Saying Goodbye ~ The Final Hours

Okay...I'm kind of weirded out now. I wake up this morning and look around me and think how different my surroundings will be in just a few days. I pay attention to the way the light shines in the morning and the sounds of life in the suburbs of MN. It's so beautiful here. It really is and I'm going to miss it immensely.

I was able to get together with friends and family the past few days. Friday afternoon my parents hosted a "grandparent" lunch since my grandparents on my mom's side couldn't come to the going away picnic. They are getting older now and it's difficult for them to get around. The lunch was really nice except for one disappointment. Sister's Sprouts paternal grandparents were supposed to come to the lunch and just as they were to arrive, Sister runs out to get the mail and there is a card from her grandparents saying they were not going to be able to make the lunch! If the mail hadn't been checked we would have never known they were not going to make it and been waiting and worrying.

It was horrible. Sister started to cry and then I started to cry. She was so excited for them to come and was so concerned with things being just right for them. She had picked out where she wanted them to sit and asked if she would be able to spend some time with them after lunch. She had been counting down the days until they were coming. I was so disappointed for her. What kind of grandparents do that to their own grandchild? What a cop-out to not even have the courtesy to call. It was a rude and inconsiderate thing to do and ultimately was the end of any effort on my part to include them in Sister's life. Now I realize that my hopes for them to accept and love their biological granddaughter were too grand. At least Sister had a chance to meet them as she was not able to meet her father. They seemed like nice people, but it's obvious now that inconsiderate, selfish behavior must run in the family. I know I am not sounding very nice, but this really upset me.
Maybe they will even read this since I've sent out the blog website to them before. I guess it's just the truth and I won't risk hurting my daughter again on them.

Anyway...off that negative note. After our lunch I prepared a "goodbye" and "thank you" dinner for my girlfriends. It was wonderful! I had such a good time preparing a meal for them and hopefully they liked it. We ate and hung out for many hours just talking and laughing and crying late into the night. By the time I had to say goodbye to the last guest I was completely exhausted but happy the night went so well.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my two sisters. Again, such an awesome time. I am enjoying taking the time for family and time for myself and really paying attention to things here and swallowing as much joy and beauty as I can these next few days. Honduras will be beautiful don't get me wrong. But MN is home.

After dinner we had time to just sit and enjoy conversation. When we do get together there are usually kids with enough distraction that our conversations are cut off and we have to ask for reminding of where we left off. Tonight there were no distractions and I enjoyed sharing a meal with them like real grown woman.

Sisters dinner at Buca's
I love you girls!!

I decided that I don't want to be sad. I'll try hard, but I know it will be weird saying goodbye to my sister's tomorrow night. With technology we really aren't that far away. I'm sure there will be tears as they seem to come even just writing about it...but it will be okay. It really will, I know. It's just hard to say this first "goodbye".

The Final Week is Here

As of this post I have 8 days left before I get on a plane. I'm surprisingly calm.

Last Days At Work

My last day of work was Friday, June 1st. It was a nice last day. When the announcement went out that I would be leaving the company with the stock "to pursue other interests" the questions started to come in from people that I had gotten to know, but that I didn't work with on a daily basis. It was nice to know that people had enough interest to ask and wish me well.

I went out to lunch with two really neat people I've gotten to know over the years at the big box headquarters. They are two people I am glad I had the chance to know and if you read this - thanks for sharing my last day with me!

My team took me out to lunch a few days before I left. My choice. I chose Thai food of all places. A restaurant called Sawatdee. I figure my options for good Thai food in Honduras will be slim to none. My favorite there are the fresh spring rolls. I've had spring rolls at other restaurants, but Sawatdee has every one's I've tried beat. I think it's the sauce because the other ingredients are basic and unseasoned.

I find that I am loading up on things I won't get as easily once I move like green tea soy lattes. You think they sell soy milk in Honduras? I'm curious to see what kinds of foods I'll end up missing the most.

Also - have you tried the McDonald's Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad? I can't remember the last time I took myself or my kids to McD's, but the salad sounded good on the commercial and it reeled me in. I've been back about 4 times in the last month to get the salad. I wonder if they will have this on the McD's menu in Honduras? And if they do, do I dare try it?

