Happy Easter...

Right now, it is just a waiting game. This is the most frustrating thing I have ever done. We are so ready to get our lives in motion in NC but we are in limbo here in MO. Things are picking up and we've had a few more lookers in the last 2 or 3 weeks but nothing major has happened. We recently lost a buyer who was VERY interested, they bought a model home. How on earth can we compete with that??? We actually live in our house. We don't have chess sets with a match in progress sitting on the coffee table & our beds aren't covered with massive amounts of throw pillows perfectly poised. Our bathrooms aren't accented with silver trays of organic soaps yet to be used. My bathrooms have rubber ducks in them. My bed is made but lets get real....who has time to arrange 13 throw pillows on it every single morning !!!

I wish it would just sell already. Maybe the Easter Bunny could have brought us a signed contract in our basket. The kids got lots of great stuff. Ty got bubbles, candy, a baseball hat & an Easter coloring book. Abby got candy, lip gloss & a fun new pair of sneakers. We had a nice Easter & Ty enjoyed the Egg Hunt but it would have been better if we were all together again....

If It's Broke....We Will Fix It !!!

Now that we are coming into the real estate season, all hands are on deck to make sure the house looks great for any prospective buyers that might grace our front porch. Unfortunately, it seems like things are breaking faster than I can repair them. Not long ago we had to deal with the last minute faucet mishap. Most recently, my large wooden backyard playset experienced a minor disaster & now my front door handle is on the fritz !!!

What is a girl to do? Get out the tool belt, that's what! We have a lovely wooden playset in our backyard with a green tent top. During a recent rainstorm, along with the ever present midwest wind gusts that rival Wizard of Oz scenes, the tent top broke. I came down the next morning and looked out the large window on my stairway landing to see the tent top waving wildly. Oh crap !!!! Luckily I was able to replace the broken board and, along with Abby's help, fix the whole thing for under $30. But not before I had a minor anxiety attack.

Trying to sell your house is like waiting for a baby to be born. You can't wait for it to happen but you are in a total panic about when exactly it will take place. Will the baby be born in aisle 3 of the supermarket? Every prospective mom has that thought tucked away in the back of her mind. Same thing with prospective home buyers. We can hardly wait for them to come here but we panic at the thought they might show up at the most inopportune moment. Like when your playset is in shreds or when the door knob is broken and they can't even get in the front door, much less buy the whole house. The only thing to do is your very best. Keep that vacuum revved up and those paint brushes at the ready.

Dog Days of Winter

Gracie is an awesome dog....One of the all-time greats. She stays close off-leash, doesn't make any messes in the house & most all is uber-patient with the wee-ones. Why on earth would I want to mess with perfection?

It goes like this....I have been so busy obsessing about this move and playing both Mommy & Daddy while Tim sets up shop in NC that poor Gracie has been getting the short end of the proverbial stick. She is pretty bummed about it, too. She seems down in the dumps & winter isn't helping either. We have limited (by that I mean zero) walks & stick-throwing sessions when the mercury is below freezing. I thought a puppy friend might help cheer her up and give her a backyard playmate that isn't me.

Then reality set in: 2x the dirt, 2x the hair, 2x the poop!!!! I saw a dog that was just as cute as a button but, alas, not house-broken. That was the deal breaker for me. I am working overtime trying to keep my house as close to perfection as is humanly possible so we can sell it as quick as possible and a puppy just doesn't figure into that equation:

Poopy-stained carpets + tumbleweed-sized furballs = No Sale !!!

So bye-bye little yellow lab....I hardly knew ye. Gracie is more than enough pup for this family.

The Big 3 !!!

Wow !!!! My little Ty is officially a big kid now....3 years old.

We had a great birthday in spite of the minor change to our birthday schedule to accomodate a prospective buyer that wanted to see our house. So instead of the normal birthday festivities we spent our day obsessively scrubbing toilets, vacuuming, and making beds you could bounce a quarter on. We are having big fun now!!!

But being the troopers that we Grandinetti's are, we pulled it all together and the house looked extra-great thanks to Tim's diligence in the backyard pooper-scooping arena. We only had one minor slip up in the closing moments of the "They will be here at 3:00" countdown. As I was compulsively scrubbing my white ceramic kitchen sink with Soft Scrub, I pulled on the faucet spout to activate the sprayer and the entire thing came right off in my hand. Followed by a jet engine-powered stream of water right to my face. Ooops.

