years. 

The major hitch is that they want to close on April 25th, which is  in, umm , less than 30 days. So we are waiting to hear back from them that they either a) raise their offer to make it worth our while to uproot ourselves and move across country in less than four weeks or b) that we close on April 25th for the full asking price but that we then do a "rent back" agreement where they 'd then rent it back to us for 60 days so we wouldn't have to be out till the end of June. 

Either way OMG!! I am basically going to be pacing back and forth staring at my phone until I hear back from our realtor!!

For Sale

Officially on the market for $339,900! Our first showing so far is scheduled for Saturday morning!

New Recipe Monday (3/24)

Definitely the best beef stew I've ever made -- yum!! And since it was done in the crock pot, it was super easy. 

Puppies Are Cute

We spent the afternoon at Phil & Sue's house playing with puppies; their dog Lola gave birth to six (actually seven, one was stillborn) puppies, which are now 4 1/2 weeks old. The kids, predictably, fell in love, and are now campaigning for one. 

Grammy, Grampy and Uncle Tom also came down for the afternoon so we had a great visit with the whole gang. 

Here are puppy pictures:

Black Mass

I came home this afternoon to find a flyer that had been placed in the mailbox by a scouting agent for the movie Black Mass, which is based on the life of Whitey Bulger and stars Johnny Depp. It is set to start filming in our area in May and apparently they are currently scouting filming locations. The flyer went on to say that we had received it because the exterior of our home had the look that the producers were going for and asked us to call the scouting agent to set up a time at which he could come back and take some pictures of the inside and outside of the house to pass along to the producers to see if they wanted to shoot a scene or scenes at our house. It specifically said that they were looking for certain "features of the 1970s and 1980s" in the home and that we 'd be compensated for the use of the home, etc. It also gave the number for the Massachusetts Film Association to verify the validity of the project. 

While having a film crew at the house doesn't really mesh well with our plan to put the house on the market April 1st, the prospect is amusing enough to consider calling the guy back. Maybe. 

More From Amelia

(Collected over the past two weeks. )

Amelia: "I'm the smartest person in this house but nobody knows it. "

Me: "Oh yeah? Why don't we know it?"

Amelia: "Because I haven't told anyone yet. "

***

Amelia: "I think I'm allergic to snow. "

Me: "Why...?"

Amelia: "Because whenever I look at it I start sneezing!"

***

Amelia: "I think I want to be a doctor when I grow up. But, I have a question."

Me: "What?"

Amelia: "How do you get to be a doctor?"

Me: "You go to college and then you go to medical school. "

Amelia: "What's medical school?"

Me: "It's the school that you go to, to learn to be a doctor. "

Amelia: "Oh. Maybe I'll be a bird instead."

***

Amelia: "Can I watch Doc McStuffins?" And can I have a pillow? And a blanket ? And some pink juice?"

Me: "Amelia I can only --"

Amelia : "I know, I know -- you don't have sixteen hands!"

***

Charlie: "Amelia -- let's play the game where I pretend to be sleeping and you come up and fart on my face!"

Amelia: "No Charlie! I've outgrown that game!!"

Busy Tuesday

Today went something like this :

-- Up at 7am, rout the kids out of bed & get Charlie to the bus stop at 8. 

-- Quick breakfast then dressed and off to Amelia's 9:30 gymnastics class. 

-- Class over at 10:15, peel off Amelia's leotard & get her changed then head to the high school track. 

-- Oh good (?) all the snow on the track is melted I actually get to run. Yay. Run 2 miles while pushing Amelia in the stroller which is HARD to do because she is getting bigger and I am out of shape!!

-- Finish run and head to Stop n Shop in hopes they have ferret food and because I promised Amelia a treat for putting up with my 30 degree run. No ferret food, wander around the store & get a bunch of stuff I don't really need instead. 

