Overdue Updates

A Thing of Beauty

I've been asked about our roof a few times, so let me start off by saying that our homeowners insurance company is no longer breathing down our neck.    Yay!  The metal was installed over a 2 week period (only half of the metal was ordered at first - oops!) and installation was completed about 2 weeks ago.  The same day I submitted the paperwork letting them know it had been completed, they mailed us a refund check - ugh.  Rather than pay them the exact amount of the refund, I was told to wait till we knew what the new rate would be (new roof = discount).  I got that figure earlier this week and paid the insurance company yesterday so we are now good to go.

Front of business card

Back of business card

I also mentioned in an earlier post that I was changing real estate companies.  It's now official (I got my business cards and name tag yesterday), so I am happy to share that I am now working for Sarasota Bay Real Estate!  I also have my own website (KarrieMeHome.com) where you can search for homes in Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte Counties of Florida.  One of the really awesome things about this site is that you can set up your own search so that it emails you every time a new home becomes available (and I can see what you've been looking at in case you want to give me a call about a specific house you've seen).  If you want to make an adjustment for some reason, you can do that as well.  This is a wonderful feature I didn't have with my last employer.  Oh, and I can now list homes for sale too!  It's so nice not being restricted by the team I was on before.  And if you are curious... I love my new company!  The people there are wonderful.

Hubby's had some interesting goings-on at work lately too.  A few weeks back he was asked to come in to the weekly management meeting (he's not management).  We thought he was going to get in trouble, but he didn't.  The issue really stemmed from the day guy complaining about hubby fixing things (uh, that's his job) without talking to the day guy first (you want a phone call at 2AM or don't you want the paper to print before you get in at 6AM?).  Upper management gave hubby the okay to keep doing what he's been doing, so we were able to breath a sigh of relief.  In fact the only way the meeting could have gone any better for my hubby was for them to have offered him a raise (from what we understand no one has gotten a raise in 3+ years).  So how surprised were we when last week hubby was called in to work during the day to help the day guy try to fix something he couldn't figure out.  Day guy is almost eligible to retire and claims he knows how to fix everything there.  Guess not.  And how proud was I when they called hubby in because they trusted that he could do it?

As for the kiddos, my son has officially started with his FLL (First Lego League) robotics team.  They have their pre-qualifiying tournament on Nov 22 so they are meeting twice a week for at least 2 hours each day trying to get ready.  Fun times for Mommy and Daddy.

This year my daughter is signed up to participate in a mini-horse class.  She meets every other week for 3 hours each time and is learning how to care for a horse as well as how to train it to jump (and maybe pull a small cart later in the year).  She's having a blast.

My daughter walking "her" mini-horse Headliner

Brushing Headliner

We've also gone on a few field trips already this year to a science museum, aquarium, and zoo.

Making a stop animation film

"They are really soft."

So cute

Needless to say, my family is very busy these days.  Especially considering in a couple days we have grandparents coming into town for a week.  We have some fun stuff planned with them, so I'm sure I will have more pictures to share after that.

Cry Uncle

I'm a busy person.  I don't like to sit still for long.  Even when I'm "watching TV" I'm usually doing something else (working on my grocery list, knitting, working on my to do list for the next day, etc).  It's the way I've been as far back as I can remember.  My moto since I got my first job at 15 has always been, "I'd rather be busy than bored," and I stick by that because being busy helps the time pass by more quickly. 

But there is such a thing as too busy.  This evening after finally getting my kids to bed way later than I intended, I realized I still had so many things to do in preparation for the next 2 days, that I finally cried uncle and had hubby help me with a few things.  Under normal circumstances these things would be pretty simple (trash, cat care, dishes, etc) but here it is and it's almost 1am and I finally wrapped up the rest of list of prep items for tomorrow (minus a treadmill workout that I can hopefully squeeze in tomorrow).  If it weren't for his help, I'd either have starved the cats, let the dishes get crusty and hard to wash tomorrow, had rotting food in our trash can for an extra few days, or been up till 2 or so getting these things done.

Crying Uncle is a good thing.  Perhaps I should have done it sooner and given him a bigger list so I could have been in bed before midnight... Lesson learned for next time (I'm sure there will be a next time).

