A verrrry long week last week, several nights disrupted sleep, and general fatigue and malaise caught up with me on Friday, and I decided to take a few vacation days for my own mental health and piece of mind. So I have not been into work yet this week, and it has been both good and bad. 

Boo is still cutting her eyeteeth, and two have finally pushed through. She is still miserable and cranky and generally has been possessed by Beelzebub, because she is so not herself. Plus she has a cold on top of it, and she is crying a lot anyway, so she has a perpetually runny nose and all of my clothes are covered in baby snot, and I have not gotten more than four hours of sleep at any one time in a week. So I might have been better off at work for some of that, and I wouldn’t have really been heartbroken to have missed out on several massive tantrums on Mimi’s part. 

However, I did manage to sleep in until almost 10 on Monday (granted, I was up several times between midnight and 3 am, so it wasn’t any more cumulative sleep than I normally get). I did go to the mall and buy a new pair of pants (size 12! Go me!) I had to take Kev with me, so it wasn’t exactly “me” time, however. Then we went to Target and I managed to buy two bottles of conditioner and no shampoo, as well as a shirt that is too small. So not an entirely successful outing, but somewhat. 

I have hardly had a chance to crochet, but I have sorted through most of the girls clothes and almost all of mine, and have things organized into boxes for storage, fall/winter, and selling. I have watched both “Enchanted” and “The Chipmunks Movie” with Mimi, and while I rather enjoyed the former I probably could have lived without ever seeing the latter. It wasn’t actually horrible, but I do have those little chipmunk voices stuck in my head now and they are driving me nuts. Mimi’s opinion was the reverse; she didn’t seem to think much of “Enchanted” but she has major crushes on those freaking chipmunks. She wasn’t too fond of the fact that the princess did the rescuing at the end, no matter how I tried to emphasize that clearly it was far more awesome that way. And the dragon was, granted, a little scary. I personally found talking chipmunks more disturbing than Susan Sarandon morphing into a dragon, but whatever. 

The big news is that we have a new house. Yaaaay! We had narrowed it down to two houses and went back and forth all weekend over which one we should pick, but by Monday we had decided and signed the lease yesterday. We have a three year lease with an option to purchase, and I think it’s going to work out well. I can’t quite walk to work — it would be a little over three miles — but the bus stop is close, and it will be about a 20 minute bus ride. It takes me nearly an hour to get to work now, between driving in, parking at the commuter lot, and catching the shuttle, so that is a huge improvement. We are a five minute walk from Mimi’s elementary, two huge parks, some very good friends, a new branch library, and a Barnes & Noble/Whole Foods/CVS shopping complex in one direction and a bunch of little ethnic markets in the other. Kev has a short bus ride or a long bike ride to his high school, and Mark can hop on the expressway and get to work in about 15 minutes. 

The deciding factor really did come down to location. The other house was newer and a bit larger, but a bit further out and the elementary school was not favorably looked upon. So this house is your typical little 1950s ranch: three bedrooms, one bath on the main floor, living room, little dining area, decent kitchen. But it has a ton of little built-in shelves and closets and but a full, partially finished basement. It’s on a corner lot so the yard is big, the backyard is fenced, and there’s an existing wooden play structure with a slide and a tire swing. It might be a bit of a squeeze until we get used to it, and the girls will still have to share a room, but we’re planning to set up the playroom/office/tv space in the basement, and that will help a lot. There’s a half-bath in the basement, and honestly as long as we have two toilets, we’ll be fine. Although I’ll miss the extra shower. But, it has a laundry chute! Ok, that was not the deciding factor, but come on. You know you’re jealous. 

I think it will work out well for us. It’s a nice established neighborhood, big trees and diverse neighbors, from older couples who have lived there since those houses were built to young families of all types. The minority population at the elementary is higher than average (as it is throughout University Town, but some of the elementaries are more diverse than others) and they have all-day kindergarten and a great preschool program. 

The thought of packing is a bit overwhelming, but mostly I’m just excited. We can move in late June; I’m so glad we will be there for most of the summer. As for this house, it appears we will be able to do a short sale to a local broker, and that’s just fine. Despite the fact that we have lived here for nearly seven years, and we brought both Mimi and Boo home here, I will so not miss this place. Just get me out of here.