She's ours! (ok. almost.)

The sellers agreed to our offer. We are (nearly) proud homeowners once again! Now Brandon just needs to get back here from China so we can have an inspection and keep this home buyin' train movin' along. Woo hoo!!!!

Let the negotiations continue........

We put an offer in on a house Tuesday morning. It's a "for sale by owner" (FSBO) home and, well, I heard this shrieking sound and then a dull thud. I think it was the owners, all the way from their new home in California. When they recovered, they came back with a modest counter-offer. To which we replied: "NOT good enough!". We're slowly eeking our way up, they are even more slowly eeking down. Tomorrow should be the day that tells all as we are both giving our "final" offers --- for the 2nd time.

I have to say, dealing with a FSBO has been... interesting. (Sorry Stremmel-Leards!) There is not that protective realtor shield, keeping us from being exposed to all the seller's counter-offer reasoning and rhetoric. We are experiencing firsthand that people can be so darned attached to the emotions they have tied up into a house. All that business about raising their family, lovely neighborhood, wonderful house... As Charlie Brown's teacher always said: "Mwah, mwah, mwah mwah mwah". Too bad we are so very, very stubborn.

We're all ok.

To all those who may have been alarmed at my willingness to meet a total stranger, with my children in tow, for an outing to the zoo: We're all ok. We had a great time and she and her daughter were very much normal.

Woo-hoo!

Got a playdate pre-arranged for Wednesday morning!!! We're going to the zoo at 10am, again meeting a complete stranger I connected with through the milwaukeemoms.com discussion boards. I can't believe I'm brave enough to do this, but after Prague's life-altering experience, I've learned I cannot survive in a literal or figurative foreign environment without connecting with others.

Did I ever say, the internet is amazing?!?! How would we have met in the "dark" ages? Would I have sent a mass mailing through the USPS and made plans with anyone who responded? Or maybe strike up a conversation with the nearest mom in the supermarket checkout line? I mean really.... type an email, throw in some lighthearted jokes and emoticons and we're ready to hang out together for the morning. How weird is that?

Both she and her daughter are blonde, she's a scrapbooker and her name is Angela (starts with "A" and has 3 syllables). We already have SO much in common! ;-)

A wise woman once said.....

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". So there's my explanation for blogging lapses as of late. It's not that I can't say anything nice... it's just that it's usually tainted with a hint of sarcasm or perhaps a scowl on my face. In fact, as of yesterday Lydia has taken to telling me "Talk happy, Mom". Oh, it's not that I'm yelling or angry with her in the least. I guess she just picks up on that dallop o' sarcasm with a sprinkling of scowl more than I realized. Little kids are eerily perceptive.

We've had a week of rain on top of it all, which doesn't help my perspective. Living in temporary quarters with one rubbermaid tub of borrowed toys and little outside human contact can be daunting for the hardiest of souls. Then Brandon left yesterday for 2 weeks to China and Germany. Thankfully, the skies cleared that very day and we have had the good fortune of resuming playground visits.

We're still the the throes of househunting. I think we've actually managed to narrow it down to the Final Two. I had no choice but to call in the Emergency Task Force -- my parents. On Saturday morning I caved to the emotional stress of this entire process and tossed the question out there: Would they consider driving to Wisconsin that very night to look at the two houses with me the next morning. And guess what? They came! Arriving at 1:30 am! Gosh, what parents will do for their children. I mean, who else in this world would be willing to hop in their car at a moments notice and drive 8 hours, just to turn around and do it again the next day? I felt an enormous weight off my shoulders just knowing they were on their way. Thanks Mom & Dad! I really, truly mean that.

SOLD!

109 Willow Avenue

After only a couple of weeks on the market, we are excited to have received an offer on our little home in Maryland. The offer was for exactly what we had hoped to sell it for, so it's an amazing relief to us. All that's left is the inspection, which we will pray goes smoothly with no major findings. Now if only we could find its replacement...................

Human contact!

