...crappy news...

they backed out. and i'm bitter. dang it~

...going to the chapel...

have i written about anna katherine's love life? yes, i said LOVE LIFE. and yes, she's FIVE. what the heck? about 3 weeks ago, she started talking about "alex." Alex L to be exact. and every time she mentions his name she gets all giggly and smiley. we've never seen her respond to a boy in this way, and it's actually quite strange. i think it's cute, and steve is depressed because he feels like he's getting dethroned in anna's heart.
alex l is in the preschool class next door to anna katherine's. their two classes actually have playground time together, which is how they've gotten to know each other. i'm fairly certain he's the class clown- every time i've seen him he's been goofing off and anna katherine has been watching and giggling from across the playground. she seems to be admiring him afar, and i've wondered if alex l is actually in on this relationship too. does he know he has a girlfriend? because she's called him her boyfriend. when all the kids in her class received preprinted grocery store bought valentine cards from anna katherine, alex l received a one-of-a-kind homemade valentine with TWO pieces of candy attached. 

yesterday alex l gave her a ring. yes, a RING. and it looks like a diamond ring! maybe he IS in on this relationship too. she was quite excited to show it to me when i picked her up from school.  we quizzed her about how it happened, but she wouldn't reveal much. she actually gets quite embarrassed talking about him, and angry when we tell people about their "relationship." (don't tease her or you'll get me in big trouble.)  

she even got a love note (first ever i might add) from another boy- keaton- last week. keaton is in her class, and spent the entire first half of the school year kicking and shoving her.  

i can't believe all of this love stuff starts so early! hence the term "puppy love" i suppose. do any of you other folks have experiences like this? tell me it's gonna be alright...

...ok, ok.. i'll do it...

dang it. i've been watching people "tag" each other all over the blog world, and i've been praying i would be left out of the mix.  i mean, i just haven't been so sure that i could think of 10 interesting things to share about myself.

so my friend tammy tagged me. about a week ago, i might add. and my friend bill was asking too. ugh. every time i thought of answering this call, i blanked out.  every one else's lists are so creative and great-- how could i compete? 

unfortunately i woke up bright eyed this morning at 5:30 am, and PTL it wasn't because of a screaming child.  what the heck? the lord obviously wanted to chat.  i tried to listen.  wondering what he wanted me to pray about this morning.  i started with the big stuff going on in my life and my friend's lives, but felt like he wanted to talk to me about ME.  he wanted to remind me of some stuff about ME.  

don't expect anything profound, but here is some info about who i am:

1.  i'm a sucker for a dare. i may not choose to do something on my own, but put me in public and dare me to do something, and game's on. make a scene? no problem. exceptions: eating nasty stuff (bugs, intestines, etc.)

2.  i'm brand loyal. don't mess with my tide with bleach, tide with febreeze, colgate total toothbrushes,  and charmin ultra.  if you are disappointed with the performance of a product and need to find a new favorite, just give me the category and i probably have a product i just can't live without.

 

3.  i have a terribly memory.  well, let me clarify. i can remember to-do lists. and prices of products on the grocery store shelf. and other insignificant stuff.  but tell me a deep, dark secret of yours and i'll forget it in 2 seconds flat. this can be a problem, because once you tell someone something deep and BIG you expect her to remember. not so much over here... sorry friend.. i'm convinced it was the hard living in my younger days that burned lots of brain cells, and we all know those don't grow on trees...

4.  i'm obsessed with the myers-briggs.  if you haven't taken this personality test, do it now! (and tell me what you are).. i blame and credit everything to someone's myers briggs personality.  for example, i'm a J and steve's a P. this is the only letter we are different on. and i'm convinced that every disagreement we have boils down to me being a J and he being a P. anyone with me on this obsession? (by the way, i'm an ESTJ)

5.  i am determined.  if i make my mind up on something, consider it done.

6.  i love my life. i really, really, really love my husband. and my girls. and Jesus. and friends who love me in spite of my faults and the parts of my personality that are annoying.

7.  i've been a vegetarian for close to 20 years. thanks to a friend who challenged me at the time and an overdose of chicken in a 24 hour period.  and the determined part of me mentioned in #5.  

8.  i think i'm most comfortable being nomadic (or at least having that option). which is why committing to stay in one area for a long season scares me. 

9.  i once got a phone call from Newt Gingrich (when he was speaker of the house) because he wanted to pick my brain on healthcare. OMG! lest you begin to get impressed, i'll just say i totally bombed the conversation and sounded like a complete moron. he never called again.

10.  favorite things: decaf caramel fraps from starbucks, fall weather, bear hugs from the girls, the feeling of accomplishment, date nights, weight watchers ice cream bars, frozen grapes, cold beer in a frosty mug, fires in the fireplace, time alone.

