Worry.

Happily Ever After, Take 12 (or whatever we happen to be on now) is most certainly a great and wonderful improvement on its predecessor.  That does not make it stress free.  Today, I am stressed out because we are going to put the house up for sale.  The guy is coming to see it today, and as a not very funny Cosmic coincidence, the house has never been so white trash filthy and cluttered and utterly un-appealing.  The lawn has not been mown.  I am having a small heart attack right now just thinking about it.

Would you like to see an excerpt from a letter I wrote this week?  Here ya go:

"I can't remember how much of the latest news you are aware of, so I'm gonna back up a little bit and start there.

1. Josh got an awesome new job as a Business Analyst at MTM in Lake St. Louis. F****a actually used to work there. He now works days (whee!) M-F (wheeeeeee!) and the commute is half as long (Yeah, Baby!!) and he actually is making MORE money (More happy sounds!!!). Aaaaand, I quit. Hee hee heeeeee! Well, it costs more than $9/hr for childcare. D*****a pretty much told me that if I ever want a crappy, low-paying job, all I have to do is call, and she'll request me. (She might have used different adjectives...) In the fall, I am going to try substitute teaching, and hopefully if an office vacancy opens up, they will love me and hire me over the unknown evil. To recapitulate: Joshjob = woot. He's moving into his office today! What a show-off. :P Rosiejob = Empty Set. Nyah, nyah!

2. We're putting the house up for sale this week. I'm nervous. In true Josh style, he's already located a neighborhood of new construction that can get us a nice sized yard and the floor plan of our dreams (Level 1*) in our price range. The chances of any lots still being available after the house sells are not great. Plus, the house next to ours is for sale, too. It's asking price is $20,000 less than we OWE on our house! This is making me super nervous. Josh wanted to get 10 thousand over what we owe to add to our savings for a down payment. Looking bleak! 8( Oh, by the way, the name of the street we want to move to is T***** Fields! ^_^

* Dream Home Level 1 = the realistic version. Dream Home Level 2 involves secret passages, and Level 3 has orchards...and probably serfs.

3. The kids are taking music lessons. I'll hunt up a picture. We have our lesson today. So far, so good.

4. Had the annual MO Scholars' Academy taiko performance and workshop yesterday. I do that one every year. It's on Fathers' Day. The last few years, that has been an issue, but this year - Josh was off! So, I was expecting a pretty stress free event. Well, first hitch in that plan came when they needed my car to carry stuff. Um...Columbia is 1 hr to my west. Taiko is 1 hr to my east. No way I'm gonna drive 1 hr east, then 2 hrs west, then 2 hrs east, then 1 hr west. Instead, I took some drums home with me Thursday after practice. Then, yesterday, I drove to Columbia for the show with the drums, and after the workshops were over, I kinda sneakily re-negotiated someone else to trade me stuff so I could still use my back seat today for music lessons and last T-ball game, then I can bring it all back tomorrow at practice. Very do-able. Not stress free, but do-able. On my way home from Columbia, I was absolutely dripping with sweat, and very tired. Here's the text I didn't want to get, but did anyway: "Dogs Missing! Looked everywhere. Make signs tomorrow??" Also not stress free. Fortunately I only had about 35 minutes to envision myself getting home and going on a dog-hunting excursion, as some neighbors found the dogs. Josh invited me to meet them for their annual Fathers' Day ice cream trip, so I did that. When I went home and saw my reflection, I realized that this was a mistake. I had straightened my hair, but it was dripping with sweat when I left the show, and then was partially dried by the A/C on full blast for an hour. I looked REALLY FUNNY! Heee! Oh, well. And you'd think I'd sleep well after all that, but I didn't. Woke up about 2 and didn't get back to sleep until 4 something. *shrug*

5. Last night we had our first of what hopefully is going to be a Sunday night tradition: Board Game Night!!! We played Headbandz. That's where you have a card on your forehead and you have to guess what it is without looking. Very fun!

6. Tonight is the last T-ball game. After that is a team pizza party at Imo's "Pizza", and then right back to the same ice cream place!!! ^_^ Seriously, you should buy stock in this place...we are going to make it a fortune. It's gonna be quite a night!"

The last tee ball game was pretty fun.  It was very sunny, and Josh met us there and brought the two-person folding chair and an umbrella, so we were in the shade.  I was worried at first, but our team did pretty well.  We ended up winning!  Then, it was off to Imo's for the pizza party.  We sat as a family, and had our especial friends sit at tables near ours.  We stayed until the whole room was finished eating and about to erupt into wild kid-ness.  Then we moved next door to the ice cream.  I was too full to order any, but Grant got raspberry sherbet and Abbie got chocolate.  Naturally, bed time was not on time, but they did actually get to sleep eventually.

The kids had a great music lesson that day, too.  They are both doing well, especially Abbie, but we could already kind of tell that she already speaks that language.

Meh.  I've wasted enough time.  I must go and try to clean this house some.  Not that it will help.  Boo.  Well, please send kind thoughts today.  I shall be needing them.

Happy Wednesday to you.