Strike Two!

I can't decide whether to go with "Three Strikes and You're Out" or "Third Time's a Charm." ;-)

House #2 went to another bidder, so that seems to be the end of that. I think I had more disappointment over losing the first house and James is having more disappointment over losing this one. He (we) just loved the idea of finding a house priced so low, but that would still meet all of our needs, and it's very unlikely that we'll find anything else in that price range. Unlikely, but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with God, right? :-)

It's funny... The plan I had conceived in my mind was that we would move into the Powell's house and start looking for super-duper cheap houses. If we found something in the super cheap hunk-o-junk category, we would buy it and continue to live in the Powell's house while we fixed it up. If we couldn't find something like that in the first few months, we'd have to broaden our scope and consider houses that were priced a little higher, then a little higher and a little higher as the months went on until we reached our "limit." We would have to up our price and buy SOMETHING at some point. After all, the Powells will come and want their home back at some point ;-) and we'll have to have somewhere else to go! :-) But strangely, as time goes on, we seem to keep looking at cheaper and cheaper houses instead of upping our price as we go along! Ha! When you find houses way cheap, it becomes incredibly difficult to think of paying lots and lots more for something comparable. When you get right down to the nitty-gritty, we're still praying for the right house in the right location at the right price--and I've begun to add in, "at the right time." There are a couple of places we may drive by and take a look at tomorrow, but we don't have real high hopes for either of them. It doesn't appear as if there is anything on the market right now that we're really interested in. I feel so blessed by this last house we put an offer in on though. If nothing else, it was a wonderful reminder that when it seems we've exhausted all of the possibilities out there, God can open up a brand new listing that meets the important criteria: a safe place for the kids to roam while they're growing up, at least a degree of privacy, and something relatively close to the church that will allow us to have people over for fellowship and band meetings or whatnot. Just when we were sure we'd seen it all and knew there was nothing in close proximity to the church, this place 7 miles away hit the market. God doesn't have to remind us that He's able to do things like that, but I sure appreciate it when He does. :-)

What else has been going on around here... Hhmmm. Not a lot. We've actually done a couple of puzzles this week--that's been GREAT. :-) The laundry and ironing are completely caught up (first time since Camp--what a relief to conquer that!), the upstairs bathroom and floors were all cleaned yesterday as well as the stairs, and I made 5 batches of jam this afternoon--that should be enough to last us until next spring unless I give it all away like last time. ;-) In other news...

I spent quite a while earlier picking hundreds of ticks off of Katie. Yup, you read that right. I didn't actually count, but I'm pretty sure there were hundreds of them, little itty-bitty tiny things, about the size of the end of a pin. ~BLEAGH!~ I remember Sister Kristal telling us how Dalton was covered in tiny little ticks one time when he was younger and they had to pick them all off. I'm sure these have to be the same thing. I was hoping that perhaps they could just be washed off, but no such luck. They had to be tweezed off just like that big guys to ensure that they came off completely. It sooooo grosses me out!!! I had let the kids go down to the creek for a little while and none of them used any Off! this time. THAT won't be happening again. I'm not real crazy about using stuff like that, but I'm to the point that I'd rather drench my kids in chemicals and hope for the best instead of dealing with all of the nasty little critters around here! ~Bleagh~ Soooooo gross.

