Trying to catch my breath

What a week! Late Thursday night we accepted the offer on our house. Friday and Saturday were spent in a purging/packing frenzy. Sunday was a whirlwind of houses - we looked at about 10 potential houses. All day today was spent getting our ducks in a row to make an offer.

All that, plus the company Mike works for just purchased a building today. And the owner may be making an offer tomorrow to buy out another company. It's a long story that I won't go into here, but this is something we've been waiting on for a long time - it's been at least two years in the making.

It's all happening so fast that I'm having a hard time catching my breath. I'm too overwhelmed to stop and realize that I'm overwhelmed. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trusting it will all work out in the end.

And if it could possibly work out for the bank to accept the offer we submitted tonight, I would be completely overwhelmed by God's blessing. The house is gorgeous; it's a repo so we'd be getting it at an incredible price; the offer we gave is exactly the price we had in mind to pay for a new house; and the house would be absolutely perfect for us.

Please pray that God's will will be done!

P.S. Do you know how long I tried to think of a way to say the previous sentence without typing the word "will" twice in a row? It just seems weird to me. Is it really grammatically correct? Is there another way to say it? Is this some psychological thing where I obsess over a teensy little grammar thing because I feel so out of control with everything else?

(I think it's time to go to bed. Goodnight!)

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!! (And I got a promotion!!)

I can't believe I just typed those words.

Our house had been on the market since October. OCT-O-BER. Eight months ago. We had about five open houses - you know, those things where you clean furiously and obsess about every detail? I think we had a grand total of three people attend those open houses.

So, we've been a little discouraged.

And now we've sold it. It's all so very surreal.

You want to know what else happened this week? I got a promotion. I'll be the Assistant Director of Public Relations at the college where I work. The job opening was posted in December. DE-CEM-BER.

I've been waiting on both of these things for so long that now I can't believe they have both happened within the SAME week. Holy cow!

I'll start my new job on July 7, and our tentative closing date is July 29.

July is shaping up to be a busy month.

WFMW - Stopping nighttime leaks

Kaitlyn definitely inherited my bladder. It can hold a lot. A LOT. And no matter how much we try to not give her a lot to drink before bed, she somehow manages to store it all up and wake up with a very full diaper.

She very rarely would soak through during the night, but in the morning it was always a race to get her diaper changed before she went to the bathroom again. We seldom won the race, and she would end up with wet PJ's. (Or worse, she would pee while we were changing her.)

Then one day I discovered these:



And there was much rejoicing throughout the land!

They work so well for us. Since we've switched to using them at night, we haven't had one problem with leaks. Woohoo!

If your kids are still in diapers, and if they have trouble with leaks at night (or first thing in the morning) I highly recommend these!

Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works for Me Wednesday tips and ideas.

Panic

Yesterday I went shopping because several stores are having some incredible sales. I was determined to go in with an open mind and try on lots of different types of shirts, having been inspired by two or three (or twenty) episodes of What Not to Wear.

So I'm in the dressing room with my open mind and about fifty shirts.

Ok, not fifty, but it felt like fifty.

I tried on the very first one. It was super cute, but it made me look pregnant so I instantly decided that it was out of the running. I started to take it off, and that's when I panicked.

Have you ever tried something on, only to realize that you're not quite sure how you will get it off?

This shirt had some banding around the arms that was rather tight, and not one bit stretchy. It wouldn't budge.

And there I was, all by myself. How would I get the shirt off? Would it involved ripping? Cutting? The jaws of life?

I thought about getting some lotion out of my purse to lube my arms up. And then I remembered this episode of Friends and decided not to go that route. (Please enjoy the subtitles.)

I'm not sure how I eventually got it off, but I did, and it did not result in any cutting or ripping.

And I did end up with two shirts that are nothing like any of the other shirts hanging in my closet. So, in the end, mission accomplished!

MPM - Week of June 23

Last week's menu did NOT go as planned, considering that I ended up with a temperature and a sore throat on Tuesday night, Wednesday, and Thursday, and was still recovering on Friday. One of last week's meals got moved to tonight, and another one will get saved for a later date. Here is the plan for the rest of this week:

Monday: Grilled chicken (marinated in Italian dressing - my favorite!!)
Tuesday: Roast in the crock pot
Wednesday: Tacos
Thursday: Up for grabs (Love in Action night)
Friday: Beef and noodle concoction, using left over roast

Friday's "recipe" will consist of the left over roast, macaroni pasta, a can (or two?) of diced tomatoes, fresh bell peppers and mushrooms, and whatever seasonings happen to sound good. And maybe a little sour cream. And whatever other ingredients happen to inspire me at the moment. (I like to live on the wild side.) I guess it could be called my own version of goulash. I'll try to keep track of what goes in it, and if it is super yummy I'll come back and let you know. ;-D

Stop by OrgJunkie.com for more great menu ideas!

Little girl giggles

What could be better than this? (Please ignore the crazy hair that hasn't been combed yet today!)

Hair (a.k.a. "Hay-ur!")

