Too Young.

I found out that my cousin Jennifer died suddenly Sunday morning. She was 36.


I'm sad. My aunt, her mother, would babysit me when I was younger. Jenn was responsible for keeping me entertained. We'd spend time in the field behind her house, sneaking cigarettes and when we got a bit older, beer.


She leaves 3 children, one of which is about The Boy's age. She was married to her long time boyfriend on 6-6-06 (that should show you the sense of humor she had!) and they just celebrated 2 years a couple of weeks ago.


She had her rough spots in life. As a teen she partied (perhaps her younger cousin was by her side *cough*) but life slowed down for her after she grew up a bit. She graduated college, attending part time while working and raising her family. She was someone that I looked up to. She wasn't always graceful, but she told you like it was. Whenever there was a loss in the family, she was the first one by your side and the last one to leave.


I know death happens. It's part of the circle of life. But this is just so sad for me. I sit here questioning my own mortality, knowing that someday The Boy won't have a mom and Hubs won't have a wife. It really just makes me want to cry.

I feel awful for her family, knowing that they have to pick up the pieces.

Big House in the Woods.

I finally have photos of the house. I adore her. Seriously. It kills me that I have to wait 3 weeks to move in. 3 weeks and a bunch of stress (not to mention that surgery I have scheduled.)
When Hubs and I started this adventure, we wrote down things that we wanted and didn't want in our dream house. Big things- like a flat back yard for The Boy to play wiffle ball in, a master bedroom that would fit that king sized bed we've been dreaming of and more than one bathroom. Small details like the doorknobs all had to match and lots of light.

One of the things we agreed on: If you're moving out to the sticks, move so you can't see your neighbors. This is the view from the gargage, looking down the driveway. You can't see the road. You can't see another house. You can't see a goddamn boat.

This house just might be heaven.

IT'S OURS!!

Yay!

We got written acceptance this afternoon. Money has changed hands. Now we need to get the ball rolling for the inspection and mortgage.

So, about the house...wanna hear about it?

Ok, it's in a small town near Hartford, about 45 minutes from where I am now. There's less than 4000 people in the whole town. That's crazy to me. The school system is excellent.

The house is amazing. You can't even see it from the road. There's 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Best part? The master bedroom is 23X24 (that's feet, not inches like the room we have now.) The house is newer, only 8 years old. There's a playscape for The Boy to jump and climb on, not to mention the land! It's on 4+ acres and completely secluded.

Second best part- since they are being relocated asap, they are happy to accommodate our moving schedule. July is coming up fast. I was getting nervous that I was going to be living with my inlaws. Not that I mind, but we didn't want to inconvenience them and it's not home!

Wow. It happened so easy. There was none of the phone calls, waiting, arguments, disappointment...amazing how fate tells you what house is right for you.

We knew the first house was a dream, too good to be true. There were things that were not perfect with that house, but we were willing to overlook them. With this house, there's none of that. There's room to grow, but it's not cavernous.

I'm so excited. The next few weeks are going to be c-r-a-z-y!

Leap of Fate.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm superstitious, but only with silly things. Whenever I want something badly, I talk about it repeatedly to everyone. I learned early on that if you talk about it long enough, fate has a way of messing it all up.

Well, as I said yesterday we put an offer on another house. We got a verbal, but not a written, acceptance.

It's killing me not to tell everyone in the entire world about this damn house. But I'm seriously petrified that if I gab too much, fate is going to kick me in the ass.

It is the perfect house for us. It is everything we need in a home.

Can't wait to tell you about it!

Third Time a Charm?

Another house, another offer.

More info tomorrow.

Brief Moments of "Girly"

It's a rare occasion when I get to be "girly". I sometimes like going through the ritual of putting on makeup, doing my hair and wearing a dress. Most of the time I'm more the shorts and tee shirts girl than high heels and sparkles woman.

I decided that I needed to pamper myself this weekend. So I bought 2 new dresses on sale (no photos, sorry) and painted my nails.

What do you think? Is blood red show stopping enough?

(Yes, those are my actual, live, non-acryllic, natural nails. I swear they just grow that long...with a little help from a daily multivitamin and a nightly ritual of Aquafor. After this paint starts to chip I'll cut 'em down. For now, I'll just enjoy them.)

This these can get me out of doing laundry for a few days?

Finished Juliet and Scarf

It's thundering here again, please excuse the photos.

A little bird told me that she had repeated issues with making and fit of Juliet. And I have to admit, I can't blame her.

