An amazing turn of events

Well, we have had A LOT going on around here this past little while. Last weekend Greg had good Friday off so we wanted to make that our last weekend of work on our house, before we put it on the market. We worked and worked. We met with our agent on Monday to sign papers and get things going. Over the weekend we decided that we should paint our (big) master bedroom too. So after we met with the agent, Monday we painted until the wee hours of the morn. Tuesday night we finished that up. Wednesday morning we scrambled to get our room put back together before our agent came to take pictures of the house. He listed it later that day. We got a call that evening that someone wanted to come and see the house today (Thursday). Well they came today and they made an offer today!! The first person to come and see our house made an offer!! It is a full price offer no less!! Hallelujah!! We accepted the offer, that really had no strings attached, they didn't even want an inspection. Between being thrilled and elated, we are panicked because we have no where to move to. We have been so busy getting our house ready that we have hardly looked at other houses at all. In fact today was the first day we have really gone out looking and we looked at a whopping two houses. Anyway so much is happening. We feel so thankful that things have gone quickly; I know the money isn't in the bank yet, but this is a tremendous first step. Now we can really look forward to a new home with more space for our growing family!! Here is a link to the listing to our house since a lot of you haven't seen it. http://www.dickcarr.com/silver_listingDetail.asp?ID=165224
With so much of us in this house it will be sort of sad to leave, but also so exciting. How blessed we are!!

STRESS!!!

Hey everybody! I bet you thought blogging was going to be another project we started but didn't finish, eh? Well, I just wanted you all to know the reason we haven't been blogging much. We are so STRESSED!! We are trying to get our house on the market by the end of the month, and there is a lot to do. We thought we were about done, but then talked to our realtor and he made some suggestions, including some big projects, like painting some rooms. We aren't doing everything he suggested, but still we are going crazy. As you can imagine it is hard to do much in the daylight hours with all the kids, so that means we have been burning the midnight oil, and not getting much sleep. We are exhausted and ready just to put it on the market without all the millions of details being finished. We will have our last big push this weekend (Greg is off for Good Friday). Hopefully it will be enough. We need some sleep. We need to start looking at houses more seriously. We are ready to be done with all of this! You will know when things start to slow down a bit because we will blog more. Wish us luck. A few prayers would be good too.

Swimming in Caffeine

I took the kids swimming on Friday evening last week (indoor pool of course - spring has yet to arrive). In past swimming experiences, Adam and I have had "hold your breath contests" to see who could stay under the water the longest. After about 15 minutes in the pool, I asked him why he hadn't even put his head in the water yet. His reply: "I can't do it with this much caffeine." "Caffeine?" I asked. "Where did you get caffeine?" He stared blankly at me, then looked kind of sheepish as he realized he use the wrong word. "Oh, what is that stuff called that kind of smells in the pool?". Ah - now we were understanding each other - it was chlorine he was after.

The kids all had a good time. Cautious Anna was brave enough to venture clear down to the fourth step in the entrance to the pool. She refused to go where she couldn't touch - even if I was holding her. Lizzy, on the other hand, would have been just tickled to be at the bottom of the deepend. No fear whatsoever. Since she's only two feet tall, I had to stay pretty close by all the time or she would have ended up at the bottom. Adam finally did dip his head in the water and set a new record for himself. I was able to count to 53 while he was underwater (not seconds, just counts). His old record was in the 30's.

Lizzy to the doctor

I took Lizzy in for her two year old well check today. She weighed in at 27 lbs. (about 75%), and was about 33 and something inches (about 60%). She is healthy and fine. I had mistakenly thought she was to have a shot today, but she ended up not needing one. Strangely enough she was quite disappointed. I had been gearing her up for it, so in her two year old mind, she felt gipped (sp?). With so many young children we are at the doctor's quite often. We have gotten to know our pediatrician quite well; he knows all the kids' names and is always highly complimentary of them, and always ask about Adam, who doesn't come with us anymore because he is at school. We sure are thankful for good health and good medical care.

Mama's boy

Benjamin is a real mama's boy. This causes some frustration for both Greg and I. I have left Ben with Greg 3 0r 4 times, to go shopping, or whatever. Poor Greg, when I come home, I come home to a baby who has been screaming for over an hour, but who quiets down as soon as mama takes him, as if there were no problem. I hesitate to leave him now, and even when we are both at home Ben usually has a strong preference for his mom. I do have to say though, last night, for the first time in a long while, Ben actually sat with Greg for over an hour, while I had a little nap. Heavenly!! All our kids have gone through this strong "mama phase", but none so young as Ben.

