They Call Him "Crusher."

I have written before that Q is a baseball fan. This year, Tee Ball has become a sort of nemesis for me. Its longer, and he has two games a week, plus practice some weeks, and its much more of a commitment than I like. But he loves it, and fortunately, Scott loves it too and takes him to most practices and games. Because Q's birthday is the cut off for most age brackets, he tends to be the youngest or oldest in his activities. He's the youngest in his first grade class, but he's the oldest on his tee ball team. So being the oldest, I think gives him an advantage on the tee ball field. Now, please understand, I am an extremely competitive person. Watching 5 and 6 year olds play tee ball is somewhat painful for me. Because Q is such a fan, and older, he is VERY focused on the game. When I watch the other players, pick their noses and day dream in the field,
I want to run out there and yell, "baseball ready!!!" and direct/coach them myself. For t
he love of all that is right and good, "PAY ATTENTION TO THE GAME!". I am going to be that crazed mom in the bleachers that gets kicked out of the game for arguing with the umpire. I can feel it coming. Or my favorite, when a player is standing on base and the ball gets hit and they sit there, argh, I digress... I haven't been to a game of Q's for a while, because taking all the kids to the game to watch Q play is, lets just say, difficult, I usually stay home with J. So Saturday, wanting to be supportive and wanting to sit on my butt for 2 hours, I asked Scott if he would watch B and J so that I could attend. I settled in my camp chair under a shady tree and watched Q play, and as always, it was entertaining. But one thing that made me smile was, his coach and teammates, call Q, "crusher'. They never refer to him by name, just 'Crusher'. Now, if you have seen Q lately, this nickname would make you laugh. Lets just say, the kid needs to eat more. He's tall and skinny. Falling in step after my dad and brother. But when he got up to bat, I found out why. The kid can hit! Tee ball is now coach pitch and if they don't hit off 5 pitches they move to the tee. Most kids can hit from the coach (who, by-the-way, needs some coaching in pitching), and Q is no exception. But dude, Q can hit! He does crush it! Like, into the outfield. And a weird thing happened to me. I started getting all prideful and started daydreaming about his future as a star baseball player. I promise I will not become that mom that thinks her kid is the best and wants special treatment. I'll try at least, not to be like that.

What THEY'VE Been Up To

So, its been a while since I posted anything about the boys.
An update is in order...
Q:
Now has a two tooth wide gap in the front of his teeth. He looks so cute! The tooth fairy "forgot" for the first tooth (some slack must be given to the tooth fairy, she was dealing with a vomiting kid or something of the sorts), but when she remembered, she paid well. He lost the other top tooth at school today. They gave him a little treasure chest to carry it home in. BUT, he lost the tooth on the walk to the nurses office from his class. He's bummed. He's back into Tee ball. This is a painful thing for me. They play 5 innings this year, and twice as many games, and they're all at dinner time. It dawned on me that I better plan to get each kid interested in a different sport so I'm not driving 4 boys to different games and practices in one season. Maybe one of them will be nerdy and like choir?? or band?

B:
Has decided he hates school, and protests much on the two school days. I think next year I will not send him to preschool. Its partially too because I don't want to drag J and a baby in for drop off time and pick up. Anywhoo...
He's four now. He enjoys everything Q does, is quite moody, but is very affectionate and sweet. He reminds me a lot of myself, in that he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and does not hold back much of his opinion. Which just means when he is happy about something he declares it loudly and proudly. I don't need to go into the negative that comes along with that. You get it. He is a chatter box and will talk your ear off. He is a good and adventurous eater still. He'll try about any type of food, unless it smells bad.

