Congratulations to Kim of Rainy Day Diamonds, the winner of my Blog Hop 08 prize.

I know there were some curious commenters wondering what I meant by, "Something that smells good. Something that reads good. Something that drinks good. And something that looks good. Four good things."

It's not okay to hit someone with glasses!

That's what ClayGuy told the Comedian earlier today.

I just had to mention that it was my oldest son who came up with the B bunny that I have in my header. I was teaching the Comedian about html and had written Bunny Trails on the whiteboard. Ever the doodler, ClayGuy comes along and turns my B into a bunny. I just loved it and decided to recreate it in Photoshop Elements.

I had already created a header for myself a long time ago, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. Once he doodled the bunny, I knew that was it.

I love watching my kids' creativity grow and flourish {insert big smile here}.

Sorry to be so brief and late (or late and brief, chronologically speaking), but I do have a winner for the BlogHop 08 mystery prize:

Kim at Rainy Day Diamonds is the winner of my four good things giveaway. Now, she doesn't know that she won. So unless she shows up over here before I email her, it will remain unknown.

I also don't have pix yet to post of the good things. But I will. Today's nap (and I NEVER take naps) consumed a useful part of my day. Off to my sister's for her birthday, so it's looking like tomorrow. Then I can email Kim, post photos, and mail goodies to her.

In the last two days, God has just blown me away with His grace, love, and kindness towards me.

As some of you know, we're house hunting. We've been house hunting for 6 months. We've made yet another offer on a house (offer #7). However, at the same time that we made this offer, hubby's income went down - significantly. His employer decided to pay him differently. So he got the smallest check he's had in a long time last week. Now we have this offer out there and if they accept, we have to get an inspection done fairly soon, plus an appraisal.

On Monday, I was downloading our bank account information into MS Money. It wasn't pretty. Pay day was a week and a half away and things were looking bleak. Huge sigh. Our realtor calls to let us know that it looks like the bank is planning to accept our offer. With a couple of changes. One being that they want the inspection date moved up. Meaning we need to pay for an inspection, with money we don't have, sooner. Bigger sigh.

Our realtor received a worksheet for the counter proprosal. Since we decided to move forward, they'll need to send an official form. One that can be signed. We're still not sure how this will all come together. Still not under contract, but moving in that direction. I put a call into our lender to update them on hubby's income.

Great & Mighty God Thing #1:
It turns out that our loan approval was already based on hubby's basic income - without the extra hours for which he is no longer paid. His decreased income had absolutely no effect on the amount for which we're already approved. Worried for nothing.

Still stressing about how on earth we're going to make it to next pay day. Hubby's doing some work for a guy this weekend and will be paid then, but that was still a ways off. It's really not looking so good. My van's down to a quarter tank of gas, my sister's birthday is tomorrow, we have less than a gallon of milk (we go through 4-5 a week), and on it goes.

Great & Mighty God Thing #2:
I checked the account on the bank's website this morning and it was off, significantly, from what I showed in MS Money. If the rent check had come through, there shouldn't have been as much left as was shown. If it hadn't come through, we were in big trouble. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Then I remembered that I was working with MS Money the other day, not the bank's site.

I opened our file and discovered 3-4 checks that had been entered twice. The money was taken out twice. We weren't in the hole anymore! We could actually make it to pay day without selling any blood. Praise God!

While I want the bank that's selling the house we're trying to buy to come through pretty quickly, cause we'll have an August 15th closing date, if it all comes together, I really wanted to put off the inspection until next week. Like on pay day. It's hard to be anxious and drag your feet all at the same time.

Great & Mighty God Thing #3:
Our realtor called this afternoon and guess what he had in his hot little hands on his computer in a pdf file? The inspection done by the previous buyers who had a contract on the house. They GAVE it to us. For FREE. It was done by a very picky inspector and they usually cost even more than a typical inspection. And God gave it to us.

Every single thing that I have been concerned/worried/stressed about, God has TOTALLY taken care of. And in ways that I'd never have imagined. Isn't that the way He is? We can see Options A, B, C, and D. And here comes God with Option H.

I'm humbled and floored by His kindness. He's already done it all. Jesus already paid the price for my sins - past, present, and future. He's already given me a hope and a future. Yet He cares enough about me to do these amazing things in this big old house hunting adventure. I certainly don't deserve it. But it's never been about what I deserve. It's all about His love, His grace, and His mercy. Because He's God and I'm not. And He loves me in spite of me.

Okay, I'm feeling better. It's beginning to look like it ought to. Although I cannot locate all the widget codes I copied and saved somewhere on my computer. Sigh.

It's always something. (Roseanne Roseannadanna for those of you old enough to remember!)

Feeling better is not very accurate - I'm actually excited! I tweaked and fiddled with a blog template (at my secret test blog facility) and made it into something I want! I'm finally free of the standard, everyone has it, blogger template!! Not without some assistance from my sweet friend, Amy of Split Decisionz. Considering that she is a blog designer for pay, I think it's pretty awesome that she so graciously shares tutorials, answers questions, and helps people me out when I'm trying to do my own thang.

Okay, now for some housekeeping.

BlogHop 08 Update - I DO have a winner for my Blog Hop 08 contest. Please don't think I forgot. I'll have the post up tomorrow and the winner notified.

I also won a goodie myself from the Blog Hop. A Starbucks gift card (sweetness!) from Char at DigiScrap Chat!

I still have some blogs to check out, even if the party is over. And I'm bringing the accordians! Polka, anyone?

Wordless Wednesday - Some weeks I post photos here. Some weeks I post at Photo Bunny, and some weeks I post both places. Fortunately, this was a week where I only put one up at my photo blog, since I had a totally wacked out blog template here tonight. It was kinda scary. I mean I'm certainly no blog designer. Heck, I don't really know much about html, css, or even csi. So I hope you all had a chance to swing by the photoblog and check out the pretty flower. Even better would be if you knew what type of flower it is. If I have no horticulturists to help me out, I guess I'll go ask my neighbor. It's her flower after all. Well, at least I assume it is - it's in her garden.

Seems to be the season for new digs. Besides mine, check Carrie's & Robert's new looks.

I was going to ramble on some more. You know the routine. I write little to nothing, post only photos, and then suddenly become extremely verbose all in one post. That's me - all or nothing. Ever swinging wildly past that elusive place of balance, as I fly to the other end of the spectrum. So this will do for now. I put the rest of my thoughts into other posts. Future posts. For those days when I have nothing to say don't get anything posted.

In the meantime, hope you like the new look and one of these days, I'll have my sidebar cleaned up and back in shape.

Sorry - everything is all wonky and under construction. RATS!!! Just disregard this blog and go look at a cool photo. Hopefully things will be back to normal here soon.