Story of my Life

Okay, back to last week.

On Wednesday morning James got up and headed back to Alabama. On his way there he got the phone call from the bank saying: no loan. The story is this: because the house is a foreclosure and in need of some work, the appraiser deemed it "substandard." The three issues that caused it to be rated that way were three things that we loved because it would make it much easier on us to go in and remodel! 1) There is no finished floor in the kitchen/dining area or the utility room. (Yeah! We get to put in a floor we like without having to rip anything out first!) 2) A sink is missing in one of the bathrooms. (Yeah! We get to pick out the sink and vanity we like!) 3) A door and drawer are missing from the cabinet in the other bathroom. (Huh?! That makes the house "unlivable"??? Both pieces are there, just not currently attached. No biggie--any ole dummy could pick up a screwdriver and put them back into place, you know?) But because the appraiser said the house is substandard and unlivable, the bank won't loan on it. Crazy.

So we applied for an extension on the closing date--to June 30th. The series of events since then:

* Fanny Mae (who currently owns the home) has to have one of their own approved contractors do the work--we're not allowed to do it or find anybody to do it.

* The Fanny Mae contractor way overbid the job.

* Fanny Mae wants us to pay for the work to be done... a lot of money for work that we don't want to have done--we'll just have to rip it out when we move in anyway.

* James said "Hu-uh. That's nuts."

And that's about it. Now we wait to see if Fanny Mae will pay for the work to be done... if so, we wait to see if their contractor will actually get there and do the work... if so, we wait to see if the appraiser can get back out there right away and approve the work... if so, we wait to see if the bank will reconsider the whole matter and get clicking to finalize the loan.

That's a lot of if's and a lot of waiting to be done on something that has to happen before June 30th. Still, we feel so at peace about the whole thing. I sometimes get anxious for an answer just because I hate waiting (ha!), but I'm not anxious about what the answer will be. I love it that God gets to make this decision, not us and not Fanny Mae. There's no way we can push our will here. But there's also no way that Fanny Mae can keep us from getting this house if it's the one God has for us. Either way, it's in God's hands and we're still waiting and praying and trusting and waiting some more. So that's the low-down on the house. Now you know. :-)

Back to Cleveland...

I did some grocery shopping on Wednesday, then Jamey and I made spaghetti for dinner. The kids spent all day playing, playing, and playing some more. I loved it that they could all be together--and at my folks house where there's so much great stuff to do!

That night was the Communion & Feetwashing service at BTI, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember who preached the Communion part of the service (how is that possible?!), but I thought Brother Ammons did a fantastic job with the Feetwashing part. "Just do it." :-) And I really didn't think he had it in him to keep it to 10 minutes, but he amazed us all! It was a good service.

Thursday was a nice, relaxing day. I had intended to go in for morning devotions, but overslept. :-/ I ended up not leaving the house all day. The kids loved being able to just have fun and not worry about getting cleaned up to go some place at the end of the day.

I have a few pictures here, but they're all jumbled and I don't know when they were taken. The first one is of Joe. This was taken one day after he'd fished and fished for hours and hours and finally came inside to curl up with a Calvin & Hobbes book. This is how I found him shortly thereafter.

And here he is with yet another fish. He caught lots and lots of fish this time and--finally!--is able to get them off the hook by himself. Most of the time. That's a great relief, let me tell you!
Ha! I love this picture. Mom & Dad have lots of great stuff up in the loft in the barn--a Foosball table, a terrific train set, and a costume box. Aleah LOVED the costume box. :-)
And here are the little men. The boys have never been allowed out on the boat without an adult before this trip, but it suddenly seemed like time. Actually, with the life jackets properly secured I wondered why we'd never allowed it before. In any case, being their first time and all (!) they felt sooooo cool and grown up. They were in and out of it dozens of times each day. :-)
Where was I? Thursday, I think. That night everybody had engagements, so I made an enchilada casserole for dinner for just the family--Mom & Dad, the kids, and myself. It was nice to have a quiet evening with them, especially since we saw so little of them all week long. Matt came in and helped clean up the rest of the casserole, then the Hortons arrived shortly after that. We all sat on the front porch and had a great time visiting until the rest of the crowd came home.

Friday morning I woke up early and decided on a whim to go to morning devotions. Joe was already awake and getting dressed (the fish were waiting, you know), so I asked if he wanted to join me. I felt bad just disappearing like that without telling Katie or Sam that I was leaving and without telling Jamey that I was leaving two children there with her (ha!), but I didn't want to wake any of them. As it turned out, when I got back just after 9:00 Katie and Sam were still asleep!!! A few days of playing hard at Granddad's house will do that to you, I guess. :-)

It was another full day of play for the kids (once they finally awoke), which means they were all sweaty and smelly and nasty. I was, too, thanks to that lovely decision to let the boys be men and have charge of the boat. They had been getting in and out at every edge of the pond (instead of at the dock, where they're supposed to) and the boat was covered in mud. There's no way a real person (=anyone who is not a grubby little boy) would actually sit in it--you'd be filthy. So I had the boys help be haul it over to where the hose would reach it and we worked a good long while spraying and scrubbing. It was HOT and SUNNY that day and we were all soaked by the time we were finished--and not because of the hose. ~Bleagh~ Gross. We suddenly realized what time it was sometime that afternoon and Jamey and I began a mad showering spree, trying to get everybody all cleaned up and looking (and smelling) like decent human beings again. We managed it, thank goodness.

