Aurora Borealis

Mr. Tldz and I had a lovely, lazy, relaxed weekend.  It has us looking forward to the upcoming long weekend!

We went out for pizza Friday night to clear out for some showings, and noticed that the ice cream parlor across the street from the pizzeria that has been “coming soon” had a banner up announcing a grand opening on Saturday.  So Saturday afternoon we went over there for ice cream.  Agent Murphy enjoyed his cup of strawberry for tea time very much.  Though the ice cream was good, unfortunately we were a little put off by the place because they had their “best customer” out collecting signatures for a petition to turn some flashing lights outside their store back on.  It didn’t really make sense, and when we didn’t just agree to sign immediately (partly, at least, because I had ice cream in both hands and Mr. Tldz had ice cream in one hand and a toddler hand in the other) she said loudly to the next group of people she approached, “They didn’t sign because they must be Communists.”  Way to lose some customers when you’re trying to build business for a new venture.

We had another showing on Sunday while we were at Mass.  Then in the afternoon we finished watching season 1 of Matlock while a pot of lentil and brown rice stew simmered away on the stove.  We’re happy to report that Agent Murphy likes this stew, which is good since it’s a family favorite.  (Tasty, and really inexpensive to make a vat.)

Although we’ve had an uptick in showings of the house since we reduced the price (6 since the change), no sign of an offer yet.  Hopefully we’re beginning the process this week of listing with the new realtor so we have a seamless transition — one listing expiring on July 2, the new listing going up July 3.

Today I’ve been busy with laundry, and Agent Murphy and I went to play group at church.  Small crowd today — one family of 4 kids, and a little girl just a bit older than the Agent.  The 4 siblings are 3 girls and a boy, so the boy, though he’s almost 5, was happy to have Agent Murphy to play with when we arrived.  (I use the phrase “play with” loosely.)  It was very sweet — he asked his mom if he could tell the Agent something, and when she said yes, he went over and whispered in our little guy’s ear.  His mom told me he wanted to tell the Agent that he’s going to his friend Frankie’s house.  I guess he was just very excited to have another boy to talk to.

I’m tired of having our house on the market.  I want it sold.  We really need to change realtors.  Our existing agent convinced us to let her keep it listed through the current listing period.  (The listing expires July 2.)  So we agreed, at the reduced price the other realtor we met with suggested.  The new price got us some showings this weekend.  (I think the first time we’ve had multiple showings in 1 day.)  The feedback from those doesn’t bode well for a quick offer, though, and I’m really looking forward to switching agents, assuming lack of a miracle that will bring us a contract on the house by the expiration date.

It’s all just very depressing.  Maybe the new agent will have the magic touch when we can get it listed with him.  But I can’t help fearing that we’ll just have to live in this stupid house until we die.  And we don’t really have much of a life in this house.  Mr. Tldz can’t work from home here on any kind of a regular basis and his commute is so long that we barely see each other during the week.  We can’t do the entertaining we’d like to do because of space constraints.  We’re uncomfortably crammed into a small bed because our bedroom can’t accommodate anything larger.  Not to mention that toddler stuff overwhelms the whole house and there’s really no space we can claim for grownups.  Oh well.  I know I’m supposed to see it as a blessing that we have a roof over our heads at all.

Indeed, we are blessed that Fathers’ Day cannot fall during Lent. I was treated to some really yummy french toast.

We headed off to mass while our house was shown by a couple different agents and came home to have lunch and a third showing. Hopefully the new price will get the right person’s attention and we’ll sell quickly.

Now it’s off to share some of the chocolate Agent Murphy “helped” Mrs. Tldz pick out for me.

My couch is gone.  It’s gone.  Everything is different.  Things are not right.  But The Boy just goes on playing same as always.  The big couch is where my couch used to be.  I guess I’ll just take a nap on it.  But things are not right.

