I just found some more of my note cards, and wow…it’s amazing when something you wrote or studied a long time ago really speaks to your heart! I don’t believe so much in “accidents” or “coincidence”…I think those ideas are just God’s way of remaining anonymous! That said, I will share a few tidbits from my notes because they might inspire you too!

When God hovered over the watery mass during Creation–we should see that what was chaos, God turned to order…same with our lives, whatever the case, God can bring order to chaos. He can take a chaotic mind and bring order to it as well.

Through out the Bible there are too numerous to count the times that God has strategically placed people in different places, times, and events. They are like the representatives of His influence. If we have the Spirit of God with in us then we can be assured that God HAS strategically placed us at this time, in all of creation, in this place, in all the world, at this moment, and rely on the fact that EVERY moment here after is also part of His strategy. We might wonder what that really means? It means that God has a role for us. We are in a position to either fulfill that role or deny it. Our salvation does not rest on our taking the role and relishing it, BUT our happiness most likely IS dependent on it. We “glow” when we love God enough to put our faith completely in Him and allow Him to use us where we are. When we give ourselves to God this way we feel a completeness and wholeness that nothing else in the universe can compete with. No person, object, feeling, or fulfillment can EVER touch that spot that God holds.

So…all that to say…If we are still here, on this earth, then we can know that God is simply not finished with the work He is doing IN us…OR the work He is doing THROUGH us. It is up to us whether we experience either of those in our lifetime.

God bless!
Susie

I have been really getting things organized in our computer room/office…and I ran across these note cards from when we sat down together during one of our devotions and wrote down a special prayer of thanks to God. I thought I would put it here…each person in our family contributed to different parts and I thought it was such a beautiful reflection of our hearts at the time!

Dear Heavenly Father,

We praise you for creating our family, for creating homes, for giving us the emotion of love and for loving us no matter what.

Thank you for canoes and beautiful streams to use them in to fish and bond with our family.

Thank you for the food you created for our pleasure.

Thank you for animals that we can call “pets”.

Thank you for cars that help us live more comfortably and giving us abilities and skills to do jobs to give us the things we need to survive.

Thank you for warm muffins and cookies to share as a family.

Thank you for soft beds to sleep on and help us grow and become the people you created us to be.

Thank you for awesome monkeys and penguins, fishies, and TV for entertainment.

Thank you for the beautiful bond you create in our marriage and for the absolute sanctity of our lives.

We praise you Lord, Creator of All We Know, See, and Hold Dear. We are unworthy of even the smallest token of your affection–yet you have filled our world with your love for us to see every single day.

Thank you Lord God Almighty, Sweet Lover of Our Souls, and the Great “I AM”

I think we should do this again! It was probably about 2 years ago. We pray together everyday as a family, but this was with specific purpose to praise and love God and we wrote it down so that it would have more meaning. If you haven’t ever done this I bet your family would love it. It is a very special time, and of course, I *love* knowing how happy it makes God that we praise Him all the time, but I suspect when we come together to unify our praises it is extra special to Him!

God bless!
Susie

You can go to David’s Official Site to hear it for free! Right on the front page…

Lyrics:

Never really said too much
Afraid it wouldn’t be enough
Just try to keep my spirits up
When there’s no point grieving

Doesn’t matter anyway
Words can never make me stay
Words will never take my place
When you know I’m leaving

CHORUS
Try to leave a light on
When I’m gone
Its something I rely on
To get home
One I can Feel at night
a naked light
a fire to keep me warm
Try to leave a light on
When I’m gone
Even in the daylight
Shine on
And when its late at night
You can look inside
You won’t
feel so alone

Verse #2
You know we’ve
Been down that road
What seems
A thousand times before
My back to a closing door
And my eyes
To the seasons
That roll out
Underneath my heels
And you don’t know
How bad it feels
To leave the only one
That I have ever
Believed in
Bridge
Sometimes it feels
Like we’ve run
Out of luck
When the signal
Keeps on breaking up
When the wires
Cross in my brain
You’ll start my heart again
When I come along

There are LOTS (over 100) pictures in the gallery, if you want to take a look there too! This is just a bit of them…if you need a username and password for the gallery just email me!

