All three of these stories are TRUE and all PAINFUL on some level..

Real Estate is endless.. If that key didn't shut off at 8 or 9pm we would be making appointments in the wee hours of the morning.  I KNOW I would.. Infact, I'd think that was GREAT because I could show houses while the kids were sleeping! 

And that's just not right, is it?

If only I could make all my phone calls in the wee hours.. while the kids are sleeping..



Yesterday afternoon I was  driving down Ohio Blvd.  I had just gotten some gas and picked up drinks for the girls and me to take with us as we were headed out to see Daddy. 

I dialed up a client.. ...just before G decided to give E (what MUST have been) the-most-painful-pinch-of-E's-life.

I'm explaining a Rural Development Loan to my client on the phone and E lets out a classic horror film scream from the back seat.  

I reached back and swatted the "pinchee" aka "the screamer." But I am horrible at landing a swat on anything in the back seat -- while trying to drive and talk on the phone.. so I had to try this a couple of times with no success.. just then I hear a "Toot-Toot." Huh? I look up and see a fellow realtor ..waving at us from her SUV perched above. 

Last week our cat caught a bird.. we stumbled upon this after the cat had already devoured half the thing.. the girls and I just stood there watching what he did with it next... Actually the girls stood there with dropped jaws while I was on the phone with a client quietly trying to shew them away with mere hand signals.. I have no real "shewing authority" while on the phone.. I hung up and said to them "Well, let's think of this as a science lesson."  Then I pulled them away from our backyard visual of natural selection.

(This is our cat.. Jelly Bean.  Last summer I took 2 baby squirrels to the Animal Hospital on S. 7th.. I think they both survived!)



It may have been that same day last week that I was again on the phone talking business.. G was trying to move me from the dining room to the living room.  I was appeasing her and giving her the shhh signal with my finger on my mouth.. She lead me into the living room, I continued my phone conversation.  She motioned for me to sit on a wooden rocker we have in there.. I did.  (Insert FART noise!!)

The kids have a stellar whoopie cushion collection.



The phone and the kids -- the combination of -- is still one of my biggest stressers.. Am I crazy?  Are they?  Do they HAVE to scream when I'm on the phone?  Do I HAVE to react as if they've just poked my client in the eye with their DS stylus?

I'm going to HAVE to initiate some "phone free" time at home.  Can it be done?.. I still have to get my brain wrapped around the logistics.  But it is my SUMMER GOAL!