Updates on the move and the house...

I know it's been a while since my last post. We've been really busy with the move. I don't have time to post pictures right now, but I'll give you a brief update about what we've been up to for the last 2 weeks:

• We signed the papers to close on the house on Wed, Aug 12. What a glorious day! We were told that we wouldn't be getting the keys until later that night or possibly the next day, but our sellers surprised us by doing their closing early, so we got the keys right away! Hooray! We went right over to the house and set off some spider bombs. (The house had been sitting vacant for over a year, so it just needed it before cleaning!) Since we got in right away, I was able to get all of the cleaning done after the bombs were done doing their thing. Thankfully this house was in better shape than our first house upon move-in, so there was only one day of work versus two or three. Whew! The first day I cleaned and wiped down EVERYTHING. After a few hours of cleaning, our church had its Night of Blessing for all of the students and teachers. My kids weren't cooperating. So we picked up some toys and movies to borrow from church and I came back for more cleaning while Jon attended the service. That night we spent our last night at my parents' house. :)
• The next morning we dropped Jon off at work and I went to work cleaning the carpets. This is the very reason I hate carpeting so much: it is SOOOOOO dirty! It's on my wishlist to get hardwood floors in the entire main level of the house, but since we can't afford that right now I'm stuck cleaning them. It was an ALL day event. And Haven decided not to cooperate. So I shampooed with her on my back. All. day. long... and by the time Jon got home from work, it was time to start painting. Hooray! :) We started in the living room...
• That night one of our youth, Bill, went with Jon down to get our matress. We experienced some technical difficulties getting the box spring upstairs. OK...whoever built the house obviously wasn't thinking about matresses and box springs when constructing the stair well. After knocking down the banister and leaving a big hole, two big dents in the ceiling, and another big scrape along the front door and the wall next to it, our matress finally made it to the bedroom. (Needless to say, if we do ever move again, the bed is going to come with the house!)
• While Bill and Jon were in the middle of getting the box spring upstairs (right before the big hole happened), Evan was screaming to be let out of the pack n' play. We let him out. Not remembering that I was in the middle of painting and that Evan was now loose, Jon asked for my help with the last big push. Just as the hole was created Evan came into the hallway to tell me that he had colored. He wanted me to see. You guessed it. All over the wall. Only a few drips on the floor. And at least it was the right color for the wall. Our son...the inspiring artist. Picture to come for sure. We won't make that mistake again!
• Friday morning we had some youth come to help us. So did Jon's mom and dad. That's probably the only way I got it all done. I had help with the kids! And when Jon's parents left, my mom showed up to help too! The rest of the week is quite a blur, but I want to say a big thank you to everyone who came to help us get the house painted before the move. (And especially thank you if you worked on the kitchen or the bathrooms...the two hardest rooms to paint!) And I do mean the entire house. As I speak the only room that didn't get done in time is the laundry room. It will remain yellow until I have some more unpacking done. I had to prioritize. And I wanted my kitchen cabinets to be done so my kitchen could be in working order as soon as possible. One week after the painting began, it came to a glorious end with the cabinets being hung just hours before we had to wake up to start the move. (My husband is the greatest for understanding my need to have the cabinets up and in place! Thanks for depriving yourself of valuable sleep for me, babe!) In case you're wondering, they are a beautiful white with black hardware to match the black in the granite counter tops and to compliment the new green walls.
• Other projects that got done that week: We removed the chandeliers in the toy room and kitchen. The toy room has a new ceiling fan and the kitchen has just a regular light fixture. We stole the matching light fixture from the foyer to put it above the table in the kitchen and then got a new light for the foyer. We trimmed the trees (we only have weeping willows in our back yard) and planted some hostas that Grandma Wales sent down with Tom and Connie (thanks, Grandma! I love the hostas!!)
• Other news for the week: Haven started saying Mama! I LOVE IT! Sweet music to my ears! Evan called me DAD until he was a bit over 2 years old...and his 2nd word was DADA, so I'm THRILLED to get Haven's first word! :) And after the 2nd day, she started saying it even when she wasn't screaming to get something she wanted... :) Two days later, Haven decided she could roll over from her back to her tummy...and roll and roll some more to get to Moose. Poor Moose. He was two kids chasing him now! So Haven became verbal and mobile within a few days! Wow! (And did I mention that she also turned 6 months old too?...It has gone by WAY TOO FAST!)
• Saturday was the move. Some people from church allowed us to borrow some trucks and we got it done with two trips to Red Bud. It was a long, exhausting day. With lots of pizza.
• Sunday I didn't get much help from Jon since it's his big day of work. It was quite overwhelming sitting in a house full of boxes by myself with the two kiddos. Ugh. I wish I would have told the movers to just put it all in the basement so I could unpack it one box at a time.
• My first room to unpack and organize (well, mostly anyway) was the toy room. I needed something to keep Evan's attention so I could get some work done. It was like Christmas for him--he got to read books and play with toys he hadn't seen in over a year...and when you're only 2 1/2, that's a really long time. :)
• Later that week we got the kitchen completely done. Shelves installed. Utensil racks hung up. Stuff put away. Pantry door organizer installed. It feels good to have one room done!
• A few ladies from church and my sister have come over for a few hours at a time to either watch the kids or help unpack. That's been wonderful. Unfortunately, our shelves and book cases aren't all up yet, so that unpacked stuff is just lying around...
• Next on the list was the closests: the craft room and both of the kids' rooms got a closet makeover. WalMart and Home Depot sell closet kits for around $28-30. Really worth it. I have to thank my friend, Bethany, for pointing them out to us (she has them in her house too!)...now the closets have much more storage space!
• Friday, Aug 28, was my birthday. Golden birthday. 28 on the 28th. I've waited a long time for this celebration, only to have to keep unpacking on the big day. Oh well. I don't really like the color gold anyway. :) I did have a really nice day though. Jon made me breakfast in bed (with two golden, sunny side up eggs...yum!), then we met my sister and her hubby for lunch at Gus' Pretzels (one of my favorite places in STL!), and then we sent the kids home with them to have a few hours of quiet work without them. Jon got the grass mowed finally (we had to borrow a mower since we left our last one in MN), and I painted Haven's closet white again.
• Sunday night our TV blew up. Literally. Snap, crackle, smoke! The movers packed it into storage at the bottom of the pile, completely uncovered and unprotected. And there's nothing we can do to prove that it ruined the TV. Thankfully, after Josh passed away, Barb gave us their big TV. We had it in our 2nd living room last year. This year we have it in our only living room. :) We had lent it to my mom and dad whose 2nd TV had died from old age. They had been borrowing a small TV from my sister Shana's college days. We thought it would be nice for them to have a bigger screen to watch. So we had to go back on that temporary gift. Thankfully they understood that we didn't have the funds to replace a TV at the moment...

