baby P O W D E R fresh

I'm not entirely sure what lesson we are supposed to be learning at this point in life. Patience, endurance, tolerance, kindness, humility... Those are the first virtues that come to mind. Feels like we are just being tested a little right now- hopefully, it is building character in the process. The thought keeps crossing my mind how grateful I am for such a wonderful husband and strong marriage. The times we have even slight disagreements are very rare and far in between. I'm completely convinced that stressful times like these are the ones that can and do tear couples apart while filling a house with contention. It's not easy. I am just so blessed that Jim and I are on the same page- enduring it together, laughing a little along the way.

Excited to finally have a solid contract on our KS home {a month ago}, we learned yesterday that our buyers might be backing out. In the inspection that they paid for, it was found that the siding has counter sunk nails and some improper nail placement. The house is less than five years old. We bought it almost four years ago and it sat for a year before we bought it. We never touched the siding, so unfortunately it was something the builder did incorrectly. The inspector thought it would be easy and inexpensive to get fixed. Sure. He didn't even mark it as defective, but marginal.

Yesterday, we received their estimate to repair the siding- $26,000. That's repaired, not replace. Fill a few holes, add a few nails, move a few. That's not even to replace any of the boards. Unbelievable. We're more than convinced we could have the siding completely replaced {and more} at that price. It's not even completely sided- part of it is bricked. Jim's brother had his whole house re-sided a few years ago. They said it was around $8000 for the whole thing and that was from Sears- always overpriced in my opinion.

At this point, we'd almost rather they back out as frustrated as we are. This is the time that a bigger, better, simpler offer is supposed to come in to play, right? The kind of situation we can look back on and say, "Wow- things worked out so much better in the end...What a blessing those first buyers backed out... " Oh, I sure hope so! Guess we'll have to wait and see.

On another note... I'm wondering what the deal is with my kids and BABY POWDER. They drive me crazy! Even more, I think I should be past the time in my life of cleaning up messes made by little ones. Caden is five years old. Old enough to know, but apparently he hasn't caught on yet.

Justin pulled the baby powder out last night to freshen up his shoes- pretty stinky after three hours playing basketball. Didn't take Caden long to find it this morning. I walked in to my bathroom- a complete disaster. At least it's small and I was planning to clean anyway today. Pretty sure I won't be letting him clean it up- that would be rewarding him for this bad behavior.

Shortly after moving to Kansas

Reminded me of a few other baby-powder pictures I have taken. I always get so mad, I don't understand why I take pictures- every single time, but I do. Crazy, I know.

Oh, this was a horrible mess... he just needed it to play cars...



Don't think I was too happy... but he sure was... ugh!! Baby powder EVERYWHERE!