Going Away Party

Saturday June 2nd was the going away party. It was a wonderful day. My girlfriends really put on a great party. Many family and friends came and there were also a lot of no-shows who said they would come and didn't. I felt sad about that for a little bit, but I know how it is when it comes to a MN summer and events. You just get more selective about what you choose to do with those precious few weeks while you can be outdoors. Regardless I felt the day turned out well and I was happy to see those who came. The love and support means a lot to me and I hope the family and friends who read this know how much it meant to me that you were there. I didn't get to have a "normal" wedding and so my awesome girlfriends felt this was a way to make up for my lack of marriage hoo-rah and mentioned in the invite about our low-key wedding and the fact of us being re-united. Sort of as a way to formalize that me and Papa were going to be living as man and wife with nothing between us 'til death do us part. I didn't realize how much I would appreciate it when I received "wedding" cards at the party.

We took lots of photos at the party and many of family. Here's a pic of my fam. Don't I have beautiful sisters? We couldn't manage to gather all the kids to be in the picture but I think this is nice just us. I think my mom is crying in most of the photos. And honestly, I kept tearing up a lot throughout the day too. Usually out of no where. How can I be happy and sad at the same time? It's a weird combination of emotions and it's like one minute I'm laughing, smiling and talking away and I turn my head and suddenly my voice cracks and there are tears in my eyes.

Am I Ready To Go?

So what else have I been doing with all my time since I left work? Obviously I have not had a lot of time to post here. I've neglected all my usual internet reading sites. Honestly it's hard getting used to my computer at home being my only source of connection. My computer at work was lightening fast, so this is taking some getting used to and well...I was always at my computer at work so felt connected all the time. Now I'm running around most of the day chasing after Brother Sprout and getting ready to hop on that plane.

The first week off flew by. I brought Sister Sprout to school every morning and usually found something I needed to take care of and kept busy and before I knew it I would be rushing back to pick her up from school. So far I've gotten a lot packed, donated 4 more boxes of clothes, cleaned and detailed my car and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with a close girlfriend and her 9 month old son, Ben.

He is the cutest little guy. I didn't know I would love my friend's kids as much as I do. Gosh I'm going to miss watching them grow up, but you know...I think I'll really miss being mommies with my girlfriends. I was the only one out of my girlfriends with a kid for a long time and now to see them as mothers, I feel like we relate on a whole new level.


As I mentioned above, I detailed my car myself to put it up for sale. Tomorrow someone is probably going to come buy my car. Thank God for Craigslist. I posted on Friday and got a call a 1/2 hour later. They came and looked at it that evening and put a deposit down. I also don't have a bed anymore. Sold that too. At least I don't have a bed in the United States. I think I have to sleep on the couch tonight.

What's Papa Doing?

Papa has been super busy getting everything ready for us to move into our little home as well as keeping up with his business 6 days a week. It sounds like it is a nice home and has a lot of potential. He had to move out of his small 1 bedroom furnished apartment to a large 3 bedroom unfurnished home that is essentially empty. Papa had to go out and buy the beds and a washer and a fridge and a stove. Our car is in the shop and is supposed to be ready this week. Hopefully we won't have to wait for that. Now we'll have work on all the little things you need in a house that make it a "home".

Not sure if I will get a chance to post again before we move, so if I don't this post was long enough to make up for the lack of one.

What's That Word

I was talking to Papa yesterday afternoon on the phone. He had just gotten done with work and after eating and taking a shower he was feeling pretty sleepy I guess. In our conversation I could tell he was really struggling to find some English words. It's expected that his English would start to head to the back burner a little when he never has to speak it except to me and the kids. But yesterday, I realized that when he is tired, it is even more hard for him to pull some less common words. The two I remember him drawing a blank on were "resume" and "customs". There were a few others, but I can't remember them now.

I started to laugh and he sheepishly told me not to laugh at him. I told him I was sorry, but it was cute the way he was trying to explain these things without actually using the words. Kind of like a guessing game. I know it was mostly due to him being tired.

Next week is my last week of work and I get Monday off because of memorial day so I only have 4 days left at my job! I can't believe it!

This weekend I have nothing planned except to go to my nephew's 5th birthday party, pack and pack and pack and then make sure to get everything ready to send with this guy who is shipping my life down to Honduras on Saturday afternoon. I am not shipping anything of huge value. But there are things going down that really feel priceless to me. I have these shadow boxes of the kid's baby items and some other little things I've collected over the years. Gosh, I would be crushed if they didn't make it. Say a little prayer that everything makes it. Thanks :)

Speaking of shipping. I actually have an address to ship to. Papa found a 3 bedroom house to rent. It is in San Pedro Sula- which is where we will be staying temporarily until we move to Copan. I was a little bummed that we would not be moving to Copan right away, but because of Papa's business, the move needed to be put on hold.

