WE'VE OFFICIALLY MOVED!

We spent our first official night at our new house last night (Sunday night)!

The storage units arrived Thursday while I was cleaning the house, John and I unloaded most of 1 on Friday night, and then we had a couple friends come over Saturday morning to unload the rest with us.

The rest of Saturday was spent organizing boxes and beginning the ever-fun task of unpacking!

Thank God my parents watched the kids for us all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We could NOT have gotten this far without their help!!

By Sunday I had the kitchen pretty much organized and put away (but still quite cluttered..which I hate!), and all the bedrooms were at least ready to be slept in. :)

Today, Monday, we were able to get more unpacked and even make a run to the grocery store and Lo*we's for some odds and ends we wanted to make the house function better....little by little we're getting there. Thankfully, John has taken the whole week off so we can be completely done with the unpacking by the end of the week.

Here's a few pics of the process

The BEFORE shot:

Becca and Andrew rolling around on the new carpet on Thursday. You can catch a glimpse of the new tile and of course can see the new paint and carpet too in this shot:)

Saturday morning we discovered a new "pet" swimming in our pool..a little frog. :)

the AFTER shots.

what a mess!!!!

this one's a little fuzzy -but gives you a good look at just how cluttered my home is

finally got the kids' rooms set up..not decorated, but at least set up!

our pool was getting scuzzy looking quickly every week..so we had a new pool guy come out on Saturday to show us around our pool a bit (since we've never owned a pool and don't know much about them yet)..he said our pool was getting so dirty cuz our filter was SO clogged up it wasn't able to really catch much....so Sunday afternoon John took on the task of cleaning the filters.

Disgusting doesn't begin to cover what they were like.

You can see how brown they are....and they're supposed to be white!

It took John a good hour or more to completely clean all 4 filters-but now the pump runs great and the pool looks so sparkly clean! :)

That's the news from around here. :)

For those that have emailed me lately, I promise to get back to you as soon as I can-I'm just gonna be slower than usual right now. :)

Oh -and for those that might have emailed us on Friday or Saturday, our email was down as our provider was "moving" our account. I know quite a few people emailed us and the emails bounced back to them...so just resend them. :)

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

We are FINALLY home owners again. :)

After a sticky situation with getting our loan (our lender had a VERY ridiculous qualification for me to meet) and then our seller missing a FedEx dealine for mailing their closing documents, we FINALLY got the call today at 1pm that the loan had been funded, the documents reviewed, and our names recorded as the proud new owners of this home!

yipppppeeeeee!

We're aiming for moving in on Labor Day weekend...hoping that gives us ample time to have the tile ripped up, replaced, and pretty much the whole house painted. oh -and a pool fence installed. :)

I'm going to ask our painter if he can paint the kids' rooms while he's there. I wasn't going to do that before we moved in, but figure while I have a professional there I might as well. So now I have to obsess over more paint. :) The boys room should be fairly easy...the girls room is going to be pink again...but I didn't do a good job of picking out pink at the last house (it's a REALLY tough color to get right!) so I'm gonna be obsessing over pink for awhile. :)

FINALLY!

Just a glimpse of our new backyard. :)

After 8 weeks of looking at more than 80 homes and writing 7 offers...we have a house under contract!!!

We still have the inspection and appraisal to get thru, but we think everything will go just fine.

We saw this house on Friday and immediately thought "this feels right...so what's wrong with it?!" John, our realtor, and I all walked thru the house at least 3 times to make sure everything was OK..and we couldn't find anything wrong! We sent our offer over Friday night, received the owners' counter offer Saturday afternoon, we countered Saturday evening and by Sunday at noon we got the call that they had accepted our counter! That sure was fast! a nice change from dealing with banks that take 2-4 weeks to respond,

It's not "ideal" or "perfect", but of all the houses we've seen, it suits us the best.

The backyard is the best selling point, as you can see above. All along, we've found homes where the actual house is great, but there is no backyard....or vice versa..a great backyard with a house that just doesn't work for us. This house is the perfect marriage of a great backyard AND a good floorplan.

