We've decided to be responsible

We have decided that the aforementioned house is not to be ours. While we dream away...someone else is going to buy the house. It just won't be us. We realized that by stretching too much on a mortgage, we won't be able to do ANYTHING much less afford to fix the house should anything break. Plus, our house still needs some work done to it, we need to get the lot next door surveyed. All in all, we are probably a few months away from being ready to sell our house and we can't just put it on the market next weekend. If we did, we probably would take a bath and then not be able to afford the new house at all.

It is a little sad, but I have to say; I am proud of us for coming to a good conclusion that both of us feel good about WITHOUT A FIGHT! Maybe we are become one flesh...

Dream Home

Matt and I found our dream home last night. It is about $30k outside of our highest end price range. But I love it. I love it with a passion that is not to be placed upon a house. It is a 1920's farm house in West Asheville. The owners are selling it themselves. We went and walked through it today. We both know that the price is very fair and that there is great potential to add value to the house in the next few years. The yard is great. The house has 9 foot ceilings and the master bedroom has nine windows in it. The owner called it her tree house room. Arggh, it is so great! So what is the problem? The owners don't want to sell it to someone who will have to have a clause in the contract about selling their own home. They just want to sell it outright without any clauses. We can't do that since we haven't even put our house on the market, nor is it ready to go on the market right now. But if we were sufficiently motivated, we could possibly get it on the market in the next two weeks. But that doesn't guarentee we would be able to sell it by the time that we closed on this other too expensive house. But it is perfect. Perfect size, perfect location, perfect little details. It is not super perfect, I mean we would have to paint and do some work on the house. And it is too expensive. But other than that...I could just imagine raising our kids in this house. It is irrational to love a house like this. What are we to do?

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

I am going to go ahead and thank Miss South Carolina for removing all credibility from my college degree.

Facebooking Etiquette

I just saw this article on Wired.com and I have to say...GOOD TIPS.

For those of you who don't know facebook or don't belong...well I am just sorry. It is the first stop I make in the morning now. If you are over 35, I wouldn't bother because you won't know anyone on there. I only have one person that I went to high school with who is on Facebook, but almost everyone else I know has staked a claim. So here is the etiquette if you are going to join or are a newbie:
Save Face on Facebook: Facebook Etiquette
As Facebook slowly but surely begins to take over all aspects of our lives, I believe it is important to keep in mind certain principles of etiquette when using the social networking service. Having been a user since 2004, when it was still exclusive to certain colleges/universities, I like to consider myself somewhat of a facebook veteran. I would therefore like to contribute certain Facebook etiquette rules:

One should not friend another whom they have no association or connection with whatsoever. Doing so makes you what I like to call a ‘creeper’.
Poke with moderation and caution (I stand firmly by this etiquette principle).
When speaking with someone whom you have been casually ‘facebook stalking’, try to pretend you do not know everything about them. Avoid comments like: “So, I saw you and Mike broke up on facebook…”
Drunken facebooking can get you in trouble… Try to restrain yourself from leaving an inebriated wall post on that cute guy or girl’s profile.
Additionally, writing on your own wall is somewhat of a "faux pas" (I believe strongly in this one as well).
Beware of potential employers browsing facebook photos. That body shot or keg stand picture might not encourage hiring.
One’s profile should not be overloaded with unnecessary applications (such as Superpoke, Food Fight, ect.), Facebook is not meant to be like myspace.
Being part of too many Facebook groups devalues the ones you truly care about, try to stick to a select few (under 25?).
One’s popularity is based on the number of “Happy Birthday!!!!!” wallposts they receive. Do not forget to leave one on good friends’ walls on their special day.
Finally (for now), do use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with people whom you otherwise might not but do not let it replace actual human interaction (easier said than done).

Not exciting

I don't feel very exciting lately and so I don't have much to post on my blog! We spent a quiet weekend around here. Tonight we had some friends over for a night of games and it was great fun. It is going to be a weekly occurance-if people can stand speed scrabble for much longer!

We had a bear at our house again on Thursday night. It spread garbage all over our yard before the garbage men came on Friday morning...I hope they go into hibernation soon!

More ridiculous pictures from my computer camera...

I LIKE BIG BIBLES

well this is embarressing, but funny. Take a look

Sorry for the bloggy break

Sorry I took a few days off there.

