A Not-So-Brief Update

We have not officially sold the house, but we have entered the government buy-out program, and Prudential Relocation Services apparently bought the house from us for $10.00. Now THAT'S a good deal. :) They will consider any offers we receive, and if we don't receive any, they will give us an offer based on two appraisals we had yesterday and today. We'll receive a check for 75% of the equity at that time, and the remainder of the money upon closing about June 30th. We'll also receive a letter to our lender assuring them that we can go ahead and put an offer on a house in NC because the sale is a "done deal" in the government program. Hooray for that! We might have an offer this evening (the buyers are supposed to sign the paperwork today) but it's Prudential's decision to accept it or not. We'll wait and see!

Meanwhile, we're packing out on the 8th, picking up on the 9th, and leaving on the 12th. If you haven't checked your calendar, that's NEXT WEEK!!! Wow. I can't believe it. I need to organize homeschooling stuff this weekend, and we need to make lots of lists. Other than that, we're relaxing and spending as much time as we can with friends and with each other at the pool.

By the way, I attended my first ever homeschool convention last weekend, and here's what I learned:

1. There are way fewer people wearing denim jumpers than I thought. I was a little disappointed.

2. Those pull-along carts are not for dorks, as I first thought - you really need them when you go into the vendor area and buy everything in sight.

3. Don't go into the vendor area if you want to have enough money to feed your family the next week.

4. Homeschooling families tend to have a lot of children. (*disclaimer* I know this is not always the case; it just seemed like there were ten thousand children there, which was okay, because they were not my children and I had no responsibility for them.)

5. The tapes of the sessions come in handy when you elect to skip sessions to lie around the pool. Lest you hurl insults at me like "you homeschooling slug," just know that I already know that. And three hours at the pool by myself is worth it.

6. Homeschool veterans are VERY wise, knowledgeable, and usually funny. They are a great resource.

So that's what I learned at the homeschooling convention. I had a WONDERFUL time of refreshment, encouragement, and relaxation. The hot tub helped with the last one, I think. :) I'm flying down to Florida for this homeschool convention next year. Florida's convention is supposed to be the swankiest, and I just can't come down from "lap of luxury" to "just ordinary" for my homeschool convention experience.

Oh, one more thing... I saw a T-shirt at the convention that said, "I'm not talking to myself. I'm having a parent-teacher conference." :) I like that.

Hope ya'll are doing well!
Love,
Casey

And you wonder why...

...Jackson thought his father was a terrorist and screamed when he saw him in the kaffiyeh?

Daniel says the next time he goes, he'll bring back a "man-dress" to complete the look. The kaffiyeh just doesn't accessorize a polo very well.

Nice House for Sale

4 bedrooms; 2 bathrooms; 2 car garage; large kitchen with island; ceramic tile in all hallways, kitchen, family room, and bathrooms...You can have the refrigerator, the washer and dryer, and maybe a really cute small child if you're willing to pay our listing price.

Anybody interested? We'll give you a good deal! Get it now before the government does in the buy-out program!

Love,
Casey

I Almost Forgot!

Shiloh had her portfolio evaluation on May 2nd, and she has been officially promoted to the second grade!!! Yea! She did a marvelous job, and I think she showed the evaluator every project she's done all year. Mama and the kids are taking a much-needed break this week, and then we'll continue with some light schooling until the move. We celebrated with a dinner out and then Daddy ended up coming home two days later, so this past week has been a wonderful one. Abigail was going around shouting, "Shiloh's in the second grade, Cora's in the first grade, and I'm in preschool!" She thought Shiloh's promotion meant her official promotion, too, which I guess it does.

Love to all!

One thing to cross off the waiting list

Daniel is HOME!!!!!! After finding a house in Fayetteville (or so we thought, but more on that later...) he called Wednesday night to see if we wanted to pick him up at 9:00 the next morning. Well, of course! We BARELY made it in time because of traffic; we ran from the van all the way to the gate and arrived just as the first group was coming off the trams. Phew. It was a good thing he was in the back of the plane. The girls had dressed in their Sunday best and made signs for Daddy. Jackson made a sign, too, although it was a little less understandable. :) The girls ran to him as Jackson watched from the stroller. Jackson didn't seem strange with him at all...he wanted to hold Daddy's hand as we walked to baggage claim, he wanted to hug him, and he called him "Dada." He didn't want to let go of his hand for Daniel to get the bags off the conveyor belt. :) He's been fine with him the whole time except when Daniel put on the kaffiyeh he brought back with him (the Middle Eastern headdress). Then Jackson totally freaked out, screaming "Mama, Mama, Mama" until Daniel took it off. Apparently Daniel looked like a terrorist to him.

