antibob

Moving sucks. And we're only moving like 1.5 miles away.

It's ours!!

WE CLOSE TOMORROW!!

I wonder how much my boys being pretty smart early in life predicts later in life intelligence. Jason thinks that Atticus is smarter at 3 than Jamison was at 3. Not that Jamison wasn't smart. He knew the entire alphabet before he could talk much. He wasn't speaking full sentences but knew all his letters at 15 months. Atticus knew all his letters too but has been very verbal as well. When Jamison was little he was very into building stuff and figuring out how things worked. Jason said he has the mind of an engineer. Jamison is still obviously very smart. We wonder about getting him tested for the gifted program but at the same time don't think 1st/2nd grade is make or break for the gifted program. Probably more than 4-6th is the time when he might really get bored. Obviously we'll assess the situation every day/week/year. We thought maybe his teacher would recommend it but I think because Jamison is so well behaved in class no teacher would want to lose him. Not that Jamison's class this past year was wild and crazy but Jamison is the type of kid who never ever does anything wrong at school. His teacher said she wanted to clone him.

There was a lot of love in this house today.

Atticus to Jamison: you're the worst brother ever. I hope the people who own this house keep you. Jamison to Atticus: yeah well sometimes I wish I didn't have a brother!

Atticus to Jason: I don't love you anymore. You can go to a dungeon!

We close on July 2nd. I'm mostly excited about the covered patio

The boys will play outside more. They can do chalk safely in the backyard. Water table. I can't wait to hang up some lights and sit out there at night. And the sun goes left to right, so the backyard is never baked in the sun like our rental house.

Yesterday was Jamison's last day of first grade. (!!) I had been looking for some affordable summer camps for him as early as Christmas time because he gets bored so easily and then gets naughty. Luckily, although I signed him up late (last week, oops!) and many of our first picks were full, I got him registered for 5 weeks of week long summer camps through the school district. They're actually affordable which is nice and only a $25 registration fee. Many many places are $200 a week which isn't doable. They're at a middle school a few miles away, 9-2pm. So he has all next week off, then does a camp called "nature's arts and crafts", followed by "let's paint". Then he has a week off. Then "Star Wars zoology" followed by "creation station". A week off then "knight by day". Knight by day ends August 1st and August 6th we leave for Vermont. Get back from Vermont on the 20th and on the 21st he'll have meet the teacher night and the 25th is the first day of school! I'm happy for both him and me. He'll have fun and is very excited about summer camp and it makes the summer easier for me not having a bored, naughty child home all day. Because let's be honest, next week it'll hit upper 90s and won't get cooler until October/November so being outside just isn't really an option. It sucks. I'm very excited for two weeks in Vermont where the boys can run wild outside.

Our realtor texted me at 9am saying she was waiting for the seller's agent to send her their signed copy of our agreement. She'd then call me to talk about other stuff once she got that. Never heard from her. Went about my day. At 12:30 she calls and they never signed and got another offer for more money so they're going to accept that one. Totally not honoring our verbal agreement and I am SO fucking livid right now. I want to eat all my feelings but can't. I want to go cry for hours but can't. So fucking over this.

So I think we made a decision. We just can't afford a house in the subdivision we really really love. So we're going to look for a cheaper house that's zoned for Jamison's current elementary school. And plan to stay in the house for 5-6 years and hopefully in that time I can go to nursing school in a roundabout way to becoming a lactation consultant and then we'll be able to afford a house out where we want to be. I think that's a good plan. And I found a house a really want but we haven't even been preapproved yet and I'm feeling all sad because I LOVE the house. And it'll be gone with the week, guarantee.

Our lease is out mid July. Real estate moves very quickly down here and July is one of the busiest months. Houses go in days. Literally. We found a subdivision we REALLY like. But it's very expansive. Of course. So now we're weighing the pros and cons of buying somewhere where we'd have to make some sacrifices (money and stuff on our want list) or buying somewhere for now and moving before high school. Because the area we're in now we don't like the high school. Rated poorly and the area isn't great. Jason said "and who knows if we'll be here in 5 years". Because buying a more expensive house when we might only be there for 5 years isn't a great move unless the area really appreciated in value in a short amount of time. If we had to sell in a few years we're in the same boat was when we sold our Rochester house, not much equity and in the end we made less than $150. OR we could buy a cheaper house and save money for the nicer area while not worrying as much about the chance we have to sell and lose money. I thought about it for a while and we had this conversation:
Me: maybe we should commit to living here for 15 more years (when Atticus graduates)
Jason: 15 years is a long time. I don't want to commit to anything for 15 years. *pause* except you, babe.
Me: nice recovery.
Jason: thank you.
DIED LAUGHING. But yeah. Still don't know what to do. Zoning changes here all the time and a house we like that's zoned for a great high school (there are three I know of) night not stay zoned for that school. We may not be here for high school. We could do private high school. If we move to a house zoned for a great high school it means Jamison goes to yet another new elementary school. I just don't know. Buying a house was soooooooo much easier when we didn't have to worry about schools.