Grandpa's Girl!

We discovered the other day that Emily has a new favorite food....mashed potatoes and gravy. She didn't much care about the potatoes until I put on the gravy...then she couldn't get enough.

The love of mashed potatoes and gravy is a delicacy that has been handed down through the generations in my family. They are my favorite food, my Dad's favorite food, they were my Grandpa's favorite food and I'm not sure beyond that.

I beamed with pride as I shared the joyful news with my Dad to which he responded that she was Grandpa's girl.

Indeed.

Big News!

We have big news to announce...and no, I'm not pregnant again.

We are putting an offer on a house this afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes this is very exciting as you can tell by all the exclamation mark.

I cant' really go into a lot of details because it is a foreclosure situation that the seller would like to keep on the low down but I can give you some details.

Because it is actually a short-sale they are a whole different ballgame than even a straight foreclosure. Basically the way it works is that we put in our offer which is a full-price offer of a house that is an incredible steal. The sellers then have to accept it, which they will, but then the bank needs to accept the offer...or deny it. But the not so short part of a short sale is that then we have to wait for the bank and that can take up to 3 months to get any kind of response. Yes that's right, THREE months before we hear ANYTHING from them. After that, if it is accepted it is then another month before closing so it could very well be 4 months before we actually move in.

This actually will work out well for us though since we have someplace to go and it will give us some much needed time off from all the house buying and selling and also give Jim an opportunity to focus on passing his tests. Not to mention that I won't have a house to take care of by myself so me and the kids will get some much needed R&R and just plain having fun!

Anyway, after we hear from the bank, if our offer is accepted we just set up the closing. If it isn't accepted, we then decide whether we are going to make a new, higher offer and then go from there.

So, about the house. It has a large master suite, 2 regular sized bedrooms and then one HUGE bonus room over the garage that we would eventually use as a bedroom for 2 or 3 girls...actually about 12 kids would fit in the room since it is like 10x25 or something like that.

The kitchen and dining area are very large which is something else that we needed with our growing family. The garage is much bigger than the one we have now which is something else that is difficult with our current living situation. The basement is an unfinished walkout so we can tailor that to our needs down the road.

It is almost 2 years old and has been well taken care of. It has neutral colors that I can't wait to personalize. It has a large lot which is something that is hard to find these days and it is in a neighborhood which we had fallen in love with in Byron Center some time ago. There are a ton of young kids there and great neighbors on both sides according to the homeowner...again with younger kids. The kids would have a great time there we think and see it as a great opportunity for them...and us. We truly feel God has led us to this point.

We are super excited to have come this far but are far from having a home yet. Now we wait. Our agent feels pretty good about the bank accepting our offer but we could use the prayers from all of you for God to guide this transaction according to His plan as we have now done everything we can. We'll keep you posted on any further details, but probably not for a while.

Equally as exciting to me...well almost is that I have found a new passion in the most unlikely place. I ran in my first 10k yesterday and absolutely LOVED it. I found myself actually praising God for the wonderful ability He's given me to do such a thing while I was running. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to do something that I find so fulfilling.

It's much more challenging than a 5k and has more serious runners in it...I love being around other self-disciplined, driven people. I guess then I don't feel so crazy all by myself! It is more like my experience with triathlons except much less time consuming, less expensive equipment and cheaper entry fees.

Even though I have run that distance for a couple of months now, I still doubted my ability and was quite shocked that I never felt like I was going to die like I expected. I knew there was some big hills but was happy to find that they weren't as much of a killer as I expected. I even had quite a bit of energy left at the end of the race and was able to sprint the last 200 yards or so. I was pretty happy with my time of 52:02. I can run it on a treadmill somewhere between 49 and 51 minutes...so with the hills and unfamiliarity of the whole thing I was very pleased. I finished 78 out of a total of 378 women and in the top half of my age group. Next time I'll be a bit more familiar with the while thing and able to race a bit more and get an even better time.

Speaking of the next time...I can't wait for it!

Summer!

