Food, glorious food!

Ok... not a lot in this world gets me REALLY excited. I'm just not one of those girls that wears my emotions on my sleeves (or face either). If I'm happy I might smile. I have to be REALLY happy to REALLY smile. (Note: I am not bitter and glum... I'm just not easily excited you might say).

Food, on the other hand, can get me excited. I recently heard Jada Pinkett Smith on a tv interview. She said that she "keeps her figure" by just eating enough to live. She does not enjoy food. Sorry, Jada. I mean, I'm REALLY sorry. She must not have ever tasted GOOD food. I may or may not plan my meals before I plan my day. For example, before I got out of bed this morning I knew that I was going to have PBJam on an English muffin for breakfast and would make spaghetti bake for dinner. The rest of the day was unplanned, but whatever I did would have to fit around that. I know that other Southerners also do this...right?!? And yes, eating this food means I have to exercise, but to me, it works (for now at least).

Which brings me to why I'm really writing this. Rewind to the last week of April. Our church has a "Girls' Night Out" and, of course, we had "snacks." (The "spread" was intense. Probably more food than most people have at their wedding receptions) As I made my way around the table, this is what I saw:

Cake Batter Puppy Chow

I was sold at my first site of sprinkles. I got a modest spoonful and sampled one piece. And can I tell you? They were to.die.for!! It was just like licking the bowl... only with a crunch! Yummy. Since then, I have thought about these. For 5 weeks I have practiced some major self control. It ends tomorrow. I got all the ingredients today. I don't know who I am going to give/share them with. Heaven help me if I eat them ALL!
I will be using this recipe. I trust her. :)

P.S. I plan to work this off by cruising around on my new Lilly cruiser!

House Update. AGAIN!

Ok... no excuses. I am resolving right here, RIGHT NOW to blog at minimum once a week. Time (and life) are passing me by!

Right now, we are still in our rental house. Our lease is over, and we have graciously been allowed to rent month-by-month. The house hunt has been in full swing for a few months.

Here are the thoughts that I have when it comes to house hunting:

-uncomfortable: I have had a house for sale before. I got butterflies during the showings (You know, the "this could be it" kind.), and I couldn't wait to hear feedback from my agent. But, when I go into people's homes, it feels personal to me. I don't want to say "Eww!" or "What were they thinking when they put in this hideous floral wallpaper? And they loved it so much they even got matching curtains?"

-frustrating: Do you know what it's like to walk in a house and say "I could SO live here!" Yeah, I said that twice one day when we were looking. Apparently other people had said the same thing because both of those houses got offers while I was standing in them. FAIL!

-crazy: Sometimes I just want to ask... Do you WANT to sell your house? Because you are certainly not being very cooperative!

And, that leads me to where we are now.... in the offer/counteroffer stage. And we're on #5. (Yes, #5!) Waiting to hear back from them.

Let me give you the Clif's Notes Summary of the story (condensing the condensed):

Last Wednesday we go and look at a house. A nice house. A good house. A family house. The husband LOVED it. Loved the house. Loved the yard. Loved the location. He would have signed a contract right there if I hadn't piped in and said "We don't sign ANYTHING without sleeping on it!" (That was his cue that he had better settle down.)

In the car, I was quiet. I couldn't find anything "wrong" with the house (ok, a few minor things needed changing, but they were factored into the cost). I just didn't "feel" it. So, I prayed. I prayed to either LOVE the house or to come up with some kind of reason why I couldn't live in the house. I think I was expecting a burning bush kind of sign. It didn't happen. I was still emotionally confused. It went something like: Head: It's a house, and you need a house. Heart: I'm not moving there.

When C called at lunch to check on what I was thinking before I could stop myself I said "I just can't stop thinking about that house on _______ Drive!" It was a house we looked at over 6 weeks before. And really, I hadn't thought THAT much about it. But, I could tell through the phone that he was smiling. He told me to make an appointment to go see it. Well, our agent was out of town. Of course. By this point I was anxious because I finally felt an emotion for a house! Our agent (sensing our need to see the house in that.very.moment) got the broker-in-charge to show us the property. God planned that for sure. It turns out, he is the king of renovations, updates, etc. and he walked us through the house telling us what could be done.   He should have just put the SOLD sign in the yard then.

But now, here we are negotiating. I don't think we're difficult. Especially since the house has been on the market for 2 (T-W-O) YEARS! 24 months! An awful lot of days! And now I know why. Someone doesn't want to sell this house. {Hopefully} MY house. Yes. So here we are. Hopefully, there will be a happy ending to this story. But for now, it's....

                                                             TO BE CONTINUED!

A New Post (and I'm Not Fooling Around!)

I'm back. My next hiatus will definitely not be this long.

I have been re-inspired after reading a great blog post. The poster was talking about why she journaled her life. She even took a picture of the boxes of journals that she has finished off. One of the things that struck me was that by looking back through them, it was a way for her to look back and see God's faithfulness in her life. I recently completed Patricia Shirer's One in A Million bible study. Several times she mentioned journaling as a way for us to keep up with answered prayers, evidence of God in our lives, etc. Reading that post yesterday was a reminder that I needed to hear and I am now re-inspired to keep up with the blog.

Right now, I am sitting in the living room of our rental house surrounded by clothes. And when I say surrounded, I mean consumed. It's that time of year...  the semi-annual switching of the wardrobe. You know, where you take out the winter clothes and put in the summer clothes, and vice versa. I told C last night that it is my hope that our next house will have a closet large enough for this to not have to happen. If not, I will be SEVERELY downsizing my wardrobe because this really drives me INSANE! :)

Speaking of next homes... that is our HUGE focus and goal right now. We have been looking since this winter. Our lease ends on our rental home at the end of May. We have the option of renting by the month at that point. Ideally, it would be great for us to move over the summer because I would have time to unpack, get things settled, etc. before going back to school. Realistically, we have to move when the time is right. We have an overall area where we would like to live (not far from where we currently are living). We love this area. The homes are a little older (think hardwood floors, neat architectural elements but small closets and if they haven't been remodeled- fabulously 50s tile bathrooms!), etc. However, a lot of the homes that we seem to find in our price range are too small (2 bedrooms and 1 bath -- not something to complain about, but not something I can feel great about investing money in. I have a feeling we'd outgrow it WAY too fast!) or the homes need WAY more work than we want to put into it (neither of us has a contractor's license nor do we even have those kinds of tools !). Of course, we look at other homes in different areas and it seems like we can get more for our money. I guess right now, it's pretty fair to say that we have to figure out WHAT we want... the best house in our price range or the best house in the area we are looking in. It's a HUGE decision, and we are certainly praying about it. We are especially praying that we will be patient and "know" when we have found the right house. C and I both have the tendency to overthink things and I don't want either one of us to be up at night wondering if we made the right decision.

I cannot believe that it is already April! I have 4 days of school this week and Spring Break next week, 1 week of school, and then will be off to Disney for our 6th Grade Trip. I am super excited about that, but kind of sad and anxious to leave C and Snap for an entire week! I know they will be just fine- they have survived without me before, I just hate to leave them for 4 nights! But, I also know how much fun I am going to have and will be so "busy" that it will fly by. I feel certain the week will fly by for the boys, too! They won't feel like they had nearly enough time to do all the "guy things" that they decide to do.)