Catch up

Let's see...pretty much I have been living by the motto that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

But to break the silence and catch everyone up here's the run down.

We dropped the price on our house again and put in a $5,000 cash bonus to the buyer (yep you read that correctly, we are bribing someone to buy our amazing home).  It seemed to work though because that night we got our first offer and it so far is turning out to be a great one, they would like some extra (they haven't exactly told us if will be money or credit) to paint the outside of the house though.  So picture with me if you will a small sum of money that you stand to make on a home even though you have paid a ton of money for the last 8 years and you spent every bit of $65,000 remodeling it...only to find out that when you sell it you won't quite break even, never mind recovering any part of that remodeling money.  Sigh, I know that I need to keep my eyes on the prize and realize that we are moving into a very nice house but it's hard to throw this one aside.

Anyways, now that we have effectively sold our home we were able to move up the closing date on our new home from May 24th to May 3rd.  That's great news so we can be in there sooner and start really loving life in the forest again.  The real estate agent on the other home is being...how should I put this.... difficult.  I truly don't know if my blood pressure has been this high in my entire adult life. I will not be able to shake his hand at closing and it will take all of my self control not to call him something dreadful in front of my children.  Every time we turn around he is messing up something or threatening someone, it's just been a mess.  And I can assure that buying a home is already messy enough I don't need him muddling in there.  Not to mention when he is mean or degrading, it is not only to my agent but also my mother and anyone that knows me knows that this puts him in a very special place of my anger.  Hopefully this is all over soon and I never have to hear of him again.

We went up and visited Derek and Rachel this weekend, which turned out to be the best thing for the kids.  We have had to pack up all of their toys and what not around the house to make it less cluttered so I think they just truly loved living in a "kid house" again.  One with toys everywhere and that is allowed to be dirty every once in a while.

Just over a week ago we had to put Moose down.  He was acting really odd all of the sudden in the middle of the night and Joe took him into the vet at midnight.  They confirmed that his stomach had flipped and he was in a lot of pain.  After a heavy sedation we talked about the options and there was just no humane way to save his life.  I believe that as parents of either pets or children it is our responsibility to look at all options and all outcomes to those options and weigh them based on the family member involved, not on your own desires or wants.  It was a heartbreaking decision and we still all miss him so much.

Did I mention that Lola (Derek and Rachel's oldest daughter) got baby ducks for Easter?  Austin and Tyler LOVED them!

Wasn't he such a pretty boy, goofy but pretty.

And if anyone out there needs a pick me up, check out this little Moo-Fabio.  She is such a little character.