Meeting with Mrs. O

So today I met with the wonderful Mrs. O. It was so delightful meeting her for the first time, despite having gone to Wheaton together. And her small baby is darling! The chubby cheeks on that little man are so cute. It was very refreshing to see/talk to someone who was down to earth. Hoorah for being 'fun-employed.' The chocolate hazelnut coffee was pretty delicious (if I can say that despite not being a coffee connoisseur) as was the scone (which I can speak with authority). Maybe a little dry, but very lemon-poppy-y. Mmmm... Now I am inspired to bake delicious tasting things. But then I think of how it will go straight to my thighs and stomach, and then it seems slightly less appealing.

Yesterday I started in on the unenviable task of weeding one of the weed patches - but I wondered if it was really worth it since we are thinking of putting in a patio. Or maybe a deck. How ambitious. But then I was thankful that Spencer dealt with the two carcasses that had been in our lawn (a dead squirrel in the front found when he mowed the lawn) and a dead bird that was in our weed patch. I found that one on wednesday. Normally you would think that the bird would die by running into a window. But there were no windows there - so I suppose that would be natural selection at its finest: a bird that runs into the side of a house (no reflection) should die. According to Darwin.

Now I am sitting in my first fantasy football draft. Ever. And I have money riding on it. A lot. Could be interesting. I hope I win. Probably won't. It was pretty entertaining... Just finished. I think my brother thinks I'm an idiot. Oh well.

Well, off to Monticello where we will spend in the night, then hang with the niece and nephews.

Thanks, Mrs. O and OBaby for a wonderful morning! Can't wait until next friday.

Family and Photoshop

This weekend was full of family and food - can there be a better combination? Saturday we hosted, and on Sunday, we went up to my brother's. Here are some darling photos from this weekend. I promise photos of our house will be up soon.

98% of the way there...

so close and yet so far... closing tomorrow. painting friday. moving saturday...

baby!

my little nephew was born yesterday at between 10-11 am. Mom and baby are doing fine. 8 lbs 2 oz. Caleb Aaron!

I'm excited to see and meet my newest little one! :)

we ditched the table today, the chairs for our table have been purchased and are in transit. ah.. packing, how i long to finish you.

and so the packing commences... we close May 28th, my contract is up May 31, and we move in the weekend of June 6-8, with the wedding of one of my friends (and cousin!), Kara, on the 7.

Busy next few weeks preparing to have more 'major life changes.' I think they called it 'eustress' in 11th grade health class.

Congratulations to my friends who graduated this past weekend!

Congratulations to Lou, on the birth of her son, Gabriel.

Congratulations to Rachel, on the birth of her daughter, Micaela.

Congratulations to Danielle, on the birth of her daughter, Isabel.

Soon, I will be an aunt again... any day baby #3, Chuckers, will be born. Pray he has no food allergies and that the delivery will go well. Poor C. and S. will have some major adjustments coming - especially S.

Fjord is stalking around the apartment - I think he enjoys having boxes and piles of laundry out to hide/jump/play/sleep in.

mmm also made this delicious orange chicken recipe - I'll try to post it soon, but I'm off to do some pack/sorting before bed.

- M

Home Sweet Home

We bought a house!

That being said, it is contingent on a few things, but for the most part, we are homeowners. We close on June 30, and couldn't be more excited.

Our home is 2.5 miles from Spencer's work, so for most of the year, he will commute by biking. We were a little disappointed after our first house hunting excursion because we found a beautiful house - but it was the very first house we looked at. We said that we really liked it, but continued on and saw about 20 more houses in the same day. We went back to the realtor's office, and were seriously considering putting in an offer, but the house was bought literally 5 minutes before we called.

