Living on a Funny Farm

Well, we've done it again.  We took in another stray.  This time a rabbit.

As you can see it's really cute.  And the story of how we got it is rather sad (after all, we're suckers for a sad story).

We had an old fridge we were selling on Craig's List and someone came for it.  Apparently they'd been kicked out of their former home and had a new place lined up but there were NO appliances.  Thus they were looking for the cheapest running fridge they could find (which happened to be ours). 

So how did we end up with the rabbit?  Side note, I was not home at all during this time.  As they were getting ready to leave, they asked if we were interested in their rabbit or dog (We are not big dog people so that was out of the question).  I guess they either couldn't have pets or they didn't feel they could afford them.  Whatever, the case hubby said yes to the rabbit.  So, back to the side note... I get home and AS I'm getting out of the car the kids come running out of the house and say, "Mommy guess what?  Daddy got us a rabbit!"  My first thought - they MUST be kidding.  He wouldn't do that with all the animals we already have.  I was wrong.

We now have a rabbit, 10 cats (only one of which we consider ours), and 6 fish.  And we're thinking of getting some chickens soon.  Yep, we're crazy.

I will say this though... I have never seen my son more willing and interested in reading and looking up things than since we started getting all these pets.  We've come home with library books on fish.  He's done online research about them too.  And the rabbit research has pretty extensive as well. 

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.

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.

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.

The Crazy Uncle

My husband and I are both the oldest child in our families.  Therefore, we knew we would not become an Aunt or an Uncle for at least a few years after we had children.  At least we hoped our siblings would wait that long (Thankfully they have).

I will be honest... my brother-in-law loves adventure.  He enjoys mountain climbing (I mean the vertical kind with special gear so you don't fall to your death), cross country skiing (the kind where no one else has gone where you are and there may be an avalanche), biking, and is now into running marathons (he's set to compete in the Boston marathon this spring).

Based on those things, I always figured he would be seen as the "crazy uncle."  Every family has one.  You know... the family member who everyone thinks is different from the rest of the family.  The rebel.  Well, now that my brother-in-law has a child he has calmed down a bit.  That has allowed my brother to take over the position of "the crazy uncle."

How crazy you ask?  The other day, my brother visited for a while and he ended up jumping into our pool with the kids (the pool was 68 degrees)!  Even my son didn't go in voluntarily and my daughter would jump in and immediately climb out and wrap up in a towel (Note: I was sane and was sitting in a chair taking pictures).

Having a water fight with the kids

My brother also showed my son a bit about his new job / obsession in life.  In December, my brother became a certified rigger.  That means, my brother can pack and repair just about any parachute out there.  Right now he packs parachutes at different "Drop Zones" (businesses whose goal is to have people pay them to take them up in a plane so they can jump from them and plummet to the ground, only to use the parachute that my brother just packed for them).  He's doing this so that he can make enough money to become certified to jump out of planes by himself.  He's about half way to that certification too.

Showing how he has to check the inside of the parachute cells too.

Letting my son pack the pilot chute.

As crazy as this sounds to me, and perhaps to some of you, I can honestly say I have never seen my brother so happy in his life.  It could be that he's in Florida in 80 degree weather and parts of Virginia got snow over the weekend, but I think it's that he's found what he really enjoys and has found a way to make money doing it.

That's a kind of crazy I think every kid should see.  I hope my kids can find something they enjoy as much "when they grow up."

Controlled Chaos

Today, the kids had their homeschool classes.  This is our first time attending what I would call a "normal" day.  That said, there were a lot of people out sick, so the groups were a bit smaller than normal.  You would think that in light of that, things would run smoothly.  Especially for a program that has been in operation for many years.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.  The first class went great!  The second on the other hand just wore. me. out.  From what I gathered, the facilitator was not given her teaching materials till Tuesday night (not her fault), but she didn't even print it and look at it till Wednesday night.  Today is???  Thursday.  So she looked at it the night before the class and based on how organized she was today, she didn't even look over it that well. 

Also, this class was for 4 - 7 year-olds and I get the need to try to change things up frequently to keep them interested, but they actually scheduled too many things.  They went over time by 15 minutes (considering the class is scheduled for 2 hours that's too much) and the class still didn't get everything done.

As a former facilitator, today's experience has made me a little wary of how the rest of the classes are going to go.  I'm hoping it's just because she was not given her materials till the last minute.  All I know is that this level of chaos on a regular basis is going to drive me nuts and maybe even send me to the nut house.