I'm All Alone

Ever since I moved away from my friends in Paso, I have always braced myself for social neglect. For two years now, I have stressed over every invitation I have extended to my Paso gals for fear they would not accept. And every invitation I've sent, for two years now, has been enthusiastically accepted, and observed with impeccable attendance. But before each birthday party or dinner event, I have always had a mental chat to prepare myself for the big goose egg. Just in case no one actually arrived to my social soiree. Because it IS a long drive, and it IS a big effort, and long drives with great effort makes for an even longer night (and greater effort)with kiddos in tow.
Like I said, for two years now I have been overwhelmed with their attendance...that is, until today. Toady my house sat empty, and Shelby hung on the windowsill asking, "Mommy, when are my friends coming?"
I put together a very last minute afternoon beach play date with the anticipation that cool weather would be the tipping point to sway all my Paso gals to join me on the coast. Never mind the fact that I gave them a 2 day warning. Never mind the 3 hour window I allowed them in my hectic schedule where I provided a tight agenda of micro managed fun so I could race off to a work function afterwards with my family.
I even asked my new friend and her daughter to come meet the wonderful women I have been bragging about at my Paso Playdate. At least somebody showed up...and she wasn't from Paso. Oh well, we made the most of the 70 degree weather and gusting winds out there on our beach. And I kicked myself for forgetting to have the mental chat about "The Long Drive and The Possibility of No Shows" because I really wasn't prepared to miss you all as much as I do now.
Ironically, it has been nearly two years to the day that we made our hasty exit from Paso. And I'm hoping that it's the happy chaos of summer with children, and not the distance, that keeps us apart. Missing you all, G

Having a Boy

Our conversation this morning:

Me: "Come on Wy-wy. We have to figure out what we're going to wear to the party today."
Wy-wy: "Ummmmmmmmm, how 'bout CLOTHES!"

I so need a girl in the house.

Happy Birthday V!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Dear Friend, V-----! Happy birthday to you!

Cheating on my mothers group

A little while back, I read a blog on culturednativity about making new friends, having coffee with new mothers and generally establishing yourself in a new Mothers group. Well today I well and trully cheated on my dear mothers group and dear friends in California. I supposed it was about time, as it has been 6 MONTHS since I left them, but maybe I didn't have to host the event. I had a modest two other Mums but this upped the number of children from 2 (my boys) to 8 as they both have 3!!!!!. I am going to have my hands full come Nov this year, aargh!!. Anyway one of the Mums is a friend of mine while I hardly new the other Mum, it didn't seem to bother either her or me as we rattled off about everything from having 3 kids to down time to what we did( very briefly getting to know one another). It was a perfect winter day with the sun shining and the kids loved running around (outside) and generally we, as the caretakers, sat and had coffee occasionally looking up to check the young ones (2 and 18 months), but they were girls so there was not much in the way of chasing them as they were happy to quietly go about their business either cooking or sitting with Mum eating and chatting. I suppose I was just thinking that I was pleasantly surprised about the general lack of pain and guilt involved and although I still long for the companionship of those who have been with me for so long, I feel happy to once again open my house and share my coffee with the new women entering my life.
JO on a separate note how's the house situation going??? Hope you have some luck in finding someone to buy your house as I understand times are tough in the housing market in CA. We've just sold our house!!! Yeah, it should close this week and not a minute to soon either. Anyway best of luck with it.

My Barbie Dream House

So about 2 years ago my husband and I were (thankfully!) coming to the end of a nine month search for a new house. Long story short, we had sold our first house and did not have a new one to go to. We rented a house in, what I did not realize at the time, was the ghetto! Again with the short story...people carrying guns around nonchalantly outside, prostitutes propositioning my husband in our driveway, tenants leaving their homes in the middle of the night...all of these things happened, I am not even slightly exaggerating. All of this with a one year old in the house. THE-LONGEST-NINE-MONTHS-OF-MY-LIFE. Yes, longer than being preggo. So, right before we found (and purchased) the house we currently own, we came upon what I like to call "My 1970's Mansion" (aka My Barbie Dream House).


It was a spectacular mid-century modern home. Architecturally interesting with a pool and a WHOLE LOTTA POTENTIAL. And by potential, I mean a whole lotta work. We made an offer that was (thankfully) not accepted because I would have to still be working in order to pay my share of the mortgage that I happily agreed to pay in order to call this atomic ranch my own! As far as the work, I figure "No Problem." The hubby is handy and I am no slouch myself. We could get this done! Well, back to the part of our offer not being accepted. So we moved on, put an offer in our wonderful home and it was accepted. Of course while we were in escrow, we saw that the Barbie Dream house was re-listed at THE PRICE WE HAD OFFERED! Maddening, but we were in escrow by then, happy with our choice and my husband was not about to lose our substantial deposit on the house. So...moving on.

The 1970's Mansion was sold and we were happy in our new house, only wondering every once in awhile if the new owners were doing any of the fabulous things we had planned to do with the property. And then it went into foreclosure. I found it two nights ago on the internet - for $200,000.00 less than what we had originally offered!...(why was I looking a real estate online, you ask? Because I am obsessed with it. If I had the cash flow to support a couple of mortgages and pay construction crews I would be like that crazy Jeff Lewis guy on Flipping Out, except for the crazy coffee temperature thing - LOVE HIM!) And God bless my husband, when I showed him the treasure I had found on the interweb...he didn't call me crazy, he didn't say NO!, he jumped right on my Barbie Dream House bandwagon and we started to come up with ways to get out of our house without losing any money and remodeling My (ahem, I mean OUR) 1970's Mansion in our heads.

So to answer your questions, no the owners did not do anything fabulous to the house. Yes, calls have been made to the realtor - who I know has missed us the last two years. Yes, calls and emails have been sent to people who may or may not be interested in buying our house. Yes, calls have been made to the mortgage guy to see what we can do in light of the new difficulties placed on those of us who are self-employed and try to get a mortgage. And with all of the turmoil and roller-coasted riding in this thing we call life, we can't complain because the hubby and I DO-IT-TO-OURSELVES!

We made a list last night of everything that would eventually need to be done to the house...it is extensive. We prioritized:

1. what would have to be done right away (a.k.a. the SHORT list)
2. what we would just have to live with for awhile (a.k.a. the LONG list)

More to come on the possible uprooting of the O family from comfortableness to living in a construction zone...and if you know anyone who might want to buy a pretty cool house with a great backyard...send them my way :).