Wordless Wednesday: Family Portrait Fail

The last day my mother was here the weather was beautiful so we decided to take a walk along the path in the sculpture park across my from house. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get some great pictures of Calder and Wren playing together and maybe some nice family shots with my mom. I was wrong, they (well, not my mother) fought me every step. Wren kept refusing to leave the wagon and Calder was more interested in picking up every pine cone that we passed.

Houndhog Day? Grouse Hunters?

With our lease set to expire in nine days and our humble request for a short extension only begrudgingly granted, it would be fair to say that this whole house search process is beginning to wear on me. We have looked at 40 houses thus far, bid on three and have been outbid twice. Get back to me later today and maybe that number will have changed. You'll know by the presence of disconsolate weeping.

Despite the wide variety of properties that we have viewed: size, location, condition, the process has smoothed over into one glossy sameness that is beginning to make me feel like I have been trapped in some unrelenting feedback loop. It's like a terrible House Hunters/Groundhog Day mashup. And I swear, I haven't complained about the lack of granite or stainless even once. I am must easier to please. Does it have a sink? Buy it.

Is it a bidding war? It must be Tuesday.

This is what my life has been like lately.

• Wednesday through Thursday: Research research research. Identify promising listings based on specs, maybe cruise by a few to check out the exterior and neighborhood. Obsessively read school report cards and crime stats in that area.
• Friday: Send what we'd like to look at to our realtor. Get shot down on about half of them due to various issues: short sale, occupied until August, cash only, etc.
• Saturday: Look at houses. Possibly see something nice.
• Sunday: Look at more houses. Definitely see something good, perhaps even a few places. Argue with Bruce which, if any house we want to bid on (aka I cry and Bruce caves). Fight some more about what the offer should be. Once decided on offer (aka I cry and Bruce caves), tell realtor.
• Monday: Realtor send me paperwork to sign and scan to send back. Some sort of technology mishap sends me into a rage. Get paperwork sent out correctly. Maybe.
• Tuesday: Get outbid. Spend all day at work staring despondently at real estate sites on the computer as it becomes clear that all the other maybe houses have also been snapped up by people with apparent fountains of cash.
• Wednesday: START ALL OVER AGAIN

So it's Tuesday. This week's offer may take a  bit longer than usual to get rejected due to my printer crapping out last night and deciding that rather than printing words on paper, it would rather emit blue glorps all over the goddamn place. The first page of the contract was literally dripping in ink so I will be doing (have done ,when you read this) it at at work in the morning. So, uh, wish me luck and maybe donate some money to relief efforts in Oklahoma so those people can have houses too.

Gramma-cation

I realize I disappeared again. I even missed two Wordless Wednesdays which is literally the least effort one can put in as a blogger and still get posts up. I have a good excuse, several in fact. My mom was in town, it was Wren's birthday week and we are still looking for somewhere new to live.

I'd like to say that I was super busy dragging my mother from one fabulous touristy thing to another but that would be a lie. We really didn't do very much at all. One day we all drove up to Wisconsin for cheese and antiques and had a nice little cheese picnic in a park on the drive home. The highlight of that road trip was probably the short jaunt down to the beach for some toe dipping in Lake Michigan. For the kids anyways. My highlight was buying an obnoxious amount of turquoise canning jars, some of which I learned are almost 100 years old. Of course I didn't bother to look this stuff up until after I got home but there were plenty left in the store so perhaps I will make another jar run. Without telling Bruce of course, he thinks I am nuts. It was super super nuts until I told him how old they were, then he liked them a bit more.

Jarssssssssssssss

The bulk of our time was spent sitting around with the kids or packing. My mom was very kind and helped me to put most of our disaster of a basement playroom into boxes. We also went to the Shedd Aquarium on Wren's birthday and had small celebration at home the next day. Both of those things will probably get their own posts due to their picture-heavy nature. Probably.

I loved having my mom here, she's an excellent mindless TV partner and she even left me with fabric for a quilt she had intended to make many years ago that I will now be piecing. My mother even looked after Calder solo while Bruce and I drove around looking at houses. Twice. Once was on Mother's Day. So yeah, she's great. Hopefully all that driving around will mean that next time she comes to see us, she'll have a nice guest space to use and won't be forced to climb up the ladder into Calder's tiny loft bed. If that happens, maybe even my dad will come.