6:03 p.m.

At 6:03 this evening, I sent an email to a friend. It was a rambling account of my afternoon, interspersed with questions about her life. The closing paragraph included the following tidbit:

"You’d never know my house was pristine at 2:00 p.m. It looks like a bomb went off now. Trying to keep ornery kids entertained is messy. I have cracker bits stuck to my feet, which is rather disgusting."

A few minutes later Garry walked in the door with three bags of groceries from Albertsons. I asked if he had gotten my voice mail...I needed one more thing. He frowned and checked his phone -- and it was dead. So he plugged it in to charge. I pulled dinner out of the oven.

At 6:15 p.m., Garry's cell phone rang. I could tell it was a Realtor. I held my breath, hoping it was good news from one of the promising showings we'd had this week. Then Gavin smacked his forehead on the edge of the counter and started screaming. I picked him up and ran from the room.

A moment later, Garry quietly opened the door to my bedroom, where I was hiding with Gavin and the other boys, who were wrestling/fighting on my messy bed. He looked at me and said, "Showing."

"For whom?" I asked, hoping it was a repeat customer.

"New clients. With an agent. In 30 minutes. Can we do it?"

"WHAT????"

We all sprang into action, a whirlwind of vacuums and rags and clutter-clearing hands. We sent Zach and Tyler downstairs to deal with puzzles and toys and cracker crumbs. Garry got to work on our bedroom and the bathrooms where the kids had just bathed. I put away groceries, cleaned up the dinner prep mess, and put our hot casserole in the fridge. Gavin ran around like a crazy person and Lexi, thankfully, watched the scene in amusement from the exersaucer in the dining room.

Somehow we made it. Twenty minutes after the agent's first call, I was mopping a few key areas on the floor and the agent called again. He was minutes away. Sweating, we loaded the kids in the van. I drove straight to McDonald's, and Garry stayed behind to let them in.

They stayed thirty minutes. As the agent and his clients left, he shook Garry's hand and said, "I'm glad we connected. We'll be in touch."

Will these be our buyers? If they are, we have a great story to tell!