Family Bike Ride

This evening for FHE we decided to go on a family bike ride, something we haven't done in a very long time. (It also passes off one of McKay's Cub Scout requirements -- bonus!) We told the kids at dinner and they were SO excited.

I think the hardest part is getting all the bikes out and hooking up the trailer (and of course, putting it all back away again nice and neatly in the shed). Here are the kids before we left:


Hayley got to ride in the trailer that Brian pulled:

We rode down the paved pathways for a while until we came to a spot where McKay knew there was a dirt trail that cut back to our neighborhood. I had never been on it before and it was a really nice ride -- the trail was in decent shape for bikes and was very wooded and just a pretty ride. Plus it helped that we had a cold front come through yesterday so the temperature was quite pleasant with low humidity.

Courtney wanted to be the first in line and pumped her legs on her small bike as fast as she could. She did fall off once (by running into McKay when he had stopped) but only had a minor scrape on her knee. I was always the one bringing up the rear, but at least I was able to participate. :-) It was an enjoyable outing!

P.S. No news on the house today (and no showings either)... we'll keep waiting!

Thinking Positive Thoughts...

Just thought I'd post a quick update on our house showings. We continue to have a fairly steady number of showings -- it's been about 5-6 per week (sometimes two on the same day). And since those first couple that were a little frustrating, fortunately it hasn't been too bad.

Last Saturday afternoon, we had a showing (when we went to test drive Toyota trucks). The same realtor scheduled a "2nd showing" on Wednesday. We've been anxiously waiting for word one way or another since a 2nd showing obviously means you made the buyers "short list" as they narrow down their choices. The initial comment from this realtor from the first showing (there is a feedback website where the realtors post comments on each showing) was that the buyers liked the floor plan and the house showed well. A lot of people have not liked the floor plan in that the master bedroom is upstairs and it is much more common in this area to have the master downstairs and all the other bedrooms upstairs. So we were optimistic when we heard that they did like the floor plan.

We had not heard any feedback from the 2nd showing and our realtor had not been able to contact the showing realtor for feedback. Today on our way home from church, we called to check messages and there was one indicating another showing from this same realtor from 5:15-6:15pm (it was about 4:40pm at that time). That means they wanted to come back and see the house a third time! I guess that means we really made the short list (and the buyers are having a hard time deciding). So we hurried and baked our rolls and turned down the crockpot and left to go for a little Sunday drive. :-)

So now we will be anxiously waiting to hear any news the first part of this week. Of course, there is a good chance that they will not make an offer, but we are trying to think positive! :-) I will keep you updated...

P.S. This past Saturday we had another showing scheduled, so this time we went to drive the GMC Sierra trucks. Brian had also wanted to look at Fords, but we spent too long at the GMC dealership that the kids had had enough of test drives for the day. :-)

Making Lemonade

My sister Amy tagged me with this "Making Lemonade" meme (which is a very strange word, I might add, that I was not familiar with -- it basically means a question or series of questions you see on a blog and copy on your own blog, often through "tagging").

I'm supposed to post all the rules, but since I don't plan to tag anyone else (I don't read that many blogs!), I will just post the "question":

* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.

I have been thinking about this question and have certainly thought about several experiences in my life that have taught me lessons for the better. But I think the experience that best fits this question is one that happened not so long ago.

In the Fall of 2006, Brian and I decided that we would try to add another little person to our family. I became pregnant and we decided not to tell anyone our news for a little while at least. I scheduled my first OB/GYN appointment but it wasn't going to be until I was about 9-10 weeks along. We were excited to be having another baby (although the thought was a little overwhelming on some days) and after having gone through so many years at the beginning of our marriage of infertility treatments, we knew what a blessing it was.

When it came time for my appt, I remember thinking that I had usually started to feel some effects of morning sickness by then, but hadn't this time. My doctor did an ultrasound, as is customary, and told me not to worry yet, but the baby wasn't the size it should be for 10 weeks and I probably just had my dates a little off. He said to come back in a couple of weeks for another ultrasound. I left the office and just knew that something was wrong. I knew my dates weren't off and sure enough, the next day I started bleeding. Over the weekend, I had a miscarriage and spent several hours in the ER. There were a lot of tears and sadness and we were so grateful for the support we got from our family and friends.