So at the advice of the new real estate agent we met with, we’ve done some reconfiguring.  We’d already moved a number of things down to the basement, but now we’ve done some more.  With help from Uncle R. last night, the chairs from Agent Murphy’s room and from our room have gone to the basement.  And our loveseat, torn up pretty well by The Dog’s predecessor, was hauled out to the curb.  (We’d already decided it wasn’t worth moving the raggedy thing when we go, so when he suggested finding a way to make our living room look more spacious, we decided just to pitch it now.)  I made a point of calling the county this morning, as their procedures instruct, to let them know there’s a bulky item at the curb.  The woman made a point of telling me it’s a special vehicle that comes for it, as opposed to the regular collection, and that it could take up to 5 days.  Well, I just looked out the window and noticed that today’s regular trash collection has come through - and picked up the loveseat.  Whatever, it’s gone.

Anyway, after Agent Murphy went to bed last night, Mr. Tldz and I spent some time figuring the best way to arrange our remaining living room furniture.  It definitely looks more spacious now, but it feels weird when I walk in there.  I guess maybe this is good practice for going to a whole new place.  Would really like to sell and get the house we want…

Still have to take the step of “firing” our existing agent so we can list with the other guy.  I called her this morning, but had to leave a generic voice mail.  I hope she’ll get back to me soon.  Maybe she’ll get lucky and this lowball offer will turn into something real based on our counteroffer, but otherwise we’re moving on.

Speaking of moving on…  This morning I sent in a wrap up/thank you announcement on the Mend a Heart campaign.  And then I let our pastor know that, given our (hopefully) impending move, I’m resigning my position as head of the pro-life committee.  Uncle R. has agreed to keep things going at least in the interim until Father decides who he’ll appoint as the next leader.  Five and a half years was a pretty good run, and we ended on a successful fundraising campaign for PATH.

Yesterday evening the Agent and I went to pick up Mr. Tldz from the train as usual.  Parked next to another vehicle.  Turns out it was a friend of my mom’s - one of the group of ladies I grew up with and who we’d just seen while we were in Chicago.  She’s here visiting her sister, and they were there to pick up her brother-in-law, who appeared to be returning from a business trip.  And the sister and brother-in-law go to our parish.

Long time no post!  We had a nice trip to Chicago at the end of May.  Agent Murphy was a real trooper in the car, even though we got stuck in construction traffic on the first day coming back (on Sunday!) so our planned leisurely half-trip ended up with our getting to our hotel in Kentucky very late.

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo and had hoped to make it to the Children’s Museum, but Mr. Tldz and I were both a bit under the weather.  On our penultimate day there, my mom hosted a get-together of family of friends, and it was good to see lots of folks.  And Agent Murphy receieved several gifts, for which thank you notes are forthcoming.  Saw my sister and her family briefly Sunday morning at Mass.  Unfortunately, we ended on a bad note with my mom, but hopefully little by little we will rebuild things.

Agent Murphy had his hearing screening shortly after we returned, and as we expected, all is normal there.  Last week he had his speech evaluation, and the therapist is leaning toward the idea that he has a lazy tongue.  So we’ll start weekly speech therapy in a few weeks when we hear back about scheduling. Her sense is there’s no reason to think he won’t respond to therapy, that just a little boost should be enough to get him started talking.  We’d sure like that!  So now I have a bunch of handouts to read through with ideas to try to stimulate language, and we’ll work on that while we wait for therapy.

We had a big day yesterday.  Agent Murphy and I finally made it to play group at church for the first time in a long time.  He’s still pretty reserved there.  Then we went to Mobile Mother Goose at the library in what we hope will be our new neighborhood.  (Of course, I couldn’t resist driving by “our” house.)  He wasn’t sure what to make of all that.  We’ll try it again next week.

Speaking of “our” house…  The price has been reduced again.  It’s making me really antsy that someone will snatch it up before us.  We’ve had a lowball offer on our house.  We’ve countered and are waiting for the response.  And we’ve had a couple more showings.  But we’re on the verge of changing realtors if this current flurry of activity doesn’t yield anything this week.  We met with a guy on Saturday who has ideas about actively marketing our house, rather than the “let’s list it and wait and see who shows up” approach our current agent takes.

Had RW and S. over for dinner Saturday a week ago to thank them for keeping an eye on the house while we were away.  It’s always fun to catch up with them and we rather enjoy the challenge of finding onion-less recipes to serve to S., since most of our recipes start “chop 1 onion” (or more).  Ah, but the pork tenderloin with poached plums that we like has no onions. Yum!  We look forward to getting together with them again around mid-July.

