Awesome

Disappointment

So the house deal didn't work out like we had hoped. I am trying not to be disappointed, but I have to admit that I am. I know God has a plan here. It may be that He has another house planned for us, or He may just want us to wait a little longer on this house - I haven't given up on this particular house yet. Only time will tell what His plan is.

Still Waiting Patiently

Well we have not heard a thing yet on the offer we made. It's been hard to not get my hopes up but I am doing ok. Of course there has been a good amount of daydreaming about what we will do if we get the house. There is a growing list of things that we need to do to our house to get it ready to sell. The first thing is to rent a storage locker and move some of the stuff out - just to make it look bigger and not so cramped. With that there will be a lot of decluttering - at least I hope. We have so much stuff that we just don't need and don't use. There are also all the little fix-ups that need to be done. Which gets me to thinking - why is it that we do all these things if we think it will make our house more desirable to someone else, yet we don't do them for ourselves. After all, some of the things we are talking about doing we have been living with for years. Oh well, hopefully we will hear something soon.

Oh, another thing I have learned, I have more patience than Brian does. Several times he has wanted to call our realtor to see if she has heard anything. I told him that I am quite sure that if she had she would let us know. I really can't imagine why she wouldn't. And hounding her isn't going to make things go any faster.

Avoiding Disappointment

First, I should tell you that we made an offer on a new house yesterday. You would think that I would be overflowing with excitement and anticipation, right? Well, I am not. As much as I would love to sit and dream about this new house being ours, I will not let myself. I have realized that I have some weird defense mechanism that I won't allow myself to get excited about something like this because I don't want to feel disappointed later. I do have to say that I don't feel as nervous about making this offer as I have in the past when we have made such huge financial decisions. As much as I want this to work out so that we get the house, I have put it all in God's hands. If He wants us to have this house, He will make a way. It will be Him who decides whether the owner accepts our offer. It will be Him who decides whether our current house will sell. Or it will be Him who decides this isn't the right move for us to make and He will close the doors on it. In the meantime, I am sitting here trying not to get my hopes up too high because I don't want to be too disappointed.

VBS Time

It's that time of year once again where our church is transformed into something unrecognizable. This year's theme is Power Lab - the Power of Jesus. Pretty cool looking isn't it?

Fire the Canons

While on vacation we visited the Pea Ridge National Military Park. While I don't call myself a history buff by any means, for some reason the civil war era is quite interesting to me. This is the second battle field that we have visited. Last year we went to Shiloh in Tennessee. There were not nearly as many monuments at Pea Ridge, but the film they showed was much better. There were also a lot fewer people there so we were better able to enjoy ourselves. Stephen really enjoyed it, though Skylar was more than ready to leave soon after we arrived.

Christmas in July

Well we made it back from vacation - whether we wanted to or not. We had a very enjoyable time. We saw lots of interesting things, rested, swam, shopped and did all the things you are supposed to do on vacation. I am ready to go again.

We visited the Daisy Airgun Museum while in Rogers. It was a neat little place telling the story of the B-B Gun. If you know Brian at all you know that one of his all time favorite movies is A Christmas Story. And if you have ever seen the movie, you know it revolves around a little boy who badly wants an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle. Well we saw the official rifle made especially for the movie as well as a replica of possible one of the most famous lamps in the history of movies...see for yourself.

Now that - if you didn't know is one major award!!!

Happy 4th of July

Happy birthday USA. And happy 14th anniversary to the love of my life.

A Little Time Off

Well it's vacation time again. And I am sooooooo ready. This year we decided to stick close to home. We are going to be spending a few days in Northwest Arkansas. We will only be about 2.5 hours from home, but at least we will be somewhere. We don't really have anything scheduled to do. We are just going to play it by ear. I know there will be swimming as Skylar's only requirement was that the hotel have an indoor pool. In fact she just wanted to go back to the same place we went last year. So of course, I obliged her by finding an indoor pool. We really just plan on relaxing. Maybe seeing a movie - there is still a drive-in movie theater up in that area. Of course, I am sure there will be some shopping. Stephen was even excited to hear there were some Civil War battlegrounds near there. He really must have enjoyed that last year. Anyway, I am sure we will find plenty to keep us busy, and I will try to give a full report - or at least some pictures - when we return.

We Are the Champions

Way back in May (gee I am behind) Stephen's school held a kickball tournament. All of the second grade classes played against each other and Stephen's class came out on top. His teacher commented that this was the first time her class had ever won the tournament. Brian helped out with the coaching, while Skylar and I cheered from the sidelines.

Sprinkler Fun

Nothing says summer like running through the sprinkler. A few Friday's ago, I promised the kids if they were especially good for the morning and helped with all of the housework they could play in the sprinkler that afternoon. Believe it or not they managed to be good and got their reward.