You can't really see it in the picture, but you can get a glimpse of the grass...the grass extends all along the side of the house giving the kids a HUGE area to run and play in...not to mention the awesome built in BBQ and fireplace next to the pool!

Now I'm knee deep in picking out paint colors and lining up estimates for pool fencing and tile guys (we want to re-tile the inside and I've talked John into at least thinking about doing it BEFORE we move in rather than after!). But at least this is fun work! :)

SWIM LESSONS-AGAIN!

Andrew and Rebecca are back in swim lessons -last week and this coming week. This time around their lesson is 45 minutes long. Sitting out for 25 minutes in June was tough...but it pales in comparison to sitting outside for nearly an hour (by the time we get there, have lessons, and leave)in July! Friday it was 112..and this is our "monsoon" season so it's VERY muggy. I actually took a towel with icepacks in it and laid it over my chest the entire time!

Another way for me and E to keep cool while watching the kids swim is to bring a squirt bottle. :)

I bought a little travel Dora Aquadoodle for little Miss E to play with -it usually lasts about 10 minutes. :)
Becca and Andrew doing "superman glides" on their backs

Becca jumping and swimming.

Andrew jumping and swimming
if you listen -as soon as Andrew jumps in you can hear Elizabeth cheering him on. :)

Elizabeth is finally speaking words that we can usually understand. I was actually getting a bit worried cuz she chatters constantly, but we usually cannot understand her. Alot of the time it sounds like Chinese, other times like she's trying to speak English but we have no idea what she's saying..and sometimes we just have no clue!

My sister's 5 kids spent the night last night, so grandma and grandpa had a FULL house, especially since we're staying with them too! Here's all 8 grandkids eating breakfast together.

Today John and I took the kids to the same pool they have swim lessons at so they could show daddy their skils. :)

Little Miss Fishy!

Daddy and his little ducklings. :)

**on the house front...it's a REALLY long story, but the house we've wanted for over a month is out of the running now. The short story is that we DID finally hear back from the bank and we're SO excited! That same day we went back to the house just to make sure it was still what we wanted before we signed the offer....the basement ( a finished basement home) had completely flooded due to some major issues with the house..not just a leak. We feel so protected by God! **

We have an offer in on another house and should hear back from the bank this coming week on it...there may be negotiations, they may just not respond, we don't know. There are no rules right now in the real estate game out here..making it VERY tough for a family to "just find a home!" There are 2 more homes we'll most likely offer on if we don't the house we're currently offering on. We're hoping my parents can go with us on Monday to see all 3 homes to help give us some input.

I'm hoping that, between these 3 homes, we can secure something soon!

JUST A QUICK UPDATE

Just a quick post to let y'all know we are safely, albeit temporarily :), moved into my parents' house. The move went fairly smooth. We had the 2 storage units delivered last Monday and John and I loaded up a few things throughout the week..but the main loading happened on Thursday and Friday. John loaded up 1 whole unit ALL BY HIMSELF between Thursday and Friday. I'm so impressed with him! He worked SO hard to get as much done on his own as he could -so that when our friends came to help, they wouldn't have much to do.

We ended up having 6 guys plus John on Friday night to finish loading....they started around 6pm and were done by 8pm...and that included 2 of the guys (my dad and brother-in-law) loading up the back of John's truck with wood chips from our play area!

John and I spent Saturday doing all the last minute stuff -he did the yard work and I super-cleaned the house. We took the kids back last night (Sunday) so we could have one last look around and so they could say "good bye" to their house. We thought it was important they see it empty and "just a house" because they've kept asking "when are we going home?!" Our answer has consistently been "this isn't our home anymore -we are waiting for God to give us a new home"...I don't remember exactly how the moment went, but Rebecca said something about leaving our home and Andrew said "Becca, this isn't our home anymore. We're going to stay at grandma and grandpa's until God gives us a new home to play in!". It was neat to see that he got it.