Summer hasn't arrived in this family until you've gone swimming in the neighbor's pool at Grandpa and Grandma's. Yesterday was finally the day the kids have been asking for for the entire last 9 months.

Last year Rebecca just screamed when she was anywhere near the water but this year she jumped right in! We were shocked when she also announced that she wanted to go down the slide. She was completely fearless!

Then there was Emily. She couldn't get enough. She just kept wanting to go deeper and deeper in and she would have been the happiest if I would have just let her go. Her little feet kicked a mile a minute and she just may have been able to stay afloat. She splashed and splashed and was completely cover all over her face but she loved every minute of it. the water was only 78, but she stayed in for at least 15 minutes...longer than Annalise did.

As I mentioned, Annalise didn't stay in very long because she was cold.

Levi was the usual sport that he is about things despite the fact that he was cold too.

Both of the older kids definitely need to have a refresher on their "swimming lessons" as they took a few steps backwards but I'm sure they will recover the lost ground in no time.

It was a great time and felt even better on such a hot day!

Girls

Check out these girls. I captured these pictures of the girls that reflect their personalities so well that I just had to share them even though I don't have much more to say. Well I always have more to say but that will have to wait for another day as I am exhausted!

Selective Memory

You know it's a pivotal day in history when your kid actually beats you at a game. Not just any old chance game...roll of the dice, flip of the card but a good old fashioned use your brain only kind of game. Memory. Levi. Blew his mother out of the water.

Last night, our family room was the scene. Just he and I were playing and he chose memory of all games. He also wanted to play with all of the cards. Since there are over 40 pairs of cards usually we just play with some under the assumption that he couldn't play with so many cards. This was my first wrong assumption.

He found the first pair fair and square early in the game. Figuring I would have to "not find" some pairs that I knew or help him find some of his own pairs this early find was quite the shocker. I decided not to give in to help him so quickly. Pair after pair kept building up in Levi's pile and my little pile was quickly dwarfed by his.

About this time my competitive nature kicked in and I realized that I was in trouble and needed to get down to some serious business in order to win. No matter what I did I could not find pairs like he could. He turned over the match so many times and I could swear that I'd never seen that card before yet with the way he turned it over it was obvious that it had been turned over before and I clearly forgot.

Me, not remember. Me, with the photographic memory. I drive myself crazy with the fact that I only have to look at a phone number once and it is forever ingrained in my memory. Handy when you're in the car and you need to call extraneous places like Sam's Club or Family Christian Store but a bummer when these things are taking up valuable brain space and you can't get them out.

Well, the final score was Levi 27 pairs, me.....15. Yikes. That's my boy! A day to remember indeed. I am amazed at the wonderment of children yet again. Levi can't seem to remember to put his pajamas away in the morning but his memory clearly works just fine. What's up with that?

Muscle Building

So our house has passed inspections. Not that we thought it wouldn't, but we are one step closer to leaving. I am amazed at how hard this has been for me. I think some people deal with change better than others (read, not me) but I think that what has made it so difficult is that we don't have a new home to move to at this point. We really have no idea where we are going to end up, for that matter.

In essence, we are closing a very major chapter in our lives without being able to open a new one. We are saying goodbye to all the old memories without really knowing when we'll make new ones. This has been really hard for me.

I wish it was as easy for me as it is for my kids. It's all fine with them. They see it as some grand adventure (minus leaving their neighbor friends behind). They think it's just great that we're going to live at Grandma's and Grandpa's house. We obviously are very thankful that they have opened their home to us for as long as we need it, but it isn't the same as moving to a house that you can call your own.

I guess this is yet another instance where I can totally understand why God commands us to have faith like a child. They don't know where we're going, but that's ok. They trust that we've got it all figured out and it will be fine, come what may. Why can't we as adults do that?

I keep telling myself that not only am I training for a 10K right now I 'm also being trained in faith. Faith that even though I don't know where we're going, that's ok. Faith that my Father has it all figured out and it will be fine, come what may...where have I heard that before?

