Pictures of our New House

I just can't say how happy I am about our new house! Is it a dream in every possible way? No. But it is perfect for us and I'm so thankful for God's blessing every step of the way in getting it! 

The owners, who we got to visit with quite a bit, received multiple other offers - higher than our offer even! - and decided to sell the house to us. If we had taken our trip to Indiana when we originally planned to, this house wouldn't have been available. Any earlier and it wouldn't have been listed. Any later and it would have been sold. Everything lined up perfectly and there's no doubt in our minds who arranged all of it. =)

The house, ahem, our home has four bedrooms that are all upstairs along with two bathrooms. Downstairs has a half bath plus all the living areas. The basement is large and we will finish it out to make a family room, and an office area. A third of the basement will be left unfinished for the laundry area and storage. I'm excited about how we will make a long wall with two levels of hanging space for clothes! This was a must since the bedrooms all have pretty small closets. All in all we will have over 2500 square feet of finished living space. 

At the end of our street are two really nice parks, a big community swimming pool with slides and all, and even a small zoo! There's a farmer's market within walking distance too. It's just a really neat area and everyone we've talked to agrees. 

We're having fun thinking about paint colors and furniture arrangement, but we'll mostly concentrate on that once we're done here in Texas with everything. So on that note, I better get back to packing! =)

Moving On

We just returned from a week in Indiana where we searched high and low for the perfect house to buy. I'm happy to say we were successful! God certainly blessed us and guided us. We just happened to check listings one last time before heading out to see the last couple of choices with our realtor and a new listing popped up. It had been listed just then and didn't even have all the photos, but our realtor knew the neighborhood and said it was a great area and immediately set up a showing for us.

We were the first ones to see it and we loved it! Even so, we decided to sleep on it and go back to see one other house before making a decision. Not so smart to wait (we didn't realize just how great the deal was at the time) but even so, we got our offer in just minutes before several other offers started coming in. One offer was even $10,000 more than ours but the owners liked us and the kids and they wanted our family to have the house. They are a super sweet older couple who are downsizing to an apartment.

I'm not so sad to leave my home now, because I really love our new house. Thank you, Jesus, for helping us find something we love!

By the way, if you have a blog that I normally comment on and you haven't heard from me in a while, it may be because I no longer have your blog address on the computer I'm having to use for now. Or it might just be because I'm busy packing boxes. Either way, in a month or so I'll have my own computer again and my comment love will resume. ;)

The Boy's First Pimples

It seems our 8 year old is growing up even faster than I thought. (sniffle, sniffle) He has been proudly sporting his first pimples over the past couple of months. (Why in the world do I not have a picture of this???)

At first I thought it was just a flukey thing, but he's now had about 4 of them all together. He's not as fond of the idea now as he was at first. Even so, I still think he feels kind of cool and grown up. 

 

On one of my last trips to Walmart, I wandered up and down the face wash isle trying to figure out what to buy him. I've experienced many moments that have made me feel old, but never a moment like this one. I was picking out "acne wash" for my son! 

The good news is that his pimple friend is gone. 

I suppose a nightly armpit hair inspection will need to be added to the bedtime routine....

Blessed

Blessed.

That really sums up how I feel today. I find my eyes watering throughout the day just thinking about it. 

This morning I was out pretty early driving around for garage sales. (I haven't enjoyed this hobby in quite awhile! It was great and I think I may go back out tomorrow morning!) Everywhere I went there were for sale signs in yards. For sale by owner. For sale by a realtor. It's all the same and they were everywhere. 

In exactly two weeks our house had a contract on it. For a good price. The option period ended today and I stopped holding my breath. It's as good as done now. Blessed, I tell you. 

How silly of me to worry about things - all the millions of things that go along with moving far away - when every single time God works it out. 

Another reason I feel so blessed today is our roof. The roof we're going to have, anyway. 

We had to have the roof replaced in order for the contract on the house to go through. (VA loans require a good roof and apparently ours is not so great.) The only question was who was going to pay for the roof - us or our insurance. 

The adjuster came out this morning. I know the roof was old when we got the house so I could only hope that there was enough storm damage to justify totaling it. I wasn't very hopeful. 

That insurance adjuster was so nice though and he said he knew how hard it was when you're selling your house and he was going to go ahead and total it! The check they are sending us is more than enough to replace the roof and have money leftover. (Leftover money is a good thing right now - it's expensive to move!!!) 

I'm telling you - blessed! 

Three Weeks

We've sold a house before.

