Shalee’s Diner

Just a quick note because I’m swamped at work – and I’m giddy beyond belief – but we think God just sold our house!

Would you pray that God will allow everything to go smoothly? 

• The buyers have to have possession by the 26th of THIS month, so things have to move well if they want to close by that time.  (Their house that they just sold has the same closing time – so it is a contingency, but we’re pretty confident in the close if it’s only 2 weeks a way.)  Fortunately for them, we have a company who will be ready to move us quickly!
• Pray that nothing big shows up on the inspection… we’re about tapped out after trying to get this house off our shoulders!
• We have to get back to Kansas to pack everything that the movers won’t take – in a week of snow.
• We have to figure out how to transport everything – do we rent another truck?  Do we store it?   Do we beg friends for a place until we can travel back with a borrowed van?  Ack!  Details!
• Work on both sides will need to be very understanding us.  Though I have vacation, my boss requested early on that I not take any for a few months until I learn this office well.  I’ll need to take off this Friday at least…
• Our hearts will be able to all the excitement!
• Oh my lands… we’re gonna have to find a house now!  See? And you thought praying for us would be done. 

God is so good to answer this huge prayer… we know there are others who are still waiting for God to answer the same prayers for their houses.  

It’s a bit early, but will you celebrate with us?   Woo Hoo! 

And if something falls through and it doesn’t sell, it’s okay.  God is still good all the time no matter what!

Did you know that if you hook your camera up after moving, you can see pictures from month’s before?

Don’t worry.  I’m not going to post them all, making you a captive audience because let’s face it, you’re not captive by any means.  But I might show them over time.  :)

However here are some pictures from our ice skating forray.

All I can say is that I thought I was lifting my leg a whole lot higher and that last picture of The Boy’s socks cracked us up.  His feet were steaming after taking off his skates.  And though I didn’t get a picture of it, his fingers were doing the same.  It was as if he were “Heat Blast” in real life.

Oh, and those hand-holding pictures of The Girl and The Boy were real.  I didn’t stage any of it!  That just makes my heart sing, especially since I just had to yell at them to be nice to each other and it’s not even 6:15 in the morning yet… It might be one of those days for them.  Maybe it’s a good thing that The Girl is leaving to go on a trip this weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Oh how I wish my body could follow!  I am one tired puppy, not just in mental power, but in my body too.

And guess what…  The kids discovered the exercise room.

No, let me rephrase that:  (Sigh)  The kids discovered the exercise room.  (Sigh)

Did you know that you can’t just send your kids down to the exercise room?  You actually have to go with them.  And when you go with them, did you know that they will ask lots of questions as to why you don’t want to do what is good and right for your body, especially since everything you need is right there to make it really easy and convenient?

That treadmill is getting a workout is all I can say.

At least I feel slightly better after working out – even if it’s because I can tease Mr. Right that I did exercise while he didn’t. 

Let’s see… What can I share with you?

Oh, we picked out a church.  We decided that we would place membership in one church, but we let the other churches know that we want to be included on their emails that tell about the events in congregations.  For example, we want to participate in the Feed My Starving Children activities, get our kids involved in weekend activities that will foster relationships with other kids their same age and participate in outings like singing at Veterans’ homes, camping and contributing where there is a need.

Speaking of which, The Girl is going on something called Northland Spirit Fest.  It’s a place where 8th – 12th graders gather to go to devotionals, watch performances by drama group, “Acting Up! ” and to have lots of fellowship – including downhill or cross country skiing, food, and friends. 

She’s actually not pumped about it.  I’m being the wicked mom of the north and forcing her to go.  She’ll never make many friends if she doesn’t get out there.  Besides, I know her well.  She hates the idea of it until she goes and then it will be non-stop talking about who did what, who she met, how much fun she had and how she can’t wait to do it again.

I may be mean, but at least I have her best intentions at heart.

For the most part, I’m doing well, even if I feel well-done by the time I get home!  Oh, and Amelia, I owe you a big apology.  I will call you to work out when we can meet and celebrate life!  I certainly can do with some liveliness, friendship and a reason to get out of the house. 

That’s it for now.  I’m incredibly swamped at work right now, and I would love to leave here on a high, knowing I got lots of things off my plate today.  Besides, I’ll hit home, make dinner and and think about all the skiiing fun that The Girl is g0ing to have this weekend and how jealous I’ll be!

P.S.  Keep praying about the house selling.  Our realtor told us that we had a couple look at it a second time and their realtor indicated that they were probably going to make an offer.  We’d love to have God take this off our shoulders so that we can be free from the burden!

I can’t wait to tell you all about Brainerd and ice fishing!

But it will have to wait until next year.  The weather was bad, so my boss cancelled it with plans to go ice fishing some time in March.  Bummer.  We were all psyched about it too; we had our Hot Hands all ready to go for our hands AND our feet.

Do we learn quickly or what?

So instead of hitting the frozen lake, we decided to take our umbrellas and visit parts of the Winter Festival in St. Paul.  We saw ice sculputers, heard live bands and ultimately we decided to ice skate at Landmark Center.  A rink was set up outside the building – nothing big, but perfect for the likes of the inexperienced, such as we are.