Kaitlyn has a very special talent. If there is a piece of stray hair to be found, no matter how invisible to the naked eye, she will find it.

And she will immediately begin whining, "Hay-ur! Hay-ur!"

As if the hair is a spider crawling up her leg. Or like she has fallen into some really icky substance and she can't get it off of her.

It's quite a tragedy.

Sometimes we find the offending hair. Sometimes we pretend to find the hair. Yeah, it's a little sneaky, but it works.

Kaitlyn is also a master at finding kitty hair around the house. We have hardwood floors throughout most of the house, so the cat hair collects in these annoying little balls all over the place - especially on the stairs.

There are times when it takes her five entire minutes to come down the stairs because she has to stop at every ball of kitty hair and declare: "EMMY! HAY-UR!" Then she stoops down to pick it up, so she can give to me. And I always say,

I see it honey.

Leave it there.

It's ok - I promise. You can leave it there and mommy will sweep the stairs later.

Kaitlyn!

Leave.

the.

hair.

there!

Maybe I should turn that into a song, a la Phoebe Buffay. It could be "Smelly Cat, Part 2" (a.k.a. "Leave the Hair There!")

I'm going to stop myself before this post gets any weirder.

MPM - Week of 6/16/08

This week's menu is not really that exciting, but I thought I'd post it anyway. :-) Here is the plan:

Monday - BLT's*, chips, veggies
Tuesday - Simple chicken (cooked in the slow cooker with a can of 98% fat free cream of chicken soup), stuffing, corn or green beans
Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner (carried over from last week)
Thursday - Up for grabs (and the first Love in Action of the summer! I'll post more about this later in the week.)
Friday - Grilled chicken (marinated in Italian dressing) served on a nice big salad

The Friday plan could get carried to next week since Mike might have a trip out of town, and if he doesn't go out of town we might decide to go to the Jazz Festival instead and eat there.

Like I said, it's all very simple, but it's that kind of a week. :-) Go see Laura's blog for more great menu ideas!

*The BLT's are being made with tomatoes from my parents' tomato plants. They are on vacation and while I was checking on things at their house this weekend I noticed some ripe tomatoes ready for picking. Woohoo! No salmonella for us, thank you very much!

Things that make me cranky

1. Plantar's warts.
2. Not having central air.
3. Not having a dishwasher.
4. Walking around the #@*% meat section at Meijer for ten minutes trying to find the bacon that's on sale.
5. Waiting in the fast food drive thru for 10+ minutes for my food.
6. Cleaning out the refrigerator.
7. Gas prices.
8. Not having anything good to watch on TV.

Ok - I think I'm done whining.

For now.

WFMW - Entertaining with Sloppy Joes

I am here to announce that I have found my signature "having people over" recipe. You know, the go-to recipe. The one that everyone likes and is easy to make. The one that I can practically recite from memory.

Drum roll please... It is this sloppy joe recipe from Rachael Ray.

(Thank you Sara for being the one to introduce me.)

You might be thinking, "Um... Sloppy Joes? Really? This is your go-to recipe?"

Yep.

I have made this recipe several times now and the three times I've made it for company it got rave reviews. In fact, I heard from a reliable source that a certain red-headed brother-in-law of mine had four sloppy joes the time I made it for my family.

What makes this recipe so special?

I'm glad you asked! First, it's delicious. It's a grown-up version of sloppy joes and is so much better than using a canned sauce.

Second, I can make it ahead of time and then reheat it just before serving it.

Third, it is very unpretentious and is a kid-friendly dish. Almost everyone can appreciate a good sloppy joe*. And for the stage of life that we're in, we have many years in our future where we'll need to have kid-friendly meals if we're going to have people over.

(*Side note: the recipe calls for a red bell pepper and an onion, which some people might not appreciate. I'm sure you can leave these out and it will still taste yummy. The last time I made them I left the onion out but kept the pepper in, and one of our guests, who isn't incredibly fond of peppers, asked what kind of tomatoes they were. :-) He was surprised to learn that he was eating peppers.)

Fourth, it's easy to find simple sides to go with it. French fries, chips, potato salad, and veggies with dip are all things that go great with this.

I also have to mention that these fruit bars from The Pioneer Woman make a great dessert to finish off the sloppy joe meal.

And another thing I have to mention is that if you struggle with having people over because you feel like everything has to be perfect, you must read this post by The Queen B. I've been trying to work on this and her post was a great encouragement.

Head over to Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for Me Wednesday ideas!

The new obsession at our house

Kaitlyn has become obsessed with prayer.

I suppose Mike and I should be thankful for this. The girl loves to pray, which hopefully is a testament to the fact that she sees us pray on a regular basis. In addition to praying before we eat, we say a quick prayer for each other as we get ready to walk out the door in the mornings and we also say a quick prayer if someone isn't feeling well.

(As I type this I realize that this would be a good time to introduce bedtime prayers to Kaitlyn... Maybe we'll work on that this week.)

Kaitlyn has said some really sweet prayers in the past few weeks - we can only understand a few words of the prayer, but none-the-less, it is cute to see her cover her face with her hands and talk to Jesus for a few moments.

