May I interrupt your regularly scheduled evening to bring you this?

As a soon-departing member of Minnesota's 6th congressional district, I'm happy to know that the friends I'm leaving behind will no longer be faced with the name Michelle Bachmann on their ballot (at least I hope she'll leave this district alone for a while).

After careful consideration – or maybe a political consultant saying, "We can no longer afford to buy you a win in this district." – Michelle is vowing not to run for re-election in 2014.

I LOVE this article from MPR news.

CLICK HERE to read the entire article.  The graph below sums it up pretty well alone.

Ahhh.  Feels good that I'll be leaving on a political high note.

Since I can remember my Nana has always looked for flowers that are "double." 

"Are those double ____ (insert flower name here)?" she wonders every summer.  I think today that I finally figured it out her double delight, and perhaps found my first flowering double.  The lilacs pictured above.

From the web:

I've been known to say that the people who are fortunate in this world – or rather the people who "have" a fortune – either are incredibly lucky or they steal.  While I would love to be lucky enough to sell our house in a timely manner, and be ever-so-lucky enough to find a dream home in our budget, my luck is never something I would bet a quarter on.  I'm such a luck-loser that I can't even win at "loser bingo" at our favorite family summer resort.

Luck counted out, a life of thievery isn't necessarily for me either.  I'm a terrible liar, have a guilty conscience and a tattle-tale of a kid.  This puts me in a tough spot.  By my own definition I will either NEVER be fortunate or I have to create another way.

In the words of musical ensemble Bright Eyes: "I'd rather be working to earn a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery."  I find this to be true, and work we are.  Jahred – more than his share wiping and saving.  Me – much of the same wiping and saving – only at home.  We're both working overtime, on overdrive, squirreling away a few dollars so we can cut our rural ties and re-plant ourselves somewhere where we can double...in joy that is.

So we've got "work" in our fortune equation.  Work and what I discovered in college to be more important than brains – "resources."  We are employing the best resources we have to find our fortune.  We are now using what we believe to be our best St. Cloud real estate resource.  Jahred was lucky to find Carlene, the resource to score him a job that will bring us into the future and I called on an old childhood friend (re-discovered on a bus stop bench in St. Paul) to be our house scout in the metro area.  We're all in with our resources, calling on each for their expertise and guidance.

So is there any room for my original two variables?  Luck and/or sticky fingers?  Absolutely.  I stand by my word that luck can be an escalator to the top and stealth can be a shortcut behind a hidden bookshelf.  While I await lady luck to show up this week, bringing a buyer and helping us to come out on top of whatever we buy, I decided to steal just a bit of joy today in the form of these double lilacs.

How did I rationalize clipping just a few from the back of someone's hedge?  Like every good thief I told myself, "They would have given them to me anyway."  Perhaps it's true.  I'd like to think that if someday I'm planted just where I need to be, if my rare, genetically mutated double lilacs would give somebody just an ounce of joy, I would tell them to clip the whole lot of them – unless by stealing them they would feel just a bit better about themselves.  Either way I'll be willing to accommodate.

Terry?  Are you still out there?  Can you start blogging again please?

This week:
Lost the sale of our house.
In Jeopardy of the home we're buying slipping to another party who wrote a purchase agreement at the same time as we did.
Listing our house with a new agent today, one with negotiating skills.

What we need:
Positive energy.  Good thoughts.  A return on all the good Karma we've been banking.
Please send us your good vibes in the next few days.  I especially need them from my girl in Australia.  (Love your videos by the way.)

We'll keep you posted.

It's come to my attention that turtles have it all figured out.  They move from place to place, water or land and bring their home right along with them.  They have no worldly possessions, a fantastic suit of armor and it's not considered rude to just curl into a ball, locking the rest of the world out.

While in the process of moving ourselves, it's not so easy as just bringing the shell on our backs.  It involves an enormous amount of communication between professionals and home-owners, each one fighting for the almighty dollar, each one holding a bit of pride and each one coming out the other side feeling like a war victim.  I wish I were a turtle today and I could migrate to my new spot in the sun.

Since there seems to be an awful lot of talking going on behind my back between lenders, realtors, buyers and sellers – conspiring, sharing personal and financial information, persuading and scheming (ok...I'm not that much of a conspiracy theorist...but they're doing something like this) – I think it's about time that I share just a few details with the people who are my true friends/fans, the people who have nothing to gain/lose from this transaction and whom I'm so excited to share the next chapter of my life with.  That's YOU.

We have a purchase agreement on our house.  Buyers are waiting to take possession towards the end of June.  While nothing is certain until we see signatures in black and white, things do look promising and we shall be heading to a new home sooner than you can say, "Axel made our dog a necklace yesterday."

What will our new coordinates be?  We have them picked out!  I'm not quite ready for the reveal because nothing is certain there either, but the city rhymes with "Garden Bills."  (Which ironically makes a lot of sense considering the yard and the price of the place.)  The house feels like a piece of 1950's paradise complete with a yard that screams "hilltop island in the sky."  We're smitten with it and I may just have to plan a "Garden Party" to celebrate my 30th Birthday this summer.

If worms make your skin crawl, you may want to hold right here...DO NOT SCROLL DOWN! 