We've bought a house before. Twice, actually.

But we've never tried selling one and buying the next at the same time. How in the world do people do this??? I'm so thankful we have family between here and our next hometown where we can crash for a week or two if necessary. They won't mind, I'm sure. =)

Today has been filled with inspections (all kinds), repairs, insurance stuff, mortage loan applications, and a dental appointment to top it all off!

I know everything will work out. I know that come August 20th, when school starts at Notre Dame, we will be there.

I just don't know how. Or when. Or where. Or even what, really.

All I know is that we have three weeks to get everything absolutely taken care of here, get packed up and moved out, and find somewhere new to live.

One day at a time is all I can do.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

Spray Paint

I've recently discovered the world of spray paint. I had no idea all a person could do! If only I had known all of this before we flipped our Piece - I think we would have saved a boatload of money on some new cabinets! Did you know you can spray paint your cabinets??? And they actually look GOOD.

I just saw this simple idea for spraying glass bottles. I can think of all kinds uses for this idea. Love it!!!

Jessamy is Here!

My most kindred spirit friend ever, Jessamy, came and visited me this weekend. (I think she's afraid we'll never see each other again once I'm all snowed in up in Indiana!) John went out of town so we had a good ol' sleepover and everything. In the "olden days", we would both sleep in my twin size day bed together. I suppose that's why we were so close and bonded so well - sleeping in a tiny bed with a friend will do that for you. After awhile, we figured out that we would each have more room if we put our heads at different ends. As a result, we are also very close to each others' feet.

Anyway, back to the point, she came to see me! We went out to eat, talked and talked, ate pizza, watched a movie, of course made homemade Maggie Moo treats, went shopping, and shopping some more, and we made blueberry waffles for breakfast. Jessamy tried her hardest to infuse some fashion sense into this stuck-in-a-rut-mommy, but I don't think it did much good. My apologies to all. I just can't figure out how to wear a royal blue fluttery knee length dress while I fill juice cups and change diapers and chase 1 year olds with permanent markers. Blue fluttery dress? Hmmmmm......

Soooo.....back to the point yet again..... Jessamy has only been married for a little over a year and I think her husband has been missing her. So I decided to let her send a little blog love his way. Isn't she beautiful???

Today's Shining Moment...

The buyers for our house (yes, we have a contract in!!!) called wanting to know if our dryer is 3 prong or 4 prong. When I got home I went to look and couldn't tell unless I unplugged it. Apparently, unplugging a dryer is much more complicated than it looks. I managed to electrocute my right arm pretty good. Wow! That hurt!!! I wish I had it on video - I bet I looked really cool.

It was 3 pronged in case you wanted to know.....

16 Month Portraits of Joshua

Joshua and I went out today to get some pictures since all the other monkeys are with John's parents. (They're having a fabulous, fun filled, frog catching, pizza eating, movie going, zoo visiting, aquarium loving time from what I hear!)

First of all, I'm without my own computer and any editing software (boo) and second of all, my FAVORITE picture refuses to upload to blogger correctly. Maybe I will have better luck with it later.

I'm out of excuses now, so on to the pictures of the most handsome little man in all of WF!

Update: I just noticed the snotty nose in some of the pictures. Arggggghhhhh! They will have to be edited later. My apologies. =)







This next picture cracks me up. Let's just say that one side of our (Longhorn loving) family will love this shot, while the other (Aggie loving) side will despise it. I just think it's funny! He did it all on his own!

Don't Miss This Blog Carnival

I'm too busy today to write my own "Works for me Wednesday" post, but I just had to link to the carnival anyway. If you have kids or even grandkids, you need to see this boatload of ideas for beating summer boredom!

Go here to We are THAT Family......

You're welcome. =)

I Can't Believe I Survived That

It dawned on me yesterday that Joshua is the same age now that Aulora was when he was born.

Wow.

I can't believe I had a newborn and a 16 month old. And two older kids too.

I'm SO glad I'm not doing THAT again! =)

It has been so sweet to see Aulora help take care of Joshua though. She started loving baby dolls about the time he was born so to her, Joshua has been another baby doll. She always wants to give him his bottle and she insists on being the one to turn on his fan and close his door at bedtime. She loves kissing him (still) and as soon as he wakes up she goes in his room and plays with him to keep him happy until I go in there.

Precious babies.

(I'll talk about their newfound love of hitting and shoving in another post. I don't want to ruin this one!)

RED FINGERNAIL POLISH!!!

Oh. My. Word.

