A Great Promise:

Yet I am confident

I will see

the Lord’s goodness

while I am here

in the land

of the living.

(Psalm 27:13, NLT)

Closed

We have closed on our home!

Yay!

I was going to go out and give it a good cleaning today, but closing took a bit longer than expected. I’m glad I decided to go tomorrow, though, cause my mom is off and maybe she can go with me! That’ll be fun!

I really wanted to give it a good deep cleaning before we move in. Hopefully we’ll be moving Thanksgiving day. That is, IF, I can convince Ronnie that we need to rent a truck!

***I forgot to mention***
For those of you depressed over having to file bankruptcy, take heart. This home purchase comes 2 years and 2 months after our Chapter 7 bankruptcy was discharged. Our interest rate? 5.75%
So, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and there is Life after Bankruptcy!

The Weary

I’ve been told most of my life that my name means “The Weary.”

Lately, I’ve been talking with some friends about how children really do become their names. Matthias, the climber, means “the climber.”
Ethan, “enduring and strong,” is indeed very strong and enduring.

So, I’m “the weary” and lately, I’ve been feeling it. However, I looked up my name today in one of those online baby names and meanings books. Wanna know what it said?

Of course you do!

Leah, in the Hebrew means “Weary or Tired,” but it may have been taken from the Hebrew word for “Gazelle.” Also, in Assyrian, Leah means “Ruler.”

Hmmmmm

:)

Well, it looks like the seller is going to accept the appraisal price of $71,000 AND pay closing costs!

Will keep you updated!

***UPDATE***
Seller agreed to the appraisal price of $71,000 and is paying closing costs. We should close on November 25th!

ErrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrT!!!

PUT ON THE BRAKES!

What’s going on? The mortgage company has decided to accept the first appraisal, even though it contains some comps that aren’t comparable to our property.
Our realtor is working to get the appraisal value raised.

I think she should be working on renegotiating our contract with the sellers. We haven’t yet asked her to do this, I want to talk to Ronnie first.

In other news, if this doesn’t go through, there is a property we had our eyes on a month or so ago that is back on the market! The sell must not have gone through, or else the seller just relisted it! It is a more convenient location to friends and family and may be where God intends us to be. It is about the same acreage as the property we are trying to buy now.

Keep us in your prayers as we follow God through this process. It can be very overwhelming, as I’m sure some of you are aware.

Extension

Our loan processor got an extension on our lock-in rate because the appraisal is taking so long.
My realtor had to submit 4 more comparable sales to the appraiser because the two she submitted to him last week, he said, were more superior to our house. The square footage was too big, but he himself submitted one house that was twice the size with twice the acreage. He denied it, but our realtor made him look at his own appraisal.
He was surprised he had done that, and is now working on the new comps. Hopefully we will have this all settled quickly. These new comps are all the same square footage as our house and sold in the same price range as our house, so they should work out fine.
We’ll see and I’ll let you know as soon as I know something!

Someday

We’ll close on our house.

The Lone Coal

So, I get this email from my pastor’s wife this morning with a story about a man who hadn’t been in church for a while. His pastor came to visit, said nothing but sat in front of the fire with the man. The pastor got up, took the fireplace tongs and removed a single coal from the fire. Of course the coal stopped glowing and “died.”
The pastor got up to leave. The man put the coal back in the fire and the coal glowed red hot again.

In short, my pastor’s wife is concerned about me. Concerned that I’m growing cold and burning out.

The truth is, I’ve been burned out for quite some time. I’m exhausted from mothering, but never being mothered. I’m tired of cleaning up after, but never being cleaned up! I want to run away from it all, yet I know that I cannot.
Motherhood is not a job that you can just quit.

I recently read an article by Joyce Meyer that said, “If you don’t like what you are doing, find something else to do.”
Great advice, Joyce! She can’t just give that blanket advice. Some mom is gonna walk out on her husband and kids. Motherhood, as rewarding as it can be, is a grueling, mostly thankless job.

My Sunday mornings alone at home are the only time no one is pulling on me. No one is asking me to make them something to eat. No one is in my face. No one is rocking in the squeaky rocking chair. No one is fighting. No one is crying. No one is around.

No one but me and God. I kinda like my time alone with him. If that makes me a dead coal, because I’m not in a building with a bunch of people who pretend to care about me one day a week, then I’d rather be a dead coal!

Journey To The Center of The Earth

Really good movie.

Once again, I’ve never read the book. Seems this excellent literature was reserved, at least in our school district, to Honors/Masterworks students (Jennifer!). A lot of great books were never handed to me for good reading. This one I may have devoured, a few times!

After seeing this movie, I am now very interested in reading the book and making my students read the book.

Great literature should not be reserved for the brightest students. All students should have the opportunity to imagine.

My First Time

So here’s the scene:
McDonald’s
Red Box
Man at Red Box
Taking forever

Man finally makes his selection and leaves
I swear it was 20 minutes
Okay, it was ten

My turn

Or not

Teenage boy cuts in front of me and another person inline
I stand about 2 feet from him as he returns his movies
He’s obviously annoyed by my closeness
I look over my shoulder at man behind me as if to say, “You gotta be kidding me!”
Boy leaves
Finally

My turn
Man behind me says, “Are we that old that it’s okay for kids to just ignore us?”
“Really,” I say
No Kung Fu Panda
Tinkerbell
Smile
This takes longer than I thought
Two more people in line behind kind man
Done
Smile and thank man for patiently waiting