Today one of the house showings was CONVENIENTLY scheduled for right when the kids got off the bus. Honestly, I don’t think this whole house-selling thing has disrupted our lives enough. I’d like people to start coming for showings in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Just to keep things hopping around here.
Anyway.
So, on account of the needing to clear the premises immediately (“Touch nothing! Put your backpack away and GET IN THE CAR!”) and the fact that it was about 95 degrees here today (Welcome to New England; take your pick of snow or sizzle, without any of those pesky temperatures inbetween), we opted to go for ice cream.
Actually, I’d already decided on ice cream before they even got home. Because, um, I wanted ice cream. But the moment I started the car, Chickadee started wheedling.
“Mama? Mama! It is SO HOT and you know what would be SO FUN and also take about the same amount of time as someone looking at the house? GETTING ICE CREAM!”
Finally I had to tell her that she was making it very difficult for me to surprise them with a trip for ice cream, what with all of her begging to go for ice cream. She panicked (thinking, perhaps, that I would change my mind?) and insisted that she would act surprised when we got there. Monkey continued alternating between looking out the window and kicking my seat. When I asked him if he wanted some ice cream—after Chickadee and I had been discussing it for five minutes—he acted like this was the first he’d heard of it. But his response was very enthusiastic.
At the ice cream place, we agreed on kiddie sundaes for them, because they come with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and a dinosaur cookie on top. Monkey selected mint chocolate chip ice cream, which is his current favorite. I asked Chickadee what kind of ice cream she wanted and she looked at me like I had six heads.
“VANILLA,” she huffed.
“Vanilla? Just vanilla? You can have whatever you want, you know.”
“MOM. There’s going to be SPRINKLES and CHOCOLATE. I don’t want it all BUSY. Just vanilla!”
Lesson number 1: You don’t want your sundae all busy, woman. Sheesh.
So. The kids got their little sundae cups. I got a scoop of ice cream in a dish. (Key lime pie, complete with buttery little chunks of pie crust. I cannot IMAGINE where all this weight I’ve gained came from. Quite the puzzle.) We found a picnic table and sat down to eat.
For a minute or so there was only blessed silence. Ahhhhh.
Monkey was bent over his sundae in earnest, carefully scooping all the sprinkles off the top and eating them. Once he finished eating those, he plucked out the dinosaur cookie and started nibbling on that.
I was curious whether Monkey liked the cookie, because Chickadee had given me a bite of hers and—although the cookies are very cute—I thought it tasted like cardboard. “How’s that dinosaur taste, buddy?” I asked him.
Monkey pondered this while taking another bite. “Prehistoric!” he finally declared.
Lesson number 2: Maybe the dinosaur cookies are more authentic than I really want to know about.
By the time we arrived back home, sticky and satiated, everyone was in a good mood. In fact, I didn’t even flip out when I discovered that the showing realtor left my house unlocked. I just checked to make sure nothing had been broken and then let my realtor know.
I am envisioning many more ice cream runs before this is over.
I’m with chickadee…vanilla is a perfect canvas for all the toppings! We had tons of ice cream and slushees when we were selling our house.
Wishing you happy house selling thoughts! And your kids totally crack me up!
yay for ice cream on a hot day! still hoping your house will sell soon.
Heh “prehistoric.” I know I’ve said it a million times, but your kids are so funny :-) Good luck – hope you get an offer out of this craziness!
Your kids are the bomb. And here’s hoping you sell very very soon, babe.
I sooo feel your pain. We were in the same situation about eight months ago. Showings were the absolute worst, and I realized that it was much easier to take my three kids out while complete strangers came and scrutinized my house. May your near future hold very few ice cream outings.
I’m totally with Chickadee! You definitely don’t want your ice cream all BUSY. LMAO
Totally what Heather said. :0
Two separate realtors did that to me, Mir. I got home from work and found my front door open a crack. Lot of good that pesky deadbolt was doing us. Another idiot left my back door standing WIDE OPEN all day. We didn’t discover it until about 9 p.m. (it’s in our bedroom and we had friends over right after work). I was like, “Um, I feel a draft. Where’s that coming from?” Then my head exploded.
Let me also regale you with the story of the morning my 5 y.o. son and I were just sitting around the house (him still in his jammies, me in holey sweatpants and a t-shirt, house is a holy MESS) and some realtor just walked into the house with a family in tow. No call, no warning, nothing. We took our house off the market that afternoon before my head went kablooey again.
