It's official!

The "SOLD" sign is now up. The house passed inspection with flying colors. Now all that is left is to make our temporary housing arrangements and schedule the dates for the movers to pack us out of here. Brian has an appointment next Friday morning to get the packing dates set.

So we spent the day at church, taking a 2-hour break to take the kids to see The Incredibles at the dollar theater. We had to clear out of the building for those two hours because there was a wedding using the building during that time. Afterwards, we went to Kobe Steakhouse for Brian's late birthday dinner and to celebrate the sale of the house. My best friend and her husband and kids came along, as well as our minister and his wife. Emily had a friend along as well; her best friend Ali is spending the night tonight. We had a great time, aside from my friend's youngest being a little frightened of the fire at the beginning of the meal. It was a new experience for all of them, and her kids learned that they do like Japanese food (at least the hibachi chicken). My kids have been eating hibachi/teppanyaki for pretty much all their lives, so it is old hat to them.

It has been a long day and I am more ready for bed than I think I ever have been.

Run here, run there...

GRRRR... Blogger ate my post. I've gotta get this thing moved to a new server. Oh Miss Zoot...

Anyway, what I was going to say in my last post was that I probably shouldn't even be sitting here... I need to be clipping coupons and throwing out old ones so that I can go grocery shopping this morning. The big kids have taekwondo at noon, so if I am to get the grocery shopping done before that, I have to be out of here by 9 or shortly thereafter, since it takes me a minimum of 1 1/2 hours to get the shopping done (drive time included). Then there is the hauling in and putting away....

Emily has a sleepover tonight, so I will need to run her to that. Then pick her up at 9:30 tomorrow morning to take her and Noah to LTC practice. Brian will stay here to supervise the house inspection and join us at the church building afterwards. The plan when that is done is to have a nice dinner out with friends to celebrate the sale of the house.

Sunday brings another trip out of town for Brian and another day-long event at church for the rest of us. I'm thinking maybe we will have our weekend on Monday and Tuesday... we need a little R&R.

Potpourri

Well, Brian's birthday wasn't a total bust... he actually made it home before 5:30. The kids met him at the door with birthday cards they had made for him. He liked the ITunes giftcard and car adapter for his IPod... now I have to find the other thing he needs to go with it; when I bought the adapter, I didn't read the fine print on the package which said he needs a Belkin TuneCast Mobile FM Transmitter or Cassette Adapter in order to hear it through his car stereo. And now that I have been reading reviews at the Apple website, I am thinking maybe I should just take it back. **sigh** But I digress. We had time to run to Wendy's before church for a quick dinner, then afterwards we headed across the street to Maggie Moo's for ice cream, accompanied by a couple of other families from church. Brian's mom called while we were there to wish him a happy birthday, as did our brother-in-law. All in all, it wasn't a bad day, considering he had to work. We figure we can really celebrate Saturday after the housing inspection is over... kind of a double celebration.

We had a great ladies' class last night. We started a new book, Managing Your Moods. I think this is going to be an awesome study. Last night we covered Chapter 1, "A Bundle of Emotions," and talked about how our moods can control us and how backwards that is to how it should really be. We shared a lot of laughter as well as some insightful thoughts on getting a handle on our moods. Next week, we will be covering "Happiness at Any Cost." We take turns facilitating the discussion each week, and I have signed up for Chapter 8, "Scattered." Hmm, I think I feel somewhat qualified to share some things about that!!

Today was another little brunch-type gathering for my friend Kami. She is in my ladies' small group that usually meets Thursday afternoons. Her parents were coming in from Searcy today at lunchtime, so we bumped up our meeting to this morning and had bagels at Panera together. It is hard to say goodbye and she keeps reminding us she will be back at the end of May for our minister's daughter's wedding. Then it will be time for us to say goodbye to everyone; that will be our last hurrah before we head to California.

Speaking of our minister... last week his mother died. He and his family got back from Arkansas Tuesday night, so last night was the first time we had seen him since getting the news. I told Halle and Joel about Mrs. White's passing earlier yesterday and said that Mr. Jim would probably appreciate a hug. So when we arrive at church, Halle happened to see Jim before she went to class. She went over and put her arms around him and patted his back and said, "I'm sorry about your mom." I was standing there and saw her and had one of those pleased mother moments. Later, at Maggie Moo's, Jim told me how Joel greeted him after class: "Your mom died. My mom says I should give you a hug." Out of the mouths of babes! But what I thought was really cute about Joel's reaction to the whole thing was when I told him and Halle that even though Mr. Jim was sad, he was also a little happy, because his mom loved God, Joel said, "Then she's ALIVE!" It was a really sweet moment. It's one of those things that makes you understand what Jesus may have been talking about when he said we should become as little children.

