Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Betsy and Emma Visit


Pretty Girl! Emma Isabella, age 2






Does this look like Betsy, or what?




Emma with (Great) Grandpa.


When we arrived at the restaurant for lunch Dad got out of the car and started walking with his walking stick....Emma looked puzzled; then looked at Betsy and said "Grandpa's hopping!"





Betsy says, "Give Mommy a kiss."













Boink....!

I'm feeling a bit like a ping-pong ball. The buyers have returned! Our real estate agent called yesterday, the buyers looked at some other houses and decided to negotiate a new offer...we accepted the new offer and are on the same time-line. I had prayed that we would get an offer on the house before the end of the week from someone who would be a good neighbor and that we would be able to proceed with our plans....when you get an answer it's time to exercise faith; not say "Oh, but I want to do this a different way." So today we start the packing process............
again!

Monday, September 17, 2007

OOPS! Spoke too soon.

Guess I should have waited until today on the house sale....our counter-offer wasn't accepted, so we are still looking for a buyer. Oh, well....as Dad says better to know now than later that the deal wasn't that secure. They didn't want to increase their earnest money and didn't want to negotiate with us....too many concessions for us to feel secure with this deal. Hope something surfaces this week or we will have to talk with the apartment manager about holding our deposit to apply to a different apartment or just let it go.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Dad's Nostalgia Trip


Breakfast with "Teddy" and Marilyn. Dad and Ted, together again after 54 years! Teddy had fun with Dad by telling the waitress, Mae (who was about our age) to say "Hey, Doodles, how've ya been? Good to see you again after all these years." We had a great time and have lots of pictures of Sadamsville, but Dad says that's the last time he wants to go back to the old neighborhood....says it reminds him of a chalk drawing on the sidewalk in a rainstorm. The neighborhood was so rough we were afraid to get out of the truck (4 well dressed white people in a new truck; taking pictures....we definately didn't blend in). I wanted to get a picture of the old school, but it was on the opposite side of the street so Ted said he would turn around at the end of the block and I could get the picture then....I said, "Okay, I'll just roll down the window and shoot the picture as we go by." "Don't say 'shoot' !!" he said. We stopped at Bold Face Park, where they had played baseball with Pete Rose, and took pictures of Mrs. Banfield's house (where Uncle Tim ran screaming for protective assylum after he squirted toothpaste into Uncle Walt's eye.) We ate Cincinnati Chili and went out to dinner and had the BEST ribs we've ever tasted. I really needed a tape recorder more than a camera....the stories they told and the memories they reconstructed were wonderful. It is amazing how much they have in common even after all these years. On Saturday we got a call from our realtor and we have an offer on the house. Today we counter-offered so we'll know by noon tomorrow if they accept our counter-offer; if so, we should "close" on the 15th of Oct. and vacate by the 19th (the apartment will be available on the 17th, so the timing is perfect if all goes smoothly). I'll post some more pictures tomorrow. Time to get some rest right now.