Monday, November 29, 2010

The Story

I feel as though I have gotten ahead of myself in showing you pictures of the house. Truth be told I just haven’t had time to write, so I threw a few pictures up to keep those of you going crazy        (eh-hmmm tandis) at bay. But I think I should start at the beginning in telling you about us getting our house, hopefully in doing so you will be encouraged in the little wants and desires in your life and how our Father knows all about them.

It is no secret that we have been looking to move out of our trailer for the last few years. This past spring we started looking at land with the intention of buying possibly this summer or next and working towards putting a new double wide on it. I found myself getting quite impatient a number of times thinking that maybe we should just put one on our lot in Williams instead of waiting for the right piece of property to come along. I am not proud to say that I acted very childishly and many tears were shed on my part thinking we’d NEVER get out of the trailer. In June I finally realized that the Lord was teaching me a lesson. He was (and is) in control, no amount of worrying on my part would change that. In fact, it would just make me more miserable. When the time was perfect He would make it possible for us to get the land or house that was perfect for us, that’s all there was to it. Sometimes I’m glad I’m such a black and white person, because once I realized all this, it was easy for me to stop worrying about it. He would take care of us, He always has, end of story. Until that time came He would give me the grace to make our trailer the best home possible. At least it WAS a home, WITH a yard, AND a healthy family. I was ashamed for complaining.

In late July, maybe early August I’m not sure, the kids and I went over to a friends house to swim for the afternoon. Another friend was there with her 2 kids and as the afternoon went on we decided to have our husbands join us for an impromptu bbq. We were sitting around visiting after supper and the conversation turned to houses and if we were seriously looking at anything. “No, there’s just nothing out there in our price range that doesn’t need a lot of work right now” was our answer. “Did you hear the Kalli’s are moving? I think they’re listing their place this week. He got a new job in NC so they have to sell. They have a nice place”, replied one of the couples. My heart started to race a little bit sitting there. I knew the house they were talking about. I had done back up day care for the Kalli’s and stopped by their house afterward to get paid, I knew it was a nice place. It had been a few years but in my memory it was a gorgeous house. I had to have a little self talk in my brain right then “don’t get ahead of yourself. remember who is in control, just pray about it. don’t bug jerem that you HAVE to go look at it.”

A couple days later Jerem asked if I checked to see if it had been listed online yet, I hadn’t (I was very proud of myself for showing the self control in not checking). So I checked, it was there and way out of our price range. My heart kind of sunk, “there’s that” I thought. At this point Jerem would normally not even pursue something that we so obviously could not afford, but what did he say? “I think I’ll give the realtor a call, it wouldn’t hurt to look at it. We’ll pray about it and if it’s supposed to happen it will” So we looked, and fell in love. Anson asked us if we were going to buy it and I told him it was a big decision and a lot of money, we wouldn’t know for awhile. He asked if he gave us one of his dollars if that would help us buy it. Yes, I almost started crying at this point.

We went into it knowing what we could afford and made the commitment that we were not going to go out of that amount. We didn’t want to get in a position that we were trying to make it work just so we could have the house, rather we wanted to be in the Lords will and felt that by sticking at the amount we said He would bless us because of it. It was no surprise that they couldn’t accept our offer. They had just listed it and wanted to see if there was any other interest. We totally understood and at this point had the complete peace that if this was the house the Lord wanted us to have it would be ours, if not it just meant there was something even more perfect out there for us. 

About 3 weeks later I got a phone call from someone quite out of the blue asking if I would be interested in watching her little boy 4 days a week. He is two months older than Ava so in my mind it was perfect. 2 kids on the same schedule with a mom that works school hours and has summer and school holidays off. Watching him would give us the margin we needed to not be stressed out if we didn’t sell our house right away. At this point we felt that the Lord was starting to line things up for us in ways that we never saw coming. I found out about a loan program through the USDA that would give us a lower interest rate and lower our monthly payment considerably. Which enabled us to raise our offering price a little, definitly not much, but a little. They still needed more than what we were offering, so we continued praying. About 4 days after our second offer we got a “this is our final offer” from them, and of course we had to decline knowing it was still far out of our budget. We felt that there was a chance maybe they’d come back in the spring if they hadn’t sold it and accept our offer, but not before then. I was all settled in to one more winter in the trailer.

