Catching Up, Part 2

Okay, so Part 1 was way too long and should have been split up somewhere. At least it had pictures and video clips though, something the remainder of my posts will do without simply because I haven't TAKEN any more since then. I did, however, find these pictures on my camera, so I'll add them just so this post will have SOME pictures. :-)

This is where Charlie would rush to in our New Mexico yard to bark back at all of the neighborhood dogs when they would start talking.



And here he is, the mighty guard poodle silhouetted by the sunlight. ;-)




Okay, where was I? Australia. Yes, Australia. And you would have suspected I'd know the powder's origin, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. Sorry. Got carried away with that question. ;-)

The Hays helped us load a bunch of stuff into the truck, stayed for lunch, then headed back to Colorado. We kept working until about 4:00, then came in to sit down for a few minutes. The house was royally trashed from all of the packing and the MESS that accompanies it. James took Sam and went somewhere, though I can't remember where. That's when Jason called and said that young couple wanted to come and look at the house AGAIN. Right then. HA! The house was sooooo trashed. I warned him of that and he mentioned it to the couple, but they said it didn't matter--they'd like to come by again if we didn't mind. We had about 30 minutes until they arrived and Katie and Joe (on his gimpy leg) and I tore through the house at record speed, cleaning all we could and hiding all the rest. By the time Jason and the folks showed up the house had miraculously (really) transformed from a junk heap into a pretty decent looking place again! We had no vehicle to leave in, so we stayed at the house this time. I really like these people--they seem very nice. And not crazy. A definite plus when you're selling your house to someone. ;-) They love the house and they loved Charlie. :-) I tried to stay out of their way for the most part and just stood and visited with Jason while they looked around. When they left, he came back in the house--just as James got home--and told us that they would be getting with him the next night (Sunday night) to write up an offer on the house! WA-HOO!!!!

I don't remember much about the rest of the night. We went to Sunday School/VLB service the next morning, then rushed home to pack, pack, and pack some more--we had plans of leaving for Alabama the next morning and there was still sooooo much to be done.

Jason called with the folks' offer at 8:00-something that night. It was $20,000 less than our asking price. James took his time and countered their offer at $8,000 above that--$12,000 below the list price. He felt like that was the very limit of what he could come down to, but it seemed to be just a couple thousand above the limit that the other people could come up to! It's frustrating to be within $2,000 of selling your house and hit a brick wall, let me tell you! Ha! Actually, I never felt stressed about it. We just really, really prayed--for God to make a way for them to come up with the little bit of extra money, or to move on our hearts and let us to know we should come down the last bit. In the end, Jason called back to say that since Monday was President's Day they wouldn't be able to work with the lender until Tuesday and therefore wouldn't be able to get an answer back to us until then.

I had a sudden surge of adrenaline hit me late that night and ended up staying up until 1:00 packing the rest of the miscellaneous junk into the moving truck. I just pieced things here and there, whatever was the right size and shape to fit into the holes that remained--and in the end everything was nice and tight and snug. I love that. :-)

I got up at about 7:00 and started loading up everything that was to go into the van--all of our stuff for the trip, as well as suitcases full of shoes and clothes for the move. Then I cleaned the house up real good because we wanted it to be show worthy just in case this young couple didn't end up buying it and others might come to look. We headed into Albuquerque, grabbed lunch at Schlotzsky's, then went to Jason's office to sign the counter offer in hopes that the other folks would indeed agree to it. Came home, finished up on the last of the house cleaning, then loaded into the van and moving truck and headed east at about 2:00 that afternoon. On our way to Alabama!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!!

James drove the moving truck, of course, and I followed in the van. Everything went well, me just following, following, following... until suddenly James exited off where I didn't expect him to exit. I followed, wondering aloud why in the world we were taking this exit--we're supposed to be headed toward Amarillo, straight ahead, no exits! It was then that I realized the truck I was following was no longer blue and no longer said Budget, Car and Truck Rental, 1-800 followed by GO-BUDGET. It was now a huge white semi-truck that had red letters which read "Southern Refrigerated Transport." Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. There were other letters in small print down lower that no doubt said, "Specializing in trickery and leading people astray for 47 years" or something similar. About that time my phone rang. "Where ARE you???" I was only three miles behind James and promptly caught up to him, closing everything else out of my mind and my vision except for the blue truck, the word BUDGET, and the orange and white logo--for the rest of the trip. I was so successful at blocking everything else out that I never did see the sign announcing our entrance into Texas. Or into Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Missouri. I'm able to focus like that. In fact, I never had a CLUE where we were on this trip. I just knew I was following a Budget truck. Nothing else, just Budget.

We ate at Fazoli's in Amarillo because it's what we always do. I wasn't the least bit hungry, but ate 5 bread sticks with my lasagna because they were soooooo good and hot and fresh and greasy and crispy--some of the best ever. We had had a very, very long and tiring week with not a whole lot of sleep, so James said we'd just crash there in Amarillo for the night. That felt good.

It truly was a grand and glorious day. The biggest success was not that we signed papers with high hopes of getting a contract on our house, nor was it that I was clever enough to not follow the Southern Refrigerated Transport truck all the way to Nebraska before realizing something was amiss. No, the biggest success of the day is that the dog never got car sick!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!!! In fact, he did TERRIFIC on the whole trip. He has settled right in and decided (no doubt because of being served Blue Bell on several rides, despite the fact that all of you thought it was insane! Ha!) that the van is, indeed, a happy place. What could be happier than Blue Bell??? Unfortunately, it also proved that the crazy Internet people really were right about most dogs (at least mine) just being stressed out rather than actually having motion sickness. Weird. Either way, I’m a very, very, very pleased Charlie owner at this point. :-)

We left bright at early the next morning and had a long, long, long day of driving. We finally crashed at nearly 11:00 that night somewhere in Mississippi. We slept in just a little bit on Wednesday, then drove the rest of the way to Briarfield, Alabama, to the Powell's house--which will be our home for a little while.

Okay, I got two posts in and covered a week and a half! I'll try to write up Part 3 tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed--BEFORE MIDNIGHT! That's something I barely remember ever doing... G'night!