I’m taking a break from my pre-second-showing-cleaning to share something incredible with you.

Remember Tina? Yeah, the most awesomest friend evah! Well, her daughter Carly is awesome too! One day during a visit, Carly introduced my kids to the fine art of Sculpey. It was obvious that Carly knew what she was doing. Her creations were incredible. So it was a no-brainer to commission Carly to make me some Sculpey pieces.

See, I’m stitching (yeah, Teri, I’m still not done) these cats…..

Sure, I could frame them and hang them on the wall, but I’m sure within a month I’d walk by without even noticing them. I wanted to actually use this piece. An idea hit me. (ouch!) There are 9 cat squares. The same number as a tic-tac-toe board. But it would be boring to use plain tokens on those spots. What about mice?

I emailed Tina and asked if Carly could do this. The only instructions I gave were the size of the squares and there should be 5 of each color mouse. Beyond that, Carly could use her imagination. Soon after, Tina emailed me a picture of a prototype and I was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see the other 9!!!

Well, during their visit last week, Carly presented her mice to me. I could not be happier with the results!! They are Stinkin’ cute with a capital S!

The picture doesn’t even do them justice. They are much cuter in their 3-D glory! A close up should give you an idea….

I couldn’t wait. I just had to play a game of tic-tac-toe! Hey, look! I won!!!

Carly, you ROCK! I’m going to think of you every single time I play tic-tac-toe!! Thank you!!!

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Exciting times here for us. We had a showing about 12 days ago. Apparently it was a “scout” looking around at houses for a family in New Jersey. Turns out they looked at a bunch of houses and narrowed it down to two–ours and an older home in downtown London.

So tomorrow is a “second showing.” Technically it’s the first showing for the family, but it’ll be the decision-making-showing. Word has it they will put an offer on either our house or the one downtown.

The two houses couldn’t be more different than one another.

Ours was built in 1977 and sits on 1.7 acres.

The other was built in 1876 and sits on .22 acres.

Both have an inground pool. Ours is in the backyard. The other is the backyard.

Ours has beautiful vistas of trees and a farmer’s field. The other is surrounded by houses.

Ours is better.

But it’ll come down to personal preference, much like my curb appeal survey. Some people really dig those older homes. They have character and charm. They have all sorts of interesting rooms and fascinating architecture. They have wiring and plumbing that could go bad at any moment.

Our dream house in Florida is still for sale. All we need is a contract on this house and we can submit an offer on the Florida one. So far things have fallen together in such a way, I just know God is taking care of us. One way or another it’ll work out. Maybe not the exact way I want it to, but it will work out.

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I don’t get much chance to blog lately. And I get even less chance to read blogs. I’ve managed to take 5 minutes here and there to read a blog post, but rarely do I take the time to comment. Once things settle down, I hope to jump back into the community.

I did happen to notice a very short blog post today in my Google Reader. Short is always good when you have very little time! Anyway, fiveberries in texas had a post titled “Irony.”

Go on over there are read it (I promise, it’s short).

You’re back? Great. Now, I thought of fiveberries post again this afternoon as I was cleaning out our shed. See, we live in the country, and when you live in the country critters like to live around you. So today as I was cleaning up mouse traps and ant killer, I came across this box hanging by one nail on a stud.

Kills rats and mice and other such rodenty creatures.

What mouse in its right mind would use it to nest in??

And the two remaining place packs that were in there? They were chewed open and some of the poison was being used for nesting materials.

Apparently we either have very stupid, or very poison-immune critters ’round these parts.

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I remember the old Michael W. Smith song word for word. It was our theme song senior year of high school.

Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
’cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long to live as friends.

Sometimes, when I’m prepping this house to sell or packing things up to move, I’m excited as all get out. Sometimes it hits me hard I’m leaving everything I know.

Now, let me start out by saying, I don’t have many friends. Wow, that sounds so sad, doesn’t it? But it’s a fact. My life, for so many years, has revolved around kids. My “friends” were the mothers of my kids’ friends. There was no time to squeeze in my own socialization. My life revolved around socializing them. And I was ok with that for a long time.

And then we met a family who we clicked with. The kids got along famously. And the mom and I could chat for hours and still not feel like we had covered all the topics. We bounced ideas off of each other, shared horror stories about parenting, and did whatever we could to support one another. As the mother of two herself, she is as busy as I am so we only pulled off a visit 3 or 4 times a year. But they were good visits!!

Just last week we had one of those visits, and I must tell you–it hit me hard we’re moving away. Because Tina did about the nicest thing anyone (outside of family) has done for me in a long time (possibly ever.)

Just before her visit I had several KA-razy days. Mike and I flew to Florida for the job interview. We got home Friday night and then early the next day we had scavengers family descend on us for the weekend. First thing Monday morning we had a realtor at our door to go over the house and list it. So I’m not even sure “KA-razy” covers it adequately.

Tina and I had planned to get together that day. The kids were all anxious to play together, and we were anxious to catch up with all of the happenings going on in both of our lives. I was bound and determined not to cancel this visit. Tina emailed me and asked me if she could bring anything. I was fresh out of bread and I asked her if she had any she could bring.

Tina came with bread–both regular sliced bread and a loaf of french. She also came with ham and cheese. And some snacks. And two rotisserie chickens. She knew I hadn’t had time to grocery shop and she wanted to help me out.

How awesome is that? She sensed a need and filled it. I stretched that food out with a few staples we had in the pantry and we ate well for days! Every time I ate ham, or sliced off a piece of chicken, or buttered a piece of bread, I remembered how wonderful it is to have Tina in my life. And it hit me hard I’m leaving.

Thank you, Tina, for being such a good friend and for showing God’s love in such a real way. When I grow up, I want to be just like you.

(Did I mention Tina was skinny?*)

*Sorry, had to add that. Two deep, philosophical posts in a row might give people the idea I’ve lost my sense of humor!

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I just had to share that. Some of the stuff they tackle and accomplish amazes me. Up until this move, I was happy with just the status quo. Stick to what I know and life will be easier. This move has really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. Of course, I know full well if I hate it, I can come back to what I know. But I look at my kids and see some of the challenges they’ve overcome and hurdles they’ve leapt, and that challenges me to tackle this one.

How scary it is to dive in head first…..

How much easier it is when someone is holding on…..


How much safer it is to “watch” instead of to “DO!”


KT and Nick, you guys are stinkin’ amazing!

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