On the "new house" front, we are still waiting to hear back from the bank on our one offer...we submitted it the Tuesday before the 4th. oy vey! That seems like forever ago! We've also found a house we really like (though it's about 15 min. further away than we'd like to be)...we think we'll probably offer on it as well. It's a 2 year old home that's never been lived in...the builder went out of business while in the process of building about 10 homes on this street. In fact, about 6 other homes on the same street, in the same situation as the one we like, will be going into foreclosure by the end of this month. Can you imagine your whole street in foreclosure?! It's a CRAZY time in the market right now!

That's it from here. Andrew and Becca have 2 more weeks of swim lessons starting today-semi private lesssons this time around -meaning no more than 3 kids in a class and it will be twice as long -so almost an hour. I'm actually pretty excited to see how they do. Both have progressed so much this summer, I'm hoping this final session of lessons will really help them be comfortable with the concept of swimming.

Hopefully I'll have some pics to post soon....and maybe some good news about us finally having a home! :)

SWIM LESSONS!

Finally -a long overdue post! :)

Today is our first day without swim lessons! Not sure if I'm happy about that or sad. It certainly is nice to have my mornings back, especially since we're moving in 10 days..but the kids SO enjoyed their lessons the last 4 weeks-and they improved so much in that time.

The first 2 weeks Andrew and Becca were in the same class and Elizabeth sat with me, just watching them. The second 2 weeks was a bit crazier. :) Rebecca repeated her class just to gain more confidence, Elizabeth and I got into a "mommy and me" class at the same time Becca was in her class, and Andrew moved up to the next level after "beginner".

For the first 4 days Andrew's class was at the same time as Becca's and Elizabeth's class...but he wasn't doing well in it. He's a very timid kid when it comes to new things so I knew this next level would be a bit hard for him but thought he'd do ok. Unfortunately there were 4 other kids in his class and ALL 4 of them were much better swimmers than he AND his teacher wasn't the best I've seen. She really ended up working with the other 4 and leaving Andrew to just hang on the side of the wall. In a 25 min. class, I'd see him "swim" maybe 3 or 4 times.

I was getting a bit frustrated as well as just sad for Andrew. In 4 days he regressed so much because his confidence was shot. See, in the first session, Becca's and Andrew's teacher was Miss Vicki..I'm telling you-she's the best teacher EVER. She either really loves what she's doing or she's a great actress. :) To our surprise, she was also teaching Becca's class the 2nd session so Becca has absolutely excelled at swimming over the past month. I noticed that she was teaching the same level of class Andrew was in, but just 1/2 hour later. And-there was only 1 little girl in that class. Soooooo....on day 5, we switched Andrew into Miss Vicki's class...which meant we had to be at the pool an entire hour (in 110 degree heat no less!)-but WELL worth it to see Andrew gain his confidence back.

enough writing :) Here are some pics and video of the last 2 weeks. None of the videos are too long so they won't take up a lot of your time. :)

Andrew swimming to his teacher, Miss Vicki, and then back to the wall-so proud of him!

Miss Elizabeth jumping into the pool -her FAVORITE thing to do. All thru class she'd point to the wall and say "jump! jump! dat way mommy jump!"

My little fishy, Becca, showing us how she floats and swims!

This is so cute! Since Becca was in class the same time as E and me, Miss Vicki would swim Becca over to our side of the pool and "deliver" her to me. She didn't want Becca getting out of the pool without mommy close by -great teacher huh?! After a few days Elizabeth figured out this was a regular occurrence and by the end of class would start looking for Miss Vicki and Becca to start swimming to her. :) She'd forget all about her class and start yelling "Becca!" and then trying to swim. Elizabeth LOVED Miss Vicki too -so as you can see in the video, when they'd get close, Vicki and I would "trade kids". :)

I'm SOOO proud of how well all 3 of my kiddos did this past month! Becca has especially taken to swimming...able to stay under water for nearly 10 seconds, all the while swimming under water. She REALLY enjoys it too...we might have a future competitive swimmer in our family (no small surprise since I have a cousin who was a phenomenal swimmer in her CA high school days!).

this was the last day of class -the other kids in both kids' classes didn't show up so Miss Vicki said she'd just put Becca and Andrew together so we could leave earlier. :)

in her little swim shirt, and her hair slicked back -she totally looked like a little surfer girl..especially when we'd play with the kick board -she'd immediately sit on it like it was a surfboard -tooooo funny!

