the difference a month makes

exactly one month ago, our house was put on the market.

one week later, we had an offer! (thank you, God!)

another week later, we'd finally agreed on a selling price with the buyer. (nothing short of a miracle.)

and now, here we are...two and a half weeks from handing over the keys to our first home.


so. it's been a busy month to say the very least. lots of praying and house-hunting and praying and number crunching and praying. we've found a house that we absolutely love. it's charming, it's spacious, it's in a beautiful neighborhood... and it's a short sale. so we are living the saying "hurry up and wait". i expected the house-selling to be the part that would take awhile. boy was i wrong. we've jumped through several of the hurdles involved with selling, and now we are so close to our new house that i can just taste it. i can picture my dishes in the cabinets (that um, need to be painted. yeah.) and my food in the pantry (cue hallelujah chorus). i can picture my grandmother's dining room table next to the fireplace with room to stretch. and i can picture my children grinning from ear to ear as they ride their bikes up and down the quiet street. i can also picture us with our new list of projects to make this house our home. :) don't worry. we are not going to touch the kitchen cabinets for a long, long while.

if i had the phone number of the short sale case manager, you betcha i'd be calling him every week to see where he thought my couch should go or to ask what color he would paint the bathrooms. by week 4, surely he'd stamp "approved" on that paperwork, don't ya think?! we have no idea how long this short sale process will take, or even if it will be approved at all. we are praying for patience and God's guidance through these unchartered waters... and praise the Lord our realtor is awesome. to quote her, she is a bulldog, and she is not letting go of this bone. :)

we are still working on where we will live as of april 29. i ask for your prayers with that as well. i know God will provide. my heart knows this. but my head freaked out just a little bit this afternoon. i've been the one telling brian, "we will NOT be homeless!"....and then about 2pm today, after several unsuccessful phone calls, i called him, crying, "we're going to be homeless!" God will provide. God will provide. God will provide.

in the meantime, we have lots of boxes to pack. i have lots of memories to go through. we'll start with this one...


7 years ago, april 10, 2004, brian proposed to me in the gazebo in our future backyard. and for the last seven years, God has blessed us in this little house. He truly has blessed us. i hope that in the next two weeks, in the midst of wading through boxes and packing paper, i can take time to enjoy our last little bit of time in our first house. more reminiscing to come...

uh oh....

i just found the magazine that i would love to jump into and live in...cottage living...(if only i could "blue skiddoo" like on ethan's favorite show!) i love pouring over magazines with great, affordable ideas to improve my home in little ways! "little ways??" brian asks... umm, a new--bigger--kitchen table has morphed into a slippery slope of kitchen changes... but we're leaving the countertops! ha! but that was all before i found this magazine. oooh fun. maybe i'll ask for a subscription for my birthday. it's not expensive at all... i just can't ever think of anything i want for my bday! so go check out the magazine online. if you're tammy, catherine, or kristi, i know you're gonna love it!!!!!!!! and if one of you has already heard of this magazine and didn't tell me, you're in trouble!

laundry musts for moms

ok, so who really likes to do laundry?? not me! i think my laundry basket (aka, our loveseat) is always full of laundry when my mom comes over to watch ethan... but i'm thankful to have a family that needs their laundry done. i'd much rather be doing laundry for them than to not have my sweet family!! in the last couple of months, i have discovered two wonderful, wonderful laundry helps... i'm just a little excited.

the first is oxiclean baby. it works just like the regular oxiclean, but it's dye-free, fragrance-free, etc... and does it ever make your baby clothes poop-free!!!! it is wonderful. i can dissolve some in a bowl in the bathroom, and throw poopy clothes in there to soak, and even a few days later (i know... i shouldn't leave them that long, but i just told you that i hate to do laundry!), throw them in the wash, and those white onesies are white again! the only time that i have to wash them twice is if i forget to soak them right away... another thing that works if i don't want to soak them is to just wet the clothes and rub some oxiclean on them. i haven't used the baby spray yet, but i may order some online. that would make my life even easier!! i've also been pouring a scoop into the washer as a detergent booster. with ethan's clothes, i've been rinsing them twice just to be on the safe side... but it's pretty free of everything that would aggravate his precious skin. (i was using the regular oxiclean, but i think it was too much for his sensitive skin.) anyway, i have found this the cheapest at target, though all they have is the 1.5 lb. tub. apparently, you can join oxiclean's "clean club" and get free shipping for their products. i am going to call and check on that... anything that saves me a trip to the store this time of year sounds good to me!!

a few weeks ago, i was stupid and threw all of ethan's clothes in as one load...with a few new RED outfits i'd bought (finally!! something that's not baby blue!). of course, a sock turned pink, as did most of a soft precious handknitted white blanket. i was planning on soaking them in tide (this must have been before i bought the oxiclean baby...), but my friend carrie told me about shout's color catchers. thank you, carrie! i had not heard of them, but now i see them in every store. they look like dryer sheets, and you just put them in the washer with your clothes. it soaks up all the loose dye that comes from new clothes, or whatever would otherwise become the staining culprit in your washer. they work GREAT!!! this is a great find for this mommy who loves red on her little boy.

so now laundry is more of a challenge for me... will the stain come out? how pink will that color catcher be when the load is done? i know, i'm a dork. but i'm a dork in really clean clothes!! now if i could just find something that automatically folds my clothes...

anybody have any other laundry secrets? i'd love to hear them.