We will have to furnish the entire house including all appliances. All furniture and even pots, pans, towels, bedding...everything! And get this - it's not common in Honduras for middle class type homes to be built with closets. How am I going to hang up all my clothes? I really don't like to fold and then have everything all wrinkly. We may have to invest in a big armoire or something. I don't know what the heck we are going to do about that because Papa is worse than me when it comes to not having wrinkled clothes. He likes to be perfectly pressed.

*The going away party in June 2nd for anyone who wants to come say goodbye at French Park in Plymouth MN

Honduras Consulate Trip to Chicago- April 25th-28th

Biker at Navy Pier - Chicago IL April 28, 2006

On April 25th around 4pm, me, the two sprouts and one of my closest girlfriends, Laura got in my little Ford Focus (no cruise control) and drove 8 hours to Chicago. I am fortunate that I have a friend, Gina who lives in Chicago and we were able to make a long weekend of the big event to go see the Honduras consulate. The trip was pretty painless and in fact was a wonderful time to spend with my friends! I am very blessed with such sweet friends who honestly would do anything for me. But things on Wednesday the 25th did not start out so great and in fact gave me such a scare that I was questioning if the trip may need to be postponed. I'll try to explain as best I can and apologize if this is a little long to read.

I mentioned before what a circus act it is to become a resident of another country. I needed to have notarized copies that have been "certified" by the Secretary of State. For MN that office is located in St. Paul. About a week before the trip, I received some medical lab results from my doctor's appointment. You know, the usual stuff that says my blood is normal, I don't have an infectious diseases or anything requiring major medical care. For whatever reason I waited until the morning of the trip to go to St. Paul to have the notary's signature certified at the Secretary of State office. I show up around 9am and take a number and sit down to wait to be called.

My number is called a few moments later and I go to the counter and fill out a piece of paper at which point they take my medical documents along with 2 certified copies of my marriage license that I had also received about a week prior. I sit down to wait for them to call me back up which they say should be just a few minutes. I sit...and I sit a little while longer. I watch a couple of people come and go that seem to have come in around the same time as me. I figure they must have something that doesn't take as long to process.

After a while the man that was helping me realizes I am still sitting there and he calls out to me, "ma'am, you are still waiting. Didn't your documents come in yet?" and I rise to go to the counter. Immediately I see he is suddenly in quite a bit of distress. He begins to look through stacks of paper in different places. He then flags another woman to help him search for my documents. At this point my skin is starting to crawl and I think I uttered a few things under my breath like, "you've got to be kidding me?" and as the moments go on and other people in the office are starting to look concerned as well, my heart started to sink even faster. I think the blood in my ears started to sound and I was holding back saying anything b/c I felt like I was going to start to yell and the office was starting to fill up with people waiting because the office was at a stand still while everyone was looking for my documents. Wouldn't you know that they sent my documents with a man on his way back to Rochester, MN.

They printed out the scanned copies of the documents they certified that were now on their way to Rochester and notarized them as real copies of the documents and then gave them the apostille stamp. I already had a marriage certificate that I had certified so I was less worried about that, but I was concerned about the medical records. What if the Honduras Consulate felt the info I had - a wimpy little letter with a few sentences saying me and Sister Sprout are healthy - was not acceptable and they needed actual copies of the medical records. Maybe the scanned copies would have been fine, but what if they weren't? I could show up and they might barely bat an eye, or quite possibly they could send me home without their stamps and seals on it.

I made the decision to let it be as it was and hope for the best. The secretary of state people didn't charge me for any of the certification I needed and explained that they would sent a FedEx envelope to the person who had my documents and have him FedEx them to Chicago. This was Wednesday and if everything was aligned just right I would have the actual real certified documents by Friday when I was going to the consulate.

I suspected they were quite concerned about this little mis-hap being taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible. I would guess this type of thing would have cost someone their job being that they "lost" private medical records.

So did they make it to Chicago on time??? Yep. At 10:45am on Friday morning the FedEx man rang Gina's doorbell. I was getting ready to leave and they showed up without a moment to spare.


Honduras Consulate in Chicago
Sister Sprout and I made it to the consulate at about 11:30am. The place is in a high latino section of town with almost all stores having some kind of latino name. It's really a small hole in the wall. There was a bench made out of unfinished 2x4's and a mis-match of old used office chairs in the waiting area. The back offices were no different and the 3 desks set up had only 1 "guest" chair to sit on, so sister sprout had to sit on my lap. Maybe there wasn't another chair available, but they did not offer to try and find one for us.


One interesting thing they had in the office waiting area was various application forms such as passport applications from people who I think must have given fake information. I couldn't understand what or why all those application papers were up at first, but then realized what they probably were. If anyone has any other thought on why they would post those applications up for all to see - please chime in.