LOVE YOU ALL!

God bless!
Susie

So here’s my tidbit update:

–Thanksgiving was AWESOME at my parents house! We had good food, wonderful fellowship, and best of all we got the results back from my Dad’s most recent blood test and his numbers were down! WOOT!! We had our traditional Tuesday Thanksgiving and did not really do our big Black Friday shopping spree this year…but we DID get one GREAT deal! I also spent a HUGE amount of time reading all four of the Twilight books because my husband bought them for me…eep. I read probably 50% of them outloud to Julia my Sister-in-love, and we both were fascinated. Her and I went to see the movie too which was outstanding (hubby had already taken me on a date to see it)…I know vampires are not really the most well…hmmm…well, let me just say this about the characters in the movie/books…they are unbelievably MORAL. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone so I won’t say anymore than that.

–We soooo surprised B for Christmas! All he wanted was an Xbox 360…and we had told him because of the new house and stuff we might not be able to get it for him until after the first of the year…he is SUCH a good boy, he never complained, and he really, truly and sincerely believed he was not getting anything for Christmas on Christmas morning. SO…on Black Friday we were able to get his 360 on sale AND with 5 FREE games!!! We bought the other game he wanted and we KNEW how amazed he was going to be…and we were so not disappointed!!! He freaked totally haha it was great! He fell onto Rob and I into this full contact football hug and just lay there forever lol he said thank you a hundred times I know and then just gushed and gushed about how amazed he was…hey getting a surprise over on a 15 year old is not the easiest thing to do…haha The girls got the surprises they wanted too and it was wonderful…I was super blessed with some of the most thoughtful gifts ever! I received a Twilight book from my son (who is encouraging my habit if I say so myself!), stunning necklace and earring sets from the girls, and oh the sweetest little tea pot and “blooming teas” from my husband!!! They are so cute, I haven’t gotten to try them yet but I need to–they actually change and are like art in your teapot…the teapot he got is a little one that is clear so you can see the blooms…I looked at the website and my stealthy husband peeked and ordered them for me! It was precious!! I got him some surprises too! I got him the Christmas Story leg lamp string of lights for his “man cave” and the coolest clock to hang in there too that looked like a tire…it was awesome! But the best gift was the T-shirt that I got him that said “I do everything the voices in my wife’s head tells me to do!” LOL I love it!

–We have nearly finished the biggest stuff on the house…we just did the island counter top with resin…and finally got the tin backsplash up! WOOT! It is GORGEOUS.

My todo list for the three main rooms of the house are:
Dining room: put the trim and rosettes up on the wall that holds the mirror (and yes, that is IT!)
Kitchen: Finish the white trim around the window, put the backing fabric on the backs of the cabinets, put the tin up on the sides of the island, and trim the island (and then yes! We’ll be done!!)
Living room: Decorate the top of the entertainment center (LOL I did not even notice this until I just took pics…how embarrassing!!!), get the sticker off my mirror on the mantle (I have no idea how it got there!), get the wires and stuff fixed for the electronic stuffs and get it all put in the unit….and then we will be DONE!

The rest of the house is coming along more slowly, but maybe a todo list will hold me accountable there too:

Computer room: finish putting up the last of the stuff that needs a “home”…it is worse than it sounds I promise! Run the telephone wire and hide it, otherwise this room is done!
School room: Currently unusable thanks to the clothes we have been sorting in there–so finish sorting and put away the last bits of odds and ends in there, hang up my white boards and cork boards…
B’s room: Finish his fabric wall with trim, paint the last wall orange, hang up his stuff, and decorate it
Girls room: Hang up stuff and organize some of it…not much is needed here…but finish the window seat and make the cushions and curtains for the doorway…build the shelves for their books…
Our bedroom: Wallpaper top half, hang up stuff and decorate…
Craft room…finish organizing…hang up curtains for laundry area…

Wow, seriously it does not seem like much stuff even when I write it but when I look at it then it’s all so overwhelming!

Okay onward with my list:

–we went to an overnight even with the Church on New Years eve…it was soooooo fun! We went to the Church for a lesson, then to the movies to see “Bedtime Stories” (which was VERY cute!) and then to the bowling ally, and then to skate! Then we went back to the Church for a hot breakfast at 7 and then to BED LOL It was soooooo awesome!!!

