Feeling kind of "frowny"

Yesterday, Clay was drawing on his hand. I asked him why he was writing on his hand. He showed me his hand (which had a sad, frowny face on it) and said, "Because I'm sad, because I miss Daddy." Poor little guy... :(

The past several days have been kind of a bummer. We all miss Neil (and he really misses us too). It stinks being apart, and knowing that it's going to be a while before we are all back together again.

Well, last Friday morning, when Neil left for California, we were all pretty sad. It wasn't very easy saying goodbye, realizing it would be about 3 weeks before we get to see each other again (for Easter & Conference weekend), and even then, it will only be for a weekend. Then Neil will be gone for couple more weeks until we get together for another weekend after that (for Neil's and PJ's birthdays). Hopefully by then, we'll have an offer on our house and will be ready to move!

Well, Friday after Neil left, I took the 3 older kids to school, and then Clay & I ran to Walmart to get a few groceries. When we walked in, the sweet little "Grandma Betty" (one of the door greeters), asked Clay how he was doing today. Clay looked at her with a sad face & gave her TWO Thumbs DOWN! She asked what was wrong & I told her that daddy had just left for California to start a new job. She asked where in California & how long until we would see him again. Well...I'm a big bawl baby & don't do very well at hiding my feelings (especially because he had just barely left), so then I started to cry and felt like a fool! I pulled it together & finished my shopping. Then a little while later, Clay and I went to the elementary school to have lunch with Tessa & Jonah. Again, the secretary in the front office asked Clay how he was doing, and Clay again gave her a sad face with TWO thumbs DOWN! She asked what was wrong I told her again. It breaks my heart to see my kids so sad.

PJ & Tessa were both doing pretty good Friday morning, but by evening time, Tessa got really sad & was crying because she missed daddy (and we go through it about once or twice a day--in the morning and/or at night). And Jonah has also had a hard time each day with a few tears here & there at home and at school (I talked with the kids teachers so they know what's wrong if the kids get sad during the day). It really stinks!

Well, we've been trying to stay busy. Jonah had a birthday party to go to last Friday right after school until about 8:30 at night. They played at the kid's house for a while and then went to Chuck-E-Cheese. I also let PJ & Tessa invite some friends over to our house as well, for pizza, Wii games, & hanging out. And Clay has been able to have a couple play dates as well.

We've had a lot of showings of our house over the past month. On average, we've had around 3-5 showings each week. Our realtor has said that it's showing a lot more than many other homes in the area, because we have it priced so low (it's listed for $83 per square foot, but we bought it at $100 per square foot--we are losing about $40,000 in it, from when we bought it 5 years ago--sad, but that's the housing market right now, and at least Neil's new company is covering the difference. ) Our realtor has also said that there are a couple people that want to come back to see it for a 2nd time, but I'm not sure when. So...hopefully we'll have an offer on our home SOON, and we'll be able to start getting everything ready to move!!