I never thought I'd be complaining about how cool the weather is. Normally where I live, in Southern California, it is at least 95 degrees right now, and things are warming up as we head into "Fire Season". Last year at this time we were cleaning ash off of our cars as the numerous brush fires were going strong.

Not so this year. I even had to apologize to one of our foreign exchange students about the unusual cloud cover every morning. What we call "June Gloom" had leaked over to July, and even to August. The trips planned to the beach were called off, and sweatclothes were the uniform of the day. I complained constantly to my husband, asking him why we were getting cheated out of our summer.

I know that just because I didn't like the cool weather, it will be a blazing summer next year. Me and my big mouth. So forgive me, Southern California, for the record-breaking Summer of 2011!

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I was busy doing the mom/realtor thing the other day when I stopped to check one of my social media sites. To my horror, a couple who I had been helping search for homes on an informal basis had posted the following update: "We are excited to put our house up for sale as we have put a bid in on another!".

WHAM! Right between the eyes! I couldn't believe it. I was in denial. The last time I had talked with them they were going to stay put for a while, then possibly start looking again in the Fall. But this is Summer. Hello! Why was I left out of the picture?

Then my husband comes home after a day of trying to sell his company's products. He's not a happy camper because one of his accounts asked him to specifically write an order, then changed their mind after he left, letting somone else know that my husband had "written an incorrect order", so he's now behind the 8 ball with his sales numbers.

Why are people not loyal? Why do they say one thing and do another? Why can't we all be transparent and up-front? We could research this for the rest of our lives and never get a concrete answer. I don't operate that way. I'm for truth and no hidden agenda. Surely there is some small town in this vast country of ours where the residents are nice to each other.

Dream on Heather!

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Do you remember that movie "Forrest Gump"? How slow and deliberate Forrest was in everything he did? I had a chance for that this past holiday weekend when my husband and I drove up north to visit his parents.

I'm not good with long drives (this one was 7 hours), so I kept myself busy by surfing the internet, completing some RE stuff, and chatting with a relative for about 2 hours. The next thing I know, I'm there! Then I have to start over again and try and unwind. We were in a small town in California's Gold Rush country, and the sky was this amazing shade of blue. We could actually see stars at night, and the quiet was deafening.

But I was still anxious. My Blackberry didn't get any internet service, as well as my laptop. I had to bug my husband to drive to the only Starbuck's for miles around so I could check my e-mails. I just knew someone was going to e-mail me about wanting me to sell their 5 million dollar estate overlooking Malibu. NOT!

How can we be so used to going 90 miles an hour that when we get a chance to "Gump It" we can't?

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I was stuck in traffic the other day, driving back from showing some houses to a nice couple and their daughter. It was kind of cool, so I had my window cracked a bit, and heard it before I saw it. A loud screech and then a seagull swooped down and almost hit my windshield!

Well, I slammed on my brakes and then realized that I had other cars following close behind me. They slammed on their brakes also, and I could see one of them waving at me, but not using all of their fingers. The light ahead had turned red, so I was able to catch my breath and calm my racing heart.

The instigator of all this, or his twin brother, flew onto a light standard across the street and just squatted down, unaware or not caring that he (if it was a he) had almost caused an accident. At first I was angry at the seagull, then wondered why it was flying around 15 miles from the nearest ocean. The kicker to this was that it (or he or she) was perfectly content sitting on that light pole watching all the crazy humans stuck in traffic.

For the first time in my life, I wished I was that seagull. Our lifestyles (at least here in Southern California) tend to force us humans to keep up with "it". "It" may be a big house, fancy car, well-paying job or whatever we idolize. I arrived safely at home without any more near-misses, and told my husband about it. He told me to read a book called "Johnathan Livingston Seagull", and it would give me better insight to my crazy day.

I'll have to read it later - I don't have the time right now................................

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I was reading in the newspaper the other day about a couple that lives in a neighboring city who won $233 million in the lottery. First I was jealous of their good fortune, then I started thinking about all the stories about prior winners who later wished they had never won. What's wrong with this picture?

My husband told me a story of a good friend from his high school days who won the lottery. There were 3 sons in the family, and the mom would buy three lotto tickets each week and hand them out. My husband's friend was a winner! The family was happy until the other 2 brothers insisted that the winning brother split up his winnings. He didn't like being forced to do anything, so he refused. It split up the family. The other 2 brothers still don't talk to him. This happened 30 years ago!

Money can buy us many things. It can pay off debt. It can buy a house for a loved one. It can send your parents on their dream vacation. It can buy the time for you to do the things you've always wanted. You can set up a charity and bless others. But it won't buy peace of mind. Only a relationship with our Creator is truly "priceless".

So I will try hard not to be jealous the next time I read about another multi-million lottery winner who picked the right numbers. And thank God He picked me.................

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Bear with me as I share an amazing passage from a small little devotional I have found to be such a source of encouragement and thought it worthy of passing on...

Often it is simply the answers to our prayers that cause many of the difficulties in the Christian life. We pray for patience, and our Father sends demanding people our way who test us to the limit, "because... suffering produces perseverance" (Rom 5:3) We pray for a submissive spirit, and God sends suffering again, for we learn to be obedient in the same way Christ "learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb.5:8).

