reflecting - Ari's ears & old Greek ladies

Wow!  I can't believe it has been almost 2 weeks since I've enlightened all of you with tales from my life!  I know, you all weep a thousand tears...So what have I been up to?  Cleaning, crocheting, mommy-ing, working, wife-ing, you know the usual.   I've been working really hard on my granny square blanket crochet project, I can't wait to share the progress with all of you!  I'll do that in a separate post considering that little squares of yarn pale in comparison to photos of the kiddo.

Mom!  My ears are just fine

The other day John and I were discussing, yet again, who we think Ari looks like the most.  It really throws us off that this kid has blonde hair and blue eyes - it looks like we stole him from a Swedish couple!  When I look at Ari, I see a lot of John especially from the nose down.  One thing we realized the other day when we were looking back through our pictures was that we think Ari has John's ears.  You can already see them starting to stick out!

Ari's adorable ears got us thinking about the strange advice we've received over the last 11 months, particularly the strange advice we've received by older Greek ladies.  We were warned that Ari's car seat was going to make his ears stick out.  We've also been told that we shouldn't buy shoes that are too big for him because it will encourage his feet to grow larger than normal.  John's mom was convinced that something was wrong with Ari because, according to her, John was able to hold conversations and run around by the time he was 9 months old.  Around Ari's first birthday we should shave his head so his hair will grow in thicker and healthier.  Hands down though, my favorite piece of advice was about the cats. We were told not to allow the cats near Ari's crib.  Reasonable right?  Probably thinking maybe there are some allergy concerns? Nope, not to allow the cats near Ari because they'll steal his breath (apparently this is a popular enough of a legend that Snopes has an article on it).  What kind of crazy advice have you been given?

sick - the first CY12 office cold

My office has notoriously horrible ventilation. By "my office" I mean the suite I work in - I dont want you to think I'm all fancy and have a door an whatnot, I'm a cube monkey. All 30 of us breathe the same recycled air. Think airplane cabin air minus the filtration. Whenever one person gets sick it makes it's way around the office. I pulled the short straw this week, lucky me.

I was saying to John that I would much rather have the flu for two days then deal with a cold. At least with the flu you know it's going to end and no one expects anything from you because, well you have the flu. A cold on the other hand can last two days or three weeks. There's never an end in sight. All of your symptoms are crappy but not bad enough to really take time off. And no matter how bad your head hurts or how wonderful it feels to feel like you're swallowing razor blades, no one gives a shit. Case in point, today at the office a co-worker commented on my pathetic sounding voice and even more pathetic appearance and asked sweetly "are you coming down with the flu", to which I replied "no, I think it's a cold". Her tone completely changed and she said "oh. It's JUST a cold" and rolled her eyes and walked away! No love for us cold sufferers out there.

Anyway, cold or no cold, I'm still crocheting away. Right now I'm enjoying a cup of tea, watching my new favorite show Infested (more on that later) and crocheting. I'm almost finished with the blanket! This isn't the best picture, it's from my iPhone (actually this whole post was written on my Blogger app, thanks technology), but here's a shot of my work in progress. Should be done soon!

crafting - upcoming crochet project

So remember when I said I wasn't as crafty as my friend Pinds?  Yeah, the statement still applies, but remember in that same post I said I was going to try to actually complete at least one project this year?  I'm actually on my way to following through.  Yay!  Right now I'm working on a much over due baby blanket for Ari.  It isn't pretty, the stitches are not exactly even, but you know what?  I'm almost done.  I have no idea why this crocheting thing is working better for me then the knitting thing, but hey I'll roll with it.  I started crocheting Ari's blanket about 3 weeks ago, I'm now on my third skein of yarn and the blanket is almost the right size.  Basically I just picked up the old yarn I had for the ill-fated knitted blanket and started crocheting in a simple shell pattern, there really wasn't much of a plan except for "I'll see how this looks after a bit".  So skein number three is well underway and I don't feel like ripping it all out nor am I completely embarrassed by it which to me is a sign of success!

The success with Ari's blanket has lead me to believe that I could take on an actual legit project.  Just in case I eff it up royally, I'm not going to show you what the finished product is supposed to look like, but I'm super excited about the yarn I purchased for the project, so I will share that.  The pattern called for particular colors in the Lion brand Wool-Ease line that no longer exist, so I drug John & Ari to JoAnn's with me to help find the colors needed in a different brand.  John was a good sport and helped me pick out the colors that best matched the pattern, without complaint (or at least he didn't complain out loud).  Aren't the colors pretty?

selling the house - progress report

Single family home, looking for a LTR...

