October 12th.

Our house is suppose to go on the market today. (still has work to do on it. walls to wash, window sills to scour, base molding to replace, window to case, threshold thingy to put in, some molding painting, door painting to finish.) SOOO much to do, yet the house is suppose to go on the market. I've been praying for God to cultivate special grace-filled, with all the work still to be done, we'll need this quality, buyers for this house. And of course a decent to high selling price.

As for the "new" tree house, the most we know is that the sellers have signed the offer we made. They actually had to bring it back to us for slight changes (not to the deal but to who the escrow/title company would be), I actually saw their signatures on our offer! Now it goes to the bank for consideration because it is a short sale. The bank can think about it for an indetermined amount of time... two days, 6 months. They try to see if other offers will come in higher. From what I understand, any other offers would first have to go to the listing agent & sellers for signature before it would go to the bank, and they can choose to or not to sign.... whatever that means. But generally only one offer (best, not always/just the highest) is brought to the bank by the sellers/listing agent, and I think we are it right now. So it appears that we have slipped into first position and beat out the other offer for the sellers signature and submission to the bank. That's step one in this God work.

Bottom line now: Wait for the bank to give us an answer. In the mean time try to keep the house clean enough to get a screaming high offer in on this house. (and try not to sell this before we know we have the other... I don't want to be homeless... and the sad fact is that we could not afford to buy back our own house!)

This whole process is going to shape the boys. Each night we have to go through each room in the house and stand and look around for toys, shoes, shirts, dishes, etc and pick up. Each night, Each room. (sounds familiar... like from my childhood, hmmm.) I've realized my limits, and we are making one bathroom off limits for use to cut down on what I have to clean. Also the living room/ dining room is off limits. (I wasn't allowed to play in the living room dining room under normal circumstances in my childhood home either. So that feels normal to me.) I think they will appreciate the amount of work it takes to keep a house clean. Hopefully they will grow up being more participatory in the housework. It will make them better husbands I think. And I want them to feel a part of the process. This is for their life too. One of the biggest motivators for the "tree house" is the joy they have just playing in the backyard at that new house while we tromp around inside making a list of all the items that need to be done/repaired/replaced. The backyard is like being in a woods surrounded campground. (even has a former rock lined firepit).

In other notes:
Caleb is doing well in school, although not liking it in general, thinks that it's mostly a waste of time. Recess is the only worthwhile thing. He is doing great in his work though. He had got a couple dozen sight words down, and sounding out other things. His teacher visited the house, saw the rabbits/dogs/his room/ Jockey's room and they set goals for the year.

Jockey is having some squirrely issues. Each day (from any event, sunday school, awana, school) if he was bad that day he says: "It was the worst day ever. I was bad and disobeyed my teacher".... although he can't say why he did. Last week, he actually was breaking pencils on purpose. So he is going to have to replace those today. He's not looking forward to it, which means its a good thing for him to do. He is "coping a 'tude" lately on everything. I think he is just stretching his wings of independence and growing but not knowing how.

Well, there's more, but I have to get everyone ready for the day. Jockey has picture day, Caleb doesn't have school. But we are headed to a play date after school to keep the kids out of the house and not get it messy!
TTFN