Our new home

After much searching and 2 contracts not working out on 2 other homes...we have come to terms on a house. The day was full of countering back and forth with the seller, but also full of peace. Just last week we had narrowed down our choices to 2 different houses and we had a few hesitations about each of them. This final house was a perfect blend of the 2 plus some other extras. Praising God for His mercies and provisions. So if it is God's will, this will be our new home.
It seems to be just the right place for our family as it is now and whatever God allows it to be. =)

The temporary house

I just thought I would keep it real here as an encouragement to my friend over at Storing up Treasures in Heaven (HERE). She was feeling discouraged the other day about her own personal move and it got me thinking. Moving really is one of the most difficult things. You take all your things and sort through them (which often stirs the emotions and brings back old memories of days gone by), then you put them all in boxes. And as we all know, searching for boxes is almost half the battle in itself (HERE). Moving also includes the cleaning, the fixing, the house selling, lots of inspections, saying good-bye, loading the truck and driving when you are beyond tired.

Then...when you get to your new locale...the new trials begin. The unpacking (and questioning of why you brought your JUNK with you), putting away, sorting again of your things. Painting new rooms and finding curtains for the new windows (most likely your old ones won't work in the new place) and trying to make it feel homey. Searching out to find a new doctor, hair dresser, church and not to mention getting a new drivers license. This doesn't even touch on breaking into a new group of friends (if there is room for someone new). Not to mention, just missing the feeling of just being "home" (for some reason the new home doesn't feel like home yet).

So we have completed the first part of the move. And we are still in the "can't unpack" stage and as we wait it only prolongs finishing the process. I looked around the other day and realized, we kind of live this pathetic little life right now. And I am not complaining, I am trying to encourage my friend. So for you my friends who are in the midst of moving...a tour of our place.
Everything we own is in the garage. It is packed to the top. I am actually shocked it all fit in there. We have tried to get to a few boxes but it is beyond impossible to find the right box, so it is just better to live without instead.
To show how high it is, here is Tally next to the stack. She is over 5 feet tall and the boxes tower over her.We held out a few school boxes and we are able to do an abbreviated version of school each day. That has helped make it feel more like our normal life. (I do love this beautiful table that Chuck made but finding a house that it fits in is another story).
In order to fit our boxes in the garage, we tried to put as much furniture in the house as we could. My dresser is in the eatery (breakfast nook) and we have been terrible at just dumping our stuff on top of the dresser and little black stand. I am afraid if I put the stuff in a drawer somewhere, I will lose it (note the red arrows).

The girls are camping out in the bonus room. We gave Tristen's dresser away and haven't replaced it so she has no place to put her clothes. The best place (other than the floor) is to stack them on the book shelf (the red wavy marks). The corner of the room is also just stacked with boxes.My clothing storage option is worse than Tissy's. I am still putting my clothes in a suitcase and an open box on the floor. It sure looks like I have given up all hope of trying to keep this place tidy. It is hard to tidy when you don't have the proper place to put your stuff. I also still have 2 little bags (of little gifts) from Christmas that I can't put away because I have no place to put themAnd lastly, I use a box on the floor of the bathroom to keep my "beauty products" in. How's that for trashy???

Like I said...I am not complaining, just keeping it real and poking fun at our mess. On a note of encouragement, reach out to that new family if there is one in your school, church, neighborhood or at work. See if there is a way to be a blessing to them.

Hope you enjoyed our tour...and I hope you feel a little more encouraged. =)

Salad tossed in our Goldfish container

We are trying to figure out and make do with what we have access too. I have already bummed some basics off my very sweet new friends here. We only had 2 mugs and the girls wanted hot cocoa, so I ended up borrowing 2 more mugs so they don't have to wait while I finish my coffee on those chilly mornings. And we did end up borrowing a colander so I could strain some pasta (didn't even think about how to do that until AFTER the pasta was made). I also got a pot with a lid so I can heat soup or boil water. If you haven't already figured it out, ALL of our things are packed away and are waiting until we actually move into our home before we unpack. So...it has been a little interesting on making do with what we have.

Every meal is off of paper plates. And yes I feel guilty in that (goes against the reduce, reuse, recycle idea of me being a tree hugger). We are using plastic ware (plastic silverware sounds too much of an oxymoron). And most of our meals are sandwiches (doesn't take any thing to prep that kind of a meal).

