Memoirs of a Perpetual Home Seller

I started thinking yesterday as I was cleaning my house for the 6748th time that God knew what he was doing when he designed me the way he did. I hate to cook, but I find some strange sense of accomplishment in scrubbing a bathroom and vaccuuming the stairs. I am almost to the end of what I can handle with this whole "home for sale" thing, mind you, but at least I am wired to like cleaning and organizing. If every time that our realtor randomly called, I had to whip up a meal for the potential buyers instead of scrub my glass shower doors, I wouldn't have lasted a month.

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But even being a person who likes to clean, I am getting sick of doing it for other people. What do I get from my hours of toil? I get some random family, whom I will probably never meet, walking through my house for all of 15 minutes, picking apart the place that I love. "Oh, I love the front porch, but I wish they had a bigger laundry room." "The woodwork is great, but I wish the stairs were placed in a different spot." "I wonder why they don't have a TV in their living room, they must be Amish or something." "Did you notice all the trees in the backyard? They are beautiful, but I wish they had a bigger deck off the back..." And if you happen to be thinking of looking at my house - Beware - I do not have stainless steel appliances. Every home buyer on the planet currently wants stainless steel appliances. But guess what? I don't like stainless steele appliances. I have never liked them, and I probably never will. So there.

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This saga will continue for an undetermined amount of time, and I will continue to clean and leave, so Joe Blow can take a tour. Someday, maybe some Joe Blow will actually like our house enough to buy it. Many potential buyers have liked it, in fact, we have supposedly been in the top two multiple times, but second place in the real estate market is really first loser. You don't even get a medal or a ribbon or anything. You just get to let your kids mess it back up, and wait for the next phone call from your real estate agent.

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I really try to focus on just being content where God has us at the moment, and most of the time, I am able to ignore what a nuisance it is to try to sell a house. I am able to ignore it, because we are provided for, and I know the God who is in control of the universe. He has provided us with a beautiful house (I'd buy it). He has given us neighbors whom I adore, and has blessed the kids with great friends on the street. It is really a wonderful place to be. And I need God to constantly remind me that selling a house is so very little in the whole scheme of things. This life is not supposed to be about where I live, but about how I live my life in the space and time God has provided me. Am I loving people the way Jesus wants me to? Am I serving in the way God is calling me to? Am I raising my boys to love Jesus? Those things are important. When I get to heaven, I have a feeling God is not going to ask me one question about real estate.

Mt. Rushmore Family Photo

I love my family, and I especially love vacationing with them. I love it that we can spend four nights in a little camper and not want to strangle each other by the end of it. (Either our camper is shrinking or our boys are growing.) I love sitting by a campfire. I love being the designated "eater of burnt marshmallows." I love it that Corey is always able to keep the mood happy, even when things don't go quite as planned. I love watching my kids experience things that I experienced as a kid. I'm already dreaming about where we'll go next year.

Campground - Cave - Crazy Horse

We loved the KOA we stayed at outside of Hill City. The people who worked there were very friendly, and they had tons of things for the kids to do. Our campsite was a little on the small side, but it was secluded, which was very nice.

The boys played a lot of mini-golf. Even the rain didn't stop them.



We toured Rushmore Cave. I think it was probably one of the highlights for the boys.


Here they are in one of the rooms in the cave. I think it was called the image room. The tour guide pointed out all kinds of formations that looked like things: kind of like seeing pictures in the clouds. They are pointing to a snout.

It was very rainy when we visited Crazy Horse, so we didn't stand outside for a photo. Crazy Horse is kind of hard to see through the glass, but he is there. Gotta love Owen in the picture, or should I start calling him Cousin It?

Reptile Gardens

We visited Reptile Gardens on a CHILLY day. It was around 50 degrees with a breeze. Brrr. We all dressed in layers and had a lot of fun. The croc and snake shows were very entertaining. I even touched a Boa.

It was one of the giant tortoise's 129th birthday when we were there, which means I saw that same tortoise when I was there almost three decades ago.

Big Thunder Gold Mine

We panned for gold at Big Thunder Gold Mine. I remember panning when I was about the boys' age. They ended up with about the same amount of gold I did: a few tiny little specs at the bottom of a tiny little glass jar.

We toured an authentic gold mine, but it was not a very prosperous one. The owners got 10 ounces of gold out of it after mining for almost 4 decades. Good thing mining wasn't their day job; their primary job was detonating dynamite for other mines.

10 Signs You are at a Great Campground

1. The bathrooms have a fresh, clean aroma.
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2. Free mini-golf.
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3. The pools are kept warm enough to comfortably swim when it is 50 degrees and raining. (Yes, my boys did this.)
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4. Your site is private enough that you can send your boys out to relieve themselves in the trees with no worries of anyone seeing them (one of the many benefits of having male children).
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5. Larger than life checker board.
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6. People come around every morning and take your garbage to the dumpster for you.
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7. There are a bunch of horses in a stable for the kids to go see and pet. Lewis was impressed by their big eyes, but not impressed by their smell.
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8. You are surrounded by the Black Hills.
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9. There are quiet hours, and it is actually quiet during them.
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10. You can buy a bottle of gold for $5.99. We panned for gold, but the bottles of gold are much more impressive.
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We had a fantastic time at the Mt. Rushmore/Hill City KOA. I highly recommend it. It would have been even more fun if it had rained less, but I'm not in charge of the weather. Besides, you can have a lot of fun in the rain if you choose to.

Four Past Presidents and Three Future Ones?

More vacation photos to come...

Dam to Dam

Dam to Dam - 12.4 miles - 2 hours 12 minutes.

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In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, our youth pastor and family friend, Gabe Casciato, picked me up to head to Des Moines for the 20k run. It was dark, and it was raining, and I was thinking 'what in the world have I gotten myself into?' It rained all the way to the start site, and for the first 6 miles or so of the run. Needless to say, we were more than a little wet. By the time the race actually started, I was shivering from being cold and soggy, but sometime during that two hours of running, the wetness from the rain turned to sweat, and I realized that the rain had actually been pretty refreshing to run in.

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I had hoped to run the race in under 2 hours and 20 minutes, so I was pretty happy when I saw my time. My knees gave me some grief when I was finished, but other than that I felt pretty good. I don't know if I'll ever do the Dam to Dam again, but I do know that I'm going to take a break from running for a couple weeks. Then I have to gear up for a 10k at the end of the summer. My husband is looking for retribution after I beat him last year.

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Last Day of School

It is much easier to get a smile on last day of school pictures than first day of school ones! Carter and Owen have officially moved up - third grade and second grade.