Birthday hell

I am so sorry that I haven’t updated! As crazy as I was the last time I posted, it pales in comparison. Where to begin?

We had the licensing worker visit and I don’t think it went well. She repeatedly told us that we couldn’t home school foster children, despite our assurances that we had no intention of doing so. Then when she toured the house she said that although the boys room was well within the size requirements for 3 children (almost 4!) she said the space just didn’t “feel good” for 3 kids. She seemed unable to acknowledge that Katherine’s room would be additional space and told us that she would need to speak with her supervisor. Then she went on and on about how inappropriate it would be to have a “pre-pubescent” (Joshua) in the same room as a toddler (Matthew). Before leaving we again told her that we would be putting a bunk bed in Katherine’s room and her response was that it was a wonderful idea, and we were just so focused on putting three kids into that one room (yes, YOU were). So as of today we are not licensed, but that may come through today. Who knows?

The kids got in with a dentist and all had a cleaning. Katherine and Joshua have the makings of a cavity but other than that a clean bill of dental heath.

Then we had the birthday party from hell that has caused me to vow never (NEVER EVER) to have a birthday party at our home again. EVER. Without even taking into consideration the cost involved it was too much. I think that part of the problem was that the school had a party that afternoon and the kids were all hyped up on red dye and sugar before they even arrived. Everything felt completely out of control for the hour and a half that everyone was here. Then there was a child who I think may have been trying to rob us…I’m just going to stop thinking about it and pretend that it never happened.

On Wednesday the listing broker for the house across the street from us called to say that she had an offer coming in, and if Mom was still interested in the house she needed to come right away to see it and get and offer in immediately. (She remembered me from the 3 months that I sold real estate in town over 4 years ago!) I called Mom and she was interested, so I got a quick oil change and drove down (4 hours) to get her. She liked the house and put in a strong offer. The seller, who has also talked to both Gary and I several times about my Mother buying the house, didn’t even counter. They rejected the offer and sent a note saying, “We accepted the other offer. Thanks for trying.” What the heck! I was in shock that they didn’t even counter!

Mom sent in a back up offer that they did counter by upping the price on the offer by $2,000. Instead of accepting that Mom countered again for more than that asking price! Go Mom! So either she will get the house, or she will get a little satisfaction when they are selling the house to the other guy knowing that Mom was willing to pay more than they were even asking. HA!

When I drove her back on Saturday I was looking forward to seeing Jen and her clan, but we had so much car trouble on Saturday morning that we couldn’t leave until afternoon, then Mom noticed another house that she wanted to see the inside of so we missed Jen. Probably drove by them on the highway.

I was so overwhelmed on Saturday morning it was crazy. Gary and I left Mom with the kids to go out and put air in the tires. On the way to the gas station I told Gary how overwhelmed I was feeling. Immediately after saying so the transmission slipped. Great. Then while putting air in Gary noticed that there was a split in the tire, and a bald spot. We checked with a few tire shops and it just wasn’t going to work out, so we went to the rental shop to get a van. We were all set to pay when we found out that we would be unable to leave our own van there so we decided against the rental altogether.

We made it safely to Boston and back with our van, which seems to run fine if we keep the gas tank full.

I received a 95 on my last algebra exam, and would have scored higher but I completely missed a question worth 4 points. I have no idea how I missed it but I did. I stayed late today to ask some basic questions and the instructor gave me two more books. One of them, Basic College Mathematics seems to be right at Joshua’s level. He was thrilled to be doing problems from a college textbook!

Okay, was that enough of an update from my boring life? Just so you all know, the goal was to post twice a week. I think I am falling a wee bit short of that goal.