Matt and I went to see David Wilcox in concert on Saturday. We were in a room with only 120 other people and DAVID WILCOX. Amazing. Matt and I were loving his new stuff. It was a great date!

Not too much else is going on, so I have been lame and not motivated to blog. One big thing is that Asher is now on a Gluten Free diet which means-NO WHEAT for the next six weeks. Yuck. It has been a bit more work to think about what he can eat and what he can't. This is quite an adventure.

So there, I am back on the wagon. Just to hold you over, I will send up some pictures you haven't seen yet!

How True

From the Indexed Blog...whatchout! It's addicting!

Traveling Again Tomorrow

I am heading out in the morning with Mrs. Natalie Knauer to make a pilgrimmage to IKEA in Atlanta. We will be picking up Slappy from the Grandparents on the way. But the main point of the trip is IKEA. Of course. I hope to get some do dads, thingamajigs and whatzits. But because they come from IKEA, they will be called; okem, ursavi and wibnaaam.

Oh and Buddy and Kathie Odom stopped by our house tonight while Robin Plemmons was visiting because they are taking their baby girl to college. Sniff. I knew her when she was in the 6th grade. I am now old.

We took a bunch of pictures with my photobooth. Check it out:







And because my neice Maggie asked to see the pictures that she, Watts and Nate took earlier in the summer, here they are:
Happy High School Musical 2 Maggie!

HOMES

We made it home. But not without incident-OF COURSE!
We left CC at 8am. Before we left, we had to clean our rooms...which we left to the last morning and we overslept getting up at 7:15 instead of the recommended 6:30. So we had to rush around and we had the two kids to feed, pack last minute items and get out of the way while we remade beds, packed up pack and plays, cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. Exahausted yet? Then we had to get all EIGHT of our bags, plus carry-ons to the bus. We were the last to arrive and people were getting antsy to leave which made it a perfect time for Asher to freak out about getting on a bus full of people that he just spent the last month of his life. Once we got him settled down, we got on the bus for our two hour commute to Denver.

The kids were kind of fussy, but more like antsy on the bus. So they whined, but we made it. Once we got to Denver at 10am, we had until 2:30pm to board our first flight of the day. So we checked our luggage and got some lunch. Oh, I forgot...the guy who checked us into our flight did a GREAT job and really helped us out by not making us move some crap around to get under the 50 pound rule. So Matt gave him a tip. A $3 tip. I laughed outloud. And so did the guy. But he took it like he was a skycap. Hilarious!

We ate lunch and still had TWO MORE HOURS. Lucy eventually fell asleep in the baby backpack while Asher ran around with the rest of the kids stuck in the airport. We finally got through security and got to the plane. We sat on the ground, on the plane, with the door closed for at least 45 minutes. No explanation. No apology. Just sitting there. Lucy started whining cause she was hungry. Asher started whining because of Lucy and because he still had not had a nap yet. All I wanted to do was get off of the ground. We did and the kids whined and cried and finally fell asleep. Then woke up and whined and cried until we landed in Houston. Repeat this EXACT sequence of events for the flight from Houston to Columbia. Except, subsitute that it is now 8pm and we don't get into Columbia until 11:30pm.

Then Matt and I had an argument on the plane that pretty much created stoney silence until the kids were in bed, asleep at Matt's parents house at 12:30am. Ah sweet travels.

Then we all slept like BABIES until 11:30am the next day. That's right. My kids slept dang near forever. Matt's mom said she had never seen anything like it. I mean, most kids no matter what time you put them to bed will still wake up with the sun. That is called "BALLERS" ya'll. Who is going to be traveling with black felt from now on??? All of you???

Anyway, the whole day got thrown off because we slept so late. So we just lounged around and went shopping until dinner time. Then Matt's brother and his wife and his grandparents came over for dinner. It was great fun!
The next day, we packed up (again) we went to the lake and had a great time swimming and laughing. It was gorgeous!

Then we got to pack up again (for the third time in three days) and head for the hills. But before we could get out of the house, Asher decided to throw another fit and keep saying, "NO!" over and over again. We had to have a little time out after time out session. After one of the sessions, we noticed he was eating something. We tried to get "it" out of his mouth, but had no idea what he ate.

We eventually got on the road and about an hour outside of Asheville, both kids have meltdowns. I get in the backseat and start to feed Lucy. I give Asher his drink and a snack, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want to watch any videos anymore. He is just pretty much being a pain in the you-know-what. Then we hit Hendersonville and he just all of the sudden starts throwing up. Not make a big deal out of it throw up. But just dribble down you shirt and heave about five or six times. That was when I was so glad that he ate BLUEBERRIES that morning because everything was a lovely shade of purple.