My, I wrote a book today... The kids are waiting for me to run them to a friend's house to play, so you are spared a longer entry!

Just another day

Today is Brian's 40th birthday. He has to work all day and then we have church tonight, so nothing special planned. We may not even have time for a nice dinner before church, as he may have to be there later than usual. Oh well, guess them's the breaks.

The house inspection is scheduled for Saturday morning. We had other plans, but apparently that is the only time it can be done, since the new buyers are supposed to be here for the last part of it. We are supposed to be having LTC practice all day (10-6); I'll head on to that with the kids and Brian can follow after the inspection is over.

On today's to-do list: put away laundry; bathe kids; wrap birthday present; have kids make birthday cards; bowling in the afternoon; church.

Passages

Try as I might, I can't stay asleep tonight.... went to bed early and keep waking up, so I decided to come downstairs and blog. Seems life is in such an upheaval these days. We signed a purchase agreement on our house this (Monday) morning. While I am glad we don't have to worry about selling it any longer (just waiting for the house to pass inspection), a big part of me also resents our buyers for insisting on an early moveout date for us. They are a small family of 4 whose belongings are already in storage.... yet they are asking us, a family of 6 plus a dog, to move out 6 weeks earlier than we need to. We will most likely wind up in a 3 BR furnished apartment of about 1200 square feet.... spending about $4-500 more per month on accommodations and utilities than we currently do in our 3400 square foot house. I resent their "We did this 4 years ago when we sold our house, and it was really easy and cheap." (Never mind it was only the 2 of them and an 18-month-old.) Add to that the insult of "If you have trouble selling your playset, we'll buy it for $500." (This is a Rainbow Monster Castle, which cost $7K 2 years ago.) I am just disgusted with the audacity and arrogance of these people! OK, breathe...

On to lighter subjects. Hubby's brush with fame wound up landing him on the local TV news as well, where they featured a clip showing his face on the Parade cover. Too bad they didn't try to contact him so he could correct the "registered nurse" part. One nice thing about the Parade exposure was that an old coworker from Eglin Air Force Base called to talk to him. He was wondering if the picture would bring any old acquaintances around...

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am having lunch with girlfriends from church. It is a bittersweet day; we'll be helping one friend celebrate her birthday (which was last Tuesday) and saying goodbye to another. My friend Kami (the Creative Memories gal) is leaving this weekend to move back to Arkansas; she and her 3yo daughter will be joining her husband, who has been living down there without them since right after Thanksgiving. As of yesterday afternoon, her house here had not sold yet, but there was someone who had expressed an interest after seeing it Sunday afternoon. I'm hoping they have called her back and made an offer. It would be a perfect way to end this whole episode.

I think I'll see if my brain will let me sleep now.

All the news fit to print (at the moment)

Today's news:

1. Hubby did indeed make the front cover of Parade today. He is right next to Lindsay Lohan. I told him to enjoy it; it's probably as close as he's ever gettin' to her! He is also on the front page of the local paper and is featured in a short article on page 2. 15 minutes of fame.... of course, on the Parade cover, they referred to him simply as a "registered nurse," which miffed him a bit. I told him they couldn't fit "certified registered nurse anesthetist" on one line, but he countered with the thought that those last 2 words would have fit. I'm not sure why they didn't feel the need to more accurately describe his job title, because there is a big difference in earning between a traditional RN and a CRNA.

2. Last night was our benefit auction for the non-profit adoption agency. Our totals were down this year... many of our regular attendees and good bidders were out of town and not able to be there. But the ones that were there gave it the old college try. Some of our big-ticket items that brought in large bids: a queen/king denim quilt made by a group of ladies from church brought in nearly $500; a homemade chicken fried steak dinner for 8 went for around $300 (this is a popular item every year); and 2 season tickets to a local college basketball team's games garnered a little over $300. Much appreciation to everyone who bid.

Now, time for me to get the kids ready for church. It's another all-day Sunday. Just have to hold out till Easter and we'll be done!

Unbelievable

Less than one week on the market... and we have accepted an offer. We wound up with an offer $3000 less than our initial price, but well within our appraised range.... closer to the upper end than the lower. The one drawback is that we are agreeing to vacate by April 15, about a month earlier than I'd really like to. It will be interesting to see where we end up for the last 6 weeks before we head to CA. It is quite possible it will be a 3BR apartment.... won't that be interesting with a dog??? I've not done apartment life with a dog before, only houses with fenced yards.