It needs to be blocked and buttons sewn on, but otherwise, she's done. Do I think I'll ever wear her? Mmm. I dunno. Perhaps I should have done a couple more lace repeats (ran out of yarn), perhaps I should have done the garter stitch to a longer length...either way, I'm not too thrilled with this sweater.

Hubs' great Aunt Mildred's scarf is complete. I need to get to a LYS to pick up a pretty shawl pin or something. It's a small and wide scarf, perfect for just something around the neck.

I'm almost a little nervous to send it off to her, to tell the truth. Like all of the gifts I make, I'm afraid that she won't like it or won't wear it. But off it will go, with a written note to thank her for her generous gift.

The Boy and I are off to find dinner somewhere. And perhaps ice cream with a side stop to see the knitters.

House.

So none of you picked the right house.

We chose the house with the boat!! I thought for sure I'd have a few snide comments about it, but no one bit. Tell me that's not karma?!?! The boat was there temporarily while he cleaned it up. He's selling it at the dock this week.


Anyways, before we all get excited, I'm pretty sure that we've lost the house. Apparently there was another offer made the day before we did and the buyer has decided to go with that one instead of ours. I'm not sure if it's 100% true or not. Something tells me something fishy is going on when a house that sits empty for 7 months with no traffic suddenly gets 2 offers in a 24 hour period...hmmm. Fishy.

We have a back up house. The one with the bad lawn is around the corner, built by the same construction company, and in our price range. So, another offer went in this evening. We'll hear back by tomorrow afternoon.

Why do I get the sinking feeling that I'm going to be living with my mother in law? (Not that it's a bad thing, really. But I think I'm too old to be living with mom and dad...don't you?)

I Should Really Start That Book Now.

Saturday found Hubs and I driving around with our trusty real estate agent, Bob. We had an aggressive plan to look at 7 houses in as many hours, plus stop for lunch (hey, Bob was buying). We knew that we had to find at least one winner or a potential winner in the group.

I swear that what I'm about to tell you is true. I can't make this stuff up if I tried. It deserves a bullet list.

• One house looked perfect on paper- 5 plus acres, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, on a cul du sac, secluded, very motivated seller. The stench of animals hit us as we opened the door. Seeing as Hubs, The Boy and myself are all allergic to animals- I say that house is a 4 on the 1-10 scale.
• One house had dead animal skins and heads in multiple rooms in the house. 3 on 1-10 scale.
• One house had a 30 year old kitchen that was never updated. The oven handle was being held on with electrical tape. And they were asking 400K for this place. 1.4 on 1-10 scale.
• One house boasted a "stargazing room" which turned out to be no more than a 6x6 foot hole cut into the attic, a glass enclosed top put on and then a long metal ladder to climb up to said "room". Um, no thanks. Nice kitchen though. 7 on 1-10 scale.
• One house had a woman still there- no problem, it's her house. But she opened the door and very sarcastically said, "You're 45 minutes late. I have dogs. I can't stay out all day you know!" Funny part is, we weren't even late! We requested an hour long appointment but showed up with 15 minutes left.
• One house was obiviously a divorce situation. You could feel the pain of the house as you walk through the rooms. Ugh. Nice house though. 6 on 1-10 scale.
• One house had no front walkway to the door. We entered in through the garage so that's not a big deal. But what about guests?
• Same house- we pull half way up the looooong, shared driveway and the neighbor had A BOAT! I was driving, slammed on the brakes and told our agent, "Nope, turning around. Not even dealing with it!"
• Another house had the largest bedroom I've ever seen in a house, but the yard was so torn to hell that you couldn't even walk on it without the dead grass poking you. I'm a sucker for big beds so I give it an 8 out of 10.

All told, it was an experience.

We put an offer on one house.

You tell me- which one do you think we picked??

I Should Write a Book About This.

Yesterday was the first day that Hubs and I went into homes that we were interested in buying. Yes, they were all for sale- I don't want to hear snickers about going into random homes asking people if we can move in.

Anyways, we went to 2 homes. Both were in the same neighborhood. One was smaller, less money, had been on the market longer. The other had more land, was on a quieter street (we weren't even sure that it was a street until we continued down it) and a sweet porch.

Both were duds for different reasons. One big one was the pink bathroom. We've already combated the pink bathroom once, not doing it again. (Yeah, even the sunken garden tub was bright pink!)

Besides that people, please- if you are trying to make buyers purchase your home at even close to the astronomical amount you are asking, do 2 things:

A) Clean it.
B) Make sure that there's no bugs.

Next house....