Mr. Tldz and I both had physicals last week with our new primary care doc.  We need to schedule our blueberry picking outing, and a day trip to the dairy north of here.  And I need to carve out some quality time to spend in the basement getting organized down there so we can be ready for the move when the time comes.  Other than that, it’s the same old same old around here.

Bill Bennett and Dennis Prager both broadcast their radio shows live today, having people call in to memorialize loved ones who died in service of this country.  Very moving.  Those sorts of things always have been moving to me. We are very blessed to have so many who have been willing to stand up and fight for this country and for freedom.  Neither Mr. Tldz nor I would be able to do that sort of fighting, though we believe it’s worth doing; and we are so grateful for those who do it.  But now that I look at my own little boy, the losses these folks share hit me so much more deeply.

I would be proud if Agent Murphy decides to serve in the military, but I also shudder to think what that decision might one day bring.  As he gets older, we really need to find some meaningful ways to mark Memorial Day and Veterans Day so he can understand the price of freedom.  And learn to remember.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.

Okay, our kitchen cabinet is repaired.  Our shower head has started leaking, but seems to be reasonably under control and can wait for further attention until our return.  Have lots of little tasks to get finished packing and get the house in order before our departure in the morning.  Hopefully we’ll have some showings while we’re away, and a new shower pan and bathroom floor will greet us on our return.

Agent Murphy had his 18-month portraits today, but he wasn’t a very happy camper.  (He’s happy now, though, to have his pots and pans drawer back.)  They still got some cute shots, and we had time to do an outfit change so we have a dressy outfit and a casual one.  That’s good, because there will never be time around his annual portrait to do that.  With a November birthday, we do that sitting in the rush of everyone getting their pictures done for Christmas cards.

Memorial Day Weekend always seems to mark the official start of summer, and for us this year it marks the start of our vacation.  We were supposed to kick it off with the children’s choir concert at IHM Friday night, but The Dog decided to bolt, so we had to stay close to home in case someone called about her.  Fortunately, she meandered back on her own, but by that time it was too late to pull ourselves together for the concert.  (Lucky for her, Agent Murphy saw her in the car port and let out a squeal, so Mr. Tldz opened the door and let her in.) Besides, our being home worked out well so RW could swing by after work and pick up a set of keys, as he has kindly agreed to keep an eye on the place, bring in our mail, etc. while we’re away.

Yesterday got off to a bit of a lazy start, and then we got the house in shape for an afternoon showing, but the people were no-shows.  (As I’m writing this, two different people have pulled up in front of the house to take sale fliers, so hopefully we’ll see more activity.) The guys who worked on fixing our kitchen cabinets came out to make adjustments to what they’ve done, and things are almost right. We’re supposed to see them again today for the final tweaks.  It will be good to have our drawer back!

Yesterday afternoon we all went for haircuts.  Agent Murphy got his first official hair cut, not counting the snipping at the back I’ve done a couple of times.  He fussed a little at first, but really he did quite well.  And he looks very handsome.  I need to get pictures off the camera before we leave, so maybe I’ll put up his before and after shots.  He’s such a big boy!  He had his 18-month checkup on Wednesday and weighed in at 28 pounds and 35.75″ — right on the growth curve he’s been on all along.  They are concerned that he’s not saying any words yet, so we have a hearing evaluation scheduled for June 3 and a speech evaluation for June 10.  Apparently they won’t do any speech therapy until he’s had a hearing screening, but it seems pretty silly, because he obviously hears us and comprehends what we’re saying.  In the last couple of days he’s given us a couple of really clear examples I can relay at his screenings.  I think our boy just likes to do things at his own pace, when he has it all figured out, like he’s done with everything else.  Of course, that’s not a great strategy for learning to talk, so maybe they’ll have some good tips on jump starting him.  For now, our pediatrician says just keep talking to him and read out loud to him — not just his stories, but anything I’m reading.

We slept in a bit today, too, and had a lovely morning, so we’ll be going to Mass this evening.  I’ve gotten a fair bit of our trip packing done, and Mr. Tldz has been working on laundry. Agent Murphy has decided he likes cole slaw.  Tomorrow we take the freshly coiffed Agent for his 18-month portraits and finish our preparations to go visit Grandma.