Training for a 10K has been painful but not nearly as painful as the faith training I've been going through. Things I never even wanted to think about before, I've had to embrace. The face I see when I look in the mirror looks very different than the face I saw even 2 months ago. I've had to actually live what I preach to my kids...that everything is in His timing, not ours. I've had to admit to others but more importantly to myself that I don't have all the answers and I don;t actually have a plan. I've had to walk through some doors that He's opened saying, "You want me to go there...are you sure?"

Faith. Such a little word... such a huge concept.

I know that faith building is like muscle building. You need to break down before you can build up. But just like muscle building I know one day I'll look in the mirror and see something that wasn't there before and say, "Man, where did that come from?" Just like you do when you see evidence of a muscle that you never knew you had.

I'm no different than anyone else. I want the muscle without all the work. But it's the work that makes us appreciate just how far we've come. The pain makes the reward all that much better. The pain earns us the muscle that we never would have seen otherwise. The pain changes us.

Change me, even though it hurts.

Buckets

This is the amount of tears that I have cried over the past 5 days.

This is the way that I have been living for the past 5 days...with buckets and boxes and piles of things everywhere.

Our house is sold and it is completely bittersweet. I have been an emotional wreck and under more stress than I ever have been. We were offered a fair price for our house...2 people were fighting over it, but the best offer included us being out 10 days after close. That left us no time to try to find a house and kick some poor other family out 10 days after close. Between being sad and stressed out I heard such comments as...

"Mom, what's wrong with your face?"
"Mom, why are you crying?"
"Mom, what's the matter?"
"Mom, why do you look like that?"

Not to mention that I lost a bunch of weight so now my kids are mocking me because my underwear is always showing because my shorts keep falling down.

I know that selling your house is the reason for putting it on the market but it just became very real when it came time to sign on the dotted line. My kids were all brought home from the hospital here, we dreamed about this house long before we ever built it and our hand prints are forever imprinted in our driveway. Our footprints and memories are everywhere in this house and the time is quickly drawing to a close for us to make more memories here. A chapter in our life is closing and this for me is never easy.

I love looking forward, but I also have a hard time letting go of what's behind. I'm a sap and way too emotional sometimes. I like things planned and I'm a total homebody. I love being home, making memories with my husband and kids and we are finding ourselves homeless, so to speak.

We have decided to take some of the pressure of this whole thing off and accept the ability that Jim's parents have given us to stay there for as long as we need to find a house. That way, Jim can focus on his testing that he has coming up in the next month and we can start eating meals at home again instead of in the car. We have spent literally every day eating at least 1 meal in the car for the past 2 weeks as we have been constantly evicted from our house for showings or on the road trying to find our future home.

We are very fortunate to have parents that can allow us to do this and accommodate us comfortably. It will be quite an adventure but will buy us some much needed time to find the right house for us. We had found a couple of houses that we loved over the past few months, but lost them since we still had a house to sell. Now we are in a position to be able to buy a house that we love once we find it. This is definitely easier said than done, believe it or not.

I'll keep you updated on our adventure and fill you in on some more of the things that have been going on around here lately but frankly after having lost almost an entire weeks worth of sleep (in addition to losing weight I lose sleep when stressed) I'm exhausted and need to head up to bed.

Woo Hoo!

Today was my first race in almost 2 years. I've lived in Cutlerville for 9 years and now my house is for sale and this is the first year I've run the race that takes place here. I've always watched everyone else run past while secretly longing to be running.




When Jim was in retail Saturdays were always a big day that he would be working and ever since switching to AMR he's always been working too. Except for this year. My wonderful husband stayed up for close to 48 hours so that he could watch the kids while I ran.


It was great except for I had a hard time knowing how to pace myself since I've been running 6 miles instead of 3 for the past couple of months. I didn't want to have too much energy left at the end so I gave it everything I had. I'm wearing black and grey shorts, sort of in the middle of the pack in the pictures.





I was pretty pleased with the results...23:35, 9th in my age group and 68 out of 575 women.


