We have started the process of packing up our belongings.  It is not a process that any of us are fond of, but it is necessary.  The boys spent some time last weekend helping Jim unload the few things we had put in the basement.  There wasn't much down there because it is an old house, with an old basement.  On one trip down, the boys found this toad.  It has been so cold, that we have allowed Quincy to keep him on the kitchen table in a Rubbermaid container.  This afternoon, he is slated for release back into the 'wild' - meaning she will let him go out side and he will probably find his way back into the basement!  :)  I have felt bad about keeping him captive, but felt worse about sending him out in the cold. 

 Colin had his first baseball game last night, which means that the cold should be leaving because it is spring.  My feet are still not warmed up from this game though, so someone should give mother nature the memo.

Colin played really well.  I learned about yet another town in our state, as SFT is getting ready to switch leagues (again) and the game was in Garnett, which will be part of the new league.  It seems to me that we will be driving just as far south as what we were driving north.  I shake my head as it seems silly to me to drive this far for a high school baseball game.  I often wonder why we can't just play the teams of the schools that are closer?  Unfortunately, the school board does not like to hear from me, so I try to only ask questions of them that pertain directly to my kid's education, not extra-curricular stuff.

I thought it was so sweet the way these 3 were reading together in the doctor's office this morning.  Preston has been having a pain in his left side.  We do not know what is causing it, and yesterday he was in quite a lot of pain, so we sought some advice from our pediatrician today.  She has ordered a few tests and we will wait to see if the pain returns and then we can decide where to go from there.  He was feeling fine today, and even wanted to go back to school.  I am praying it is growing pain or some other issue I don't need to worry about.  He is such a quiet, compliant, easy going kid, I know if he is complaining it must be pretty bad.  Hopefully it was nothing and he will be fine from now on.  

The weekend looks to be a little more relaxing than the previous few have been.  We have a family project to do - we are going to be cleaning up the elderly housing here in town. The girls and I are also going prom dress shopping.  We are renting a second storage locker and are going to try to get some more of the packing underway.  We still have a few weeks before the big move, but the way we see it, the more we can get out of the way, the better.   The way we are going, the storage locker guy is going to have a very good year!  :)  I am hoping for a few minutes of extra sleeping time!  

Spring break stuff

 Mallory and Madison's band trip sounds like a lot of fun.....but a bit of a wild adventure too.  They left Saturday night around 9 pm (after having gone to Wichita and back to play in the pep band for the Lady Charger's state championship game).  The idea was to drive through the night, arriving in New Orleans bright and early Sunday morning for a whole day of sightseeing and fun.  Instead, the bus broke down on the Oklahoma, Texas border.  This gave them a day of fun sitting around on a broken bus and in and IHOP which I can only imagine was super happy when a replacement bus arrived to take away the 80+ students who had been hanging out!  

Once in The Big Easy, it sure sounded to me like they were having fun.  They were going to visit a lot of awesome places!  Today, they went to a museum and then were supposed to get on a bus to head back.  I was told that the van that had several students in it had broken down, and they were waiting for it to be fixed.  Seems like they might not be home as scheduled!?!  I told them that sometimes the journey is the adventure!

 Here on the home front, we have been buried neck deep in paperwork trying to get everything together for the sale/purchase of our houses.  Seriously, I am not sure if I have blocked out the paperwork from our other real estate transactions, or if this is due to new laws which took effect the first of the year, but I don't think there is a single piece of paper left in my house that I can scan and give to someone.  

 The kids who are left at home and I did take a break yesterday afternoon to have a picnic at the lake with a friend of mine.  Actually, Adreinne was my first friend - we met when we were 4 years old, and have been friends ever since.  Rare is the day when I don't hear from her, and many times in my life she has been the voice of reason, keeping me sane and possibly out of jail.  I was super happy to have a couple of hours to visit with her in person.  And our kids get along great too, which is super awesome.

 The big boys and I have decided that loan paperwork is for the birds, which is why we have spent a lot of time filling out a perfect bracket for the billion dollar payout.  And they have been perfecting their poker skills so that we can play high stakes in the future.  If I teach them nothing else in their childhood, at least they will have a good grasp of how to gamble.  

