More Life in the South...

Mosquitos rise up out of our grass when we walk on it. Each kid has had multiple bites by now. Maybe it's b/c our grass is overwatered (see future post). William is fascinated with fire ants. He loves watching them and even proudly showed me his first bite. I think he was glad it didn't hurt as much as he had feared.

The churches are plentiful, and you should see the people dress-up at the big/old churches! Sunday best for sure! I thought I was at a wedding! (ok, yes re: us being Christ's bride and all, but I don't think He cares what you're wearing!)

These people in the South keep their cars clean and shiny! And I've seen more Mercedes and BMWs than I did in NH all the years I lived there. But I haven't seen any Subarus (thank goodness!)

Cockroaches. Houseflies. The biggest beetle I've ever seen (1.5 inches!)

The size of the BOWS in these little girls' hair.....

I'm bored.

Yes, I'm bored. There's not much to do when you don't have any friends, have no home improvement projects, won't go outside b/c it's too hot and you can't leave your precious A/C, don't want to go shopping b/c you have too much stuff and are still feeling the burn from the move (I helped the movers carry the boxes)....

I've started to look up recipes and make a meal plan/grocery list every week. THAT'S when you know it's bad. I've officially hit rock bottom. (in my world) ;))

But I'm not complaining! It's nice to (FINALLY; first time in my LIFE) have nothing to do. Oh, I'm filling my time - will start volunteering at the boys' school one morning a week, was invited to join a Bible study by one of Stephen's classmates' moms, and am trying to go to the gym three times a week. The childcare room is pathetic. The size of a large walk-in closet and they don't even play with the kids - just play videos the whole time. But it gives me a break and Lauren doesn't get to watch many of her own shows (unless you count LEGO-CHIMA as a preferred show for a two-year-old girl)....

And afternoon/evenings are definitely NOT boring. Soccer three nights a week plus Saturdays. The 6pm time slot makes dinner tough - if they eat beforehand, they will probably throw it up. It's soccer, not baseball. AND HOT. Yes, at 6pm. So we eat dinner around 7pm. It's a big trial-an-error process for me to figure out which parts of the meal to make/cut ahead of time and which meals are easiest to cook this way. Even store-bought chicken nuggets take 20-30 minutes, including preheating and cooking. Hopefully all this work will train me to be a fast, organized GOOD cook and I won't have to put this much effort into it once we buy a house and I get obsessed with my house again...  Bob and the kids are enjoying my hobby for now!

Emotional stuff

It's kind of nice to be really busy. You don't have time to sit and FEEL. Just do-do-do and deny-deny-deny. It's a great route to happiness - I recommend it!

The drive to Georgia didn't afford me much distraction, though. It was just me and my thoughts. Which, aside from anything that involves planning or doing, tends to look like Emmett's mind from the LEGO movie. I loved that part :))

I kind of went through a grieving process. I expected that I would cry for hours and hours. I thought each emotion would all run full power and then on to the next emotion. But it was really choppy. I only cried three times. One of them when a cheesy Shania Twain love song played.  I felt stunned and shocked sometimes. What did we just do?

It was WEIIIIIIIRDDDDDD to see our house empty. God BLESSED us by speeding up our timeline by TWO DAYS. I swear I was ready to walk through each room and cry. I'm SO glad I couldn't do that. Well, I did kind of do that as I made sure I didn't forget anything. The rooms I felt saddest in? My laundry room. I spent so much time in there while the kids were playing in the playroom. The lights were off in the laundry room but when I turned them on, suddenly I wasn't sad anymore. It was so stark. It didn't feel like the same room. The playroom was NOT a sad place. I would have thought it would have been. But it was empty/CLEEEEEAN. So not the same place! Lauren's room was hard. I walked up there with Megan and GASP! Saw the crib. I forgot to give it to Joel to take to the dump. So after everything they'd already done, I had to have Joel and Megan COME BACK and get the crib. I'm so sorry! I hope it wasn't hard for you!

