"Which of us is prettier? Hey! She looked at me! Which of us is older? Smart girl! She looked at you! Which of us has a son named Bernie? No, sorry - it's her. Who has a son named Joe? Right! It's me!"

Buggy didn't move a muscle the whole time except to shift her eyes back and forth between the two women. I thought I was going to pee my pants, it was so funny. 

Maryanne was incredibly nice. When we told her we were moving to the neighborhood, she made a point of learning our names, telling us about other kids that live around there and said to me as we were about to leave, "Rachael, if you need anything - and I mean ANYTHING - come on in. I'm usually here. I remember I had a rough first year in Portland so I'm here for you. I mean it." If that's not a warm welcome to the neighborhood, I don't know what is.

After breakfast, we walked up to our new home and peeked in the windows. The stagers have taken all of the furniture out of it so it looked pretty bare. But I still love it. Even empty, it's warm and inviting. Which is good considering I don't currently have enough furniture to fill it and because of what we're paying for it, I'm not going to have enough cash on hand to feel comfortable going out and buying a bunch of stuff right away. I suppose I will have it decorated properly a few years from now with a combination of pieces bought new, at estate sales, vintage shops. The end result will be better than if I purchased everything right away anyway. But for reals - Spartan is going to be our style until then. Think minimalist but with Fisher Price toys.