Now to get to bed so I can get up bright and early (for me) so I can enjoy endure have another busy day tomorrow.

Where to Begin?

Someone mentioned to me the other day that I haven't posted much lately.  We've had so much going on, many of which are on a deadline.  Priorities being what they are, blog posts have been put on hold.  So what have we been up to over the last couple months?

• A trip to Sea World with Grandma & Grandpa and a group of homeschoolers

• Nerf party for my son's birthday  (turned out great, will try to do a separate blog about this later)

• Girl Scout cookies sales (booth sales as well as walking through neighborhoods taking orders)

• Field trip to Spanish Point where we learned about the Spanish settlers in Florida (goes really well with their Florida History class this year)

• Spent a few hours at the Southwest FL Herritage Festival where we learned about the Florida pioneers (again, goes really well with their Florida History class this year)

• Karate (My son decided he had better things to do than karate so he quit going the end of January.  My daughter quite the end of February for the same reason.)

• Archery Lessons (these are weekly and have pretty much taken the place of the karate class).  The really cool thing about these is the entire family can go, so hubby's been able to take lessons a couple times and so have I.

• Kittens.  We've been caring for a pregnant cat who was found wandering a nearby neighborhood. Last Saturday she had 6 kittens.  They are all doing well, but we are currently acclimating Mama and babies to the fact that people are friends and not foes. They are doing quite well but have their moments of mistrust (luckily no biting or scratching - just hissing so far). 

• Lots of Showings and a few houses under contract. 

• Real estate licensing. Many people don't know that working in real estate requires continuing education.  If you don't complete the re-certification course by a certain time every 2 years, your license is made inactive and you can no longer practice till it you complete the course.  Well, the end of March is that date for me.  Luckily I finished a couple days ago.  Very important that I did too or those contracts I mentioned above... I don't get the commission.  

• Shift change.  A couple weeks ago, hubby was informed he would be moving from night shift to day shift for 4 - 6 weeks.  He just completed the first week of the day shift.  Considering my husband is a night owl, this shift has been hard on him physically.  It's also been hard on the family because now I don't have him home during the day to watch the kids if I have to head out for work.  Luckily, my parents and some friends have offered to help (and I've taken them up on it).  I've also been showing houses to fellow homeschoolers lately, so I've even brought my kids along to hand out with their kids.

• Taxes.  I've barely started these and they are due April 15 of course.  I think I'll be getting money back but I'm not sure, so I have to at least get some basic numbers imputed so I know if the 15th is really my deadline.  Whatever the case, this will probably have me busy for the next couple weeks so I apologize in advance for going off the grid again.

Family Visit Review

Rather than try to attempt to make this into a few posts I decided to make a summary post.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that my in-laws were going to visit for Christmas and that I would most likely be otherwise occupied during that time.  Well, I was.  So here is a summary of what's happened with my family over the last couple weeks:

My in-laws visited for 10 days.  During that time:

• The kids went to the beach multiple times with Oma and Opa. Daughter got wet and sandy and son played with his trick kite.  They both had a blast and Mommy got some work done.
• My son went to his first sleep over (I think Mommy had a harder time with that than my son).
• I did lots of baking mostly as gifts but for us also.
• I had a few showings, inspections, etc.
• My in-laws were able to find a renter for the house they bought the last time they were down here (they bought it before prices went up even more, planning to retire in a few more years).
• Hubby started his night shift schedule.  It's really worked out well so far (even with family visiting).

