Break's Over...Time to Take Over

Let me explain my ridiculously long absence: I just couldn't put my fingers to the keyboard.
In my head, I was still thinking about writing blog posts, composing great stories to tell, coming up with ideas to share...but I have had zero motivation to "commit pen to paper" (as they say). Every day for the past two weeks I would try and convince myself that I should write something, anything! But, as you can see, it has taken me a while to regain the desire to post.
So much has happened that after a few days, I knew that it was kinda going to be a chore to catch up on all my exciting life events...which resulted in more postponing, which resulted in even less desire to post. Catch 22.
So here I am with the summary of a lifetime:
I left off on May 15th describing some hard workouts that I was completing. Those actually turned out to be part of the 'downfall' resulting in my absence. On May 19th, a DAY OFF after successfully completing all of Cliff's awesome training sessions, I got sick! 'Seriously' sick. "Lying in bed all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday moaning and groaning" sick. It was slightly depressing to be ill and lying in bed instead of out completing another round of training to prepare for World Championships next month...but I have finally learned to listen to my body and give it rest when its begging. Instead of training through the coughing, sneezing, and full-body-ache, I drank tons of liquid, got lots of sleep, and watched my fair share of TV!
I might have been misleading above when I said that I was unable to put fingers to the keyboard for the 10 days since my last post...please don't think that I didn't touch a computer that whole time! I also might have lost the desire to write blog posts because I was spending SO much time in front of the computer that I just couldn't look at the screen anymore. What was I doing on the computer you might be wondering?
HOUSE HUNTING!! Yep, searching through a million homes on the computer and driving around Clermont looking for "For Sale" signs! My Mom and I spent seven hours in the car on May 16th going up and down EVERY little street in Clermont that was within a 5-10 minute drive from the NTC. It was absolutely exhausting...and also might have led to the serious sickness I experienced the next week...but we found a ton of great options. I contacted a real estate agent and we arranged to 'see' a few of my favorite homes the next week.
That was last Friday. I went back to Clermont with my Mom, met the Realtor, and we got to tour the insides of six houses that met all my criteria and were within my price range. Every one of them were really nice and would be worth every penny of the asking price (if you haven't seen the news, asking prices are pretty low these days!). I was excited to go home, consider the pros and cons of each home and hopefully put in an offer on my favorite next week.
Before we left Clermont again, my Realtor, Kim, convinced me to stop by her office and go through an online list of all the homes that met my criteria, just in case we missed a good one. So she "click, click, clicked" through the list and I "yes" or "no'ed" all the listings. We weren't too far down the list when an interesting listing popped up. One that neither of us had seen before (remember, I'd been looking online for a WEEK and had seen most all of the homes for sale in the area). I could tell that something was up by her reaction to the basic information on the screen...listing price, square footage, location, room dimensions, etc. She excitedly told me that we HAD to get back in the car and go see this house...after checking out the information, I agreed.
The home had been on the market for less than a day. It was a foreclosure, bank owned. The asking price was HALF of what it's worth! The square footage is DOUBLE what I was looking for! I toured the house around 3:30pm on May 23rd. I walked through the huge living room with a brick fireplace. I climbed the stairs to the master suite on the second floor. I hopped in the Jacuzzi-tub in the master bath. I looked out on lake Minnehaha from the second-floor balcony. I checked out the two guest bedrooms and guest bathroom. I ran my hands along meter after meter of counter top in the kitchen and looked out on the tiled dinning room. I walked out the sliding glass doors onto the screened-in-porch. I ran circles in the two-car garage. I looked up at the six enormous oak trees that shade the home from the front and back yards.
I made an offer at 5:00pm on May 23rd! I will know on Friday, May 30th if I'm buying this home!
Please excuse my prolonged blogging absence to the fact that my mind has been VERY preoccupied with this HUGE event that is taking place in my life!

Front view of the house.

Back view of the house.