–Rob is pretty close to getting orders for his next assignment…it is looking very seriously like he might be going overseas for a year…I know there are lots of people who are unaware that the Coast Guard is actually part of the FIVE branches of the military–but they are. I’ll post some links later to explain it because I love to talk about it, but anyways, they are a part of the military and have been a part of every single war we have fought as a country. They have also been very active in “lesser” events like when the Haitian uprising happened (hubby spent three months there!). They are port security so they go in and secure the ports before the other branches come in…they are the last to leave as well. Yup, their boats do all the aids to navigations and drug/fisheries law enforcement, but they are also capable of being “suited up” with guns and proper gear for handling military crisis also. That said, yes, there is a contingent of Coasties over in the Middle East right now. I will have to check with hubby on the number but it is either 7 or 9 units over there right now. Hubby would be in charge of the guys from the boats that are his rate, and he would do some other collateral duties as well. He would not be on a boat but would work off of the Naval Base located in Bahrain. Shudder. Yeah, I don’t *like* it but I do see the benefits, the awesome opportunity, and the good things that can come from this–not the least of which that he would be more or less local after this until he retires which is a very good thing. Please pray for us and for us to be open to God’s will no matter where that takes us. It is hard to imagine this time apart from one another…the very thought is very painful…but God is capable of sustaining through ANY suffering…and I know that God is all over this situation.

–R turned 12! Yes she did…it was so exciting…I made her peanut butter fudge and she was sooo spoiled…she just had a home party with her friends over and really had a good time! It was impossibly hard to imagine that she had already been in our lives for 12 years!! She is SUCH a joy!

–My Momma gave me the most amazing set of silverware EVER!!! It is SO beautiful and heavy and perfect, and well, you know there is just something about having a really nice set of silverware…what IS that about? I love it!

–my heat bill was like $300 for this last month. EEP! I nearly croaked. Not because we can’t afford it, because we’ll be okay, but wow. That’s alot! I will be really happy when we can do the whole budget billing thing, but we can’t until we have been here a year. We have a list of things we are going to do to try to weather proof the house some…it is a big house…like 2400 square foot, and it’s an older house, so I know it has some leaks where we are losing the heat…and then on the other hand, well, it IS a big house, so maybe it is really just that hard to keep it heated. I will do without pretty much anything but I do not like to be cold. At all. Ever.

–Our little kitties that we rescued have been spending more time inside…it is a possibility that we might be able to house train them. They are SO sweet. We ended up naming them Eenie and Mo. As in “Eenie Meanie” and “Miney Mo”. Hehe…they are good and so far are getting along famously with the other cats and the dog…as surprising as that is, the dog really should have had to pay the $400 vet bill!

–we have been visited by a friendly donkey and a bull and a cow with her baby calf! They have all come up to the field beside our house and we have just enjoyed that so much!!

–our friend’s son got a four wheeler and we have been riding it here at our house because we have room for it. I have not ridden it alone, but I have let Rob drive me. WOOT!

–OH one of the coolest things I got for Christmas was a surprise for everyone. Rob didn’t even know what it was. I knew there was a chance he was going to be sent to the Middle East before Christmas so I got an idea and bought each of us one of those Shining Stars animals! I got me the giraffe (of course!), B the penguin, R the blue dragon, C the cow, and for Rob I got him the monkey–because you know if he does go over there then he can take one of his monkeys with him haha Anyways, you get to register a star =o) So we’ll be able to look into the sky and see each others stars, I thought that would be awesome for all of us. =o)

Ahh…we’ll that’s it for now…I will write more later I PROMISE!

Stay tuned for pics!

God bless!
Susie

We are still moving and my hubby will be here any minute to get started so I can’t write lots, BUT heres a quick rundown of what is done and what needs to be done!