Look Kids- Big Ben...Parliment!

My family spent 4.5 hours in the car on Saturday driving around looking at houses. We didn't go into any, mind you. This was just driving around. Hubs gets free gas with his company car, so it didn't cost us anything more than our sanity.

Honestly, it wasn't that awful. The Boy behaved himself, for the most part. We took a break and had a run around the park plus dinner midway through. It's tough trying to imagine uprooting our lives and moving 45 minutes away, but the house and land values are so much greater out there. It's almost foolish to stay in this area housing-wise.

We were able to knock off a few houses from our list. Either the road was too busy, the house looked dumpy or the yard was just blatantly too unsafe for The Boy. We also found some beautiful ones, including one that had an actual stargazing room on the roof!

I also spent part of my Saturday in the promise land. No, not Webs....Tiffany's!! Is it bad that I just want to say that own one thing from there?

I knit some this weekend too. Finished the back of the Silkroad Blouse:

And I started (and promptly frogged) a sock.

The needle is a size 1, 9 inch circular. I can see how it wouldn't be good for everyone. I'm still learning to love it.

And I started Juliet from Zephyr Style. Love this sweater!!

Not much else is going on. Heatwave, trying to stay cool...that's about it!

(Oh, and that damn Packrat game. Thanks, Bag n Trash for the introduction to that time-suck.)

404...No Problem.

Today's post is number 404.

But I have good news.

Last night we accepted an offer on the house! The house was on the market just 7 days. We could have busted the guy's balls a bit...but we decided to sell at 5% below asking. Not bad in this market, I'd say. And it's enough to get us into a larger than expected house.

There is one issue- they want to close on July 17th. Yeah.....we haven't even seen houses yet. This could be interesting.

What I've Learned Today.

• Valium is fun, until you don't want to be stoned any more. I guess most drugs are like that, but it's been 7 hours and I want off the Valium ride now. I'm feeling a bit foggy headed, not truly stoned, but I'm ready to be me again.
• I started singing Rolling Stones' "Mother's Little Helper" since about 10 am and haven't stopped yet. I totally get why my grandmother took this stuff for so long.
• Walking around Target while slightly buzzed is fun. I can't wait to be fully conscious and discover what I bought.
• The post procedure nap was the most solid one I've ever taken.
• My doctor has this way of making me relax about anything that's going on. We found more than expected and something unexpected, but by her description of the next procedure- I'm totally not worried about it (the procedure.)

Which brings me to what was found. I have polyps. There were 2- one in my fallopian tube and one in the lining of my uterus. Part of me is really scared. Polyps have the possiblity to be cancerous. I had some comfort when I thought that it was the fibroid tumor. Those are almost never cancerous. Polyps may be. She left the fallopian tube one alone, but biopsied the wall one. I will be having surgery to remove them both sometime in the near future.

I Wasn't Nervous.

Until I talked to my (blogless) friend Beth. Now, I really am.

I go for the camera up the ya-hoo thing in about an hour. In 9 minutes I get to take the Valium. (Anyone ever knit on that stuff? Think my work will come out all wonky, as if I was drunk??)

I am totally freaking out. In my heart I know that things will work out. I know it will be uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Why am I ready to lose it??


We also have a showing later this afternoon and I'm afraid that I won't be able- or in the mood to clean when I get home so I'm trying to get things set now.

BTW, we got an offer from the buyer, but it's too low. We counter-offered. The listing is up on the net as of last night. Any idea how weird it is to know that strangers are going to be looking closely at your home? They're going to be opening closets, making judgements, talking about the things they discover. It's completely invasive and bizarre.

I can't wait to do it to other people's homes. ;)

"Geen"

The Boy is saying new words constantly. He's picking up colors pretty quick too. His favorite is the color green or out of his mouth, "Geen!" Everything he sees that's green, he points it out to us. His favorite spoon is green, his favorite cup is green. It's all green all the time in my house.

I have to admit, I love the color green too. Here's proof:

I bought 10 skeins of Knit Pick's Cotlin.

Summery, right?

And I traded on Ravelry for some Patons True North Dk. It's an acrylic/ wool blend that's perfect for a sweater for a certain "geen" lovin' boy.

In house news, we had one man come and look at the house in Friday. He told his agent that he loved the house, but we didn't hear anything else. I figured he changed his mind or whatever. But today I got another call from my real estate agent saying that the buyer wants to come for a second look with his parents. Nice! I have kept the house immaculate all weekend. I washed the floors again this morning and I think they are going to be impressed. We'll see!