My sorely neglected blog has been replaced with real estate search engines.

But I wanted to write about just another great day.
I was up early with the boys...Joseph and Blaise are 7am risers.  Dan and Rose went to early Mass, and I went to St. Albert's at 9:30 with Sam.  DD had a fever.  And we were scheduled to look at a house in Troy at noon.

All went fine.

The property was lovely.  Lots of landscaped trees, and a stream on the edge.  3.5 acres.  Huge house.  I wasn't thrilled with the house layout, but I knew it was big enough we could make it work.  Dan liked  it.  I could tell. But, it's bank owned.  I was reluctant to get my hopes up, as I explained to Dan.  Although we didn't say it, we both left thinking it was kinda too good to be true...not to mention the slim chance of all the financing to work out on a bank-owned property.

We got home, and I was sitting in the van with the two sleeping littles.  After a few minutes, Dan came out, and told me the realtor from the Kitridge house just called. Hmmm....

Rewind.  Four days ago we put a bid on a house on Kitridge Rd.  It took us at least a month from the time we saw the house.  Lots of thinking going on.  We finally put in a pretty low bid (higher than what we originally said we'd bid!), expecting a counter offer.  We got a call back the next day saying our offer had been rejected.  No counter.  OK.  I was a little bummed.  But not devastation.  I think it's by the grace of God I didn't take it harder than I did.  Dan, on the other hand was right back looking at houses.  The realtor kept calling, to discuss the situation.  We saw it as pointless.  We had been told the owner rejected offers 10k more than what we offered.  This guy was not budging. I called the realtor back, and told him we were going to walk from the house.  I explained it as our highest bid for negotiation would probably be his lowest, and we understood that it just wouldn't work out.  He kinda surprised me by asking how much that was, and when I told him, he said he'd run that past the selling realtor.  I got off the phone, kinda shaking my head, thinking he's wasting his time.  I seriously didn't give it another thought.

We got home today, and Dan came out to the van to tell me, that he ran the price past the selling realtor, and the owner would accept it.  He just wanted it in writing.
????????
But we'd moved on!  We were looking at this other house, beginning the workings to see if it would fit for us.  And now?  Back to this other house?  When we wrote off that house, I thought of the cons to it- the things that weren't so great about it, looking for consolation.  Now, it's back in front of us.  I wasn't sure how to feel.  I had pretty much convinced myself it wasn't worth it.  But I allowed myself to think of the pros to this house.  There really were a lot of good things about it.

So we met with the realtor and revised our offer.  I'm still a little in disbelief.  We'll see what tomorrow holds.


On a different note, I just want to mention how well things have been going.  I am so aware of God's presence in my life, helping and guiding me along. I am so, so grateful for the things I've learned at counselling about myself, and my life.  In some ways, I can't even believe how and why things are sooo much better with me.  I have a better outlook on things, and am just plain happier! But the biggest thing is also being at peace. I am at peace with the way I see things, and deal with them.  This, in turn, makes for a more joy-filled, meaningful life!  It may kinda seem like nothing.  And believe me, sometimes I think it's weird to be so aware, or joyful over things that can seem very everyday and routine.  But I guess when I compare it to where I was a year ago...I'm in a much better place. :)

I'll keep this brief...if that's at all possible for me.
I just want to remember waking up today, a bit groggy but needing to hit the floor running for not hearing my alarm.  Then waking up to Blaise (I usually savor my early morning to myself, if I don't crawl back in bed).  A beautiful morning it was.  Out the door early with the kiddos and a fabulous morning to myself, many, many thanks to my sister.
I delighted in a cup of coffee and just took it all in.  I want to say today is the beginning of a new...???  I just felt different.  I learned some things about myself, and in figuring things out, made my future seem so much brighter.  And truth is, is was brighter.  A brighter day, a brighter outlook, a brighter life. :)  Yes, I like that so much. I feel stronger, determined, capable, trusting, lighter, excited, free-er, just plain happier.

Thought of Janelle today about her recent posts of loving her kids, at this age, and having so much fun with them.
Sadly, I don't often feel that way.  I feel very swamped with duties, and schedules of plans I make that I sometimes feel like it's all too much- too much kids, too much stuff, too much to manage.  Just not a lot of fun.
BUT, this summer, I had a chance to play some board games with the kids, and we had so much fun.  What games?  Cranium Cadoo for one.  Had a blast!!!  Poor Dan, always competitive, can't be beat by the kids! Ha!  But some of them need that- to know they can't always win.  So we play two rounds. :) It was so neat how it was just like our favorite game Cranium, but suited for their level.  So much fun.
The other? Star Wars Monopoly.  I didn't know we didn't own the original monopoly.  So we learned on  the Star Wars version (a little weird, I may add).  The kids had so much fun!  It's funny how I think we're playing this game and they barely get it.  They are just way too young to get it.  But they had so much fun!  Ah, I so remember being little and wanting to do things bigger kids did. It is so neat to be the bigger 'kid', and get to play these games with them and just let them enjoy learning something new and feeling so much older!

