Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming!

I'm actually in my new house. I can't believe it.

A whole week later and many unpacked boxes later (and many more to go), I finally have the normal necessities I have grown so accustomed to...except for my dinner plates. Those are still proving to be quite elusive. I was getting so tired of eating off of little kid plastic plates that I went to the Dollar Tree the other day and purchased some dinner plates. They aren't all that bad for spending only a dollar per plate.

I just now got my Internet set up or I would have posted sooner.

Our closing went VERY smoothly. Almost too smoothly. We were in and out of there in less than an hour. I take that as God's final blessing to reassure us that regardless of all we had been through with the banks and underwriters, He wanted us to have this house in the end. Boy, was this whole ordeal quite the headache. There were a few times throughout this whole process where I was starting to doubt whether or not we were supposed to get this house after all. Looking back to how things were for us a year ago, I NEVER would have guessed in my wildest dreams that we would end up here in this city with these jobs and a house that by far exceeds my expectations on what we could qualify for. God has been so good to us.

My parents were such a great help for us during the move. They took the girls for the entire weekend so we could move without worrying about the kids being underfoot while trying to get things moved into the house. One of the most exciting things about all this was being able to go through boxes of stuff that we hadn't seen since last October! That might also be the reason why I can't find my plates. We did have to move quickly, so we weren't really thinking about putting things in boxes and in ways that would be easy to find.

It was so exciting bringing the girls back home to our new house. Jason and I were looking forward to that the entire weekend. We just couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when they saw their rooms with their beds set up, and all their bedding freshly washed and waiting for them.

Most of my week this week has been consumed with various unpacking and cleaning. I was so overwhelmed with all the unpacking. I didn't seem to be making a dent in anything; after all, I did rearrange my closet six different times this week! I decided that yesterday would officially be "do nothing" day. We ran a bunch of various other errands, but with regards to unpacking or rearranging, I did not do it. It was a nice break. The one thing I have been dreading most is getting the girls' stuff in order. They have SO MANY TOYS! It seemed like a lot when we were living in the basement, but that was the basement. That was 1/4 the size of my whole house now! Now they have TONS of toys that they have recently rediscovered that were hiding in storage for the past eight months.

That has actually been a blessing in disguise. The girls have been so well entertained by toys they haven't seen in months, that they are so consumed with playing that I don't hear from them for hours at a time! That has been nice when unpacking, but they are also leaving quite the trail of various toys behind them. We'll have to re-train them to keep their toys in their rooms instead of strewn all over the house.

Today Jason decided to take the day off work and help me out with the unpacking. We also got a lot of other things done, too! We bought an over-the-stove microwave, and we even got to install it. We also got a great counter-height table for our little nook in the kitchen. We needed a little something for the girls to eat breakfast there instead of going into the dining room to eat. This table is so cool. I'm going to have to take a picture of that and the microwave and post them for next time.

We are also in the middle of our painting project. The family room was pumpkin orange when we bought the house, and now we are in the middle of painting the room in normal colors. What took so long was painting the walls with primer first so the orange doesn't bleed through and altar the color of the new paint. I will have to post a picture of that too when we are done. This has definitely been a busy week, but I am so grateful to be here now. Now this whole move, eight months later, seems real.

It Actually Happened

We got a contract on a house. I still can't believe it happened. There were times when I felt so discouraged that it seemed like we would be living in this basement forever.

It's actually pretty funny how it happened. I was at work the other day, and I was quickly checking my e-mail before I left work and I discovered one of our offers got accepted! Remember, we have seen at least 100 houses by this point and put offers in on about 10 houses while praying that something gets accepted. The part that really surprised me was that our offer was accepted immediately. There weren't any counter offers or anything. Accepted as is. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I was so excited. I couldn't believe it....but then I wasn't too excited because I couldn't even remember what house that was. I do remember seeing that particular house less than a week ago, but we had seen about 5 houses that day and they all had the exact same floor plan. Was it the one with all the upgraded fixtures? Was it the one with the bigger backyard? Was it the one with the funky basement? I couldn't remember. But we had a contract on a house.

