M.I.A.

I'm so sorry I fell off the face of the Earth!! I have never gone so long between blogs--even through vacations and rampant stomach flu--and I don't even have a good excuse. I guess have been overwhelmed lately with our ridiculous real estate transaction that has been going on for ONE YEAR!!

It seemed this past week we were getting much closer to a deal. Don went off to have some strategic meetings with Mr. Howell and we had lots of meeting with our realtor--all of which left me mentally exhausted and unable to come up with a reasonable blog.

See, Mr. Howell--after ONE YEAR of negotiating with us--which included offers, counter-offers, contracts, lawyers, realtors, appraisers, contingencies, our house for sale, our house for rent, endless hours of cleaning, open houses, baking thousands of cookies for that home-style aroma, storage, and lots of crying and screaming--has decided (when we were this/close to a deal mind you) that he wants to look into selling his house to a charity so he can get some kind of tax deduction!?!

Does that make sense to anyone? Can you get a tax deduction if you sell, not donate, your property to a charity? It makes NO sense to me. But, in any case, we are on pins and needles waiting for him to make a decision. It is very stressful. Adding to the stress is the fact that our house is still on the market (even though we don't technically have a deal now) and I still have to constantly keep it clean--not easy with five kids and ten thousand animals--and will soon be even harder as today is the last day of school.

So...just a little stressed out here!

Actually, it feels good to vent--though I'm sure it doesn't make for a very interesting blog read...sorry!

I'll leave you with a pic of Undercover Pickle and the promise of being a better blogger!
Also, could everyone please cross their fingers that Mr. Howell takes our offer!?! Thanks!