Familiarity Breeds Me Screaming "AAAAAAAAAAH..."

An all-too-familiar pattern emerged this week. We went to church on Sunday and put Violet in the nursery and OH LOOK WHAT A SURPRISE-- Tuesday she developed a runny nose that by Tuesday night had escalated into sleepless misery and fountains of snot and her habitual croupy cough, and now a few days into it we are again dealing with fever and fussiness and disgusting substances coming from her eyes and nose and general viral torment. I swear I have had it, HAD IT with the mental/emotional drain of dealing with an unhappy toddler all day who follows it up with not sleeping at night. TOO. MUCH. SICKNESS. This most recent virus has been the first time in my life as a mother that I have ever questioned if I really want to add a third child to our family. Do I really want to sign up for more baby and toddler sickness? That first bad night Rob declared that we are not putting her in the nursery again at our church EVER; we'll see if we actually follow through on that. She is getting so big and active now that it is hard to keep her with me in the service or during our Sunday night small group, but right now the inconvenience seems worth it to avoid yet another virus spread in the sea of drool and germs that is the nursery. I think we could expect it to get better when she gets a bit older and the kids stop being so slobbery and putting everything in their mouths and such, but of course we won't still be in Dallas when Violet reaches that milestone.

I still am not totally sure why this is so much worse than during Grace's toddlerhood. I was working when Grace was this age, so maybe Kristy's gorgeous boys helped build up her immune system while she was at their house? Is it just how huge the nursery classes are at our church here compared to our much smaller, more intimate church in Connecticut, and only one of the multitude of toddlers has to be sick to expose them all? Is it something about Violet herself? Rob and I keep having to convince ourselves that this is within the realm of normal; if there really was something wrong with Violet's immune system she should be getting much more seriously ill and, thank goodness, it has all been low-level stuff that hasn't ever sent us the hospital or anything. There-- there's something to be thankful for. And we had two full weeks of household health so there's something else to be thankful for. Focus on the positive, focus on the positive...

Speaking of the positive, I got a fabulous haircut yesterday evening.

I had sort of been growing my hair a bit longer because I didn't have anything else in mind, but then I saw a super adorable haircut on some singer in a Lucky magazine I had picked up and I thought, "Yes! I want that haircut!" I don't have a great "before" picture, but this or this shows it generally; it was just a bit longer than in those shots. I really love my new cut; it is indeed asymmetrical like it looks in the picture and I feel like it is so chic and hip and fun. Yay! I am going to miss the stylist I have settled on here in Dallas when we move; he is really good and has a reputation for being especially skillful with curly hair. I have been super happy with him and would definitely recommend him to any fellow curly types here in Dallas.

And speaking of moving, dear friends, we are going to be heading out of Dallas in about six weeks. SIX WEEKS. The contract for Rob's job is still not signed but it is just some little details that are going back and forth with their contract committee or something so we feel very confident that it is going to work out. So confident, in fact, that we have had moving companies coming in for bids and all that. I feel a little silly not going public here and on Facebook and the like with where we're moving when we are taking such concrete steps and are so committed, but I guess I will hold off on spilling the beans until the contract is actually signed.

The two big uncertainties for us still are a) what will happen with our house and b) when will Rob's medical license get out of the mire of bureaucratic haziness and on to solid ground. Rob cannot actually start his new job (and thus start getting paid) until he has his license in our new state, so this is a source of some concern. It is very possible that it will not come through by the beginning of July so we may have a bit of an uncertain period there. Eeek! And on the first issue, showings for our house have slowed to a mere trickle since the homebuyer tax credit expired at the end of April. Our house has been on the market for 9 weeks now. We had a very unfortunate problem crop up during all of our travel this spring when we had a lot of showings; when we weren't living here in the house cooking and vacuuming and Febreeze-ing right before showings, apparently there was a bit of, um, DOG ODOR that bothered people when they came for showings. I feel so embarrassed! I am a pretty clean, neat person but I guess it's hard to fight bulldog genes. I will admit that Abbey has always been a bit on the smelly side (not as bad as a hound/beagle type breed, but she does smell like a dog) and I think it has gotten worse as she has aged and gotten sick. Anyway, no one ever mentions it when we are actually here in town and I have cleaned the house right before a showing and we don't have any more travel ahead of us, so hopefully it will be not so much an issue anymore. We are dropping the price on our house; this takes us into losing-money territory (although not upside-down territory, thank goodness) but hopefully will get us an offer. We have started to float ideas about what we will do if we get through the next six weeks and we don't sell. Will I stay behind Rob for a while to give us a bit more time to sell it with our furniture still in it? Will we move out and have some kind of magical smell-removing cleaning done and try to sell it while it's vacant? Does it make that much different to selling your house if there is furniture or not? (I feel like it doesn't affect my perspective on houses that much, but maybe I am deluding myself.) Finally, what is the magical secret to getting this place sold?