With all the drama with the documents and the nerves of something going wrong I showed up at the consulate with no cash. Oops! I got in there, filled out some paperwork and then had to leave to try and find some place that I could get cash. We ended up walking down the street to a gas station and taking money out of their ATM. When we got back to the office they made us wait for a very long time. I'm guessing it was just after or possibly a late lunch hour there. My stomach was really starting to rumble too. But we finally were called back and finished up all the paper work. One thing that I thought was kind of cool was they gave me another name. In Honduras I cannot have my husband's name as the first last name. In Latin America and I'm sure many other places in the world, when you marry the woman retains her maiden name and then will add the husband's name after. Sometimes it's just 2 names one right after the other; other times it's the maiden followed by the word de and then the husband's last name. They decided to give me the "de" between my maiden and my husband's name.

The rest of the trip in Chicago was lots of fun with my kids, my friends and Gina's adorable 16 month old son Aidan. Isn't he cute?

Aidan 16 months

This post is going to press a little late. It's been 1/2 written for over a week. I'd post a bunch more photos from the trip but my connection currently is oh so slow and not uploading photos so speedily. I've put all the photos onto my photo album page so check them out there if you'd like to see more. You know...the usual million photos of the kids.

How to Become a Resident of Honduras

I have begun the process of applying for residency in Honduras. This will allow me to stay longer than the typical 90 day tourist visa and I will only have to renew once a year. Applying for residency in another country is a part-time job with all the hoops they make you jump through. Notorize every single piece of paper, have all these documents with income and marriage, births, bank accounts, health certificates with tests and statements of health and shots along with a clean criminal record from the BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension). Then apostillize everything; which for those who don't know what that is, it's basically authenticating the notory signatures. Every single piece of these papers and documents has a price tag. Not only because I have so many documents, I also have to have at least 3 of each document. Today I got 4 birth certificates from the county office and it cost me $50. I still need to get 2 more marriage certificates, which I had to write a letter with a notorized signature to the county that filed the marriage so they can mail me the certificates rather than me driving 3 hours round trip to get them. That will cost $18 for both. I'm debating if I should get 1 more set of documents just to be safe. Also need to get 2 passport photos taken of me and 2 of Sister Sprout.
Once I have alllll the documents notorized, I have to bring them to the secretary of state in St. Paul, MN and then they will charge me $5 per sheet to be apostillized.

To continue on with the fun, once I have that done at the secretary of state I have to pack myself and the kids into the car and drive all the way to Chicago and visit the Honduras Consulate where they will then do something with all the paperwork and of course take some cash or money order of only $300. Once they do what they have to do with the papers and put their stamps on everything, I have to then bring everything over to Honduras and from there they will have to tranlate the documents into Spanish at a charge. Then file things again and I've heard it takes about 4 months to be approved for residency but can take much longer too. Up to a year.

I'm hoping that once I'm done in Chicago, that the hardest part will be over- running around.

Does this sound like a circus act to you? Like they have us run around and do all these things for their own amusement?

If you were wondering about our monkey boy- Brother Sprout, he's 1/2 Honduran, so gets out of this mess. He just gets to come along for the ride to Chicago.

This post was a mouthful. Did you get all that?

Water Blogged

Busy Busy
There has been so much going on these days that I'm having a hard time sitting down to write. I've been busy trying to get papers in order to bring to the Honduran consulate next month in Chicago. I've requested April 25th-27th off work to make this trip. I am packing the kids into the car along with a dear friend and we are driving to Chicago to stay with another friend who lives there so Sister Sprout and I can go off and see the consulate and begin the process of applying for residency in Honduras. Pray that they don't deny me or say I'm missing something!

Rainy Days
So the weather is finally taking a warmer turn. We even broke 80 degrees this past Monday. That was such a teaser for summer. But now the rains have started and just like they say, the rains will bring the green and the flowers that we desperately need after a dead and gray MN winter. My dad's tulips are starting to sprout in the front gardens and every day little Brother Sprout walks by and points out the "babies" as he calls them because they were explained as "baby flowers". Now they are just "babies" to him and he's so excited to point them out every morning and night when we walk past. They grow a little every day so I enjoy watching him discover things about the earth this way and at some point I'll have to explain they are no longer "baby flowers".

Speaking of rain, it's an understatement to say that it rains a lot in Honduras. It can be quite scary for some when the rains come fast and furious. Here is a news article about a recent rain in Honduras. heavy rains It killed two and left 25,000 missing. I don't really understand what that "missing" means. Not sure where they get those numbers from? And where do they all go when they are missing? Probably just made camp somewhere trying to stay dry. I haven't seen any further reports about these 25,000 missing so I'll take it to mean that everyone found their way home once they could cross whatever waterway was blocking them.