We've had our house on the market now for a little over three weeks.  On Sunday, January 29th, we had our first open house!  It wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world, as I noted on Facebook, but I know it is a necessary evil.  After everything was said and done on Sunday, we had a total of 5 families come through so I guess that it was successful open house.

Aside from the open house, we've had a total of 9 appointments and I think one couple was pretty close to making an offer before deciding the house was too small.  That's the main feedback we're getting - great place, just a bit too small.  I don't know if I should be happy that this is the only negative feedback or frustrated.  If the feedback was "orange is a hideous color for the laundry room" or "there are way too many pictures of that ridiculously adorable baby up" then we could address it - paint the laundry room, remove pictures, etc.  There is nothing I can do about the size of the house!  It is a little over 1,200 square feet, just like most every other house in the neighborhood.  If someone is looking in our neighborhood, they aren't going to get much bigger than that.  Every house was built in the same cape-cod style.  At least our house had dormers in front and the back of the house was raised (for lack of better word) so the pitched roof is only in the front.  It opens up the bedrooms a bit.  Admittedly it is a smaller place, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to move, but when we were looking in 2007 we understood that it was the standard size for the neighborhood.  The market is different now, and buyers can afford to be pickier than we were in 2007 - we looked at a number of houses all over Bucks county and found that if we didn't make an offer the same day the house was gone.  This is obviously not the case now.

All told, I think the process is going good so far.  I was really worried we wouldn't get any traffic through, so the fact that we've had so many people in is a good sign, regardless if they think its too small.  This at least shows us that people are looking and their looking in our area.  Everyone who has left feedback about the price has said it was priced right, so our concerns about being priced too high for the area are quieted.  I will say that it is a giant pain in the ass to keep the house in Alimmatiri Show Ready condition.  I understand from when we were house hunting in 2007 that not everyone thinks their house should be absolutely spotless when people are scheduled to see the home.  John & I go absolutely crazy when we get the call/email that someone wants to see the house.  Almost every night we vacuum and put away wash (though we fell down on that job last week), but we almost do everything all over again (or at least double check everything again) in the hours leading up to a showing.  Here's the checklist we follow prior to someone arriving:

• Bathrooms: wipe down counters, dust mop floors, dry shower/sink (if needed), make sure toilet lids are closed, fix "queen mother" towel displays, hide "everyday usage" towels, Windex mirrors, Windex sink in downstairs bathroom (the glass gets spotty)
• Bedrooms: make our bed, straighten comforter/pillows/pillow-pal on the bed in Ari's room, fold Ari's awesome quilt over the end of the crib, arrange his animals, dust visable surfaces, turn bedside lights on in our room, vacuum again if puppy/kitty fur and/or Andrea's shedding is visible
• Kitchen: Windex counters and stove-top, wipe down fridge, microwave and dishwasher, dust mop, wipe down sink, make sure all dishes are put away, take down "everyday usage" dish towels & put up "queen mother" dish towels
• Living Room/Dining Room/Office: vacuum area rugs, dust mop hardwood floors, dust, vacuum couch & dog beds, leave the door to the closet in the office slightly open so it looks like we didn't close it all the way (the door sticks)
• In the 30 seconds before leaving the house: collapse pack & play, collect dogs, hide baby gates, put dogs in car, blow out candles, put Ari and pack & play in the car, grab entertainment for the sit-and-wait, grab any remaining random bags (laptop bag, diaper bag, Andrea's work bag).

It is a lot of work!  I wish John & I could be slightly less OCD, but I just can't imagine leaving our house in anything less than pristine condition when people are coming by with the intent of purchasing our home!  It would be like trying to sell one of our cars and not having it detailed before having someone stop by to look at it.  Cleaning out the poppy seeds from my AM everything bagels that fall in my emergency break lever-well-space thing could make the difference between someone buying my car and leaving it.  So making sure every little corner in our house is spotless could make the difference between someone liking our house and loving it.  I don't ever want someone to refer to our house as "remember the place with the cat/dog hair on the couch", just like John and I referred to one house we saw as the "split-level with all the laundry on the floor in the one bedroom".  I want someone to say "remember that amazing house on Hillcrest Ave?  Not only was it awesome, it was spotless.  Let's make an offer right now".  

Fingers crossed kids.  Hopefully this house will be gone sooner rather than later.