Under Contract.

Last Tuesday night I stood in our bathroom and cried. Partially out of sadness and partially because I just can't believe this is happening.

We put our house on the market three weeks ago and up until this last week, had absolutely no nibbles on it at all. No realtors calling about showings, no one driving by slow, stalking the neighborhood, just a whole heck of a lot of silence. I know that God speaks in the silence, but it also makes it a lot easier for me to shout, "Are you sure this was right God?!?!?!?! Am I missing something here???"

Even as we were listing our house though, I had a small, still feeling within me that said we needed to finish all of our projects before the house would sell. We have a small patio area that was inclosed at some point that I use for a craft room. The high quality Dollar Store peel and stick tiles they put down didn't actually stick that well, so we pulled them up and never actually put anything else down. With Cody spending Sunday through Thursday in Snyder, it didn't leave much of a window for us to actually get projects done. {and sure you know by us, I mean a lot of instruction from me and more implementation from Cody!}

Cody finally was able to work on the floors on Friday, March 8th. He did a great job of getting the floor down super quick and still having the house show ready by 5 that night, just in case we got a call. Which we didn't. Nor did we get anything on Saturday, which is when I started saying, "What the heck God?! I thought You told me it would happen once our projects were finished." We left that night to go to Snyder for church the next day, with some disappointment on my part.

{horrible iphone picture of our pretty new floor and my clean craft room. please note the is about half of my craft stuff! yes, yikes!}

Sunday came and was a great first day at our new church. We went out to eat with a few folks after church and right as we were leaving the restaurant, we got our first call about a showing! Whew! We knew it might not be the one, but at least it was a start. My mom met me in town to come home with us for her Spring Break. We hung out long enough to know they would for sure be gone from the showing and then headed back to Abilene. Once we made it back, I quickly informed her of all of my new rules about keeping the house picked up and show ready. I think my mom could have died happy on the spot to see this reformed "stuff it in the closet and under the bed and call it clean" girl actually have some OCD tendencies about keeping the house picked up!

Monday around noon I received another call from the agency wanting to show the house that night. I called my mom to make sure she could be out in time and after work we headed to Target to waste some time while they were showing it. I spend all of Monday begging {maybe pleading and bargaining} with God that we would get an offer from one of these showings. Well ya know what? A watched phone never rings with a realtor's offer.

Sometimes though, a watched phone dings late a night with your realtor asking if you were still up, as she was headed to her office to write up your contract. And, because it was the first time we've sold a house, I most definitely had to ask, "a contract for what?!" And yes, apparently contract is realtor speak for SOMEONE WANTS TO BUY YOUR HOUSE!! We ended up submitting a counter offer on Tuesday and sat around biting our nails, waiting to find out if she accepted it. After spending all day fretting that I had offended her by what we countered with, we found out Tuesday night that she accepted... and wanted to close on the 28th! {which at the time was 2 1/2 weeks away.. yikes!}

As of today we are out of the option period, {meaning she can't back out} had the appraiser come today and I am working my hiney off to be ready for the movers on the 28th. Right now we still have so much to do that I don't feel like I have time to stop and process just how quickly this is all happening. I am so thankful that we don't have to be separated as a family that much longer, but it is definitely bittersweet to have to wrap everything up here so quickly and hurriedly. As I've been boxing up the house, I keep thinking that it took so much time, thought and effort to turn it into our home, yet it is packed away so quickly. {I almost said neatly too, but let's be honest, at this point, it's all about getting stuff into boxes!}

So there you have it... that's how we went under contract and are on our way to sell our house after three weeks and only two showings! It is most certainly a God thing and we could not be more thankful for how He worked out the details for us. If you get bored, bring some boxes over and I'll put you to work! :)

 

Let's Pretend This Never Happened {book review}

Every so often I receive an email about a chance to review a book. I'll read over the description and if it sounds slightly interesting, sign on for the review. It then takes a couple of weeks before I actually get the book and it's a fun surprise when they show up on my doorstep.

Several weeks ago though, when this gem showed up on my doorstep, I really thought someone was pranking me. There's no way I would get lucky enough to get paid to read a book that's actually been on my list for a while... right? So I scoured my emails and sure enough, I had signed up to read Let's Pretend This Never Happened {A Mostly True Memoir} by Jenny Lawson, aka The Blogess.

{source}

If you're not familiar with her blog, this is the one post that you must read, especially if you are married. Here is my big disclaimer about The Blogess: while her writing and stories are funny, she uses a lot of language in telling them. So married people should definitely read that story, but don't share it with your children!

Back to her book. Per my previous disclaimer about the language, I knew going into it that it would probably have some choice words in it. I wasn't prepared for just how many words that would be. Honestly, I almost gave up the book a few chapters in because I felt like I was having to skim so much to try and dodge some of the language. I ended up skipping a few chapters ahead and realized that she had scaled it back a great bit, which kept me reading.

Funny enough, Jenny actually grew up in Wall, TX which is not that far from Abilene. It was very easy to picture her stories because of my familiarity with the area. I won't say that I can relate to them, because her childhood was crazy. Just picture a dad that starts a taxidermy business and is way too comfortable with all animals. {she grew up with pet turkeys, just one of the many animals her dad adopted. later her dad would throw a baby bobcat on her eventual fiance. nothing says "welcome to the family!" like a bobcat!} While the book relies on a lot of humor to tell it's stories, it is the picture of a girl growing up, accepting change and eventually adapting with it. You will laugh, question if that many crazy things could really happen to one person {I think they did} yet still emphasize with her stories from childhood, marriage and motherhood.

Join the Blog Her Book Discussion today! What's your funniest childhood memory?

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

6 Months

I can hardly believe how was the time has flown by, but our sweet Griffin is 6 months old! He is seriously the light of our lives and I can't remember how we ever lived without him. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures over the last 6 months:

 

{any guesses as to why my iPhone runs slower than dirt? He's too cute to delete any of my pictures!}

We won't go for his 6 month check up for another few weeks, but he's weighing in around 17 lbs right now. We haven't tried to measure him lately, but I won't be surprised when he's grow a good amount. He's still pretty husky :) but I'm starting to feel like he's getting more long than round!

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At 6 months:

Griff is working on sitting up on his own. I certainly wouldn't walk away and just leave him sitting up alone, but with every passing day he's getting better and better at it.

He's mostly sleeping through the night, with the exception of the 6 month growth spurt that just hit. Most days he's down for the night by 6:30 and I go get him up in the morning around 6:45. We're still having a few random times that require a little crying it out, but I'm hoping that those are about to be a thing of the past.

Is starting to eat some baby foods. We started trying rice cereal around 4 months and baby foods a few weeks later, but Griff wasn't too interested. We don't have much time in the morning or evenings during the work week to feed him so I conceded and started sending food to daycare. He's doing well and eating about one packet over the course of the day.

Loves bath time and playing with toys! He loves to be naked and squirm around but the second you start putting his pj's on... the melt down starts!

Still doesn't nap well at daycare. Apparently our social butterfly has more important things to do!

Squeals like a girl :) Griff has recently discovered just how high he voice can go and he loves trying it out every chance he gets! We're hearing a few "Buh" sounds but no interest in mama or dada.

 Has his eye on the prize: Dakota! Griff now realizes that we have this other strange creature that lives with us and all he wants in the world is to touch him. Kota, of course, thinks that this would be the end of the world and will do whatever it takes to stay away from his touch. It's pretty funny to watch!

Sadly, probably thinks that Cody is more funny than I am. For now I've had to concede that he make bath time more fun than I do and gets way more giggles because of it. Don't worry...my day is coming!

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Here's to our next 6 months!