Editor's note

Just so you all know, Greg wrote the caption for the Revival picture, not me!!

The Revival

When Anna had her birthday in January, she wanted to go to a huge indoor playground called Jungle Bungle. When Adam had his birthday in February, we went to an IMAX movie. Oddly enough, when Lizzy had her birthday, all she wanted to do was attend an old fashioned Protestant Revival. Well, she fit right in! Attached are some of the moments captured by our hidden camera!

Anna's Big Smile

Anna showing off for the camera on Lizzy's birthday.

Lizzy up close

A closeup of the birthday girl...

Lizzy's Birthday

Today was Elizabeth's birthday!!! Although our 2 year old refuses to be a "big girl" ("I'm a baby!") she sure is growing up! Here she is with her new baby Cinderella doll

Buddies 

Hello Friends! 

Handsome Adam 

The dynamic duo! 

The Pedometer Race

I need to add to Tammy's telling of the Pedometer story. I wasn't just egging Adam on hoping he would pass out - it was a bonafide race. The trick was, Adam was racing around and around the house as fast as he could trying to stay ahead of me. My part of the race involved sitting on the couch shaking my pedometer up and down as fast as I could (I'm too old to be racing around the house!). We were neck-and-neck for the longest time and it was quite an exciting race - Adam managed to stay barely ahead of me right up to the end. As I got close, he would just run faster - panicked I would soon catch him. After around 3000 steps (about a mile for him running) he did look like he was going to collapse, so we finally called it a draw (I guess a good dad would have let him win??). Anna and Lizzy started off racing with us, but they couldn't quite keep up with speedy Adam. Anna joined me on the couch shaking her pedometer after she got tired.

This morning I walked by Adam's room and noticed him jumping up and down as fast as he could wearing nothing but his underwear. I asked him what he was up to and he pointed to the elastic band holding his underwear up. There, clipped right to his underwear, was his pedometer. He said it was better to keep it there so that he didn't miss any steps if he had to change his pants.

Duets

I have been teaching Adam how to play the piano since the first of the year. I don't consider myself accomplished at all, but I have been using the Alfred piano books which makes teaching him really easy. It has been a lot of fun to see him progress already. One of the best parts of these books is that every song has a simple duet for the student and teacher to play together. Adam and I have really enjoyed playing duets together. Since he has started school, I feel like I see him so little. It is nice to feel like we have something to enjoy together. Greg, even came in while we were playing this morning and said how good we were sounding. I hope Adam will always enjoy playing duets with me.

The Pedometer

Earlier this week it was Adam's birthday. He had been talking constantly about his gym teacher at school, and how he had a pedometer he was going to allow the kids to take home, each for a day. Anyway, while I was out shopping for his birthday, I saw a Pedometer for $3.88 at Wal-mart (yes, I admit it, I shop at Wal-mart). I bought it for Adam along with a few other things. Well, it was his favorite present!! He has been wearing constantly, running circles (literally) around the house. Well, Anna, Lizzy, and even Greg thought it was pretty cool. Lizzy, who's birthday is this week informed me that she wanted one for her birthday. Greg went out to help some people on Saturday and made a little side trip to Wal-mart. He came home with a pedometer for everyone in the family (except for me!!). Now they are all running around the house like crazy, trying to see who can get the most steps. In a day and a half Adam had taken over 10,ooo steps. Yesterday, I finallly made him stop running because I thought he was going to pass out. Greg was just egging him on. They'r both quite the competitors. Moral of the story, if your kid is bored or doesn't exercise get him a pedometer. The fun just keeps going and going and going. It has been almost a week since Adam has had his and he's still interested. His goals just keep getting bigger.

What about me??

Well, I guess you could say that I am not exactly technically savvy, but I have decided to jump in and give blogging a try. I love checking out the blogs of my brothers, and I am able to keep up with what is going on in their lives better that way. Then I thought to myself, "What about me?". They know hardly anything that goes on in our lives, and we lead such exciting lives I didn't want anyone to miss out. Hey, we don't even mind if people live vicariously through us. So watch out here comes an exciting blog (maybe).