Breaking News!

Well y'all, after more than 2 years it finally happened. We got our first offer on the townhouse!!! It was nothing close to what we can afford to accept, but it was an offer nonetheless! We've put in a counter offer and we'll see what happens. It's the lady who stayed until 9:00 last Sunday evening so I guess maybe that was worth something after all. Maybe I'll invite her back over and leave a pot of coffee on for her to enjoy while she considers our counter. Although if she doesn't like coffee, I wouldn't want that to be considered an odor since she was so positive about our house being free of odor and debris.

Regardless of what happens with this, we are thankful for the encouragement this bring us after waiting for so long. Like I said before, my God knows what He is doing!

Weekend Fun

Friday night we went to the Dash game with a co-worker and good friend, Tori, and her family. It was our first baseball game of the season.






Saturday we slept in, went to the gym and ran errands and whatnot. Later that night we went to one of my favorite places, the Fourth Street Filling Station where my friend Meredith had a surprise birthday party for her boyfriend Chad. Chad thought he was meeting Meredith there for a surprise party for her aunt. Needlness to say he was shocked and his reaction was hilarious. Good times!




Me and Ashley taaake 27! After some editing, finally a picture we were both ok with. Haha, love you Ash!



It was yet another lovely weekend, just not nearly long enough. Then again, I guess they never are. Even Sophie had a hard time getting up this morning.


This is one of the longest weeks teachers and students have all year...the dreadful EOG week! Thankfully it's a short one for me. Chicago bound on Friday!!

Paul's Birthday

Paul wanted a sushi feast for his birthday dinner so we'd planned on going to our favorite sushi spot, Downtown Thai. I got on their website so I could make a reservation just in case, and was so disappointed to see they wouldn't have sushi from May 1-20. Just one day too late. They didn't have sushi for almost the entire month of April because their chef went to Thailand so I am guessing he decided to extend his stay there. I actually think it's smart of them to just not offer sushi rather than have another chef come in that might not be as good. So anyway, we went to Wen Hwa instead, a cute little Asian Fusion restaurant downtown. The food was delicious!

I found the perfect card for Paul's birthday.




If you're not sure why that was the perfect card, then you must have missed this story.

Inside the card were tickets to JOURNEY!!! Paul and I both love Journey and they are the reason for many sweet memories of when we first started dating. I saw them in concert years ago and have known Paul would give anything to see them himself and especially together. He was very excited! The concert is not until August so we will have a long time to look forward to it.

American Idol was the perfect ending to his birthday evening. It's pretty much the only show we watch during the week and we are hooked! I was not a fan of Haley AT ALL. I thought she was very arrogant and could not take criticism so her attitude turned me off a long time ago. I love how humble and genuine Scotty and Lauren are so we were so excited that they made it to the finale.

Happy Friday y'all!

This and that

Things have finally seemed a little less busy this week. Because of all the rain we've gotten, a lot of Paul's soccer has been cancelled and I haven't had near as much going on as I did the past few weeks. Yesterday I had a meeting after school, went to the gym and was still home by 5:00. That never happens and it was the best feeling ever!

We had another showing today. It was not the same person that looked on Sunday but it's still encouraging that we are getting at least some action. After tracking down the realtor from our showing on Sunday evening, our realtor got this out of him..."The showing went great! The house was very clean and organized, free of debris and odor and very nicely decorated." What?! They stayed an hour past the scheduled time having a nice long chit-chat and that's what we get? And free of debris? How random is that? And by "it went great", does that mean you'll be coming back for a second showing or could we have at least gotten an "although it was clean and free of debris, my client is not interested in making an offer because of_______", or something of that nature?! We have to just laugh at these things and keep on keepin on. No matter what we're going through Paul always says to me "But we're together." He helps me keep things in perspective. The important things are not where we live, not how much money we have don't have, not how long our house has been on the market, not whether I will have a job or not next year or any of the other unknowns in life. All of those things seem different when he reminds me that we're in it together. We'll see if we hear anything back from today's showing. In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying a reason to keep our house spotless.

Paul still randomly views and sends me the link to our engagement session slide show. He sent it to me today and it made me smile.

Tomorrow is Paul's birthday. I am super excited about the other present I got him. I am hoping it at least comes close to beating the metal detector gift. I better not let it out just yet in case he gets on to read this later.

Happy hump day y'all!

