Monday, September 21, 2009

Post Travel Hangover

I've spent the morning dealing with Post Travel Hangover, a serious condition which seems to especially affect 47-year old frail and fragile females named Becky. The only currently known cure is naps and chocolate.

Don't ask me how I know.

I also did some more organizing of Sarah's books and materials this morning and spent some time teaching. So far, the school year is coming along nicely.

Yesterday's service near Charlotte went well, although I was having a lot more trouble breathing than usual. I don't know what that was all about but I just snatched a few extra breaths between a few extra words and kept right on singin' and smilin'! My voice wasn't in the best shape either, but thankfully I was able to sing the whole concert; maybe not wonderfully, but at least I made it!

And we all know what this coming weekend holds--plenty of excitement, plenty of nervousness, and plenty of Manteo-izing.

Here's the schedule:

Friday night, we will attend a dinner at the Chairman of the Board's home. There will be a group of about twenty people for us to meet, comprising the leadership of the church (board members, youth pastor, day care director, etc.) and their spouses.

While Steve and I are doing that, Sarah will go off bowling with the youth group. When you think about it, that's a pretty scary thing for her to do but I know that she's more than up to it. She's really looking forward to meeting some of the teens in the church.

At some point on Saturday, Steve and I will meet with the drummer and the singers and rehearse a worship set for the service Sunday morning. On Saturday night, there will be a cook out for the whole church so we'll have a chance to eat, meet and greet. Of course, since people usually eat meat at a cookout, we could actually say that we'll have a chance to "eat meat, meet, and greet!" (Try saying that three times fast!)

Sunday morning, we'll sing, lead worship and Steve will preach; Sunday night, we'll do the same. And then after the Sunday night service, the congregation will vote and in the space of just a few moments, our whole future will be decided. Pretty big stuff!

Monday (if the vote goes the way we hope) we'll spend some more time looking at houses before returning home.

We got a call last Friday that someone was coming by to look at our house between 5 pm and 6 pm and so, at the appointed time, we vamoosed, vanished, and vacated the premises. When we returned to the house at 6 pm, we saw that there was still a car parked right in front of it.

Not wanting to disturb the clients, Steve drove across a nearby road and parked at a business that was closed for the night. That became our official stakeout spot since we could see the house and the car out front and know exactly when the people left.

Well, we sat there. And we sat there some more. We sat there for half an hour and the car never budged. Of course, we were excited about that, because we all know that the longer someone looks at a house, the more interested they are. Finally though, Sarah and I got kind of impatient and decided that we would put Snowy on his leash and do a reconnaissance mission, walking by the house in the most nonchalant way possible, while all the while trying to peer in the windows to see if we could spot any movement.

We strolled by the front of the house and then turned the corner and walked far enough so that we could see in the back windows. There was no sign of nothin'.

Finally, we put our heads together and decided that if we walked really close by the car parked out front, we could look through the window and see if there were any materials or papers that looked like they would belong to a realtor.

Lo and behold, on the passenger seat, we saw a manila file folder with papers inside, which looked very much like the folder our realtor had given us when we were house hunting.

Our mission had been successful. We had scoped out the situation, secured the perimeter, gathered the intel and returned to the stake-out area to report to Steve, our commanding officer.

After saluting, reporting, and climbing back into the surveillance vehicle we continued to wait. And wait some more. And as we waited, we got even more excited, because we just knew the people must really love the house since they were spending so much time in it.

Finally at about 7 pm, Steve decided that he just wasn't very sure that there was actually anybody in the house. (He had done a "reconnaissance mission" of his own and hadn't seen any movement, either.) He finally moved the van back over to our driveway, stuck his head in the back door and hollered, "Hello?"

There was not a sound. The house was empty. The house had BEEN empty since 6 pm. Or even longer.

All that excitement for nothing! All that lurking, loitering and lingering for no reason.

S
igh.

We're still not quite sure why the car would have sat in front of the house all that time; no one ever parks there unless they're coming inside so it seems odd that a miscellaneous car would just show up at the very time there was supposed to be a showing.

But there is good news! Today we got a call that the people who saw the house (obviously it was before we arrived back home at 6 pm) are interested in our house and two others; they are meeting with their realtor today to narrow down their choices!

In ten months, this is the closest we have ever gotten to anyone putting our house on their short list of possibilities. I had left out fresh chocolate chip cookies for the clients so that's probably what did it. We all know that chocolate is a powerful motivator!

Before I close, here are some pictures of Snowy on the Charlotte trip.

Snowy is no doubt lurking behind Sarah's head because he thinks that if he stays back there we won't notice him and he won't have to go to the kennel. (Actually, we were able to take him along with us this trip because we were staying with Steve's parents, not at a hotel.)


Can you tell that Snowy has a mind of his own?


Trying to control the 6-pound ball of fluffy, ferocious fury.


A little bit of Rest Area Exercise for Sarah and her canine companion.




It's kind of hard to look at that happily running dog and not smile.

You know, maybe staring at those pictures will be better treatment for my Post Travel Hangover than naps or chocolate!

Or not.

9 Had Something To Say (Just click here!):

Melanie said...

I had to laugh about your "surveillance". I would have SOOO done the same thing!!

Anonymous said...

Don't know if I can hold my breath till Monday!!! Way to go, girls! Surveillance is a wonderful, useful skill to have!

Love - Guerrina

Anonymous said...

We did that one time when our TX house was on the market. We watched from the church parking lot until we saw them leave. They weren't the right buyer for our house but we found the right one eventually.

Wow, we all have to wait a week to learn of God's plan for you. If we're all really nice, will you let us know Sunday after the vote...pretty please!?

Hope it's a great week for the Smith family with houses and jobs.

Prayers and hugs,
Connie

bearie1 said...

Will be waiting on "pins and needles" to hear how the weekend went. Hopefully you won't have to make us all wait too long.

Also anxious to see which house you pick. I've spent way too much time checking out the real estate in the Manteo area (and yes, I do have other things to do).

Hope it all goes well. Elaine

Jan said...

When my house before last was for sale, I sat on my neighbor's porch. They were in a long time. I heard them opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen. I was reeeeeeally getting excited.

But then a city maintenance truck tore up the street, parked in front of my house, and a man got out and ran into the house.

Turns out that the real estate agent had fallen on my back driveway, her face was covered in blood, and the man in the truck was her son.

She only sued us for the price of new glasses. Her insureance wouldn't pay for them, because this was the third or fourth time she'd fallen and broken them. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Jan said...

...and I DO know how to spell "insurance."

Anonymous said...

Funny! Your post made me laugh today and I really needed it! Beautiful photos of Sarah too - she's just gorgeous. (And so is Snowy!)

I know what you mean about travel. It takes everything out of me and I don't travel much these days except to work and the grocery store!

So glad to hear that Caleb was released from the hospital! Prayers for his continued recovery! Also glad to hear that you made it through the worship service, Becky. Continued prayers for you and your family too!

Sandy/Clayton

Pam said...

What happened to us exercising and losing weight together?? Glad to hear you had some interest on the house!

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