Showing our house . . . again

Our house has been shown 4 times in the past 6 days. Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a house show-ready 4 times in 6 days when your house is inhabited by 3 children under 6? (Yes, Susan, I know I'll get no sympathy from you!) Instead of looking like no one lived here, it looked like a lousy housekeeper and her 3 needy children lived here. You know, theoretically.

Of course, today I had invited my parents, brother, and niece for dinner and had planned an afternoon of fun at home with the kids. Not doing anything special, just having fun as it seems we have been at each other's throats a lot lately. Okay, mostly me at their throats if we're being honest. And whey wouldn't we be? It's just anyone on the whole freakin' internet I'm talking to here.

So, on my way to pick up Josh at noon, my cell phone rang - a realtor wanting to bring some people by the house between 4 and 5. So much for an afternoon of doing nothing. Instead I had to hurry home and make rolls from the dough I had already made last night (at least the house smelled yummy), put together the chicken lasagna alfredo that I was making for dinner (I know, you're drooling now aren't you?), and make the house look like no one lives in it.

Now that half of our belongings have been stuffed into my van, the house looks pretty good. That counts as cleaning, right? On the upside, the showing was a good excuse to buy some pretty fall flowers in Publix today. I would tell you what was in the bouquet if I knew. I just know they're pretty. And they're not dead yet.

Once the house was clean, I was of course, NOT letting the kids back inside. Heck, I routinely lock them out when there's NOT a potential buyer coming over; there was no WAY they were getting back inside now! So, we hung out in the backyard until the potential buyers and their agent arrived and then hid out at our neighbor's house while the realtor showed ours. While walking to our neighbor's my cell phone rang again; it was a man who saw the house last week wanting to come see it again with his builder brother tonight. I told him we were having company for dinner, but if he could come before 6, we could make it work. Didn't hear from him again until almost 7 . . . just as we were finishing eating dinner but still sitting around the table. Fortunately, my mom, dad, and brother all pitched in and we were able to recreate the fairy tale kitchen look in under 10 minutes, complete with the pretty flower centerpiece and all. As soon as the man and his brother left, we put the nice placemats back in the pantry, put the plastic Lightning McQueen and Tinkerbell placemats back on the table and gave the kids their dessert. Gotta love reality.