Oh yes they call him the streak!!!!!! 

Ball season is upon us and with 3 playing this year, we are spending mucho hours at the ball fields. Hudson is enjoying wearing ball caps now that he sees all of his big brother and sisters wearing them. 

I'm sorry to brag but....goodness....I have gorgeous children :) 

Hudson is 2 now (sniff). He had a "planes, trains, and automobiles" party with family and a few close friends. It was fun! 

Our friend Luke at Hudson's birthday party. 

Vanity

The girls have enjoyed the vanity in the master bathroom. Ray is attempting to straighten Indie's curly hair with a flat iron. It's not an easy task. 

Leave It To Indie

Pitiful, isn't it? This is my first post in weeks even though there have been massive amounts of things I should be writing about. But, I guess maybe it's because things have been so gargantuan that I haven't had a chance to write.

We're all moved in. We're not all unpacked but we're all in. We're not completely furnished with the things we'd like to have and were without a couch or any seating places in the "great room" for about a week, but we survived and will continue to survive. Committment to cash-only purchases definitely requires us to practice the idea of delayed-gratification.

Anyway, as the title says, leave it to Indie to bring me back to blogging. She said the most hilarious thing at Wal-mart tonight and I just had to make note of it.

We were walking by the pajama/loungewear section and there was this terrible little t-shirt that had a picture of Pebbles from "The Flintstones" on it. She was crawling in her diaper and looking back over her shoulder so that her diaper was the most prominent thing in the picture. The caption read, "Baby Got Back." I saw it and kinda moaned over the ickiness to myself. Indie went right up to it and said, "Does this mean the baby went away and now the baby got back?"

ROFL!!!!

I just said, "You're so funny, Indie, " and let it go with that.

Okey dokey....it's late and I'm still pooped from MannaFest (Fort Worth with thousands of other Mannatechers including He-Man!!). I'm so glad to be home with Henry and the big kids. I missed them so much. I hope that one day we can ALL travel together ALL the time. I don't like being without them.

TTFN.

Dependability

I KNOOOOW that I'm not the most dependable person in the world and I've done my fair share of optimistic planning only to not be able to follow through but after this week, I'm going to work EVEN HARDER at not saying I'm going to do something if I don't know that I can.

Why?

I've been on the receiving end of no-shows.....or as the eBay world calls it.... "non-paying bidders."

3 out of 5 completed auctions I had listed on eBay turned into non-responding sales. 3 out of 5!!! I wanted to get this stuff OUT of my house ASAP and now I'm having to deal with stuff AND no money AND going through the eBay process to dispute the claims (eBay charges for listing the items and then charges a % of final bid. One of my items sold for over $100 so it's a significant charge for it!)

And then I sent out an email trying to sell some other things that were a little too good for regular old yard sale fodder and I had a couple of requests (commitments in my head) only to have those to fall through, too.

Sigh.

I'm truly not grumpy...it's been a really good day! In fact, it's my birthday :) I have forgotten this fact numerous times during the week and even a couple of times during the day. It's amazing how age has made me less focused on birthdays! I think I have confused Rocky pretty bad. I told the kids this was the year that I started going backwards in age and that I was 29 again. David believes me and tells everyone very matter-of-factly that I'm NOT 31!

Prayers are lifted for our house closings to go through smoothly tomorrow. I did post where they were postponed, right? Yeah, I think I did.

Prayers also for the numerous children I am hearing about these days with massive health challenges. 4 kids in particular who have cancer. There IS HOPE yet I don't have access to all 4 of these kids to tell them about it. I'm praying about approaching the family of 1 particular child, I've already approached another of the children's parents (to no avail) but 2 of the families are more distant (but local so I'm praying for an opportunity for me or another person to share with them.) I'm really wanting to start a local Manna Relief fund.... I don't have the time, that's for sure, so I'm praying someone who DOES have the time and desire will come forward.

Henry is ready to watch a little bit of our Malcolm In The Middle DVD box set. More later :)

I'm back.

But I ain't in a new house yet. Hmph.

Got a call today that closing must be postponed until Monday.

Double-hmph.

Grrr.

Getting over it.

Indie and Rocky are at Uma & Arthur's for a couple of days. Ray and He-Man are home with us. I hope Ray enjoys her quality time that she is looking for. Hope she doesn't get mad at me for putting her to work.

Back to being grumbly -- there is so much we were going to do at the new house this weekend....grrr.

I'm wearing my glasses again. Did I ever post that I got some? They had one REALLY bad lens that needed a new Rx. At first I was told to just 'keep wearing the glasses and you'll get used to them.'

Nope. They needed a new piece of glass for the right eye. I got it swapped and VOILA...I can see so much better!

I REALLY, REALLY hope there are some folks living close by us that would like to be an accountability/walking partner for me. I really want to get back to walking and I know I won't do it by myself.

Pray for no rain on Monday morning so that Andy's new parents can come get him and so that my yard sale won't turn into a living room sale.

OK. Goodnight.