TADA!  i now tag: amy and travis greene, geoff and sherry, nikki, lindsay, and  jacqueline. good luck :)

...cheers to God...

big news in the hambrick household~~ 

we have a contract on our home! yes Lord! it was agreed upon today.  they will be doing the inspection this weekend, and the buyers have 10 days to back out of the contract with no penalties.  soooo, if you love us (or even remotely care about us) then keep on prayin', my friend. we'll feel much more confident about the deal once the 10 days have past.  the closing is 60 days out, which is also a bit scary because that leaves a lot of time for things to fall through.  we close on april 28th, and we'll have to find a place to live and move our stuff to for the month of may (we move to georgia at the end of may).  we are hoping that they will allow us to rent the house from them for that month, which would dramatically benefit my sanity. (i'm just sayin'-if we have to move twice in one month, i might just need to be committed somewhere).  they have indicated that they will consider that option praise God!

regardless of all of the possible pitfalls and pains, i am grateful that we have a contract. if all goes as scheduled, then it will be beautiful. thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement over the past 3 months! i'll keep you in the loop...

...i could get bitter...

so i've written about moving to georgia in june. and we've been trying to sell our house for 90 something days.  one thing to know about central florida: it has the second highest foreclosure rate in the nation. (or so i've been told). what does that mean and how does that affect me? well, people all over the place down here can't afford their homes. and their homes are getting taken away by the bank. the market is drenched with homes in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure. people in this bind are doing something called a "short sale", which basically looks like the lender selling the house at a loss just to get rid of the home. they intentionally price under value to sell quickly.  the lender eats the difference after they make sure they've taken all savings, etc. from the borrower.  when these homes close, the market value of the homes around them are lowered because they sold at such a low price.  also, central florida had a large number of investors come down about 2 years ago and buy, buy, buy.  now there are more homes for sale than anyone needs... for example, there were 25, 724 homes for sale in orlando here in january.  there were 5500 new listings for the month.  AND (important to notice) only 756 sales closed in the month.  yikes.... the stats ain't so good...

so, my good friend, i'm sure this has you wondering how the heck this has affected us.  please let me fill you in. (trust me, i think about this ALOT and am glad to share). we bought our home 2 years ago, in the middle of the housing splurge.  we bought fairly high, and were even able to see our home increase in value over 100,000 in less than a year.  we were definitely proud of ourselves, thinking about the great investment we had made.  i mean, who wouldn't be pleased with an increase in value like that?? since that time, home prices have plummeted. most people who bought within the last two years are losing money if they sell right now. including us. which really stinks if you ask me.   today we reduced our price AGAIN, and we've now taken off 25,000 from our original asking price. momma ain't happy. a good number of the homes are now empty, and people are desperate to sell. so they are panicking and reducing dramatically. now if we actually intend to sell our home, we need to stay competitive. which means not sticking to a price even though we think the home is worth it.  because guess what?? they can and will find another seller desperate to sell who will take less.  

which leads me to the title of this post: i could get bitter. and i'm trying not to.  coming up with thousands of dollars to bring to a house closing (for a house we are SELLING no less) just doesn't quite fit the plan i had for our lives.  if God had said, "give 20,000 to this person or this organization" i probably wouldn't have been excited, but it makes more sense than wasting it at a closing table, no? i just don't "get" this. i'm not blaming God or anything- i mean we bought the house, but i would love to see him show up and fight for us in this.  i would have loved for him to have shown up today in the 11th hour before we reduced it 15,000 more. he could have had the people who looked at it at 12:30 today decide they couldn't live without it. bam! that would have been an amazing "God showing up" story just hours before it was scheduled to be reduced. but it didn't happen like that. dang it.

so we wait. another day. another day of cleaning up the random trails of papers, toys, and junk the girls leave everywhere. another day of vacuuming and dusting.  another day of scrubbing toilets and lighting candles.  another day of straightening and sorting.   another day of windexing mirrors and sliding glass doors. 

just a warning for my future visitors in georgia: expect to stay in a comfy, yet NOT NEAT home when you come to visit. i'm done with cleaning for a long, long time. 

...the bug is here...

ok, so poor anna katherine was throwing up from 9:30pm until 3:30am this morning... every 30 minutes to an hour.  i felt really bad for her... she had forgotten all memories of barfing in the past, so it was a bit traumatic... since 3:30am, she's been doing well though. and i'm surprised that the illness seems to have come and gone.  we are praying hard that it doesn't make it's way through our entire family.  (it seems as if that has been the trend with all of our friends in town.)

pray for us if you get a chance!

also, our house is for sale and we have a potential buyer coming at 10:30am tomorrow. pray for that one too!

...total exhaustion...

 (written last night (sunday) but not posted until now)

we've just returned.... steve from the wesley men's retreat and i from the wesley women's retreat... and we think the idea of sleeping for 24 hours non-stop sounds really fabulous. but this is one of the areas our life is very different than the wesley folks who attended the retreats... see we have KIDS at home waiting to play and catch up on the last 48 hours.  so it is with extremely low energy that we spend the afternoon engaging our children in relationship.  and cleaning our house. because my brother victor, his wife julia, and their  1 1/2 year old daughter morgan are coming this afternoon until wednesday. (which i'm very happy about, by the way.) we'll be hitting disney tomorrow and possibly the next day.. no rest for the weary, but i'm glad to sacrifice rest for stuff like encountering jesus and being with my brother. somethings are worth pressing through :)