oh my days...part two

i know all of my readers (all two or three of you) are wondering what in the world is taking me so long to post again. or maybe you're wondering how the sweltering heat is working itself out with all of my fun doggy diesel truck adventures. oh the thrills of being a stay-at-home mom who's trying to sell a house and nap a baby and grocery shop and cook and stay cheery and manage to exercise and remember to put on deodorant and brush her teeth...daily.

well here's your update. our house is sold. well, not sold like we have the buyer's check in hand. but sold as in the contract is signed and we had our inspection today. and the inspector said that he found only minor things that we'll have to fix. praise the Lord, we don't have buy a new roof. wheew. and the beautiful thing about our buyers is that they were/are going to let us rent back from them for up to six months (allowing us time to find a house to buy). but as God would have it, we found a house. and that contract is signed too. and here's the even more beautiful thing. (back story: we've been house hunting/looking for over a year now but didn't feel peace about putting our house on the market and even worked with a designer and got drawings done of an addition to our current house. we wanted to exhaust all possibilities before selling. so we just kept taking small next steps.) ok, back the beautiful thing. Todd went to costa rica, in may, for a men's retreat. and when he came back he said that he felt like we were going to sell our house. but he didn't know when we should put it on the market -he was still working out that detail with God. but what he did know was that he felt certain that God had told him that we would have a new house by July 24th. i'd be lying if i said i doubted what he told me - i mean, that meant that in two months we would have a new house. two months. right? right. so about a week and a half after todd's return, we put the house on the market. and the chaos began. (please refer to oh my days part one to be reminded of said chaos.) and within a week and a half we had three offers on our house - one of which we accepted. and in that same insanely short amount of time we continued to scour the local MLS and go and visit many houses. and each time we left a house we just sighed. it was discouraging feeling like our house wasn't out there. it just wasn't. but then last tuesday, while todd was at small group, i started scouring the MLS again - as IF i'd see something different than i had a few hours before. but i did. i saw a beautiful white house with a rocking chair front porch, a huge yard, three bathrooms (not one. umm, like we have now.), and just hope. oh the hope and sweet excitement of growing our family.

i did a little drive by the next morning to just look at the house - hoping for confirmation. for a word from God. and wouldn't you know that i got busted peeking in the windows by the owner of the house. but as God would have it, i got my own personal tour of the house. our house. i say ours because it will officially (God willing the inspection on it goes smoothly and all of the next steps in finalizing everything) be ours in July. anyone care to guess what the closing date was stated as on the offer contract? right. July 24th. it wasn't requested by us, that's for sure. we got the contract in hand and todd said, "did you see the close date?" amazing.

on another note - we're working out some kinks in the ever changing world of loralai. from two naps to one. this mama has been worked. just when i need to be gone every flippin' day do to house moving appointments and stuff, my baby decides that one nap is suffice and that a grumpy attitude due to the change is just fine and dandy by her. lately she'll let out this whiney fake cry and then look straight faced at me and say, "baby sad?" and i say, "no. baby's faking. now cut that out. baby's happy." and she smiles and whines and goes about her business in a real moody girl kind of way. and then she'll have giggle fits. oh my days. that's what i say. life is so sweet with this short little talking baby. she'll say things like: "mommy ree book." "mommy cawkin' on a woephone." "maaaa-eeee! mere! gi down!"

and apparently i cussed today when loralai stepped on my toe...i said "oh gosh!! ouch." it was the most pleasant thing i could say when i felt like my baby toe was crunched in two. and she just waddled around the house saying "gosh. gosh. gosh." i'm just really glad she only hears gosh to parrott.

and on another note, i'm going to start coupon clipping and going to a cash envelope system for grocery shopping. i'm determined to be determined about doing something thrifty other than eating the baby's leftover lunch for my lunch. plus, if i write it and say it out loud i'm more likely to do it.

and on another note, i got baptized on sunday. and it was a sweet celebration. i cried my eyes out - which actually really surprised me. but, more about the baptism later.

hope all is well in your world wherever you are and that you're making room to see God move in your life.

oh my days...

i have no pictures to post - they'll come later. but i do have some humor for you. my life.

we put our house on the market last week. and last friday we had our first showing. and by saturday we had an offer. we accepted. we jumped up and down and praised God for some crazy quick house selling skills. and then the offer fell through. so that you know, we didn't shout or pout at God. we just accepted that He is working out something different than what we thought was best. and usually That is the best route.

todd and i are learning a lot in this long first week of home selling. like how to keep a house spotless...because for the past three days, we have had six showings. right. that means this: get baby up in morning. feed baby breakfast. play. read books. clean house spotlessly like tazmanian devil because running vacuum while baby sleeps is a no-go in a small house. get baby to help clean by giving her her own papertowel and smile as she wipes floors, counters, chairs and even my feet while saying "Keeen up! Keeen up!" take dogs out to poop. clean up poop so that new homebuyers don't step in fresh terd. sweep back porch. pick new flowers to put in vases. do laundry in a mad hurry. shower. brush teeth. throw in makeup. put baby down for nap. pack travel lunch, diaper bag and sanity and put in truck. right. truck. todd's big diesel truck with camper shell on back. get baby up from nap. throw open her blinds and shades. put her in play clothes. don't forget baby shoes, hat and sunscreen...oh yea, water. for her and me. put baby in truck. give her rice cake to prevent whining or a million questions: go pay? giii up? ok? me? mommy truck? daddy truck? doggy pay? ma-eeee come! .....and then load up dogs in back of truck that looks like this. "load up maddie." maddie runs to truck. jumps. first feet land, then jump back off. readjust. rerun. she takes another look. turns around a few times. runs ten feet backwards, then runs for truck and makes the leap. wheew. i breathe. her arthritic legs made the leap. good girl, maddie! frankie stands. she stands like a pissed off Eeyore. and i try to motivate a leap into the truck but it never works. she stares at me. i think she's cussing me with her dark brown/black eyes. i'm pretty sure she is. and i think it's because she know she'll be in a confined space with the ever optimist maddie...and frankie's the pessimist. the Eeyore. i laugh. i bend over and pick her up. i feel like i'm holding a ticked 60 pound goat. i hoist her in the truck. maddie pounces to lick her. frankie growls. aaah sisterly love. frankie lies down. maddie runs in happy circles. typical. i put key in ignition, wait for glow plug light to go out so i don't kill engine..then crank up the - laka laka laka laka - clunky sounding engine and away we go. into the sunset. yea right. into the hot blazing sun. the park. we go to the park to eat lunch. we eat. we play. but not for long. we must keep moving so that the dogs don't have a heat stroke. and then we come home and pee and play and the baby takes a nap. ....and we do it allllll over again. only this time no lunch. just snack. but still, it's me, the baby and the happy and pissed dogs. and sweat. lots of sweat. and changing poopy diapers in the front seat of the truck. and singing happy day endlessly and telling loralai "we're almost there" as she tries to gnaw her way out of her carseat while telling me "giiii up!" she's ready to get up and i don't blame her.

and so i pray "lord, one of these showings BEST make an offer b/c i can't keep going like this all summer." this mama's gotta rest sometime.

and this morning we have two guys working on some of our non-working fans. and we have one bathroom. and they're right on the other side of the bathroom's wall. and i have to poop.

what a day...and it's only 9:30a.m.

please laugh.
(and pray that our house sells. and when it does...pray that God shows us where to live. aah to walk by faith. God's got such a sense of humor.)