-- Home (by now it's just before noon). Change out of workout clothes, throw chicken in the crock pot for dinner, make Amelia's lunch, put away one load of laundry and do 2 more. Eat lunch in there somewhere and put away more laundry. Also pack lunches and lay kids' clothes out for tomorrow, renew library books, email realtor and do a slew of other random things. 

-- 2:30, time to get moving again. Change Amelia into another leotard, collect dance shoes & tutu, and head to the bus stop. 

-- Get Charlie off the bus, head straight to dance class while shoving Reese's peanutbutter eggs at him to make up for the fact that he had a full day of school today instead of the usual Tuesday 1/2 day because the 4th graders were doing the long composition part of the MCAS testing. 

-- Stop at the health food store because apparently we can't live without raspberry yogurt covered pretzels. Seriously, we can't. 

-- Get to dance class, wrestle Amelia into her tutu and shoes, pull her hair up & shove her into class. 

-- While she's in class lay on the floor and help Charlie with his homework. ("This is so stupid, why do I have to write 5 facts about starlings??")

-- Class is over at 4:15. Head home & wrestle Amelia out of her leotard. She is now in her THIRD set of clothes for the day. Charlie somehow pees himself so he gets to change into his second outfit of the day. (With some arguing because apparently he feels that sitting butt naked from the waist down at the computer while playing Minecraft is not only ok but actually highly preferable to going upstairs and getting another pair of pants. ) 

-- Preheat oven, go about getting dinner on the table. 

-- Mike comes home, get dinner on the table. Yell at children because as usual they are asking how many bites do they have to eat before they get dessert, before their little butts even hit their chairs. Remind them of starving children in Africa, blah blah blah. 

-- Finish dinner, escape out the door for a two hour hair appointment via Starbucks. 

-- It's 8:00, home to wrestle both kids in to bed and take a shower. 

Ready for the work week to start !!

New Recipe Monday 3/17

Mustard Roasted Chicken with Vegetables (and quinoa). 

A big hit with the adults, not so much with the kids :-P

Productive Sunday

Yesterday was a particularly productive day if I don't say so myself -- I was up by 6:15 and at work before 7am ; I worked 6 hours and came home to spend the afternoon cleaning out the playroom. I not only sorted through the biggest pile of action figures ever to be owned by 1 boy (sorting them into Legos & accessories, large action figures, small humanoid action figures, army men and small animal figures) but I also got together a big bag of trash and a pile of other toys for the trash besides. 

After I finished in the playroom I officially began my training for my next 1/2 marathon -- Boston's a Run To Remember at the end of May -- by running 3 miles. Thankfully although it is COLD the weather has cooperated and not dumped any more snow on us & most of the snow on the ground has melted except for shady areas and giant piles in parking lots. So my usual running course around Quincy was clear of ice and snow. 

After running I sat with Mike for a little bit while we worked on the taxes enough to ensure that we'll at least break even, if not get a small refund. 

All in all a very productive Sunday!

Yoga Practice

Dental Surgery, Done And Over With !

Amelia finally had her scheduled dental surgery this morning after six months of waiting, forms, insurance authorizations and pre-op physicals ( yes 2 of them.)

Grammy and Grampy spent the night last night and put Charlie on the bus this morning, as Mike and I had to be out the door to the hospital with Amelia at 6:45am. 

Amelia, who couldn't eat or drink after midnight, was nonetheless happy as a clam and awfully excited to go to the hospital ;-)

She pranced down the halls, obediently waited in registration while I filled out forms, and happily played in the waiting room while we waited to be brought to the pre-op area.  She even had fun changing into her little Johnny and found it very amusing that Mike and I had to wear johnnies over our clothes to go into the OR with her. 

I thought she'd freak out when the dentist came out to meet with us but she wasn't fazed by this either, even though she is terrified of him in the dentist office. I don't think she actually recognized him, since he was in scrubs and a surgical hat. 