Water Topics
Did you know that it was World Water Day in Honduras a few days ago? I didn't. My favorite Honduras blogger wrote a great article about it here.

Also a water equipment company in Minneapolis has offered up $4.6 million to help a state in Honduras with getting clean water. This will be helping about 220,000 Hondurans have access to safe and clean water solutions. I can't remember what the percentage of population in Honduras is that doesn't have access to usable water, but it's actually quite high when you look at the number of people living in rural communities. So this company is taking on the challenge. Check out the news article here. Kudos to the hometown!

Everywhere we went while in Honduras, we didn't have an issue with the water. I've read that the water can be turned off if the demand is too high or it can be rationed and only on for a few hours a day or even only turned once a week or less!

But the question now is- will we have water in our new home?? Papa went to a town meeting on Sunday morning in Copan asking the city counsel to allow us to have access to the community well water. We were denied. Turns out the counsel men are comprised of mostly farmers or people who are only interested in helping the farmers. The community well water is cheaper than the regular city water and is un-metered. Not sure how they can get away with that, but it's a small town and they have figured out how to make sure only the select have rights to this water line. So Papa will have to go back another day and ask another group of men about getting city water. I also don't know what the difference is in the water other than the price and the fact that the well water is un-metered. I'm assuming that most of the water in the town is from the city and as yet, I haven't heard of any issues with the water.

I think I'll go take a bath now.

Land For Sale

It's still too early to say how this will turn out, but it looks like we could be buying a slice of land in Copan, Honduras to build a house on. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to jinx anything or have to go back and explain..."yeah, the land deal didn't go through".
For the time being, we are very excited about this. Now it is my job to research floor plans while Papa stays busy taking care of all the legal sides of things.

News & Tidbits

Here's the news since the start of 2007. Yeah!

• I moved into my parents basement.
• I bought a new laptop computer and can hook up my PDA/cell phone internet connection and have great connection speed as long as I have 3 or more bars of service on my cell phone. My parents live a few miles from the highway so reception is not super consistent but if the wind is blowing in the right direction and it's not too cloudy I seem to have found a good spot in the kitchen. Works for me!
• I've gotten on the bandwagen and created a myspace to see if I can meet some other people in Honduras. Just another cool internet thing to do. Here's the link: http://myspace.com/145041535
• My tires needed replacement as well as my ignition lock in my car froze up and needed replacement. The fact that I don't have a regular house payment or utility bills to pay means these little vehicle maitainance issues won't hurt so much. Only leaves the savings account a little more empty. Just life I guess.
• My sister got an apartment. So proud of her!
• I'm still trying to find a routine at my parents. I'm not used to so much room to spread out in. I'm used to living within 20 feet of each other in my little house and now I have 4 levels to deal with! But all in all- it's working and I can't complain. My parents are pretty good to let me and the kids crash there.
• I also have been trying to get to the health club a lot right now. I've completely neglected myself the past 5 months with everything that had been going on with trying to sell the house. Something had to give and that ended up being exercise. It feels good to take care of me a little bit now.

Hope everyone is in good health!

Bye-bye house

Well...I no longer own a house. We closed on Thursday Dec 28. I had started to move slowly over to my parents on Tuesday the day after Christmas. Friday night (12/29) friends helped me move all the furniture and Saturday (12/30) I was supposed to get a moving truck to move all the boxes and misc stuff in the garage, but the truck ended up not working out. Brother Sprout was sick with an ear infection and we spent the majority of the morning at urgent care. It was raining and I had a sick kid to deal with so I opted to move with just my dad's truck on Sunday, New Years eve. I spent all day and night at the house boxing, bagging, cleaning. It was snowing outside which felt very peacful. I listened to the radio play 2006 event clips and play cool music. I cried a little hear and there. It was very cathartic to finish everything up myself. I didn't want anyone around me or anyone rushing me.
By Sunday my hands, back and legs were feeling like squeeky wheels. By nightfall I was weary and exhausted. I said my good-byes to the house. I wished the new owners well with a note and left them a bottle of wine.
Now all I can think about is how soon I can move to Honduras. The more this settles in that I'm free from the house, the more I want to hurry to Honduras. I'm there in 5 weeks for a visit and I'm excited to see how everything goes.
It's funny that I drove away from the house last night and then this morning I started to go over all the little things about the house that needed something taken care of. The burned out bulbs, the ice dam where the gutter drain is missing, all these little things and I think- I don't have to take care of any of that- it's not my house anymore!
Now I'm just trying to adjust to staying at my parents...yikes!