We pray to be unselfish, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice by placing other people's needs first and by laying down our lives for other believers. We pray for strength and humility, and "a messenger of Satan" (2Cor. 12:7) comes to torment us until we lie on the ground pleading for it to be withdrawn.

We pray to the Lord, as His apostles did, saying, "Increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5) Then our money seems to take wings and fly away; our children become critically ill; an employee becomes careless, slow and wasteful; or some other new trial comes upon us, requiring more faith than we have ever before experienced.

We pray for a Christlike life that exhibits the humility of a lamb. Then we are asked to perform some lowly task, or we are unjustly accused and given no opportunity to explain, for "he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and ... did not open his mouth" (Isa. 53:7).

We pray for gentleness and quickly face a storm of temptation to be harsh and irritable. We pray for quietness, and suddenly every nerve is stressed to its limit with tremendous tension so that we may learn when He sends His peace, no one can disturb it.

Yes, we pray to be like Jesus, and God's answer is "I have tested you in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10) Will your courage endure or your hand be strong?" (Ezek. 22:14) "Can you drink the cup?" (Matt. 20:22).

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance and every trial as being straight from the hand of our loving Father; to live "with him in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 2:6), above the clouds, in the very presence of His throne; and to look down from glory on our circumstances as being lovingly and divinely appointed. (Streams In The Desert)

May you be encouraged today and remember we are in the palm of HIS hands!

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Now that we're assured of living in our house for at least the next 6 years after our loan mod came through, we took a step of faith and signed up to host foreign exchange students. There is a program at the local college where students from all over the world come to our city to learn how to speak English better, and become "immersed" in American culture (which can be scary!).

So Elaine arrived last Saturday from Seoul, Korea for her 3 month stay. Sweet girl, speaks some English already, and can write some too. It's her first time in the good old US of A, so the family is on their best behavior. It was exciting to learn that she is a Christian, so we don't have to worry about being caught witnessing to her (that's a big No No). She has been to church twice with us, and thoroughly enjoyed herself, even though she had a hard time understanding all of the messages.

I guess the best way to "witness" to others is to just be who we are. She ate her first taco the other night, and loves spicy food. Gets along well with our dog (who gets along well with her). Big plus: we all eat dinner together around the table, cell phones turned off, TV turned off, and.......we talk! Neat idea. Can't wait for student #2 to arrive tomorrow night.

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Since my last post when I shared our success at getting a loan modification, some plans have changed. Instead of figuring out where to move when we sold our house, now my husband and I are going to have a foreign exchange student stay in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. The program is through Whittier College, and since we live about 2 blocks away, the person running the program was very excited to have us on board. So while we are waiting for our first boarder, there are a few things around the house that we decided to do, since we will be here a while longer (the good Lord willing).

One of those was to trim our 75 foot tall, 100 year-old pecan tree in the back yard. It's been needing a good thinning-out for quite a while, so now seemed like the time. My husband hired some guys to do it, and when they arrived I kind of laughed to myself. The "climber", for want of a better word, was about 65 years old, 5'5" tall, and must have weighed 150 soaking wet. He threw his big orange rope up into the branches, clipped a chainsaw to a hook on his belt, and proceeded to shimmy up the tree.

I must admit that I was afraid for him - it's a BIG tree! He wore a safety harness, but as far as I was concerned he was cheating death every step he took. He would stop at a spot, unhook the chainsaw, start it up and proceed to trim away certain branches (I told him to thin the tree, not top it). He did this numerous times, quickly and with much agility. His teenage son was on the ground to fill up the chainsaw when the gas got low, and I asked him if his father had ever fallen. He said no, but his uncle had taken a dive facefirst into some concrete years ago. And another relative had sawn off his pinky just last month.

I prayed that the man would not fall; I prayed that my homeowner's insurance had a high limit; and I prayed that I would have faith like that little man climbing around my tree.

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Wow! It really happened! We were approved for our loan modification. After my husband was laid off almost a year ago, we've been trying to stay in our house and work out a lower mortgage payment. It's been a long, tedious, stressful process, but finally VICTORY! Does going through the process make us an expert? I don't know, but if you need any advice, e-mail me.

Our loan rate has been modified to 3.2% for 2 years, then after that it raises up 1 percent for the next two years. After that, we don't care! We are just happy to be one of the few that has made it through the process. It was totally the Lord - we know that. This will give us breathing room until the real estate market straightens out (which we know it will).

We are one step closer in our journey to live on 10% and give away 90%, and we are excited!

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Hello Everyone - Long Time/No Post. I can't claim being overwhelming busy, but I can claim being busy with life. It looks like most of the rainstorms here in Southern California are over, and the hillsides are green and the weeds are high. My husband and I are always talking about moving to a less-populated place, somewhere where we can get out of the fast-paced world of what is our life.

We also realized that the main culprit in our dilemma is.................US! We buy into the world around us and let it affect our way of life and well-being. You know what I mean - if we are waiting longer than 1 minute in the drive-thru at the local Burger Queen, we get antsy and upset, and it affects the rest of the day! We've been programmed to think that a 30 minute oil change/lube is awesome. I want them to take their time and do the job right.

I don't watch TV too much anymore. But I will rent a movie and watch it with Scott when we feel like it. I will sit down and read a book when I feel like it. I try and make arrangements with my clients to show property when it's not going to make me rush off and get stressed out driving somewhere without getting a speeding ticket! I'm slowing learning to "be still" and know that God is in control.

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