What Next??

Well, dear reader, life has been very hectic since I last wrote. I worked on painting the house every chance I could for weeks. Then the worst happened. We discovered the house has a brown recluse spider infestation. I can't help but ask God "WHY??" After all the trouble we went through to get the house, the one thing that God knows I hate and cannot deal with. My parent's house was infested with them years ago. It took TWO YEARS to finally get rid of them. It was horrible. I DO NOT want to willingly go into a situation like that. Instead of hiring a professional exterminator to take care of the little nasties, my husband thinks he can do it himself. I am worried, however, that even if we were able to get rid of all the spiders, will I ever rest peacefully in that house? We have been desperately praying for guidance, for we don't know what to do. We have considered selling the house. Some people honestly are not that bothered by spiders (personally, I don't get it). So I suppose we are waiting for God to slap us upside the head with the answer. In the meantime, I have unpacked my boxes, and I have taken measures to make the house we live in as pleasant as possible.
A possible choice came to us just last week. A certain piece of land came up for sale that my husband has had his eye on. It's right across the street from my in-laws (joy, joy!) but it is a very pretty 40 acres. It even has a pond. The price is unbelievably cheap! My husband and I have pondered- is this what we are supposed to do? Were we never meant to live in the house we took such great pains to buy, and the Lord sent the spiders to keep us out? I mean, He knows how I feel about brown recluse spiders! It's not as though we would lose out if we sold the house- Phillip is quite confident that we can make our money back, plus a good sum. Anyway... praying and waiting...

Roller Coaster Ride

I suppose my dear readers are wondering what has happened with the buying of the house. The whole affair has been an emotional roller coaster. We made the first bid on the property the first week of May. My husband Phillip went to Traditions Bank and decided to apply for an FHA loan so that he only had to put 3% down. One would think that, with his excellent credit and considerable equity, he would have no trouble getting a loan. The bank, or should I say the bank's underwriter, Synovus, was... difficult, to put it gracefully. Synovus made ridiculous demands about the condition of the house we are purchasing- even though we have no power to make those improvements since the house is not yet ours! For example, the first time we tried to close, the bank didn't let it go through because they wanted an attic inspection- on a house with a vaulted ceiling! I mean, good grief! Do they have rocks for brains?? I think that they still don't understand what a vaulted ceiling is. Phillip was granted an extension on the contract for the second time. Our real estate agent, Kay Whaley, (who I love- she's the best ever!) warned us that the seller may not allow us to extend the contract a third time if we did not close by July 23. One thing after another led us to believe that it was never going to happen. I prayed for God's Will, even though I wanted the house badly. I finally resigned myself to the fact that we were not going to get the house, and told myself that God was protecting us from something horrible- faulty wiring, or foundation problems, etc. Then, Kay called Friday afternoon (the day the contract expired) and said to be at the lawyer's office at 3:00- we were going to close! So, I dragged my three ruffians out and met Phillip at the lawyer's office. The lawyer sat us down and explained that Synovus had another hangup regarding the driveway. The driveway is shared by our intended home and the neighbor, and it is actually mostly on the neighbor's property. I didn't exactly understand what it was Synovus wanted, all I knew was there was not a scrap of paper on the table for us to sign. As the lawyer spoke, understanding dawned on me, and I saw red. I blurted out, "So, what you're saying is, we showed up here for nothing?" Phillip thought I was going to come unglued. He later told me that, at that moment, he feared I was going to jump across the table and strangle the lawyer. He quickly reminded me that it wasn't the lawyer's fault, and I shouldn't take it out on him. I had to fight tears, I was so angry. Phillip left the lawyer's office and went to Traditions Bank to "jerk a knot in someone's a**". He asked to see the bank's president, Tim Compton. Phillip told him about our troubles, and his opinion that the issue needed to be escalated to higher-up people. Phillip said Mr. Compton was very nice, and not at all condescending. Mr. Compton told Phillip that if the FHA loan didn't go through again, he would personally go look at the property himself, and if it made sense to him, he would make sure we got the loan! Phillip explained that he was frustrated that he had left work early to go to a closing that didn't happen, and as a result, lost money. Mr. Compton walked out of the room, and returned with $300 that he gave to Phillip. He said, "This should make up for it. If you make more than that in an afternoon, you have an excellent job." He explained that Traditions is trying to win more checking accounts, and he wanted to win us back. I believe he is well on his way. The seller did allow us to extend the contract for a third time, and we finally closed today! The house is now ours! I feel like I need to pop open a bottle of champagne and celebrate! (Actually, I will, since I have to make a champagne cake for a customer!) As a result of our ordeal, I think we will really appreciate and enjoy our new home. Now, the work begins!