So we've been enjoying the two unexpected days as well as the weekend with him where we got to worship together as a family again. How glorious! We've been to the Children's Museum of Tampa, the pool a couple of times, and we've played a number of games of Uno. The kids have also been catching up on some Daddy lap time, and Daddy reading time. Abigail just came into our bedroom this morning, looked around, and said, "Where's Daddy?" I said he had to go work today (he's saving leave for the move). She said, horrified, "Back to Iraq??" :) She was much reassured to hear that he'll be back for dinner, although I think she still thinks he's coming home for dinner from Iraq.

So the housing situation is...on hold. Daniel found a place he put an offer on, the owners counter-offered, and we declined the counter-offer. The owners don't seem to understand that the property will most likely be appraised by the VA at much less (going by the comps for the area) and that they are supposed to accept the VA appraisal. The wife of the couple is the one in the military and she's already gone on to the next duty station. The husband, who is from Trinidad, doesn't speak English and has been left behind to negotiate the home sale. :) They don't have a realtor, so our realtor has been trying to explain everything to them. We don't feel like fighting them when we still haven't sold this house and because we have a second, more-appealing choice that's closer to church and work in Fayetteville. I was dragging my feet on that one because the kitchen was small, but we've been creative in coming up with solutions that might work. Our biggest problem now is to get this house sold. :) Daniel has completed the paperwork for the federal government buy-out program, but he's encountering problems with the command at Ft. Bragg in living up to their end of the deal. If they sign for relocation, they agree to the buy-out program where, if our home doesn't sell in sixty days, they take over the sale of the house. If they receive an offer in the 30 days subsequent to the sixty day marketing period, then they will review the offer to accept it or decline it. But if it still isn't sold by the end of that thirty days, then they will buy it at "market value." We know that that market value will be less than what we would want for the house, but at least it will be off our hands. And because the market was so crazy last year, we still stand to make a profit even after only owning the house for a year, so we're very thankful for that. We have until the 25th (or around there) of this month to sell it on our own, which we would prefer to do, obviously. We're meeting with our realtor today to adjust the price again. We didn't put it on the market before April 1st because all indications were that it would sell pretty quickly, so now we're in a time crunch to try to sell it before we leave so that we can afford to buy a house in North Carolina. Otherwise, we'll have to rent, and we might have to make two house payments for 1-2 months. Yuck. We're doing all right, though - just thankful to be together as a family and thankful to be moving to the real south in about a month. :) Here, every third car has an Ohio license plate - no offense to my Ohio family! :) :)

Well, I'll just share an Abigail comment before I sign off to start the day here. I can hear children neighing in their rooms, so the horses are up. :)

At church last night, the pastor was preaching on troublemakers in the church. When Abigail heard the word troublemaker, she turned excitedly to me and said proudly, while pointing at her chest, "That's me! I'm a troublemaker!!" Well, I guess it's good to be aware of your role in life and to be proud of it. :)

Love to all-
Casey

Nothing profound

Hello everyone!
I find I have little motivation to write on the blog now that I can't post pictures of the kids! That was 50% of the reason to blog, so I really ought to get moving on trying to find a network with password protection. Things have been a little busy, though! :)

We had an open house on Saturday, to which no one showed up. That's a nice waste of a very clean house. Oh, well. I did enjoy my Sunday afternoon nap in my sparkling house! Roscoe had a beauty treatment at Petsmart so even he was clean. He tried to take advantage of it by jumping up on my bed. Ha! It only worked for about ten minutes or so. :) We had a "preview" this evening where an agent came by to see if the house would suit his clients before they actually took the time to come out. Since I haven't heard anything from my realtor, I'm assuming the agent decided against it. That's all the activity thus far, so we'll probably reduce the price at the end of this month.