The kids had fun watching the whole thing. Now I just have to gear up for my 10K in 2 weeks!


Thanks to my honey for the great start to my day!

Daddy Day

So we took the kids to the park yesterday and it was packed. I noticed something different about the people that were there. They were mostly Dads. They had multiple children with them. They had water bottles and packed lunches. They were giving timeouts when their children misbehaved and helping them climb and slide.

the funniest part about this though was that while they were doing all this they were standing in a circle together talking. I couldn't resist creeping over to hear what I thought would be the latest sports scores or grilling basics 101. Instead I was dumbfounded that the topics of the day were potty training and eating habits/recipes they have discovered work for their kids.

It was hilarious! They were sharing titles of books they've read about these issues and had discussions about the books. I actually made a mental note about a couple of them!

These were macho, gym going type guys being Dads. I wish I could have faded away and left my husband to bond with the other Dads, but oh well. I got some valuable parenting advice!

Way to go Dads!

"Put it in Writing!"

Don't you love it when God speaks to you. It's not always easy to hear but sometimes it's so loud I actually laugh at myself for the times that I doubt whether He actually speaks. I had one of those times just now.

We have two showings on our house in the next 2 days. One couple is coming back for a 2nd time with their parents...always a good sign.

This has caused me to begin freaking out again as we have not found that perfect house yet, or at least one that didn't get bought by someone else! For those of you that know me at all, it won't surprise you to know that I feel such panic about finding myself homeless that I stalk the realtor websites several times a day hoping to find that perfect house that wasn't listed the hour before when I checked. We have seemingly looked at everything in the areas we are thinking we should be in and there is nothing else to see and nothing that we absolutely love yet. Panic sets in next for me...we also have a realtor that is working with us to find us our perfect house yet somehow this doesn't seem to lessen my craziness.

So, I was going online to search the listings that I had just searched and decided to check my email first. I subscribe to daily devotionals from P31 ministries and when I pulled up today's entry my jaw hit the floor, or desk as it were.

It was about waiting. Waiting for God. Little waits like the line at the bank and big waits (like finding a house). The author went on to say that during times of long waits she needs to remember to focus on her relationship with God rather than the issue that is causing her to wait. That's right, waiting on God rather than checking the online listings for the 10th time today. Well, it didn't say that exactly, but that's what I heard.

Next came the laughing part...at myself. Duh. I'd much rather read my Bible, or a devotional or a relevant Christian book than I would scan the web for the perfect house. So that's just what I did. Read the devotional again. Instead of feeling a sense of panic like I do when I don't find the house we're looking for I felt a sense of peace.

My wonderful husband keeps telling me to calm down about the whole thing. To trust that He's got it all figured out. That the right house will appear at the right time. I have always ignored him, dismissing his suggestion as part of his laid-back personality. After all, in the 16 (yikes) years that we've been together I can't think of one time that I've seen him panic. Of course he's not going to feel the same amount of stress I do about this whole house thing but I know that God uses the people in our lives to speak to us sometimes...I wasn't listening.

Sometimes I just wish He would put His personal messages to us in writing(other than the Bible). Well, I heard Him today. I laugh at the thought of him shaking his head muttering to Himself, "well, well...she finally heard me!" I know as the perfect picture of patience He didn't really say this but I in my sinful nature sure would have if my kid finally heard me after the 50th time!

I heard You, loud and clear. I think I'll set my Bible next to the keyboard just to make sure I don't forget!

Fishy Genes

Okay, so I was off by when Emily's first tooth would arrive...it came today instead of yesterday. Just when I thought she was done with her tricks she continued to surprise me. Yesterday I left her in our downstairs family room...or so I htought where she can't get into any trouble while I went upstairs to put some laundry away. When I came back downstairs a few minutes later I found her in our upper living room. I thought I lost my mind as I could have sworn I left her on the lower level. I also felt totally irresponsible as the steps are right there for her to tumble down in the living room. I was shocked a few hours later to actually watch her crawl up the whole flight of stairs right before my very eyes as if she'd done it her whole life. What a stinker...she's already succeeding at making me feel like I"m crazy and she's not even 1!