Trying to mix it up a bit I picked up a great salad kit at Trader Joe's the other day. We had sampled it at the store and it was fantastic. Spinach with pecans and blue cheese. Yum-o. I was ready to toss it up for dinner and then I realized...I have nothing to put it in. No large bowl. Not a big pot. Nothing. Then I spotted a air tight plastic container that has goldfish crackers in it. That seemed to be the best bet, so I cleaned it out and tossed our tasty salad in that Rubbermaid container. I wasn't sure it would all fit but it did. And with the lid, tossing it with the dressing was pretty easy. Actually a lot easier than in a bowl with tongs.
It has been the adventure, none the less. Living a very minimalistic lifestyle. It kind of makes me wonder...do we really need all that stuff that is packed in the garage?

The house drama continues

Well, after all those wonderful guesses with the last post. The answer to the question is... we had put the offer on the house with the acreage. And to not keep the suspense, those sellers will not budge off their price. And their asking price is more than we wanted to spend. We just don't have a peace about giving their asking price...so that means we are back to the drawing board. Back to house hunting. Back to seeking God for just the right place. We feel strongly that we will have a peace about the right place.

We put another offer on another house.

For all those out there waiting on pins and needles to find out about our house situation (I know...your dying to find out - he he). We have been all over the place and trying to seek out every situation and all of our possibilities. Not sure if we should go for...

• the house with lots of bedrooms and a basement (no windows down there)
• the house that has the huge WOW factor when you walk through the door (that would stretch our budget) and might be fancier than our tastes
• the house that needs major updating (with the small yard)
• or do we try and head just a little outside of town and get the country house on acreage (that doesn't have the sought after zip code)
• or what about a house that is a little too small (not enough bedrooms) but with the yard that has room to play (but backs up to the free way)

So...which one did we put the offer on? I wonder if my blogging friends can figure it out. No pictures to post yet and we haven't heard from the sellers if they accepted our offer.

If you already know (ah hem...family) don't tell. And as always...vagueness is appreciated in locale.

We are just not sure what to do.

We are trying to make a good decision on a house for our family and we are SO desiring to make the right choice. As for the first house we had a contract on...well...we STILL have not heard from the seller's bank that they are approving of the short sale. The only thing we know is that this could take several more months. We prayed that if it wasn't God's will, that He would shut the door. And it seems that the door is shutting.

So that means, we have spent the last week still house hunting. We are really praying for God's wisdom and discernment as we make another choice and move on. Since we are ruling out short sales, it does limit our options. Thanks for praying with us as we search out our options and seek God's direction.

Sorry the blogging has been so LAME around here lately. We are pretty bored ourselves and missing our "stuff" as it is all packed away. I do always love to know that you have stopped by anyway. =)

A Weird but Wonderful Week

Weird...recovering from the driving and packing and moving.

Wonderful...being together with not having to say good-bye at the airport again.

Weird...waiting to see if our traumatized bunny would bounce back after the long drive.

Wonderful...finally having the rabbit eat and drink and act normal.

Weird...celebrating Christmas in an odd house.

Wonderful...having new friends invite us over on Christmas afternoon.

Weird...having everything you own packed away in a box, and stacked in the garage.

Wonderful...having the hope of getting into a new house within a month.

Weird...no way to make any food (only paper plates).

Wonderful...no pressure of cooking a fancy meal for Christmas.

Weird...feeling like this isn't home yet and everything seems new.

Wonderful...Chuck has been here for 8 months and he can lead the way.

As usual, I am trying to focus on the positive. I can't find my cord to upload pictures so it may be awhile before I can post pics. But I wanted to continue to stay in touch. I have been thinking a lot about how Christmas can be both a wonderful time and a difficult time for people. And though it hasn't been difficult, it has been kind of weird around here. It is a season of waiting, and trusting, and being patient, learning to be flexible, and trying to adjust graciously.

we're here - we're safe - we're tired

We have had such a whirl wind last week. We were able to pack up the house (couldn't do it without help). Friday turned out to be the longest day. I had to pick up Chuck at the airport and then off to pick up the last moving truck. Hurried home to meet our helpers (a MANY thanks to the help) so we could start loading the truck. Let's just say...we have tons of stuff (note to self...work harder at getting rid of things). We had to run and sign papers Friday afternoon. While we were doing that, my dear friend "K-Sue" came and rescued my kids from the chaos and took them to her house. We had some difficulty getting all the things in the truck and there is no way we could have fit that last bit of furniture so...thanks for taking it my local friends.

One of the biggest issues was trying to figure out how to get our big lawn tractor and play set on the truck. We were able to get the play set on the truck and we had to borrow a trailer to get the tractor here. That turned out to be a larger project than we anticipated. But all said and done...we got our stuff here.