Merry Christmas To All

So much has happened in the past month. I am now waiting for the closing of the house which has been pushed back twice. Makes me a little nervous, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. The call I got from my brother-in-law turned out to be a good thing. The young couple that is going to buy the house are actually old friends of Papa's and I have known them for a while. They are excited to move in and start their remodeling plans to the kitchen. One thing that is cool about selling the house to someone that I know, is that I can actually ask to come visit the house and it not be too strange.

So for the past month I have been packing things up and getting things organized. We put up the Christmas tree and put out decorations to keep things somewhat normal, but all the pictures are down, the bulk of the kitchen stuff is packed away. So the house does look a bit empty. And with my attention to packing, selling & donating, the cleaning has suffered. But the kids just seem happy as can be regardless. I packed up so much stuff to donate it took up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the garage. I called Salvation Army and they came to pick it up one day and it's all gone now. I could have started my own thrift store!

I've sold off a bulk of my furniture including my table & chairs, my elliptical machine, a lg dresser, a computer deak & some various tools. It's kind of crazy how things sell on Criagslist. I listed a few items on a Wednesday night not really knowing what to expect and my phone and email was blowing up the next day. I was on a business trip to NYC and couldn't deal with the slew of people trying to contact me about the furniture. It was kind of craziness for a minute there.

So ready or not Christmas is here. It's Thursday and the past week I've been frantically printing pictures, wrapping presents, getting those last minute things like boxes and tape. Sister Sprout was easy to shop for this year, but Brother Sprout was hard. He doesn't need a lot of things and I don't want to create too much clutter or have things I won't really be able to bring to Honduras. He'll have fun playing with Sister Sprout's things too, which he always wants what his sister has anyway.

I'm excited to see how he does opening presents this year. Last year the poor boy had the stomach flu and was throwing up while Sister Sprout was trying to open presents. This year I know the two of them are going to be crazy egging each other on or wanting each other's gifts. It will be fun to watch.

I still have yet to receive this year's Christmas photocard that I ordered online. So, everyone may be getting New Year's cards I guess. Getting the photo done this year was a test of patience. I could never be one of those portrait photographers. I needed a long break after our little home photo session. My ears were probably beat red b/c my blood pressure sure felt high. It was difficult to get Brother Sprout to give us a good photo. But I think we got one that will do. Here it is:

And here are some photos of the fun we had getting to this photo. I had over 50 photos and really only 2 turned out.

Merry Christmas to all!

Burning In My Throat

A nice lady calls me a few Sundays ago interested in the house. We set up an appointment and she comes to see the house. She gushed over the house and talked about her gardens that she was already planning. A first time homebuyer so a little nervous and unsure what the next steps are. I connect this buyer to my lender I've been working with and he runs with it. I mean he really runs with it. He finances her for well over the asking price of the home and of course they talk about needing money for home repairs and such.
Now if I were a buyer and I see this big dollar amount and I'm told I can remodel the kitchen, replace things, etc, etc- why would I want to do all that work? I'll just take my big whopping qualification letter and start to hunt for a home that does have all the things I really want but don't have to have the headache of doing.
So it didn't take long for the buyer to start to back-peddle on really wanting the house. Her family advises that she look at other houses just to make sure my house is really what she wants. I get the call on Wednesday from my realtor of her plans to look around. My stomach bottomed out. I wasn't sure if I wanted to yell, cry or go eat a bucket of ice-cream by myself. I called my lender feeling rather steamed that he over-qualified her in the first place.
I get mr lender on the phone and he right away says he heard my buyer is getting squirmish but ms realtor has a handle on the situation. Mmmm-mmmm. Then he proceeds to ask me if I want him to close the deal by telling a buyer they only qualify for the asking price of the house. Hell yeah!!! What kind of assinine question is that? I can barely contain the bile coming up and thankfully he has to go b/c all his phones are ringing at once. But not before he had told me he's working with one of my previous buyers on their next big nice house they got over qualified for. What?? So mr lender loves to hear himself talk so much he basically lets me know he's making money off of me thinking I may be too slow to figure that out. I could tell he knew he said too much b/c he started rattling off stupid lender jargon which was giving off steam it was such fresh bullshit and then rushes off the phone saying he'll call me back when he's got a minute. More bile burning my throat. He didn't call back. Even if he had I wouldn't have answered my phone.
Honestly I didn't feel like talking to anyone I was just sick enough about it.