Amelia was still happy right up to when she was brought into the OR and they administered the anaesthesia -- she obediently breathed in while the doctor counted to 10 -- she got to about seven until the anaesthesia started to take effect and then she fought like a little wildcat, kicking the anaesthesiologist and clawing the mask away from her face. They had warned us that this might happen but I think we were all caught off guard because she had been so compliant up until that. Once they finally got her under they let us each give her a quick kiss and then whisked us out to the waiting room. 

The surgery itself took a lot shorter than we thought -- they had warned us that it would take them a good 20 minutes just to get X-rays done and get her prepped and that it could take to an hour or hour and a half after that depending on if there were any cavities that needed to be filled or any other unforeseen work that needed to be done in addition to the caps being put on her molars. Fortunately there was not --Mike and I went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat and then spent maybe another 20 minutes in the waiting room before the dentist came back to let us know that everything had gone smoothly and that we could head into recovery, where he said she "wasn't happy" but had been successfully extubated. 

It turned out "wasn't happy" was an understatement -- poor Amelia still couldn't talk and her nose was bleeding from the breathing tube; she was completely beside herself, clawing her Johnny off, clawing her ID bracelet off and trying desperately to get the IV out of her foot (which they had put in while she was asleep.)

When she could finally talk she just yelled "I want to go home!" and "No thank you! No thank you!" to any nurses' questions of did she want juice, water or a Popsicle. They finally obliged and took the IV out but then needed to get 3 sets of "good" vital signs, to which thrashing Amelia was not amenable at all. They finally managed to get them done and got us out the door, at which point Amelia calmed down considerably. 

By the time we got home she was giving us little smiles and was almost able to talk normally. By the time we had been home for an hour she had eaten two cups of jell-O and was resting comfortably. 

An hour or two after that she was completely back to her old self and by the time Charlie got home you never would've guessed what her morning had been like. He came right up to her and said "Amelia how was the hospital??" to which Amelia replied "Great!!" Then she opened her mouth wide to show off her caps: "Look I have braces!!"

Here is a picture of her happy in the pre-op area and one of her less happy but home eating jell-O. We're glad the ordeal is over!

2nd Quarter Report Card

I met with Charlie's teacher last night for his 2nd term report card conference. His report card was the usual -- he is doing fine academically in all areas with no concerns on his teacher's part. He is exceeding expectations in reading, reading comprehension and reading fluency and meeting expectations in math. He is exceeding expectations in science and social science and meeting expectations in writing except for needing to work on paragraph organization. 

Interpersonally he got the usual "outstandings" in respectfulness , courteousness,  working independently, using time wisely and completing classroom assignments and he scored "satisfactory" in all other areas. 

His teacher says he needs to have more confidence in himself -- that he often hands in his work with a sad face and says "I don't know how I did on this" but that he always does just fine and he doesn't need to second guess himself. 

So a good 2nd report card, way to go Charlie!

New Recipe Monday 3/10 -- They Can't All Be Winners

This was supposed to be a Moroccan chicken dish. -- apricots, golden raisins, scallions, cilantro -- what's not to love ? Unfortunately it wasn't quite sweet or savory enough, landing somewhere in the middle. Oh well. 

March Comes In Like A Lion...

(Ugh more snow, really??)

Princess Party

This afternoon we went to Amelia's friend Kyla's 3rd birthday party. It was a Cinderella themed party complete with Cinderella herself, who arrived to paint faces, read stories and sing happy birthday to the birthday girl. 

While most of the girls were entranced, Amelia was notably skeptical, asking me "Is that the real Cinderella or just someone dressed up as Cinderella?

If that's the real Cinderella, where is her carriage and horses?" 

She did, however , partake in the face painting and picture taking festivities, although somewhat grudgingly. (Charlie stayed downstairs playing the wii the whole time, surfacing only for pizza, not even for cake.) here are some pictures:

After the party we met Uncle Tom out at Buffalo Wild Wings for a few beers and some of their 38 different kinds of wings, of which my favorite were the mango habenaro although they were so spicy I think they may have taken off some small pieces of my tongue. (Seriously.)

