Sell this House! (I watch too much HGTV:)

We really need our house to sell. So far we have only advertised by owner. Two couples showed quite a bit of interest. The first couple came for a showing and a few days later came back to go through it again, and another couple said they were going to 'run some numbers and get back to us with an offer'. My prayer is that this can all come together quickly and easily. I have been praying so hard for the right person to come through these doors. We are ready to 'move on'. A lot of things need to happen, but there is potential for everything to work out. Hopefully, our plan coincides perfectly with His plan.

I am anxious for things to green up so it looks much prettier outside. If we can't get it sold ourselves within the next week or so, this place goes on the market. Then the real fun begins...ugh.

Creighton's Sleepover

Creighton often gets upset because Colby is always having friends sleep over or she is staying with friends. He wants to have his friends from daycare spend the night, and so far I have been reluctant. They are still young enough that there are potential bedwetters and middle of the night criers. So, I just haven't let him yet. So tonight when Maddison (my niece) spent the night Creighton said that this was HIS sleepover. So, he got to sleep on the airbed in the living room and he told Colby that she couldn't play with Maddie because it was HIS sleepover friend (cousin). He was happy and little did he know that she skipped out on him in the middle of the night and came to my room :) They played outside, made mudpies, had supper and Creighton distributed ice cream treats (with forks(?)) and then ran around acting crazy for awhile. Then it was time for bed. Easy enough...

Many faces of Creighton

Creighton was showing off the tattoos he put on himself. On his forehead, his eye and his chin. Interesting choices :)

Outside

It's been nice enough and light enough in the evenings when we get home to spend some time outside. Yeah!

Tagged....

Ok, I was tagged by Pam . So here ya go...

HERE'S HOW YOU PLAY. ONCE YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED YOU HAVE TO WRITE A BLOG OF TEN WEIRD, RANDOM THINGS, FACTS OR HABITS ABOUT YOURSELF. AT THE END, YOU CHOOSE FIVE PEOPLE TO BE TAGGED, LISTING THEIR NAMES AND WHY YOU CHOSE THEM TO BE TAGGED. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE THEM A COMMENT "YOU'RE IT" AND TO READ YOUR BLOG. YOU CAN'T TAG THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU. SINCE YOU CAN'T TAG THAT PERSON BACK, LET HIM OR HER KNOW WHEN YOU'VE POSTED YOUR BLOG SO HE OR SHE CAN READ YOUR ANSWERS.

1. I have a fear of my house burning down. I have a re-occuring dream that I come around the corner and my house is burnt to the ground. Weird, I know, but I have had that exact same dream many, many times. Sometimes I even 'daydream' it.

2. I babysat for Kurt and Brenda Warner's kids several times. For those of you that don't follow football, Kurt is a quarterback in the NFL. They lived in Cedar Falls at the same time I did and Brenda and I worked together at the CF Rec. Center. He was always out of town playing arena football and I would help Brenda out with the kids. They had two kids at that time. Their boy is blind and was just a complete joy and so lovable. Their little girl was 3 and 'full of it'. I loved them.

3. I made the honor roll every semester from middle school on. My high school GPA was something like 3.87. BUT, after my first semester in college I got put on probation because my grades were sooo BAD. I had to buckle down the rest of my college career to dig out of that hole! Those late nights partying and skipping class were so not worth the extra effort needed to make it up thoughout the next three years!

4. I have worked at my job for over 12 years and have only been sick enough to stay home from work on three occassions. One was the first month I worked there (Dec. 1995). Two was in May of 1998 when I thought I had the flu (a few days later I found out I was pregnant). Three was in January of 2008. Now, I have stayed home many, many times with sick kids, but only three times because of my own health.

5. The Journal called me one evening and was doing an article on local 'haunted houses'. They heard my house was haunted and wanted to know of any strange happenings in my house. It is NOT haunted. I have no idea where they got that idea. Never have seen anything of the sort. That creeped me out.

6. I can not fall asleep without the TV on and my fan on '3'. Bad habit, but there is no way to get around it. I have to take my fan with me on vacation.

7. I would prefer not to have any animals at our house. We have 7 cats, 2 dogs, 1 horse and 1 fish. Obviously, I have no input on this subject :) At least ALL of them are outside. Even the fish--it lives in the garage.

8. I love foods like Spagettios, canned Ravioli, Kraft mac-n-cheese, fish sticks, hot dogs, fruit roll-ups, pb-n-j and bologna sandwiches with ketchup. My kids and I have much the same taste :) When I was younger and would get home from school my preferred snack was always instant mashed potatoes and I still love them today. No gourmet foods for me! Also, I have not drank a glass of milk since I was little and my mom would make me drink it.

9. One of our family 'jokes' was that I was the world's worst photographer (besides Gramma K). No one ever wanted me to take the xmas pics, birthday photos, vacation pics, etc. because typically you couldn't tell who was in the photos because I cut heads off (pre-digital camara days). It was quite funny when I would get a roll of film developed and sometimes only knew who was in the photos because I remembered the clothes they were wearing :) Last year I won the county's photo contest with first place in color, first place in black and white and best in show. Ha! Can't make fun of me now!