Aulora found red nail polish and decided to paint her nails. What a mess!

Luckily, I haven't found any mess except what was on her hands and feet and all over her dress. I hope I won't be coming across any red stains in my house in the next couple of days!

I wanted to take a picture of her, but my concern at the moment was to get her cleaned up. What was I thinking??? My child's welfare before my blog? Good grief....

By the way, does anyone know how to get nail polish out of clothes? I'm thinking it's probably pretty hopeless.....

Summer Time is Here Again.....

and I'm not too sure what we're going to do around here. Help!

I need to fill our days with constructive things that won't break the bank.

I have to consider what will work with a 16 month old, a 2 year old, a 5 year old, and an 8 year old.

Hmmmm....oh yeah, I also need to keep the house really neat and clean until we get a contract on it!

I think maybe a trip to the grandparents' house is the only solution here. =)

What are you doing to fill the long summer days???

(I liked this list of things to do!)

It Just Tastes Better This Way

Doesn't everyone eat breakfast with a helmet on their head?

Silly girl. She likes to sleep in the thing sometimes too....

Joshua's First Haircut

Little Man got his first haircut last Friday. He didn't like it too much, but he sure looks handsome! Now that he's walking good and has a haircut he looks so old!

I Was Robbed

I'm a huge LOST fan and I look forward to the show every week. When the season finale came on a week and a half ago I recorded it on dvr and have been anticipating the time I could sit down and finally watch it.

Yesterday Joshua was napping and the other three kids were with my parents. It was the perfect time (hahaha, davus).

I was not disappointed. It was great. I loved it. I was engrossed and on the edge of my seat.

And then came a weather report. A very LONG report. It took over the last FIFTEEN MINUTES of the season finale.

To say I was ticked would be an understatement.

Juliet!!! Are you okay? Did you do it, Ben? Did you kill Jacob? And what the crud is in the big box those people are carrying around? Sayid, did you die? Did you get her back, Jack? Did you???

Arghhhhhhh!!!!!

Snippets

• Julia lost her first two teeth!
• Joshua is walking finally - life is better
• We've endured bronchitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, spider bites, scraped up knees, injured backs, and sprained ankles + several doctor visits and a couple ER visits too
• We saw the Lion King Broadway show (our second time but still wonderful!)
• Our house is on the market as of last Tuesday
• Living in a state of perfection is near impossible with so many kids - we need a contract fast!
• The fence is done and we're loving playing outside. We didn't really have a back yard for the kids when we lived with John's parents and even our house before that didn't have an ideal yard for kids to play in. I hope to never be without a good yard again!
• My parents just came for a 4 day visit. That's a long time for them and it was awesome.
• Mosquitoes are eating us up here
• I wish I was a bear so I could hibernate for a few months. That sounds really great.
• This is the last week of school. I'm not terribly excited about that.

I guess that's all the ground breaking news I have for now. You can wake up now. =)

Gearing Up to Sell

We're taking care of all the finishing touches needed to get our house on the market within the next few days. That means I'm really busy, plus it means I had to pack away my computer since it was just sitting on the bench in our bedroom. =( I'm trying not to go through any withdrawals, but suddenly not having my computer at my beck and call is not easy! I'm able to use John's a little before he goes to work and sometimes John David's computer will work. 

I'm dying to show some before and after pictures of my very first landscaping project, but now I have to be patient and wait for the right computer opportunity. Boohooohoo!

In other news, last week Aulora had bronchitis and then over the weekend we had to take her to the ER. Turns out she has tonsilitis and pneumonia. Poor baby was so so sick. She's mostly back to herself now - thank you Jesus for medicine!!! 

Pictures From The Zoo

Gran and I took the kids to the Tulsa Zoo a month or so ago.
It was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun!

Gran and Joshua

Sisters on the Carousel

Julia by herself

How appropriate =)

Deep thoughts

Standing tall on the rock she climbed

I wonder if boys ever grow out of this kind of stuff

Aulora LOVED brushing the goats. It was near impossible to get her to leave the petting zoo. I think I had to trick her, if I remember correctly.

Julia had some cotton candy.
Don't worry - we went to the dentist this morning and she was cavity free!

I really love this picture.
I think I'll get it framed. =)

John David climbed a really big rock

My four monkeys!
(Julia was a very reluctant monkey.)

That's my Joshie Boy! I love him (and miss him since he's been in Tulsa the last few days)!

Riding the train with Gran

This problem will have to be corrected before their teen years, for sure.

Is any caption really necessary here?