Now it's Tuesday. Two more days till Tom and Connie come down for the weekend to help us some more. Hopefully today I'll get clothes out of boxes and bins and suitcases and into closets and dressers. Then tomorrow I have to clean out the craft/guest room so they have a place to stay. :)

Thanks for taking the time to catch up with us. Hopefully pictures will come soon! :)

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Our New HOUSE!

Last week Tuesday we had our first appointment to see houses we had narrowed down from our internet search. The first house was too far away and too noisy. The second house was way too small. But the third house was just right. :)

It's close to church. It's close to Bee Tree Park. It's big enough for our family to grow. It's got a great big back yard. It's in a nice and quiet neighborhood. And it's got room for us to build some equity.

We've been praying for this for almost a year now. And we thank all of you who have been praying for us too! We're still in a bit of a daze...in awe that this day is finally in sight. And we still can't believe it because it happened so fast. When we bought our house in MN, we must have looked at about 80 houses. It took three months just to find a house. And we found this house on the first day, third house.

I have to tell you that it feels like God was saving this house just for us. It's been on the market ever since we started looking online last fall. I can't believe it lasted this long. I really think it's God's hand. You see, when we went to look at it, we almost didn't even get in because the masterlock was broken. But we decided to be patient as our realtor called their realtor who called the owner's mom to come let us in. While we waited, we got to see the back yard since the fence wasn't locked. It needed a lot of TLC. Maybe that's what drove people away as they thought, "If the house looks anything like the back yard, I don't want anything to do with it!" And maybe they left without ever going inside.