We stayed at K-Sue's place on Friday night and that was a HUGE blessing (she even fed us a FANTASTIC meal). At times like this, the help from friends mean so much. We really couldn't have done this with out all of the help that we have had. The packing, loading, cleaning, feeding, kid watching...the list goes on. And now that we are on this end. We have help from our new friends. It is hard to on the receiving end of all the help.

A quick update on the house that we put the offer on...it is on the verge of being a short sale so we have to be patient to hear if the bank has accepted our offer. It would help to find out if we are unpacking here or waiting until the next place.

Well...we are off to the store to find some food. It is COLD here. It will be 8 degrees tonight. When we left our last place, it was 80. BIG difference.

It's been a crazy few days, and boy, am I tired.

In the past 3 days we have...

• Finished packing most of the house.
  
• Picked up a truck and packed it full of boxes and furniture.
• Prepared school work for the girls to do while I was gone for 2 days.
• Drove for 12 hours with Chuck to our new (let's keep it vague here) living destination.
• Unloaded the truck with Chuck in the cold night (after driving all day).
• Returned the truck and looked at houses with the realtor.
• Got approved for the new loan.
• Made an offer on a house!!!!!
• Now flying back home to finish up the rest of the house.
• Get ready for the last load for this weekend.

It has been a CRAZY week. Let's just say...God is good. And we couldn't do this without our support system. (Thank you!)

It appraised !!!!

That's right. Our house appraised for the agreed amount. Woo Hoo !!! Today there were lots of inspectors here crawling around and checking out what a solidly built house this is =). We are planning on and moving ahead with our plans to pack up and be out of here. We are continuing to put our faith in God as we pack in faith that all the details will be buttoned up with out any hitches.

We have seen how there is opposition from the enemy to try and discourage us as we celebrate this victory. But we are blessed by how God has fought the fight for us and we are clinging to the TRUTH. We have been given many opportunities to continue to glorify God in all of our actions and at times it hasn't been the easiest. I will take these opportunities to be refined even more and praise God for what He is bringing us through.

I am grateful for Grammy and my little helpers as we scrounge around in dumpsters looking for boxes. Trying hard to go green and reuse all that we can without buying new boxes. It will be a busy few weeks as we press on and follow the path where God has led us.

Letting you know

The appraisal was today. I had no idea that they were coming, and I was just finishing up with school this afternoon when the doorbell rang. I had prepared a booklet of all the before and after things that we have done to fix up our place in the last year (including photos and lists of repairs and costs). I was hoping to have a little bit of time to tidy the house a little, but I have really learned to be flexible through out this whole process.

One of our prayers is that the house appraises for the agreed amount that we have a pending contract on. As I mentioned before, I am completely trusting God of this one and resting in that fact that He will fight this battle for us.

We hope to hear the appraisal sometime either Friday or Monday. I will let you all know when I hear something. Thanks for your prayers and support. I have such a peace that God's will will be done and we are confident that God will provide (Jehovah Jireh).

Wondering?

It just seems that my mind is full this morning. Making it difficult to rest and sleep. When ever this happens I start to wonder ...

Wonder if there is someone that I should be praying for. Wonder how Misty is doing (HERE). Wonder if I should be up getting things off my"to do" list. Wonder if our life will settle into normal. Then this morning, I started to wonder how long this stage of waiting to sell and move will last. Wonder how I am going to plan a birthday party for Tally that doesn't scream "my life is too chaotic right now to do better than this". One of my biggest struggles about moving again is doing the bare minimum for birthdays and holidays.

Wonder if we will like a new town. Wonder if we will make friends easily. Wonder where we will find a homeschool group and if it will be a good fit for our family.

Wonder how long we will have our life dominated by the whole moving process. (It was almost a year ago that I was feeling these same type of early morning, mind full, type of thoughts (HERE). Here I am doing it again. Trying to wrap my brain around moving again. Tired of having God ask us to do difficult things. Again, I am reminded to lay it at the Father's feet and just rest. Rest in knowing that He is in control and desires the very best for me.

The girls and I are preparing to go and visit Chuck next week. And truth be told, I think that the idea of this causes me stress. Chuck's parents just got here yesterday to stay here at our home while we are gone (a very thoughtful and generous thing). But traveling by myself on a little road trip is new to me on my own. And I am such a homebody, it is takes me out of my comfort zone to leave home on any kind of trip. I know we will have a good time and it is worth the effort it will take, it just feels like I have a lot of loose ends right now. Good thing I have blogging to help me sort out all my thoughts. I know the truth, but this morning, my feelings have me wondering.

"Do you think Daddy wants to go?"