We were nowhere near an exit, so we had to sit in the car with this puke smell for like ten minutes until we could get out. We pulled into Hardees at which point Asher (who is COVERED in blueberry vomit) starts saying, "Yummy mommy! Yummy mommy!" No way. So we get out, get him stripped down and I head for the bathroom to clean him up. Nope. No papertowels, no changing table, no soap. NOT EVEN TOILET PAPER. "What kind of place was this?," I asked myself. The kind of place where my kid could now run around naked in while I got napkins from the main dining area.

While all of this is going on, Matt is trying to clean up the nasty puked on car seat. Yuck. We discover that we did have an extra car seat with us due to the airplane travel and so we just traded the old one out, got Asher dressed and were home 40 minutes later.

That was when we got to unload the car, unpack the bags and take a look at our mail from the last month. FUN TIMES.

The only bright spot of the day was that Ellen and Karl Troyer had mowed our grass, cleaned our house from top to bottom and went grocery shopping for us so that we could have a few fresh staples at our house when we got home. God bless them.

Home Again, Home Again

We are home! We have a ton of unpacking, mail to sort through, groceries to buy and general catch-up. I will post as soon as I get my feet under me!

Hey I'm FAMOUS!

My suggestion for how to get your bathroom's clean with two kids underfoot is listed on Parenthacks.com today! Congrats to me!!!

I thought we'd made it

I actually had the thought today..."We made it! We dodged the throw up bullet!!!" We got all dressed up for the 1840's night. Asher and Lucy looked so cute! We went to dinner and Asher didn't want to eat any BBQ, but instead opted for the classic watermelon, bread and corn dinner that everyone raves about.

Just as he was digging in, I noticed an odd smell about the room and he had an explosive diaper. So much so, that he had to eat the rest of his meal without his shirt on. No big deal. He ate about four pieces of watermelon and dessert and then we came back to the room to put Lucy to bed.

We left and went to see the Opera (for those of you who don't know, Matt and his fellow program guys put on about a 45 minute drama that culminates the story line for the week. They sing, they dance, they act like idiots and so it is called the Opera). We went to opera and Asher loved it like always. He seemed to be going strong at the end so I decided to take him to the dance. We walked into the dining hall where the dance is held. Every camper, leader, work crew, summer staff and assigned team member is in the dining hall in a giant circle for the dance and Asher walks into the middle of the circle and starts throwing up. That's right. Every bit of watermelon, corn, bread and of course; dirt cake. Right there in the middle of the floor that a bunch of handicapped high schoolers are about to dance on. AWESOME. I, of course, am paralyzed. I have no idea what to do.

Thankfully, a few of the leaders jumped into action and start cleaning it up. I felt terrible and I kept apologizing. One of them said, "Please. I have been wiping butts all week. This is cake!"

That's why we love Young Life.


That's right, keep eating that watermelon big boy.

Tuesday

Camp has been going really smoothly this week. We are already on Day 4! That means that camp is over on Thursday :( and we will head back to the east coast on Friday. We will spend a few days resting and getting our legs underneath us before heading back to Asheville early next week. It is hard to believe that our month here is almost over! A ton has happened here and we feel so priviledged to have been here. We have really made good friends with all of the people that are here with us, but one family has really loved on us well. Brett and Kim Allen have three boys and a girl and all of their kids have fallen in love with Asher and he would proabably go home with them if we let him! Here are some pictures from this week:

We've got a theme here

This is dedicated to my best friend Robin who turns 29 today. Just think Robin...10 days to a better you!

Sesame Street: I Really Need to Urinate

I would love it if Asher decided he wanted to do more than just name his doings...

Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Young Life camp is back...it is different because this week we are hosting Young Life's special needs ministry called Capernaum.

We spent all last week just hanging out and not really involved in what was happening on the property. I honestly can tell you that I get emotional every single time a bus pulls into camp for the first time, whether it is able bodied kids or special needs kids. It is just so exciting to know that kids have no idea what they are in for. But yesterday was special. I wasn't really prepared for how I would react when I saw these special needs kids getting off of buses and out of vans. The work crew was lined up at the head of the bus, giving high fives to campers. These campers weren't really interested in fives...they wanted hugs! After the kids who could walk got off of the buses, the work crew lined up at the lifts as kids in wheelchairs were taken off of the bus. Everywhere you looked, you saw Work Crew kids, Summer Staff and assigned team crying. Everyone's emotions were on edge.

