Thursday, October 29, 2009

100!

So the 100th post seems to be an exciting post to have finally reached. What better thing to post about on the 100th than..............WE GOT OUR HOUSE! We closed this afternoon and after about an hour or so of signing papers we left with keys in hand and headed to the house. How amazing was it to put the key in the door and open it up for the first time as ours. We are so blessed! We immediately got to it in lifting up the carpet to take a GOOD peek (unlike the little unsure one we took a few weeks back) at what lies beneath. We have absolutely beautiful hard wood floors under there. We will be taking all the carpet up in the bedrooms and upstairs hall as well as the dinning room . I am so stoked about this as is Rodney. It is amazing to think it is finally over and ours. We will be headed back tomorrow to really get to work. The plan now is to have all the work done and at least be sleeping there by November 21 and to be completely done with everything and just sitting down to enjoy it by Thanks Giving. I look forward to the work we will do as it just brings on even more appreciation as we put our own sweat into it. Thank you to everyone who has prayed with us through this entire process that at times seemed long, trying and down right impossible. With God nothing is impossible and He has blessed us with a wonderful hone to raise our family and to honor Him! I so look forward to ever single step of it. I will be taking before and after pics and post hopefully as we go along. Hang with me though as the next few weeks could get a bit busy and I may not keep up totally. Also Colby starts basketball practice on Monday and games in December so just another thing to come and to look forward to.
"As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15

So thankful!

October marks Breast Cancer Awareness month and for me I embrace this month as one of bitter sweet but oh so much more sweet. 3 years ago in October my mom had surgery to have her cancer removed. I had just recently become a Christ follower and already felt as if my world was crumbling and felt crushed. I vowed to myself that I would turn to God and rely on Him to heal my mom. A year later (2 years ago) she went for her last radiation treatment in the month of October and a few hours later hopped on a plane to come stay with us for a week. It was so good to finally see her as I couldn't travel to visit during her year long treatment journey. October for me is celebration of my mom conquering her battle. This past Monday she had her yearly check up and had a scare. They found a lump and immediately got her a mammogram and scanned her. They found it to be clean and merely a cyst. Praise God! My mom has just come to accept Jesus as her Savior a few months ago and I am thankful for that. I pray He keep her free of cancer forever but if that's not possible then at least until her relationship with Him is strong enough that she draws ever so close to Him for her comfort and healing instead of the opposite direction. CANCER SUCKS! I am thankful though that I have been so close to someone who has over come the battle which contradicts all the negative stories you hear so much more of with loss. There is hope! Rodney and I have come to find out this week that we are now being called to pray on behalf of a new battle with cancer in our family. Although the outlook seems to be real good, it's still concerning and at times a bit scary. We love you Randy and we are praying for you and your family!
In honor of my mom I have been working on a quilt for quite some time now and when I finally get it finished it is headed to a quilt show with my Oma (grandma) first but then I am going to auction it off on ebay with hopes of raising quite a bit of money all to be donated to the Susan G Komen foundation in my mom's name. I have never done anything like this so I am ecstatic about it. I pray God opens it up to raise a good amount to help the foundation in their research for the future of all women, but especially my mom and my daughters.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Autumn turns 6

Today Autumn turned 6! I am horrible at waiting to give people their gifts and I have had hers for about 3 weeks now so this morning I had enough. I went out to the bed of the truck and grabbed her gift and brought it in the house. I was so excited to be able to finally buy her a bike. She has never had one so this was extra exciting. Since it was raining this morning she had the chance to ride back and forth through the house. After a yummy breakfast we all headed out to Dakotah's last game and it gave Autumn a chance to ride for real, outside on some pavement. She had a blast even though she fell off into a nice mud puddle. After getting wet and muddy we headed to the van to stay warm and rocked out with Madi to some Hannah Montana.
Crazy birthday girl!
After the game we headed to Walmart to pick up the cake, then home to hag out as a family for the day. Autumn had got some money in a birthday card so she also had a chance to shop while at Walmart. After the Notre Dame game and pizza (Autumn's requested b-day dinner) we headed to the kitchen for cake and ice cream.
Autumn has always loved being sung to, in fact I think it's the part she waits all day for and is her favorite part. All attention on her and in her hay day on her day.
Too cute!
We all enjoyed some yummy cake and ice cream and after a load of sugar, it all began to surge through their bodies and lead to one big SUGAR RUSH!
Colby started with the freaking me out hollering and acting crazy, being loud and hollering. They all headed to the stove room and the sugar rush was in full swing. Madi and I sat by in a rocking chair and watched the chaos. Until the poor girl was dragged into it too.....
actually, I gave her up to the crazy sugared up crowd. It was fun to watch! Lots of tickling, punching, flipping around, laughing and screaming like a bunch of girls which is normal for the girls, but those boys I tell ya. I even managed to get into it for a moment just to tickle dad and make him giggle away. I love it when my family has these moments. We are very much known for these kind of beating the tar out of one another moments.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Flag football '09

