Saturday Already???

One thing is for sure. Time FLIES when you're not blogging. You look down and *wham-o!* it's been days.

It's been a nice week around here since getting home from Camp on Sunday. I think I was unpacked by Wednesday. Ha! Got all the laundry done, but have been fighting with myself (but only in my head--I never have taken any action) to get the ironing down. "Maybe tonight" is my most used and abused phrase this week. I have, however, managed to cook a few decent meals--something that seems to be a nice accomplishment for me since we've been in Alabama! Brother Hart had brought us some pork a couple of weeks ago and I finally had a chance to cook up some of the chops this week. Yum. :-) The bacon and spicy sausage that we'd already tried was all great, too. I made homemade "KFC bowls" (rice, little bits of fried chicken, corn, gravy, and cheese all piled up) one night--and even managed a blueberry pie with the berries the kids and I had picked last month. It was sooooo good. Actually, I don't know how good it is alone, but when it's warm and had Blue Bell Southern Blackberry Cobbler ice cream on top--it's deeeeeeeee-larapin. :-)

On Thursday James drove past a new house on the market. Did I mention on here that things fell through with the Shades Creek house. It's back on the market again, listed $2,000 less than it was before. We had considered putting another offer in on it and seeing if we could get it to go through this time, but we always felt a little "hitch" about doing it. We'd prayed so much about that house, the price, the whole sha-bang, asking God for HIS will. If He wanted us to have that house, He could have worked it out the first time... and we're scared of pulling a Balaam and going back to ask again if He's already given us an answer, you know?! Ha! We've never felt a definite "don't do it" about placing another offer, but we don't currently feel freedom to pursue it. So we wait and pray and consider the other options.

Enter: House #2. Or is it House #50??? Ha! This journey began nearly a year ago for us. We found out in early August of last year that we'd be moving and we began looking for houses way back then. Crazy. It occurred to me the other day... maybe God hasn't opened the doors for us because we might be moving again this year! ~GASP!~ Surely not!!! We've barely just begun and feel like we're just now starting to get settled in with all the folks here--AND WE LOVE THEM! We are so not ready to leave! As far as we're concerned we'll be around at least long enough to finish raising our children in the state of Alabama... unless God pulls a quick one on us! Ha! You'd think I would have connections and an inside track on such possibilities. Not hardly. ;-) I really don't think that's what's going to happen, but it was a disturbing thought anyway!

Back to the house again. James drove past a house that I had found for super-duper cheap the night before. The first assumption is that something must be horribly wrong with it. Maybe there is, but it was cheap enough that it would be wrong not to at least drive by and take a look! He was actually pretty impressed with it. The house ITSELF (I'll explain that in a minute) looks very, very nice from the outside and the setting is great--2 acres, 7 miles from the church, only two neighbors in view (across the street) and lots and lots of woods all around you.

So we made arrangements with Laura and went to see it Thursday night. The house isn't torn up... but it's TRASHED. There are piles and piles and piles of STUFF all through it--personal belongings: papers, pictures, trash, toys, clothes--you name it. Outside there are HEAPS of more stuff, including furniture. The is another Fanny Mae property (yippie...), but it's still strange that somebody would have left so much of their STUFF behind. Especially the pictures! Pictures of dads with little girls and even some old wedding pictures scattered around on the floor. There are bank statements and signature cards all over the floor in one bedroom. It's just weird. BUT... if you can look past all the JUNK, the house is actually quite nice. Well, it has potential to be quite nice anyway. We're not crazy about the floor plan, but we can make it work. For the land, the setting, the distance to the church, and most of all the PRICE (it's listed $40,000 less than the other house--and that one was a steal!) we can definitely make it work!

So begins the drama once more. We put in our offer, then we get the same ole' call saying there are "multiple offers" on this property so put in your highest price (two houses in a row? Could it be they just say that every time in hopes of getting you to up your offer?!)... blah, blah, blah. I'm tired of the run-around. We put in our offer, now we wait and see. I can honestly say that we don't care whether we get this house or not. In fact, sometimes we're not even sure that we want it! Ha! I know it can be a nice place, but it lacks the "openness" that I like. But in the big scheme of things, we're realizing more and more that IT'S JUST A HOUSE--it doesn't really matter. We just want to be where God wants us to be, when He wants us to be there. I feel sort of dead to it all. That's a good thing, right??? I haven't even really thought much about it since we put the offer in yesterday. I'm guessing we'll hear something next week.