Around 2AM the night / morning before my in-laws left town, my little brother got to our house for a 5 day visit.  So that meant we had 9 people, 5 cats, and 1 dog at my house for that night.  Hubby and I were in the camper along with my brother and everyone else (and all the animals) was in the house.  The more the merrier right?  While my brother was in town:

• My son played extensively with the small parachute my brother gave him.  My brother is a parachute rigger which means he packs and fixes parachutes so to make one wasn't too hard.
• One of my first cousins and his family came and visited for a few hours.  It was a great way for them to see all my family at once since they hadn't seen my brother in over 15 years.  In fact my cousin's wife had never met my brother.
• My parents, brother, and my family of 4 went to Busch Gardens 2 days before the New Year.  Yes, it was crowded but it was still fun.  My dad and brother hadn't been in close to 20 years so they were able to enjoy a couple of the new rides as well as our favorite from the last time they'd been there. My mom and daughter were able to see a couple of the shows too.  I must admit, I'd never been when it was that crowded before.  We got one of the last parking spaces in the farthest parking lot  (it was about 1.5 miles from the entrance of the park).  The good news though... it was so crowded they didn't charge parking because they didn't want to hold up the line taking money from people.

Where'd That Come From?!?!

Did you ever have one of those days where you had everything planned out and then things didn't go as you planned?  Today was one of those for me. 

This morning I took the kids on a trip to see a play with their homeschool group (awesome by the way).  Then after the play, was a preview of a house followed by an inspection.  If all things went well, I would take the kids to their play, have time to eat lunch at home when dropping them off before heading back out.  Then I should have been back by 4:30.

I didn't get home till 5:15, but I did get all those other things done.  In addition:

• I had computer issues (multiple times).  
• Those issues caused me to almost miss a deadline.  I made it by 7 minutes only to find out 4 hours later that the deadline wasn't quite as written in stone as I was lead to believe.  
• And I also dealt with numerous out-of-the-blue phone calls.

All I know is that I'm chalking it up to being a Monday.  A Monday where lots of people had off work so they were available to bother contact me.

The good thing that came out of this?  Hubby saw how frazzled I was and got Chinese for dinner so I didn't have to make anything.

A Blessing and a Curse

Well, today it was made official.  My mentor has decided to leave the team I joined, in order to venture out on her own.  I have no doubt she will do great on her own.  I do however wonder how well I will be able to handle things with her gone.

I don't doubt my skills in general.  But besides being the first person I go to with questions or to commiserate, she's been handling 1/2 of all the new buyer leads that the team gets.  Now I'm going to get them all.  That's a good thing and a bad thing all rolled into one.  Good because it gives me the potential for more money, but bad because it means I will most likely be busier.  Possibly much busier, especially since we are coming up on our busy time of year. 

If you think about it, pray for me.  I've had a busy day that's given me an example of what my future could be on a regular basis, and I'm not sure I like it.  Fits and spurts of busy I can deal with, but I want need down time on occasion too, and I want to be able to participate in some of my kids school / fun activities.

Back to the Grind

Recently my family spend almost 3 weeks either traveling to or from, and spending time in Virginia.  Thankfully during that time, I didn't really have many things to deal with for work and I didn't have any clients who wanted to see a house (kind of a hard thing to do when you are close to 1000 miles away).

That all changed early last week.  I'd been home for a little over a week and then I started getting calls from my clients.  I had one person contact me saying she was coming into town and wanted to see as many houses as we could fit in.  So on one day we saw 18 houses and the next day I showed her 4 more.  I only showed her 4 houses that day because before I met her, I had previewed 2 houses for one client, and showed another client 5 houses.  I think it's safe to say that 18 houses in one day is my record.  How did I do it?  Planning had a lot to do with it, but I've learned mostly it was because my client knew what she wanted and knew that in order to get through all the houses that we could only spend a lot of time in the houses she really liked.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I met with another client after church.  Initially I was going to show them 6 houses and figured we could get it done in about 2 hours.  Before we could see them, 2 of the houses went under contract so we ended up seeing 4 houses.  And it took us 3 hours.  Why the difference? It was all about the client.  They are looking for an investment property so every house is a potential purchase.  At each house they would make a detailed lists of things to do for each house to make it rentable.

This was certainly a learning experience for me.  I have learned that when dealing with an investor give them more time.

Oh, and one more thing... I had a meeting with one of my partners recently and it looks like I might start handling rentals too.  That means if I sell my investors a house, I could be handling their rental too.  It means I'll be a little busier, but my mantra has always been, "I'd rather be busy than bored."

Feast or Famine

One of my favorite sayings is that I'd rather be busy that bored.  As the homeschooling mom of 2 kids I can never be truly bored but things can definitely slow down.  Especially when it comes to work.

