Man! Of course the morning that I actually manage to get up just a little bit earlier than usual (because I’m TERRIBLY behind on blogging), I hear a little voice chirping, “Mama! Mama! MAMA!!!”  WAY earlier than I’d really prefer.  So, despite needing a long time to blog, that just doesn’t exist these days, and I’ll have to be bullet-pointily brief.  Here goes:

• House Projects: we’ve gotten through 24 of the 25 items from our buyers’ “list of demands.”  The last thing is to install a handrail at the top of the stairs.  We’ll do this tomorrow since it requires removing the baby gate at the top of the stairs.  The buyers are coming to do their re-inspection on Thursday (MY birthday!! They better be kind, darn it!!).
• Thursday: Yes, the much dreaded re-inspection.  Ugh.  We’ll have done everything they’ve asked.  We have to leave out all receipts and proof of work-orders for the projects of which they ‘required’ we hire a professional to complete.  Basically, at this point, they can’t walk away or add new items, BUT if something was not to their satisfaction they could say, “Do it again…or pay us money…OR we’ll push back closing.”  Trying to ignore this little possibility.
• Packing: Packing. Packing. PACKING.  We’re moving Memorial Day Monday (6 days from now – eek!).  But I’m really thinking that my deadline is Thursday afternoon (again, happy birthday to me).  We can’t be here for several hours in the afternoon.  (I’ve got to take Kayli and Zach for pediatrician check-ups, then the buyers do their re-inspect, so we’ll head up to my ma and pa’s for a birthday dinner).  THEN, Friday afternoon, we’ll be 100% packed (ideally) and will pick up Mike and head to my parents’ beach house in Port Ludlow for a bit of a MUCH NEEDED weekend get-away.  THEN, come home Sunday night, have one last sleep here in this, our first house, (sniff sniff), THEN, 8am Monday morning pick up the U-Haul and the fun begins!  Still TONS to do but the place is starting to look pretty darn sparse!
• New House: They (the seller and his worker peeps) are (no surprise) very behind on all the updates/upgrades/projects at our new digs, so we haven’t even gotten to go back to do the inspection!!Tomorrow’s the day and I’m SO excited to get to see it again!  We will be taking LOTS of pictures and will be taking lots of measurements especially for the new appliances we ‘get’ to buy – fridge, washer, dryer AND furnace.  (Ouch. $$$!! Happy birthday to me!)  As for the inspection tomorrow, we hired the same guy that our picky-pants-demanding buyers hired for here.  That’s right, the guy who was so thorough they decided to basically have us do nearly every little thing that he discovered, is, when it comes down to it, REALLY good at what he does.  As Mike said, if the inspection that we’d done when we bought this house, had been half as thorough, we would’ve had a much smaller list to do for selling.  So, I guess we CAN thank the buyers for helping us find a quality inspector! (but we’re not actually going to thank them.  Sorry).
• OTHER news: Most recent and exciting is that Matthew celebrated his First Communion this past weekend.  The event was made extra special with the presence of Mike’s sister Jamie (also Matthew’s Godmother), her hubby Dan, their freakishly well-behaved and mellow dog Commando AND our sweet handsome-pants angel-of-a nephew Tucker.  They arrived from Idaho on Saturday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning.  Matthew kick-started his special weekend with a base-hit at his ball game Saturday morning (I nearly wet my pants, I was so excited.  And I proceeded to get all teary-misty eyed with pride behind my sunglasses).  Then, he made us extra-crazy proud by doing everything perfectly at the First Communion Mass, where, unfortunately, I didn’t have sunglasses to hide my proud tears!  I really didn’t anticipate crying like a bafoon, but after watching him process down the aisle, I turned to my mom all snotty and tear-soaked and said, “Mom! I need a Kleenex!”  To which my mom said, “Ya think?!” and handed me a wad of tissue.  It was such a special day and we are so blessed with the amazing family and friends that could join us to celebrate.  Happy sigh!

Ugh.  Mike and I have been sick.  Because, you know, we don’t have enough on our plates already what with moving in TWO AND A HALF WEEKS ‘n all.  Thankfully, the kids didn’t really get this nastiness – at least not like Mike and I did.  And Zachary certainly hasn’t slowed down at all as I received the following email from his kindergarten teacher:

“The main things  I am seeing is that he chooses to talk during whole group lessons and then doesn’t know what the assignments are.  This also disrupts others.   He also has decided to be the class clown and does a really good job of it!  This only happens once in awhile .  He has never been disrespectful but sometimes he comes close to being sassy to me.”

 So, I should I be proud that my child is excelling at what he puts his mind to??  I must say I’m not surprised that in only his first year of elementary school he’s earned the title of Class Clown (or apparently dubbed himself with that important role).  Even as a 5 pound preemie in the NICU, the nurses joked about how he had ‘spirit’ and always had a little twinkle in his eye like he was up to something.  He’s living up to our expectation I suppose!

Today, my mom and I get to go see his class’ Mother’s Day presentation of “The Three Little Pigs.”  I’m VERY much looking forward to seeing my little dramatic clown in action!

Yeeeah, so sleep may trump blogging for the next few weeks. But we will survive and here’s how:

 Somehow, we WILL get the whole house packed – like EVERYTHING.  We WILL get the unreasonably long (and cruel) list of demands for the buyers of our home completed (we will pray a lot that they accept it all at their 5 days-pre closing REinspection).  We will adequately celebrate Matthew’s First Communion and enjoy out of town/visiting family.  We will acknowledge my birthday (and even, ideally, spend Memorial Day weekend – the two days before we move – with my family at the beach house in Port Ludlow).  We will attend nearly all of Matthew’s baseball games and practices (thrice a week, mind you).  We will have a visit from the Tooth Fairy (Zach has one big ‘ol dangly tooth in the middle/top of his mouth).  We will keep Kayli out of harms way (or attempt to) – I’ve donated her changing table as that was the latest victim of her climbing habits and it was just a bit too wobbly to be the continuous source of her ever developing gymnastic feats.  I will continue to go for runs with my neighbor three mornings a week and get to the gym for Spin and weight training one day a week as that is one of my main sources of sanity (and keeps me from – hopefully – NOT gaining 400 pounds from stress-induced eating).  I will attempt to sleep well during the next four weeks despite the fact that I wake up nearly every single morning with a splitting headache as, when stressed, I clench my jaw and grind my teeth in my sleep.  I will continue to have a nightly 5pm glass of wine and not judge or accept the judgements of others should that 5pm glass of wine need to come at 4:45 or 4:15.  I will try to stick with just my ONE dose of antioxidents (dark chocolate) every morning with my coffee…though many mornings right now, it’s more likely to be two…because I need the extra dose.  I will try, despite all this stress, to still be a good friend, to spend quality time with my husband and my children and to not constantly act like a totally, insanely stressed out maniac despite feeling that way.  If the stress gets to be too much, I will listen to one of my favorite songs of all time (that saw me through a lot of my darkest Post Partum Depression moments): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I I will also listen to Christmas music as that makes me just as happy. I will remember that in the big picture, that selling our wonderful first home where so many happy memories were made and moving to our dream “The One” – forever house – where so many MORE happy memories will be made, is actually a really wonderful thing and that the moving/stress part of it is just the beginning of the adventure!