So much to be thankful for...

For little Pilgrims...

 

...and special days spent at preschool Thanksgiving parties with the creative little Indians/Pilgrims who made these outfits.

For the very first edition of the "kids" table for Thanksgiving dinner...

...and for special time to spend with family.

For spunky glances from the littlest among us...

...and the holiday miracle when she finally let Pap hold her (and even gave out a few kisses). 

Count your blessings, name them one by one...

Count your blessings, see what God has done.

Count your blessings...name them one by one..........

Count your many blessings, see what God has done.

My blessings are far too numerous to list.  My cup runneth over.

I almost don't know where to start.

It may be a good thing that I haven't had time to write lately.  Because you all might have whip lash from the speed with which life is sailing along in the Dugan family if I had chronicled each step of our latest adventure in debt loading.

I'm happy to have saved you that kind of agony.

In the past six days a whole lot has happened.

We had a showing of our house on Saturday morning.  The amount of work that went into getting it ready to show is almost ridiculous.  You have to somehow make it look like no one lives there when you do, in fact, live there.

In the 16 days leading up to it that our house had been on the market without any bites, I had more anxiety attacks than I care to recall.  Every scenario I ran in my head ended in a declaration of bankruptcy (as in, the house doesn't sell and we're stuck with 2 mortgages indefinitely, or the ever popular fear of being homeless).  I have since decided that I will not amass my millions by buying and selling real estate.  I'm just bad at it.  I don't have the stomach for the ups and downs (or lack of ups, which really was the issue for me). 

Saturday afternoon we got word that things were going well with the people who had looked at our house that morning.  They had looked at 14 houses and were interested and had been dropped off at their hotel to run numbers and think about an offer.  Then we got a call that they were going to make an offer.  And then the offer came in....we countered once and all of a sudden a SOLD sign was delivered to our front yard.

But we had a problem.  The contract on our new house had us closing on December 30th but the people buying our house had to be in by the 29th.  So we started trying to rearrange closing on the new house.  After being back and forth for a day or so, we got a call yesterday that our closing on our new house is set for December 17th. 

Which means we'll be moved in for Christmas!  Perhaps we won't be unpacked, but at the very least, everything we own will be on the premises.

And since I believe in Santa Claus, I have full confidence that somehow through all of this there will be a Christmas tree set up in our new house, with gifts for the kids that they'll just love, and we'll be able to enjoy the end to all of this chaos in our new home.  I may not be baking Christmas cookies this year and whether or not I'll actually get cards in the mail is debatable.  But I have a feeling this will be a Christmas that we're looking back on in 30 years, laughing with our kids about how we didn't put up the tree until after they were in bed on Christmas Eve.

So...I've been talking about the house for a while, but I can finally post a picture.  Like it?



Squeezing in all the fun we can!

What a great weekend it was!  We were so excited to be headed to Lewistown for a few days to spend some time with my parents, Libby and Zig and Brooke.  It always seems like our visits are frequent through the summer months as there are picnics and parties and outside fun to be had, but once the fall air moves in, we tend to get busy and end up staying at home more.  I think it did us all a whole bunch of good to get out of the house and spend some time with this side of our family this weekend. 

Our realtor, Kevin, had organized an Open House at our home on Sunday afternoon, so we needed the place to look immaculate for Sunday.  Ever tried to do that with two kids?  It isn't pretty.  So Joshua, Lauren and I headed to Lewistown on Friday afternoon while Jason stayed home to get the place all shined up.  Just call him Cinderella.  Mom had planned a pot pie dinner, and we were all THRILLED to be a part of that.  There is no time that I most feel my Grandma Mary's presence with us than when we're sitting down to pot pie.  Mom is amazing....and I'm pretty sure that even though I really love to cook and seem to be getting a little more daring each year, there's no chance I'll ever replicate what my Gram and Mom can do with pot pie.  Our bellies were so happy on Friday night. 

Jason arrived on Saturday morning and we ended up spending some time with Steph, Stacie and Anna at my Mom and Dad's.  The kids had a lot of fun playing together, and I think the girls did too!  It certainly didn't hurt that we got to witness JoePa's 400th career win together.  We couldn't resist a photo opportunity, but, as you can see below, weren't horribly successful at getting the little ones to share in our excitement.  Lauren looks skeptical at best, and Anna.....well, she isn't having it.

On Saturday night, we decided to take a walk on the wild side and put all three of our munchkins in the tub together.  Oh my word.

It was funny.  There were giggles.  There were squirting fishies.  There were tears.  There were temper tantrums.  It was like a normal night with two kids in the tub at our house.  But look at Lauren's grin over splashing Brooke in the tub.  If she isn't going to be the fish of the family, I'll be shocked. 

We went to church with Mom and Dad and then headed back home to play for a bit before it was safe to return to Greenbriar Drive.  The fact that there was left over pot pie was in no way a factor in our decision.  :o)

The Open House went relatively well with six different families having come through the house, all with positive comments.  It remains to be seen whether or not we'll see any offers from them, but my prayer is that the Lord will help to take away the anxiety that I'm feeling about the whole situation and bring this situation to a resolution with an offer on our house.  I'm finding it really hard to be excited about the move to the new house when we still have the sale of ours hanging over us.  I know that this is all part of the process but I'm really having to work hard to keep my fears and anxieties in check over this one.  We'll keep you posted when there's news there.  Actually, I don't think a blog post will be necessary because you'll probably hear my shrieks of delight from here without any technological interventions necessary.

Busy week this week, but I'll do my best to post.

Happy Halloween!

Even though the weather made it feel more like Christmas than Halloween, we bundled up the kids and went out around the neighborhood to Trick or Treat on Sunday evening.  If I told you how many layers were under the kids' costumes, you probably wouldn't believe me.  But let's just say that Lauren couldn't walk because of all the layers under her adorable green and white striped tights.  (Sorry I didn't get any pictures of them....they were precious!)

Lauren's vantage point for the night's festivities was the wagon, bundled up with the heaviest blanket we could find.  She did pretty well staying seated for the hour that we were out gathering goodies.

Our church hosted its first ever Trunk or Treat event and it was really nice.  There were probably 30 cars decorated in all kinds of themes in the parking lot of the church.  The kids could just walk from car to car and collect goodies.  Since the parking lot is within walking distance of the house, it was a no brainer that we would go there and see our church friends.  While Joshua was stuffing his pumpkin with treats, Lauren spent her time waving and smiling to everyone she knew.  (I think she knew she was adorable in her strawberry suit!)

We spent the rest of the evening checking everything for peanuts and trying to unfreeze our fingers and toes.  Joshua crashed hard after his sugar rush, but still declares that he really likes Trick or Treat.  And now that I'm a Mommy and get to see the cuteness of the costumes, so do I!

Home Inspection on Cherry Tree Lane tomorrow afternoon.  We're getting excited!  Still no bites on our house.  Our prayer is that something comes through really soon.  I'm not enjoying this feeling of being under the gun to sell our house...not one bit.  Our realtor is doing an open house on Sunday, so hopefully that'll draw some attention from people other than nosy neighbors who want to see inside our house.