Two days later I got a call from Jerem, “they accepted our offer” he said. “nuh uh…you’re just trying to get a rise out of me, it’s not gonna work” (see husbands, if you’re reading, this is why you can’t ALWAYS joke with your wives!). I could hear him grinning on the other end, “no, I’m serious. they said they have to take the appliances if they’re going to accept our offer, but they’ve accepted it”. Well shoot, who cares about appliances, we figure that out…WE GOT THE HOUSE!!! So, back to praying about the appliances, nothing’s too small for the Lord, right? Two months of endless paperwork and phone calls, faxes and emails the house was officially ours. They moved out a month before we moved in, and left EVERYTHING except the fridge. I have goosebumps reliving the last few months.

So, now is the time I share with you a few of the “wants and desires” that are part of this house. Things that were not “needs” per say. You’ve seen pictures of the kitchen. That is the biggest desire in my book. I love to cook and have always dreamed about having a beautiful kitchen. A year ago the kitchen did not look like that. A year ago it was vinyl flooring and dark cabinets with a wall where the bar counter is. Last January they did a major kitchen remodel not knowing they were going to be moving 6 months later, but the Lord knew. And He knew whose house it was going to be. Yeah, goosebumps. The house has 10 acres. TEN! We were hoping for 3 or 4 acres in the country someday…but 10?! They left their kid’s wooden swing set complete with a pirates deck as our kids call it, those things aren’t cheap. There is a HUGE deck, another thing we’ve always thought would be nice to have. And a two car garage. A luxury that borderlines as a “need” up here in the north woods, but since we’ve never had one you obviously can live without it. We were hoping to someday have enough room for a big bookcase for all our books that were in storage, we got a whole WALL of built in bookshelves. I could go on and on..but I think I’ve shared enough.

Whatever it is that you are in need or want of this year, bring it to the Lord. Don’t stress about it. He who cared enough to send his Son to die for us, the One who has the whole world in His hands, cares enough about us to give us the home we’ve always dreamed of. Don’t limit Him, nothing is too big or small.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Before and After

Okay, this is my first official before and after room. I am SOOO happy with the way it turned out. Still have a couple things to do to it, but it won’t get done for a little while.

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Before

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After!

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My favorite part. The curtain rod which was my moms idea. Total cost for the room…$0.00. We sponged on our border and the animals are wood that my brother cut out.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Shutterfly

I’m writing a little plug for Shutterfly. I found a place that said if I write up a blog about them and my experience with them I will get 50 free Christmas cards. It’s worth a try!

Shutterfly is always having great sales. I have gotten quite a few photo books for free that have made great gifts! I ordered our Christmas cards from there last year and just LOVED the way they turned out. I can’t wait to take pics around our new house for our 2010 card. Go here to see their cards.

I also really like the photo calendars seen here. What better way to share family memories with loved ones throughout the year!

I’m already excited to design our card this year, just thinking about it. They have so many great styles to fit different personalities. So, go check out Shutterfly today for your Christmas card and gift needs!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Little Teaser

Okay folks, for those of you who JUST CAN’T STAND IT!! any more, I am showing you a few pictures. Good thing I’m such a nice person, because if I weren’t feeling so guilty for not putting pictures up I’d wait until everything was just the way I wanted. Nevermind, that might take a few years. SmileSo, ignore the boxes, mess and lack of décor and enjoy the pictures.

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Our room

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Anson’s room (border is coming down and it’s being turned into a camo/hunting room)

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Paige and Ava’s room. Paige LOVES all the purple and has organized it just the way she wants it.

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Temporary t.v. placement to keep the little ones occupied.

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Looking out the front door

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Basement (working on sitting and play area.)

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New dining room table thanks to the generosity of Mark and Gwenn Johnson, they just got a new one and gave us this one

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Couldn’t have done it with mom…so glad she came!

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Our awesome bookshelves. Can you tell we have little ones around?

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Back yard from deck

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Deck

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We are still trying to figure out the living room set up. I am going to be painting it a dark tan.