We approached the tent, money at the ready, to don ice skates and to fall down quite a bit.  To our surprise, it was free ice skating that day since it was sponsored by Toyota!  Woo hoo!  Free is always good with me!  In addition to free skating, they supplied hot chocolate to visitors to keep them toasty and sweet on the inside.

Can I just tell you that ice skating in the rain is a blast!   All of us were laughing and having a great time.  The extra bonus was that there were only a handful of others out on the rink.  We had it mostly to ourselves, leaving us free to make fools of ourselves with nary a worry of the comedy that was surely occuring.  Some time in the middle of our skating, the rain tapered off and the temp held steady so that we could skate without freezing to death. 

During the skate time, there was a parade that passed directly in front of the rink.  We were able to watch it, listen to the bands and skate inbetween the marching.  That was like a little special bonus to this incredibly fun day.

All I can say is that we were like the family on the Hallmark cards, holding hands, laughing, enjoying every single blessing of the day.  Mr. Right and I held hands often, the kids skated together with no arguing and all of us tried our hands at skating backwards.  The Boy’s favorite activity was to fall into each and every puddle on the ice.  He was sopping wet, but thanks to his “new” snowsuit (Thanks Amelia!!!), he had a blast in the rink sized slip and slide.  And I didn’t have a cow about any ensuing cold that might occur afterwards. 

On the way home, we drove past a Trader Joe’s and I made Mr. Right turn around to find it.  I’d heard so much about them and I already had a few others tell me that I HAD to visit one, so we combined it all in one day.  We loved the cheese section which was huge!  We loved the ready made pizza dough (regular or whole wheat!)!  We loved the friendliness of the workers who told us that if we wanted to try anything before we buy it we could or if we bought something and didn’t like it we could take it back no questions asked!  We LOVED finding the 3 Buck Chuck – a $3 wine bottle section in the liquor part of the store.  (It’s really good with food, but neither Mr. Right or I cared for it as much on its own.  We would definitely buy it again though.)

We topped the day off by going home to make the pizzas and to watch a movie.  I’m telling you.  A Saturday doesn’t get any better than that!   Actually, it was probably the best day I’ve had here so far.  No pressure and all fun – a day to escape all the other responsibilities on our shoulders.

(BTW, I’m sorry that I’m not posting as regularly.  Work is still overwhelming and by the time I get home, I’m too beat to think straight.  I’ll get settled into it soon enough and get back to sharing the mundaneness of it all with you.  Doesn’t that make you want to keep coming back for more?)

How has your week been so far?  Do tell because I’m missing having close friends who are around to share their news!

And I figured it would be sooner than later. 

The Girl was asked out by the friend of a boy who wanted to go out with her.  Don’t you just love middle school?!  The place where it’s absolutely appropriate to send a representative to start your mission.

Reminds me of Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac.

Anyway, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the dating foray made its way into our lives.  The Girl is so beautiful inside and out that I figured that once we made our way to a new place, the novelty of her and her personality would be attractive to the boys here.  Not that I’m bias or anything…

I told her that she’s like Bella in the Twilight series.  She’s a mystery to everyone.  That alone makes her stand out in the sea of familiarity.  She, of course, rolled her eyes at me and shook her head in disbelief.

I told her not to get involved with vampires or werewolves or I would have to head slap her to knock sense into her.

Anyway, she called to ask how she should respond because for years we have prepped her (and The Boy) to know that they can’t date until they are 16 years old.  To emphasize the importance of being extra selective in dating, they even know that their first date must be a double date with Mr. Right and me.  That means that they have to select someone who:

1. has a strong stamina to be with the likes of us for a couple of hours.
2. is willing to get to know us.
3. doesn’t mind being shown through example how they should treat each other on a date.
4. has enough confidence in himself/herself that the challenge isn’t really all that challenging.
5. has a great sense of humor to go through with it.
6. has to look us in the eyes and remember that we know who he/she is and where he/she lives and we will come and get him/her if they treat our family member poorly.

Okay, maybe not so much on that last point, but Mr. Right might mention his shooting lessons during the course of the dinner.  Just maybe…

We feel that neither of them have any business looking for a mate at this age (which is what dating is), plus the social pressure is so much more intense these days.  We don’t mind being the bad guys and giving them an easy answer as to why they can’t date, especially if either of them have been asked out by someone that they really don’t want to go date. 

If they do want to date that person, but they aren’t of age yet, I’m more than willing to have the person come to our house for game nights, dinners, movies, etc., but they will be with us the entire time.  See we’re not completely heartless…

By the time I got home, I asked The Girl if she wanted to talk about the situation and the answer she could give, but to my surprise, she said that she already knew what she wanted to say (to the friend of the boy who asked): “Thank you, but I really don’t know him well enough yet.” 

What a mature thing to say!  And I didn’t have to be the bad guy…  She’s a real smart cookie; it’s good to keep that in her back pocket just in case she needs it later.