Finished:
built a huge island in the kitchen
painted the kitchen cabinets guacamole green!!! They are SO cool!
beadboarded the walls in the kitchen (we actually had started to paint them but there was wallpaper under the paint that was there and it bubbled up so our plan B was beadboard and I simply LOVE it!)
painted the beadboard/walls in the kitchen sunshine yellow!
paint the diningroom royal red from the Biltmore collection
paint the island in the kitchen the same red
build in a doorway from the dining room to the craft room
build in the doorway from the dining room to the girls room
cut through a hall closet to create a new doorway for the girls room
paint/decorate the girls room
painted B’s room
upholstered 3 of our new dining chairs
got our phone, internet and cable hooked up
got all of our utilities on
bought all of our appliances and have them up and running!
had a gas line run so that we could have a gas stove! (woot!)
built our chandelier for the dining room! (soooooo beautiful!)
found new lights for the living room (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!)
moved over all of the living room, kitchen, girls room, and B’s room…
moved Rob’s VW Bug over there
moved the children’s bikes over
got to see the Goodyear blimp! WOOT!
got to see the neighbors round up their cattle to move them to another area–real cowboys on horses and everything!!!

Need to do:
put the trim up in the kitchen
finish the “fabric” work in the kitchen (I am putting fabric on the back of all the top cabinets because I am not putting the doors back on–and putting fabric around the window too)
put up our tin backsplash in the kitchen (has not arrived yet)
install the chandelier in the diningroom
install the lights in the living room
finish painting B’s room and decorate it
decide on what color we are painting the living room and our bedroom and paint them (may come later I dunno!)
finish painting and upholstering 2 more dining room chairs
paint the dining room table and buffet/hutch and the church pew we bought white
find a rug for the dining room
finish moving the school room, the computers/desks, craft supplies and desks and our bedroom (whew! still seems like SO much to do!!)
move the stuff in the attic and storage shed–we will have to get a storage unit locally for our stuff we can’t store at the house…we need to buy or build a few sheds but can’t do it right now financially SO we will just have to wait and improvise for now!)
clean this house so we can checkout and get our money each month
move all our animals (and figure out the arrangements for them all lol)

Well, that’s a lot huh? Please keep us in your prayers as we do all of this, as it seems very daunting and while Rob and I are still doing really good energy and will wise, the children are exhausted…so please pray for us!

I will update again MUCH sooner!!! Oh and if you do not have an account for the gallery just email me and I will set you up with one…there are all sorts of “as we go along” pictures on there!

God bless and much much much love!
Susie

I wanted to put this out there so that everyone who might be interested will see it! Rob and I are so excited about this movie! We loved Facing the Giants, AND Kirk Cameron (http://www.wayofthemaster.com/ *we have supported him here for years* and http://www.kirkcameron.com) is one of our all time favorite actors. How cool that they are all working together to bring something so special to our world! Please support this movie and pray for the success!!!

God bless!
Susie

PS and my husband is FINALLY home!!!!! Praise God!

First off we went to Georgia for two weeks which was such fun! My nephew flew in from Texas and stayed for a little over a week and we all just had such fun. We didn’t exactly DO anything but we had SUCH fun! He is such a joy and a total delight and I am so proud of him and his sister!! My Dad finished his radiation treatments so we had a celebration for that! He goes on Tuesday to have his blood done again and won’t know for two weeks how that is. PLEASE pray as we are that God has healed my Dad and that God will be completely glorified by the outcome. It is scary to pray such a bold prayer. We had three birthdays while we were at my parents, mine and my Mom’s and our son turned 15!! WOW!! It is hard to believe! It was a fun few weeks full of lots of giggles, hugs, love, and celebrations! We were sad to have to leave, but we did…because…

The deal on our house fell through. ~cry~ We had been negotiating back and forth for a price and someone came up and offered them full price for it and they sold it to them. We have had varied degrees of people telling us how wrong this was, possibly illegal, and I have to tell you it felt like a death to me. In some ways it was, at least the death of a dream. I really did love that house. It was a dream house to me. That said, I realized two things from that experience…One is that I am a “specific” prayer person. I like to pray very specifically for things…and in this case I continued to pray that if we were in any way outside of God’s will and plan with the house that God would slam the doors shut for us. I believe he not only slammed it, he bolted it shut. My Dad reminded me that God had truly only answered my prayer, just not the way I wanted it. ~puff~ I am truly thankful that He did, but at the time I was very upset over it. The second thing I learned was that when God closes a door He really does open another.

