MOVING

Moving twice in 2 weeks is not the most fun thing someone can do.  We are very grateful that the missionaries (the same two companionships of missionaries) and some branch members helped us move.  Since we had a storage unit we took a few things ourselves to the unit before moving out.  We were also able to move a few things into the garage of our new home a couple days before taking possession.  That helped lesson the load.  For the first move day, we rented a big moving truck and took a few trips over to the unit.  For the second move day, I could not find a moving truck of any size at all in the area of Columbus.  I ended up renting a pickup truck and the biggest trailer available.  Some friends who helped drove their trucks or vans and we filled those up as well.  It wasn't ideal, but it worked.

We didn't want to leave our raspberry bushes behind.  I transferred them to pots and took them with us.  Fingers crossed they don't die!

MACE FACE

We have gotten after Alex for getting into other people's things.  We also explained to the children to not touch any of the Nufer's things while we are there.  One day, I was upstairs feeding McKenzie and Alex comes up very distraught.  She said her nose hurt and I told her to rinse it off.  She did and said it didn't help.  She said something had splashed on her so I had her show me.  She showed me the mace container.  She didn't know what it was and had sprayed some in the air in front of her face.  Fortunately, she has glasses so none got in her eyes.  I called Mike and could not stop laughing.  I looked online for remedies and all I found was that it wore off after a half hour or so.  Alex paced and whined that it hurt for that half hour.  I couldn't stop laughing.  I figured the mace was punishment enough so I only made her apologize to Sister Nufer for snooping.

SUMMER FUN

Our branch president and his wife (Nufer's) let us stay at their house while we were between houses.  Fortunately, their next door neighbor is also their daughter.  Their kids played with our kids every day.  They also had a block party with yummy food and a blow up slide while we were there.  It was like we were on vacation for a couple of weeks.  We really enjoyed our time at the Nufer's and hope we did not inconvenience them.

Enjoying sparklers as our last hurrah in the rental

MCKENZIE IS 3 MONTHS

McKenzie is all smiles and we love her more every day.  The other kids especially always want to smother her with hugs and kisses.

SWIMMING LESSONS

 Alex and Shane had swimming lessons this summer.  They loved splashing around and being in the pool.  I don't think they learned much from the lessons but they had fun anyway.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

 The housing market right now is crazy.  Dozens of people bid on a single home, many of them offering thousands (or tens of thousands) above asking price.  It was quite disheartening to be so diligent in paying off our debt and trying to stay patient while we saved for a down payment only to come into the market now.  Not only that, but most of the houses were only 3 bedrooms.  Every once in awhile there would be a 4 bedroom but the layout was not what we wanted or the rooms were very small.  After only 2 months of looking a 5 bedroom house came on the market.  The layout was good, the rooms were spacious, and it was only a couple blocks away.  We (along with a dozen others) bid on it and with a miracle from heaven they accepted our bid!!  Another miracle is that it only took a month to close.  Our real estate agent is a religious man and said that God must really want us in that house for some reason because the way things worked out was not normal and never happened.

There is one small hiccup in the story.  Back in March our landlord (through the rental agency) said he wanted to sell and asked if we were interested.  We said we were not but that we were looking to move in the summer and asked for a month-to-month extension after our lease was up on May 31.  He said that was fine and we signed the papers in April.  In May, he changed his mind, said he could terminate a month-to-month agreement with at least a months notice, and asked us to vacate by July 7.  At this point we had a newborn, were unsuccessfully house hunting, and now had to look for another rental.  The problem was that no apartments were available on a month-to-month basis.  The least amount was 6 months.  We didn't know if we should sign another rental agreement or not.  Nothing felt right but as the days passed we were that much closer to being homeless.  On June 2 we made the offer on the house and a couple days later it was accepted and we were in contract!  What a relief.  The owners of the house wanted to retain possession for a month after closing to have time to close on the next house they were buying.  We contacted our landlord and explained that we were in contract to buy a house but wouldn't be able to take possession until the beginning of August.  We asked that he let us stay until that point.  He said that the latest we could stay was July 19.  We couldn't believe it.  After 4 years of being excellent tenants he shorted us 3 weeks!  Another tender mercy is that our branch president has a couple of empty bedrooms and said we could stay with them for those 3 weeks.  We now have to move all our stuff into storage for 3 weeks and then move it all again into the house.  Despite the selfish, inconsiderate, and thoughtless actions of our landlord toward us, I am trying to look at all the miracles, tender mercies, and kindness we have witnessed in this process.

Getting ice cream to celebrate closing on the house

A picture with our real estate agent.  We are holding our debt and house down payment coloring sheets.  They helped us stay on track and monitor our progress.