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 !!