I was totally and completely emotionally drained from the experience, so I told Rob to go look at houses without me. The truth is, I am the kind of person who finds everything lovely, charming, and “workable” even if it means ALOT for it to be “workable”. I am convinced I would pretty much fall in love with any house. Maybe to different degrees, but the truth is we have lived in so many houses in so many places, all with good things and bad things about them…and I have TRULY loved them all. Even the small apartments, the big houses, everything in between–I have loved them all. I can take anything and make it home. I really do know that, so I told him to go and see the houses and if one of them seemed right then I’d look at it when I got back home. He did go see A LOT of houses. Wowsa. Each time he would call or send me pictures to look at he would tell me all the positive things, and then he would tell me the negative things. Lots of the negatives were not things that could be corrected…like maybe it was the location of one–on a very busy street with very little yard around…for another it was a very old house, and it would take A LOT of money to renovate it. One was lovely in so many ways, but was so close to other houses that you would feel like your privacy was completely invaded. Another was SO gorgeous I can not even tell you but it was falling apart, very little of the original house would be standing once you got done repairing it. Well, besides a few of them, most of them just wouldn’t work…some of them were in terrible locations where safety would be a concern and all sorts of things. I had started to pray that God would just reveal a house to us that was “just right”. It did not have to be an old house like I had my heart set on but just one that would be what we needed. We made a list of the things we wanted in a house, and made those our guidelines:

-we both love brick houses so we would love a brick house
-we wanted at least 3 bedrooms
-we wanted a formal dining room
-we would like to have a “spare room” that could be used for our computers
-we would love hard wood floors (or laminate floors that LOOK like hardwood)
-we would love a basement
-we would prefer an older house, but would be willing to go where God leads

I received a phone call from a friend who had passed a house that was for sale by owner and it had only just been put up. She had pulled up and got the number and called it and looked in the windows and things and said I would just love it. I called Rob and told him to go look at it. So he did that and called them to come let him look at the inside of the house. When he called me after he got done looking at it, he went on and on (and on and on) about how awesome this house was and how it was so many things we wanted–everything except for one…a basement. That’s manageable to me so I asked him what was wrong with it. I waited in silence…for a while lol because he couldn’t think of anything wrong with it. That was a first. That had not yet happened…instead of telling me what was wrong with it, he started telling me again how amazing it was. I was in awe. I knew he had found “the house” that God had for us. I told him to call them and make an offer right then. Yup. I told my husband to make an offer on a house I had not even seen. That may seem really crazy but the truth is I knew in my heart if HE was sure then I would LOVE it. They accepted our offer and we drove back from Georgia on the 16th to sign the papers. We had already been preapproved for our loan and so things would move pretty quickly then.

I walked up on the porch and there was a sign there that was from two of my friends that said “Welcome home!”–they had called the owners and asked if they could put it up. It was so sweet I just bust into tears. The house WAS everything I could have imagined and more. I know that sounds so corny, cause you know we all look for these “happily ever after” endings like in fairy tales, and when we lost what I really, truly considered our “Fairy Tale” house I was convinced I would never love another house again. God proved me SO wrong. As I walked through this house, each room was a grand adventure. Where so many other houses had lovely details and things I loved about them, this one was a blank canvas waiting to be filled with OUR delights. Filled with all the things that we pick out all on our own. No preset ideas, just what we desire. WOW!!!