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 These two little girls miss their big sisters.  I have had Harper ask me about 100 times if today is "Sursday" because she knows that is when the girls come home!  I don't have the heart to tell her if they don't get their transportation issues resolved, it may be Friday!

wow!

 This has been a week for the record books.  Thursday, I took Madison to visit Johnson County's Culinary school.  We were both blown away by how awesome the program is.  I had so much fun looking at kitchen equipment, that when it was over I was convinced I wanted to enroll right along with Madison!  They have a completely new facility.  With the new building, they have all new toys.  And I mean that in the best way ever!  I don't know what Madison will decide for sure, but I am excited for her.  And the sidekicks were very well behaved too! Saige and Harper can brag to all their friends that they started going to college visits when they were 2 and 4!!

 The kids are super excited to be home on spring break!  Mallory and Madison leave for New Orleans tomorrow.  They are going with their band, it is going to be a fabulous trip if all goes as planned they will see tons of stuff!  Colin is wrestling at the club wrestling sub district tournament tomorrow.  Looks like the 'break' is not going to happen!

And if you will bear with me, I will tell you a little story about the goodness that has been surrounding us this week.  As most of you already know, we put our house on the market last week, and to our shock, it sold in 3 days!  I had said a little prayer to God and asked that if we were doing the right thing, to make our house sale effortless.  God does not mess around.  As I have mentioned here in blog land, and to anyone who would listen in the past few months, we found our dream house/property in January and missed buying it by 1 day.  God has a sense of humor, and everything is always on His time, in His way.  We have been searching for properties, and just were not ever quite as happy as we had been with the original property.  Interestingly, one day after our house sold, the dream property came back on the market.  I have never been so happy to hear of the failure of others in my life.  I know it probably makes me a bad person.....an honest one, but not a good one.  God forgive me, but I was super happy!  Of course, we had to wait several days to make sure that the contract was not going through.  I will freely admit that the absolute worst thing you could ever ask me  to do is wait.  I do not wait well.  At all.  I often say I handle rejection much better than I handle waiting.  Anyhow after several days of waiting, we found out that we could put a contract on the property!  So yesterday, we made an offer.   And today we waited.  I mentioned how well I wait, right?  ALL DAY OF WAITING NEARLY KILLED ME!  Finally, we found out that they accepted our offer.  And so, we have a contract on a property.  Not just any property, but THE property.  We are cautiously optimistic, because as I have also mentioned before, we suck at real estate!!!  :)  Our loan is contingent on the sale of our house going through....I would love to say, Hey God's got this - I have nothing to worry about.  Unfortunately, although I know it is totally in God's hands, and I have done everything I can do, I was just not wired for such thoughts.  I will not stop worrying about it until someone hands me a house key!  :)  But maybe, just maybe, I will be able to sleep tonight, for the first time in over a week!  I am going to keep repeating God is good all the time, He's got this.  However, if you are the praying type, please say a little prayer that we can have all the pieces fall into place, and that we can keep our sanity while we wait.

In To the Swamp

 Quincy's second grade class did a musical last night - it was about living in a swamp.  She was supposed to wear 'swamp clothes'  I dare say this is not the first time I have been stumped by a request made by the school.  She seemed to think she should maybe dress as a frog, snake or alligator, but I was lacking in the costume department, and she had to wear the next best thing instead.  None of the other kids were dressed up as wild animals, so I think it was for the best.  

 As second grade musicals go, this one was not too bad.  

 Quincy even had a speaking part, and I was impressed with how clearly and nicely she spoke.  She said she was 'very scared' but she did great!

One of my best friends from grade/high school has a daughter Quincy's age.  They are great friends.  It makes me both happy and a little scared to see how much they love each other.   My mom made the comment that it is like looking back 30 years!  I know how rotten Dusty and I were, I can only imagine what these 2 little girls are going to put us through!  :)  

The big problem with going out in public right now is that everyone in town has seen the "sold" sign on our house.  They keep asking us where we are moving.  At this moment, we have absolutely no idea.  This seems to make people a little bit nervous.  Of course, it makes  me a little bit nervous as well.  Especially when I consider Jim is leaving for training for the rest of this week!  I am sure that our realtor is going to sell us something amazing.....completely our dream property.  I am just not real sure when that is going to happen!  :)  I am putting this in writing - this is the last time we move willingly.  The next time someone will be dragging me out kicking and screaming - and they can handle the paperwork!!

