The Tale of Two Dancers

First Chew

Evy's cousin was allowed to chew gum for the first time at his 4th birthday party held in December. Evy was intrigued and immediately wanted to know when she could chew gum for the first time. She'd never really asked about chewing gum so I hadn't thought about setting an age for this first experience. I told her she could chew gum at her 5th birthday. Fast forward to this week. I was unpacking a box and came across our stash of gum. I asked her if she would like to try some and she got a huge grin on her face. She was kind of nervous and only wanted to bite off half of the stick at first. We talked a lot about not swallowing the gum and she didn't swallow it....for at least 4 minutes.

Moving is...

 

Eating in bed because we don't have any other furniture set up.

Unlimited TV time.

45 trips to the hardware store.

An explosion in the toy room.

More cleaning than I've done cumulatively in the last 35 years.

Begging your mommy to come help!!!

On Tuesday night we spent the first night in our new home. We've been working non-stop since then. The kids are adjusting pretty well, although Evy has been having a very difficult time getting to sleep. I'm so exhausted that I fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow!

Tiny Dancer, Big Dialogue

We're living at Scott's parents house which is a 32 minute drive from daycare and a 42 minute drive from my office so our routines have been shifted a bit. On Wednesday nights Evy has dance class so after picking her up from school we grab something to eat, then change into dance clothes in the locker room at the rec center. After class we have a 30 minute drive, just the two of us. Evy has been using this time for some BIG conversations. Last week the conversation was about Jesus, God, souls, spirits and angels. I attended church regularly until about age 15 but have not been a regular attender since then. I question my own beliefs so trying to answer the questions of a four year old is quite challenging! Her questions are very specific and it's hard for her to grasp conceptual ideas at this point but I'm doing my best! Last night the conversation was about having babies. Evy wanted to know if she would have to have her baby cut out of her tummy or if she could have a baby come out of her v*gina. She doesn't want to have a baby if it has to be cut out. My new niece Camryn was recently "cut out" so I think that's why this topic is currently top of mind. She asked if Aunt Morgan was asleep when they cut her tummy. She asked if I was asleep when I had her and Charlie. She laughed when I told her that I didn't have medicine with her and it HURT! By 7:30 p.m. I'm pretty much spent so I'm doing my best to answer these questions honestly and openly. I wish I had something to record the questions with. Evy's questions truly are priceless!

The Deal from H*LL

WOW! We've had a rough week. We've officially moved out of our old house, moved our belongings into the new house, closed on the old house, closed on the new house, and temporarily moved in to my in-laws house. But none of that was the hard part. The hard part was dealing with the seller of our new home. Since we put an offer on the home in January the seller has missed every deadline and basically ignored every contract we've signed. It has seemed like they did not actually want to sell the house. We asked ourselves several times, "should we just walk away?" but decided to move forward. On Friday, we were to have possession of the new home and a list of items were to be fixed. When we arrived at the home the seller still had their belongings in the home and the majority of the items were not fixed. At this point our choices were 1) walk away 2) sue them or 3) figure out a way to get it done. Obviously we were irate, but rationally choices 1 and 2 are not good choices since by the way we have to be out of our house!!! so we moved forward with plan 3. In order to get that done Scott and his friends moved the sellers belongings out of the house and into a moving van secured by the Realtor. Seriously ridiculous. At the closing both our Realtor and the seller's Realtor admitted that this was in their top two worst transactions ever. So glad we could be included in this fiasco! So, now we officially own the home and are looking forward to moving in later this month after we've had some work done. We're still experiencing a few bumps in the road, but at least we are in control now. I hope we can look back on this in a year and have it all be a distant memory.