This is what my little one asked me tonight. "Do you think Daddy wants to go?" At that moment I think my heart broke just a tiny bit. My answer was "No, he doesn't want to...but he needs to go."

It has been a bitter sweet week for us here in our home. We have really enjoyed having Chuck around the house more. We even took a day to do Disney (pictures to come later). We had a few last projects to finish up and the computer has also taken some of Chuck's time. But we all know that he leaves on Sunday. Job starts on Monday morning and he needs to be there to begin.

I had been thinking that I was going to have the more difficult end of this adjustment to our family. Being here with the children, taking care of our place...you know...holding down the fort. As I said before, we are staying here until we get our home sold (that is why I have been asking for prayer). But sipping coffee with Chuck on the front porch this week, I got a glimpse into his soul. He shared about how hard it really will be to go and start this new adventure with out us. He even shared that when he leaves, he will feel almost homeless. He will be camping out in different places that are available for him, but he won't really have a home. It will be harder than I had thought for him.

One of my inspirations is a blogging friend whose husband is in Iraq. She is always by herself. Always alone. I often think and pray for all those families that are dealing with more difficult circumstances. We are not the only ones to be dealing with hard times.

So...back to the question. I don't really think that he wants to go. But, sometimes we need to do hard things. This is the hard thing that we are doing. I know that God won't give us more that we can handle. I also know that He will give me the strength to get through these times.

Shedding some light...

I felt like I left you hanging a little bit with the last post about our family moving on. I wanted to share a few more details and ask you again to pray with us about selling our home.

Chuck has worked in the TV industry since he was in college. He has been able to accomplish so many of his goals in his career. We have marveled at how God has brought each job to him, rather than having to pound the pavement to get the next job. This new job is no different. A few months ago he went to check out this company to see if it would be a good fit for him. At that time, they were very clear about not having an opening for him. "No problem, I just want to check out the area and see what I think," was his response.

Well... as I mentioned before, we have been praying that God would open the right doors and close the wrong ones. After Chuck came back from his visit, he got an email from this new company saying they wanted him to join their team. Not only that but what they were laying out for a job for him suits his strengths perfectly.

This new company does a variety of things and one of them is making DVD-based curriculum for children's church programs. They make things for both the secular and christian venues. They desire for Chuck to come and lead their video production team and help them grow the company.

It is neat to see this whole thing unfold. To worldly wisdom, this seems foolish. Selling right after you have bought a home = CRAZY. We are leaping out in faith on this one. Please pray with us for a contract on our home. Chuck will leave mid May to start this new job and the girls and I will stay here until our home sells. We do NOT desire for our family to be divided in this way and we are seeking God's grace on our situation. With our mustard seed sized faith we are asking God to move this mountain.

As for where we are going... I try really hard to keep our location vague (just for the protection of our family - trying to ward off the crazies). I will give some ideas though... this will be the first time in years that I have lived in a land locked state. We will get out of the tropics and move to an area with "seasons", but not a harsh winter. We've been told that we may run into some country/christian music stars at the grocery store and at church. ***please keep your comments vague about locations***

So... please pray with us as we seek God's face for a buyer/contract on our home. Chuck and I have been getting up and praying together every morning before the day starts. We pray at 6:45 eastern time, if you are called to join us at that time. I know BIG things are going to happen and HE will receive the glory.

Planting seeds we may never harvest

As you noted from my last post, we are moving on from this great "dream" house of ours. It is bitter sweet. We have fixed it up, not to turn it around and sell it right away, but to stay here. That is the bitter part. We have invested our energy to make it the best we can. When we started thinking about moving on we didn't change our desire to make this home the best that we could. We have spent hours working to hopefully bless the next owners.

We have recently turned the garden from a scary overgrown patch of weeds and dirt (with a frightening garden gate, I might add) to a quaint country garden. The girls have really enjoyed deciding on what seeds to plant and preparing the soil. The best part was putting the seed in the ground and caring for it tenderly. Tally mentioned that we may not be here to see the veggies and flowers grow.

She is hopefully right (our prayer is that we sell in the first month). We may never see the "fruits of our labor". We may never bring in the harvest. The same is true about investing in others. Think of all those who invest their time and energy in someones life and never see that person come to know Christ. For now, we have been called to plant the "seeds" and I will leave the growing and harvesting up to God.

In the mean time, we need to press on with integrity and trust that God has all the details of this move in His hands and we trust Him to bless, when He see fit.

The cat is out of the bag (so to speak)

Well, this is the post that I have been waiting to write. To fill you all in on the details that I didn't tell you last time.