About a month after this happened, I started having a lot of problems with pain in my lower back and left leg. An MRI was done and I was diagnosed with a herniated disc in my lower back. It got to the point where it seemed like every 5-6 days, I would end up flat on my back in bed by early afternoon and not able to move (which makes caring for 4 busy children difficult!). Over the next several months, I tried a series of steroid shots, which helped a little at first but didn't seem to do much until I finally went to see a wonderful chiropractor who has helped me tremendously with a decompression treatment combined with some therapy and exercises.

I remember thinking at the time that it was actually probably a good thing I wasn't pregnant, or I wouldn't have been able to do even the steroid shots or take a lot of the medication. And later on in my treatment, my doctor told me that he strongly recommended I not get pregnant again or he felt it would effectively "ruin" my back. As Brian and I talked and prayed about this, I knew that a pregnancy would be extremely hard on my back because of how low I carry my babies (probably a big contributing factor in why my back had problems in the first place!). And I couldn't even imagine having a baby/toddler and not being able to lift them or carry them around.

So, we are a family of 6 and barring any great surprises, are going to stay that way. (I'm certainly not getting any younger!) It was a difficult decision to make and there are times when I watch moms with babies (or watch my kids interact with babies) and I'm sad that I won't have that again. But we are at peace with our decision and realize that we are extremely blessed to have our four beautiful children.

So there's my "lemonade" story -- at the time, a miscarriage was very difficult and hard, but looking back, it was a blessing due to the unforseen medical problems that came my way shortly thereafter. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us even though we might not at the time.

Thanks, Amy, for the nudge to reflect a little!

Shots!

Yesterday was the dreaded day for the 3 older kids to get updated on their shots. I decided not to tell them until we were in the van and ready to go. I stopped in the driveway briefly and told the kids about why they needed the chicken pox booster and, not suprisingly, Hannah immediately started wailing and McKay got out of the van (but he didn't go far before getting back in). So then I laid out my bribe card -- a trip to McDonald's for ice cream afterward if everyone cooperated. That cheered everyone up immediately. :-)

Hannah calmed down and even started using some logic on herself (from an episode of "Baby Looney Tunes" she's seen before) -- she was telling herself that it was better to just get a little poke than to get really sick. Precisely!

At the doctor's office, we ended up waiting a lot longer than I thought we would for just a "nurse only" appointment. Hannah was telling anyone who would listen all about how she was there for a chicken pox shot and mom said we could get ice cream after, etc. (That girl has no fear about talking to anybody -- the other day she went up to one of the hispanic workers mowing our neighbor's yard and said something to him about the noise was a "nuisance" and she really wanted some peace. I'm hoping he really didn't understand her. :-) )

Finally it was our turn. Hannah had accepted the idea of a shot by now but McKay seemed a little unsure still -- and then he found out he had to get two! Courtney wanted to go first -- she just gave an "Ow, Ow!" and then Hannah did the same (no crying!). McKay tried to sneak out of the room, but then he was a trooper for both his shots and didn't even give an "ow."

While we were waiting, I called home to check the messages and found that there was a house showing scheduled from 6:00-7:00pm. That certainly makes getting dinner interesting. So instead of going to get ice cream right after the appt, we hurried home to clean up the house and find something we could microwave quickly for dinner. We made it out by 6:00 and went to get our ice cream treat at McDonald's. (And Hannah was still trying to tell everyone who walked in the door why she was there.) We got there shortly before a YMCA soccer team arrived for their end-of-the-season party and trophies (I'm guessing 3-4 year olds) so the playland area got really crowded!

I am really proud of how brave everybody was and we're all glad it's over with! (At least until Hayley turnes 4 and McKay has his next check-up...)

Chocolate Cupcakes

Yesterday was Hayley's turn for FHE treats. I happened to have a couple of cake mixes in the pantry (from a recent sale) as well as a can of chocolate frosting (left over from a school donation), so I asked Hayley if she wanted to do cupcakes. Of course she said yes! And no surprise she picked the chocolate cake mix. :-)

Courtney & Hayley could not wait to try out the cupcakes and help me frost them. We decided I would frost and they were in charge of sprinkles. They each picked a bottle of sprinkles and at first, they took turns putting their sprinkles on the cupcakes but then they decided that all the cupakes needed both kinds of sprinkles.

And you can't frost cupcakes without eating one! Hayley loves the frosting and loves to just stick her finger in it (and everybody elses!).