Even now, I think about our house and it seems so surreal. So foreign, almost like it was a dream. Did we really live there? Or I think about how weird it is that someone else is living in our house. But that's our house! Are you taking care of it? Do you like it? What parts are you complaining about? ARE YOU TAKING CARE OF THE FLOWERS??!! ;)) A gargantuan task, I know. I forgive them if they aren't.

I LOVE MY FRIENDS. Can I tell you how blessed I am? From the hands-on work of Megan and Leslie who came and helped me pack MULTIPLE times. Those extra hands saved me HOURS of work. I think I would have been a basketcase or a puddle of exhaustion on the ground. They also helped clean my house afterwards. ALSO hours of work. And I know several friends took care of their kids so that they could help me. It did not go unnoticed/unappreciated!!

Life in the South is like...

Got my first taste of "Southern hospitality" within my first 24 hours (not counting Chick-Fil-a)... the moving truck driver parked the truck in a way that it made it tight for people to pass by but it was definitely doable. We had no complaints.... except one. Twice. The first time the lady came through she passed by what looked like pretty easily, and then laid on her horn for about 5 seconds! Big trucks had passed through earlier with more problems than she had and no complaints. Her little car made it through easily in comparison! She came by again later that day and actually stopped her car and yelled at the truck driver, telling him how "inconvenient" it was for her to have to drive by so slowly like that. He said she was older and had big hair so I'm blaming it on the hair spray fumes built-up over her lifetime (fair warning, Megan Eshbaugh!)

But for the most part people are SO FRIGGIN NICE here! The grocery cashiers, the WalMart greeters (even though they are paid to be nice), the movers, the cable guy, the natural gas guy, the lady on the phone at the trash company, the mail lady, the girl at the burger place, the guy at Jason's Deli, my new best friend at Schlotzsky's who I talked to about poisonous snakes (he's lived here his whole life and only seen one).

Our neighbors are awesome - one has a seven year old boy who loves Legos! We've had several playdates so far. That neighbor's grandma lives with them (lucky!) and cooks for them (lucky!) and does the dishes and makes the kids' lunches for school (lucky!) and she's SO SWEET! She made us a meal, complete with TWO DESSERTS. I was in heaven. The other neighbor brought us cookies (again in heaven) and is so easy to talk to! I've asked them about 1,000 questions about churches, grocery stores, consignment stores, gyms, preschools, poisonous snake sightings....

The kid's consignment store is like a beautiful boutique. So nicely decorated (the STORE itself, not including the clothes!) and the prices really aren't bad!

I'm sure there will be more to come!

Why am I ready to move again?

Ok. I'm definitely NOT ready to move again, but you wouldn't know it based on my obsessive behavior! The first two weeks we were here I was busy unpacking, etc. And I couldn't use my computer so I didn't really have a chance to look at homes for sale (online). But the weeks following I checked the internet multiple times a day, and when I saw a house I could envision CHANGING to what I'd want, I'd follow that up with google mapping (satellite view), tax assessor record check and drawing floorplans on how I'd change the house. PA-THE-TIC. And I REALLY don't want to have to pack/unpack again. There are so many things we love about this rental house - we need to appreciate them longer!

I know my "house" is my idol - everything about it occupies my mind, from redoing it to decorating it to organizing, etc. Plus all the home decor magazines and Pinterest and my draw-your-own-floor-plan software. It got so consuming that I sensed God telling me to stop. So after mentally arguing with Him.... okay, I give in without much of a fight. I can look at houses online once a week - Friday. It's actually kind of nice to do it this way - frees my mind!

So why am I panicking so much? Why can't I just REST and enjoy this awesome rental house God gave us! I don't understand a lot of the cause-and-effect things in my life - I don't sit and analyze myself - but besides the JOY I find in thinking about houses, I think it's b/c I'm an optimist and a planner. A planner thinks ahead to the future. I'm really bad at enjoying NOW. I'm an optimist so I'm always looking for the silver lining/hopeful and excited about something in the future. So both are "in the future, in the future, in the future". The other part of "why am I not enjoying NOW" is much bigger and much more nebulous due to my lack of soul-searching. It probably has to do with contentment (thank you, "STUCK" Bible Study!) Need to re-read that chapter.