The Capernaum director spoke to the whole team prior to the first bus coming into camp and he exorted us to, "Be comfortable with being uncomfortable." These kids know that we're uncomfortable, but they don't care because they are being talked to, listened to and touched. This is not something that happens to them back home.

They are an unseen population in their high schools and daily lives. Because people are uncomfortable, they are looked through and looked past. This is not the case this week.

I have to admit, I am uncomfortable. It is a challenge to get over myself and love on these kids. I am embarrassed when Asher gets shy or uncomfortable. I want this to be easy--I want to love Christ enough to see these kids as God does. But I do see the flaws and the spastic motions. I see the social interactions that take more work than it does during a normal week of camp.

But, I know that God loves these kids as much as he loves me and my children. I know that these kids are his masterpiece. I know in truth, but it is hard to see it when it in your face. The director encouraged us by filling us in on the fact that these kids know things about God that we could never see. They know these thing because of what they have been through in their lives; the rejection, the pain, the lonliness, the sorrow of a life that has been altered. They have so much to teach us about how to live without pretense, without embarrassment...with joy at being somewhere with others rather than trying to make it on my own.

It is really fun to have freedom already here at camp. I know that nothing that Asher does has to be quieted down. He can dance and sing and laugh-and he fits right in. It is really freeing to know that he might get as much out of club as some of the kids at camp. And it makes me sad because I know that there are parents that are at home that are getting one of the first breaks since their child has been born. I know that this is not what they had hoped for when their kids were born. What a gift to give these parents! And it is such a priviledge to be here this week to see these kids truly have the "best week of their lives." They will get to do things that they might never get to do again...and we get to be in on that! Amazing.

Sushi Night

My lovely assistant Esther also helped to pull off the craziest night that we've had here-SUSHI NIGHT! Josh and Blair Jones decided to make sushi for the entire assigned team a few nights ago. Check out the spread:





We had it all, raw tuna, avocado, cucumber, crab, cream cheese, fresh wasabi, hurachi hot sauce, soy sauce and of course the yummiest Edamame that you've ever had. We had a lot of fun...I have to say, I am liking Youth For Christ week!

Fitted Sheet Tutorial-Real Simple Tip of the Week

Okay, are you ready? Get your fitted sheet that you have wadded up into a ball in your linen closet and get ready to fold that sucka!



Turn the ugly side of your fitted sheet facing outward. Put your hands in the corners with the sheet being as long as you can make it.


Fold ugly side to ugly side, so that when you turn the sheet, the pretty side is now facing out and the ugly side is tucked inside the sheet.

Lay the sheet on the table, with the corners tucked inside one another. Press the sheet down so that it become a little more flat. Square the bottom corners.



Then fold the sheet into thirds. Bring your left side of the sheet to the middle of the sheet. Then bring the right side of the sheet to the middle.



Turn the sheet so that instead of the middle line going vertically, it now lines up horizontally. Fold the bottom of the sheet to the middle. Then fold the top of the sheet over your previous fold so that now it look like a letter.




Fold the "letter" like a "book." Bring the left side to the middle. Bring the right side the middle.


Fold the book in on itself.

You have now folded a fitted sheet!

I used a twin sheet in this example, but a queen size sheet will do just the same, it will just look bigger!

Give a big hand to Esther, my assistant! She was awake while I was trying to pull this off!

Sorry the picture kind of stink, the lighting in our house is terrible and it makes for bad pictures!

The Family that Blogs Together...Stays Together

Well, I have introduced the world of blogging to Matt's family and this week, all of them (well, nearly all of them) decided to launch their own blogs. So I have to pimp them right here.

Matt's sister Buffy, who just had twin girls can be found at:sleeplessinjacksonville.blogspot.com

Matt's cousin Kelly, who got married in June and just found out that she got pregnant on their first night as a married couple...perhaps with twins can be found at preggofabulous.blogspot.com

Matt's other cousin, Katy (also Kelly's sister) has a one year old named Addie and she launched her blog today at http://pinkbowstwinkletoes.blogspot.com

It is great fun that all of us can be found on the interwebs now!