April 19th-23rd 2010: The longest week of our lives!!!

This has been the craziest week of Scott & my life!! SO many things happened in a matter of a week I'm not sure I can remember it all, so I must blog about it so YEARS from now, we can look back & laugh about it (because we couldn't laugh about a few days ago!!)

Here is a time line of events:

Monday, April 19th 2010:

Scott & my dad loaded EVERYTHING we owned in 2 U-Haul trucks. (Lance came & help with some big things)

The girls & I went to my parents' house in Perry to spend the night so the girls would stay in Perry when Scott & I closed on BOTH houses on Tuesday...that was "the plan".

That night, I was unaware, our lender guy called Scott about 7pm & told him there we were waiting on a document that we needed to close, but he thought it was going to come in by 4pm the next day.

Tuesday, April 20th :

I got up early & drove back to Edmond & left the girls in Perry. I got to the house & Scott had cleaned it. We said our "goodbyes" to the house, Scott was emotional...he had done a lot of work to that house! Then he told me about the phone call the night before. I was a little nervous, but thought it would show up by closing time.

At 1pm, we closed on our house & handed over the keys to a young man named Josh Milborne.

At about 2, we needed to reschedule our closing day & time. We rescheduled it for the next day @ 5pm. We asked the owner of the house (she had already moved out) if we could move our things into the garage. She agreed to that. We unloaded the two vans & returned them before 6pm (but JUST barely) & saved ourselves some money.

We went to Perry to stay the night.

Wednesday, April 21st:

We hung out at my parents' house for the morning. We came back to take Lydia to school. We also found out that the document was so not here so there would be NO closing on Wednesday either. We asked if we could "lease" the house from the owner so we could at least move our stuff INTO the house. We scrambled to get her a check for $400 to last until the end of the month until we closed. Then an hour after she agreed to it, she changed her mind & wanted to talk to the main realtor, who was on a cruise that week!!

We stayed at my parents' house for a third night!

Thursday, April 22nd:

At this point, we are getting worried!! Everytime Scott's cell phone rang, we held our breath because it usually wasn't good news!! Thursday was the HARDEST blow of the week!! We were told that the orginal lender couldn't do our loan & we were being transfer to Spirit bank to see if they could. Remember, we had trouble with the financing anyway because of the ZERO credit score. We were told IF Spirit Bank could do it, we wouldn't close until the following Friday!!

On top of that, the owner said we could lease the house from her until it closed, but in addition to the $400, she also wanted $10,000 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit that would go to the sell of the house. But IF the house didn't close, we would lose that money & that was a gamble we were NOT willing to take!!

We did decide to stay at Tori & Russ's unstead of driving ALL the way back to Perry again.

Friday, April 23rd:

Three days after we should have closed, we were STILL HOMELESS!! We were beginning to feel like we made a mistake by selling our house. We felt hopeless & Scott even was looking at rent houses & called on one that morning.

But BY THE GRACE OF GOD, Scott got a call about 10:30am from our realtor, Jennifer. The lender GOT the document & we were closing at 4pm THAT DAY!!! Scott called me & told me & I just CRIED!!! (I'm not a "crier", but that was how releaved I was!!!)

My mom came down to watch the girls & we closed & then we could breathe!!!

We were SO happy!!!

My mom, Jen & Day & Lance came to help us move our stuff from the garage into the house....we had our WHOLE house set up that weekend!! We were SO HAPPY to be IN!!

The girls were SO excited!! They have adjusted SO well!! I think they were just happy to finally be "at home"!!

We are LOVING the space & I know we will make many wonderful memories here in this house!:)

God has provided for us!! Thanks be to God!!

Goodbye old house!!!

We are moving!!

We bought our first home in Edmond in June 2001 for $75,000. It is 1132 square feet, 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage. We paid it off in March 2005. We have been in this house for almost 9 years, but it was time for more space...(and a different neighborhood school!)

729 E 29th has treated us well.....it kept us warm & dry & we brought our babies home to it, but now we start a new chapter....

Take care of the next owner, 729....bring them many wonderful memories as we have had...

If these walls could speak....

Lydia's first haircut

After the hair cut

Before the haircut

Lydia is five & has NEVER had her hair cut...she never needed it. She was born bald & it took forever to come in! But on Friday, she decided (I think Nana had something to do with it) that she wanted a "short cut"...she meant "hair cut".

So we went to SuperCuts & got her hair cut. She LOVED IT!! She looks so grown up! The next day she wanted it straight, so I straightened it for her...she was beaming!!

Lydia is a Christian!!!

WOW!!! We are so excited that Lydia has accepted Christ as her Lord & Savior at a young age!!

It all started on Monday...

Lydia & Caraline were jumping on Lydia's bed & for some reason, Lydia bit Caraline's hand. Caraline started crying so Scott ran in to check on her.

