First Showing

Five people have said they want to see the house this week and two have needed to reschedule. But we finally had our first showing this evening.  We had a full day of school and then picked up the house.  I have found it very interesting that in these weeks of being more on top of keeping the house clean, the boys have been wanting to do more projects.  Today, Eli organized his Lego mini figures and Colin built a Lego airplane.  It's been months since they've played Legos and I love it and it's worth the mess, but I just find it ironic timing.

I made chili for dinner because it was easy, but it was NOT a chili day.  We suffered through and then we went to get ice cream while Ben showed the house.

Ralph's Italian Ice is a very popular New York thing.  However, to us Shear's, it makes zero sense and the menu might as well be written in Chinese.  We tried it last summer and almost cried trying to order...I don't even remember what we actually came away with.  It was our only option tonight, so we were brave and gave it another whirl.  Oh, New York.  Why do you have to be so difficult?  I ordered a sundae.  I figured it was a safe order.  I was wrong.  The girl kept going back and forth between ice cream and fudge.  My simple order turned into a half gallon of ice cream and fudge; a complete monstrosity of a creation!

Colin ordered a "twister" which apparently is ice cream and shaved ice layered in a cup that also equaled a giant mess.  Eli won by ordering a root beer float.

We had to take Maya with us to get her out of the way, but she was more of a mess than Colin's dessert.

Then we went down to the beach park.  It was an absolutely beautiful evening, but Maya kind of ruined the ambiance by her constant whining and pulling on the leash to go run into the ocean.

I ended up talking with Ben on the phone while the boys played.  He said the couple loved the house and everything went really well.  

It's so interesting hearing others stories and gaining perspective.  This couple has a young daughter; he works in the city and she works from home.  They are currently living in a tiny apartment in Queens roughly the size of our main level (which is very small).  Her sister moved to Sea Cliff a year ago and she has dreamed of moving out here and being close to family.  To them, our house seems huge.  They weren't phased by the layout or configuration of rooms, it all seemed like enough.  It took us MONTHS of painful work to figure out how to make this house function.  To be fair, we have 2 more kids and we homeschool, but it does put in perspective that you really can make any space work.  And what I complain about is someone else's blessing.