It's pool season again, so we've been three times so far. The first time I refused to get in all the way, because I prefer the air temperature to match the water temperature. It's a good thing it's Florida, and that often happens! We went today, and Abigail is now out of her inner tube and in a floatation vest. She still swallows way more water than I would like her to, but she's improving. Cora is gaining confidence re-learning skills from last year, and after all the trouble to actually get Shiloh to take off her vest, you would think now that she was born in the water. (No, I'm not that weird and all natural, although I know someone who is! :) ). Her latest feat is to tread water. She looks a little funny while she's doing it, but it's effective. Jackson's just a happy boy in his baby inner-tube, and his favorite thing is to try to lean wwwaaaaayyyy over and put his face in the water. Yeah, that's a good idea. Twice he ended up snorting water, but he kept trying anyway because his sisters kept laughing. The need to impress women starts very early.

I went to the housing office today on base to sign some paperwork in order to go to a briefing to receive a pack-out date for moving. Because, of course, they can't give you the pack-out date on the FIRST visit; that would be too easy and non-bureaucratic. Thankfully and mercifully, we were out of there in thirty minutes flat, and the briefing was scheduled for the 18th, which means Daniel gets to go instead of me with the four children. I told a friend of mine that I was going to let the children run wild in the office (and my mom suggested letting them look grubby and sticky, too) so that the people working there would shout, "just give that lady a pack-out date - just make her go away!" But I didn't have to put my evil plan into action. Too bad. Abigail could have had some fun.

And so life goes on, and we're in The Waiting Place right now (ever read Oh, the Places You'll Go!) where it seems like we're waiting on the Lord for pretty much everything...for our house to sell, for Daniel to return home (VERY SOON!!!!), for a place to live in North Carolina, for a pack-out date, for moving, for settling in, and for bringing our children home from Haiti. This too shall pass, however, and I'll be so thankful when it does.

I'm Still Here

Yep, I'm still here, but not much is going on. We've had our house on the market almost two weeks, and we've had one showing. We were supposed to have two on Tuesday, but they both canceled. AFTER I cleaned the whole house and mowed the yard, of course. :) So the market has just about come to a standstill. It had to happen sooner or later, I guess. Honestly, I think I should be more worried than I am, but...I'm just not. The Lord will bring a buyer in His timing, and in the meantime, I like relaxing more than I thought I would be while selling a house. :) I would be relaxing even more if my DVD player worked and I could watch "Wives and Daughters" for the sixth time. Thanks, Tullys, for getting me hooked. :)

We're finishing up our school year, which is a wonderful feeling. Cora has finished her core curriculum, but we're continuing with reading and math. I think I might go ahead and start her math for next year since it's already arrived. I love the smell of new curriculum! :) Shiloh has to finish up her phonics program. I figure she probably doesn't need it, but it never hurts to reinforce the foundation. She will have her portfolio evaluation on May 1st or 2nd to determine if she's passed the 1st grade. We're doing some math review, and I'm so relieved to see how far she's come in a year. Abigail is eager to start school, but I don't know if it's better to wait and start her with Adah when Adah arrives home, or to go ahead and get her going. I'm still thinking on that.

Jackson, my child prodigy, is singing the ABCs and counting to 20. Ha! Fooled you. Are you kidding? This is the child who didn't walk until he was 15 months old. He's barely speaking 15 words, much less counting to 20. :) But he's a very smiley boy, and that makes up for his lack of motivation. :) He's also pretty cute when he roars like a lion.

Well, back to the nice, quiet life. I think I'll make myself some vanilla almond tea and read my "Southern Lady" magazine. I need to take advantage of the calm before the storm!

A benign photo

I thought this one would be okay to post, and it didn't hurt that I thought it was too adorable not to share.

Just a boy and his dog surveying their territory (which is not much to look at in Florida, but just wait until they get to our land in Tennessee!)

Love to all!

An English lesson and a Medical lesson

These two lessons come from my most linguistically interesting child, Cora. She is the one who will ask me, "Mommy, how have you been doing thus far this morning?" Thus far? Mom and I suspect she's a 50 year-old British lady stuck in a 5 year-old body. Anyway, I've been trying to break her of the habit of saying, "I amn't doing that" instead of saying "I'm not doing that." And then I started to think, "Well, why don't we say amn't if we say 'don't'?" Who the heck thought up the English language???