She even said a prayer for Mike because his hip was bothering him - an ailment that has occured before and always takes several weeks to clear up - and the next morning his hip was 100% better. I think we have a little prayer warrior on our hands.

Imagine our surprise when, last Sunday morning, she prayed for George. As in, Curious George. She was watching him on TV and it was an episode where George was scared of the dark, so she prayed for him.

This is sweet and all, but it is starting to get violent. Literally.

Yesterday she was at Grandma's house, and was playing with her doll. Something happened to Baby and Kaitlyn was concerned for her, so she prayed for Baby. (Again, this is sweet, but keep reading.)

When she finished praying, she took Baby and with great purpose and intention, head-butted her. Then she prayed for Baby's head to feel better.

This violence towards Baby, followed up for praying for her to feel better, continued on until Grandma decided she'd had enough and took Baby away.

The saga continued last night while I was in the kitchen making dinner. Kaitlyn was standing at the baby gate making lots of noise. It was obvious that she was working really hard at whatever she was doing.

I looked up to see her standing on Baby, her face showing intense concentration. She had hold of the baby gate and was squatting down, using all of the force in her little body to try and squish her baby as much as possible.

I suspect she did this so that she could then pray for Baby to feel better.

This is yet another time when I wonder if this is a phase, or if we need to pursue some type of counseling. Will she translate this to other kids - hurting them so she can turn right around and pray for them to feel better?

Is this why I found a gray hair this morning?

A return to Menu Plan Monday

I haven't posted a menu for several weeks, mostly because our schedule has been more hectic than normal and about half of the time we end up winging it. This week I decided to try and get back in the swing of things since posting my menu usually helps me stay on track throughout the week. So, without further ado...

Menu Plan for the week of June 9

Monday: Grilled Chicken, Fries
Tuesday: BBQ Pork (in the slow cooker), Rice
Wednesday: Up for Grabs (Mike has a softball game)
Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner (scrambled eggs, sausage, French toast
Friday: Shredded Pork Sandwiches (using leftover pork from Tuesday), Potato Salad

Check out Laura's blog for more great menus!

Tonight's menu (and running through the neighbor's yard)

Tonight's dinner menu, according to Kaitlyn, was cake and lllla-la-meln.

To translate, we had French toast and watermelon.

Mike is off golfing and I didn't feel like doing a lot of work for dinner, so I just pulled together two things that popped into my head and sounded good. (And were simple to make.) I was surprised to hear that Kaitlyn thinks of French toast as "cake".

I guess syrup can do that.

In other news, we went outside and sat on the steps for a little bit. (I know you're jealous of the exciting life I lead.) We were calmly sitting there when I noticed one of the neighborhood cats walking through our yard. I thought that when she noticed us, we would scare her away.

But we didn't.

When I realized that she wasn't scared, and she actually started acting friendly, I was a little worried. Kaitlyn loves petting our cat, Emmy, and I was sure she'd go after this cat. But this was an outside cat, and who knows what she's been into or what's been into her.

She plopped down on the sidewalk in front of us and started rolling around in the sunshine. Kaitlyn squealed with glee and said, "Hi Emmy!"

So, I guess in her universe all cats are named Emmy.

I informed her that this was not Emmy.

She wanted to pet "Emmy". I said no and tried to shoo the cat away. "Emmy" casually rolled over and looked at me as if to say, "Bug off, lady. This is my sidewalk."

Well, alrighty then. So much for my shooing skills.

I would have gone inside at that moment, except for the half-melted ice cream bar that I was desperately trying not to drip all over myself.

That's when "Emmy" decided to take off through the neighbor's yard.

And Kaitlyn took off after her.

Did you know that almost-two-year-olds can run surprisingly fast, especially when in pursuit of a cat?

And surprised moms, even though they might not have on any shoes and might be carrying an almost melted ice cream bar, can also run pretty fast in pursuit of their almost-two-year-old?

Fun times.

We ended up two houses down, where we stopped and visited with Brenda and Zach. That's where we learned that the cat is theirs.

And we learned that her name is really Eunice.

Eunice.

Well, alrighty then.

Sexual abuse prevention plan for your church

Today on Virtue Alert, Vicki blogged about the reality (and the horror) of sexual predators. It sparked some long-winded comments from me and I wanted to also get a post up on my blog about this.

Mike and I used to be in charge of the children's ministry at our church, and we created and implemented our church's sexual abuse prevention policy. This policy is so important to have in place, not only to prevent kids from being sexually abused, but also to prevent volunteers from being falsely accused of sexual misconduct.

Because churches are so often stretched for volunteers, it can be easy for a sexual predator to weasel their way into a volunteer position. They are usually very good with kids. And they typically don't wear red flags that say "WARNING: SEXUAL PREDATOR."

Have I mentioned the importance of having a solid plan in place?

See the comments on Vicki's post for more of my thoughts on this matter. Also, go to this website to see the facts about sexual abuse within the church, and to download resources that can help your church get a good prevention plan in place.