Reynosa Part Uno: Scrapings at Dracula's House

We've just recently returned from our church's first ever mission trip to Isaiah 55 in Reynosa, Mexico.  In a fit of overconfidence, we decided to also take the two Squirrels along.  Unmedicated.  Ooo boy.  We figured they needed to get a taste of their upcoming "transition" to the mission field. 

Complete with pink polka dot suitcases and armed with sunglasses, Kate and Eli flew the friendly skies for the first time in their life.  They were delighted to be accompanied by 11-year-olds Maddy and Sarah who are both on swim team with our girls.  Beings that all the other people going from our church were guys, I had the distinct honor of playing Den Mother to all four girls for the week.  Which mostly consisted of trying to keep them from falling out their 2nd story window as they sang Taylor Swift songs to anyone on the street who would listen.  And identifying the congealed heaps of clothing found under beds, in the shower area, etc.and returning them to their rightful owners. 

The main assignment for the week for the females on the team (other than the girl who was crushing on someone who will remain nameless but whom we will just call "Schmyatt") was to scrape the peeling paint off the soon-to-be-storage-and-migrant-worker-housing abode called (and we have yet to figure out why) "Dracula's House".  Rumor has it this two-storied, stuccoed, marble-floored behemoth used to belong to a drug kingpin.  Through a set of circumstances that I never quite distinguished, the property is now owned by an American who rents it to I55. 

The Squirrels were thrilled to be working but thought scraping was boring.  The day finally came when they could paint and I sent them upstairs with some other teenagers from the trip.  I don't know how much paint made it onto the walls but I can verify that everything else was covered, especially the girls.  At some point, Kate came down complaining that no one was painting with her.  I didn't even know she was up there by herself.  She told me she was on top of the ladder, then proceeded to try to move the ladder by herself.  As it swung dangerously close to going through a window glass, I decided that NOW was the time for some Father-Daughter bonding.  She was quickly scuttled across the street to assist Husband in framing up doorways at the new deaf school. 

More on our week to follow...

So Much for the SHOW ME State

I can say with absolute certainty that the definition of insanity is trying to keep a house in a "show ready" state while you have young children.  Seriously.  I may have a stroke. 

Case in point is the last three weeks.  In preparation for moving down to South Texas to join Isaiah 55 Deaf Ministries, our big house in the little woods has gone on the market.  When I calculated what a 6% realtor commission would be, I made a decision that we would go the For Sale by Owner route.  Hours of cleaning later, I staged the house and took photos and made a mental TO DO list of all the things we had meant to do but hadn't in the three years since we have built the house. 

We had our first open house, complete with classical music playing in the background and the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.  The Squirrels and Hounds were carted off by Husband as a slow death by licking (from the dogs) is not exactly endearing to potential home buyers. 

During the next showing, Husband was halfway through his two week stint in Australia for Mama Yellow so I was left to my own devices to get the house ready.  I called in reinforcements (my mother) since I have not mowed a lawn in 15 years.  Not that I am not able...growing up, I spent many moons on the riding lawnmower on our farm in Iowa.  That's how I got my golden tan each summer.  Mom somehow overlooked our indecent swimwear if we were mowing the yard.  Or walking beans. 

But I digress...

So my mom came up to mow, resplendent in 45 layers despite the record temperatures, and her infamous straw mowing hat the screams Maxine from the Hallmark greeting cards.  Our riding mower was outside during a rather nasty windstorm that took the hood off the mower so now our mower is more of a Ghetto variety.  Plus, the cat likes to curl up in the engine compartment so the mower is probably rife with cat hair. My mom was not done mowing by the time the potential homebuyers arrived so she told me not to tell them she was my mom.  Like I am going to pretend some random lady is mowing my yard???

Again, I digress...

The lovely couple showed up with their two children to look at the house.  Much gushing later, they began to load up into their SUV.  Eli comes around the corner and shouts "DID THEY BUY IT?" to which I discretely tried to tell her a house is not something you plunk down cash on the spot for.  "YYYYEEEESSS!" she shouts while making fist pumping motions (she is not exactly overjoyed to be moving away from friends and a chance to weave the Maypole at school...a big deal for 4th graders).  The potential home buyers find this quite funny.  I wanted to crawl under the porch. 

A mere 6 days later is showing number 4.   This time, it is a single guy who is more interested in roaming the acres of woods in search of lot lines (which we have a hard time finding).  Typical guy.  They want to "walk the property line" and know how deep the well is.  The women want to know if the water is clear and if the trampoline is staying. 

As this single guy and his friend prepare to enter the house, my homeless-looking children, double-fisting cheese curls after playing outside all day, are sitting beside me on the porch swing.  May I mention here that it is a little weird to just turn your house over to others to wander through?  Who knows if they are opening up all my drawers and closets (which could be dangerous...).  The guys are almost in the house when Elisabeth shouts "CAN YOU KILL THAT SPIDER?".  I nudge her and she shouts "WHAT?" (she has one decibel level...and it's called SONIC BOOM).  I whisper that she does not need to mention spiders while people are looking at the house.  She stomps off wailing. 

Lovely.  So much for creating a mood of peace and serenity.  I could use some of that right now as I wait for our house to sell and try to undo the mass destruction caused in short order by two half-pint Squirrels with no school to distract them while trying to accommodate short notice for showings.  It's going to be a long summer...