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Going up the stairs to the 3 bedrooms

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My room…I can’t wait to be settled and fully enjoy this kitchen that I thought I’d never have. The Lord has said that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts…and we have seen this so much with this house. We had our need for more space met but above and beyond that so many “wants” taken care of. That’s a whole other blog in itself.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Top 10

Top 10 of what you ask? Well, my wonderful MIL suggested I do a top 10 of the things I will NOT miss about our house now. I’m going to break it down. Since this IS where we started our life together and our family there are some special thoughts towards our old home. So, here we go. Top 5 we Won’t miss and Top 5 we Will miss!

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the NOT list

1. We will NOT miss having to put plastic up on our windows every fall

2. I will NOT miss unloading kids and groceries in –20. (we will have a garage)

3. We will NOT miss the blanket hanging over the doorway 7 months out of the year

4. I will NOT miss the walk in closet with NO LIGHT!

5. We will NOT miss having our children decide the best time to use the bathroom is when we are in the shower. Although I realize that having 2 bathrooms isn’t necessarily going to guarantee this isn’t going to happen.

The WILL miss

1. I’m thinking…check back at #2

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.

..

…….still thinking

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2. okay sorry..this list is only two long…can’t think of anything we WILL miss about our house. Although I can tell you for sure that we are going to miss our wonderful neighbors, I think that’s about it.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Pretzel

How many of you know the history behind the pretzel? This is the earliest history, and one I remember learning about growing up. I have borrowed it from HERE

As early as 610AD at a monastery somewhere in Southern France or Northern Italy, where monks used scraps of dough and formed them into strips to represent a child's arms folded in prayer. The three empty holes represented the Christian Trinity.
The monks offered the warm, doughy bribe to children who had memorized their Bible verses and prayers. The monks called it a Pretiola, Latin for little reward. From there, the pretzel transformed into the Italian word, Brachiola, which means little arms.
The Pretiola journeyed beyond the French and Italian wine regions, hiked the Alps, wandered through Austria, and crossed into Germany, where it became known as the Bretzel or Pretzel.

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Paige was a wonderful little helper in making the pretzels and we can’t wait to enjoy some for lunch with some leftover nacho sauce I have.

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I bet the next time you eat a pretzel they’ll have a whole new meaning!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Off Schedule

I have found that nothing good happens when I don’t do things in my usual routine. My usual routine as of late would be to get up at 5, work out, read my bible, get the kids up and Jerem reads them their devotion before getting ready for school, breakfast, etc. Well, it was MEA weekend, so my routine was off-by choice. I still could have gotten up at 5 and done everything normal. But since I didn’t have kids to get on the bus and it was my “recovery” day for my workout I chose to get up at 6:30 and never got around to reading my Bible before my day got going. First mistake.

Fast forward a couple hours. Things are going pretty smoothly. Jerem calls, needs me to come in to Warroad to sign a paper he has at work. I told him I’d be in as soon as the washer was done (I don’t trust leaving it alone). So it was almost done spinning so put Ava in the car and told the kids to get buckled up I’d be right out. I was in Anson’s room sorting clothes and the washer started shaking really bad, it’s old, whatever. I heard my big 200 load jug of laundry soap jiggle off and fall behind the machine. “I’ll just get it later” I thought. Finally the washer was done and I went to throw the clothes in the dryer.

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I saw some suspicious blue stuff leaking out from under the washer and my heart sunk.

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The ENTIRE jug spilled. Yeah folks, THIS jug!

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It was 1/2 INCH THICK on the floor. I started cleaning it up with not a great attitude. Pretty soon Anson came in from the van..they had been waiting out there 15 min…poor kids. I told them to just go play in the van with Ava while I got it taken care of. I wasn’t even sure how to go about it. Tip: shop vacs DO NOT work! I had suds blowing out the back EVERYWHERE. I finally resorted to just scooping it with my hands. As I was cleaning it up I wondered if the Lord allowed this to happen to slow me down and bring to my attention how I hadn’t started my day with Him like I should have.

So 45 minutes later I was done, had my heart back where it should be and very nice smelling, clean floor to boot. Oh yes, and I kept the soap…I wasn’t throwing $8 worth of laundry soap away, no matter how much dirt was in it!!!