Today James is gone. All day! When's the last time that happened?! He's at Committee meetings up in Moulton and won't be back until late. Feels like the kids and I should make a party of it since it's been so long since we had a "free day" without Dad, so that's pretty much what we've done. :-) I spent about 30 minutes this morning finishing up the puzzle that's been sitting out on the little table for a few weeks. Then I realized that we were low on some basic necessities this morning... milk, juice, Totinos, Fritos, chili--you know, important stuff like that. :-) So I left Kate and Joe at the house for a few minutes and took Sam to the store with me. James had taken the van, so we drove Brother Powell's truck. WOW. That thing has got some serious VA-ROOM to it!!! Makes you feel all big and tough and like you ought to drive over a tree or up the side of a mountain or something. (Don't worry, Sister Powell--I didn't.) I also noticed that the gas gauge was reading below "E" so we stopped to fuel up a little bit just to be sure we would make it back home.

We had Frito Pie for lunch. Yum. We got the kitchen cleaned up, bathed the smelly dog, then gave Sam the responsibility of playing with the super-hyper-post-bath poodle while Katie and Joe and I played Scattergories for a while. Then I played Sorry! Spin with Sam. Kate and Joe are playing chess right now while Sam takes his shower. Soon it will be time to throw the pizzas in the oven. Then we'll probably finish off that blueberry pie and fantastical ice cream. ~aaaaahhhh~ What a great day. :-)

I found a whole host of random pictures to post. None of Camp just yet, but they are beginning to appear on Facebook, so maybe next time I'll nab some of them and put them up. Until then...

The Lego boys...
Here's Brady the day he got his haircut. Charlie wasn't sure what to think of him! Ha!
Poor Brady. He's sooooooo cute when he's got all that shaggy hair, but it's just way, way, way too hot for him to be able to keep it this time of year! He needed shaved and I know he FEELS better... And though I think he's still cute, he doesn't seem to agree. I took several pictures of him that night and he looks embarrassed in every one of them! Ha!
Joe had gone upstairs to read a book on afternoon and never came back down. This is how I found him an hour or two later. How does he sleep like that?!
Ha! This isn't exactly a "keeper" of a picture except that it will always remind me of my boys... Joe, who is terrified of fireworks (still, at age 9)--even, or maybe especially--the sparklers. This, of course, was taken on the 4th of July when we set off just a few very small fireworks--mostly smoke bombs and stuff like that. You can't really see Joe, but he's under that burgundy hat behind the rock over there. ;-) And Sam. That kid has some serious OCD tendencies! He must pull his socks up a hundred times a day--no lie. He is CONSTANTLY tugging them up because he can't handle it when they start to sag!
Here is the house we put an offer on yesterday. It has a two car garage and unfinished basement area underneath it... but I had to crop it out so you couldn't see all of the trash and junk piled up outside! Ha! Some people (like our children) just can't see past all that stuff and would think we're NUTS for putting an offer on such a pig sty. But if you JUST look at the HOUSE... it's nice. :-)
Sam was SOOOOO excited the other night because his toad find. "Look, Mom! It's a mom and a dad and a baby! It's a whole family!!! I found them all in the same hole--they're a FAMILY!!!"
And Joe is thrilled that it appears to be baby lizard season around here. He's found and caught dozens of these little itty-bitty guys. (He doesn't shoot them, in case you're wondering--he was out shooting something else, I'm sure!)
Sam and Charlie have a uniquely tender relationship. HA! Not exactly. (You have to zoom in on their faces to truly appreciate it.)
And here's the little skink that Sam caught today and BEGGED for permission to take a picture of. He was all of an inch and a half long. Maybe. I love his tail. :-)
And here's a picture that Tayde took of Katie and me at BTI. I don't have very many pictures of the two of us, so I love it. :-)