On Thursday Bella had two friends from Girl Scouts over for a fun-filled (loud!) play date! Izzie (short for Isabella), Layla, Bella and Savannah had a great time together!!
Hosting the play date was a bit of work..In addition to juggling Sebastian and trying to keep him out of trouble, I had to keep the girls busy in some sort of a structured way. They aren't quite old enough to come up with different activities to do on their own yet and while I'm all about giving kids their time and space for "free play", I'm "seasoned" enough to know that too much free play will eventually lead to trouble. Most parents resort to turning the T.V. on when kids get rowdy but for us that's not an option as our kids live a (primarily) T.V.-Free lifestyle. When things are getting too loud and/or crazy around here we do "quiet" things to settle everyone down, such as reading, puzzles and coloring.
So before the girls arrived I made a mental list of things for them to do in between their "free play" time; I set up little plates of paint and taped white paper all over the dining room table for them to paint on, I pulled out Bella's favorite game - Hungry, Hungry Hippos and I laid out all of the girls Princess Dresses, Costumes and Jewelry -- all simple but time consuming things! The end result was exactly what I'd hoped for - lots of giggling, happy screams and fun, fun, fun! A good time was had by all.
On Friday we were up and out of the house bright and early at 8A (no small task with 4 children!) to meet with Carla, our new Real Estate Agent. Carla is a friend of mine whom I've known for many years; I worked with her before I even met Jim! I reached out to her a couple of months ago when I started to have serious doubts about the agent we were using. Once Jim and I agreed that we needed a new agent I immediately sent word to Carla and gave her the green light to represent us. Prior to signing any legal documents with her I made sure to make myself clear about what we expected from our agent - excellent communication, top priority and someone who is willing to "push" a little when need be. In less than a week Carla has already proven to be a better fit for us. She is very on top of things and quick to juggle her schedule in order to accommodate ours. We spent yesterday morning viewing a couple of houses in the Rehoboth, Dighton and Plainville area. All 3 houses were in the right location and priced (fairly) reasonable but only the Dighton house was somewhat appealing to us (more to Jim than me..) The exterior of the house and land it sat on was very pretty - worn shingles to make the house look warm and rustic - and a good amount of open land for the kids and dog to roam on! The curb appeal, although covered in snow, was pleasing as well! Unfortunately, the inside of the house required a lot of TLC and was smaller than what I want. If there's one thing I've learned since beginning this House Hunting Journey, it's that you really can't determine the living space of a house based upon the square footage. Our own home here is a perfect example of that. We have maximized every square inch of this house so it looks, and feels!, much bigger than what the actual footage is. Anyways, after an afternoon-long discussion of pros and cons we decided to go ahead and place a low bid on the table - in a "take it or leave it" manner, meaning we had no intention on bidding close to the asking price. .But we were about 20 minutes too late to the table, as immediately after Carla submitted the paperwork we were informed that the buyer had just accepted an offer. Due to the location of the house it's likely that someone tossed cash on the table and will flip the house for quite a profit (all of the other homes in that specific area are worth top dollar!) As always I look at it is a sign that it wasn't meant to be. While I know that Jim is talented enough to make "something out of nothing",I really wasn't too fond of the layout of the house and wasn't sure how we would be able to make it suit our needs.
On Friday night I had a little chat with Kyle about Karate and Boy Scouts because the yearly re-newel registrations are due next week. I always like to ask Kyle first if he wants to continue for another year instead of just assuming. While he was quick to say that he definitely wanted to stay in Boy Scouts, he hesitated a little about Karate - which is what I was expecting. Since he's a black belt he doesn't receive what I call the "motivational" stripes anymore. It's been two years since he was last tested. That's a long time to keep plugging away at the same moves, week after week after week! In addition to that, Kyle's been making comments about how he feels like sometimes he's the only one who is even practicing - most kids will practice for a little while, then take a lengthy break. Kyle does what he's supposed to do - he practices from start to finish. Also, the Wednesday/Friday schedule has been causing conflict at least a few times per month. A lot of times we end up needing to skip Wednesday and go on Thursday. On Friday's Jim is usually home and so Kyle doesn't want to spend 1-2 hours at Karate and miss out on time with him. And then we have Tuesday Night Demo Practice which will be starting up next week and is already causing scheduling conflicts for me.. But after a little bit of consideration Kyle said he would continue on with everything. I am going to have him think it over for a few more days though, because in his heart I really don't think he wants to do it anymore. I think it's more that it's part of his regular routine and so he's "used" to it.
Saturday morning greeted us with torrential rain, wind and....COOKIES! Originally the cookie pick-up was planned out in a meticulous, organized way - with Troop Leaders scheduled to pick up their orders in 15 minute time frames beginning at 9A. Unfortunately, as I well know from personal experience!, when Mother Natures gets involved even the best laid plans come crumbling apart. The delivery truck was late and then their fork lift was broken so we had to unload $300,000 worth of cookies (that's a lot of cookies!) by hand - assembly style - 2 little boxes at a time. Pallet after pallet after pallet... Meanwhile the Leaders were showing up to pick up their orders -- so the parking lot was getting mighty crowded, mighty fast. The rain and the wind helped to motivate everyone to move quickly though so that once the truck was unloaded and the cookies were organized we were able to fill trunks pretty fast to get everyone on their way!
I was very lucky to have Jim's help - he helped load and unload my van twice! Of course, in typical "Paula Fashion", I was still pretty stressed out as I had scheduled my Troop parents to pick up their orders from me in the early afternoon. I sorted through 800(!!) boxes of cookies in record time! After that I had to write up individual receipts for everyone, double check my work and THEN I could fill their orders. All of this would have been easy-peasy if not for the fact that I happen to have 4 children. Trying to juggle it all, even with Jim's help, was no small task. I was also racing against the clock because I was determined to park my butt on the couch for the Patriots game that afternoon. The last order of cookies were picked up at 3:30p. I tossed some junk food in the oven for dinner (frozen french fries, chicken nuggets & various appetizers left-over from the holidays) at 4p and by 4:30p, true to my word, I was on the couch! Of course I wasn't able to stay on the couch for any length of time - as I still had to serve dinner, give baths and keep Sebastian busy - but I was able to watch quite a bit of what turned out to be an incredibly exciting football game. GO PATRIOTS!
Seeing as how it was "Opening Day" for Cookie Season on Saturday, it was important for Bella to get out door-to-door ASAP before everyone else hit the roads. Jim mounted her sign onto our cookie-filled wagon and took her to some of the neighbors houses during Sebastian's nap and then yesterday I took her out for a little while longer. As of last night she's sold almost $500 worth of cookies!! Unfortunately, in the crazy Cookie World, they do not look so much at the profit as they do at the total number of boxes sold. Insane. I think she's sold about 140 boxes so far, with her goal being a total of 200. We have plenty of time, though - cookie season has only just begun! Already I've had to make TWO runs to pick up more cookies for the girls in my troop. My phone was non-stop yesterday with requests for more cases! All good signs, as it means the girls are doing well selling, but talk about Cookie Madness!
No comments:
Post a Comment