For a period of a couple weeks, work has been kind of slow.  And when I mean slow, I've been able to do a lot of work from home.  I haven't had showings.  I haven't had inspections.  Until a week ago, all I had was a final walk-through and a closing.  Then I showed a client a house late one evening that meant I returned home later than I would have liked.

And now the flood gates have opened.  That deal is in the process of moving forward.  In fact, I'm in the process of trying to fit in an inspection for that house soon.  In addition, it would appear multiple out-of-state clients all decided now was a good time to come and look at houses.  I also have a couple local clients who've found homes they want to see as well.  So over the next week and a half, I will have showings on at least 5 days (a couple of them full days). 

Timing is an interesting thing.  During the slow time (specifically, at what I now know was the end of the slow time), I paid for access to a client list.  One of the draws for me was that I would be able to use that to try to get new clients when things were otherwise slow.  Well, here I am not having used that client list at all because I want to be able to do justice to the clients I'm working with right now.

So why am I not happy with a slow period?  Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE those slow times because it usually means I get to spend more quality time with my kids.  However, it would be nice to see money come in a little more consistently, so I'm also looking into working with one of my partners on rentals (diversification is a good thing in my opinion).

Whether I'm dealing with a feast period or a famine period, it was all put into perspective for me recently when I realized that I started working as a Realtor only 9.5 months ago.  And in that time, I've sold 8 houses.  According to the people I work with, that is unheard of for a new Realtor.  All I know is that without these sales, my family would be in serious financial trouble right now.  So I am going to be thankful for the sales I've had.  I'm going to be thankful for the down times as well.  Because in the end, it's all going to work out the way God wants and that's way better than anything I could come up with for myself.

That said, after going to an awards breakfast today where I watched the two agents I work with most closely win something, I'm going to do my best to get an award of my own next year (I wasn't eligible this year).

Checking In

One of my dearest friends recently started grad school.  Needless to say, with her work/ school/ wife/ parent schedule, as well as mine, we don't connect as often as we'd like.  The other day she sent me a quick email seeing how things are going.   Then I realized.... she reads my blog and I hadn't updated anything in quite a while (almost 3 weeks now)!

I am SO sorry.  I realize my blog is the only way some of you hear about what is going on with me and my family so here goes.

In magical bullet form, here is a summary of what my family has done over the last 2-1/2 weeks.

• The kids and I have been working on a unit study (an in depth study of one topic) on dolphins.  My daughter is LOVING it of course and my son is even finding it interesting.  The next unit study we will be doing is my son's choice - robots.
• The kids and I attended an open house for a local homeschool group that we are seriously thinking of joining next school year.  Hubby and I are both thinking about becoming tutors (their way of saying teacher).  Not only would it help pay for the class, but I think it will help us be able to help them learn at home more.
• Hubby has been teaching the robotics class each week.  From what I can tell all the kids (and hubby) are having a good time as well. There are only a few more weeks left, so now he's trying to figure out the contest for the last day of class.
• Hubby is also working on 2 projects simultaneously for one client (they are similar so it's not a big stretch).  He was supposed to send one of them a while ago, but hubby wasn't happy with it.  The client said they would rather have a complete product rather than one that isn't quite right so they told him to take his time so he is still plugging away.
• The entire family volunteered at an Easter egg drop hosted by our church.  We helped at the booth where pictures were taken with the Easter bunny and Mrs. Bunny.  The kids had a great time helping and of course being able to participate in the egg drop at the end was a bonus. Note: watching plastic eggs dropped from a helicopter is pretty cool.
• We've also been getting some stuff done around the house.  My parents are in the process of packing up to move to Florida.  Hubby and the kids are planning a trip up to help them in a few weeks.  If I can get away from work, I might try to go and help as well.  My parents will move in with us initially while they look for a place to live (thus the need to do some work around our house).  The good news is that I know a really good Realtor who can help them find a place  ;-)
• Taxes, taxes, taxes - ugh!
• Today we took in 2 cats for an undetermined period of time.  Their owner is being evicted and needs a place for them to stay while he gets back on his feet and finds a place that will allow cats.  His story is so sad that we just felt we had to help him and his cats (he tried 30+ other shelters / rescue organizations before finding the one we help with).
• I have shown / previewed 36 houses for 5 different people and drove 442 miles and have more on the books this week as well.
• I have a closing scheduled for later this week.  This is the first one since the end of December.  Thankfully there is one scheduled for May as well.
• I've also been knitting each evening as I have time.  I have a project I was hoping to have done a while ago, but alas here I am still working on it.  I'm about half way done now, so that's progress I suppose.