The nice thing is that we will have closed before we move and will have the $$ in hand for first and last month's rent on a house in CA. We want to go out at the end of April and look for a place.... closing in the middle of April will be a big help.

Sure will be nice not having to worry about the house being in showing condition at all times. But I still hope we can keep it from getting super messy again.

OH! Before I forget... my hubby will be featured in Parade Magazine (the Sunday paper insert) this weekend. It is the annual "What People Earn" issue. He is supposed to be on the cover... I don't know if the cover is the same nationwide or if they change it for different regions. And I don't know whether it is the main picture or one of the smaller pictures on the cover. He was interviewed and photographed for an article for the local paper this week as well, once they found out there was a local person on the cover. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

On a roll

Good to see blogrolling is back up. That was just a bit scary this morning!

The people who looked at our house Wed. afternoon are coming back tomorrow morning. Plus, we had one couple look at the house this morning (they gave us 30 minutes notice.... they were ready to make an offer on a realtor-listed home when they found out about ours and wanted to see it first.). This couple came back AGAIN this afternoon and by 5 had an offer on the table. It was laughable, though... under appraised value, PLUS they wanted us to throw in our 2-year-old Rainbow play structure (big wood playset with fort, monkey bars, slide, 3 swings, tire swing, rock wall, trapeze bar, and air pogo) in for nothing. We have counter offered and are waiting to see what they say. Other not-so-good thing about their offer: They want to close next month. They are living in TLF (temporary living facility on base) and want out ASAP. I'm not keen on the idea; my husband is willing if they meet our price. I don't know where it will end up. I am hoping the other couple coming back will also make us an offer, one that is more attractive and won't require us to move out before we need to.

Found out today that one of my friends (my Creative Memories consultant) is moving next weekend. She and her husband have been separated (only geographically) since Thanksgiving; she has been here trying to sell their house while he has been in Arkansas at a new job. They have finally had enough of the separation and are listing their house with a realtor so she can take their 3yo and go live with him. I don't blame her. It has been a long winter. I am going to miss her. She is 10 years younger than me, but has so much spiritual wisdom; I've learned a lot from her. Plus, she knows how to make me laugh. Our loss is Arkansas' gain.

Where'd everybody go?

If this is someone's idea of a joke, it isn't funny. Blogrolling appears to be down, and my long list of reads is gone. So for now at least, I cannot read your lovely/thought-provoking/side-splitting/mind-blowing blogs.... which means I cannot comment on said blogs. Not fair. Not fair at all. You'll have to just imagine what I would have said. And let me know how you liked it. :O)

In other news, the people who looked at our house yesterday seemed to really like it. The wife was jonesin' over our finished basement. She is a Creative Memories consultant and could envision using the largest room to have her open houses/crops... and filling the storage closet (one whole wall) with her inventory. They made it sound like if they are able to get out of their lease before August (when it is up) that they would make us an offer. We could be hearing back from them by the weekend. This whole thing has led me to discover a downside to doing a FSBO: actually meeting all the potential buyers. It certainly helps one get one's hopes up much easier.

Still alive

Guess it was late Friday night the last time I posted.... it has been a whirlwind of activity around here and I have had very little time to do much of anything online, other than check email.

Saturday afternoon we took a break from getting the house ready for the open house and took the kids to a movie. We saw The Pacifier, with Vin Diesel. Great family movie! Our whole family enjoyed it and more than one person asked if we would be getting it when it is released on DVD. I imagine we will.

We were up pretty much all night Saturday night doing all those last minute things to get the house in order. The kids didn't even fall asleep until 1:30 or so... I had to go lay down with them to get them to sleep. I fell asleep and slept from 2-3, then got back up and worked until 5 or so. Slept till 7 and then got up (sans alarm, even) and got ready for church. Hubby slept till 8:15 then he did more stuff on the house while the kids and I were at church. Held the open house from 2-4 and had 5 people (pairs) come through; most said they were scoping houses for other people. I figure that wasn't too bad for our first day, especially with no advertising other than our signs. I did get a phone call today from someone who is coming to look on Wednesday; they are friends of someone who looked on Sunday.

My next big job is getting ready for the benefit auction for our non-profit adoption counseling agency... The auction is Saturday evening. I finished up the programs today and am making copies tomorrow. We have a meeting tomorrow night to finalize some things. The auction is always a lot of fun; lots of friendly competition.

Off to watch a movie with the kids...