I quickly called Jason to share the funny yet exciting news. We both laughed at our similar responses to the house. "I guess it'll work." We said. I was struggling a little with the fact that I couldn't even remember the house! My mom just laughed at me when I called her. She couldn't believe I had a contract on a house I couldn't even remember. I told her that we wouldn't have put an offer on a house if we didn't like it enough to live in it. I believe that near the end of seeing all those houses that looked exactly the same, we were eventually thinking, "That'll do. I'll just take any house. Please, someone. Just give me a house!"

While I was still on my way home from work, I got a call from my realtor congratulating me on the contract on the house. I laughed and told him about Jason and my similar responses regarding the house, and he said, "No, not that house, the other one. You got a contract on your favorite house." "What???? We got two contracts?" Yup. We sure did. That was a no-brainer. I didn't even need to talk to Jason first before telling the realtor which house we would go with. Both of us liked this house from the beginning.

Here's some pictures from the listing:

I love how the front of this house looks. Yeah, the yard needs some serious revival, but it's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Jason loves the 3-car garage. He wants to make it his little shop for tinkering. Whatever that is. Every man needs their man-cave, and I guess this will be his.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this staircase. It just looks so cool. I love how it is so open. Thankfully I won't have to worry about walking up and down those stairs with a load of laundry. The washer and dryer are on the top floor to the far right.
The family room. The first room we will be painting. In natural light the ceiling is not blue. The walls are currently a rusty orange. Maybe the people had some sort of southwestern theme going on. No thanks. I love how this room is right off the kitchen so I'm not exiled to the kitchen when entertaining guests. The decent-sized kitchen. I like how there is the island. In our old house, I was so limited with cooking space. I hated that. Thankfully there is still a good amount of space around the island so you don't feel too cramped with other people working in the kitchen. I think. I'd have to test it out to be sure.

I am really excited about this house. It really has so much to offer us. We were really thinking hard about what we wanted in our new house, and I think we really got a keeper with this one. We really want that house that lasts us a LONG time. Others don't seem to think we'd stay that long, but that is something we really want. We want that house the girls live in the entire time they are in school. I don't want them to have to worry about going from one school to the next....except for the natural transitions between elementary to middle school and from middle to high school.

Now all I have to do is wait...again. It seems like my big lesson in life is patience. I'm just so excited, though! It just seems extra long because we are so cramped in this basement. We've lasted this long, what's another month? We close on our new house on May 21st.

Looking For The Perfect Home

Okay, so things have been pretty crazy here.

I had my long-awaited Spring Break a couple weeks ago, and it sure seemed to go much faster than I anticipated. I guess it never seems long enough when you have a lot to do. My primary purpose for break was to do some serious house shopping.

My brother's father-in-law is a realtor, and he happily agreed to help us find our perfect house. The big challenge for us is finding the house that we can afford as well as the house we can see ourselves living in for many years to come. We have always said that it would be nice to live in one house the entire time the kids are in school. I want them to have the opportunity to go to the same schools with the same friends and not have to worry too much about going to different schools and making new friends.

I have seen so many houses, that by this point I am really having a hard time keeping them straight. I think there were only two days during my Spring Break where I did not physically go and see houses. Since we started looking, I'd have to say that we've seen at least 50 houses. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. Right now, we are in the best position to buy a house. The market is flooded with houses for sale, short sales, and foreclosures. It's pretty exciting, but also very exhausting. I know that our new home is out there somewhere, but it almost feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We've seen a lot of really nice homes, but not necessarily one that we feel could be "the one." We actually put offers on three different houses last week. We haven't heard back from one of them yet, but I don't expect to hear anything on that house anytime soon. It is a short sale that already had a contract on it before we got to it. The other houses were great possibilities, but the homeowners seem to think they can get more money for their houses than we were willing to pay. I'm okay with that. I wasn't totally feeling it with those houses anyways. When you look at the recent sales in the area, there is no way those people could get as much as they were asking. It all depends on how quickly the sellers are willing to get out of their house. They'd be lucky to find buyers in similar situations like us. We can move quickly. We don't have a house to sell first. Their loss.

