Today

Today...

..Sacha and Apa went hang-gliding somewhere near the Oregon coast.  They're driving home as I write this, after having dinner and a beer with their instructor after the looooong instruction process, lots of small flights and a few crashes.  Sacha said that she accidentally ditched into a river at one point, pulling the guide in with her!  What can I say but that I married an adventurer!

...the kids and I had a long day together, which, honestly, didn't go very well.  It was full of lots of not-listening and timeouts and temper tantrums.  Rosa behaved beautifully, which was very welcome, while her older siblings practiced testing my boundaries all day long.  We did have some good moments, including berry picking with my grandma and her caregiver in her garden, going out for frozen yogurt in the afternoon, and having a nice bedtime when bedtime finally arrived! 

...the short sale that we gave up on came back to life.  Actually it happened yesterday:  the bank accepted our offer.  At least, that's what we heard from our realtor.  No paperwork has been forthcoming, so we shall see about that.  In any case, it sent us back into agonizing over whether we want this house or not.  It is everything we want in a house and in the neighborhood we want, with one big exception: it's in a cul-de-sac off a very busy street with two lanes in each direction.  On the other side of the very busy street is a wonderful neighborhood with a park that we all simply adore...but crossing the busy street isn't something our kids could do by themselves until....well, never, probably.  However, the weather only allows for bike riding and that kind of thing for a very short part of the year and we end up driving to the park or to other places even where we live now, which is the definition of a walkable neighborhood.  So, we're leaning towards being able to live with the busy street.  However, as I said, no paperwork has come our way yet, so we'll see if this actually happens or not.

....we visited the aforementioned house and that led to visiting my grandma, as the two are so very close together.  Another plus for the short sale.

...our basement dehumidifier died an unexpected death, which is a big deal now that we have our fabulous new basement.  Must go to Lowes tomorrow!

....Sacha's parents will be visiting, starting tonight.  We're so excited that we have a real guest room for them now.  We really hope they like it.  We are looking forward to spending the weekend with them, especially with the gorgeous weather we had today.  I hope it continues.

....I am savoring a few quiet hours all to myself in the house.  The kids are sleeping and Sacha and her parents are both driving towards here from opposite directions, but for now, it's quiet and peaceful and a nice cool breeze is wafting through the house.  I am an introvert, in that I recharge by being alone, so I am soaking this up.  I'm planning to do some reading and just relax.  Ahhhh!