It would be impossible for it to be more exciting! Here’s the deal…it is a brick house, it used to be TWO houses, but the people who owned it made it into one big house. So…there is a HUGE living room, and the kitchen is big too, with room for a HUGE island in the middle (that my precious hubby plans to build!), then there is this wonderful dining room off the kitchen. Also off the kitchen is the “laundry room”. However, this is definitely not just a “laundry room” even though it has the hookups in there. There is a HUGE bathroom, and then the room the washer and dryer in is HUGE too…so I am going to make it our craft room!!!! WOOT!!! Our own craft room!!!! WOOOOOOT! ~happy dance~ so then you go back to the living room, and on the other end there is a door to what we are fondly calling the “grey” room since it starts the grey stone tile. It will be our computer room…yup…God provided a COMPUTER room for us!!! There is a bathroom off of this room that is also HUGE (that makes 2 full baths)…then you walk through that room and there’s another HUGE room, that used to be the kitchen in the second house….this will be our…(drum roll please)…SCHOOL ROOM!! Yes yes yes, I said it, our very own school room!!! WOOT! And then off of that room is what will be our bedroom (it was a living room in the other house before)…then a hallway that leads to two huge closets and the other two bedrooms and a half bath. It is gorgeously wonderfully amazing…and it is only 23 days from being OURS!!!!!!!! =o)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEK! I know I am totally forgetting details, but anyways, I will surely update with more info as we have some plans to get things the way we want and everything but this house is SOOOOO precious and huge…2300 square feet ALL usable. It is also on 1.3 acres of land on a corner with lots of lovely trees (an apple tree, a twisted willow, a plethora of pine trees, and two pecan trees!) and there is a field next door that is so lovely and wonderful and one of our homeschool friends friend owns it and we are going to pray about trying to buy that land. (you can surely join us in that prayer!)

It is probably only 2 miles from the heart of our town that is SOOOO preciously sweet I can’t even tell you! The town square has a huge park in the middle and it’s so precious.

Well, I am going to upload pics real quick so look in the gallery for them! If you don’t have a login just send me a message and I’ll get you set up!

God bless and thank you so much for all your prayers!
Susie

Hello to all my precious friends and family…first off SORRY for no posts in a while, unfortunately it was not actually publishing them but just saving them lol but anyhoo if you came today you’d see all sorts of new posts here. Lots of stuff going on…the quick update is my Mamaw went to Heaven, my Dad reached his half way point to his radiation treatments, and Rob turned 36 while feeling quite icky! So here’s where I am *right now*…

We have all sorts of exciting and yet completely scary things going on right now…and I know that anyone who has been where we are will TOTALLY understand. We are trying to purchase our very first house! After a year or so of contemplation and prayers which were full of lots of questions and hopes, we have decided that this is where we want to retire…here’s the breakdown:

*Hubby still has 4 years left…he will be trying to extend here to guarantee us 2 years here for SURE…then after that he will attempt (and with the power of prayer it is our very dream and hope that God will permit) to get a unit within reasonable distance to here where he could commute even if it is not exactly convienant. We have braced ourselves for the idea that it is entirely possible he could be stationed somewhere far from us, but we have decided that we will honor God through living one day at a time and not borrow issues from what may never be an issue at all. I pray so strongly that God will work everything out in the end to benefit our family.

*we have found a house and absolutely fallen madly in love with it. I do know that doing that is the worst thing we could have ever done. Ever. But we have and it can’t be undone…it is a beautiful English Tutor style home built in 1926 =o) It is AMAZING. I could describe everything but honestly, it is just so much to try and explain…it has beautiful (and original) hardwood floors through out, those gorgeous glass doorknobs on every door, a living room, parlor, formal dining room, HUGE (although truly outdated) kitchen, 4 bedrooms (although we plan to use one for our “Study” which will have all our computers, school room, and hobby supplies…

*we are working right now on the loan (EEK! Such a daunting process!) and we HAVE made an offer on the house and put down earnest money–of course, they denied our first offer and made a counter-offer which we are still considering…this is all so challenging because honestly, I want to make people happy!!