Bathsheba

I was at the grocery store yesterday when I noticed a family walking in together. They caught my eye because the two little girls in this family were absolutely gorgeous. They had long, blonde, curly hair, and cute little pixie faces. What broke my heart, however, was that those sweet little angels were dressed like hookers. Short shorts and halter tops. I was so upset that I actually had to choke back tears. Why do parents see nothing wrong with dressing their daughters like tramps? I mean, do they actually think it's cute? I remember a day not so long ago when I came home with a bunch of clothes that I honestly thought were cute- shorts, tank tops, tight jeans- you know, what most girls wear these days. My daddy sat me down and had a talk with me about how men's minds work- ewww. I was horrified. Needless to say, I returned every bit of it and came back home with clothes more befitting a lady. At the time, I thought my parents were just being sticks-in-the-mud, but now I realize that they were trying to protect me, and I am grateful for it. They taught me that modesty is important, that is does matter how you present yourself. I hear things all the time like: "It's my body, I can dress it how I want." or "If guys want to look at me, that's their problem." or "It doesn't matter what I wear. It's what's on the inside that counts." Yes, my dear, that is true. But when you look like a bad girl, people are going to treat you like a bad girl. If you think for one minute God is not going to hold you accountable for all those men you caused to lust, you've lied to yourself. I became convinced of this years ago- probably not long after my daddy gave me "the talk"- when I came across an article called "The Sin of Bathsheba". You can read it at this link: http://www.momof9splace.com/sinof.html

I hope this article has helped my dear readers to understand my reasons for trying to dress modestly. Admittedly, I have been careless and worn some things I'm not proud of, but I do try to dress in a manner that would please God. That is not to say it is not difficult. I struggle with dressing modestly all the time. I wonder "Why me? Why do I have to know that I should dress modestly? Why can't I be like everyone else and just wear a cute top and jeans? Why do I have to be different?" Just because you dress modestly does not mean you have to dress like Laura Ingalls. You can be "in style" and still dress modestly. You just have to shop carefully, and be honest with yourself when you try things on. Ask yourself, "If I was meeting God today, would I feel appropriately dressed in this?" If you need a place to start, visit my friends' store, Pansy Anne's: http://www.etsy.com/shop/pansyannes

Babies Don't Keep

Just in case anyone was wondering, we still have not closed on our new house. The loaning bank we are dealing with is being impossible. Hopefully next week the house will finally be ours- after that, I fear the sellers will want to move on to greener, less time-consuming pastures.

On a lighter note, a few weeks ago, my sweet Alice started sitting up and crawling, all at once. A few days later, she started pulling herself up and standing while holding onto the coffee table or a chair. A couple weeks ago, she said "Dada"; then, a few days after that, "Mama" (we decided her first word was really "Hey!"). It saddens me to see my baby girl growing up so fast. My mom reminded me just the other night about a plaque she used to have. I looked it up on the Internet, and I want to share it with my dear readers:

I hope that my child, looking back on today

Will remember a mother who had time to play;

Because children grow up while you're not looking,

There are years ahead for cleaning and cooking.

So, quiet now cobwebs, dust go to sleep.

I'm nursing my baby, and babies don't keep.

I am so grateful to my mom for reminding me of it. I have been so caught up in all the cares that life brings that I often forget that my babies are growing up all too quickly, and soon they will leave me. When I am dead and gone, no one will remember me for the clean house I kept or the delicious cakes I baked. But maybe my children will remember me for always being willing to drop whatever I was doing to tend to their wants and needs, and for taking time out of my busy days just to play and read books.

