On Sunday the 2nd I left for Las Vegas for a course for work. Our flight wasn't until 830 at night, but we were leaving from Philadelphia and I had to pick up Samantha, another attorney/friend from my office who was also attending. I will admit that I got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye to Connor (and Ryan) and I definitely lingered until the last possible minute before leaving, but I knew that he was in good hands, and I was also looking forward to getting away to warm weather for a few days. We got into Vegas very late on Sunday night, but thankfully our course didn't start until 1pm on Monday so Sam & I got to walk around, enjoy the sunshine, and see a little bit of the strip in the morning. I forgot how much I LOVE Las Vegas. I also forgot how much walking you do while there! We were foolish enough to wear our heels out that morning and by the time we went back to the hotel to grab our things for the course, we both had blisters. The course was at a hotel a little north and off the strip, but we wanted to stay on the strip, so we got monorail passes. It worked out great, but the monorail was in the back of the MGM, and that hotel is HUGE! We had to leave an hour before the course started every day just to make sure we'd get there on time.
Tuesday March 5th was our 2nd anniversary. I got to facetime with Ryan & Connor during a break from the course. When we got back to the hotel, I was surprised to find that a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries had been delivered to my room. I will admit for one brief second I thought maybe my parents or my boss had done it, because it was so unexpected. Absence really must make the heart grow fonder :) It was very sweet of Ryan to do that, especially since he had to jump through hoops to get it ordered since he had to play detective to figure out which name the room was registered under! We saved the champagne for the next night when Julie, my boss, was there. I ate the strawberries, figuring it was worth breaking my Lenten sacrifice for.
While I was at the course, I got an email from my realtor. She said she had gone to the buyers' agent to ask him to push his clients to move forward with the inspections and get an update on the status of their listing, as they had had an open house and a few showings in the previous weeks. He came back to her and said that his clients "realized that if they need to accept any amount lower than their current list price they will have difficulty coming up with the funds necessary to proceed with our closing. Seems like they were unrealistic not only with their initial purchase price but also with the funds needed to close. They are asking to terminate the contract and for a return of their deposit." She then went on to tell me in the email that "the good news is that this is the perfect time to be selling so although we lost valuable marketing time it was during the worst time of year to be selling. I think with the sunny skies, extra marketing, and a reduced price we are in good shape to sell." EXCUSE ME?!?!? I thought my head was going to explode I was so angry. Surely it was communicated to these people at the time they made the offer an approximate amount (AFTER we agreed to give them 3% of the sale price towards their closing costs) they would need to come up with at closing...I find it difficult to believe that they just "realized" this. They had repeatedly assured their realtor (in the same agency as ours) that they were interested in moving forward, were motivated to sell their house, etc. It was for this reason that we gave them the benefit of the doubt and did not exercise our option to terminate the contract at the end of the year, and that I did not push the issue when our house was getting NO exposure because of a glitch in the MLS computer system, even though the sales agreement permitted us to continue showing the house while they were trying to sell theirs. And then for my realtor to insinuate that any of this is good news... Needless to say, I wrote a very strongly worded email response and let her know that we will be pursuing our options with a different agency. So, I will be calling a new realtor this week and hopefully with the fresh start and "perfect time of year" we will be able to find a new buyer, fast. Ugh, I hope I NEVER have to move again after this.
I left Vegas on Thursday morning, but because I got into Philly at the worst possible time (5pm), I didn't get home until after Connor went to bed on Thursday night. I was beat, but was secretly excited when he woke up around 1130 that night (he almost never does that). You could tell when I went in to his room and picked him up that he was relieved I was home. He put his head on my shoulder and gave a little sigh and it made my heart melt! On Friday morning he had his doctor's appointment and immediately afterwards I had an eye doctor appointment and then we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I could get used to three day weekends!
Missed those chubby cheeks!
After dinner on Sunday night we tried out the new self-serve frozen yogurt place. We brought it home and Connor discovered that the frozen yogurt Ryan lets him try is a lot more exciting than the black beans, peas, and squash I make for him!
Sorry this post was long. And had very little to do with Connor. And had very few pictures. I'll post some new ones soon!