Courtney's Preschool Pictures

I got an e-mail today from the director of Courtney's preschool saying their Spring picture proofs were online for viewing. They used a new photographer this time who does everything online. So I just wanted to share the link if anyone wants to see them! (The gallery shows all the kids, so you have to look for her 4 poses amongst all the others.)

Try this link and then click on the Christ Church Preschool - Thursday group. The password is "cc." Jump to page 5 (top left in the pink bar) to see Courtney's four poses (6952-6955). Her class photo is on page 7 (image 7061). Which pose of hers is your favorite?

Weekend Update

I thought I should post a quick report of our weekend, since I need something to write about on my blog! :-)

Saturday we had one house showing scheduled for the afternoon, so Brian worked on the yard in the morning trimming bushes. He discovered a little bird's nest in one of our larger bushes that had some baby birds and one egg in it. (I saw the nest but didn't have anything to stand on at the time to actually look inside it.) The kids of course were enthralled with this and excitedly told the neighbor kids who came down to look. One of the older neighbor girls (who is 8) ended up taking the nest out of the bush completely (I'm not sure if she was wanting to take it down to her house or what...). In the process of all this, the little egg got dropped by one of the kids and broke. I'm not sure what happened to the baby birds (Brian thinks he saw them over in one of the other bushes).

When it was time for the house showing, we loaded everybody up and drove up to a Toyota dealership. Brian has been looking more at trucks recently (we've been planning to buy one to replace the Infiniti we sold and so we can return his sister's Xterra before too much longer). We wanted to look at the Toyota Tundra and see if the whole family fit and take one for a test drive. We didn't quite all fit as well as we hoped -- the front ended up being bucket seats instead of a bench seat so there were only 5 seat belts, but we squoze everybody in for the short test drive. We're still reading reviews and looking at all the options.

Poor Hayley caught the little stomach flu bug that Courtney had. She threw up outside in the "treehouse" on Saturday morning. I was really worried that she'd throw up again all over the carpet but fortunately, she only threw up the one time. (It seems to be a mild bug thankfully.) Today McKay was complaining about his stomach hurting so he only ended up going to Sacrament Meeting and then coming home from church early with Brian, but he never actually threw up.

I had a busy Sunday today! They asked me last week if I would speak in Sacrament Meeting today with the high counselor (there were also two youth speakers). I guess they figured they had to get one last speaking assignment in before we moved. The topic I was given was "service within the family." I got several nice compliments afterward so I guess that means it went okay.

I also got a call yesterday from Courtney's Primary teacher asking me if I could substitute in Courtney's class. So I had that lesson to prepare as well. Courtney's class is one of the smaller ones -- only 5 kids and she is the only girl. The 4 boys can be pretty rambunxious (especially a couple of them). It was a struggle to get them all to stay sitting in their seat and not making strange noises or annoying the person sitting next to them. The lesson was titled "Jesus Christ Has the Power to Heal" and so I told Brian's tractor story as an example of a priesthood blessing used for healing. The kids were actually quiet and attentive during the whole story -- it certainly had their attention. (If only the entire lesson was that way...)

And the last bit of news is that I made an appointment for McKay, Hannah & Courtney to get updated on their shots this coming Wednesday afternoon (only they don't know it yet). At Hannah's last well check, the pediatrician mentioned that she needed her chicken pox booster, which they had been out of for quite a while but finally had some in supply. We didn't do the shot at the time, but I want to get all the shots we need before we move and lose our insurance. So I talked with the nurse and found out that the 3 older ones need the chicken pox booster (Hayley isn't old enough yet for hers) and that McKay also needs the (optional) HepA shots (the girls have all had theirs -- it's a fairly new requirement for preschools and kindergarten but they're not requiring it of the older kids). I can't decide when to break the news to them -- none of them are going to be happy about it (especially Hannah who I know will stress and get herself all worked up in a frenzy over it). But I think they probably need a little "prep time" to get used to the idea. And I'm sure I'll be promising a stop for ice cream on the way home too...

Oh-- one more thing -- in my talk today, I told about the great example of service that my wonderful mom has been in our family. I shared a poem that my dad sent me a copy of several years ago written by my mom's visiting teaching companion, Sister Melville. I put a copy of this in our family newsletter at that time, but thought I'd post it again here for those that have forgotten about it. I had a few people tell me afterward how much they liked the poem (and one even wanted a copy of it). I just want my mom to know how much I love her and appreciate her!