We had a very successful meeting with some local moms at the playground today. This came about through that post I put on the milwaukee moms discussion board. There were 4 of us, Nadia, Aisha, Jennifer and myself. They all had little girls closer to Marcus' age, but Lydia had a great time being incredibly independent and playing with other kids at the playground. We left the park already making plans for our next meeting. It felt SO good to talk with other moms again and to begin to take steps towards developing relationships in our new home. We're getting there! Yippee!

Ain't she perty?!?

Just look what I brought home today!!! My very first brand new car -- a Toyata Rav4. She's a cute little thing with only 6 miles on the ticker and shiny red paint to boot. Lydia has affectionately named it Lightning McQueen. I guess that'd make it a boy car, but we won't get hung up on details.

You know how they say that when you buy a new car, you lose some crazy amount like thousands of dollars on the value of the car the instant you drive off the lot? Well, I thought I'd audibly hear the sound of coins dropping on the ground around me as I pulled away. And you know what??? It was amazing. The soft purr of the engine drowned it all out. I didn't hear a thing! Oh, alright, maybe it was the kids screaming in the back seat that drowned it all out. But again... we won't get hung up on details.

I never understood people who got all goo-goo over their cars (shining and buffing and washing incessantly). And I admit, I felt a little goofy taking pictures of it just now. But if I was a senior in high school and I was having my senior pictures taken, you better believe I'd have one... ok, maybe two pictures... with my pretty new car! :-)

Handsome Lil Guy

Pouring lemon juice on an open wound

It's been a major source of contention in our household. You see, when we left Prague nearly 6 weeks ago, my car was actually at Renault service. Having been there for 2 weeks, we left with this report from the mechanic "It's not ready to pick up. It is completely disassembled, and when reassembled with the new part, it would not start". So... we boarded a plane for America.

And then we enlisted some help from friends in Prague. Various people were lined up to keep in contact with the mechanic and help arrange a sale once the car was again functioning.

This leads to today. Car is still not working. Mechanic has given up. Someone will buy our car for 30,000Kc ($1500). We owe the mechanic 20,000Kc ($1000) for NOT repairing our car. "Profit": $500.

Guess that's $500 more than my original plan would have netted:
Take car to nearest cliff. Push. Leave country.

Will you be my friend?

Well, I did it. Made my first contact with a total stranger in the attempt to begin establishing friendships and maybe a new playgroup. There's a website called milwaukeemoms.com that's pretty helpful for finding your way around the Milwaukee area. I responded to a post on a message board from a mommy with 2 small kids in the Brookfield, WI area (where we hope to buy a house). And she replied back! Eek! It's a little scary for me... Makes my heart race just thinking about it. I just don't initiate conversation with total strangers willy-nilly. We talked about meeting up at a park in a week or so. This is nearly as comfort-zone stretching as living in Prague and going to that 1st playgroup meeting over there 3 years ago.

On the home front: Still hunting. Today I'm going out with the realtor for the THIRD full day. Our criteria is changing... No longer "Move in condition. High-quality build." This day will be spent looking at "Needs updates. Kitchen not-so-pretty". After today, I will have seen 99% of the houses on the market and if nothing does it, we'll have to sit and wait and watch for any new listings or expand our search area to include outlying areas and/or sacrifice more criteria. Having train tracks in the backyard isn't SO bad, is it?!?!?

Numbbrain

I've got a major case of numb brain. Numb. Brain. Brought about by a month of absolute insanity that I never hope to see the likes of again. A positive note for today is that Brandon finagled a deal where I could finally have high-speed internet once again. I did not remember that dial-up internet was so P-A-I-N-F-U-L!!! I was getting quite adept at entering my search address, getting up from the computer and doing a load of laundry, changing a diaper, making dinner AND emptying the dishwasher just in time to return to the computer to see the page loading. Multi-tasker, I am.

We have been spending every waking moment thinking, talking, agonizing over housing. After hours and hours of looking at houses we're still apartment dwellers at least for the foreseeable future.

The weather in Wisconsin has been wonderful so far. "They" are all complaining that it's too hot, but I'm just banking up the days with full knowledge that winter will NOT be my favorite time of year.

All in all, things are normal, comfortable and incredibly convenient. Looking forward to checking out some great mommy-n-kid activities soon. Just gotta get this house-thing taken care of.