I feel your pain, pretty Mir. Here’s hoping that your house sells immediately and you find your dream house in Georgia!
*Deep thunderous voice* No! There will be no more ice cream runs because the people who looked at your house will buy it, at asking price, I command it!
There, do you think that worked?
Could you believe the temps? What a rude awakening. Thank god we live near a beach…and I don’t even like the beach. Too much sand, sun, and salt.
Glad you got your yummy ice cream. We’ll be making many of those runs ourselves…and I don’t even have the excuse of a house showing.
Mir, looks like it’ll be ice cream all the time in Georgia. Days like yesterday is how to describe the whole summer, fall, sometimes spring in the south!!!
I’m also an “it’s-got-to-be-vanilla-in-my-sundae” gal . . . except for the occasional venture into peach icecream with strawberry topping.
Gee, I was thinking if I was your e-buddy who lived near your future hometown, I’d let you temporarily keep your stuff in MY basement . . . though I’d guess we’d have to get past the hubby-approval and the already-full basement thing, then pray for no floods. Ha!
Wait, $6.00!? Gee whiz, all the icecream places here ream you for at least $2.50 for a mere plain scoop in a dish, how’d you get sundaes and stuff? Are you holding out on some Coldstone Creamery coupons?
The middle of the night sounds PERFECT!
Um…Key Lime ice cream with buttery chunks of crust??? From where does such a dreamy frozen confection come? I had no plans to move, but now might be willing to relocate my family of 6 to your house, and all for the sake of Key Lime ice cream.
Prehistoric?!? Snow?!? Maybe I should move to New England. The hot and sticky torture here never comes with the wonderfulness of a surprise snow.
Too cute, Mir. Too cute.
PS – Selling a house sucks, best of luck to you!
One day I went to a restaurant with DH and the kids. My son was eating a chocolate cake and I was telling him not to do something or other… DH reminded me “there are no rules in chocolate cake.”
Decloaking here again because I just can’t resist.
When we were selling our old house, we went out of town for a long weekend. We notified our realtor, etc. The realtor (again, let me remind you that this was OUR realtor) was showing the house and wanted to turn the AC down and instead set off the alarm. So, he fled.
Our own realtor, who KNEW how everything worked because we’d had him over to show him everything, ran away.
Leaving the alarm blaring for FOUR SOLID DAYS.
It is also an indication of out alarm company that they never sent anyone, police or just some sort of janitor, to turn the damn thing off. I’m sure the neighbors were pretty happy to see us move.
Then there was the time, after I’d been put on bed rest with my second pregnancy and after we’d already taken the house off the market, when the realtor (same guy/ same house sale) brought just one more family through the house –and there I was, lying in bed! “Hey!” I said, rather forcefully. “The woman in the bed does not convey!”
Mir, even your commenters are funny. That Barb Cooper had a couple good stories. (Or is it just because I’m into this business now?)
Good thought on the ice cream. Hope the house sells before too much of a reaction diet must be enforced. (I know that will be eons; we met in person Girlfirend! You have a long way to go.)
HA HA
Mir, you crack me up! And your babies are SO smart!
Let’s see, ice cream run during an after school showing. Hmm, where will you go for a middle of the night showing?
Dare I say what I’m thinking? :-)
Oooo, key lime pie ice cream! *swoon*
I don’t like my icecream all busy, either!!! She’s too cute!
Nothing like a little ice cream to help things to “look up” in life! Hope your home sells quickly! Best Wishes, Diane
Hope your home sells. And about one of your last posts where you got a gazillion comments (you comment queen) – I decided to still tell you are pretty and that selling Karma will come your way soon…. Good Luck!
All religious aside, have you buried St. Jude in the backyard? (I’m not Catholic!!) But, as a formre realtor, I’m telling you..it brings good karma or something. Take Care and wishing you a speedy sale.
I have to admit… I’m a vanilla kinda girl too. :)
So funny!
Prehistoric – LOL!!!
It’s not St. Jude you bury, it’s St. Joseph. And there is a very particular way he has to be planted, but I’m not sure what it is.
Was that a Bruster’s by any chance? Sounds like it might have been. Regardless, you’ll find an abundance of them once you move to Georgia, and they have the best ice cream. Plus you can get fundraising coupons for buy-one-get-one! ;)