Swimming Lessons

The kids are back to swimming lessons after a long hiatus -- here they are looking varying degrees of oh-so-thrilled to be back at it!

Red Stripe

Just his red belt and black belt left to go...

Bikram Yoga

After four months of procrastinating I finally redeemed a Groupon for ten Bikram yoga classes at the studio that's around the corner from Amelia's dance & gymnastics classes. 

When I bought the groupon I had thought that I had already done Bikram yoga, because my friend Kate and I had taken a series of heated yoga classes about ten years ago. I was quickly informed, though, that heated yoga and Bikram yoga are not the same thing, with the former being a 60 minute class and usually involving a room heated to about 90 degrees and the latter involving a room heated to 110 degrees and being a 90 minute class. 

I got off on the wrong foot fairly immediately because I was running late to the class so I decided it would be a good idea to run all the way there. Lesson #1: Do not show up to a bikram yoga class already out of breath and sweaty, you are about to sweat more profusely than you ever have in your life, why get a jump start on it?

Lesson #2: Do not  show up late to a Bikram yoga class because all the spaces by the door will be taken and you will find yourself right in the front center of the room, exactly where you don't want to be in order to make a discreet exit halfway through. 

Lesson #3: If you insist on taking a Bikram yoga class, don't put your mat down next to your son's pre-school classmate's mother who competes in yoga competitions at a national level and who literally spent most of the class with her ankles behind her head. After class we may or may not have had the following conversation: 

Me: "How often do you do this??"

Her: "Every day, isn't it a great workout??"

Me: "You're a f*cking psychopath!!"

(If she un-friends me on Facebook I'll know why.)

I basically spent the entire class watching the sweat drip off various places on my body and land on various places on the floor. When I got tired of that I started to watch the sweat drip off other people's bodies. I literally kept choking on my own sweat -- like, it would run into my nose because my head was upside down half the time and then I would breathe in and I'd choke on it just like I was breathing in through my nose underwater. That's how sweaty it was. 

I can already tell I am going to ache from head to toe tomorrow from just *thinking* about putting my ankles behind my head...

Well at least I have a week to recover until next class...

New Recipe Monday 3/3

Broccoli cheese quiche with a mashed potato crust. Given two thumbs up :-)

Weekend Recap

We had a fairly quiet weekend all things considered. Saturday I worked, but got out early enough to be roped into watching Return of the Jedi when I came home. Mike has been forcing the children to watch all the Star Wars episodes in order & this marked the last one. I can't help but think that Charlie is fairly relieved that his Star Wars watching obligation is over ;-)

On Sunday I worked from 7am to noon and then headed over to the Taekwon Do studio where Charlie was testing for his red stripe. He was the youngest of five kids testing for their red stripe and I thought he did great although Charlie says he couldn't wipe the smile off his face during the test and that he kept wanting to laugh. Well, I couldn't tell. 

After the test (which lasted from 11am to almost 2, poor kids) we headed over to Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch. Even though we got there a little after 2pm it was mobbed and we had a 40 minute wait. Thank god for smart phones -- Amelia watched Peppa Pig videos on mine and Charlie played games on Mike's. We didn't get home till 4:30 or so, at which point I did absolutely nothing until putting Amelia to bed at 7:30. 

At. 8:30 my friend Valerie called to ask if she could invite herself over to watch the Oscars, since her husband had a 9pm job interview via Skype and she wanted to be out of the house. So we had an impromptu Oscars party with beer, popcorn and fudge stripes. I told her next time if she actually gives me warning I might even  have food in the house :-P

This morning we got off to a rough start with me oversleeping until exactly 12 minutes before we had to be out the door to the bus stop -- oops!! I guess I can't count on Amelia to be my alarm clock any more!! 

After I recover from having to shake Charlie awake and get him out the door in record time I have grand plans to clean out some closets today -- fun times!