Let's add to the list...

Greg (via Alyssa) already commented on the list of bad things... selling the house, being by myself with the kids, Christine's ears and now Nicholas' nutsack. Well... I guess we need to add to the list...

Earlier in the week (Thursday and yesterday, mainly), I had not been feeling very well. My stomach was not very pleasant and I had to stay near a bathroom at all times. I'm now feeling quite a bit better - still a bit nauseous, but not as bad and back to normal on the stomach front. I guess my appetite is just not back to normal yet. Anyway, I figured it could be from being overtired (Nicholas had some seriously bad nights this week), or maybe something I ate, or maybe it was indeed the flu. Well, it turns out it was the flu. This morning, after bringing Nicholas into my bed so that I could lay back down for just another 10 minutes before getting up and taking a shower, we fell asleep. I wake up a while later to Christine saying "maman! viens ici!! maman, viens ici!" on and on and on. So I get out of bed and put enough pillows around Nicholas so that he doesn't fall out of bed if he wakes up and get to her room as she's starting to puke all over herself. Poor kid... So I help her feel a bit better and get her into the bathroom to take a bath at which point I'm thinking "I really need a husband right now. Who's could I borrow?!" And then I think "I'm not the first to be "single"-mom with 2 young children - I can do this". Nicholas is still asleep in my bed, so I give Christine her bath and she's starting to look better. I get her out of the bath just as Nicholas is starting to wake up again. All she wants to do is lay in "child's pose" with her thumb in her mouth on the bath mat with her towel over her. I cannot move her. So I leave to and go get Nicholas. I check on her a couple of times and she seems fine as long as I don't ask her to move. I ask her if I could take a shower and she nods yes. So Nicholas goes in his crib and watches the mobile and I get a much-needed shower. Aah, I feel better now. I REALLY CAN do this...

And then she says her tummy hurts and she starts to get sick again. I get her to the toilet for most of it this time. No big deal. We'll figure this out. I end up getting her cleaned up a bit again and get her dressed. If I wasn't so desparate to sell the house, I'd be calling and cancelling the open house for sure by now, but I can't exactly do that. So I keep forging on.

I get the couch all setup (blanket to protect the couch in case she gets sick again, bucket next to her, etc.) and she gets to watch the entire DVD of Toupie and Binoo - all 57 minutes! Meanwhile, I get dressed, get Nicholas dressed, strip and remake her bed, make my bed... Ok - the upstairs is ready for the open house.

We get downstairs and Nicholas and I have breakfast. She's still ok and watching TV laying on the couch sucking her thumb. Then I think - what am I going to do? I can't really bring her to Sandra and Ed's - they have a little baby that can't get sick... Hmmm... she's so out of it that I can totally get the rest of the house ready with her watching tv and we'll just go driving around for an hour. Maybe the leather interior will pay out!! So I call to let them know what's going on. They assess the situation and being the GREAT friends that they are, say that I should still go and we'll just keep Christine upstairs so as not to contaminate and germify their entire house and all the toys! I figure I will wait and see how she's doing at 10:30 and then figure out what I'm doing.

By 9:30, she's getting hungry and pleads for Mamie's cereal (cheerios) so she gets some and some Pedialyte. She's eating and drinking slowly, and I can see some color and energy coming back. She's walking around and talking - great! By 10:30, she's talking up a storm and wants a 3rd bowl of Cheerios. So we head out to the "Beese's". Along the way, I'm thinking "this better not be completely useless - just watch, the rain will keep everyone at home and there won't be a single person show up to the open house and we could have all stayed in our pj's all day!". Once there, she ate another 3 bowls of Cheerios, an apple, a pedialyte freezie and is begging for more food. Hurray! Another 2 hr 24 hr flu for Christine!!

As I mentioned above - it is raining here. Not just the normal Southern Ontario drizzle or mist. Raining. Pooring. I would definitely not be heading out in this weather unless I absolutely had to. But it turns out 6 groups were willing to get wet and come visit our house!

Our real estate agent was very pleased with the open house and the results. She said it was very very busy and that the good thing is, with the weather, you don't tend to get people who are just nosey - they would more likely be truly interested potential buyers. She also said she wished she had a recorder so that I could have heard all the comments in the house - everything was so positive, nothing negative was said the whole time. So WHY WON'T THEY BUY THE HOUSE?! Sigh... There are a couple of people she's going to be doing some follow-up with. One was a repeat visit, so that's a good sign. The other is a woman who is recently divorced (doesn't have a house to sell - yay for us, really terribly sad for her) with 3 kids. They live in Kemptville, she works in Ottawa and the kids go to school and swim in Brockville. I don't get it, but whatever. Anyway, this house may just be perfect for her... we'll see... It's near the upper end of the price range she was looking for, but as our real estate agent pointed out, most of the big ticket things that she would need to do to most other houses that she could buy for less $ (roof, windows, bathroom, etc.) have already been done here. Again, we'll see...

We're also going to do another open house next weekend as this one was so successful. Tell everyone you know who may want an old house in downtown Brockville!

I should also mention - about our GREAT friends... not only did they let us come over despite our flu situation, they even had a Starbucks waiting for me when I walked in the door!