Happy Mother’s Day!
I hope all you ladies out there are having as great a weekend as I am! I don’t really believe in Hallmark holidays. Mike and I are notorious about forgetting real holidays, so manufactured card holidays like Mother’s Day doesn’t quite sink into our consciousness. We prefer to celebrate our schlocky love fest every day.
But!
This weekend has been great, so I’m claiming it has been a wonderful Mother’s Day.
We got up bright and early Saturday morning with dread in our hearts. We had several house viewings lined up and I didn’t want to go. I taunt myself with MLS listings that are $50,000 above our price range because the townhouses we can afford are short, squat, dank and dark. I want a house that reflects who I am–bright and airy. Cheerful and fun. Large and inviting. I don’t want cramped quarters that squash my soul. I am not a lotto winner, so I guess I have to take what I can get, no matter how much it hurts.
We met up with the realtor and were happily surprised that the houses weren’t totally trashed. We were unhappily surprised when Erik ran into a room in a house we assumed was empty (after much knocking, doorbell ringing and shouting) and jumped on a sleeping teenager. At least she didn’t wake up.
We found one with brand new appliances, carpet and paint. The dining room was separate from the living room, which is perfect. I hate the townhouse layouts that combine the dining and living room. The kitchen is big, the basement is huge, the master bedroom is twice the size of other master bedrooms we’ve seen in townhouses. The two secondary bedrooms are tiny and there are only 2 1/2 baths in the place. Contingent on what we find out about the radon mitigation system on the side of the house, we are planning on putting in an offer. Can you believe it???? I can’t! It feels like we are moving too fast, but how can we pass up the only decent place we’ve seen thus far. There are a few things that would be a compromise, obviously, but if we did buy it we would eventually be able to update the things we don’t like. All the other places we’ve seen have things that need immediate updating and replacing. This place just has things that would annoy, but don’t need immediate action (the cabinets are ugly and I don’t like the deck). We’ll see what happens!
I came home, spent hours feverishly working on a photo book for my mom’s Mother’s Day gift because I’m such a stellar daughter that I leave things until the last minute, then prepared for a night out on the town!
I planned the Girl’s Night Out I mentioned here a few weeks ago! We executed the plan last night. Only two of the four invitees were able to attend, but it turned out to be perfect. The three of us had personalities that meshed and we had a blast. We are planning on setting up a regular meeting, so I’d say the night was a success! It’s been a long time since I’ve had that much fun with a group of women. I think this is the first time I’ve ever met one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I said I would be vivacious and make new friends, and look at me now! New friends! Of course, part of it is just circumstance since I met the right people at the right time, but part of it is me making sure I call and plan things instead of sitting home waiting for people to call me. Thank you, blogging buddies, for giving me the confidence to think people might actually like me and not run screaming when I call or e-mail them.
Today Mike was a sweet, sweet husband and steamed the carpets. He also brought home roses, so he gets double points. All I really wanted was the night out without a preschooler making demand after demand, while running away in the opposite direction. He is a sweet boy, but he’s so very determined.
I spent most of the day glued to my computer, finishing up my mom’s photo book. I’m so glad I decided to send her one now! It took at least 15 hours of work and ended up being 45 pages long. Can you imagine how huge it would have been if I waited until Christmas? At least I was smart this time and didn’t add all my photos in a giant lump. I added them in groups that made sense, so I didn’t have to scroll all over tarnation and back again to try to get it organized. I have this problem when it comes to making photo books. I can’t just throw them in the book. They MUST be in chronological order. MUST!
I also called both the madre and the grandmadre. Mom is thrilled because my sister’s husband is building an apartment in the garage. As soon as he has it finished, my sister’s family will move out there. What a huge stress relief that will be! I’m sure they’ll still be in and out of the house a lot, but at least they’ll have a separate place to go and they can keep all their shit out there. I have no idea if it is legal, if they are getting permits to build, or anything else. I just know that it will be good for them to have a separate space. Since he is building it himself and supplying all the money, maybe he’ll have some ownership in it and won’t try to convince my sister to move to Florida (or wherever) in a few months.
Also! I was talking to Ulrica last week and she mentioned that she lets her baby talk to his grandparents with a webcam via Skype every day. My mom finally got high speed internet, so tonight I ordered both of us a webcam and hopefully someone can help her set hers up and figure it out and Erik can start talking to her via video! I think it will be great for keeping the cousins in touch as well.
One last thing, then I’m out of here. We sort of have progress on the Erik book front. I bought him a few puzzle books at B&N last night and he LOVES them. He won’t let me read the words, but he does flip the pages and talk about the pictures. He spent hours messing around with the dinosaur puzzle book, so here’s hoping one day he won’t zip my lips and tell me to be quiet when I try to read to him. He was such a good boy today. He didn’t ask for the TV at all today! Normally he watches a couple of hours a day (when I was sick it was more like 24 hours a day), and then we spend a lot of time outside. We didn’t even go outside today because of the rain and he was perfectly content playing with his toys. It’s so fun watching him get into pretend play. He has a stuffed dog that he’s started to pack around and force into his little games. I love watching his development and all his silly little games. It makes me cry, though, because I know one day he is going to be a sullen teenager who thinks I’m stupid. I need to live more in the present instead of the future. I remember bawling the day he was born because he wasn’t always going to be a little tiny baby. So far this age is the best age yet. I hope that trend continues for a long while.