We went to Chick-Fil-A on our way to service that night. There was a group of Church folks pulling out when we got there and others still inside eating. Steve Lewis was there and started handing out Chick-Fil-A coupons. Between the coupon from him and the three gift cards the kids had gotten at a VLB service a few weeks ago, our total was $3.00 or something like that. --And I let everybody get dessert, because I knew we had so much coming for free. It was great. :-)

James made it back to Cleveland that night and joined us at Church. It was a really good service and I loved Dad's message. It was about suffering and sacrifices and he gave lots of current day examples, mostly of people who were present that night, of those who have given things up in order to serve the Lord and His Church. I LOVE having current day examples. It is SUCH a blessing and encouragement to me to look around and see people in the Church right now who are living their whole lives for the Lord, not just read about Peter or John or those guys who did it "way back then."

After service that night something truly tragic happened. We went to Steak-n-Shake... and I was too full to be able to get anything!!! ~sigh~ That is so wrong. James got a Frisco melt (what I LOVE) and it looked terrific, but I couldn't even make myself take one bite--I was just too full from my Chick-Fil-A sandwich, fries, and banana pudding milkshake. ~sigh~ Wrong. So, so wrong. Though that milkshake was fantabulous. :-)

Saturday I felt horrible. Tons of pressure in my head and groggy and achy and just all-over "BLEAGH." The kind of day you just can't pull yourself out of bed because you feel so awful. But I had to pull out of bed--there were things to be done and places to go and people to be with! :-) I had gotten to bed really late the night before, had a hard time falling asleep, then got up at 5:00am to put the brisket in the oven. I got up "for real" at about 7:00, I think, and made a cherry pie with some of Mom's delicious frozen pie cherries. YUM. :-) After that I started trying to gather up our belongings because I knew I'd be packing later in the day.

We went to Fazoli's AGAIN for lunch that day on our way to the Graduation Ceremony/Heritage Day service. To be truthful, I felt so bad at the service I can't remember anything about it. That's not true. I remember that Brother Dupre said he was only going to take 15 minutes. He obviously doesn't know himself as well as the rest of us know him. Mom timed him. She's not nice like that. 40 minutes. I was falling asleep before he ever got up there, though. I hadn't had much sleep throughout the week, but that night before was practically worthless--and I was feeling so horrible that day. I went and stood in the back for a while, just in an effort to stay awake and alert. It seemed to help.

After the service ended we headed back home for our big brisket dinner. I had made the pie that morning and Jamey had made a strawberry cake. That night I made some cheesy potatoes and she made some baked beans. Before we ever even sat down to eat I was regretting this meal--we should have just ordered pizza! Ha! We were all sooooo tired and it was already nearly 7:00 and we had so much collected and packing and cleaning to do. And now we throw a big meal and all those dishes into the mix! Dumb. Oh well. It tasted great and gave Mom & Dad some good left-overs.

That night we let all the kids get in the hot tub, girls first, then the boys. As Jamey and I were standing out there with the girls we decided that we were just going to have to get in, too. :-) We were so tired and there was still so much to do... but the hot tub just looked so good! I was still feeling pretty rough and was so achy. It's the best decision we made all week. :-) It was so nice and I felt sooooo much better afterward!

Sunday morning I got up at about 5:30 to finish up a little laundry and the packing, then do as much cleaning and sheet changing as I could. We said our goodbyes and pulled out at about 7:15 to head back home. We got to Bessemer and dropped the Charles off in the Hopkins' basement (too hot to leave him in the van) and made it to church in plenty of time. I love the time chance coming this direction. :-)

I was sooooo tired again in church! It had been another late night/early morning and though I was feeling much better, sitting down was a bad, bad thing for my efforts to stay awake. ;-) After Church James had a meeting to attend, so visited with the other people who were waiting for the meeting to adjourn--and Tammy Washburn, who God had stranded there at the church to make sure she'd be back for evening service. HA! Or something like that. ;-) The meeting finally ended and several of us when to Cracker Barrel which, I have decided, is one of my least favorite places to go--at least on Sundays. I like the food, but they were sooooo crowded. It took forever to be seated, then forever to have your order taken, a while to get your drinks, and a good long while for the food to come. None of which would bother me if it wasn't for the NOISE. I'm hard of hearing anyway, but in a setting where there is so much racket it is soooooo hard for me to make out what anybody is saying. I have to lean in with my good ear (which must be amusing--ha!) and concentrate really, really hard and try to read the lips of the person who is talking to me. And then I hope to make out enough to figure out what they're talking about, even if I miss most of the details. It's just not a relaxing or enjoyable place for the hard of hearing, you know?! Ha!

After lunch we went to the Hopkins' house to check on the Charles, then just stayed and visited until church time. It was nice. And it was coooooooool in their house which was wonderful. :-)

We had a good service that night, then made it home by about 10:30, I think. I was so happy to go to bed at a decent hour that night!

And that catches me up on last week. Which means I'm still a week behind. Hhmmm. That didn't go according to plan at all! ;-) There's not nearly as much to report from this week, so it should be easier to catch up at this point. I think.

Before I go, here are two more pictures I found. The first is of Brother Matt and the shiner he acquired from the spill he took from the scooter. It seemed like the eye just kept getting darker and darker each day! This was taken two or three days after the accident.

And this is Katie and Lillie, playing a duet. Charlie was curled up on the bench with them, sleeping, until I walked in the room. :-)