Well, it’s official!  Our house will go on the market March 24th, which means my anxiety level will shoot up and the ulcer will form about…oh, I don’t know…two days ago.  I have never been through this process before as an adult.  My only memory of having a house show ready is getting yelled at by my step-father not to grab hold of the corners of the wall as I rounded the hallway, and having to remember to flush the toilet.  Wish us luck!

This past weekend we ventured to Columbus to take one final look at schools and do some preliminary house hunting.  Friday we toured two potential schools, both of which Mr. B has been accepted.  And I would love to say that we left feeling from one of them completely optimistic and certain.  But that’s not the case.  One school looks great on paper, in theory it allows Mr. B to continue with the creative and discovery-based learning he has been exposed to, and has a wonderful sense of community.  It’s the school Mr. B’s teacher and principal think would be a better fit, based on reading the school’s literature, and before we went, we were about 90% sure this is where we’d go.  BUT (and here’s the big concern) in watching the 1st grade classroom, they were just beginning to work on things Mr. B has been doing since the beginning of his Kindergarten year.  Heck, even Miss P was busy working through their exercise on her own over on the side.  The question here is whether all of the other stuff is worth potentially setting him back a year.  The other school is a more traditional academic setting, which on paper makes me cringe as I envision my child regurgitating information by rote and getting his inquisitive spirit squashed like a bug.  But in person?  Man, did those kids seem engaged and on the same learning curve as Mr. B.  The teachers seem creative and dynamic.  And yet, something about this school is setting off question marks in my gut, and I’m not sure why.  Is it that I fear it might be too conservative?  Too white?  Too homework-heavy and not enough personal discovery?

And of course, the two schools are in opposite sides of town, thus determining where we purchase a home.   The area of town we like is closer to the non-traditional school, but a horrible 30-min drive to the traditional one.  We saw a spec house from a builder that we are really interested in, but it’s 30-min from the non-traditional school, much closer to the traditional one.  Here’s the kicker….contracts are due by next Monday, meaning we have to have a decision made and mailed by this Friday.   Can you say Boxed Wine?  If anyone has any thoughts they want to throw my way, or talk me off a ledge, I’d appreciate it.

Saturday, Jon’s sister Jenny watched the kids while Jon and I went out to look at houses, most of which were promising.  I’m enjoying visualizing our family having more space for a change, so I guess that’s the fun part in all of this.  The kids were originally going to head out to the science center with Jenny, but certain events threw those plans out the window, and instead everyone spent hours upon hours holed up in the hotel room watching television.  I won’t bore or disgust you with the details what plagued us on Saturday, but it involved lots of bodily fluids from the kids. When does all of this part of parenthood end?  College?  Let’s face it, that’s a whole different type of puking and peeing your pants repeatedly. 

So, hopefully by the end of this week, we’ll have made a decision and have a little bit more direction as we move forward.  Man, am I looking forward to that.