10. I love ice. I eat big cupfuls of it every day. Every person that knows me well enough to know this has told me that I am going to ruin my teeth chomping ice. When I was pregnant I craved ice BIG TIME. One night we didn't have any ice. It was the middle of the night and I NEEDED ice. Casey's was closed so there was no where near by that I could get ice. I went to the deep freeze to see if maybe I had a bag of ice in there. I was so desperate I tried to break chunks off of the sides of the deep freeze. I couldn't get any off and all I could think about was getting some ice. I stopped just short of scraping my teeth on the frost of deep freeze. Or wait, maybe I did scrape my teeth on the frost of the deep freeze :) How disgusting is THAT????

There you have it. 10 weird or random facts about me. What's your story?....

I tag......

Brittny.....because she is a new blogger and needs to step it up a bit (like I have room to talk:)

Becky....because Cassie didn't tag her so I will :)

Andrea....because I know she will be just thrilled to do this :)

Theresa.....because she ONLY has five kids including an active son, triplet girls, and a baby girl. So I know she has nothing better to do :)

Dan.....because he has CRAZY stories that never end. I especially like the one about a former wife of his who tried to shoot him :)

You can all thank me later....

Oh boy...

Tonight Colby informed me that she was trying not to eat too much meat. I, of course, asked why not? She said that if she wants to SAVE the animals that she can't be EATING them. Duh mom.... So my 9 year old daughter is now avoiding meat to save the animals. Although she had no problem devouring her pepperoni pizza tonight :)

I did ask her, "you don't eat vegetables, you don't eat fruit and now you don't want to eat meat. exactly what are you going to eat?" no response. end of conversation.

Where did it go???

This weekend flew by. We really didn't do anything. I didn't take pictures and I have nothing newsworthy to report. So, again, a really bad blogger here.

Just something that made me laugh today.....

(Thanks, Dan!)

Blogging 101: F

If blogging were a class, I would flunk. I have been awful lately. I haven't been taking pictures, we've had a lot going on, but nothing particularly good to blog about. So, here I sit attempting something, coming up with nothing...again.

Dad did get out of the hospital. Still much, much healing and recovering to happen and possible surgery in the near future(?), but he's home. And I am sure he is so happy to have busted loose from the hospital.

The kids are good. Colby is gearing up for softball and Creighton t-ball. And, they are anxious to get back on Blaze too. Maybe on the next warm day if it isn't still icy at our place. Can't wait for some more 'outside' days.

Greg is working 7 days a week for the entire month of March. That is enough to keep one busy and tired.

I am so ready for my leg to be better. New xrays Friday and I may be able to go to a new device that will allow me to BEND my leg! Not sure I will be able to bend it after being like this for so long, but baby steps here. I have a feeling my leg is going to be pretty weak for awhile. But, it will be all good in no time. I am so excited and praying for good xrays on Friday.

I did do some video last night of Creighton dancing. As much as that kid loves sports, he sure loves to dance too. Maybe I'll get that posted later. Not sure where he gets his fancy moves :) Probably from Hannah Montana....

Gearing up for an almost committment free weekend (even though it's only weds.) Oh baby, that's what I LIKE!

Beautiful Mess

It is absolutely beautiful out. It is an absolute sloppy mess out here. But, we'll take it anyway! Anxious for a full melt and spring weather to stay.

Hope everyone is ENJOYING this day!

More later....

Friday

Today all I was going to post was good stuff. You know, great pics of the kids, what a great day it was, dad is getting better, etc. You know, just good stuff.

So, Colby went after school to spend the night with a friend (after deciding this at noon today and calling me from school to ask :), Creighton is crashed on the couch, dad is so/so with a long road of recovery ahead (still in the hospital and a LONG day of suffering yesterday), my day was long and tiring, etc.

Not really too much good or bad to report. No pictures--no kids to take of them unless you want sleeping pics of Creighton. I am ready to crash. Tomorrow will be a pretty low-key day. I have a meeting with our realtor in the morning and that is the ONLY obligation for the day. Hopefully, I will be able to hobble outside and try to chop some ice off the drive when it starts to melt. This is going to be a SLOPPY mess out here. What a perfect time to get the house on the market :)

Such is life.....

I can't wait for the day that I can post something fun, exciting, some good news or something positive! But, for today I offer this.

Tuesday both of my brothers and I went to Iowa City to see our dad. He seemed to be doing fairly well. We laughed and joked and the boys picked on me and made fun of me...just like usual.

Apparently after we left he sort of spiraled downward and was having the intense pain and fevers that had subsided the day previous. So, he went for another CT scan and it seems that his problem is not resolving as they had hoped so he will have a 'procedure' today. I am not sure exactly how this procedure works, but it is supposed to help him to heal quicker by getting rid of some of the infection. Praying for skilled hands to be performing this procedure today with no complications and minimal pain.

Not sure how many more days he will be at 'the Hilton' (I mean the hospital :) but I am pretty sure this is not exactly how he had planned to spend his retirement. (This was his last week of work with his retirement date being this Friday).