Weekend Recap

Friday night my dear friend Alexandra invited Paul and I to the annual Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club fundraiser dinner. Our church sponsored a table and we felt honored that out of the 947 people Alex could have invited, she chose us ;) It was so encouraging to hear all of the wonderful things that the club is doing in the lives of young people in our community. We even got to hear testimonies from children, teenagers and even grown adults who have been greatly impacted through the club. Jim Caldwell, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts was the guest speaker. He was an awesome speaker and his power point presentation was one of the best I'd ever seen. Paul got to meet him and get his autograph.


Saturday we went to the Greek Festival with my family. It was the least crowded I'd ever seen it before. I think the rain scared everyone off but I enjoyed actually being able to find a seat to eat at. The food was just as good as ever.





We even got to hang with the Sowers for a bit.




The rest of Saturday was super busy with errands and whatnot. That evening we went to our friends Heather and Andrew's house for a good 'ol game night. There were way to many "ya had to be there" moments so I won't even try to tell them. Let's just say that I nearly peed my pants and I stayed up way past my bedtime.

We spent yesterday cleaning and working around the house. We had a showing last night and had to get it "show ready". With our house being on the market, we have no choice but to keep it pretty clean since we never know when it will be shown (although they are so few and far between). But somehow it still took us ALL day to do laundry, put laundry away, mow weed eat the backyard and clean, clean, clean. The showing was from 6:30-8:00 so we were forced out of the house for a while. Paul was helping with spring soccer tryouts for the club he works for so I ran more errands and went to my mom's house. We got home a little after 8:00 and to our surprise, there were still two cars in front of our house. So we went across the street and chilled in the bank parking lot where we could still see and spy on these people that were in our house (still a little weird to me). At 9:00 they finally left. 9:00!! That totally called for a Bon Qui Qui style "RUDE!" I mean unless we get an offer from these people, I felt it was quite tacky of them to stay an hour past the show time and until 9:00 on a Sunday evening. The realtor did leave his business card so we are hopeful that we will at least hear some feedback. But after more than 2 years on the market, we do not get our hopes up anymore. As I have said before, when the day comes that we do get an acceptable offer, we'll be more than excited. But for now we are content and the longer we're there, the better it is financially. God knows what He's doing.

Today has sure been a Monday. Only 20 more days of school left though!!!

I can taste it already...

Y'all! This weekend is the annual GREEK FESTIVAL! If you've never been and you live in the area, you have got to get your priorities straight. It only happens once a year and it's open from lunch on Friday to dinner on Sunday. And yes, the food will make you want to smack somebody. I will definitely be burning some extra calories at the gym this week because there will be no holding back.

OPA!

The highlight of yesterday

I got to spend my afternoon yesterday with this precious little girl.


This is Renna Margaret. Her mommy, Renna, and I are good friends. We taught together at Clemmons Elementary but her and her husband now own Ketchie Creek Bakery in Mocksville. I don't get to see her half as much as I wish I did but I love how things always pick right back up where we left them when we do get to see each other.




Renna Margaret took this picture of her mommy. She's not even 2 yet and she already has photography skills ;)


This was certainly the best part of my Monday!

Brace yourself...

This is a long one!

Paul and I decided to surprise his mom for Mother's Day and make a trip to their house for the weekend. We saw his parents for a grand total of 24 hours over Easter and it had been since Christmas that we'd seen them before then. It was really the only weekend for the next month or so that we could have gone. Plus, Paul's uncle who lives in Germany was there visiting for the first time in years and I had never met him before.