What to do? What to do? Well, we opted for Door #2 and choose to stick it back on there very carerfully and pray that the buyers didn't touch, or for that matter breathe, on the faucet lest it fall off right before their eyes. Then we crossed our fingers and fled the scene.

We closed our day with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday and a gigantic slice of DQ ice cream cake. Just what the doctor ordered. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUY!!!

Hopefully....On Hold

Selling our house....The biggest obstacle to our move. This is not the best market and, certainly, not the best time of year to be trying to sell our house. Each weekend we do, what I like to refer to as, the "hopeful clean-up". Every Friday night I clean the entire house from top to bottom. I mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, vacuum, I even sweep the front porch and do an inspection of the landscaping to catch in errant pieces of paper or miscellaneous stuff the wind my have blown into my shrubbery. All this in the "hope" that we will have prospective buyers come and take a look at our house.

Of course, they will be impressed by how impeccably maintained my lawn and bushes are and will make an offer on the spot. So far, this hasn't happened but each Friday I continue to hope for the best and expect the worst. I love the house that I live in. It is a gorgeous home with move than enough room for all of us and a couple of guests if any drop in for a visit. It is pretty close to being my dream home but I have already bid it farewell in my mind. I have stopped imagining how my kitchen would look if it were painted a different color or what kind of window treatments would be great in the master bath. Now my dreams and imaginings are focused on a new, though yet unseen, house in North Carolina. I think about our new home and how I will arrange the furniture and where I will hang my pictures. I want to be excited but my excitement is on an indefinate hold.

Now all we can do is wait and hope and keep on cleaning. As our realtor says, "It only takes one buyer." I wish they would just get here. My house can't get much cleaner.

Plotting The Course

On the move? To what? To where? That is the million dollar question. My family currently lives in O'Fallon, MO but that hardly sums us up. The question of "where are you from" is getting more complicated all the time. This will be our 4th "big" move with a few more minor ones (across town or across the county) in between.

Right now when people ask, "Where are you from?", I generally respond with "We are originally from New York but we moved here from Washington, DC." Now that we are headed toward Winston-Salem, NC the answer will be even more complex. Maybe I should carry around a map and could just plot our family's course for any interested parties. It isn't the "where" that makes me nervous, it's the "what".

We can make any geographical place feel like home. We have done it before and we are starting to get good at it. I'm a lucky wife. My husband works hard and gives our family all that we need including a nice home in a nice neighborhood. It is the "what" part of the question that unnerves me a bit. What will it be like there? What do people there do for fun? What will the schools be like? What if they don't have a soccer league for my goal-keeping daughter? What will I do with my time after I've quit my job, left my Mothers of Preschoolers group and dropped out of my book club? And the even bigger question, "What are we moving toward?" I'm not sure I know.

You see, we have it really nice here. I never thought I would find myself in the midwest. I'm an east coast kind of girl. But this is a place I could call home. It's everything a mom wants: friendly, safe and a place where my children can thrive. But alas, we are saying goodbye to paradise. What will this new adventure hold for us? Will we be even happier than we are now? That doesn't seem possible but I guess we are about to find out. Keep your fingers crossed for us and keep your eye out for that moving truck. We might be moving right next door to you.

It's A Rabbit

Today is Abby's 13th Birthday. She is surrounded by her best friends for a fun-filled afternoon of bowling, laser tag & those ridiculous video games that reward the player with a plastic ring or bouncy ball after hours of diligent gaming and an unending stream of quarters provided by indulgent parents.
She is taking the prospect of the new move in stride and has learned from previous moving adventures that this is a time when we parents are ripe for the pickin'. She has informed us that she will come along quietly if we are willing to provide just one thing: A RABBIT !!!!
Unbeknownst to her, Tim and I feel as though we have gotten off cheap. A rabbit is a small price to pay for the cooperation of a teenager.
During one particular dinner conversation where Tim & I were discussing the impending logistics of our upcoming adventure, she interrupted us by saying simply, "By the way, I have a name picked out for my rabbit. I'm calling her Freckles!".
With that, the deal was sealed and we will celebrate this new addition to our family with as much glee as we can possibly muster.