Life is a highway.

The last day or so has seriously been a whirlwind to say the least. So much is going on right now, I fear I have little time to talk about any of it, but find that I must or my brain will explode and never let me sleep (and I really need a good night of sleep tonight!! )

For starters an update on Dyl. I put him back on the one med we were weaning him from and waalaa...a whole new kid. Still an Aspie but a loveable sweet boy who just has spunk ;)

Second...I have come to the conclusion that Cohen is allergic to shellfish. He had it for the second time ever in his life last night and he ended up throwing up for 2 hours straight last night, it was awful, hence my exhaustion tonight. No shrimp or crap or lobster for my little tiger :( so sad.

Third...I am about to make a drastic life change, wanna guess what it is , anyone???

Fourth....that house.

Omgosh, that house!! I'll tell you quickly how things are happening around here with no explanation outside of the big guy in the sky ;)
It was my dear friend Amy who suggested a few weeks back that we house hunt (her exact words were that she had heard me complain long enough about my tiny house, so just GET OVER IT and go find a new one LOL). I can't explain why it felt/seemed like a sign from God, all I can say is, it felt like a holy spirit tug for sure....so i went wit it. I have prayed since then and continue too pray that whatever God's will is, let it be done.

So, when we found that awesome huge house last week and I realized that that was exactly the kind of space *I* needed/wanted for my family, it hit home hard because the truth is even in this market, a house that size is priced a lot higher than what I personally want to drop on a house, regardless of if I can afford it or not. I am not a flashy person, I have no desire to own big huge expensive anything, thats just not me...but there is a battle in my brain going on over that versus what we NEED with 8 kids. EIGHT. I still have such a hard time wrapping my brain around that number. Anyways, in all actuality, with this many kids now, AND the even bigger issue will be in a few years when we have a 18,16, 14,13, 11 and 9 yr old in the house (and if Dyl is here a 20 yr old)...you can see why I am apprehensive to buy a 2000 sq ft house. To me right now 2000K plus a livable basement is double what we currently have, but I'm telling you it is small in comparison to this many kids in 6-7 years from now.

Anyway, back to my quick story LOL. Size versus price. I don't want an old house. BTDT ...have the jeans, t-shirt , socks, hat, coat and boots on that one. Don't get me wrong I love my older (read post civil war) home but there are things about it that just can never be that a newer home would be/have (like a use able basement for other than storage).

So, this house was actually found by my husband almost 3 months ago when we were casually *looking* at what fun big houses were going for cheap out there. He found it on a fluke one day while out running errands. I thought it looked cool but it was priced much higher then and it was a ranch. Nope...not interested said I, although I thought it looked cool, yeah, sure.


Since this all really got serious a few weeks ago this house popped up a couple of times, and he would mention it and I would shoot him down every time because there was no way it was even livable at that size/price, huh.

He finally got his way today, after he insisted this week that we just look at it. he said he was dying of curiosity to just see the inside, and that if he never got to see it it would bug him forever (ok FINE already! :P LOL!!)

I made jokes all day long about how 70's it was going to be (and in my defense so you don't think i am a total witch....it IS a total 70's doctor's pad LOL, no lie the pics only show a portion of it trust me!!)...as we pulled in the drive I gave a good *bow-chika-bow-bow* shout out just for added drama (your welcome dino!! ;) )

And then as we walked through this house...something odd started happening. First the space, you cannot deny the massiveness. The kitchen is rockstar huge, corion counter tops....*dies* there is a trash door, i told the realtor I was ready to sign just over that LOL (I was still in you've-got-to-be-kidding-me mode ...sort of at that moment). All I could see was this big huge house that needed some updates in quite a few areas, not everywhere just majority though but it was all in workable order. I was impressed, but not convinced. Until....we went into the basement. The basement is almost as big as the upstairs, maybe minus 200 sq feet, maybe. You can see from the pics it has a 2nd kitchen, a full bath, a huge closet, a HUGE storage area off the laundry room....
Oh wait, the laundry room.

So i'm standing there looking at where the washer and dryer hook ups are, hmmm ok. Um, wait whats THIS???

