He Is Risen!

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful time this past weekend spending time with one another and with friends. I had Friday off of work so Phoebe and I spent much of the day shopping with my good friend Angie. I had decided that I wanted to stop buying paper napkins for everyday use, so one of the things I was searching for was cloth napkins ... at a price point of $1 or less. And I actually found some, and at three different stores! (Normally it takes me months—and even years sometimes—before I make a purchase of something like this.) I think I am going to take two sets of napkins back though and then go to Kohl’s to buy more of their clearanced ones. They had a style that I liked, but didn’t have complete sets. So I may have to sneak out again sometime soon and check at other Kohl’s stores to finish my collection. That is definitely a pro of being in a larger city—multiple store locations!

Candy shenanigans
What do you get when you leave a toddler unsupervised with her Easter basket? Yes, lots and lots of foil-wrapped candy with entire chunks taken out of them. Or plastic-wrapped candy that had been chomped, and yet held firm in the jaws of a little one! (We had more than one mini Snickers that was just crushed and yet the packaging never opened.) Fortunately, S. was skillful enough to somehow eat the chocolate while keeping the foil wrappers in her mouth. I figure that if she wanted the chocolate that bad, she could have it; I wasn’t going to dig it out of her mouth. (It hurts my teeth to even think about it again!) Of course, she wasn’t even close to being satiated with the chocolate she worked so hard to get. This is what I saw for hours after the egg hunt:
And no, she wasn’t being nice and asking if I wanted any!

E. had a great time, too. While S. only had 12 eggs, E. filled almost his entire bucket. And as you can tell, these were not small buckets. He was much more serious about his success, too—he opened every last egg before choosing which piece he was going to digest. (Mind you, it was only 9:45 AM, so yes, he could only have one.)

I read a fun Easter idea in Family Fun magazine, and Tyler implemented it for us. Instead of filling all of the eggs with candy, he wrote different items on slips of paper and put it in some of the eggs. So with candy, coins, and “duds” (eggs that were empty!), the kids also got messages like “Mommy and daddy love you,” Scripture pertaining to God’s love for us, and “coupons” for things like a trip to the zoo, an ice cream cone, kisses, and park play dates. Interestingly, S. got most of those eggs. I am sure that E. will be more than happy to redeem them for her though. Tyler did a really great job being creative and keeping the kids guessing on what would fall out of their eggs!

Easter dinner among friends
Two sets of friends came over last night to celebrate Easter with us over dinner. It was a nice, relaxing time. I am really thankful that we have found good friends so quickly after moving here. While I neglected to take many pictures, Tyler did snag a couple of the table and his fantastic ham. (Check out my great, new napkins! Aren’t they cute?)

How many offers?!?
Our Realtor called today with news of the house we put an offer on. It was on the market for only one week and received 47 offers. Was the selling Realtor exaggerating?!? I mean, that is almost 7 offers a day! Well, our Realtor didn't really know, but he did know that they didn't accept our offer. Bummer. In Tyler’s words: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away—blessed be the name of the Lord. (Well, maybe I should have said “In Job’s words ...”.) Bottom line is that we are sad, but over it. Tyler has already scheduled for us to look at another home tomorrow morning at 9 am. This one is only 5 minutes from where we currently live and super cute ... on the outside at least. It is always a crapshoot when they don’t post pictures of the inside of the home. You really never know what you are going to get!

Tyler went to the leasing office today and received wonderfully unexpected news for us pertaining to our current living situation. We thought our lease was up May 11th-ish, but it ends up that it isn't up until May 31st! The even better news is that we don't have to sign a new lease for a year, 6 months, or even 3 months. They are willing to work with us for what we need, since we are looking to buy a home. I was so thankful and grateful! Praise God for a flexible leasing office! Now, we just need to find that new place to live ... !