Tip Tuesday: Don't (Always) Get Your Hopes Up

We're looking for a home. Yes, we have three boys and we're in a two bedroom apartment. Can you say CRAMPED?! Our rent is going up (again) and while the pool is nice in the summer, I can't imagine paying $1,000 a month for RENT. I'm 30. It's time to buy. I want NEED a yard. My boys need a yard. I want a garden. I want all of my boys to have their own room...or shared rooms and an office for me. Yes, I need an office.

We walked through my "dream in my price range" house last week. My husband had dreams of the boys running down the stairs on Christmas morning. I was thinking about Thanksgiving dinners served in our formal dining room. I was thinking about waking up, heading downstairs to get my cup of coffee and seeing my (oldest) little guy hopping the fence to go to elementary school (yes, it was in our backyard).

I blogged about this over at The SoapBoxers and got a few comments. My mom came down on Monday to take a look at the house. We were meeting our realtor at the house at 1:30. We stopped by around 10, just to check out the outside of the home and yard with mom. She loved it. She could see some updates but being a mother, she could also see the excitement on my face.

When I pulled up to the house at 1:30, I was surprised to see the seller's realtor parked in the driveway. I have never met her in person but recognized her from the sign in the yard. I hopped out of the van and introduced myself. Our realtor pulled up right away. She explained she had locked her keys in her car and her son was coming to get her keys out of her car. Then she asked why we were there (my husband pulled up right behind us).

I informed her that our realtor, Bruce was going to take us through the house again. Her smile turned into a stern frown and she said, "We have an accepted offer on this house."

My heart sunk. I could feel my bottom lip quivering. "Oh," I think I squeaked out. Bruce was standing behind me and he said, "Now when did this come in? I talked to you on Wednesday."
The seller realtor stated, "I told you this last week. The offer came in on Tuesday."
Bruce said, "No, you didn't. I asked about the garage opener and you told me it was on the kitchen counter. You didn't say anything about an offer."
The seller realtor said, "Yes, I did. And it's an accepted offer."

Now, having this be my first go around, I asked, "May I ask what the accepted offer amount was?"
The seller realtor looked at me and said, "No. But once it goes through you can see it on the assessor site." She was being VERY rude and condescending.
I said, "Well, my mom is here. Can we still go through it? Just once more?"
She allowed it.

Our realtor was FURIOUS. He started through the house with my husband, my mom and the kids while I got the baby out of his car seat. The seller realtor did a complete 180 as I was heading into the house and said, "You have some of the CUTEST little boys!" As my mom taught me, always be polite. I smiled and nodded, the whole time my eyes filling with tears and the lump continued to form in my throat. I walked into the house, my dream house, for what might be the last time. Liam kept saying, "I LOVE IT. AND THE TREEHOUSE!"

After checking it out with my mom, we left and headed back to our small apartment. Mom said, "Well, those hardwood floors looked like they needed some work. You'd have to strip them all down, sand them and finish them. That's a lot of work." As we pulled into the apartments, she said, "Well, maybe their financing will fall through." I laughed. I knew she was trying to make me feel better. But I still felt horrible.

As we got out of the van, mom said, "You're bummed, aren't you?" I shook my head yes and started crying.

It was my dream place. And it just vanished.

Maybe I'm a Pollyanna. She's not all that bad.

And who knows, maybe their financing won't go through. That's a horrible thing to hope for, I know. But the dream was there...and then it was gone.

As our realtor said, everything happens for a reason. Maybe it wasn't the right house for us. Maybe it wasn't the right time. Maybe the perfect house is out there for us...at the perfect time.

I shouldn't have had my hopes up, but I did. Lesson learned. But I'm still going to be Pollyanna. Being an optimistic person isn't a bad thing.

Toy Thursday: People!

When my siblings and I were younger, one of our favorite pastimes was playing with the Fisher Price Little People. You remember the old barn set, school, garage ramp, and house along with the wooden stick people? We had it all (and my mom still does)!

Well, the four of us used to take every inch of the family room and build farms and ranches. We would take turns choosing a toy to divide them up evenly for play. Then we added the Ertl farm play toys with animals and tractors. We also stacked up our wooden blocks for fencing and property markers. Finally, we would take turns offering city services like school, police, and fire. We imitated every part of life.

Judah is starting to get into the age of pretend. The plastic Fisher Price toys are a little different from years ago, but the play resembles the same idea.

He sets up his barn with his tractors. He is careful to line up his animals together, telling me what they are as he does. He even has gotten out his wooden blocks for troughs, fencing, and houses. He drives his tractors around and even has named "Papa," "Gigi," and "Uncle Matt" among his little people. Oh and the bus driver is "Papa," too. The dog is "Rover."

What memories this brings back. My siblings would sit for hours at a time with this kind of play. The floor was covered in people, animals, cars, and blocks. Each time we discovered something new...the flat rectangle blocks made excellent beds in the house for our family of people.


Encourage this play with your kids. Boys and girls both will have fun mimicking life. Such building of farms and towns stimulates cognitive and motor skills. Pretend enhances creativity. Social play benefits sharing.

The Little Fisher Price People have added to their antique collection with lego-type stacking blocks. You can also race cars down a ramp or be Noah on the ark. Pretend you are a knight in a castle or Santa in your sled. The possibilities are endless and play so much fun!

And if you dare, sit down and build too. You might like it as much as you did when you were younger.