And today, well, was great.  I had a glimmer of a thought this early morning that said 'I should go running today.'  Well, I didn't think much more of it than that, and certainly not when we piled out of the car at 4p after a long afternoon at my sister's house.  Blaise and Joseph fell asleep on the way home, leaving me to actually chat with Dan when he got home.  Then it just struck me, that it was so beautiful out, I should go running...now!  Rose had to dance at 5:30.  It was 4:40.  I told the kids they could bike down to the park with me while I ran.  I never saw them move so fast!  We had a lovely trek down there, and I ran a bit and then we came back.  All in 30 minutes!  My favorite was running while pushing Sam on his new bike with training wheels.  It's a fun little bike, but I stress little.  It's too small, so he has to pedal continuously to keep up with the others.  So I just pushed him while I ran.  And it was while we were out I kept thinking "this is just so much fun!"  I really do love to do things with my kids that they enjoy too.

Praising God, and thanking God for a glimpse of happiness today.  A glimpse of happiness that I can have every day.  Deo Gratias!

Me: Want to talk to Joseph?
Blaise:  Hi Joseph! Hi Joe baby!  Rumor has it.  Rumor has it.

Blaise makes me happy.  So thankful for our Blaise.

I love music.
So, when the fabulous Hallie at Betty Beguiles had this link up, I just had to join in.  We have such list of love songs, and we add to over the years.  Here's the Peyton version, in no particular order:

Fun, happy dreaming song.



Cute lovey song.




Our fifth anniversary!




Love Dean, and Return to Me (movie).




We love Alan Jackson- great love song.





Lovely Enya song :)





Our wedding song :)



Okay, I could've put every Michael Buble song on here, as we really love them all.  But this one in particular has been so great when getting over any rough patches in marriage.


Favorite favorite song right now.  Just love the message, as applied to a marriage.


And yep, honey, these words ring true!!

 "The mark of a Catholic is the ability to see the Divine where it is least expected: in a baby in the arms of his mother, in bread and wine, in prayers tolled on beads, in the voice of an old man in Rome." Fulton Sheen

Love this!  I think I need to work on my vision, though, and find the divine in the laundry and the dishes!!!

Above is the lone picture I have of our blow-out fifth birthday party for Samuel...Star Wars style.
Hopefully I'll get some pics from someone.  Otherwise, I just have the memories...
Two outdoor pop-up tents wrapped in black plastic for our 'cantina'.  Serving Darth dogs (hot dogs on both ends of a skewer), yoda soda, jedi juice, padawan popcorn, edible ewoks (gummy bears), vader veggies with droid dip, and millennium melon, and chewie wookie cookies (little debbie star crunch with icing faces).

All the chaos and imperfection of the day are fading, as I remember the fun things.  All 21 boys (family and rosary group) were issued light sabers and 'trained' to use them.  They hit balloons with them, broke bubbles, and mastered basic movements.

Then on to crossing hot lava.  Red tablecloths were lava on the driveway, with 'rocks' painted on cardboard. Each boy got a rock and had to use teamwork to pass one to each teammate as they crossed the lava one step at a time.  I thought that was a really neat game.

Then on to destroying the first death star.  Talented brother in law drew and awesome death star on the driveway, and the kids took turns throwing water balloons at it.  That bought me some time to bring food out for our lunch.

After lunch, we did blaster training with water guns, and lastly, destroyed the death star pinata.  They were re-issued their light sabers and blasters with a Jedi knight certificate. Oh, and how could I forget the Jedi robes.  They took so very long to make all 25 (I made ones for littles too!).  I couldn't have done it without the help of my very talented niece.

Oh, it was a lot of fun.  A lot of work in such a short time, but a lot of fun, too.

Lots of change

I have a feeling this year is one for lots of change.  New baby. New routine with a family of seven.
Mom getting a house! :)  I am so super excited about this. Very stressful for her, but I feel like it will happen sooner than later.
Looking for a house for us.  Sigh. I want to say we're 'serious', but we don't even have a realtor.  Just doing a whole lot of online looking.  Really tricky.  Sometimes I think we'll never find what we want and can afford, and just end up 'settling' for something.
Lots of moving in Dan's family.  Jesse and Anna to KY, Dave and Jodie to Piqua.  Steve??? Hmmm... that would be great if he would move back here.  And so he says he will. Hmmm.  Lots of prayers going out for that situation.
Ah, lots of changes this year.