We had a fun day outside today. My kids LOVE playing with water. They can find water anywhere. In the dead of winter they somehow manage to find even the tiniest drip coming out of the downspout and somehow manage to soak themselves. In the warmer months they find water in watering cans, sand toys, the bottom of the slide or even collected in the dips in the sidewalk. They are constantly wet and half of the time muddy too.

For this reason I try to let them "get it out of their systems" whenever I can. Maybe if they are allowed to play with it more often they will leave it alone when they aren't allowed (so far this hasn't worked). But, water was a favorite past time of mine as I'd swear I'm part fish so I love to watch them have fun with it too.

Who needs a pool when you have storage tubs? Levi discovered that headfirst when the bucket is on the driveway isn't the best idea. Annalise wanted something to swim in but had a ton of fun when she discovered the joy of dunking her head and then soaking others with the flinging of her hair. Rebecca was so cute because the cold water took her breath away every time she got in.

Then there was Emily. This was her first bucket pool experience and her "fishy" genetics did appear as she squealed with delight. Her water was warm initially but after it cooled down she was content to crawl around in the water on the driveway. Somehow I think she'll follow right along in the footsteps of the others and be able to find water anywhere....even in the desert.

We also had her try out her shades. she decided they were better for sucking on than actually wearing but she still looked like a movie star. Too cute.

The other day I came home from the gym in the afternoon and was a sweaty mess so I put the sprinkler out, we got on our suits and we all ran through it. The kids thought that was pretty fun too. No I do not have pictures of that as I'm sure it was quite the site. Not every day that a thirty something woman runs through the sprinkler.

Bye Bye Baby

Where has the time gone? I saw a newborn the other day and was amazed to see that Emily is SO much bigger. She still seemed like a baby to me. Then all in the same week she has changed so much and it is evident that she is anything but a baby.

She is getting a tooth; like today. I've been able to see her two bottom ones really well for a couple of weeks but today I can see that there is one that I think is breaking through the skin. I guess this would explain why EVERYTHING has been going in her mouth. Yesterday I could see that she was chewing on some white cottony looking substance. After removing it from her mouth and inspecting it I realized she was pulling parts of her diaper off and eating it. Then just now I found her with something else in her mouth and realized she had taken a big bite out of the vinyl tablecloth that I had just taken in from hanging out to dry. Who does this, really? I cannot tell you the number of papers that have big bites out of them. I think we should start calling her goat or something since she can make a meal out of anything.

I'm also realizing how much she is growing because she is no longer crawling on her hands and knees but on her hands and feet. I know that walking is right around the corner now. She has been walking along things for a couple of weeks now.

Levi continues to be partial to her. He cannot handle his other sisters even bumping him without feeling he has somehow been wronged but Emily can abuse him any way she feels like. Here she is actually hitting him on the face and pulling his ears and poking him in the eyes. He is constantly playing with her and is always the first one to help when she is having a difficult time.

Go figure.

Still Buried

We are still buried in snot rags over here as everyone is still sick. With that being said I just have one thing to post that really brought some laughter to our house tonight. I don't have a picture to put with this post because there has only been red eyed, runny nosed, GRUMPY children around here for the past 10 days.

With sickness, looking for houses and making sure our house is ready for showings the stress level has been a bit high around here. Jim really hasn't been around much more yet, so somehow I'm still on my own when I looked forward to not being on my own. A big letdown for me. He's been fortunate enough to have OT to pick up and studying at school so he's still pretty much gone or sleeping all the time.

Anyway, we are mainly looking at 2 story houses and we have explained to the kids that they seem to have the most room for us. Levi thinks they are called 2 style houses and I cannot convince him otherwise.

Tonight during prayer he asked that God would help us find a 2 style house to fit all our junk in. I CRACKED up...but I guess with 6 people and homeschooling he's not too far off base.