Add to this that tomorrow I'm supposed to have my pre-op doctor appointment for surgery on Monday... but if we buy a house we can't afford surgery... So I really needed to know right away about this so I could either cancel or go ahead with the surgery. Guess I get to look like a flake tomorrow and call to reschedule another month out (this will be our third postponement of the surgery). I'd like to just cancel it if we're getting a house so I'm not wasting everyone's time. On the other hand it took months of tests and thousands in medical bills for our insurance to agree to pay for part of this surgery, so if we cancel and then the house falls through, I don't know that we can get the insurance to cover it if we try to get back on the surgery schedule later. The truth of the matter is that I would rather live with uterine fibroids in a wonderful property that feels like home, than have surgery and have to stay here another year (or two or three or...) while we wait for another suitable property to come along in our meager price range.
I'm trying hard to remain positive. Whatever happens, we will have to accept it. It's the waiting and not knowing that's got me second guessing myself. This is why we wanted to put the offer in last week, so we'd have an answer before the appointment. But alas, sometimes things just don't line up. Sometimes it feels like we get in a rut of things not lining up for us, so I'm really hoping this works out. But in the end, it's not really our choice any more. I love the property, the kids love the property, it meets all of our criteria, and a lot of our "wish list" too, but now it's in the sellers' hands. All we can do is hope and pray and wait for a response.
Elsa finally grew back most of her fur, but if she was bred back after her last litter before we moved her (which is quite likely considering she was still sharing a cage with Hodor at the time), she'd be due for babies this weekend. There are a few tufts of fur in her nest box today, but it's hard to tell if those are fresh pulled or if they're the remnants of the fur she pulled last month that I added to her box to try to keep her warm. I will check back in with her over the next few days to see if we will be having more Elsa-lings (what the kids call her babies). Fortunately with warmer weather upon us (even with a cold snap coming up) her babies should be fine this time around.
Today #3 told me that for the science fair she has been assigned the Petrified Forest in Arizona as her research project (yes, her school assigns them projects, they can't just pick randomly - this year everyone has to do National Parks). Anyway, I was excited about it, so I jumped on eBay and found a nice piece of petrified wood for sale that is complete with listing what part of the park it came from, what era it's from, and what species of tree it was. Very cool! And it was less than $10 with postage. Hopefully it will help her with her project to have a hands-on example for both herself and her audience (other students and parents) to be able to see and physically touch.
Of course then #4 wanted to know why I wasn't buying her anything for her project... She got the Badlands in South Dakota. I told her I'd been there and I had photos, so she could use unique photos for her project from when I last visited, including pictures of bison, antelope, and of course plenty of scenery. Things other students wouldn't be able to pull up on a Google search (though I'm far from the first person to take the same photos I'm sure). She seems OK with this. It feels good to be able to help them with their projects, even if it's just in little ways.