Secondly, Cora was Dr. Houseworth this afternoon in our household, and apparently Shiloh needed an operation. So, putting her stethoscope around her neck, she proceeded to tell Shiloh, "Lie down on the couch. You need a caesar section." Okay, so that's PARTLY correct (and still Latin), but she left out one of the more crucial parts. It's a surgical procedure, not a salad. So I don't think I'll be trusting her with anything more than a band-aid, or, as she calls it - because she's a 50 year-old British woman in a 5 year-old body - a "plaster."

Exciting day in the Houseworth household!

Good evening everyone!!!! We have great news to share. Our official referral came through today, and we are the proud parents of two little ones (whew! the easiest labor yet!! :) ). Our Haiti babies have names and faces now, and we are so thankful that we can see them in our minds as we pray for them. Our new daughter is named Adah Catherine, and she was born November 13, 2003. She's actually bigger than Abigail at 33 pounds. Our new son, Nathaniel Ericson, was born February 26, 2006 and he's a strapping 10 pounds and 20 1/2 inches. We pray that they will be joining our family by Adah's third birthday. Things are moving so slowly in Haiti right now with the processing of paperwork, but we are hopeful that when the new government takes control in April, the paperwork will speed up. It's hard to wait after seeing their faces, but we'll depend on the Lord to keep us patient. We're just rejoicing that we know who they are, and that they seem to be very healthy. Everyone is excited here, and Abigail is looking forward to sharing her very own bunkbed with Adah. She's insisting that she get the top bunk, though. :)


Here's a funny story about putting our house on the market, which also happened today (it was a big day, to put it mildly). We were driving along in the van discussing how we're going to sell the house and move to North Carolina. I said, "As soon as the new owners are ready, they'll move into our house." Abigail said, "Won't it be crowded, Mommy?" :) So we started over with the explanation. I then explained how we were trying to be reasonable about our asking price so that the house would sell quickly, before Daddy comes home. Cora said, "Why don't we make the price less, like $3.00?" I said, "No, sweetie, $3.00 is a little low." Shiloh said helpfully, "Maybe $3.59?" :) I'm not sure she'll pass the "comprehension of monetary value" portion of her portfolio evaluation. When I told her the real price we were asking, her eyes bugged out. "I don't think anyone's going to buy it if you ask that much!" Thanks for the encouragement, Shiloh.

Happy Tuesday

Well, I know I haven't been here in a while, and that's because I've been contemplating shutting down the blog. My mom called to tell me something scary...in the child porn ring that authorities broke up about two weeks ago, an investigator was asked where these evil, disgusting people get their photos of children, and the investigator said from browsing family websites. Well, that just turned my stomach. So I'll just be posting musings about life in general from now on, with no pictures. And how fun is that?? I wanted to be able to share with you how fast the kids are growing. What I'm going to try to do is find a network that provides password protection for blogs so that only those I want viewing the blog can have access. Blogspot used to provide something like this, but they don't anymore (to my knowledge). Meanwhile, here's a picture of our couch potato Roscoe P. Coltrane, not that he's a replacement for pictures of the kids. :) I don't understand why we allow our dog to get up on the couch (we never intended to!) but I think it has something to do with his big, brown, pleading eyes. He usually lies on his blanket so he doesn't get the couch all hairy, but his blanket was in the wash, so he made do with the pillow. :)

Here's a funny Shiloh story, though: We're doing a unit study on the human body, and I was reviewing the body parts we've gone over to test for comprehension. I said, "Shiloh, what does the brain do?" She said, "It's sorta like a Mommy." I said, "What? How is it like a mommy?" She said, "Because it tells the body parts what to do." :)

My friend Jeanne said she thought the mommy was the heart of the home, but apparently the mommy is the brain, too.

Have a good day!

p.s. I'll be removing all the pictures from the blog in the next day or so. I'll send out an email when I find a network where I can host another blog for free.

Update on stomach flu

Now Abigail has it. She started throwing up last night. She handles it pretty well except that she starts yelling in the middle of throwing up, "I wanna brush my teeth! I wanna brush my teeth!" I don't blame her. I want to brush my teeth too and I'm not even the one who's throwing up. Good thing I'm not a sympathetic vomiter. She doesn't have a fever, which is a relief after Jackson. She's resting in my bed right now in between spells. She's asking for some of "Jackson's juice" - pedialyte - so we'll have to go out and get some. Oh, I really hope the other two don't get this. :)

The Pitiful One

Jackson just had the stomach flu and he's slowly recovering. He had just decided to venture off my lap and do a little bit of exploring when he hit the lip of the door out to the lanai with the walker he was pushing, flipped the walker, and landed on his face. Well, it was back to my lap for the rest of the day, although he tried to remain cheerful. You can see his "cheesy smile" in the picture along with his fat lip. Poor baby.