After that little bit, we were a bit nervous that we wouldn't be able to find a house in our price range with the things we wanted. We found one that we were going to make an offer on, but the website for doing comparable listings was down. (total God intervention). After sleeping on it for 24 hours, we were feeling very uncomfortable with moving forward, so we decided not to make an offer. As soon as we decided that, it was as if a huge weight was yanked off our shoulders. (that house is still on the market... and had been for 200+ days when we were considering buying it, nice but 'half-assed' updated).

We then came to 'the house' - cute little one story near the first home we had liked. We walked through it and decided we wanted to make an offer. We saw a few more houses before deciding to go back to the office and put together a deal. Our realtor called the seller's realtor to see if there was action on the house - there were 2 other couples thinking about putting in offers. We prayed that if it was God's will for us to be in the house that we would get it and at a price we could afford. After enlisting the parents as prayer partners, we sent off the offer. To complicate matters, our realtor was going to be at his son's play tonight, so everything (offer vs. counter offer etc.) would have to be done by text.

I was worried about the hassle of all of that considering there would most likely be a bidding war among the three potential buyers - a sellers dream. We made the offer at 4:30 and heard from our realtor around 5:15 - they had countered by moving the selling date back to May 31 - thus ensuring 2 months of rent in our apartment w/o living in it, and an extra $3,000 on the house. Our realtor thought that was a decent counter offer, but wasn't satisfied with the closer closing date - we could do it, but why waste 1 month rent? He countered by keeping the extra $3,000 added on to the price of the house, but keep the closing at June 30. The seller accepted and at 5:30 we got the call saying that it had been accepted. So much for a headache! Everything was solved long before our realtor would have been doing everything by text, and none of the other potential buyers hopped in!

Unless something major happens, we will be moving in during the month of July! We are so excited that God has led us to this home and are looking forward to meeting our neighbors. We hope that we will be a light for him on our block. God has been so good and blessed us with so much.

Pictures found HERE

I'll actually try to link the pictures in when I have more time, but it is bedtime for me (especially since I am recovering from an unknown illness... swine flu? PANIC! no... probably not)

Let's try this Again...

So I am now job hunting due to the necessity of my contract ending in May. Initially I was told that my contract would be renewed, no changes, no problem. So Spencer and I proceeded to continue on the mortgage application (more on houses later). About 3 weeks later, I found out that I would have to take a $100 pay cut per week if I wanted to stay on. Well, financially I couldn't do that, so I was honest and said I couldn't do that. Basically I was told that I needed to find another job. So I applied to work through a nannying agency. Found out yesterday that I got an interview with the agency (after having my application less than 24 hours!) so things were looking up. Then, today my boss informed me that they were turning down one daycare option, and that they hadn't heard from the other option they wanted. So now I feel slightly guilted into staying with my current family because I don't want to leave them in the lurch. However, I also have this new opportunity (assuming my personal interview goes well) to get matched with families that pay 50-100% more than what I make now. If i get one of those jobs, all our school loans and car payment would be paid off in 1.5 years. That seems amazing to me. I'm torn because I know that it is better for my little baby if I stay with him since the first 2 years is when he establishes trust. But, I would potentially be with a new family until we decide to start a family some years from now (I'm looking at an infant job). Also, I think that the mom is a little jealous that her son is so close to me - but I spend substantially more time with him than she does. Yesterday when she got home from work, Baby couldn't have cared less. He waved "bye bye" to her.

Opinions are welcome as are prayers.

Now onto the house!

We are going house hunting with a fantastic realtor in two weeks. We were told not to even look at houses or anything due to the stress buying a house can induce. However, I have to research EVERYTHING and every little aspect of everything, so I of course had to look at houses. We found one that was absolutely PERFECT - beautiful kitchen, 1.5 mi. from S. work, 4 bed, 2 bath, attached garage (2 spots) and rehabbed inside and out. Not to mention across the street from a small lake, and .5 acres of land in the back. Our realtor tried to schedule a showing for today, but the house had sold after being on the market for less than 3 days. As I said, it was perfect. So now, we leave things up to the realtor and up to God.

I'll try to post more updates on our lives...