Buying a House

The Campbell family is in the process of buying a new home. I am just tickled pink! It is the perfect compromise to our housing dilemma of what, where, or how to build. Phillip and I were fighting almost every day about the building of a house- we couldn't agree on anything! I never realized how different our decorating tastes are. He likes anything that screams "TESTOSTERONE", and I like everything simple but elegant. Just look at a Pottery Barn catalog, and you will see how I like to decorate; although, I have never even bought anything from Pottery Barn. I look through the catalog and find what I like, then I try to find something similar on eBay or something- tricksie, I am! Anyway, so there we were arguing back and forth about building a house, and my husband runs into a friend at the grocery store, who tells him that his in-laws old house was foreclosed on, and was now for sale. So we thought, what the heck, lets go look at it. We went to go see it, and I FELL IN LOVE! It is so perfect in so many ways. I loved the house for itself, and my husband loves it because it is about 1.5 miles from his parents. We are still working on the particulars of buying the house, so we don't yet have a closing date set. Hopefully it won't be too long before we move in!
The prospect of moving to a new home has me in FLY-ing mode! I have already been packing up some things I don't use very often, and I am accumulating things to have a nice big moving sale. (Because the junk is NOT going with us, one way or another!!) I was letting the de-cluttering get in the way of normal housework, but now I have everything under control again. It is so fabulous to have a shiny sink, no dirty dishes, dinner in the crock-pot, the laundry caught up, the bathrooms clean, and the rest of the house in ship-shape! Now, if only I can teach Fidelis his ABCs and 123s, my day will be complete! Maybe that's aiming too high.... well, my hubby should be very proud of me, anyway. He is really a very simple man- as long as the housework stays under control, he really doesn't ask for much else. Hopefully one of these days I will have housework down to a science.
On a similar note, I have been having the boys do chores every day. They are at the age right now that they actually want to help, so I let them, when I can. Fidelis' jobs have been folding washcloths (which he does perfectly, I might add), and emptying out the laundry hampers. Marcellus' job is to take a Clorox wipe and wipe the floor. I have also started making the boys wipe up any messes they make, and pick up all their toys.

Poor, Poor Blog

My poor, neglected blog! I have been caught up in so many things, I haven't had the time to take care of you! I have been busy with the children, of course. I have had drama coming out my ears. I have been working 2 or 3 at-home jobs, trying to make money to fix up the house we are buying. I have been very tired- today is the first day in a couple weeks that I have been able to drag myself out of bed at a decent time. I have fallen off the FlyLady bandwagon. My house is a wreck. But, I will try to do better. "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Positive Reinforcement

I used to think "Super Nanny" was a left-wing bonkazoid with her behavior charts. I am now a believer in this sort of positive reinforcement. My husband has a saying that goes something like: "A behavior that is rewarded is a behavior that will be repeated." My eldest is four years old, and I just recently got him potty-trained. I had tried every trick I could think of. I am ashamed to admit that we even tried punishment. "The New Dare to Discipline" by Dr. James Dobson told me that was a HUGE mistake. He said that parents should NEVER use punishment where potty-training is concerned, for the fact of how far it can set the child back in actually learning to properly potty-train. He also said that it can affect the child's mind as well, causing major repercussions where academia and social skills are concerned. All I have to say is "Oops!" and, "I have tried my hardest to make up for it!" I read further in "Dare to Discipline" about the use of a chart-and-reward system that made good sense. So, I went to our local school supply store and bought a packet of cute little charts and some gold star stickers. I explained to Fidelis that he was a big boy, and needed to wear underwear. I told him we were not going to use pull-ups anymore, and I knew he could go potty every time. I further explained that for every day he didn't have any accidents, he would get to put a sticker on his chart; and then, when he filled up his chart, we would go to the zoo. I am delighted to report complete success. From the very first day, he has worn underwear, and has never had an accident. His chart is now full, and we are planning a trip to the zoo as soon as Daddy is back to being off on weekends. I plan to use charts from now on in order to encourage a desired behavior from my children.