The Dentist

I took Olivia and Anna Grace to the dentist on Wednesday. The dentist said that their teeth looked great. He went on to add that we needed to work on getting Olivia to stop sucking her thumb before her adult teeth come in. He said that I need to be "Consistent and Committed."

I had talked to her about is a couple of weeks ago. I had told her that she is supposed to stop when she turns five. She suggested that she stop when she turned 48. So, after our trip to the dentist, I talked to her about it again, and she honestly tried for about an hour to stop. She usually holds her blanket and sucks her thumb when she is tired. She decided that she would stop sucking her thumb and just smell her blanket. She came back in a little while later and said it was just too hard. She looked at me with that sweet face, and I decided that for now, instead of being Consistent and Committed, I would be In Denial and Indecisive. We have enough changes going on right now. After we are settled into our new house, I will come up with a game plan (and a big bribe) and get to work on those C words.

On the Market!

My sweet Mom came for a visit last week and we had "clean out the house boot camp!" Mom is a great cleaner and organizer, so we accomplished a lot. We took turns taking care of Eli and meeting the needs of the other four, while the other one worked on our detailed to do list. We packed away some of the toys and moved quite a bit of them into the garage. I decided that most house hunters do not care how neat the garage is, so the children have been playing with the toys out there. We also mulched the flower beds and cleaned up the back yard. It was an exhausting week, but it feels wonderful to have it all done!

Mom left on Friday morning, and the for sale sign went in the front yard a couple of hours later. The house was not officially in the computer until Saturday afternoon, but someone called to see on Saturday morning. I am praying that it sells soon!

We are now in "the house must be perfect whenever we leave" mode. That is a big pain when we are walking out the door, but a blessing when we walk back in. It is so nice to come home to a clean house! If only it could magically look like this on an everyday basis!

The movers are coming to pack our stuff two weeks from today. I think that I am still a bit numb from all that is happening. I am thankful that God is in control and I am just along for the ride!

Ramblings

There is not much new to report here. My to-do list is long, and my motivation is short! I seem to be torn between two worlds -- the things I need to do here to get the house ready to sell and the things I need to do to prepare for our new place in Arkansas. I spent a lot of time yesterday making phone calls. I got our phone, water, insurance, and electricity set up. I also arranged to have our carpets here cleaned (I am hoping for a miraculous recovery for our carpets). I took everyone (except Mark and Eli) to get haircuts this week so that I do not have to think about that for a while. I am also trying to get some shopping (shoes for the kids and stuff for the new house) done before we move because there will be fewer stores in our new town. My mom is coming for a visit this week, which should be a huge help. She is a great cleaner and organizer, and I need to do lots of cleaning and organizing before the house goes on the market later this week or early next week.

God has blessed us so much in the past few months, and I am so thankful. He has truly been our provider during this time of job uncertainty.

Snoozing Away

Eli is a great traveler!

All three of them are actually asleep!

I am amazed at the way children can sleep almost anywhere! Bailey is not a big napper, so she stayed awake most of our trip.

Eli's New Career

Before

After

Bailey started out on our house hunting trip with a loose tooth. She was playing with Eli in the hotel room, and he somehow managed to get a grip on her tooth and gave it a yank. He pulled it out! She was not too happy, but after the tooth fairy visited all was well. Maybe Eli has a future in dentistry!

We're Going Country!

Our new house

The view from our front porch.

We are back from our house hunting trip. We have actually been back three days, and I have just about recovered. Five days times seven people equals a whole lot of laundry!

The trip went very well. We looked at about fifteen houses on Thursday. The children were real troopers! We went back and looked at out top three houses on Friday. We narrowed it down to our two favorites. It was a very tough decision. It was not just between two houses, it was between the "city" and the "country." One of the houses was in a subdivision, and the other one was about five miles outside the city. We made our final decision on Saturday, and put an offer in on the "country house."

The new house (the children named it the "horse house" because the current owners have a horse) sits on 3.49 acres. The three houses that we have owned have all been in subdivisions, so this is going to be a new experience for us. We are very excited! We are scheduled to close the first week of April, so everything is moving along very quickly.

Eli's First Bible Class

This is Eli and his friend Levi. They were born two weeks apart!
Quack! Quack!

God made bees!

God made the sun (and it tastes pretty good)!

Devouring the Word!

Eli went to Bible Class for the first time on Sunday morning. He started learning important things like how to pat the Bible and God made frogs! He loved it! Hopefully this is the beginning of a lifetime of learning about God!

Snow!

We actually had some snow on Sunday morning! We have had many false forecasts this year, and we finally had about an inch of accumulation! I woke the children up, and they headed out for some snow fun. We decided to let them play and leave a little late for church. I am glad that we did, because by the time we got home it was gone. We still have two large snowballs in the freezer!

Pinewood Derby

Isaac participated in his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby on Saturday. The den had quite an impressive set up for the race. You could tell that we live in a town full of engineers. The race track had three lanes and measured speeds to 1/1000th of a second! Some of the more experienced boys had amazing car designs. Our main goal for this year was to make it across the finish line. His car succeeded all three times! Each boy got a trophy. Isaac's award was for classic design. He had a great time, and is already scheming about his design for next year!

Father/Daughter Bonding

Mark and Bailey went to a Father/Daughter dance on Friday night with Bailey's American Heritage Girl's troop. They had finger foods and desserts and learned some fun dances. It was quite a Hoe Down! Bailey loved having lots of attention from her daddy!

I have been busy with house transition stuff. Mark and I painted the living room over the weekend. I am so glad to have that finished! Mark's mom was here for a visit, and she was a huge help. She washed all of the blinds and the insides of the windows. She also kept the laundry done while I was working on painting. If she had not been here, I would have had a huge amount of laundry to catch up on! I still have decluttering to do, and Mark needs to paint a cabinet in the bathroom. We have decided to hire someone to paint the guttering on the front of the house.

Our house is not even on the market, and I am already tired of keeping it "showable". We have had three appraisers, two real estate agents and the moving company surveyor come to look.

We are heading out on a househunting trip this week. Our agent has about ten houses lined up for us to look at. We will probably put an offer on house and then move the first week or two of April. Things are going to start moving very quickly!

I catch myself throwing a mini fit (on the inside) every once in a while. I stomp my feet and yell "I do not want to move! I just did this!" I remind myself of Olivia. She goes through something similar on Mother's Day Out mornings. She pouts and says that she does not want to go. Then, when I pick her up she had a great time, and it was good for her to be there. We have prayed each step along this journey, and it is time to trust God that this move is good for our family. I am hoping that this is one of those things that we will be able to look back and be thankful that it happened!