So Katie's big news of the night is ticks. Poor kid. As for Joe, he has been nigh unto perfect for two or three days now. We've been struggling with attitude issues with him for some time. Nothing huge, just pesty little things--most of all when he's asked to do something. Even if he doesn't verbally complain about it, he has this PITIFUL look that he does just to let you know how truly miserable he is. It drives me nuts!!! We've been trying to get him worked through it with all the usual methods, but nothing seemed to be helping. Then a few days ago I asked him to come take care of the dishes. He put on his very biggest and best pitiful face--almost tears and all--and asked what he had done wrong. Aaaaauuuggghhhh!!! You know you've got real problems when a kid thinks that a normal every day household chore is PUNISHMENT. I went away for a few minutes to pray and ask God for wisdom... before I hurt the child. Ha! I then sat down and had a talk with Joe about work being a part of life (we've had this talk before) and about his attitude problems and all that stuff. I reminded him that the Bible says that if we don't WORK, neither should we eat. That's how serious GOD is about us doing the things we're supposed to do--that's HIS rule, not mine. I love that. :-) Anyway, I then gave Joe a short article about good work ethic and the joy found through working hard, as well as a story about a lazy person who refused to work and how things turned out for him. Joe was then to write one full page on the subject of WORK, however he wanted to approach the subject--things from our talk, from the story he read, his own thoughts, whatever. There was no indication that anything was getting through to Joe at all while I was talking to him, but he wrote a very humble and sincere page about work being a good thing and the different ways that his attitude has been wrong and how he needs to improve. I was pleased with what he wrote, but didn't have very high expectations for immediate changes in his behavior. I totally misjudged him there. He has been AMAZING since that time. Every... single... time... I have called his name and given him an instruction--large or small--he has jumped up and said, "Yes, Ma'am" and gotten right to it. I've never seen anything like it! And it didn't last for an hour and then fade away; it's been going on for two or three days now. Even when he has to clean the kitchen (which is his duty exclusively for the next week due to the little incident about doing dishes the other day--the thing that spawned all of these events) he just smiles, gives me a "Yes, Ma'am" and whistles his way into the kitchen. ~sigh~ I'm sooooo thankful!!! I pray every single day for wisdom to raise the kids right, reminding God that He (who giveth to all men liberally) said if any of us lack wisdom we were to ask for it in faith. I ask every day, but very seldom see any wisdom actually kicking in. HA! And I pray a lot that God will help me to be the EXAMPLE of what I'm trying so hard to train my kids to be. "More is caught, than is taught" and I came to the devastating realization some time ago that when my children display bad attitudes, they most likely learned them from me--the one who they spend all of their time with. I can't have my own bad attitudes, then try to discipline them out of my children! Anyway, I don't know if it was the talk that helped Joe out, the reading that I gave to him, making him articulate his own thoughts on the matter, or simply God doing something in his heart that had nothing to do with any of the above. I just know that there has been a definite change in that kid and I'm astounded at how he seems to have instantaneously dropped the deeply ingrained "pouty and pitiful" habit and traded it in for cheerful and willing obedience. Oh, that I could bottle this!!! And pour it down the throats of my other two children. HA! Just kidding. Katie is already very, very good about doing as she's told without complaint. And Sam usually is. Unless he's in the middle of a project of some kind--he has a terrible time laying aside his own plans to accommodate somebody else's plans. ;-)

Okay, more random pictures before I go.

James has been keeping Sam busy pulling weeds again. These are CRAZY weeds here. They're sissy weeds (sooooo easy to pull--NOTHING like the weeds out west!) but I fear the Powells will have huge gaping holes all over their yard if Sam keeps pulling 'em! There's more dirt and root than there is weed!



Ha! Joe insisted that he have a picture of this. I think the caption he wanted was something like, "Joe Horne bagged this fly on July 12, 2011" or something like that. Along with his trophy fly is his weapon of choice. This new hobby has been keeping him happily occupied for days now. He even had the nerve to ask me if he could leave the door open for a while so some flies could come in--he couldn't find any more to hunt.



And then... ~sigh~ What am I supposed to say about this??? Like it's not embarrassing enough to be a poodle... to have to be a BOY poodle... then to have to be a boy poodle that's the exact size to fit into doll clothes... then to be such a poodle who has a little girl around who REALIZES you're that size... ~sigh~ Poor Charlie. Still, I have to admit that I laughed heartily. And obviously took pictures.





And last, but certainly not least, it's Katie and Katie! We saw at Camp that Katie F. had the same blue shirt that Katie H. has. My Katie got dressed for church on Wednesday and jabbered all afternoon about how she hoped Katie F. would wear her blue shirt, too... And amazingly she did, making for two very happy--and very cute--Katies. :-)