We were able to go out again yesterday, and I think we have made some serious progress. I think the greatest success of the weekend was that we were both able to agree on our #1 pick of houses. Previously, there was one house that was my particular favorite, and then there was one that was Jason's favorite. Now we both like the same house. That's a big deal for me. I don't want it to be that one of us is settling with one house wishing we got a different one. I am really excited about this house, and I just pray that it works out. We should be putting in an offer on this house hopefully by tomorrow.

I am SO ready to have our own place again. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I am really longing for my own place to spread out and do what I want to do and to get settled. I am looking forward to establishing a new routine for our new place. I am looking forward to the girls being able to play in and out of the house and not having to worry about where they are and whose stuff they might be messing with . I am practically counting down the days to where I don't have to share a room with my girls and always worry about them messing up my space or getting into my things. I am looking forward to finally knowing where we are going to be living so I can get started on getting Meghan ready for Kindergarten (gasp!) this fall. I still don't know where she will be going. I pray that this issue will get settled pretty quickly when we actually move. I am really looking forward to this summer where I can have fun with my girls again and finally get to feeling like normal. It will be nice. I think I will appreciate it more than I thought I would just because I haven't had my own space for almost 6 months now.

It's Been Too Long...

Okay, so it's been a while....quite a long while.

As you can imagine, life has most definitely been busy. I am finally starting to get into a groove with my new job. It has been quite a challenge. I don't know if the bigger challenge is transitioning from teaching Junior High to teaching 1st and 2nd grade, or if it is going from teaching hearing students to deaf students.

It has been a good opportunity, though. There still are days where I question whether or not I want to pursue this type of career, but then there are days where I feel I am at the right place at the right time. One encouraging thing is that I have heard from a few colleagues that they have definitely seen a big change in the attitudes of my students (in a good way). Their old teacher was very negative and very demeaning. I had the unfortunate experience of observing her for a day.

Aside from my starting a new job, Jason and I finally had the opportunity to get approved for a mortgage loan! Yippee! I am so excited. I am very grateful for Jason's family opening up their house for us to live in, but I am READY to get my own place.

Jason and I spent about 3 hours with our realtor (my brother's father-in-law) and we got to take a look at quite a few places. We have a couple houses in mind, but we're just in the beginning stages of looking around. Our realtor seems to think he can find us a really good deal for the money. Hopefully he can find us that diamond in the rough that we can live in for decades to come! It is our dream to stay in the same house for the entire time the girls are in school. That is something I never had, and I desperately want that for my children.

Hopefully we can find our house soon! I am ready to get started with this new phase in our life!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I can't believe it's already December.

I am sitting here reflecting on how drastically my life has changed since September, and I can't believe all this has happened and that I survived it all. Jason quit and started a new job, the girls started at a new daycare, and I quit my job. Most importantly, we have sold our house and we have moved past that obstacle so quickly it sometimes doesn't even seem real. I didn't get much time to process that part. That's what happens when you sell your house in only 4 days.

I would have to say that the most stressful thing about selling our house was having to deal with the petty demands from our buyers. I don't know if those people had ever purchased a home before, but I was getting really sick of them demanding silly little things and making it sound like such a big deal that it would cost us the sale of our house.

Seriously, there are thousands of houses in the world that are in worse condition than ours was in. The things that needed to be fixed were so minor, they had nothing to do with the integrity of the structure itself which would be a greater concern than making sure there was a carbon monoxide detector by the bedrooms. After we had the inspection, I was very pleased to find out that the things that needed to be taken care of were extremely minor and fairly inexpensive. Especially considering the state of the house when we purchased it as a foreclosure over 5 years ago.

I would have to say that the most frustrating thing we had to fix was putting a cover on our window well that lead to the basement. This was something we looked at purchasing a few years ago, but we soon discovered that there is no standard size for window wells, nor did we have a normal size that would fit just about any cover that could be found at your local home improvement store. We ended up purchasing a cover that was more than we wanted to spend, but it was the ONLY one that would fit our obscure size as the cover was adjustable.

