This week in recap

Last weekend, Bill and Julie put our home up with a realtor. We are set with the same realtor (Tami Adams) that helped us buy our house. We later realized she goes to church at CCO, too. Tami did some price comparatives and we found that we were trying to oversell our house about $5k. This would explain why we haven't had any bites on the house. There are 15 other homes in the Joplin market that are 3bd/1bth that we're competing with. We dropped the cost and have hired her on to help sell the house. The market is really down right now so we could gladly use any help we can get. The up side of things is that it will hopefully sell over the summer. The down side is we will probably be breaking even when the house sells due to dropping the cost and having to hire a realtor. That busts our plans of buying a home when we move. We've started looking at apartment ads to find someplace that we can stay temporarily while I'm back in school. It actually will work out well in the grand scheme of things because we can save enough to put a good size down payment on a house later on (maybe a nicer one than we were looking to go for this summer).

While Bill & Julie were down, we saw Spiderman 3 and went to Cheddars. Later on, we went to Shakes. Nick and I have had huge custard cravings this month. We've gotten into the habit of getting some about twice a week. This past week, we've been there four times!!!

Nick finished his last day of school Friday. I thought he'd be a extatic... mainly, he's just been exhausted. He's been sleeping a lot!!!

On Friday we drove up to north to spend time with our moms for Mothers Day. On Friday we went to my cousin Kyle's production of Fiddler on the Roof at his school. Yesterday, I took my mom out to a tea room in Gower for lunch. I asked her what she wanted for Mothers Day, and she said she wanted to go to a tea room and work on a garden project together. The weather was beautiful for it. My mom hasn't had a garden since I was a little girl, mainly due to time constraints. I was so happy to see that it worked out to start one up. My dad purchased a Earthbox for her for Christmas, so we set up her tomatoes in it. She's also planting sweet peppers and basil. Since I knew earlier in the week we would be doing some gardening projects, I bought her some supplies as a Mothers Day present. I got a kneeling pad, gloves, a trowel, & an herb kit. I think it really made her weekend! When we move up, my mom has offered for us to use their acreage to build our own garden on. I'm so excited about that. I've been wanting to plant a garden (and can the harvest) the last two summers. Hopefully, it will work out to do so this summer.

This morning we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls at Union Station. I'm so glad it worked out to do that. We had to get tickets weeks in advance because they were selling out fast. Today's the last day the exhibit will be in KC. Some of the artifacts displayed were from 1000 BC. which just blew my mind. My favorite display was part of the last section, where they showcased Bibles. The third edition of Martin Luther's Bible was there. He directly supervised the making of the one we saw. It was so cool to think that the guy that started the Protestant Reformation hundreds of years ago had his hands all over a book I was standing a foot from!

This afternoon we went to Parkville for brunch. Nick's extended family has an annual tradition of eating a giant Mothers Day brunch at Nick and Jake's. Afterwards we went to Nick's grandparents.

It's been wonderful having sunshine throughout the whole weekend. The rain has really taken it's toll on the land. When we drove past La Cygne, fields and gravel roods were flooded. The water was almost up to the highway. In Parkville, the whole park by the Missouri River was underwater. My dad's business is in Elwood, KS and I've heard much of the town has been evacuated and sandbagged. I'm hoping the levies don't break there, as he is just now finishing rebuilding it from the time it had been vandalized and burned down last year! I hear rain is in the predicted forecast. Hopefully, it won't be as strong as last week!

This week I only have to work four days. I'm taking Friday off to prepare for Nick's party and do some major cooking for it. We're providing a full meal... Woody's BBQ brisket, beans, coleslaw, fruit salad, pasta salad, green beans, cake, etc. If you can come, come hungry!

We hope to see many of you next weekend for the party. Have a good day!