Driving on my way home I get a call from my estranged brother-in-law on Bryan's side...hmmm? This was a surprise. I thought something must be wrong for him to call so I answered my phone. Turns out that he by chance is also a mortgage lender and he has a prospect for my house.
So here we go again...I'm still on this rollercoaster. When will this end??
As of tonight they say they want the house. Could this be it? Can I get off this ride now? We will see...

I Have A House In My Stomach

How can a whole house feel like it is trying to fit in my stomach? It's a sharp pain poking at my insides.
Buyers come...buyers go. This latest one has basically courted me and now seems like they could hang me out to dry.
I feel like I am on the dating scene again. It's like wondering if anyone will like me, if I'm "pretty" enough, have good future potential...etc.
I don't think people realize what kind of stress they are causing me. Especially the first time homebuyers who have never been through this before. I stayed up all night for the last showing trying to finish a painting job someone I hired did not complete. Cleaning the house, clearing out the garage,etc. I wrap up my marathon by putting an apple crisp in the oven, mowing the yard and picking up fallen leaves from flowers and bushes, light a candle and viola! I have a show ready home after about 18 hours of hard work. The house looked in perfect order and smelled wonderful. The next day after the showing they tell me they like the house and want to start with the financing process. Everything seems to be moving along and then last night... The back peddling began. This buyer starts to get so blown up and wanting to ask for more than I can offer. I have to pay bills too! I have to be able to walk away with something-right? and still be able to live- right? I didn't put 9 years of blood, sweat and tears into that house to walk away with less than what it's worth. Papa worked damn hard on the house too. Why must the market be this way at this time?
So...say a prayer anyone reading this. If anyone reads this...that this house gets out of my stomach because it's starting to feel pretty uncomfortable.

On another note. Sister Sprout saw the cardiologist yesterday and she got a clean bill of health as far as her heart goes. She just needs to keep watching her diet. The doctor was very nice and answered all of my questions.

Tidbits

The days just fly by. I know I'm getting closer to having the house ready to sell. I've been working many, many hours on the house. Even took 2 days off work and basically painted or landscaped for 48 hours straight. I've accomplished a lot, and have just a little bit futher to go.
I'm not killing myself trying to get it done. Basically, I'm working, but it will be done when it's done.

Last night my dad and I stayed up until the wee hours laying cement. Me, never having worked with cement, I was the pupil. I learned to mix cement to the right consistency and at what pace water should be added and how to use all kinds of cement tools with funny names like "bull float". It seems like it would be a simple thing, but it really is an art and there is a point of no return that you reach with every step. There is only so much room for error and once you start, you can't stop until you are finished or the job is ruined. There were a few moments of panic when we realized we did not have enough cement to finish the run we were trying to get done. I ran to the local hardware store and got 5 more bags and we thought that would be more than enough. Nope. @ 9:40p we realized we are short again and made another mad dash to Home Depot before it closed at 10p. A little bit later when it must have been close to midnight and the cement we had poured about an hour earlier was just not setting up fast enough. We had cleaned up the edges and run the joints, but you could see a thin layer of water shining at the surface. Without the sun, and the early morning humidy working against us, we could have been waiting for hours for the water to evapoate. So I say to my dad, "why don't we sop up that water with some paper towels? I was thinking about how I sometimes sop up the oil on top of pizza. Wouldn't you know it worked like a charm! We went through about 2 rolls of paper towels and we were onto the smoothing step. I don' t know if we broke some major rule of cement work, but it worked! I wonder if anyone else has tried this shortcut before?

My dad deserves a metal for everything he does. I don't know how it is he seems to know how to do everything, but I'm sure glad he does!

My hands are brittle today. Cement will suck out every last ounce of moisture you have in your hands. Not a very glamous job. I've given up on keeping the manicure up for now. Not that I ever really have in my life, but I was trying since my trip to Honduras.


Aside from painting, landscaping, cement work, etc, etc...
I've still managed to keep the kids in one piece and fed.
Here's some kis tidbits:

Sister Sprout is exploring some new independance. She has started to walk by herself to her daycare, which is only about 3 blocks away. It really happened slowly, but also so fast. Her world seemed to open up a lot once she learned to ride her bike this last summer. It's so strange how quickly it does happen. One day I am making sure she is buckled up in her booster seat and the next she removes the booster from the car and announces that she is too big for a booster seat. She had read that kids need a seat until age 7 and once she hit 7, that was it. She was out of that seat and she had the sign posted at the doctors office to back her up. I didn't fight it.
So I embrace this one too. She'll be okay. She is a smart and cautious girl.

