One thing I failed to mention earlier.  When Connor was awaken with the fever on Friday night, his breathing was loud, like barking.  So we suspected that Connor had the croup.  During the weekend, Connor was fine, no fever, except for the barking cough.  His appetite decreased a bit on Sunday too.  This morning, Connor’s cough was coming on less frequently but still sounded quite bad.  Since I was off today, and to avoid spreading germs, we decided to keep Connor from school today.  He was happy to stay with me; fortunately Logan did not get too jealous.

   After dropping Logan off, Connor and I did some errands.  We dropped Scottie off at the vet for a comb out, then we went to the bank, the post office and did some grocery shopping.  We then went to the new house to drop off some stuffs.  With Connor around, I was not as efficient in lining all the cabinets in the house.  Connor however was good playing by himself sometimes, and other times helping me sweep the floor and bringing things up to the second floor.  We had lunch and snacks there too. 

    After naptime, we returned to the house to finish up with my chores there.  Connor loved hanging out in the new house too.  Connor is very expressive, and he often says to us “I love the house!”.  By the end of the day, his cough sounded much better but I feel like I did not get to pack much at all. 

     The boys had a Western day last Friday.  They were both excited and wore their cowboy hats and jeans to school.   Unfortunately within thirty minutes of drop off, I received a call that Logan was not dressed appropriately for school, so I had to return with his uniform short and had him change out of his jeans.  Here is a photo of our cowboys along with one with their school-made cowboy vests.

    After bath last night, I noticed Connor’s voice was a bit scratchy, but other than that, he was acting as usual.  But at 1am, both Stuart and I were woken by Connor’s crying.  He was very upset and was crying for me.  I noticed that he was burning hot.  I brought him to our room, so Logan could try to return to sleep.  Connor kept crying as he was so uncomfortably.  Stuart brought an ice pad for his forehead and we offered some water, so Connor finally felt better.  He also took a dose of Tylenol after some convincing.  His temperature was up to 101.5.  I kept Connor with me so I could make sure he cooled back down.  He finally fell asleep in a few minutes.  Stuart ended up staying over with Logan as Logan was upset too due to the abrupt awakening.

    Today Connor seemed well.  He had a slight cough, but no more fever.  He was eating as well as usual and showing no signs of illness.  But we chose to take an easy day today.  We also wanted to have the last lazy Saturday morning in our apartment.

     We got the keys today and the house is finally ours.  Stuart went to pick up the keys during the day to check on the few repairs.  I picked up the boys at the end of the day, and we all went to see our new home together.  The boys were so excited and kept asking if they could jump around inside our new house. 

     The boys are so interested in playing "I Spy" lately.  Logan brings it up for us to play often during dinners or in our car ride.  He prefers to give us clues, but he occasionally does the guessing too.  He is doing quite well these days with the letters.  Connor also wants to have his share of fun.  He fights to get his chance, so we often take turns among all of us.  Connor gets very excited at his turn; he says "I spy with my little eyes something that starts with" and he always says "A".  We try to play along and guess "A cup", "A paper", etc.  Eventually we would guess the word or Connor just says "Yes" so we can move on.  We do like seeing the pleased look on Connor’s face to be participating in the game.

        It has been a very difficult week for Stuart and I.  It started out with joy last Monday when we could walk through our future home, but as soon as we arrived, our agent learned the bad news.  There was a dispute on the seller side, therefore, our contract could not be closed properly.  We were very disappointed and sad for the next couple of days.  Stuart even paid a visit to an attorney on Wednesday to learn our options.  We continued to make our appointment for sign-off on Wednesday afternoon, but it was the most depressing sign-off as we felt that we most likely not getting the house.

   That same evening we learned a slight chance of turning a corner.  One party of the dispute agreed to move their matter into a separate escrow to allow us to close.  We felt more relieved and enjoyed the slight hope for a day or two.  But toward the end of the week, the hope was diminishing.  What compounded matters was that our apartment lease was just days away from our 30 day notice period.  We either had to give notice and move out in 30 days, or extend for another 3 months or more.  Also the rental rate had increased $500 a month.

  Our realtor had sent a letter to the Seller regarding a breech of contract, and later Stuart did a more personal one to other party with a picture of the boys too plead the case of moving the issue to a separate venue and letting the sale proceed.  However their lawyer did not seem interested.  By Sunday, we had decided to pursue the legal route.  Stuart had prepared the paperwork and dropped them off on Monday morning.  By the time he returned home, Stuart received great news.  The third party suddenly agreed too to move their dispute out of our escrow and that afternoon the seller was scheduled to do his sign-off.  Stuart and I are thrilled and relieved to learn that we can finally own our dream house soon.  But because of the crazy up and down this past week, Stuart and I are not totally believing it until we have the keys in our hands which is hopefully tomorrow.