Ready for this?

2 sets of washer/dryer hook ups.

Yep.

Go ahead and pick your jaw up off the ground, because its true.

That right there was one of the biggest issues in the majority of the houses we looked at over the last few weeks. One of the things we were looking at doing with the current house addition was a laundry room that I could hook up for 2 sets because lets face it...mama does a LOT of laundry! (constantly...all day long, and while I sleep lol). This made me go, um, wha, huh? No, this can't be the house. No way. It needs a lot....but, does it?

The truth is, yes and no. Cosmetics it needs out the waazoo, we are talking new carpet in 4 of the rooms at least, but the flooring elsewhere is ok if not new for now. It needs paint, after I peel off the 8 million feet worth of wall paper (excuse me, but I loathe wall paper LOL, I am an artist, I paint, paint goes on walls not PAPER :P ). But, this house is huge and the price is too amazing to resist.

I talked with the R (thats short and its late for the Realtor lol) about the sitch and then went up to talk to Dean. I was overwhelmed at the thought and was like um, no way. I'll be doing most of the work myself, and while I'm ok with that I'm freaking out because thats a ton (see thats how my brain works, I have to fix every single inch of it RIGHT THEN lol...there is no rational thinking where that is concerned). We checked out every thing we could think of that the inspectors would have an issue with and from what we could see it is structurally sound.

So, then I was hit by something else that seriously made me consider my own sanity. I had to call my friend after the fact and ask if I was reading to much into all this...or not. I wasn't expecting to find a house this quick, for 1, and 2 not a house like this....but this last little tid bit rocked me off my pillar of rational stability to say the least.

JP was with us and he was thirsty and his drink was in the car but I was stalling because it was cold out there lol and I didn't want to leave just yet, I was still looking at every inch of this place and wanted a few more minutes. So I said to him *wanna go figure out which room would be yours?* and of course he was game.

There are 3 rooms that were possibles...I'll list them by color.
The brown room, which was the smallest.
The blue room which was bigger but not as big as
The green room which is the biggest. Since JP and Mr C and Nate are sharing a room, they have to have the biggest.

Originally when we first ventured down that hallway and I peeked in the rooms, I thought Sus and Cessa in the brown room, and Sadie and Lettie, or the boys in the blue....but on second glance I realized that the boys had to have the green for the size. Ok fine...then the blue would be Sadie and Lettie's except there is a doorwall in that room, and thats not a good idea with little kids, which meant by door default that one had to be Sus and Cecie's.

So I popped in there and thought, oh i should take a picture of this for Sus and text it to her.

And thats when I noticed the curtains in that room. The whole house has most of the curtains up, all customs made drapes because the windows are so large i am assuming. So, this window has vertical blinds and a valance....guess what was on that valance?
I'll give you one hint and if you know my kids well you'll know the significance.

This is Susie's room. What is the one thing (beside Elijah wood) that she is obssesed over more than anything else....?

give up?





WOLVES. And no I am not kidding...there are freaking WOLVES on the curtains in that room. I stood there trying to absorb it all, took the picture and sent it. Of course she loves it :) lol. My friend Amy says that is her room....and part of me is starting to think it very well could be.

I'm pretty overwhelmed right now, IF this is the one, I have so much stuff to do its pretty mind blowing. Thankfully my basement is 90% org'ed so we could do it quick if need be, but still, yikes.

We still have lots of obstacles to get over, inspections, their bank has this thing we have to get approved for (its long and dumb but its what they require)....and we have cleaning to do even if we do get it, along with carpet in at least a few of the rooms, and paint in a few that must be done prior to move in.

Who knows, maybe its not the one, but I couldn't help be think/feel that there were some serious signs that it was today. I don't always hear God when he speaks, sadly...but I'm trying really hard these days to make sure to pay extra special attention when I think he might be because the last thing i want to do is be out on his will, either in a house that's not meant to be ours, or missing out on a house that was meant to be ours.

With that said, good morning, good afternoon, and good night! This day has been long, I'm beat and tomorrow is a new day of seeing where this road leads.