Today was Colby's last game of flag football, at least as a kid. We have stuck it out with the Chiefs for 3 years. It's been a team that hasn't had the same coach from year to year and usually has had a hard time winning. This year the team seemed a bit more put together and they played good. Although they walk away this year from a 2-3 season, they played hard. Colby actually tackled a kid in one game but didn't get penalized for it, he pulled his hamstring, took a cleat to the jaw, ended up amongst a few piles and flipped once. He played quarter back about 3/4 of the season and did real good. Today he had 2 hand offs and a pitch all of which went for a touch down. He has developed a drive, passion and a love for football this year that I haven't seen form him before. With this said I am looking forward to watching him develop his game, enter into tackle next year and hopefully develop a real talent for being a quarter back. He has been such a joy to watch and listen to when he starts talking kid trash. Cracks me up to listen to a 9 year old go off about other teams and "spanking" them. I'm sad the season is over! On to basketball is where he goes from here starting in November. He has never played this sport, so it will be interesting to see how he does.




Friday, October 16, 2009

So ready to be done!!!!!!!

Well folks, we have switched gears just a bit on the house journey and it should really be done and over with one way or the other before the month ends. At this point, we are ready. I went to the prayer house today and had some time to talk with God about how I felt at this point about the whole thing. I don't want this house for me. I want this house for HIM! I want this to bring Him glory and to be a place that is used for His service, so if it's in His will then I'm all for it but if He has other plans, then I am ready to be done and really don't feel like the world is going to end like I would have a while back. I'ts so nice to be at this point. We should hear back about the second appraisal either Monday or Tuesday and if things go good then we should be closing like I said, before the month is over. If it comes back like the last one and the sellers aren't willing to either fix the issues or come down then we will walk away thankful that God didn't allow us to get into something that isn't of Him. Continued prayers are very much appreciated and desired, especially for the kids as they have gotten attached to the house and are anticipating it greatly. I am confidently looking ahead in antisipation to see what God has in store. So, until we get word again, that is the update we have.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

And these are the days of our House Buying.....

Ok, so I thought an update just might be appropriate at this time. We are/were supposed to close on the house next Thursday the 15th. Now, for those of you who caught the "were" part....I'll get there, just hang in. The last I had posted it was about how the inspection went and a bump in our loan process. Well, the loan thing panned out eventually which is good. The appraiser was sent out with in days of the inspection and then we were to wait up to 10 days for the bank to even receive it (VA loan appraisers take longer than most). Well, our appraiser apparently wanted to take advantage of the full 10 business days he had and in the mean time scare the realtor questioning her how she came up with the value of the home. Now, day 10 was up last Thursday the 1st. Rodney found out earlier this week the bank finally got the appraisal and it was going to the underwriter. Well, Rodney checked online this Friday morning the 9th and saw that it had come in and came in LOW! It came in so much lower that we can't foresee the sellers coming down. We have switched gears a bit and are trying out a different avenue that will possibly get us a lower interest rate, a new appraisal done some time this coming week and then we will see what they have to say. If everything goes well, we could look to close in 2 weeks, hopefully before November. Now, back up to the appraiser....apparently the realtor was nervous about him because he has a not so nice rep. Well we kind of brushed it off since it was only one's opinion. Yea, well now apparently our loan rep has told the realtor they have had quite a bit of issues/trouble with this guy before. They offered to send out another but then it would be another 4 weeks before we could possibly close.
I see this new step as a great possibility for us to get a better deal with interest rate, but I'm also a bit nervous of if this next appraisal comes back low too. Will the sellers see this as an issue they can't run from and lower the price for us or will we be back at square one? More continued prayers please! This has been both an exhausting experience as much as a joyous one.