Right before Jackson got the flu, I received a forwarded email from my homeschooling group, and as Jackson went through the flu, I worried more than usual and thought about this family quite a bit. All of you prayer warriors out there, please take a look: www.candacejoy.org This family amazes me with their strength in the Lord in the midst of what must be a terrifying ordeal. Their experience humbles me and makes me more willing to stop the household for a few days just to snuggle with Jackson and tell him I love him. I didn't sleep on the floor in his room like some better moms I know :), but I think I cleaned up the messes with a more cheerful heart than I would have otherwise.

Enjoy your kiddos, everyone...they're precious, aren't they?

GREEN LETTER DAY

I was going to say red letter day, but apparently I already used that title. How unoriginal of me.

Well, our dossier is on its way THIS VERY MINUTE by FedEx to Haiti. Okay, it won't leave until tomorrow morning because I missed the cut-off by about ten minutes, but it is STILL ON ITS WAY and should arrive in Haiti by the 14th. We are very excited!!

Molecules

We read about molecules this morning in Shiloh's reading lesson. We learned that the faster the molecules in something move, the hotter it is. The slower the molecules move, the colder it is. Then we did an experiment to test this, and Shiloh enjoyed it. So this evening at Steak and Shake as she's drinking her chocolate shake and shivering, she says, "Mommy, the molecules in my shake are moving veeeerrrryy slowly." Science in real life. And what better way to experience it than with a chocolate shake from Steak and Shake?

Abigail the Fearless

We went to our homeschool co-op today, where the lesson was about animal food chains. I got out of teaching the lesson because I still don't have a voice, and one of the other moms graciously filled in for me. That's inconsequential, so of course I thought I should share it.

Anyhoo, one of the moms in our church, who also homeschools but does not belong to our co-op, offered to bring her snakes and give a little presentation to the kids. Yes, snakeS, as in five of them. I don't even remember the different types she showed us, except the Burmese python. Here's what I learned about the Burmese python: it's BIG. I mean, it's REALLY BIG. Theirs isn't full grown yet, and they're stunting her growth so she doesn't get too big too fast. (She knows all about snakes, so I don't think this is animal cruelty.) They feed her only once a month, and she's about 13 feet already. She could grow to be about 23 feet. They don't feed a big snake like that little old rats. Oh, no. Don't read on if you're squeamish...they feed her bunny rabbits! Ugh. At this information, poor Shiloh turned around with a look on her face that said, "Please tell me that is NOT true, Mommy!" Burmese pythons are the third largest snake in the world after the anaconda and the reticulated (sp?) python. Why you would want to have the third largest snake in the world for a pet is beyond me. Apparently a lot of other folks in Florida who thought having a Burmese python would be a good idea thought better of it, released them into the wild, and this is happening: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_pythoneatsgator.html

Okay, enough with the grossing you out. Sorry about that. The POINT of the whole blog is to tell you that Abigail did not hestitate to walk up to that Burmese python, who could crush her and eat her, and hug it. Yep, she hugged it. She also pet all the other snakes and decided she liked the rough one, whichever one that was (it likes to fake out its predators by pretending it's a rattlesnake - does that help?).

I was so proud in a weird, repelled-at-the-same-time kind of way. My little girl is practicing dominion over the animals at a young age. Good for her.

p.s. If you want to know about how snakes shed their skin and what can happen if they have a "difficult shed," I'm the gal to talk to. It's amazing what you can learn at homeschool co-op.

A heartfelt prayer

I have my semiannual cold which makes me lose my voice. My mom thinks it might be an allergy reaction. I have no idea what it is, but it's annoying. I try to see the positive side: it makes the kids talk softer because they have to hear what I'm whispering to them. It's still annoying, though.

Here was Abigail's prayer at worship tonight:
"Dear God, please please help Mommy to not talk at all so her broken voice can be fixed. Thank you."