Which Way Did She Go?

This way.... No, that way.... No over there.

To say I have been racking up the mileage the last few days would be an understatement.

I have showed houses 5 of the last 8 days across 3 different counties which totaled close to 250 miles.  Add to that the fact that we took the kids to Orlando for a homeschool field trip to Sea World

(and Spacecraft Surplus for the boys),

They spent 1 hour in here and could have stayed longer I'm sure.

and it's been busy.

So what did I do today since it's been my first "day off" in a while?  Besides doing some school with the kids, I've watched my daughter swim (briefly), went grocery shopping, did a few loads of laundry, cleaned some of the house, and worked on taxes.   You know, the normal stuff that's been put off for WAY. TOO. LONG.  And I'm still hoping to do some knitting this evening.

Change of Plans

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am a planner.  I am a list person.  I like to know days in advance what I'm going to do.

I realize that sometimes that's not possible, especially during cold and flu season.  In fact, my plans have changed numerous times over the last few days because two members of the family had a nasty cold.  Saturday we were supposed to go to a birthday party for a cousin, but with 2 people in the house sick we didn't go.  After making that decision, I was asked by a client to show them a few houses Saturday.  Hubby (one of the sick ones) said he'd watch the kids, so off I went.  Today, I found out the offer we put in on a place we saw that day was accepted (Can you say hurray for that change of plans?!).

Everyone was feeling mostly better yesterday, so I planed to run some errands this morning that I haven't been able to do for a while (including grocery shopping).  But again, I had my plans changed for me.  This morning at 8:50, I got a call from the office asking if I was available to show a condo.  They had been trying to reach the listing agent but were unsuccessful.  And the buyer only had this morning available to see it.  So what did I do?  Change my plans.  I showed the house in the morning but was still able to get the grocery shopping and other errands done in the afternoon.  (For those of my friends who are coming over for the robotics class tomorrow, I'm sorry my house is a mess - that's the thing that didn't get done today).  And no word on the end result of that showing yet (they did like it so there's hope).

This afternoon I received an email from an out-of-town client who wants me to take some additional pictures of a place that was listed today.  The end of my week is already packed full of stuff and I'm pretty sure they will put in an offer if they like the pictures I take.  I don't want them to miss out on what on paper looks to be a great deal.  So what do I do?  Change my plans for tomorrow.  I will still be home for the robotics class, but again, the cleaning I would have done in the morning will be greatly abbreviated.

Oddly enough, I'm not stressing (too much) over these changes.  It's actually been a bit fun trying to juggle everything.  Another function of being a planner I think.

Stigma

For generations, there has been a stigma that men must be the providers for their families.  It hasn't been till the last couple decades that it's become more accepted that a woman could be the one to bring in more money for the family.

I grew up in a house with a stay-at-home mom.  My husband was the same way.  Our upbringing, made me think that when my husband lost his source of income and I got a job and became the provider, that he would be upset, depressed, or feel "less manly" because of the change in work / income status.  However, shortly after he left home for college his mom started to work outside the home and he has an Uncle that stayed home with his boys while his wife worked outside of the home.

Perhaps knowing that made it less painful.  All I know is that to my surprise (and probably his a little bit too), he's enjoyed the time he's been able to spend with our kids.  It's also given him the opportunity to discover talents he didn't know he had or would like: cooking, teaching, and cleaning at the top of the list.

Although he's enjoyed this time at home, I could tell he really wanted an adult project to work on.  I remember the feeling well.  I remember feeling so useful and productive when I was doing the accounting work for the company my husband and his brother started years ago.  When that work went away, I missed the "adult" aspect of my life.