I'll never really know if that's what happened, but I know God had a plan. We saw the house on Tuesday. On Wednesday we learned that there was an open house on Sunday when we'd be out of town. And we learned that sellers can entertain more than one offer at a time. So we felt it was time to move. The house was resided on Monday, the day before we saw it. We knew someone would snatch it up after seeing the inside, which was completely fixed up. New counter tops. New appliances. Some new flooring. All new hardware. It is beautiful!

So Thursday we went to see it again. This time we took my parents and my sister. And Thursday night we stayed up until 11 signing all the paperwork to put in our first offer.

Then Friday afternoon we left for the wedding in Rockford, IL. By the end of the night we had our first counter offer. We were faxing in counter offer of our own as we took a break from swimming with Evan. And by Saturday evening, we had signed off on their final offer.

Closing is set for August 12. We'll take a few days to paint (most of the house is yellow, which doesn't match anything I have and really isn't my color of choice...) before the move. We are SO excited to finally be closer to church and all of our friends! and we are SO thankful to God for his faithfulness! :)

For more pictures of the house, check out my album on Facebook here.

(the shutters on the house are currently white, but as part of the closing deal, they will be painted my color of choice at the seller's expense.)

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House News

Since Christmas we knew we were going to have to make a trip up to our house in Minnesota shortly after the baby came to get our receipts for taxes and a few other baby things. About ten minutes into our trip up there last Wednesday afternoon, we got a big surprise--the offer on our house had been accepted! Praise the Lord! There are still a few hoops that have to be jumped through before the sale is final, though. The biggest one is the appraisal. It should happen sometime early this week. Here's the deal: if our house isn't appraised at AT LEAST the value of the accepted offer, our buyers' bank won't give them a mortgage to buy the house for that value. Considering that we're selling the house for nearly $20,000 less than the price it was appraised when we bought it, you wouldn't think that would be an issue, but because of the economy and the lost values, it could get us into trouble. So please pray with us that the house is appraised at our accpeted offer value!

We feel so good about the couple who is buying our house. We have been praying for them ever since we knew we were going to be moving. We put our heart and soul into that place and we absolutely love our neighbors--we couldn't imagine abandoning them or our house to someone who wouldn't love it or them as much as we do. We had a good feeling from their first offer that wasn't a total low-ball offer that this might be "the one." Afterthey very reasonably came up with counter offers, those feelings only grew stronger. It was so nice to not deal with someone who was just trying to get a bargain...especially with the market in its present condition. Right before we left (late) on Saturday morning, the couple came to the house with a set of their parents (quite surprised to see me washing dishes through the kitchen window they were peering into...ha!). We invited them in and got to chat for a bit. The father who was there is actually an LCMS pastor from Iowa. Small world! No wonder they were so understanding about all of our moving/church/Easter issues! :) We feel very good about selling our house to them and we pray that God would let that be a safe place for them to grow together in Him...and as a family.

We got to see quite a few good friends while we were there too. That was nice. We didn't quite get as much done as we should have, but it was worth every second. We also very much enjoyed the comfort of being on our own...in our own house...again. Sleeping in our bed...cooking with our dishes...ahhh...it was a breath of fresh air. And a bit sad in its own right too...we're really going to miss that house and all the wonderful memories we made there!

We should know by the end of the week if we can proceed to closing, which would take place at the end of April. We trust that God will provide for us in His time. Please pray that we will make it to closing on April 29th, that God will provide storage for our stuff in the interim, and that God would make it clear to us where He wants us to live after that.

Thank you all for your prayers and support during this time. We are so blessed by you!!

See pictures from our trip here.

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House Feedback

We've been very discouraged lately with this couple who has put a terrible offer on our house. We realize the house hasn't been on the market all that long, but we really thought we could do much better than what they were asking. In fact, our prayer is that we come out as close to even as possible...

