Moving?

 9/27 - after Jason's golf tournament, we went out for lunch to a local burger place.  It was really close to one of several bridges Springfield has that go over roads.  The kids love going to the top of the bridges and watching the cars go under.

 9/28 - about a month before this, I decided to paint our propane tank.  It was really rough looking.  So I took a wire brush and scrubbed it down, washed it, and then painted it.  But, as  you can see by the left of this photo, the fresh paint made everything around it look dirty.  So I borrowed a power washer and paint sprayer, and on Sunday Jason tackled the power washing of our shed for me.  Here's a before picture:

 During (awww):

 And after!!  Quite an amazing transformation, and this is before paint.  Then we got a contract on our house so we decided to delay the painting to see what happened.  More about this later.

 10/4 - City Utilities (where Jason works) does a company-wide picnic every year at Rutledge-Wilson Farm/Park.  They have hay rides, a pumpkin patch, corn maze, bounce houses, and they serve lunch.  It's a fun day and the kids love it.

 I think they spent the most time playing on the hay bales.

 We attempted the corn maze, but by that point we were all tired so we gave up and walked back out the entrance.  :)

 The organizers took family photos and sent them to the employees.

10/6 - I drove the big truck (and I didn't even hit anything!) to take the walnuts we've been collecting from our yard and sell them.  The going rate is $14 per 100 lbs of hulled walnuts.  So you take them to a hulling station where they have a noisy machine that takes the hulls off, and then they weigh the nuts and pay you for them.  We ended up with 182 lbs of hulled walnuts which is about $25.  Money does grow on trees!

10/9 - Josiah came home from school with this note from his friend Juliana.  Seriously, so cute.  Except that she got his name wrong!!!  :)  I'm hoping this Joe thing doesn't catch on.

So back to the house selling.  We've had the house listed since May and had only had 2 showings (both not interested) before September.  Sept 24th (the day before my brother visited), we showed the house.  The people were really interested but made us an offer that was $30K lower than the list price.  We went back and forth a few times with counter offers, but in the end were still $20K different.  So at that point we thought they were done.  Then the next week they called and asked if we would sell them the house + 20 acres, leaving 10 acres to sell separately.  Our realtor called a neighbor who is interested in our acreage, and he said he'd buy the 10 acres, so we all agreed upon prices (us and the 2 buyers), had everything in writing, and it looked as if our house was sold.  Then the neighbor requested that the buyers of the house grant him an easement to get to the 10 acres he was buying at the back of the land.  He may never use it but it seemed like a reasonable request to want to have a way to get back to the land he's buying.  The other buyers said no and walked away.  It was a crazy roller coaster of emotions - when we thought it was sold we were excited but also apprehensive, second guessing our decision to sell (yes, we're crazy!), and stressing a little over the 3.5 week away close date!  Then when it fell through it was a weird mix of disappointment and relief.

After all of that mess, we were ready to just take it off the market.  But then someone else set up a showing on 10/3.  They were coming in from out of state.  So I cleaned the house like a maniac, only to have them reschedule 4 times and in the end not come at all.  Annoying, but least my house has stayed really clean!  Then yet another person set up a showing on 10/10.  They said they are interested in our house, but are also looking at another house and will make a decision in the next few days and let us know.  Technically our original listing expired the first week of October, but the listings with the house & acreage separated are still active until the first of November.

Our original intent with selling the house was to move closer to Mt. Vernon - closer to church, grandparents, grocery stores, schools, etc - and to possibly downsize acreage.  But there are a lot of things that we love about our current location.  It's closer to Springfield where Jason works, we have a nice quiet paved dead-end street with great neighbors, beautiful views, etc.  We've just been praying for the past 6 months that if God wants us to move, He would allow our house to sell.  But we're okay with staying put if this is where He wants us.  We'll see what the people from 10/10 have to say - after that we may just take the listings down and be done!

Thankful for where we are, this patience-inspiring journey that we're on, and that God is in control of it all!