For Beth

She is a "quiet one" -- has always been,
She says. I think she means she's shy, a bit,
And disinclined to seek attention when
She logically might. She likes to fit
Discretely in, and shows a delicate
Sure sense for camouflaging self. One might,
Deceived by reticence inveterate,
Be blind to all her depths -- miss the delight
Of knowing one who lives a "quiet" life aright.

For here there is no empty, arid well,
Nor yet a stagnant pond, inert and grim.
She is a pool whose quiet waters tell
Of deep resources, hidden streams abrim
With life and love. She's uncomplaining in
Affliction, yet with every breath
She finds some chance to serve, however slim.
I'd joy to meet my Savior at my death
Could I but say, "I was a quiet one -- like Beth!"

--C. Melville

Fire Station Field Trip

Yesterday Hayley's preschool group had a field trip planned to one of our local fire stations. We've done these tours with other preschool groups in the past and the kids have always enjoyed them.

It turned out that Courtney got sick yesterday morning and threw up (not a ton, thankfully -- and not on the new carpet - whew! - but enough that I decided I needed to keep her home from her preschool). So Courtney was with us and fortunately didn't get sick while we were there (although she did throw up twice more yesterday).

After a little tour of inside the fire station, we went out to the garage to see the big truck. They told us it's a new truck that they got a couple of months ago. They let the kids that wanted to sit up in the driver's seat. (Both Courtney & Hayley took a turn, but several of the other girls were too scared/shy to try it.)

Everyone got fireman hats...

And they watched one of the firefighters put on all his gear (some of the kids were even too scared to stand by him for a picture).

Then they let the kids try on the coat -- I think my two girls were the only ones who wanted to.

We were almost done and were going to take a picture of all the kids standing in front of the truck when their alarm sounded for a call. So we all had to stand back and watch as they put on their gear and drove off in the truck with the lights and sirens going. They must have not been needed, because the truck came back before I had even left the station (I took my time leaving because I knew I couldn't go home yet due to a house showing).

It was a fun field trip!

Where Were You?

I saw this idea on my niece's blog and liked it so much I decided to copy. :-) (Of course, I had to go back a decade further on mine because I'm getting old!)

Thanks to our trusty family newsletter, I was able to look up pretty much exactly what I was doing during these time periods -- I kept it Spring time frame (Mar-May). I also found a few pictures to include (some of the older ones are approximate on the time frame -- my pictures are all packed right now so I had to go with what was already on the computer somewhere).

Where Were You...

30 Years Ago...

I was a happy 7 1/2 year old, living with my family (5 kids at the time) in a little student apartment in University Village while my dad attended law school at the University of Utah. We got to go see "Return to Witch Mountain" in the theater and "Star Wars" had just come out. My mom made us all matching Easter dresses and I was playing songs like "Teach Me to Walk" on the piano for the school talent show and in Sacrament Meeting.

20 Years Ago...

I was a senior in high school getting ready to graduate. I had just gotten my first pair of glasses and was getting ready to take 5 AP tests.

10 Years Ago...

I was dealing with my first experience of morning sickness as we were so thrilled to be finally pregnant with our first baby (after trying to start our family for about 7 years). I was busy working as a freelance writer and doing articles for scrapbook magazines. We bought our Ford F150 truck, finally adding a second vehicle to the household.

5 Years Ago...

Life was busy with 3 little kids, Courtney being our baby at the time. I was doing a co-op preschool group with McKay, Brian was busy building a playset for the backyard and I got to take a little break for a fun "Sister Party" with Brian's sisters in Colorado.

3 Years Ago...

We'd added a 4th baby to our family, who gave us all a scare when she bounced her bouncer seat off the kitchen counter. We had some fun family trips to the Houston Aquarium and the San Antonio Temple Open House and were getting ready for McKay's Kindergarten graduation.

(Maybe this is why I have back problems!)

1 Year Ago...

Life is busy! McKay has his first Pinewood Derby and is playing YMCA baseball, Hannah is doing soccer and getting ready for Kindergarten graduation, Courtney is busy in her co-op preschool group and Hayley is a sweet toddler.

1 Month Ago...

It's the start of Spring Break and we are busy painting and cleaning and painting some more, getting our house ready to go on the market. (We do get a fun day during Spring Break to go and play at the lake at my uncle and aunt's home.) It's also the week before Easter and the bluebonnets are in bloom!