One last post before bedtime... 

Panting

No, that's not a typo for a title -- although I could totally write an entry about 'painting'. Truth is, I'm PANTING from all this stuff going on these days. Trying to move while life goes on is an exhausting experience. I actually have a teeny bit of HEARTBURN! I NEVER get heartburn....unless I'm pregnant and NO I AM NOT PREGNANT.

Anyway, there's just a bunch of stuff going on. Things are really good, though.

Stuff going on:

• I'm taking Indie and Rocky to Uma & Arthur's tomorrow after school. They will stay there for a couple of days of playing. Ray wants to stick around and help with moving. She also has a bball game on Saturday morning so she needs to be here anyway.
• We're closing on both houses Friday morning. (Kids are out of school for Teacher In-Service)
• We'll start the moving process immediately afterwards. I will also begin removing wallpaper from the girls' NEW bedroom and kids' NEW bathroom in preparation for painting (Happy Birthday to me! I don't have to paint!!!)
• I sold several things on eBay and need to work with buyers to get their stuff over the weekend. I'm worried about 2 buyers from out of state. I haven't heard from them about the auction ending yet and I'm concerned they might be no-shows. I've never had that happen before. I'm curious what will happen.... Anyone know?
• Monday - I'm having a good, old-fashioned yard sale. Cleaning out tons of stuff!
• Monday is also the day Andy will be moving to Alaska. Yes, you heard me right....Alaska. We will be meeting his new owners at a small non-towered airport for him to begin his new jet-setting life with a pair of aviation missionaries. He'll be flying most of the next 4 weeks! Isn't that wild? Long-story short (for those of you who haven't heard) -- Andy has just been too much of a puppy for us lately. We haven't had the time to continue with his housetraining and we're worried for him in the new house. We won't have a doggie door and we'd have to keep him locked up for fear of ruining furniture & carpet. I found this Mannatech couple of has promised he will continue to get his Ambrotose every day! We're going to miss him SO much!
• Tuesday - our sweet painter (lady from church) will start working on the girls' room. We'll also have our water filtration unit moved from this house to the new one and we'll probably plan to get lots of our utility stuff turned on this day. Hopefully the cable/phone folks can come by and help us with our computer & TV.
• Friday-week - I'm going to be doing some volunteer work at the school. I need to remember to get a babysitter for the boys....

And speaking of school.....we've decided to let Rocky go to pre-k next year and then start him at the girls' school the following year for kindergarten. There is no doubt he is intellectually/scholastically ready for 1st or 2nd grade but we think a pre-k will do wonders for him in other areas of maturity. He's not thrilled about this but Henry and I are confident it is the right decision for him. With a June birthday, we'd rather him be the oldest in his classes than the youngest.

I guess that's enough for now. I will probably write my next entry from the NEW HOUSE! WHOO HOO :)

Here's the back of the house that I posted a picture of earlier in the week. It sits on a .6 acre lot of land. And guess what..... 

Well...we did it!!! We bought the house I posted here earlier in the week! We got an offer on our house the same day we found this one. And would you believe BOTH of those events occurred on that Monday that I skipped going to Birmingham???? I'm thinking that was TOTALLY a God thing....Anyway, these pictures are ones that the owners/realtor posted to market their house. This is one from the kitchen. We are getting that refrigerator (whoo hoo!). The door beside it goes to the utility/laundry room (which also leads to the driveway.) The doorway you can barely see to the right leads to a 'bonus room' that could eventually be used as a 5th bedroom someday. We will probably use it as a office/guest room. It has a half-bath attached as well as a door to the driveway. There is also an enormous closet attached to it. It was being used as a sewing room by these owners and could potentially be a small office space. I had originally thought I might go that route but I'm leaning towards making it a mini junkroom. By the way, WE LOVE THIS HOUSE and give God every ounce of GLORY He deserves because this house could NOT be possible without HIS outpouring of blessings on our family. PRAISE GOD! 

Thes pictures were obviously made during Christmas time. We REALLY love the arrangment in the great room. The smaller sofas in front make a cozy place for watching TV and the chairs in the back make a nice sitting area. You can see the doorway to the master bedroom. There is a door to the left as well that takes you down the hall to 3 bedrooms and a bath. 

The foyer. 

The fireplace is setup for gas logs to be hooked to a propane tank. It might be next year before we try to do that. I love that mirror above the mantle but am not sure what we will put there. We really like the arrangement for the entertainment center. 

Beautifully colored (crimson) dining room. Not sure how formal I want this to be. Needs a Daniel Moore painting :) 

Breakfast area of the kitchen. I want to get a funky, bright-colored clock for just above the windows...and I want it to be BIG or at least VERY EASY to read. 

Master bath vanity - has 2 walk-in closets, garden tub, separate shower, phone by the toilet! Now....will y'all wonder where I am if we talk on the phone??? LOL 

Could It Be?

Could it be???? Could this be our next home???? We will know in a few days!!! It's looking good, though! Just gotta keep praying :)