So when my husband was contacted by someone asking if he wanted to work on a project I wasn't even a little bit surprised that he said yes.  I also wasn't surprised that he wound up working on it night and day till the last minute trying to make things as perfect as they could be.  Nor was I surprised, that although he was operating on about as much sleep as a mother of a nursing newborn,  he was excited and eager to get up the day of his meeting.

So how did it go?  Well, on the way there a deer jumped out in front of his car and it was snowing and sleeting (the big reasons we moved to Florida).  In fact, I got a text from him letting me know that Virginia welcomed him back with open arms by trying to kill him.

The meeting itself went much better.  Do they have a signed contract?  No.  But they do want him to add a few features to the product and come back in a few weeks to install a demo.  Considering that's how he got his last big client, he has a pretty good chance of this working.

Week in Summary

I apologize for not sticking with the blogging thing as often as I should intended, but alas life seems to get in the way.  For example, my week has looked something like this:

• Last Sunday: relaxing day at home with the kids recovering from my son's birthday party the day before
• Monday: My son's actual birthday.  That meant time spent with him.  We had library books due so in addition to dropping them off we got some new books.  My favorite thing... I think we found an age-appropriate series that my son likes (for those interested "My Weird School Daze" series by Dan Gutman).  He even reads these on his own at night in his bed  :-)  After the library we went to MOTE aquarium.  Not only did we get to see all kinds of marine animals but we got to see the new sea lion show they have right now.  For my local peeps...Very cute and worth the time.
• Tuesday: Robotics class in the afternoon meant preparations in the morning.  After class a few friends stayed a little while longer so the kids could actually play.  Then we went out to dinner for my son's birthday (hubby couldn't make it Monday night).
• Wednesday:  The kids had their Lego and K'Nex class and while they were at class I made phone calls and ran a few errands (much faster without the kiddos).
• Thursday: We went to the property appraisers office to file for our homestead exemption.  For those who are not aware of what that is, when you own and reside in a home in Florida you get a discount on your personal property taxes.  But in order to qualify you have to gather documentation and get it to the property appraisers office.  You only have to do it once and this is the first year we are eligible so we had to file before March 1.  I didn't want to wait till the last minute and there was a chance hubby would be out of town next week so Thursday it was.
• Friday:  Hubby had a conference call in the morning trying to get a new client.  They want him to make a few additions and then they are going to present it to the end client hopefully the end of the week.  We also found out they don't think they will want him at to fly up for a meeting this week after all (a big sigh of relief for me because I'm not sure how I would handle a real estate career and homeschooling 2 kids at the same time even if only for a few days).
• Saturday: church and small group in the evening.  

Add to all of these: reading with my kid, making phone calls for work, getting stuff together to file taxes, trying to get quotes for homeowners insurance, dishes, laundry, etc and I have a busy life.

What's planned for today?  A morning spent playing games and reading with my kids and a couple hours showing houses in the afternoon.

What We've Been Up To

WOW! I just realized it's been over a week since I posted last, and for that I appologize.  Looking back on the last week I realize why I didn't find the time.  Here is a little bulleted list (to make things easier and in homage of my friend J who loves to use bullets in her blog):

• I showed a few houses last Sunday afternoon to the brother of a client from out of state.  The client decided to fly down a few days ago to look at houses themselves.  That had me busy Friday and again today.
• Monday, the kids and I went to a local beach with a homeschool group and did some beach clean up.  Then the kids played on the freshly cleaned beach for a little while before I head to get back to show a house to someone.
• Tuesday, hubby taught his second robotics class to homeschoolers.  Although I don't teach the class, I have to be home to watch our daughter since she doesn't participate.  There are also other families with children that don't participate so I find myself trying to come up with things for those kids to do (not to mention cleaning the house before they come in case they wander into the house for a bathroom break or something to drink after running around our yard for 2 hours).
• Wednesday the kids have their Lego / K'Nex class.  This week, rather than going, I stayed home and made LOTS of phone calls.
• Thursday, I closed on my first house for this year.
• Friday, I showed houses to my client that I mention in the first bullet. On my way home I spent $90 on $175 in groceries (that took planning on Thursday night).
• Saturday I did some stuff around the house, did some stuff for work, and went to church and small group in the evening.
• And today I am taking out my clients from Friday again to look at some more houses.  Hopefully I will get home in time to go out to dinner.  Dinner out on Super Bowl Sunday?!?  Yep.  It's a bit of tradition.  My birthday is always around the super bowl and my hubby and I don't like football.  We used to watch the super bowl for the commercials, but now that they find their way on youtube the next day, there is no need.  So instead we go out to dinner to a restaurant where there is no TV in the hopes that it won't be crowded.