1 Day Ago...

was Tuesday, so that meant getting two kids off to school in the morning, dropping Courtney off at preschool, dropping Hayley off at her co-op preschool, coming back home to mop floors, vacuum, pick up, make beds, etc. until it's time to pick Hayley up. Then it's clean some more, have lunch, pick Courtney up, clean some more, wait for the school bus, nag kids about doing homework and practicing the piano, fix dinner and get everyone to bed!

Today...

Was spent picking up, cleaning (surprise, surprise), grocery shopping at Wal-Mart with two little girls who were pleasantly more helpful and happy to be shopping than usual and waiting to see if there would be any house showings (there weren't -- but we have two scheduled for early tomorrow morning!)

Let's Pretend

A few days ago, I sat down to help McKay practice the piano and Hannah and Courtney decided to start dancing along. They disappeared upstairs fter a few minutes and came back looking like this:

They were just giggling and told me that Hannah was the boy and Courtney was the girl and they were getting married. Hannah made sure to have a white shirt on under her black shirt and the best they could do for Courtney's veil was a white hooded bath towel. Hannah also made a paper flower for Courtney's bouquet. So we had a great "wedding dance" with some silly girls!

And speaking of kids dressing themselves, I told the girls this morning to go get dressed while I was cutting McKay's hair in the kitchen. Hannah pulled out a dirty, wet skirt from the laundry basket to wear, Courtney dressed similar to Hannah in the picture above (as a "boy" with black pants, a white shirt and then a backwards black shirt on top) and Hayley showed up in her swimming suit!

The Color Factory

Last night was the 1st Grade Program at the school. Hannah was so excited for all of us to come and see it. They did "The Color Factory" which is actually the same program McKay did when he was in Kindergarten.

Hannah had a short speaking part towards the end of the program. As luck would have it, I didn't get it captured on video camera or even get a regular picture of her up on the stage. But she did a great job with her two lines!

These programs always have so many parents and not enough seats that you have to get there plenty early and even then, it's hard to see what's going on. Hannah was on one of the lower risers, so we could barely see her (Courtney & Hayley couldn't see much of anything without standing on their seats, which we couldn't let them do, so they pretty much complained and whined the whole time we were there).

I had my telephoto lens on my camera and was able to get a couple of shots of Hannah by trying to peek around people's heads in front of me. (The biggest problem I've noticed with my telephoto lens is that people always have red eyes.) Here she is singing some of the songs:

She was sad when I told her afterward I missed getting her part on video, so we stopped outside on the way back to the car and I taped her saying it, plus took one more picture with the painter's hat:

It was a cute program, but I am also glad that we're done with school programs for the year! (At least until Courtney's preschool "graduation," but that's not an evening event that the whole family attends.)

Selling Your House, Day Two

Here's today's update on trying to sell our house. (I have to vent a little bit of frustration today, sorry!)

I got a call this morning about 9:35am from the showing service saying an agent wanted to show the home and schedule from 9:45 - 11:00am. Okay, I said, looking at my watch and realizing that gave me 10 whole minutes to get the house cleaned up and get out the door. Fortunately, the beds were already made and Courtney did a super job cleaning up the game room by herself. I hurried to clean up the kitchen and check last minute things and we headed out the door.

We went to another nearby park and the girls played while I worked on my grocery shopping list. When they got tired and my list was mostly done, I decided to head to the grocery store (Kroger, since they have a supervised kid's play area) and get a few things on sale from my list. I ended up with a fairly full cart, including several frozen and refrigerated items and just before I went to check out (about 11:15), I decided to call and check for messages. What do you know? The agent who had scheduled 9:45-11:00 wanted to reschedule for 11:30-12:30. Aargh! I want to be accommodating so people can see the house, but I can tell this process is going to be frustrating at times.

I decided to head home anyway and if no one was there, at least get my cold stuff in the freezer. When I ran inside, I saw a realtor's card on the counter which indicated they had already come, so we were safe to stay home. (whew)

We had another showing this afternoon -- 2:45 - 4:30pm, of course again right during the time the kids get off the bus from school. But this one turned out okay -- as I was parked across the street waiting for the bus, I saw the people come to look at the house, so after getting the kids and running to get gas in the van, we knew we were safe to come home before 4:30.

I'm really glad to have lots of showings -- I know the more people look at the house, the more quickly we'll find the right buyers. I just hope we're not doing this process until June!

Life When You're Selling Your House

I just had to post a quick recap of our day's adventures today. I sure hope every day is not like today!