J:
Oh J baby. When will you talk? This kid does not really talk, but the weird thing is, he can mimic melodies and tones. Like, he can hum/dum de dum the tune of "Shave and a hair cut", and he can return a call when Q does it. Its hard to explain without a demonstration. He can also sort of repeat a scale to me, like if I sing "DO, Re, MI", he gets the "Do" with the d sound, but re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti all sound like 'ma'. He says "thank you" sort of the way you might if your mouth is full. And he calls us all by 'name' if your name is Mama! Like if he's playing with B, he'll say Mama in a way that sorta sounds like B's name. Weird I know. Q is a one syllable "ma". He's a lover of the outdoors, and I love that I have a fenced back yard. The second I step out front, he's running toward the street. What's up with that? He eats ok some days, not awesome on others. He will throw food on the floor immediately if he doesn't like it. That's my favorite about him. Not.
He can do hand-motions to songs, which is super cute. And he enjoys injuring his brothers. Which makes me laugh (because sometimes they have it coming), but at the same time, I'm worried that that little behavior will carry over to church nursery. Watch out!
Baby:
Well, I don't spend much time thinking about this baby at all. Sorry little dude. I still love you. I'm just so busy. I feel pretty good. I sleep pretty good for now. In fact, last night, I fell asleep and woke up at 6am in the same position ( I didn't have to flip over a thousand times!!). I was dead tired though.
We haven't discussed names at all. I haven't even thought about where I'm going to get a second crib and dresser yet. I have time. It cracks me up when I hear about all those first timers who have their nurseries all painted and set up by now (I'm almost 7 months). I'll be doing it when we move, if we get to move in time for babycakes!
He is an active baby. And has caused my nose to spread, my arms to get fat and a nice red rash to appear on my nose and chin. I think the rest of me is fat too, but I think that is my own doing. I'm a stress eater. I've been eating a lot, and a lot of easter junk.

So that's it. No new housing news. Oh except that the house appraised at value! God is good!!

I do not like house buying procedures.

I love buying cars. And haggling. When buying said car. I like the game. But dude, when it comes down to the house selling and purchasing process, I don't like it. I don't get it. And the words "closing costs" put me in a tizzy. I hate hate hate, the closing cost worksheet. It freaks me out. And I happen to like to have my head buried in the sand when it comes to knowing or not knowing what our taxes are, and what escrow is and all that happy horse pucky. Ya know, since we've been doing the Dave Ramsey thing, and I work with a cash budget, I'm very much at peace with our financial situation. But all this talk about mortgage payments and such, makes me panicked. I don't like it, and now I feel like, I'll be happy to stay in our little home, with the new kitchen and bath, and just suck it up. I don't like this process. I also don't like making big decisions. Like if we get this house, we'll be house poor for a while, but its everything we'll need. But if we get this other house, we won't be house poor, BUT we'll need to replace every major appliance in the next couple of years, and have to put a lot of other work into it.
I don't like decisions. Nor DIY home improvement projects. Nor Negotiations. Nor Realtors. Or crazy home owners/sellers.

In efforts not to seem negative:
I DO LIKE:
-3 day old stale Peeps. (fresh ones are too soft and smushy)
-Jelly Beans
-My family
-When J likes to eat what I made for dinner and can't get enough of it. There's such satisfaction in it for me.
-Toothless 6 year olds who keep me informed on how great and all knowing God is. Just two seconds ago, Q reminded me that God knows how many raindrops there are and how many hairs we have on our head. It was just enough of a reminder to know that God KNOWS our situation and what is best for us. I have to take peace in that. That through this process of finding a home, God has already got it under control.

How Good is God?

I had several people praying for a fast sale of our home. Well, we officially went 'on the market' on Thursday, by Sunday we had an offer on the table, and last night we signed our agreement of sale! How's that for fast?We still have some hairy details to wait on and settlement isn't until June, but praise God!
We are specifically praying now that our home will appraise for the sale amount. (which it is entirely possible it won't and then I think we will pull out of the sale). I go back and forth about being in a panic about it. During the day, I tell myself that God has it under control and that I have faith that it will go smoothly. But being the ever positive person that I am, never thinking of all that could go wrong, HA!--My dreams tell me how much anxiety I have over the sale I have. Last night, all of my fears played out in my dreams. I dreamt that the house didn't appraise, and Scott left me. LOL. Gotta love your subconscious.

But anyway, Thank you God for the first step being completed so quickly! Thank you for your continued blessings.

Well, What's Up?