Oh, and of course there's the laundry, dishes, cooking, homechooling, and the occassional sleep at night thrown in to the week too.

Here's to hoping the next week is busy enough  but not too busy.

Juggling Act

Many of you may not know, but the area where I live in Florida is very popular for circus performers to live.  Why?  Because there are winter homes for the circus animals in the area so they often have circus performances in the winter around here.  In fact, the person we bought our house from used to be in the circus. 

Well, yesterday I felt a bit like I was in the circus.  We had friends from Virginia were vacationing in Florida for a week and we decided yesterday was the day to get together and catch up.  We have kids with similar ages so we decided to meet at a tourist attraction the kids would like.  We chose Clearwater Marine Aquarium (home of Winter the dolphin).

When I picked this date and put it on my calendar, my work load had been pretty light.  There weren't that many new leads coming in and I didn't have many clients who wanted to see properties right away. 

That changed two days ago.  The FREEZING cold temperatures up north has made it so more people from up north are eager to move now rather than later. 

I was not about to cancel my plans, so I had to do some juggling and prioritizing.  I dealt with a couple things before I left.  Then at lunch, I made a couple phone calls to try to schedule showings for someone to see today.  A couple hours later, I made a few more phone calls to new prospects.  Then when I got home I made more phone calls, sent emails, and did some research for my clients.

It was a busy day (it seemed more so mentally than physically), but I made it.  My clients aren't any worse off, my kids and I got to see our friends who we hadn't seen in a while, and I got to feel like I have at least a little bit of a life.  All in all a good day.

My daughter is convinced she will work with Winter one day.

Winter really is an amazing dolphin

Nicholas - the only male dolphin is very entertaining

The van they use for rescues.

"Stay back!"

Run away....

Cool to see they have bones in their flippers.

Back in the Groove

Until yesterday, I didn't realize how easy the last few weeks had been for work.  Don't get me wrong, I've been showing houses, writing up contracts, doing inspections, etc but I haven't had a full day of work in a LONG time. 

Yesterday, I got up in the morning and after having breakfast with the kids I headed off to meet new clients.  We spent 6 hours driving around 50 miles to see 7 houses.  Although none of the houses are exactly what they are looking for I now have a better idea of what they are looking for so hopefully we will have more luck next time.

After showing them houses, I meet with another client to discuss in person what they were looking for.  You see, this client just moved into the area because he bought a restaurant, so even catching him on the phone can be difficult.  Oh, and the food looked good so I may have to try it out soon  :-)

After that, I did a full grocery shopping trip (the first one in a few weeks since my mom did some of my trips while my parents were visiting).

When I got home, I found my husband cooking dinner and my kids wanting to put on a "snake show" for me.  I had no idea that (K'Nex) snakes could do the things my kids had them doing. The flips and tricks they were doing was amazing  ;-)  Me... I'm just glad they weren't real.  Ya know what I mean?


And what did the rest of the family do while I was gone?  The kids did school with Daddy and also practiced their snake show for me.  Hubby was also involved in a few conference calls.  Looks like he has a little bit of work to do for someone he hasn't worked with in YEARS.

Bribery or An Incentive?

Call it what you will, but the fact that my kids must earn time on their new Kindle's by doing school work each day, has done wonders for their attitudes (and volume accomplished) when it comes to school.  In fact, I find them asking for more work each day.  Score one for Mommy and Daddy  ;-)

Unfortunately, it's given ME a bad attitude.  You see, we are secretly basing the time allowed to spend on the Kindle upon the amount of time actually spent doing school work.  That means I have to track the amount of time they are spending on their school and then I have to "allow" for Kindle time according to the ratio hubby and I have agreed upon.   Of course they don't want to do everything all at once and then play... No, they want to do a few pages, then play, and repeat.

