Bummer Summer

Do I only get on blogger to complain?  Sadly, it appears so.  It is not that this has been a horrible summer, but it certainly hasn't been a great one.  Mostly, that is due to the fact that I just don't have any money to take a vacation.  Last summer, my mom paid for us to come to California to visit for a whole month.  It was great.  My mom & step-dad are now retired.  They are living in an RV while renovating a home in Montana.  The summer before that we had just moved back to Texas, so we were happy to stick around here. 

In addition to not taking a vacation, I have had more work that usual for summer.  My busy time of year is January through May.  This year, I was slammed with work during that time.  In fact, I did more in that time than I have done in a year for the last few years.  The summer even started off with one of the gigantic killer proposals that I do about once a year.  It ends up being anywhere from 200 to 300 pages.  We were mostly stuck at the house for two weeks while I worked on it.  We were all thrilled when it was over.  On the bright side, my company has had lots of success with these pursuits.  Hopefully, that means that a little more $ will trickle down to this single mom. 

Another thing sucking up my time and money are house issues.  I remember hearing that houses start falling apart when they hit 20 years.  Lots of things need to be replaced then.  This summer has been about repairing things, which means that at 7 years little issues come up.  First, my a/c needed more freon, just like it did last summer (guessing next year they'll discover a leak).  My clothes dryer has to be reset 2 times to get clothes dry and 3 times for towels.  I'm choosing to ignore this problem for now.  The pilot light on my water heater would also not stay on.  On the bright side, I am quite skilled at re-lighting it now.  A repair man tried to say it was because it was in the attic and it is hot up there.  Nice theory, but everyone in Houston has their water heater in the attic and not everyone has to re-light it every day.  Finally, he returned a week later to replace a little wire and it is working now. 

Our summer fun has included the kids being in a week long VBS at a local Baptist church, Tuesday morning movies at the brand new theater near our house, multiple trips to the library every week, and lots of time at our community pools (many are like water parks).  These all have one thing in common - they are free.  The pools would be really fun if I hasn't flying by the seat of my pants and could line it up enough to invite friends.  It isn't easy scheduling life around work.  When things seem to be easing up, I suddenly realize we can go do something RIGHT NOW.  We basically jump in the car and go.  Thankfully, my kids seem to be getting along with each other better than ever.  They still argue and bug each other, but they are also playing and enjoying their time together more. 

We only have 4 weeks until school starts.  I guess I need to figure out a few activities that we can do to pump up this summer a bit.  Hmmm.... this will take a lot of thinking since most outdoor activities aren't enjoyable in this heat.   

Absolutely Immaculate

Everyone has a different standard of what they think an acceptable level of cleanliness for their house. In my mind, immaculate is the goal. In reality, I just don't have the time, energy, or motivation to keep up with my standards. Since my idea of clean for my own house is so high, I feel strange inviting people over because I never feel like it is as clean as I want it to be. However, when I visit friends or other people's houses, I am quite comfortable with a normal amount of clutter and mess. Why am I so hard on myself? I don't know. It is silly.

Today, I finally met with the realtor. It took me a while to set up the appointment because I wanted to get the house somewhere near my high standard. Steve and I have been working on it. There is still a little more deep scrubbing I want to do, but the first thing she said was "It is sooooo clean!" That is the good news. The bad news is that I have to keep it like this until it rents, which she thinks will take 30 to 40 days at the most. A completely clutter free house that is sparkling clean for that long without kids is tough. With two little ones, it is going to be a nightmare.

Should I hope & pray that we find renters quickly? The money and peace of mind would be nice, but I can't decide. I am not ready (emotionally) to pack up and go to California right away. I want the kids to spend as much time with their dad as possible (one nice thing about him not having a job). I also have to be in town for the court date. Hmmm ... we'll just take it as it goes and see what happens.

Put an Offer

Besides being slammed with work this week, taking care of kids, trying to clean the house, etc., we realized that the time for our lease is drawing near and we needed to get serious about buying a place. Fortunately, one of the places that we have had our eyes on recently was put up for sale. Even better, they had an open house last Saturday. The place has some perks we didn't even know about like a $4500 air and water filtration system. I have spent the last few days working with a mortgage broker, looking at several of the places we were interested in, coordinating with the realtor, and finally making an offer (this morning). We are very excited about the place.

The only potential problem could be the timing. The sellers are about to have twin boys. They are due at the end of July, but will probably come the middle of June, which is when we are interested in closing. They would like to close sooner. Seeing that they just put their house on the market, that seems odd to me, but they are fairly young and might not have thought this out completely or are not exactly sure what babies (especially twins) and selling a house entails.

We'll find out this evening what they decide. While we want this one, there is one almost exactly like it (same floor plan) that will be on the market tomorrow. We got a sneak peek this morning and it is very nice too. I told the realtor that we would just go for that one if this doesn't work out. They are both just around the corner from us.