Today was the monthly realtor "tour" for our "village" here -- basically realtors that have listings in a geographical area can host an open house for other realtors to come and see the home. Our realtors like to do these open houses because they get a lot of feedback from the realtors as to what does or doesn't show well, etc. (They serve lunch and offer door prizes and everything to entice people to come.)

The open house was from 11-2, so I started cleaning last night and then this morning got the kids off to school and dropped the girls off at preschool at 9, then came back home and hurried to finish mopping and vacuuming, etc. I was just finishing putting everything back in place about 10:30 when our realtors came to start setting up (and a couple of realtors even came while I was still here).

I left and went over to the school to check out the book fair until it was time to pick Hayley up from preschool (and ended up buying several books). Then Hayley and I had a couple of hours to kill, so we ran a couple of errands (more shopping!) and had lunch together at the McDonald's inside Wal-Mart which was fun for just the two of us.

We picked Courtney up at 2:00 and headed home, when I decided to call and check if there were any messages on our answering machine. Sure enough, a showing had been scheduled that afternoon from 2:30-4:30. (It's kind of frustrating that they schedule a two-hour window when they're only at your house maybe 15 minutes.) So we stopped for a couple of minutes, grabbed some snacks and coloring stuff and headed over to the park.

About 3:15, we drove back over and parked across from our house to wait for the school bus, so we could hurry and grab McKay & Hannah before they tried to go inside. McKay asked if we could go to the music store since his piano teacher had just given him a gift card as a reward for passing off a certain number of songs. Why not? We've got nothing else to do (except homework in the car), so off we went.

After the music store (we ended up buying just a piano book of patriotic songs -- McKay had a hard time finding anything else he really liked), we headed home again. We got home about 4:40pm, and dumped all the backpacks, shopping bags, coloring books, etc. on the kitchen counter. After a few minutes, Courtney came running in from the backyard telling us there was a dead bird. So we all went out back to investigate.

While we were in the backyard (and yes, there were remnants of a broken egg and bird embryo or something, plus feathers everywhere), the back door opened and a lady popped her head out and said "Hi, we're here -- sorry we're late!" I thought about the huge pile and mess in my kitchen and was SO embarrassed. (She also commented that they were both LDS and were admiring the food storage in our closet!)

Needless to say, the kids and I stayed out in the backyard for about 10 minutes until they left. What a way to start off showing the house! :-) I guess it all goes with the territory, but I certainly hope we don't have many more days like today! (Brian hopes so too, because he said otherwise I'm going to end up spending a lot of money on all these time-to-kill shopping trips!)

Sister Swingin'

I went outside earlier today after dropping Courtney off at a birthday party and found Hannah and Hayley swinging together. Hannah told me excitedly that she had taught Hayley how to swing. I don't know if Hayley can really swing on her own (i.e. pump her legs) quite yet, but it was so cute to see them laughing and swinging together.

It's interesting to watch how the girls play together when one of them is gone. Courtney & Hayley usually play well together while Hannah is at school, but when she comes home it mixes things up a bit and the two of them don't keep playing together anymore. Today, Courtney was gone and Hannah & Hayley played really well. Of course, all three of them do play together sometimes too, but for some reason that tends to end up in fighting or someone getting hurt. :-)

The kids were in and out a lot today and I'm finding I'm already getting tired of dirty feet! They wear their sandals or crocs outside and take them off when them come in (big new rule with new carpet), but still their feet are pretty dirty since they weren't wearing socks. So we either have to wash off their feet with a wet paper towel or sit them on the counter and wash feet in the sink if they're really dirty. And then 10 minutes later they go right back outside to get dirty all over again... I suppose kids and dirt go hand in hand!

For Sale

The sign's up...

We're officially on the market! All I can say at this point is "Whew!" What a lot of work the last few weeks have been. (Our realtors did say they thought we'd done a great job and think the house will show really well.) I only hope the "maintenance" aspect isn't terrible, although I know it's going to be stressful on everybody.

We took pictures this morning, so I thought I'd share a few. I don't know which ones will end up on the Internet listing or flyer yet. (And if you've ever been in my house much, you know that getting it to look like this is a big undertaking!)

Another view of the front...



The porch...


The dining room...



The office...



The family room...




The kitchen and breakfast area...




The game room (a hard room to photograph)...


McKay's room...


Hayley's room...


Hannah & Courtney's room...



Hall bathroom...


Master bedroom...



Master bathroom...