As I mentioned, God has been working in our lives here and I now have some freedom to fill you in. If you have been following our blog for awhile, you will know that we have only recently located to our current home about 5 months ago. We were so thankful to find this home and have so enjoyed living here and fixing it up to make it our own. But... the for sale sign goes in the yard on Monday. We are moving on. (gasp)

I know, I know, grab your cup of coffee and sit down. Chuck's job here in our sunny state has been a great fit and we have enjoyed watching him flourish (awards and all). One of Chuck's deepest desires has been to take his 2 degrees (communication/TV and Bible -- his 2 loves) and blend them into a job. It seems that that God has brought that along.

Our prayer has been that God would open the right doors and close the wrong ones. We have seen God closing the door at his current job. It has been a hard and somewhat painful process. It has been hard to see Chuck struggle and watch his company go through the dip that they are in.

In the past few months we have been praying more fervently about this new opportunity. We both have such a peace about this new opportunity and he has decided to take this new job. It will move us out of the state and into a new one. The idea of selling our home sounds impossible in this market. We have fixed up this home and invested a lot of time, energy and money into our home. But I am reminded that these are all things that we hold loosely in our hand. These are the details that God is sovereign over. I know that I can completely trust Him in.

I will share more about the new job (gotta leave some details for later). But for now, I am asking my dear friends and family to join us in prayer. We are praying for a quick sale on our home. That is the seemingly impossible. But I know that it would be a great testimony to God's faithfulness. It will be VERY hard for our family to be apart for awhile, but we may have to do that.

So, my blog sisters... that is the cat that is now out of the bag.

A mini tour...family room

I wanted to show a few pictures of our place. I feel like if I wait until it is done it will take too long. A work in progress. We had major work done this week. Pulled out the tile and had the hard wood continued in the kitchen, entry, dining room and laundry. It was a huge job and messy but it looks sooooooo much better. We gave that old tile a fair chance and it was just bringing the house down. I will post before and after pics of the LR later. No window treatments yet, we plan on ordering plantation shutters (cafe style).

Getting Things Done

It has been a week and a half since being in our new home and I am realizing that we really are getting things done. I don't think we understood how much needed to be done when we got here. Some days feel like you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but we are still making progress. Here is a short list of what we have done. Some of these things were hired out and some were done with our own sweat.

-replaced the carpet with new carpet and hard wood floors
-cleaned and sealed the tile
-stripped the wall paper in the laundry room, primed, textured and painted
-changed dryer from gas hook up to electric
-replaced all the appliances
-replaced the crazy light in the kitchen
-put up shelves in Tissy's closet and school room
-moved a cabinet from dinning room and put in laundry room
-put in cabinet in hall bath
-trimmed overgrown bushes
-fixed screen door on lanai
-replaced door knob in guest house
-ordered counter tops to be put in this week
-changed drawer slides on large drawer in the kitchen
-hooked up W/D in garage for guest house
-lined all the cupboards and drawers with paper
-started repainting the inside of the house with a neutral color

This list would be half as long if my parents weren't here helping out. They have been such a blessing to us this week. Hope we don't wear them out so they don't want to come back. But, all in all, when I step back and look we really have gotten a lot done.

Feeling Settled

We are doing well and trying to settle into this house. I have spent the last few days cleaning tile. We replaced all the carpet and put in hard wood in the LR and FR but we are trying to save the tile in the kitchen and entry and eating area. My new appliances come tomorrow and we can get our gas oven hooked up next week, so we are eating a lot of toast and sandwiches until my kitchen is ready.

I am trying to get the girls rooms settled first, so they feel more at home. I got curtains up yesterday in Tissy's room and it is looking cute. My parents come tomorrow to help me and my dad can help with shelves so we can put toys away. I also need some shelves in the school room so we can start school again soon. I got the guest house (above the garage) ready and they should be comfortable while they are here. Each day is baby steps to get it all done. One box at a time. I will try and do pics later.

A new home

We moved into our new home on Friday and all the details went well. We closed on both homes and we are so grateful that the next chapter has started. No more house on the market, no more having the house perfect, no more long commute for Chuck. We changed that all for unpacking boxes and finding the right place to put things.

And speaking of things...we have way too much. It took 2 trucks to move our things and lots of help from the great guys at DJ. After 3 nights in our new home it is starting to look more and more like home. We still have to paint and do some work in the kitchen and the master bath, but it is going well. The girls love their new rooms and they look so cute. We are trying to get the guest house ready for Friday, when my parents arrive to help. I have a list of things for them to work on. In the mean time, we are so glad to be here and are enjoying this next chapter in our lives.