When the buyers did their final walk through, they were very upset with the cover we purchased as they didn't feel it was secure enough. It was strong enough to support the weight of two adult males, but they were concerned their toddler would fall through. Give me a break! They also said that it was too loose. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Buyer, first of all, the cover was installed per the installation directions, and you also need to consider that if there is a fire and you are stuck in the basement, you need those little gaps to grab hold of and push the cover out of the way and escape safely. They first asked us to return it, but we refused as all packaging had been disposed of. They then had the nerve to ask us to fork over another additional $500 to have a cover custom made. I don't think so! There were a few other petty demands, but thankfully we were able to get past them and close on our house on the 24th of November.

Here we are living in our new city, but still homeless. We are grateful for wonderful family who have opened up their home and graciously allowed us to invade their home and temporarily call it our own. I have been unemployed for about a month now, and I am definitely feeling the strain of needing to get a job. I adore my girls, but I am not made to be a stay at home mom. I enjoy our summers together, but just about when I am feeling the need to be back at work, the summer is winding down anyways. The girls are also feeling the strain of fewer opportunities for social interaction. The job market isn't really very promising right now. Especially for teachers. Not many teachers leave in the middle of the school year. Except for me.

I do have a job interview set up, but I am feeling somewhat anxious about it. I know in my heart that this is something God had showed to me over a year ago, but I am still struggling with where he is leading me. The job I am interviewing for is basically THE ONLY position available right now, but I am not fully qualified for this position. I had a dream last night that I was basically laughed at during the interview due to my inexperience in this particular field. I know my dream was due to my anxieties and feelings that I am not qualified for the job. I really want this job. I know that if I do get this job, it is yet another confirmation of God's promise for my life and that all we have put our family through in the past few months would all have been for this job and where God is leading me. The other good thing about getting this job is that we would be that much closer to getting our new house. I can't wait to get back into our own place again. Life has been everything but normal for the past few months. I almost forgot what normal looked like.

Caught In A Whirlwind

This past month has been a whirlwind of chaos, survival, tears, loneliness, and anticipation.

We put our house up on the market on Friday, October 9th and got an offer on our house on the 12th. Yes, it took us only one weekend to sell our house. There's no doubting God's plan here. I still have to pinch myself to see if we actually sold our house that fast. Especially in this market. We aren't making any money on our house, but God has definitely made it easy for us to walk away from our house with no extra expenses.

For the past few weeks Jason has been in Colorado Springs with the girls and I have been home alone. It has been quite the adjustment for us all, but we have managed to get by with weekend visits. I hate being the weekend parent. I know Jason hasn't exactly enjoyed being the single parent either. The girls have had their moments of acting out, but that can be expected due to not having mom and dad together and not living in your own house. Living with Jason's aunt and uncle has helped out a lot with the transition. They are such wonderful people and I am grateful to call them family.

Due to getting a contract on our house so quickly, I felt it was necessary for me to make preparations towards quitting my job. Telling my students I was leaving ended up being one of the hardest things I have had to do. There were quite a few students who were pretty upset about my leaving. I guess that can be a good thing. I wouldn't want anyone to be pleased with my departure. Part of me was glad and relieved to be leaving because this year has been so stressful for me. The other part of me was being dragged out kicking and screaming because I felt so bad for leaving my dear friends I had made at my work, and ultimately I was leaving my class. What a great group of kids I was blessed with over the years.

I put in my two week notice on the 20th, and yes, I am now unemployed. Yesterday ended up being my last day due to two snow days last week. I did not have to put in an extra day, but I did. I needed to say goodbye to my kids and my co-workers. I needed that closure, and I'm sure everyone else needed it too. Being there yesterday probably helped the kids with the transition between me and their new teacher, too.

Yesterday was a hard day for me. Although I have had moments where I have been so frustrated and upset with situations and specific people, overall my school had been good to me. There are amazing kids with amazing families in a community that truly did care about what I did as a teacher. This was my first teaching job. I guess every teacher holds a special place in their heart for their first class as well as the first school they taught at. If you haven't guessed it already, I am a very sentimental person.