Not much. I have been busy cleaning and cleaning. Then my Realtors came over and messed my house up, moving things around to take pictures, and then didn't put them back the right way. Which only annoyed me a little. Well, a more than a little. Especially when they moved the area rugs and disturbed the dirt that lived and bred underneath them. Same thing with my bed and nightstands. Stuff grows under there. I seriously vacuumed under and behind my bed, but these nasty dust bunnies multiply faster than a rate of real bunnies, and more appeared when they came, causing me embarrassment. But I digress.
We haven't done much but purge, clean, re-do, and move things to our storage unit for the last month or so. I haven't talked to people on the phone much or blogged, or do much of anything else and I'm tired. Phyicially tired.
The house 'should' be on the market today or tomorrow. Just waiting to hear from my realtor, who has mysteriously not called me back for a two days now...hmm. I'm a little anxious to see the pictures they took of our place to see if I even recognize it. I know they photo shop things for the Internet, so I'm interested to see what they did to make our house look sell able.
Yo, and Realtors are a funny bunch. Super positive about the house one second, then nit pick about the color of my throw rugs at the front and back doors. Really, you want me to buy a floor mat and lamp shade because they are the wrong color? Puh-lease. When we bought this house the deck was green with mold, the fence was falling down, the basement had no carpet and they listed it as a fourth bedroom, and the entire family was IN the house when we walked through it. Including this beast of a dog that smelled. But we looked past that and saw the gem we have come to call home. So you can look past the floor mats that may be a 'little dark', oh and the horrid red color on our hallway walls(which I didn't hate enough to ever paint), and our dark basement (which we painted dark to give us a cozy feeling and Scott's dream of a manly room, but whatev.) If you can't look past paint, then don't go house shopping. Granted, I know we bought in a crazy market where people would have bidding wars at the open house, and bid over asking prices, but really. Paint is paint. And I will take my dark floor mats with me when we leave. Thank you.
Anyway, I'm a little bit cranky. Can you tell.
Real Estate has to be a fascinating business. I love the psychology behind things in marketing, and I feel like Realtors really think they know how a person's mind works when it comes to buying a house. I just must not be a typical buyer. Because when they tell me how they plan to attract buyers by reducing the price on our house by $1,500 every 7 days, I'm like, "that would just make me think something is wrong with the place, and what's $1,500 when it comes down to a mortgage of much more than that?" But they assure me, its worked for them. I'll have to trust you, cause the last time I sold a house was, um, never.
So that's what's up. Aren't you glad you asked?
Did I mention I was cranky?

The End is Near...

However, its just the beginning.
The kitchen just needs touch up work. Like paint touch up and caulk. And then I just need to purge and clean a little bit more inside, then we have some yard work to do and we're done. I'm not sure Scott and I are on speaking terms right now, but the end of the endless home improvements is almost here. We have a date for the realtor to come out and take pictures and list this place for Friday.
Whereas that date signifies we are done, it also signifies the beginning of me actually keeping a clean house ready for perspective buyers. Something that I'm sure will actually kill me. But I think I'm recalling me actually praying for God to make me a more organized and structured mom. This just may be his way of answering that prayer. People, be careful what you pray for...

Please Save Me From My Kitchen

I'm working with a toaster oven, and coffee pot. What can one make for dinner in a toaster oven and that's it. I'm sick of take out, going out is worse...
Help!
There are glimpses of hope that its almost done. But punch list items are the worst. The little details like, trim being painted, and the under counter lights installed. I won't mention that initially Scott told me this all could be completed in a long weekend (president's day to be exact). But I know his time estimating skills for home improvements are always off. Like when he says he needs two hours to change the brakes and oil on his car, I can count on a whole 8 hours. Scott has this curse that has been laid upon him. If it can go wrong, it will, if the person before him left out a step, he will correct it, and if it needs a special tool, he won't have it, and will have to run to the store approximately 9 times and begin cursing (my cue to leave town with the kids). And all this has happened to him with this kitchen thing, except the people who put in the old tile floor did such a great job, it was impossible to get the floor up and took 3 times longer than expected to remove it.

And please please please pray that all this work is worth it. Like, have our house sell at the first open house. I told the realtor that I know that selling quickly is unlikely, but that we have a God that can make it happen!