Yesterday I almost passed up an email from our MN realtors (an autoresponse to our site for the house) that I reread this morning. After a bit of digging, I was able to find the content hidden on our website. A few weeks ago (before the offer came), a realtor from Chanhassen (about 15 minutes away from Cologne, closer to Minneapolis) came to preview our house, and he/she then left some comments for us. They were very encouraging, so I thought I would share them:


Sep 12 2008 11:35AM
Scheduled as a preview. I have multiple clients that want homes in the 200's. So am trying to find some nice ones to pull them out this far west. Thank You - House showed well
Sep 12 2008 11:35AM
Interior - Good; Exterior - Good; Curb appeal - Good; Staging - Good; Appropriately priced ($223500)? - Yes;

Ok, so I bolded the last one, but that's what really made me feel better...that a realtor who would be bringing out prospective clients thinks it's listed appropriately. Amen! Hallelujah! and Thank You, Jesus! :)

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We Made It!

We've been living with my parents for a little over a week now. Jon and I made the trip with a van and car load of stuff, while Tom and Connie (Jon's parents) made the trip with Evan and his stuff. It's nice that my parents have the extra room in the basement--it's a bit of our own space. We worshipped at Faith the day after we arrived, but then we had Monday and Tuesday to relax and unwind a bit. Monday we took Evan to the zoo. It was so much more fun to go to the zoo with him now that he knows how to say animal names and noises. We got to see a lot of baby animals (elephant, giraffe, zebra, orangutan). I think Evan enjoyed the baby orangutan the most. He was quite the hyperactive little guy. Evan got a kick out of watching him do sommersaults (especially since Evan knows how to do them too!)

Tuesday was just a "chill out" day, and Wednesday it was back to the grind. Jon went back to work, and I started working for Stephen Ministries again too. We couldn't afford not to work longer than a few days since we still have a mortgage to pay...

Speaking of the house, by Wednesday we got our first offer on the house, which was slightly encouraging, but mostly discouraging since their offer was nearly $20,000 less than what we were asking. We've countered back twice now, and are waiting on their response. I'm not hopeful. Their offers have simply been ridiculous...So we've been praying. Hard. We believe God is going to take care of us. We believe He will provide. But we know that sometimes we will have to wait. This might be one of those times. And in the meantime, we're checking out houses in the area and trying to get our lives back into some semblance of an "order." :)

Jon is very happy at his new job. The people he works with are simply incredible. They have been so kind and so genereous (even with their prayers over us!). We absolutely love the worship, and Jon even got to lead half of the service last Sunday! We are also absolutely thrilled that for the first time, youth events don't cross over learning time on Wednesday, so as of last week Jon and I signed up to be part of a small group. We're studying the book Love Talks by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott. Yesterday was our first night with the youth too. It was awesome! They get to hang out for a while, there are snacks, air hockey, basketball, volleyball, 3 Wiis, lots of chairs, and a coffee bar to keep them entertained. Then they come together for a large group discussion to open up the topic, break up into small groups by gender (I even got to lead a small group last week), and then come back together to wrap things up and end in prayer. I will try to remember to bring my camera next week to take some pictures of the Hangar (that's the youth BUILDING).

Next week we will probably start looking at houses, although our new realtor is going on a mission trip for 10 days starting on Saturday. If the offer on our house falls through, there won't be as much of a rush, but if they seriously want our house and accept our final offer, then they would like to be in it by the end of the month...if that's even possible anymore. We shall see...

Coming up in the following weeks:

• Next weekend is the balloon race in Forest Park. We're planning to take Evan...we can't wait to see how he reacts (since he already loves planes and helicopters so much!)
• Monday I have my first ultrasound (finally!) I'm so blessed to be back with my old OBGYN! And we're VERY excited to meet this little one (other than hearing the heartbeat). Maybe we'll finally "realize" that we're having a baby! :)
• Jon's installation at Faith is set for September 28th. The other new pastor (who's not here yet) will also be installed. We're excited to meet him, his wife, and their kiddo. They'll be living in Waterloo temporarily, which is close to Red Bud, so we'll probably get to see more of them than anyone else! :)
• October 5th there is a grand opening of the Hangar (the youth building). There will be food, fun, games, and (of course) inflatables! We're excited, but sad that it's scheduled on...
• Evan's birthday! (and uncle Kyle's too...) We'll probably celebrate his birthday with Jon's parents, grandma, and our sister-in-law Barb during the installation weekend...We still have to figure out when to have the official party for his 2nd birthday...

So stay tuned for all of these fun updates! :)

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