My dear friend, Erin, had purchased a beautiful scrapbook and put together pictures of each of my students along with wonderful notes from every kid. I nearly cried right then, but I knew that if I were to begin reading the messages, I would most definitely cry. I did eventually cry when I read all the wonderful messages from my students. It amazed me (I don't know why) to see how many students wrote about how I had impacted them and their attitude towards school. I know I am in a position to influence my students in a positive manner, but I never really think about it. Being a teacher is often a thankless job which can be hard for someone like me who needs words of affirmation every once in a while.

Now that this chapter of my life is officially over, I am ready to move on to this new phase in my life. The moving truck arrives on Friday and we are packing up this weekend. That should be interesting. Leaving our first house. I had just found out I was pregnant with Meghan when we bought this house. This is the only home my girls know. Again, I am a very sentimental person and there are TONS of happy memories in this house. This house has suited us very well, but we always knew that it wouldn't last too long. There will most definitely be tears of sadness, but they will also be accompanied with tears of joy and anticipation for when we eventually buy our next new home. Whenever that will be. Hopefully our new house will be better suited to fit us long-term. I don't want to move around often.

Now all I need is a job.

Trusting God

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I last blogged. There has been a TON of new developments in my life recently that have consumed me like no other.

Here's the big news: we are moving. Yes, we are moving. This whole situation seems quite insane, but Jason and I have resolved ourselves to the idea that the crazier it sounds, the more confident we are that we are doing the right thing.

This all started a month ago (yikes! Yes, only a month ago) when we went to Colorado Springs over Labor Day weekend. While there, both Jason and I had gotten a strong sense that we needed to leave Greeley and move back to Colorado Springs. We had kicked around this idea off and on over the years but never felt that it was our time. I remember while on our visit one day I was praying and asking God to give me some sort of sign to let me know that the feelings I was having about moving back to the Springs were real and true and from Him and not just some fabrication of my own.

A couple days later Jason had come to the conclusion that it wouldn't hurt if he were to begin perusing the ads looking for a new job. He soon called my mom to get some advice on updating his resume as my mom is definitely the queen of writing good resumes. Not feeling that it was safe to share with her all the information yet, Jason just informed her that he was feeling bored at his job (which he was) and felt that he needed something a little more challenging for him. After offering some suggestions to his resume, my mom then asked Jason if he had ever considered looking in Colorado Springs. Yeah, it still gives me goosebumps just to think about it. This was the sign I was praying for.

My mom said that while she was visiting some friends over Labor Day weekend, she too felt that my little trip to the Springs was going to be pivotal and that we are needed back in Colorado Springs. God is so cool. When I had learned of this, I was overcome with tears and the realization that God had answered my prayer. I know He answers prayers all the time, but I can't recall a time where He had answered it so quickly.

Needless to say, Jason found a job posting and applied for the job just four days after our trip over Labor Day weekend. Within 10 minutes of sending his letter of interest and resume, Jason got a response. This company had been looking for someone for months and were ecstatic at the thought of Jason's qualifications and his willingness to relocate in such a short period of time.

After a lot of phone conversations back and forth with Jason, the company eventually called Jason in for an interview. What made this process so exciting was that once this company heard of Jason and his qualifications, they immediately took the job advertisement off the listing. They only wanted to speak with Jason. Very cool. I know he's a pretty cool guy to work with, but it's neat to hear that others are feeling the same way. Jason went in for his interview, and got offered the job that same evening. God was definitely working here. It sounds like a neat company that has great benefits and are willing to train Jason with the possibility of making him not just the Payroll Director, but eventually the Human Resources Director. Too cool. I am so proud of him. Jason starts his new job next Monday. I know. This has been very quick. He is starting his new job about a month after he applied for the job. The thing that makes this whole situation so amazing is that this position was THE ONLY one open at this time.

These next few weeks are going to be crazy. Jason is taking the girls with him when he starts his new job next week. We are grateful to Jason's aunt and uncle who have graciously opened up their house to us and are allowing us to use their basement temporarily until we find a place of our own.

Jason had taken it upon himself to help me out and find a daycare. I drove down to the Springs yesterday and took a look at the daycare which will work wonderfully. The nice thing is that it is only about 5 minutes away from Jason's new job. WAY better than the 45-minute drive we have been dealing with lately. The reason why Jason has to take the girls with him is because my daycare opens at 6 and I have to leave my house around 6 to get to work by 7. This was not going to work out for me.