What's so amazing about young children is that you get to watch as they learn things for the first time.  Each year, each season, although Axel has seen much of the world before, I get to explain things more in depth and watch as he processes the information – cataloging it inside the cells of his amazing brain.

This week brought spring rain.  Peaceful, gradual, soaking rain.  Out of the lawns and the cracks in the pavement our neighborhood turned into a worm farm with Axel as it's farmer.

As we made our way around the block yesterday afternoon with his two-wheeler we must have stopped more than fifty times to help the worms find soil as the streets began to dry.  It was Axel's personal mission to save the worms from sudden death by sun.

Save them he did.  Hundreds of them.  I could only watch, squeamish at first, but ultimately I ended up pointing them out for him.  If you can't beat 'em...join 'em.

On our second lap around the block, he made sure that each worm was heading underground.  If they weren't, he kindly moved them to a different spot with softer dirt.

Notice the helmet?  Yeah...it came white.  Axel saw "canvas."  Add a few Sharpies and you've got the most unique helmet on the block.  (Actually it's the only helmet on the block...which I'm quite proud of...he can decorate it all he wants!)

Sometimes your own mother can lead you to the most exciting addictions.  No...we haven't become "wine-o's" we've taken gardening to a whole new level.

Take a sneak peek into my fairy garden.  Either it's the best way to blow $100 or I'm a monkey's uncle.  One note on my particular garden...WHY THE HECK did I choose the fairy most resembling a boy?  Because I don't have enough boy in my life?  Sheesh.

My garden features one succulent, several perennials, a little green spikey guy, one bonsai tree, a wishing well, one swing, a fairy (cherub), a ceramic table and chairs, one bird bath and an array of moss and rocks.  Don't forget to Tip Toe!

It was frustrating to hear yesterday that we potentially lost the sale of our house due to a cosmetic issue with the siding on our garage.  Never mind the fact that the siding had to be pieced because we installed about $1500 worth of new Andersen windows, sheetrocked and insulated the garage...these buyers were only concerned with the 2 pieces of siding that had to be spliced to make the updates possible.

We had meant to put a piece of lattice over the splice and grow a few climbers but the weather has not yet cooperated and the showings went on...siding and all.

Today, we remedied the situation with a pallet cut in two, some weed barrier (to keep the dirt in), potting soil and plenty of annuals.  On the south side of the garage, these babies are sure to catch sun and grow.

Do I wish we could re-side the house and paint it a more becoming color?  Absolutely.  However, having played the real estate game several times, I'm quite good at the cost/benefit equation and this time we're playing the game of "Hide and Seek Siding."

Have you seen or read "The Secret?"  Written by Rhonda Byrne this movie/book was released to the public in 2006.  I watched it today after checking it out form the library (wouldn't want to invest cash in something that may be hocus pocus) and what I know for sure is that there's something to it.

"The Secret" in life, relationships, wealth, health, the world and yourself is based on the simple laws of attraction.  While I enjoyed many a philosophy class in college, I indulge in yoga whenever possible and know the meditative powers of a long run I feel like I'm more easily than ever sucked into the world of negativity and it's that negative energy that is by "law" attracting more of it.

If you haven't seen the film, or if you've seen something similar, you could consider it a pep rally reminder of what you know in your heart.  Right now, today, we are called to be grateful for what we have, visualize the exact things we want (like making an request from the kitchen of the universe), change your feelings to reflect only positivity and you will begin to attract the things you want.  The secret stresses that you don't have to know "how" you will get them, that plan isn't up to you...that is the job of the universe to rearrange itself in your favor.

It's important to get your goals out there and focus on what you want instead of giving attention to what you don't want.

I'll use my current situation as the example:

What I WAS focusing on:
My house isn't selling.
I am not living in the Minneapolis area.
I don't know where Axel will be going to school in the fall.
Will Axel get to be in a play again?

"The Secret" is clear that your current situation is not who you ARE, but who you WERE since your current life is a manifestation of the feelings in your past.

This is who I AM today:
I can visualize myself opening the door to my new home within walking distance of a park.  I can see that I will never be home because my house will simply be where our beds are and not where our life is lived.
I know that Axel will have a school for the fall and that we will LOVE it.
I am feeling positive about the money we will make on this house and I'm grateful that we put in the work needed to get top dollar from this house.
I can see Axel on stage and signing autographs.

I'm going to work on consistency with this plan, staying open to inspiring thought and having my eyes open to the opportunities that come my way.

I have to give a shout out here to someone super special who may or may not read my blog.  I read yours and your most recent post was so full of courage and grace that I'm inspired by you.  Anyone who can put that kind of spin on the breakup of a relationship deserves to tell the world about their own version of "The Secret."  Incredible things are in your future and I know that you believe it.

In other good news:
Axel learned to ride a 2-wheeler this week (I'm trying to figure out how to put the video on my blog).  Oliver can say "Uh-oh."  I have spent two days at the gym soaking my feet in the hot-tub (after hitting the treadmill of course) and not feeling guilty about it.  I have FINISHED my first entire book since Oliver was born (after starting MANY).  Jahred has 4 days at his new job under his belt and has mastered MetroTransit.