Preston and Quincy's final games

 Preston (#4 in blue above) and Quincy (#6 in white below) both had their final games this morning.  Preston's team lost out in the first round of the tournament.  It was a good season for him, I really think he learned quite a bit and he had lots of fun.   He was not really disappointed about losing because he had a ticket to the KSU game if they got done in time!

 I think Quincy learned a lot too.  She likes playing basketball and had a good season.  I was thinking back to the last day of basketball last year, and I remembered we had to rush back home to pack again because we were moving.  We didn't rush back home today, but we are once again packing.  The good news is that this time it should be way more permanent!

 I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy about having my Saturdays back....at least for a little while!  Oh, who am I kidding here.....we will get our Saturdays back in about 16 years.  Maybe!

 The little girls are pretty infatuated with cell phone photography.  They say things like 'take a picture of me with my bear' and 'take a picture of us with our coats on'  it kind of makes me laugh, and since I am positive that they will outgrow wanting me to photograph them, I just do what they ask.  I, of course am interested in why it is ok for certain teenagers to take 100 selfies a day, but if I want a photo it is like I am asking them for blood!

Madison no longer has a wrestling team to bake with on Friday afternoons, but Saige and Harper have the idea that Friday is 'cookie day.'  Saige likes to stir!

March Madness

March seems to be going a little crazy on us.  We have been running, and trying to keep our heads above water in the madness.  We officially listed our house with a realtor this week on Monday.  Today we received an offer.  The realtor is bringing us a contract to sign this evening.  I hope that we can find something to buy quickly because if not, we might be homeless, which Madison has informed me is not a good thing.  We are a bit shocked at how quickly it sold (maybe we should have made the price higher?)!  I am super happy, but my happiness is nothing in comparison to my husband who always seems to be on the short end of the stick on bathroom time - living with 6 girls in a house with one bathroom is a very, very bad arrangement!  :)

The kids have all been a bit under the weather.  Preston missed a day of school last week, I was called in today because he has a side ache.  And I had already made a trek to Topeka with Quincy who has an ear infection.  Hopefully everyone will be well soon.  I think spring weather should be arriving which should lift everyone's spirits!

 Carbondale school gives out OSCAR awards (Outstanding Show of Character And Responsibility).  Cameron was very excited that he received such a high honor!  I am not clear on what show of character or responsibility he got this award for, but sometimes with Cam it is better to smile and not know!

On Wednesday mornings, Harper and Saige attend story time at the library.  This week, they had super hero day, and this is what Harper looked like when she came back.  She made her own cape and mask.  She was so, so proud and excited!  They also read some books about super powers and she told me her power is she is 'dinvisible.'  I guess you can't see her in this photo after all!

basketball and nasty weather

 Preston had a game yesterday morning in Osage City.  He played so well! 

 I am pleased with Preston's coach who is taking the time to teach them plays, both offensive and defensive, and trying to teach them to be good sports as well.  It is nice to have a good coach.

 Preston got fouled a couple of times.  I had to laugh at his before shot ritual of spinning the ball around his back.  He made both of these shots so I guess it works!

 From Preston's game, we ran and had Jim's birthday lunch at the Pepper Patch in Carbondale, before heading to Quincy's game.  It was good food!  Yes, we were a little late with Jim's birthday celebration!  Poor Jim he is a very patient man!

 Quincy played really well, and I made the comment to Jim that if we were smart we would have the kids run a lot of laps in the gym before heading home since we were under a winter weather warning and most of our Sunday activities were cancelled!  It looks as if we missed out on the 8 inches of snow they were predicting and got about 2 inches of sleet instead.  It is March now, so I say turn on spring and lets put all this winter nonsense behind us.  Colin and Cameron start spring sports practices this week.  If we are practicing baseball and running track, we don't need any more snow or sleet!