Not a big problem typically, but add that to the phone calls, emails, and year-end stuff I've been doing the last few days and I'm getting a bit frazzled trying to keep track of everything.

I will overcome this obstacle.  I have no choice.  My kids are ASKING to do school. 

A Hilly Ride

Today's day has looked something like this to me

UP:  The kids had a field trip to make pizza's at a local pizza shop.  I was able to go, but had to leave a little early because I had a closing.  Yep.  I officially sold another home!

DOWN: After that I had to race over to a house to be there for an inspection.  Until I got into the house I wasn't sure it had power (when I checked it yesterday it didn't). 

UP:  Thankfully the power and water were both working. 

DOWN: Unfortunately, the gas was turned off so the water heater, stove and ovens couldn't be tested. 

UP:  Good news... the buyers were planning on replacing those things anyway so not a big deal.

DOWN:  Had a client who was scheduled to see one property decide while we were there that he wanted to see another.

UP:  Although the property was occupied we were able to get in with only 30 minutes notice.

DOWN: Starting after the kids field trip, I found out one of my buyers wants to back out of a deal.  I'm not sure why and I tried finding out all day.  It may be something I said was misunderstood, it may be that their expectations of how a short sale process works was not what they expected, or it may be buyers remorse... I'm not sure because I've not been able to get them to say anything that makes sense to me.  Whatever the case, multiple people have tried contacting them and all we've been able to get is that they are not going to proceed.

It has definitely been a roller coaster of a day.  Which brings me to my last

UP: The kids and I are meeting their Oma in Orlando and are going to Sea World tomorrow.  Oh, and with Oma there, I will get to ride the coasters with my son.  Those are the kinds of ups and downs I like.

Working Hard For the Money

The hectic, non-stop pace that I endured over the weekend hasn't really stopped.  Luckily most of the busy, has been work I can do at home.  Being able to read to my daughter at bedtime today was the first time in many days and boy did I relish it.  Not to mention the cuddle time I got with my son. That's probably been months because he's getting to old.  Maybe Mommy being gone some makes it more ok.  Whatever the case, I'll take it.

What do I have going on right now?  I have been working on hashing out a sales deal since Sunday evening.  I hope that wraps up tomorrow.  I've also been showing 3 other eager buyers homes on a very regular basis.  We were in the process of getting a contract together when I found out the seller had just accepted an offer.  I have another buyer that wants to buy a property if only they can get the financing in order before someone else scoops it up (there were other people there when we were looking at it today and they seemed just as interested).

Add to that, trying to get regular stuff done around the house such as grocery shopping, laundry, and keeping up with the kids.  Oh, and I worked in my pineapple garden for a couple hours (boy did it need to be weeded).

And hubby has been pretty busy lately too.  He's obviously stepping up (and waking up) to watch the kids when I have to go out in the middle of the day.  This is a big thing especially since he's been working at night lately for one of his clients.  He's also been very dedicated when it comes to going to the kids homeschool classes.  He's also been working on helping the kids with there handwriting and math.

Rockin' It

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like your wheels were spinning and you were just getting nowhere?  Yeah, me too.  In fact, it seems like I've had a lot of them lately.

Today however was not one of those days.  Today, I had a great day.  Don't get my wrong, I was busy, but I felt like I accomplished a lot of things.  I made contact with a new client who seems very serious about buying soon (yay!).  I worked on organizing the accounting work I've just started working on. 

And the thing that made my day... spending time with each of my kids.  I helped my daughter work on a lapbook we put aside a long time ago.  And my son and I spent some time reading about the history of robots.  And of course I had to see his most recent computer program in action.

Today I realized two things about myself:

1. I like to work under pressure and
2. There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than spending time with my kids (even if it means something else gets put off till after they are in bed).  After all, who doesn't like it when their kids tell them "You rock!"