So its been a pretty crazy week. The agent of our dream home started contacting Jake recently to see if we were still interested in the home and might be able to work things out. Jake told him that trying to get the sell of our home and the buy of that home to work out had just been too frustrating- so the only way we'd be interested is if we could work out a lease to own option that would allow us time to sell our home without the stress of aligning the two contracts. Surprisingly he said that the seller was willing to consider it. However, her lease amount was the same of what ownership payments would be - which would not make it easy for us to take time selling our home, and just didn't really make any sense. However, she also said she'd offer owner financing for a purchase- this made more sense because she would require less of a down payment that would could afford with savings and then have more money left over after the sell of our home. Through all of this I really didn't get excited- I just was so burnt out after our last efforts to make things work that I didn't want to get my hopes up again. Jake however, for the first time, was getting really excited. We decided to get a couple of friends who said they'd be interested in renting out the basement over to check it out, and to give ourselves another chance to see the home and see how we felt.

Honestly, I thought I'd go and not like the home as much as I'd remembered- but I fell in love with it all over again and as we spent more time there- found MORE things I really liked about it- and our friends thought the basement was great for renting as well. Before I knew it we were writing up an offer with owner financing details. That was Wednesday night- and we put a Friday by 9pm response time- but told the agent he'd have to contact us by cell phone since we were leaving for Rexburg the next morning and wouldn't be back until Saturday.

We went to Rexburg for Jake's brother's graduation. We set tried to put thoughts of the home out of mind and just enjoy times with the family. It really was a fun visit- but we were frustrated when 9pm on Friday rolled around and we'd heard nothing from the agent. Jake sent him a text asking what the status was. He responded apologetically that he didn't have a formal counter offer together but that we should call him the next day and he'd have the details for us. We were upset that they hadn't responded within the set time frame- we'd told them we wouldn't be back till Saturday, but we'd still expected to hear on Friday. We weren't too suprised that she wanted to counter- we'd figured she'd want to negotiate the interest rate and/or down payment- but we were shocked when on Saturday we got word from the agent that she'd decided she no longer wanted to offer owner financing! This lady apparently has lots of money, and lots of people telling her how they think she should manage it, and she can never seem to make her own decisions, or stick with them for that matter. Here she'd come to us with the owner financing option- and now she was backing out! The agent tried to be positive by saying, "but she is willing to lower the price on the home even more if you want to fin a conventional loan, though she's not willing to make it contingent on the sale of your home." Sorry- we're not falling for that. With our luck we'd go through all the trouble of finding a buyer for our home again just to have her say, "Oh, I'm not really willing to sell it for that price after all."

We're trying to say, "Let's just forget about it. It's obviously not going to work." But its hard when we both love the home and neighborhood so much. It's hard because we feel like if we're going to stay here we should spend more money fixing up and paying off this home- but neither of us really feels that committed to staying here and so then we think well- maybe we continue to save money to try and buy that home- but yet it just never seems to work out. Jake said he wishes it would just sell so we couldn't even think about it anymore. I can't honestly say that yet... I still keep hoping maybe its just about things falling into the right time/place. Argh. That's that I guess.

On to a few best things:

1. A relatively smooth road trip. Thanks to a new movie and a plug in video game, the boys did well- and we are so thankful for a dependable car that can make these trips without any problems.

2. A random bed and breakfast. ALL the hotel rooms in Rexburg were sold out even a couple months before the graduation- I somehow found a little "bed and breakfast" that was just 4 miles south of Rexburg for a reasonable rate. I was nervous what it would be like since it sounded like it was just a couple rooms in the basement of an elderly man's home- but it was surprisingly roomy and nice - much more welcoming than a hotel room would have been. It was a little hard to leave the "party" at Rick and Jenny's where everyone else was crashing (on the floor and couches) but it made for much better sleeping for all (even them- apparently Kiley got sick and was throwing up during the night, so I'm sure it would have been worse if there were two more kids there waking up at random moments during the night). Especially since I and the boys do not do well sleeping in new places. I really do count it a tender mercy that I somehow found this place.

3. Temples. We were able to visit the new Rexburg temple grounds. It is a beautiful temple that looks so pretty up on the hill all lit up at night. Its amazing to me how each temple carries the same special feeling/spirit.

4. Sunny weather uppon our return. Rexburg was cold, with a biting wind- so it was nice to come home to warmer sunny weather!

5. Educations. Congrats to Rick on finishing his degree. He's taking a year off and then headed to medical school. I'm thankful for my own education, for the LDS colleges, as well as so many other great schools across this nation. Our public schools may be struggling in comparison to the world- but our private universities are always the best in the world!