Happy Retirement Dad and get well soon!!!

Another turn of events.....

So...my dad has been sick with a high fever and pain for over a week. I think he was assuming that he had caught a bug of some sort. The pain was bad enough to go to the ER. After tests, etc. the problem is discovered and he is now resting in the hospital in Iowa City. There are more procedures, etc. to come, but I am not sure of those details yet so I won't even try to go into it. I'm not sure he would want any 'blog publicity' so we'll leave it at that for now.

Anyway, the reason for the post is to praise Colby for her kind little heart. My brothers and I are taking off this afternoon to make a run to Iowa City and Colby made some things for us to take up while she was home on her two hour delay this morning. She called me and said, "I have three things for you to take to Grampa Bill. One is a note telling him about my new fish. Two is a 'Happy Early Easter Card'. And three is a note telling him to get better." She is just so sweet. I love that she came up with a Happy EARLY Easter Card. Only Colby :)

The Mail

Creighton just brought in the mail. So proud of himself for 'helping'. Now, I have to walk down the driveway to pick up all of the pieces that he dropped along the way. Good thing it's not windy today....

Friday's Appt.

So, this past Friday I had a dr. appt. to get my leg checked. Got new xrays and they pretty much look the same as the last ones. Still broke. Two more weeks before my next appt. and another set of xrays. I could have my own album of xrays before too long. I did get a little good news in that I only have to use my crutches when I am going to do a lot of walking and if I am going to be up a lot. As much of a pain as they are, they really do help. So, I have been hobbling around a little bit without them and a little with them. When I don't use them my gait is so strange that it kills my back and my good leg. I am ready for this to be over, but I am constantly reminding myself that this injury is so temporary and there are many people that live a lifetime with their handicaps and injuries. My heart aches for them. And I am thankful that I am one day closer to being healed.

Does it ever stop???

My kids arguing and fighting, that is. I sure hope this is just their age or something. Today they fought in the car, they fought at church, they fought at lunch. I begged them to just try to not fight on the way home. It lasted two minutes and they were fighting and tattling. I was ready to plug my ears and start yelling, la la la la la la at the top of my lungs. I couldn't listen another minute today. They are outside riding the four-wheeler (and fighting I am sure). They are supposed to be chipping the ice off of the sidewalk. We'll see how much of it gets done. At this point, I am not going to check because I will probably catch them arguing about something and I can't listen to any more of that today...

Two things

One from Creighton and one from Colby...

Today Creighton walked outside and said "It's summer. We didn't need to wear coats!"

And Colby. Today she spent much of the day and evening at my brother Dave's house. Sounds like she hung out with Tangie (her aunt) quite a bit throughout her stay. I asked Colby, "did you have fun with Tangie today?" She said "YES! It was sooo fun! She's not like 'regular' moms. Like you. You are old fashioned".

So Creighton thought it was summer and I'm an old fashioned regular mom.

I cleaned the house all day. Colby stayed with Dave and his family all day. Creighton went to Dave's for a couple of hours then went out to Uncle Jay's to go sledding behind the four-wheeler. I am pretty sure they had a lot more fun than staying home with me. Especially since I am old-fashioned and all....

Maddison Visits

Maddison begs her dad to come out to our house all of the time. When Jay and I talk on the phone I am not allowed to talk to her because then she begs and pleads to come out and drives him crazy. So last night they came out for a couple of hours and she got her 'aunt heather' fix :) She loves to play with the kids. They danced, played Shrek, played on Nick Jr.'s website and since they can't ride the horse they got the indoor ride instead. A fun night. We love her so much!

A hug from across town

I am not sure if I completely understood this, but this is the story I got from Colby when she called me after school today.

Apparently, Colby's teacher has been sick all week. So she has not seen Colby since before Colby got sick. We emailed several times throughout Colby's illness about how she was doing, etc. So she knew how sick Colby was and what a rough time she was having.

Anyway, Colby said that another teacher, Mrs. P., came and got her out of class today and asked her to come to the hall. Colby's teacher (who is home very sick with what Colby had) called Mrs. P. and told her to go give Colby a hug for her. Colby's teacher said she is so sick and miserable that she feels so sorry for Colby having to go through the same stuff and just wanted to hug her.

So, it sounds like Colby got a little extra hug at school today. And I love that my child is being loved at school and that her teacher thought about her from her own sick bay at home. That is a teacher who is in it for the right reasons. Loving her students like her own. And I am grateful.

TIIIIIRRRREEEDDDD!

These here are some tired kids. Creighton goes full force all day and crashes when we get home. Colby went back to school today and was exhausted by the time I picked her up. She said she was sooo tired at school. Apparently, this tiredness after her illness can last up to 4 weeks or so.

The kids are in separate living rooms, laying on their respective couches, snuggled with their blankets, Colby with her monkey and Creighton with 'Lovey'(the yellow giraffe), each watching a different movie while sipping milkshakes from McDonalds. I just kind of wander back and forth between the two.