It is completely necessary to interrupt the Mother's Day weekend recap with a funny story. Paul has been asking for a metal detector for 2 years now. At first I thought he was joking because who under the age of 60 wants a metal detector? Welp, he kept asking and I finally decided I would get him one for his birthday this year. After we decided we were going to his parents for the weekend, I knew I had to give it to him as an early birthday present so he could test it out on the beach. So I paid extra for 2 day shipping (which I NEVER do) so it could be here in time to surprise him with it on Friday before we left. I had it shipped to my Gram's house because he was going to beat me home the day it was supposed to arrive. So Wednesday in between tutoring and Bible study dinner, I ran to Gram's to pick it up. Unfortunately, there was nothing to pick up. So I called UPS and after tracking it they said it was attempted to be delivered. Fantastic! Turns out, the letter that goes with her street address got left off the delivery address and since she lives in a townhouse, UPS didn't know which one to deliver it too. Knowing there was no way I could pick it up the next day, I told the customer service lady I would go straight there to get it and I'd just be a little late to dinner. Her response-"Oh no you can't do that. I have to call this in and you have to wait for a call back before you can go pick it up." Of course I do. Beyond frustrated at this point, I went on to dinner and laughed about this with the girls. I mean let's be honest, it's hilarious that all of this was over a metal detector. During dinner a sweet lady named Janice from UPS called me back and said I could come get it even though they were technically closed. Things started looking up! Well the UPS store isn't exactly in the best part of town and it was dark by this time. But I made it there without misplacing myself and Janice told me to walk up and she'd have someone waiting there with my box. So I walked into the warehouse and before I could even look around, a toothless man in a big truck came flying up to me, yelling at me that I could NOT be in the warehouse. I explained to him that Janice told me to come even though it was after hours. He wasn't having it. He made me go outside under this super sketchy little building to wait. It was dark. It was cold. Nobody was outside. And I was about to pee my pants. I was on the verge of tears and a nervous breakdown by this point. Oh, and not to mention that the highway that I would have to take to go home was stopped for miles due to construction. So my next fear was that Paul would start to wonder why I had been at dinner for 3 hours. I was determined not to let him know about this dang metal detector. After standing outside for what seemed like forever, but really was about 5-10 minutes, a nice old man came to my rescue. He called Janice back, got my package to me and even let me follow him an alternate way to the highway so we would skip all the traffic. So at last I had the package! Now the only other disappointment was that I didn't have a chance to put it together. After all of this, I was not about to give it to him in a big brown box. Stay with me, this is almost over.

After telling my good friend Allyn about all of this at work the next morning, she offered to help me put it together during lunch. We scarfed our food down and then we were on a mission. It was really easy to put together, leaving us a few minutes to go outside and test it out.



And even a few minutes left to wrap it up.



And just in case you're wondering, we did not exceed our 30 minute lunch break to do something personal during school hours.

I left it locked up at school Thursday night because I didn't have time to get home and hide it before Paul got home that day. I beat him home on Friday just in time to tie a balloon and a happy early birthday sign on the door. Needless to say, he was completely shocked and super excited about his new little toy. He especially got a kick out of hearing the traumatic funny story about what I had to go through just to get the thing.

Ok, so back to Mother's Day weekend. We had a great time with his parents and his uncle and Mama Hicks couldn't have been more happy about her surprise guests for the weekend. We got to spend a little time on the beach too.





And if you're wondering if Paul hit the jackpot with his new toy...I am proud to say we are now 27 cents richer! Totally worth everything I endured to get his metal detector.

This week

Whew, what crazy week! I feel like I have done nothing but run, run, run this week. I am looking forward to things slowing down just a little.

I decided for sure this week that I am going back to Kenya! Unlike the last 2 times I have been, I had a hard time deciding if it was the right thing to do. After making the decision, I have a huge peace about it and although it will be tough for many reasons, I know going is the right thing. I feel very certain that this will be my last trip for a long, long time. Paul and I want to start a family sometime in the near future and I don't see me leaving any babies for half a month.

My mom is going back too and we have already started making some plans. My mom, Daphne (a good friend who has also been twice and went with us last year) and I are going to have a big yard sale and fundraiser to help with raising the money needed to get us there as well as money needed to buy things for the Nationals when we get there. We are collecting donations for the sale and have already gotten a great response from some people. It will not be your typical yard sale with a bunch of junk, though we will have some of items for a dime or a quarter, we will be selling things such as furniture, electronics and nice clothes. The yard sale is going to be Saturday, June 11 and will be indoors in case it rains. If you have any items you would like to donate, contact me directly and please plan to come if you are able.

I can hear those sweet little African children right now and can't wait to step foot in the bush of Kenya!

Happy Birthday Bryan

I can't believe my little nephew is 7 today. Where does the time go? Just yesterday we were at the hospital anxiously awaiting his arrival. He brings so much joy to our family and I thank God for his life. This little guy has quite the personality and our family just wouldn't be the same without his spark.














Happy Birthday buddy, we love you!

Beautifulness

Our clematis is starting to bloom. This is one of my most favorite flowers! We left it at our old house for now until we have a permanent home. Thankfully our old house is now my mom's house. I hope this baby is up for a move one of these days because I can't live without it for too long and I've never been able to find one in this exact color.


That's all, y'all. Just had to share the beautifulness.