Dinosaurs, snakes, and a dragon, oh my!

We live very close to a zoo called Reptiland, which as the name implies features reptiles - a wide variety of tortoises, snakes, frogs, etc. along with a few other animals like emus. We first visited it six years ago, and we returned there in 2011 and 2012, but we didn't go the past three years which meant today was Oliver's first visit as I was pregnant with him the last time we went. A few things had changed since we were there last including a new building featuring a komodo dragon, the butterfly exhibit was changed to a parakeet one, and they built a large outdoor exhibit featuring life-size animatronic recreations of a variety of dinosaurs. Oliver was not a fan of the "Dinosaurs come to life" exhibit. He thought they were very scary. Nadia really loved feeding the parakeets. Nadia and Ian enjoyed going around the main building and assigning names to each frog, snake, chameleon, tortoise, etc. The weather wasn't very nice today. It was much colder and rainier, but I knew most of the exhibits were inside so we went ahead with our plan. Many school groups were getting on their buses when we arrived, but while we were there the only others in attendance were other homeschoolers or parents of very young children. We spent 2 1/2 hours at Reptiland, and it was definitely more meaningful to the kids than it was when we went in 2010-12. They certainly got a lot more out of the show put on by a zookeeper this time (she featured a few different lizards and snakes).

We dropped the price of our house by $10K a month ago in the hopes that would help us sell the house. Thus far it hasn't helped. The house was shown 3 times last month, which was the first we had shown it since December. We had turned down one showing in February when Oliver was in the hospital and also turned down a few when we took a two week break from showings in March while I was interviewing with Lock Haven. It has now been 3 weeks since our house has been shown, and at least two of the showings last month were from requests in March (during our hiatus and before we lowered the price).I studied the comparative properties last week, and I think our house is priced a little lower than it could be when compared to others on the market so we are not inclined to lower it any further. It has been on the market for six months now, and it doesn't feel like it's going to sell any time soon although I know that April through August is typically the busy season for the real estate market so we will wait at least 3 more months before taking it off the market. It is so hard to make plans when you don't know where you will be living. It is time to register the kids for soccer in the fall, but I am not 100% sure we'll be living here in the fall. Living in a state of limbo can be very frustrating, but there is nothing we can do about it. Time will tell. I do greatly prefer our current house to the one we are considering buying, but financially it is better if we move sooner rather than later (although emotionally I'd rather stay here as long as possible). 

 I'd appreciate continued prayer for my mom as she deals with the side effects of her 5th round of chemo. They are going to check to see if she needs a blood transfusion or iv fluids tomorrow. Also, her beloved cat, Patches, passed away last night. My cat, Snowflake, who died many years ago was Patches' older brother (they looked very similar). Patches lived by far the longest life of any cat my parents ever had - she turned 22 years old in March. It is an adjustment for my brother and parents as they get used to life without Patches. She was a wonderful companion for my mom. It will see strange not to see her sitting on the loveseat rocker in the family room the next time I go down to visit. Oliver couldn't understand what I was trying to explain to him, but Nadia and Ian understand that they won't be seeing Patches again.