He asked Lydia what happened. She said that Caraline fell & hit the wall, but that wasn't true. The truth finally came out & Scott was upset Lydia lied. So he told her to stay in her room, he was going to come back to spank her for lying.

Scott shut her door & I heard her talking to herself, "Why did I do that?! Why did I lie!?! Why does God make me lie!!?? I'm mad at God!"

Scott walked in her room & she asked, "Why does God make me do bad things?" He said, "That is a question for your mother!" I was ready!! (Or God equipted me with the words!)

She asked me the same question. I asked her, "If we never sinned, would we need God?" She said "No" We talked about how God can't look at sin & Jesus died on the cross for her sins & he took her place when she should have been punished for those sins.

She looked at me & said, "I want to be a Christian." I said, "Do you know what to do?" She shook her head. I said, "All you have to do is pray a prayer that you believe in Jesus & that you believe that he died on the cross for your sins & rose again!"

Lydia & I prayed that prayer & she hugged me & started yelling, "I'm a Christian!! I'm a Christian!!" She was BEAMING!! She was dancing & so excited!

She was hugging me & Caraline, she called Nana & told her & called daddy to tell him!

She was on cloud nine! She told her teacher, she even told the lady at the dr office!! She was really proclaiming it to everyone & anyone!!

We celebrated by having a pizza picnic!

What a sweet experience!! She is so excited & we are so proud!! I pray that we can nurture that relationship with the Lord.

God is GOOD!!

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord & believe in your heart that God raise Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

"We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in the same way, no matter who we are or what we have done." Romans 3:22

Full Circle

3 years ago I wanted to get the girls Easter pictures done. I planned on going to Portrait Innovations. But Scott suggested that I dress them up in the Easter dresses, take them to the park & take the pictures myself. Brillant!! So I did & was VERY pleased with the pictures & that was before I had my SLR camera!!

I did it again this week. We went to Hafer Park (we usually go to Fink, but I think it has too much red mud) & it was the only park that I found that had GREEN grass & flowers considering we had a snow storm 3 days before! I discovered picnik.com & I could really edit these pictures! THey turned out really cute!

Here are some pictures from the last three years of Easter pictures:

"He is not here; he is risen like he said"

Matthew 28:6

We have a winner!!!

We have a winner!!

I went to Perry early Tuesday morning, thinking that if the girls were out of the house it would be cleaner longer for showings. On Tuesday we had 4 showings, 1pm. 2pm. & 2 people came at 6pm. Scott had to turn down a showing at 7 that day because at 5 o'clock that evening, the realtor called to tell us we had TWO offers!!

The first offer that came in was for $108,000 (asking price $108,900) asked for the washer & dryer, frig & $1000 of the closing costs. The 2nd offer was for $110,000 & $3400 of closing costs. It was a hard decision, but we decided to go with the first offer.

We put the sign in the yard on Sunday late morning, 7 showings in 2 days & two offers after one day on the market is so incredible & God's hand was on this whole situation!

We are really excited about the new house & starting to feel sentimental about this house...our FIRST house together...the house we brought our girls "home" to...but it's time for more space & we are looking forward to meeting our nieghbors & Lydia going to Chisholm Elementary.

I'm ready to start this new chapter/season of our lives! It's going to be another adventure! Thank you God for seeing us through this!

What a difference a week makes!!!

Ok, so last Tuesday, I had decided that we could stay in this house for a few more years & that would be ok.
Wednesday morning (March 10th) Scott called me in the morning, like usual, & asked me how I slept the night before. I said "Fine, I guess." He said, "I couldn't sleep!! I'm going to make an offer on the house this afternoon after work!" I said "WHAT!?!?!?!?" He had talked to the finance guy & he worked it out so he was comfortable with the payment plan.

Well, that day we got a letter from Chisholm Elementary saying that Lydia had been denied a transfer. I was a little upset & I called Scott & told him. He said that was ONE more sign that let him know that he was doing to right thing by making an offer.

The owner accepted our offer & we put our house on the market.

My mom came on Thursday & helped me do some de-cluttering. We went to Sesame Street Live that evening & the girls had a great time!!
Scott had taken Friday off anyway so he was able to do some small repairs. He took the girls to the Omniplex that afternoon & I was able to REALLY clean before the realtor came to take pictures.

We FINALLY got a sign in the yard Sunday after church & another house down the street was having an open house & then that evening a house 3 down from us got a sign in the yard too!

We had one "stalker" on Sunday, stopping & taking pictures & camping out in front of our house for about 10 minutes too long!!

On Monday, we had THREE showing that evening!!! We hung out at Tori's from 3:45-8:15!! we had a showing at 4:30, 6:00, 7:30...& TWO more scheduled for tomorrow, 1 & 6!! ALL of those showings were with different realtors!! We got A LOT of foot traffic!! I'm praying for an offer by the end of the week!

This is really exciting!!!

Praying that the right buyer comes along to love this house as much as we have!!