The only weird thing that has taken place is that when we went to see the house the first time the realtor who had the listing could not be there, so she sent another woman from her company out to show us the house. We had already been let in the house by the owner (who was WONDERFUL) and all this gal did is give us the MLS printoff page and her card with the name of a local banker on the backside. We spoke briefly, she knew I really loved the house, and she even gave me some scripture to look up about being in agreement. I thought she was very nice, but I seriously looked at her as the “Seller’s realtor” since she was showing the house on behalf of the original realtor who could not come. I should insert here that I have *no* idea ANYTHING at all about all of this kind of stuff–we have NEVER done anything that would give us any experience at all in this matter but just my limited knowledge seemed to say that the person who “shows” the house to you is the “seller’s realtor” and that she is working “for” the seller. Once we knew we wanted the house and all we called our parents for advice, and then called our bank (which is a big bank we use that is out of state but offers a great program for first time home buyers)…they ALL said that we needed our OWN realtor to act as a “buyer’s agent” for us. So our bank got us the info and helped us get in touch with a realtor and we met with her on Friday…she helped us make our offer and everything…she was super sweet and I appreciated ALL of the questions she answered for us and everything….well, after we had gotten home Rob’s cell phone rang–I answered it because he was on the house phone at the time. It was the gal who showed us the house…not the original realtor but the woman who had showed us the house (which she DID NOT show us, she just talked to the owner while we looked around)…so anyway, she asks if we had went to see the banker she had recommended to us…and I told her I had…and I told her where we were in the process…then I told her that we had put in an offer through our realtor and this woman started to yell at me and tell me how I had totally broken protocol by not using her as our realtor and all of this about how now a woman who had not done a single thing but sit behind a desk and write up a contract would now get the money that she deserved and that “this might be the way ya’ll do things where you are from but that’s not how we do things around here”…there was TONS more, it was a crazy thing, and I had put the phone on speaker phone so Rob could hear and he took it from me and he said “Have we done anything illegal?” and she said no, of course that we had not…and that we had every right to use who ever we wanted to, and hubby just said well, that’s just what we did. AHHHH I was totally a mess, it upset me so much!! So Rob called our realtor and told her what had happened and she was very upset over it and said that she would take care of it. I don’t know for sure what that entails but I wrote down EVERYTHING that took place and once this is all over I will send it to every address I can find that is related to this issue. It was So wrong how she talked to us! I was already upset but was more upset when Rob pointed out to me that she would have already known before she called that we had put in the offer on the house, which is why she instantly attacked me as soon as I said it. I am so niave I swear I really didn’t even think that but he pointed out that she would have heard from Vicki that there was an offer. Wow. I am ALWAYS so surprised when people are totally ROTTEN!!!!!!! I still can’t believe how this woman treated us! She said that she would have had us sign a contract before we went into the house for her to be our agent if the owner had not been there! So what, she wasn’t going to show us the house unless we hired her?? Are you serious? AARGGGH!!

Anyways, we are in the process and it is truly a challenge! The truth when I first started learning about all of this there was a website I read that said something to the effect of “you are getting started on the most wonderful and amazing experience of your life–buying your first home!” at this point I want to hunt that person down like a dog and make him/her print a total and complete correction lol

Alas, I will keep you all updated on our progress as we go along. We are penny pinching MAJOR right now, I can’t even tell you how much and we are really excited. B was invited to go to an amusement park/water park with the church youth group tomorrow and he said he would like to go but it wasn’t a good idea…when I pressed him about it he said that we were really trying to save money for the house and that he didn’t want to take that money away =o) Isn’t that the most precious thing?? So I totally told him he HAD to go, so he is going tomorrow =o) The girls and I will have a girly day since hubby is underway this week.

I have some more cute things to share but I am so tired and want to get all of this up…I went to bed earlier and slept a wee bit and now here I am A W A K E again. UGH! This whole 35+ age thing is so tricky.

I love you all and thank you by the way to those of you who emailed me out of concern for the time I had not posted…your thoughts and prayers mean the world to me!

God bless!!
Susie

Well, for anyone who has been keeping watch and offering prayers for my Dad let me say that he reached his half way mark on his radiation treatments and is now on the COUNTDOWN!! WOOT! I am so thankful and excited about him being over half way through! I realized that I had not added some info that I had meant to here so here are some links (and I will be adding them to the cancer links on the page for cancer too!)

First, this is a page that shows the “da Vinci” robot that they used to operate on my Dad. It is incredible the progress that they have made in modern medicine and this machine stands in perfect example of what they can do today that they could not have done years ago!

da Vinci Robot

Then this is the machine they are using to provide the radiation treatments to my Dad–

Clinac Overview
Clinac iX Linear Accelerator

Please continue to pray for my parents as they progress through this. So far my Dad has only felt really drained and tired…he said that it is different than just being tired, and I know he means that it is just really taking it all out of him. Plus taking these hours every day to do this treatment has so thrown off his schedule completely. Please pray for them to continue to look to God for all things in this time and for God’s continued healing touch on my Dad. Thank you all SO much for loving me and my family enough to do this!

God bless!
Susie