Two Days in a Row!

It's been so long since I blogged two days in a row I thought I'd try it again and see how it feels. :-)

It's been a good day today, but a long one. I'm bushed. We got up and left early--in our new van--to go to Hueytown. That's where the funeral was for Brother Jeremy's grandmother. We felt bad about missing the visitation last night, but several Church folks were there so that's good. Today we were the only Church folk to make it to the funeral, so it probably all worked out just right. It was good to see the Wallaces. I feel bad for Brother Jeremy, grieving over this loss. And I feel bad for Sister Emily, having to wear that giant neck brace while she recovers from surgery!

We had taken a list of several houses to drive by, two in Hueytown to begin with. We punched the addresses into Sean and headed out in search of our dream home. HA! Riiiiiight. Besides, could anything really be a dream home with an address of "Hueytown," Alabama??? Ha! We hadn't gone far when we came up to a big "ROAD CLOSED" barrier and cop cars diverting traffic. There was plenty of tornado damage visible even from where we were--and there was no going down that road, so you know it was far worse out that direction. We asked the cop about it and told him we were out looking at real estate. He looked at us like we were bazerk, then sort of grinned and said, "I'm sure there'll be plenty of houses for sale out here about a month from now, but you ain't gettin' through here until then!" Ha! We really don't want to live in Hueytown anyway. But when you find houses that might work and are in the right price bracket you just gotta go look, just in case they're perfect.

Next stop was Bessemer to stop by the Post Office and then one house. HA! It was a NO WAY house purely because of it's setting... and the fact that you had to take a horrible dirt road through other people's property to get to it... and when you finally did get to it, it was backwards! Ha! There's no way to see the front of the house unless you get out and walk around. Dumb.

After that we headed south. And we've done it again. We've found a house we're very, very interested in. You know what that means, right? It'll sell to somebody else by Monday. That's how it works. As soon as I get all excited about a house and we start kicking around the possibilities ~WHAM-O!~ it sells. It's a little freaky. This one probably really and truly will sell right away. It's a foreclosure that just hit the market on Thursday. It's got 3 acres, plenty of square footage, is in a nice location (the PERFECT location for us--only 6 miles from the church!), and it's priced way, way low. We walked all around it, peeking in windows past the "NO TRESPASSING" signs (ha!) and it's got a wide-open floor plan, which I LOVE. It means company can't be on the other end of the house--I get to be with 'em all the time, even when I'm cooking. :-) The house needs lots of work, but it's got a ton of potential and with the low price you could afford to do what needs done--and (if God favors you) probably make a decent profit or at least not lose anything--when you go to sell it. Of course, there may be serious problems we're not aware of that would cause the price to be so low. But we'd love to check it out. We're hoping we can get in to look at it right away, but the realtors around here just aren't like Jason! Ha! Our realtor has been out of town all week. She always returns our calls, though she's not always very prompt about it. ;-) While she's been away we've contacted two or three other realtors about different properties, and none of them call back. Crazy! Don't they want to sell houses??? There. I just e-mailed Jason to tell him we miss him and ask if he could please come show us this house. HA! I've been praying all afternoon for God to have His way. If this is His answer for us, I'm praying that He'll give us direction--and not let somebody else nab it! Ha! And if this is not His will, I'm praying that He'll give us the wisdom to know it or close the doors... by selling it to somebody else, most likely. ;-) The right house at the right time at the right price... Only God knows what that is. I love it that He knows. And I love it that He'll let us know when He's ready to. :-)

We drove past a few other houses after that one, but none that really interested us. I can't say that. We drove past a gorgeous house and the owners were there doing some touch-up work (they've already moved out) and graciously gave us a tour. They were sooooo nice--and the house was immaculate. We loved it, though it was a little too fancy for us (we're more rustic, you know?!) and it had a very private and very, very nice in-ground pool in the backyard (part of me thinks it would be nice; the bigger part of me thinks it would be a headache!), it was a little farther away from the church than we'd like to be, AND it was at the tip-top of our price range. Actually, I think it was beyond the top of our price range. And after meeting the really nice people and knowing they forked out some serious dough on the house you'd feel like a jerk offering them $40K less than they're asking! It doesn't seem so horrible when you're offering an insultingly low price to somebody you've never met--or especially to a bank on a foreclosure--but I don't think we could do it with these people! We liked 'em way too much. Bummer. ;-)

Finally got home this afternoon and were exhausted. Made some phone calls, then James decided we would cook breakfast for dinner. :-) Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. We had a very happy Joe tonight! Though heavily laden with grease, it was terrific. Or perhaps it's because it was heavily laden with grease... ;-)

The boys are now nice and clean and no longer smelly AND I don't think anybody had any ticks when they stripped down for their baths tonight! Wa-Hoo!!! That's the first day in I don't know how long. Nevermind the fact that we were gone all day long and they didn't have a chance to romp through the woods as usual--I'm still going to rejoice over a tickless day. :-) Joe had SIX ticks on him the other day--then found another one later on that night. ~Bleagh~ They've got to be the nastiest little bugs in the world!

In other news, I love our new van. James wasn't feeling very well this afternoon, so I did the driving from house to house. I'm amazed at how different this van feels from the last! Who knew?! It just drives sooooo nice and feels good and tight and solid, it handles well and accelerates and brakes nice and smooth. It's as fun to drive as a van possibly could be. Not as fun as, say a certain Pontiac Grand Prix that I dearly loved year ago (~sniffle~sniffle~), but for a van, it's terrific. And a BIG plus is that I never did get sore all day long! Ha! (The seats in our last van were miserable!) And I think I actually like the leather seats--something I've always thought I would hate. Of course, the weather was beautiful today. When it's miserably hot and the leather seats burn me, or when they're ice cold in the winter time, I'll probably change my mind. ;-) For now, I think I love everything about this van. :-)

It's 8:30 now. Katie has been working on crafts for the Mission Table at church, Joe just sat down and read The Mouse and the Motorcycle in it's entirety, and Sam has been building paper boats and airplanes. Time for devotions and bed--and I think I may go to bed pretty soon myself! I'm sooooo tired. I hope I don't get my second wind before I get a chance to hit the sack. We'll see.