Last but not least -here's what Ginger thinks about moving! :)

we move in 10 days..to my parents' house. We found another house last week but before we could even put an offer in on it, it was sold. UGH! It went on the market Wednesday morning, we saw it Wednesday night, signed our papers Thursday morning, our realtor went right back to his office to send it -called the listing agent to say our offer was on the way and were told, don't bother, the bank just accepted another offer. We've now offered on 3 different foreclosure homes...and all 3 banks have handled it differently -VERY FRUSTRATING! We KNOW our house is out there, just a matter of trusting God to bring it to us in His perfect timing.

STILL NO HOUSE-PLEASE PRAY. :)

Well, we still have no house to move into. The 2nd house we bid on we didn't get either. We're the only ones offering on it and we've made a very good offer (and I'm not just saying that! We offered the same price/sq.ft as the comps in the area)...but the bank has basically refused to negotiate. The bank is on the other side of the country and apprently isn't listening to their agent about the market here -where houses are losing value daily.

We've seen a few other homes that would work if they absolutely had to, but we just don't feel a peace about them.

If we don't find a house by this weekend we'll be moving in, temporarily, with my parents.


We feel pretty defeated and disappointed right now. We truly did not think finding a home would be this difficult. We know we're being a bit picky because, after all, we want to stay in this house A LONG LONG TIME...but we do think we're being reasonable. We're overlooking weird paint colors (people -if you're trying to sell your house-repaint rooms with bright neon colors!), terrible, or literally no landscaping, even overlooking outdated things such as countertops and cabinets. We're trying to focus on finding the right floorplan with a decent yard in a decent location.

We KNOW, down deep, God has the right house for us and that He'll bring it in His perfect timing-but right now we both feel a bit hopeless.


Would you pray for us? Of course pray that He would bring the right house quickly OR that the bank would have a change of heart and negotiate with us (that would be a miracle!!). But also pray for us to be able to have peace about being right where God wants us. He's definitely growing our faith and patience right now!


This is the kids' last week of swim lessons so check back by the end of this week and I'll have some pics posted..maybe even some video! All 3 are doing SO great!

FATHER'S DAY AND OTHER STUFF

Father's Day was hopefully a good day for John. :) We started out the day at church, then hung out at home until dinner time. For dinner, we headed over to my parents house so we could ALL get together. 6 adults, 1 teen- ager, and 8 kids = a full house!

Below are some pics:

I thought the one above was too funny, it says "you people bore me!" :)

Here's pretty much the whole gang at my parents -minus me (taking the pic) and my dad who everyone is looking at as he opens his presents. :)
it's hard to tell in this pic, but Elizabeth is giggling and squealing as the fan blows her hair. We have ceiling fans in all of our rooms, and in the room the kids sleep in, we have another fan, but it's aimed "up". I don't think she's ever actually felt a fan blow on her. It was so fun to watch this unexpected "first". :)

Everyone has been asking how we're doing with our house hunt and all. We still don't know exactly where we're headed in a few weeks. Right now, it's looking like we're crashing at my parents for awhile..not optimal, but better than nothing.

We do have an offer on another foreclosure house and still have not heard anything yet -our offer went in first thing last Thursday morning. The bank has lost ALOT of money on this house, so our agent said it may take them longer to look at offers simply because they have to be really careful about who they select to buy it. Because we're considered a "very strong buyer", we're hoping that will sway the bank in our favor. Please pray for us. We would really like this house, but not if it's not what the Lord would have for us.

The kids seem to be doing fine with the idea of moving. They don't quite understand it, but I think they think it's a fun idea. Though Andrew has said on more than one occasion "it's taking forever for us to move into a new house!'.