Brother Sprout has been my funny monkey lately. Just doing things that really crack me up. He is like curious George always trying to get into things and figure things out.

He's figured out where the candy dish is kept (on top of the fridge). He woke up the other morning and decided he wanted a sucker. He really likes the dum-dum suckers. Yes, I'm breaking the rules by giving him hard candy - I know. He whines, he cries, he points to the candy dish and throws his head and body back is distress he wants that candy so badly. Ugh!I'm trying to get us out the door and he is really making it difficult. So I tell him he can take the candy with him to daycare but he has to save it until later. I pop the sucker into his hand and he's happy to go willingly into the car and off to daycare we go. He's holding his sucker as we walk in the door and I tell daycare he needs to save it for later. That kid held out until about 9:30a I guess and then that was it. He couldn't wait any more. Pretty good for a 1 year old.

Then last night I'm tucking Brother Sprout in and he again starts to beg for candy. Oh boy...he really puts up a fuss too when he wants something. I'm glad dum-dums are wrapped. I pop a sucker into his hand and tell him he has to wait until tomorrow to have it. He didn't seem to care. He just wanted it in his hand. He fell asleep with his little fingers wrapped tightly around the little dum-dum. He never liked the pacifier, he doesn't have a security blanket or a stuffed animal. He likes to have food, specifically sweet food, in hand.

Brother Sprout also has learned that his feet and socks stink. We play this game when I am taking socks and shoes off that I smell his feet and then wrinkle up my nose and proclaim "pee-ewe! You have stinky feet!!". And he laughs and laughs and laughs. Well, then he realized that he could take his sock and stick it in my face and get the same reaction. Tons of laughs are hand by that. Well, the other night Brother Sprout wasn't sleeping well due to teething. It must have been about 5am and still dark as night. He is awake and so not to disturb big Sister Sprout I take him into my room and try to get him to lay down some more. He tries, but just tosses and turns. Then he pulls off one of his socks and in my sleepy haze I feel this cotten sock in my face. At 5am in pitch dark he is trying to get me to laugh. I couldn't help it...I said, "pee-ewe, ..." in my crackly morning voice with a smile on my face.

I just love these kids.

Moving Sale- Pennies On The Dollar

The past few weeks have been...well, a bit crazy.
After practically killing myself trying to get the house cleaned out and ready to put on the market Sept 5th, I had a melt down on Monday morning after a crazy weekend of trying to do too much and feeling like I had a marathon still to run. My dear, wonderful husband patiently listens to me as I rant and rave, which the bulk of the amo is fired at him. He's learned that my rants will pass and we will be laughing again in a day or so. I love that he knows me like that. Anyway...
So after all this, to make a long story short- We decided to postpone putting the house on the market until I am more prepared. I also am going to take a stab at marketing the house on my own. But we'll see how it goes. Right now I'm just trying to wrap up a few home projects.

I had a garage sale on Saturday. I live in a growing but still mostly lower middle class neighborhood so trying to make a buck here is not so easy. I had a $40 camping grill that we used ONE TIME along with a full fuel tank (retail $5) selling both items together for $10 and this guy had it all taken apart and was really looking it over and then says...I'll pay you $5. WHAT??? You know...I think I would feel better giving it away to someone who wasn't trying to rob me. And this is just one example. People show up expecting everything to be $0.25 otherwise nothing moves. Why am I killing myself putting this all together? Sitting all day out in the hot sun, trying to hassle with my kids, stay up half the night setting up, run around putting up signs and all this to make pennies on the dollar??? Ugh!
I managed to make about $100 Saturday. I was practically giving things away I had them priced so good. But it really depressed me. I felt like these people come and they pick through my life and it's all for sale for mere pennies.
I miss my junk...I miss my stuff. Why is it that having stuff that I don't really need, makes me feel happy? I will never buy things the same way. After seeing what I did in Honduras and now having to practically give my house away so I can move...

But I love stuff. It's like a drug. It's hard to quit.

"So what has Papa been up to?"

I've been getting lots and lots of questions on what Papa has been doing. He has been busy trying to work on and develop various business opportunities. He has a few that are very close to making some income. Honduras is definitely a country full of opportunity. We just need to find the right one on our budget. For now, know that he is doing everything he possibly can to get us in a position to be together as a family. There are days I feel extremely impatient, there are days when I feel doubtful, but I'm learning how to let God take control and work out His plans for us. It's not easy when I wish there was a magic wand I could wave and all things would be figured out. But everything will work out. We have faith in that.

Verse to remember:

I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

~Jeremiah 29:11