I've been MIA. So sue me.

It's been a busy week. Last weekend we had two graduation open houses, a house to look at (the first one from this post), a wedding, and decorating my VBS classroom.

That last part? VBS? That's what I've been doing every evening this week. VBS stands for Vacation Bible School, and though there are probably those in my church who loathe its arrival every summer, I wouldn't miss it. I've worked in the nursery, taught preschoolers and kindergartners, and this year for the first time I'm teaching an age group I don't have at home: 3rd and 4th grade. They are easier than younger kids in a lot of ways; they have longer attention spans, for one, so I don't have to switch gears every five minutes. They are also easier to herd and generally are fine with all going to the bathroom at one time (as opposed to different ones needing to go at different times). But I do miss the cute little faces of my preschoolers and kindergartners, especially during music! The older ones are starting to almost be too cool to do the hand motions. My group is right across the hall in crafts when Audrey is in music, so sometimes I sneak over and peek in the door to get my cute fix. Tonight is the last night, a short night, but afterwards there is a cookout and games in the parking lot, including free ice cream (we have a couple in our church who owns the local DQ who have been providing our church with ice cream for years, God bless 'em).

I've been feeling pretty good pregnancy-wise, although if I ever was going to be sick while pregnant (not counting the day of stupidity on the Ferris wheel two years ago), it could have been yesterday. It wasn't so much that I felt more nauseated than usual, but my gag reflex seemed to be working overtime. Mostly though I've found that if I get a protein bar or some turkey bacon first thing in the morning, I feel pretty good throughout the rest of the day.

I've pretty much made the full transition to maternity clothes. Especially in shorts. The one pair of size 10s I had were starting to feel tight last week.

My big news is that we finally saw the SECOND house from the post above, but it has been a nail-biter. We were scheduled to see it the same day as the other one, but they cancelled for some unknown reason. When Leo went back into the listings to pull it up a couple of days ago, *we couldn't find it*, and I almost started hyperventilating. "Someone else got it. It's pending for someone else, I just know it!" Not exactly. The listing had expired, so it was not listed with the active group, which is what we had been searching. Still...it had expired a few days ago, why hadn't it been relisted? Had they changed their minds? I was trying hard to be cool about it, but Leo could see how much I liked the house just from the pictures (and there are lots of the inside online). We looked at the listing itself to see if there were any clues. Leo worked some Realtor magic and found that it had been listed before. It had been on the market for a total of 9 months. The real problem? They had not lowered the price once in that time. He also managed to find that this house is the second most expensive one in that neighborhood (OH the things one can know when one is married to a Realtor!). His concern was that maybe they had bought more house than they could afford, and were not willing to sell it for less than what it was listed at so they would not lose any more money.

Since the listing had expired, Leo was actually within ethical limits to call the family directly and see if they were willing to let us see it (and perhaps even let him relist it). Turns out they just hadn't called their own agent back yet, so after several more calls over the last few days, we FINALLY scheduled a showing. We went this morning.

And I love it. It has four bedrooms plus an office. The master suite has a jacuzzi garden tub with a leaded glass window above it. It has a fireplace. There is no carpet in any bathroom or eating area. The kitchen...almost perfect. Gas stove (it's impossible to cook Chinese on electric because you have to change the temperature quickly sometimes), tile floor, lots and lots of cabinet and counter space. Eat-in kitchen PLUS an island bar. A planning desk, which was one of those things I was not holding out for, but have been still hoping for. The only negative about the kitchen is what they are calling a "pantry" is just an oversized floor-to-ceiling cabinet. That is not my definition of a pantry; a pantry is an actual closet, preferably one I can walk into. However...a look at the laundry room adjacent to the kitchen told me I could put pantry shelving in there with no problems.

Since I was willing to compromise on the pantry, Leo was willing to give in on his concern, which was the fact that the master bedroom is directly over the garage. Apparently this has recently been found to be a design flaw because if somone comes home late at night and opens the garage door, it can be quite loud and wake up sleeping people in the bedroom. Since we generally have a baby in bed with us (and will for probably the next two or three years), there's also that to consider. Leo finally decided that if he were to come home late at night, he would just park the vehicle in the driveway. Hopefully he won't regret this when winter comes, but I didn't put THAT thought in his head!

Here's the deal: we were still thinking about moving to the city south of us where most of Leo's clients come from. What we're going to do for now is hold off making an offer for about a week (since they haven't got anything in nine months, we are probably safe for that long). In that time we will view as many houses in this other city as we can, and if we don't find anything as good or better, we will probably be making an offer on this one.

I'm crossing my fingers. I would love to stay in this town!