Unfortunately, I have to stay in an empty house all by myself. I am going to be so lonely. Thankfully I have gotten offers from a great friend and co-worker as well as my parents to let me stay with them occasionally so I don't get too lonely. The other thing is that we are putting our house on the market soon (today) and the emptier the house, the better. I know that the market isn't looking all that great right now, but Jason and I are both confident that this is our time now and God will take care of it. One thing we have going for us is those last-minute first time home buyers who want to get in on that tax credit which expires December 1st. This house will sell. We have improved on it since the last time we tried to sell the house.

As for me, I am staying at my job until something opens up. Although there are days that I want to just get up and leave out of frustration with my boss, it isn't wise to do so. I have a feeling it won't be much longer for me though. I wouldn't be surprised if I get something that gets me started after Christmas break. That isn't too horrible. That's just 10 weeks of school left. I can handle it...hopefully. I know that there really isn't that much open for me as a teacher, but God is taking care of it. I am hopeful with the only prospect that is out there right now and that means I could possibly be working at the school for the Deaf there in the Springs. I don't know if this is where I will end up, but I am trusting God and doing my part in this crazy puzzle.

The thought of that terrifies me. Not that Deaf people are scary, but I feel so inadequate sometimes. I know I was an interpreter for about 5 years, but for some reason I don't feel good enough. I know I have a lot to offer as someone who grew up with a sibling who had a profound hearing loss. Jason reminds me that it is the times where we feel the most inadequate that God takes us and uses us for His glory. Okay God. I'm ready.

Here we go on this amazing new journey in our lives that has stretched us, grew us in faith, and trusting in God and His plan for our lives.

Adventure At 6 O'Clock In The Morning

I look forward to Mondays these days.

Part of the reason why I like teaching at my school so much is because I am off on Mondays. I take that time for myself. These days are mostly consumed with piles of papers to grade and planning for the next week's lessons. I also like Mondays because I can sleep in past 4:30 which is my usual wake up time during the week.

This morning started like any other. Jason woke up early (before his alarm clock) and started getting ready for work. He is also known for taking long walks in the mornings before he leaves for work.

I was woken up around 6:15 this morning because the phone was ringing. You know how it is, you are woken from a deep sleep because of a somewhat familiar sound. I was definitely disoriented, and was unable to get to the phone before it stopped ringing. I looked at the Caller ID and was puzzled as to why there would be an 800 number calling me this early in the morning. How strange. I proceeded to go back to bed.

Laying in bed and unable to go back to sleep, I started to think about what my day was going to be like. Suddenly, I heard my front door slam open, and I heard, "POLICE!" WHAT??? Is this really happening? In MY house? Did I really hear what I thought I heard? I raced down the stairs to find a flashlight beaming up my stairs and a police officer standing in the doorway.

"We're here ma'am because we got a call from your alarm company that your front door has been breached, so we came right away."

"Oh my goodness!" I explained to them that it must have been Jason who was leaving to go on his morning walk. Just then I see Jason running down the street towards us. The concern on his face was very evident as he caught the sight of three police cars sitting in front of our house.

We explain to the officers that Jason must have set off the alarm when he went through the front door this morning for his walk. We don't really set the alarm every night, but mainly when we remember. I didn't hear the alarm from all the way upstairs, and I didn't get the phone, so the next step was for the alarm company to call the police.

I felt so bad that the police had to be called so early in the morning for a stupid mistake, but I am thankful that it worked. Since we got our alarm system put in a couple years ago, I have been thankful for that added sense of security, but have always been wondering if it actually works. Well, now I know.

I thanked them as they left and definitely appologized for their waste of time. As they were leaving, one of the officers looked at Jason and said, "We need you to come with us so we can settle things. Why don't you sit in the back of my car, and we can give you some nice silver bracelets too!" He joked. It's funny how they can be so serious one moment, and the next minute they start joking around! We laughed and were very thankful that this was all just a silly mistake.

What makes this even funnier is that the girls slept through this whole incident! They had no idea that just moments before they woke up, there were three police squad cars sitting outside our house with officers prepared to deal with an unwanted intruder!

