One step closer: Selling Lester's house

Miracles of miracles -- we are under contract on Lester's house in D.C.!

After our first date, Lester and I came here to this house and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, talking about any and everything. Our first date was June 2, 2006 -- exactly 8 years ago today.

I don't know if we under-priced it or if we priced it just right, but we put the house on the market on Tuesday, and we had three offers by Thursday and a signed contract on Saturday. Whoa!

We're not going to make a ton of money, especially after all the seller's fees and paying off the mortgage and whatever taxes we have to cough up, etc. But selling this house is just one step on the road to getting out of our crappy neighborhood and into a better one, out of our teeny house and into a bigger one.

We have many, many, many steps left to go -- not the least of which is that both of us have to make more money. Considerably more. And we all know that better-paying jobs aren't falling off of trees these days. So, we're not really close to moving. But we're closer.

Selling the house also comes at another huge cost for Lester, because this house is the house he lived in since birth. He and his mother -- his first and closest friend -- shared so much in this house; it's the backdrop for most of his childhood memories, both good and bad. I could say a lot more about what this house means to him, but it's his story to tell, not mine, and so much of the story is hugely personal and tangled with mixed emotions.

So it means so much to me that, in order to help move our family forward, my husband is willing to part with this house that has helped to shape so much of who he is. 

And it also makes me feel even closer to his mother -- a woman I never got the chance to meet -- for her role in our family's future. She raised the man of my dreams here in this house. She left this house to him when she died. Because of this house, my children -- her grandchildren -- will have a more comfortable home to live in someday.

And her legacy just goes on...

Fun-filled weekend!

Friday night, Lester and I went out on a date.

It was a beautiful warm evening and we decided to skip having a fancy dinner and instead try this fancy, newish pizza spot we'd been hearing a lot about. 

So glad we did! It was relaxed and delicious and easy-going. Just what we needed.

On Saturday, the boys and I headed out to the library and picked up a few books. Then, after their nap, we went to a Taste of Two Cities, a huge food truck competition. 

I got fried green tomatoes from this truck. NOM NOM NOM!

There was a big, open play area for kids and I tried to show the kids how to hula hoop.

FAIL!

We also miscalculated a bit by thinking there'd be a hot dog or pizza slice somewhere on the grounds of this gathering of food trucks, so when we figured out that it was all mostly "adult" food, and expensive to boot, we decided this was one night the kids could eat nothing but junk and it would be just fine.

Needless to say, this was a very popular decision on our part.

Unfortunately, Dean insisted he wanted a cupcake and not ice cream, so after he inhaled his (very delicious) cupcake, he had a severe case of dessert envy.

"He's not sharing!!!

He badgered Cary and whined to me and badgered Cary some more, until finally Cary gave in to the peer pressure.

Dean always gets what he wants from Cary. Check out his knowing grin. (This kid is hilarious!)

We were out late Saturday food-tuck-tasting, but we managed to get up and out of the house first thing Sunday morning to go to a lovely rooftop breakfast at the Maryland Science Center.
 

The event was sponsored by the Center as an attempt to woo members from specific neighborhoods. Of course you know we're already members, but that didn't stop us from taking advantage of free breakfast, looking out over the Inner Harbor on a beautiful Sunday morning.

We spent a couple hours roaming the nearly empty museum, exploring the laws of physics, looking at turtles and playing in the water room.

They happily sat on this bed of nails. Yikes!

Clair yelled at every child who came her way, because she totally believed the entire water table was hers and hers alone.

And then we headed home to nap and get ready for the work week ahead.

But the weekend would not have been complete if Lester and I didn't recognize in some small way the anniversary of our first date, which was June 2, 2006.  We didn't know we were on a date at first, but that night we drank a lot of sangria and talked and talked and talked -- through three different watering holes -- and realized we had stumbled (a little tipsily) into something special.

So last night, while I was cooking dinner, Lester whipped up a batch of sangria!

And after the kids went to bed, we sat at our dining room table, surrounded by three high chairs, and talked and talked and talked until we were both a little tipsy. We talked so much we completely missed Mad Men and before we knew it, it was midnight (egads!!) ...

I'm exhausted and just a teeny bit hungover this morning. But I don't regret staying up late drinking sangria and talking with my husband for three-and-a-half uninterrupted hours. The fact that we still enjoy each other's company after 7 years (7 years and no itch!) ..well I think that is something special.