Update

My family arrived road weary but happy last Thursday! It was so good to see them!!! That evening I took them to see two homes we'd been going back and forth on for several weeks. I also invited my sister-in-law and a neighborhood friend. Everyone seemed to really like the home and my sister-in-law wanted to know why we hadn't put an offer in on the house already?!

So with bated breath we put in an offer Friday morning. We started our 4th of July celebration with a house offer. The Sellers responded early afternoon. They were not willing to come down any more than $4000 off the asking price. It simply wasn't enough and if that was his one and only final offer... it wouldn't work. So, we smiled at one another and told our Realtor to tell them "No thank you." I was fine the rest of the day, for the most part, and had a wonderful time with my birthday boy, family and friends.

I woke up early Saturday morning heart-broken. I cried off and on most of the morning. Once everyone in the house started to get up and around, I tried to hold it in but it seemed to come out in grumpy spurts...

On a happier note, Saturday afternoon we saw the new movie, Wall-E and took the girls for a tour of the Village Pointe, an open-air shopping mall. We had a fun afternoon. Mom, the girls and I wound down in the basement watching a "chick flick"... :)

Sunday morning we fixed a big breakfast and the OKC crew prepared for the trip home. After they left, Steve and I ran a few errands and made our way by some homes for sale. We came across one that really grabbed our interest and the price had come down putting it in our price range.

I contacted our Realtor to make arrangements to see the home. She called back to tell us it was sold and scheduled to close this Friday. We decided to make arrangements to go ahead and look at the home along with another home this builder had for sale.

It was a beautiful home, a big covered front porch with stone and cedar columns, a nice open layout with great colors and features, it had my drop zone area for the boys and a HUGE garage! We weren't overly impressed with some of the detail work, it was a bit sloppy. But seeing the house definitely got our wheels turning. If we could have all that for less than the house we'd bid on, should we consider building? We’d talked about it before, but never actually sat down with a builder to see what we could do…

In the midst of all this, my Realtor contacted the Seller's Realtor from the home we'd put the offer on... to see if she had any insight. The home had been on the market for a year, it was a divorce situation, the man had basically told our Realtor he expected a low offer and the home - although in great condition - needs updating. Turns out, they were offended by our low offer and felt there was no way we would be able to come to a compromise. The Realtor felt she could get them pretty close to the limit we'd set for ourselves.

So... I've spent a majority of this week weaving and bobbing between having a nice home in the neighborhood I want vs building a home I want in a neighborhood I have no ties to...

I'm mentally exhausted. I'm tired of feeling like all I think about, all I talk about is HOUSES! I don't understand why we're making this so difficult...

When I stop and read this… it seems silly and trivial… especially when I read the blogs of friends that are participating in truly amazing trips and missions, touching lives of people that don't have homes, parents, food, fair wages, etc. and I read updates on people still working their way out from the storms and flooding over the last several weeks and I think how frivolous my despair seems.

I am blessed! And we will find the right home at the right time. Thanks to everyone for there words of encouragement, insight and prayers!