Here are some pics of how the "move" is going:

the cabinets in our coffee table used to house toys on one side and school stuff on the other -as you can see -they're empty now. :)

I thought this one was too cute.

And if you can, pop over to my sister's blog to see her exciting news! I'll give you 1 hint:

ANSWERS

Well, in the last 24 hours we've received 2 answers we've been looking for:

1)what's wrong with my ear? -I have Eustachian Tube Dysfunction -basically my eustachian tube is either blocked or inflamed and therefore causing me the pain I've been experiencing. Praise God it's an "easy" fix. :) I'm on Allegra for 1 week and if that doesn't clear it up, then I take a week of antibiotics.

2)the house -we heard this morning that we did not get the house we were hoping for. They called Monday morning and wanted our "best and final" offer -and we had already learned that our previous bid was not the highest they had received...so we upped our offer to what we thought was a fair price for that house -a non-foreclosure just a few streets away is being offered at not much more than we bid for our "best and final". The email our agents received regarding this house is that "although it was a tough decision, the bank, in the end, opted for the highest bidder". We know that the bank's agent would have taken our first offer but the bank wanted to see how high they could get people to bid, so we assume the bank was only looking at the numbers and not necessarily how strong the buyers were. If the person who "won" the house ends up not being able to qualify for their loan, then we will be contacted.

We're not holding our breath or sitting by and waiting for that to happen...so tonight, after the kids go to bed, we'll start weeding thru all the houses we can go see for this weekend.

To say I'm bummed is an understatement. I really wanted this house. The floorplan is great, the lot is great, the location is great, the price was fabulous...but I guess it's not where the Lord wants us. What's odd is that since seeing the house on the MLS last Wednesday night, I just had that gut feeling that this was "it"...and my gut is usually right 9 out of 10 times. Guess this was the time it was wrong. :) It just seemed to be perfect for us.

The reason we want a bigger house is so that we can add children. We both feel called to adopt again, which as we all know, isn't cheap. This house seemed "perfect" in that it would allow us to add to our family cuz we'd have the space to do so AND being that it was so cheap, we could afford to adopt again sooner rather than later. The other homes we're looking at will accomodate our growing family -but the price tag on them would mean we'd need to financially wait longer to start an adoption.

As I was praying over the "why didn't our bid win?" issue with God this morning, Isaiah 55:8-9 immediately came to my mind:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the LORD.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Please pray for us in this endeavor. It's an overwhelming thought to have to sort thru MORE houses on-line and go walk even MORE houses. We have a list of about 20 more to sort thru for this weekend...we've already looked at them on-line and none of them look all that exciting-but we can't just sit back and do nothing either.

So, the hunt continues.

WE'RE MOVING!

I seriously cannot believe I'm typing this...but after only 5 weeks on the market we got a full price offer on our house. A full price offer. It's crazy! Before we signed, our agent called around and made certain our buyer is "strong" and was assured she is....so we signed on the dotted line last night.

It was funny cuz last night our agent had rented out a local theater for a private showing of Prince Caspian. We had already RSVP'd to go with my sister's 3 oldest kids. Our offer came in at 3:30 and we were meeting at the theater at 5:30 anyway..so our realtor brought all of our paperwork to the theater to be signed. :) So we sold our house, technically, at the movie theater. :)

Now we're in a bit of a crunch to find a new house! My parents have graciously agreed to let us bunk with them a few weeks in case we can't find a good house right away...so at least we have a back-up plan! We went out looking today and I was kinda disappointed in what I saw -but it was just the first day and since we had Elizabeth with us we could only see 4 houses (she needed to nap!). We want to buy the "right" house this time around..not one that just meets our needs for the moment..but one we can grow into, so we're going to be more picky.

June is going to be SO busy now! The kids have swim lessons every weekday, we have company coming next week, and now I'm gonna be packing up AND trying to find a new house. :) At least it will make the time go by quickly. :)