I liked the "please help Mommy to not talk at all" part. I think that was the most heartfelt part.

Hmmm

Okay, so here's a funny thing. Jackson does not like to have his shoes off. The first thing he babbles in the morning is "ssshhzzz, sshhhzzz" and points to them. He smiles and laughs when I put them on, and he's a happy boy. He doesn't like taking them off for naptime, and he's thrilled when I put them back on after naptime. What does this mean? Should I be worried that he has obsessive compulsive disorder? :) Perhaps it means freedom to him, because he's not allowed to go out on the lanai without shoes, and he likes to go out there. It's just something to wonder about.

Strawberry Festival Parade

Hello everyone!
This is my second attempt at posting about our day. My first attempt was wiped out when I tried to preview it. Note to self: always save the draft!!! ARRGHHH!! Well, I only have three loads of laundry to fold tonight, so I guess I'll still get to bed on time. :)

ANYWAY, my friend Mary invited us to attend the Plant City Strawberry Festival Parade with her today, and I decided to go with much reluctance. I don't like crowds, and I don't like to try to find parking. However, Mary's wonderful husband went this morning to mark our spot by putting down lawn chairs. It was nice to see that no one tried to claim them or move them. I followed Mary to a parking area, thus eliminating my nervousness at finding parking. So I relaxed and found that I really enjoyed myself - thanks, Mary! The girls weren't too sure what to expect with a parade, even after I explained everything, but once they discovered that people were throwing beads and CANDY at them from the floats, they were on board for this whole parade thing. I don't even know how many beads they ended up taking home, and I don't even WANT to know how much candy they consumed in the hour we were there. Yuck. I made a nuisance of myself by yelling "Go Army!" at the Air Force JROTC and recruiters. I was going to make fun of their pitiful marching, but I thought that might be taking it a bit too far. There were no Navy guys to make fun of, and I think Mary and her lovely daughter were a little relieved. We saw lots of bands, lots of tractors, and LOTS of beauty queens. And I do mean LOTS of beauty queens. Even the four year olds were doing their "queen wave." Yikes. It turned out to be a gorgeous day after a slightly overcast morning, so we took Mary up on her offer when she invited us back to their place afterward. The girls played so hard in their treehouse - oops, FORT! (I forget these differences when dealing with boys versus girls) - that the washcloths they used when we got home were nearly black. I had a nice, almost uninterrupted chat with Mary inside while the kids played. It was so nice not to worry about how loud they were...with the houses in our neighborhood only ten feet apart, I'm constantly worried that we're bothering the neighbors on both sides who don't have kids. I'm looking forward to a slightly bigger yard in North Carolina. The last four pictures were taken at Mary's house. Her daughter and son are budding photographers, and I was able to take a shot when her daughter was setting up a shot of the girls next to the azaleas. She probably got much better shots than I did, but I liked the sweet expressions on their faces.

Hope ya'll enjoy the pictures from the parade. Daniel, the pictures of the confederate reenactors, the Dixie float, and the Bonnie blue flag car are for you. :)
Love to all!

My Birthday, etc.

First of all, I had no idea you all would identify so well with Abigail's concern over the purple bears. Thank you for your support and helpful comments. I will let her know that she doesn't have to live in this paranoia alone.

Secondly, today is my 32nd birthday. I know it's hard to believe that I'm not the 24 year old you thought I was (ha!) but it's true. With Daniel gone, the girls thought they ought to be the ones to help me celebrate, so they all got up early. Shiloh made cinnamon rolls all by herself. I knew she was going to do this, so I showed her on Sunday how to do it - and don't worry - those oven mitts come all the way up to her elbows! Cora decorated the table, the older girls hung streamers, and Abigail cooperated by letting them get her dressed. They all dressed up in party dresses, and then they led me out to the table with my eyes closed. How cute. This is the first year that they've been able to do something like this, and I know that it just tickled them to feel so grown-up. After breakfast, they presented me with their presents. As any parent knows, when children do not have money to purchase something, they give away their own cherished possessions, which is what I got today. I also got some homemade things, which are going right into my "save" drawer. I felt pretty spoiled and loved, which is exactly how you want to feel on your birthday. :) Daniel owes me a dinner at Bonefish Grill, but he'll make good on that.

Hope ya'll enjoy my birthday!