Whoa.

Whoa. That's all I can say about this week. Just thinking about it makes me tired. Where to start?

On Sunday, I had a rare Sunday lia sophia party booked. It went well -- but those are a little exhausting for a little introvert like me -- all that time spent around lots of people, meeting so many strangers, feeling responsible for the direction and success of the party/show. It just seemed like a crazy day, rushing off to the party after being at church for a few hours that morning. Doesn't quite feel like Sunday. But, I am so grateful for the wonderful hostesses that I have -- without them, of course, this business wouldn't work. So, I am thankful for bookings whenever they come -- even on Sundays!

I got back from the show Sunday evening, had a late dinner with my hubby, and we attempted to clean the house for our meeting with our realtor(s) the next morning. Yup, Monday morning our realtors came over (it's a team of two guys -- one is the broker/head of the company, the other is an assistant who helps him with the specifics and particulars of his clients) to do our initial meeting/walk through before putting our house on the market. We wanted to get their input before we do much work to "fix up" the place for a sale. It was a good meeting, and it was super helpful to hear their thoughts regarding which areas of the house we should be focusing on in our "fixing up" (i.e. what is actually going to help the place sell, and what probably wouldn't be worth it). But, we came away from the meeting feeling a little overwhelmed and, honestly, panicked. They seemed optimistic that our house could sell (and we pray that they are right), but they strongly urged us to put our house on the market in May (yes...a MONTH from now), as that is the time when most people seem to be searching for new homes. However, Drew still has to be at Ft. Carson at least through the end of May for work. So, we are faced with a couple of hard options. We can put our house on the market in early May, and risk selling ourselves out of our place to live before we can actually move. Or we can wait until late May or June to list our home, but we may just miss that window of greatest opportunity. Selling ourselves out of our home would not be a very troublesome prospect (though inconvenient), if not for our pets. Where do we go with two pets (one being a rowdy 100 lb. lab -- much too large for places that allow "small pets") to live for just a month or two??? We also have to take into consideration a trip that we already have planned (plane tickets booked, etc...) for the first week of June. It is a trip to celebrate our 4th anniversary, and our celebration of Drew being home. We didn't do any sort of trip right away because Drew was saving all of his leave for terminal leave, so he wasn't going to have the time off to do a trip any earlier, except for a couple of long weekends to catch up with family and friends. And, then there is all of the work that needs to be done -- we are strongly considering redoing our upstairs bath, fixing a slight sag in the garage door and painting it, working on the landscaping around the house, fixing a deck that needs quite a bit of repair, getting some work done on the fireplace, doing some painting, etc etc....all in a month's time. Seriously -- the list of "little" things to be done is quite long, but you need to do what you need to do to be a competitive seller in this market. All of this, and a little more that I haven't included here, is why we came away from the meeting feeling so overwhelmed. And, we've only gotten to Monday.

Tuesday was a little easier -- just an appt. to finally have our taxes done. We came away with a whopping $13.00 refund. We're still trying to decide where to spend that puppy. Hey, I guess when your income isn't taxable for the year, you also don't get much back in the form of a refund. Ah, well. After that, we got right to work, pricing some of the home improvements that need to be done, and trying to organize our thoughts on the matter in the form of lots and lots of lists.

Wednesday -- I (Suzy) had my routine dental appt. I've had a pesky tooth issue for about 3 or 4 years now. Basically, I've just had dental pain for that whole time. I've been seeing the dentist for routine cleanings, and they've been trying to fix the problem. There is a tooth that I had to have filled when we first moved out here in 2005. I had no pain before then, but x-rays showed a cavity developing. So, I had it filled, but had quite a bit of pain afterward -- for months. So, I went back to the dentist to tell him about it, and he decided it needed to be re-filled, because it was possible that something had gone wrong with the filling. So, I had it filled a second time. But, that apparently didn't take either, because I still had pain. I just put up with it for a while, though, because I was tired of dealing with the dentist. We moved. I got a new dentist on the side of town where we now live, and mentioned the continuing pain to him about 2 years ago. He decided to re-fill it again (yes, the third filling in one tooth), since he had not done the work on it himself the first two times. He wanted to make sure it wasn't just a crummy job done on the filling. With that filling done, the pain still didn't subside. So, they went ahead and scheduled me for a root canal. I had that done back in July of '08. The pain has only increased since then. I kept going back to the dentist over and over again, telling them that it was still hurting, and I still couldn't chew with that side of my mouth. They kept filing the crown down, thinking the tooth was simply too large, and it was rubbing the tooth above it, causing pain. So, during my dental appt. yesterday, I mentioned that the pain had gotten quite bad -- I couldn't just put up with it anymore. They took a picture of the tooth (the first since the day of the root canal), and found a very large abcess surrounding the better part of the tooth. So, the root canal didn't take either. They gave me the bad news that there is just no way to save the tooth at this point -- it's going to have to be extracted. They gave me two options for replacements-- the recommendation from my dentist is to get a dental implant (thousands of dollars that insurance generally doesn't cover), or the second option is a bridge, which insurance does generally cover part of, but is not a permanent fix like an implant, and will have to be replaced every 10 years or so. In addition, a bridge actually does more damage to your mouth, as they have to file down (ruin) two perfectly good teeth or either side of this one to fit it. Big decisions. Big financial impact at a time when that is really hard to swallow (selling a home can be expensive -- and we're planning to move to an area where home prices are even more expensive than they are here). Has anyone out there ever had a bridge or implant? I would love to hear your insight, if so. And PS...Drew is having his last wisdom tooth extraction on Monday, so we might both be out of commission next week.

And, now, it is Thursday. I am enjoying not having anywhere to be this morning. At least the little things that have to be done today can be done from home. Need to call the insurance company, call the dentist, submit a lia sophia show order, finish cleaning the office (which I am SO excited that we actually got cleaned out yesterday -- there's just a little more organizing for me to do today, and it will be DONE!), and other little things. Life sure has been coming at us hard and fast lately, but I know that God will see us through this season, as well, and will give us the strength and the mind to handle it all.

Thanks for reading my long, rambling post. Normally I try to keep it shorter, but maybe this post was more of a post to think through everything myself?? Anyway -- that's life for now.