Emily is home sick today. I had to pick her up yesterday before 9am and she spent most of the day sleeping on the couch. It's her sinuses again. Whatever it is that Jake and I also have, but not the same thing (apparently) that Austin has. I have to call the specialist today and see if he wants to see Em or if there is any point since she is already on an antibiotic. Nothing to do about a viral infection anyway but maybe a look at her sinuses blown into something that has her face swollen will help him determine what she needs now instead of having to wait until the middle of May and take a chance that she may not be sick then. Yeah, like that will ever happen. This girl has been sick with something every few weeks for the past year. I'm pretty sure it will come down to me, Em and Jake all having to be surgically altered to keep our noses in decent shape.

Yesterday with Austin wasn't bad. He was in a great mood. He just wouldn't let me move. As long as I sat on the couch working on a word search puzzle, he was a happy camper. That explains the condition of my house today. I hope I can muster up the energy to clean some of it. It's depressingly dirty.


We're counting down the days to closing in single digits now. Even so I wait for the dreaded phone call from the loan guy saying "Unpack. It's shot to hell." The optomist in me is on emergency vacation from the stress of it all. He keeps saying everything is on schedule, but I just want the phone call that tells me it's all done and you won't have to see or talk to me again until we sign papers and you're free to get on with your life. I want it to be over. No more calls from anyone asking for this piece of paper or that. They've asked for everything but our kids' birth certificates. Being self-employed is a real pain in the butt sometimes. It's a good thing I can see myself living in this house forever because I never want to do this again. Never, ever.
Ever.
Leirin is practicing up for her new job as yard man. Though I'm not sure how cutting less than an acre of unlevel, overgrown with periwinkle and trimming neatly around a few dozen roses will compare to six acres of flat ground and a riding mower. Practice is practice, I guess, and there will still be some small trees and bushes to trim around with the push mower. Emily and Jake are excited about the prospect of acres of strawberries. Already they wonder if there will be any ready to pick and eat when we move. And Doug thinks there can be enough berries produced to supply the restaurant with those two around...the two that eat an entire flat of gigantic strawberries in less time than it takes for a run of commercials during a favorite tv show. Silly man. Those two could lay waste to an entire gardening state.

I'm just hoping the wisteria is still in bloom when we get there. I want to stand underneath the tree that it winds into and be surrounded by the waterfall of lavender blooms. I want to camp out in the woods and see if we can catch a glimpse of the deer that has been scraping his antlers on the big tree, or the mega-coon with paw prints as big as my palm. We find fresh ones in the dirt floor of the barn every time we go over. It must be a big enough racoon for the kids to ride to have feet like that. And I'm looking forward to buying paint and ripping out carpet.