Whew! What a morning! I appreciate the time the officers took to make sure we were safe, but I hope I won't need their help like that again!

Pixie Dust

Yesterday my mom and I were hard at work re-doing the girls' room.

Shortly after Jason and I moved in our house in the summer of 2004, we did a lot of painting in various rooms throughout the house. That summer my mom and I painted one of the spare rooms and put up a nice border that helped it seem pretty inviting for a spare bedroom.

The girls have been using that room for quite some time now (it works wonderfully for their bunk bed), and I finally decided that we needed to change things to make it more like a little girl room instead of a spare room.

I found some adorable "Tinkerbell" border at Home Depot which matched wonderfully with our already green walls. My mom hosted an "Uppercase Living" party last month and got a wall decoration for free and decided to get something to go along with our "Tinkerbell" theme. The saying says, "All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust." I am very excited with how it looks. Here is how it turned out:

This picture shows the border and some extra stickers I bought that went along with the border. I love the little saying. It is so cute and it works wonderfully for a little girls' room. Here are some more pictures of what we did:

I put these stickers on the wall by Audrey's bed. Meghan has one on her wall similar to Audrey's too:
The girls like how they each have their own Tinkerbell sticker by their bed. I am very pleased with how things look.

Life Changes

This past summer Jason and I put our house up for sale. There was a lot of work that went into doing that and maintaining the house. Most of the house maintenance fell on my shoulders as I was conveniently home all summer. I feel that it was a positive experience for us to have our house up for sale because we became more aware of some of the minor problems we had with our house. We also got to hear that there were many prospective buyers who thought we had a nice house and it was well taken care of. This did help me become more satisfied with what I have as far as my own home. I needed that. There are some times where I still see our house as the disheveled house we once had when we bought it as a foreclosure about four and a half years ago. Unfortunately, God had other plans and we decided to take our house off the market last month. I was somewhat disappointed because I was liking the idea of having a different house with more possibilities, but I should be happy that I even had the choice to get a new house and that I can still afford to pay my mortgage.

A couple weeks ago Jason and I drove down the street to take all our old furniture out of the storage unit we were paying for while we had our house on the market. We wanted the house to seem as clutter-free as possible as that would be more appealing to buyers. It was a little hard for me to take those things out of storage because I was remembering all the feelings I was having while moving everything in there. All the hopes, dreams, excitement, etc. just seemed to be floating away. I still a little sad with the thought, but I know in my heart that God has something else in mind for us, but I just don't see it yet.

It has been nice using some of our old "forgotten" items such as our family pictures. I never realized how empty my house felt without my pictures all over the walls. We also decided to put our girls back in one room again. This past winter we went out and bought a nice bunk bed for the girls as we felt that Audrey was no longer needing her toddler bed anymore. Meghan gets to sleep on the top bunk, which she loves and is totally safe in, and Audrey has no problems getting in and out of bed on the bottom. That left us with an extra bedroom to use as we pleased. Jason decided we needed a little "office" with our computer there instead of a little nook we have at the top of our stairs. This was a task he decided to tackle all on his own this past Sunday while I was with the girls at a church function in the afternoon. I got some cute pictures which I will be posting within the next week.

The girls are just thrilled to be sharing a room again, and it is REALLY nice having a nice, bright room to work in. Especially when I am grading papers. Our computer nook just got too dark sometimes. The only problem that occurred with the great move around was that something funky happened to our computer. Everything has power, but it seems that the monitor isn't receiving a signal from the computer itself. I'm not a computer genius, but I do know how the basics of how a computer is hooked up. We tried everything to get it to work. It appears as though our video card might be messed up, but I don't know what we are going to do with that. The thing that upsets me most is that I have ALL of our family pictures on that computer from before I had the girls. Anyone know a cheap way to extract all those files???

Jason and I had talked about getting another computer anyways because we are always fighting over who gets to use the computer and when. This just seems to be the push we needed to make that final decision. My new computer should be here by early next week. I am so excited. I get my own computer! Yay! (I am currently using Jason's work computer until we can get our new computers).