Never a dull moment

I am just going to post a bit here and then do more later- I need to jump in the shower and get ready to head down to Knotts Berry Farm or rather Knotts "Merry" Farm as it is know during the holiday season. Today is Rainey's friend Matthew's 10th birthday party and they are having it at Knotts. I have never been there and so am pretty excited to go to a theme park that is new to me. I know it sounds a bit cliché but having season passes and constant access year round to Universal and Disney doesn't lend itself to the magic as if you just came and visited once in a while. Not that I am complaining but just making some comments on the situation. I was supposed to land at 6 am this morning which means I would be sleeping right now but I left Anchorage a day early and got home yesterday at 10:30 am and had a 3 hour nap yesterday and last night went to sleep at 10:30 and slept straight through until 7:30 this morning. I was exhausted... I was getting up at 6 am and not going to be until midnight and it wiped me out. I am home for the next two weeks unless something changes the following week but right now we have some issues on the house and they need to get resolved before it can close. One issue is that the appraisal came in and our selling price is 135,000 under the appraised value. - go figure- I had an off the books or just a walk through appraisal done this summer and she was not that high and I went with what she said to list it at and then negotiate from that point which is what we did but it was quite a bit higher. The other issue is that they are saying the house has 4 bedrooms - actually 3 and one upstairs living room but since the upstairs living room has closets it was considered a bedroom - which it is but can be both - like a den being a family room or a bonus room - at any rate then they added the cabin bedroom as a bedroom and so technically we have 5 bedroom and 4.5 baths- 3 in the house and one in the cabin and then the half is in the office but again since it is all on the same property it counts so the problem now is that the septic was set up for a 3 bedroom house and when we bought it Tom did not think that we would have more than 3 bedrooms - we built the 4th one after Rainey was born so she would have a room next to our room which was the upstairs living room - at any rate- so the buyers have to work with Alaska Housing Finance Corporation because they are the only ones that will deal with this sort of "creativity" -so now we wait. And of course they want it to work because since we signed at the price they are paying they already are walking in now with 135,000 in equity. So we are in a holding pattern at least for the next week and it will either close or we will relist it - at a higher price and go from there. The house on lot 3 is framed in and going up fast- it is strange to see people working over there- The only good part of being up there was seeing Adrienne and Baby Bear and then one night about 9 pm it started to snow... I had the floodlights on over the shop - Jordin (Raineys dad) had a bon fire going on lot 5 and we had Christmas music playing outside the kitchen door and it was magical- literally magical.... I have only been up there when the snow was falling and it only lasted for a few hours. After leaving the house I went to the hotel in downtown Palmer and on my way I stopped by the park in Palmer where they have all the lights up and it is so pretty - especially late at night in the dark and with the snow falling- I was entranced. I felt my mother's presence sitting next to me that night. Listening to Silent Night on Pandora- I headed over to the old Palmer hospital where she passed away in January of 2006 (it is now a state building) I parked outside the window where she passed away - with the snow falling- I sat and cried- remembering so many Christmases with her and grieving for all the Christmases I have missed with her since she died. Then I put the car in gear and drove away - back to the present - where she would want me to be- :) Ok.. time to get ready- I brought back my good camera so I could take amazing pictures of Rainey today so I will get some on here soon.