Bob said he doesn't want to start looking at houses until November - enough time for us to settle in and get to know the area. I think that's very wise and I'm following that guideline in my heart (not wanting to "jump" on every home I like). He's good at slowing me down (and I'm working on speeding him up!) Of course two days ago the perfect house came online and I have to wait to see it in person but it's priced too high anyway and we need to make these people sweat by letting it sit there for a few months. I'm good at playing hard to get; I can do this :)) And yes, someone else can always buy the house before then and I'm really ok with that. I trust that God knows best what we want and what He wants for us. That's my whole view now with the house - God - how do you want to use this house? I'd love for it to be the teen hangout - lots of toys/entertainment things (pool! bball court! soccer field! gameroom, etc!) I'd like to think that I can keep a better eye on my kids and their friends if they're under my roof (and via the secret video cameras we will have stationed all over the house). And how can this house be used by the church we join? Will we be too far-out for it to be a convenient place to have meetings/kids events, etc? God knows how to make this work.

New Hampshire was a blessing to us in many MANY ways. One of them is what it taught me regarding housing. It really changed the way I think. If we had come straight from TX I don't think I would see things the way I do now. I would be sucked right into this world. The houses down here can be HUGE. 7,000 sf including a finished basement. C-R-A-Z-Y and no thank you. I love having the perspective we have on housing thanks to NH. Houses that are too big and too gaudy here stand out in a bad way. But the practical contain-the-heat nature of NH housing also makes us thankful for the tall ceilings/open feel of our rental house. It seems so fancy to us but it's probably just NORMAL for around here! I'm so thankful to be thankful for something that's taken for granted! To see it with new eyes! I've also learned to relax decorating-wise. No one cared in NH - it wasn't a priority. I want to take that with me and be an example of freedom. To provide a relaxed, laid-back place where people can just be themselves and don't have to worry about measuring up/comparing themselves. Don't get me wrong - I want my house too look nice. But according to my standards, not the masses'. And I hope that when the time comes to buy/decorate, I will have the desire to pray that God cover me in that process and protect me from obsessing. I want the house to be used for HIS glory, not mine.

The Great Church Search, Part 2

CHURCH #4. We may have found it.
It's not well-advertised. I saw its name on an office strip billboard as I drove by. They meet in the center of Athens, right next to campus. They have 90% 20-somethings in the service IN JULY (UGA's hasn't started yet). They are so similar in set-up and beliefs and the base denominational stuff as our old church - it's almost like it's our NH church but 10 years earlier. The people seemed so real and natural - not the "they are the greeters but they just seem too fake/sticky sweet". The kids area was really small, though, and the K and above kids sit in the big church during the summer. ??!! Have you SEEN my kids when they're supposed to act good/quiet??!!! That might eliminate US from the church, not the church from OUR search. :)) They provide crayons and coloring pages for the kids and make the sermon somewhat kid-relevant, so they're trying. The younger kid area W and Lauren went to (W was one week away from the "move-up" day) was in a large room with toys but not many kids. Later I asked a mom about the # of kids and it would be 7 kids K-2, 7 3-5. Small. How many families go to this church?? We didn't see many but heard that several were on vacation.

The music was AMAZING. The harmony was SO pretty and it had a slight country/bluegrass twang to it. We knew about half the songs (all songs we sang in NH). When the offering basket came by - it was silent. No music, no talking. It was reeeeeally awkward. But turns out they had some video glitch (they have screens up front for videos/song lyrics!) The sermon was a neat take on David and Goliath. My main takeaway is that you're not BRAVE/COURAGEOUS unless you are scared. You have to be scared first and then be brave enough to push through it. Wow.

When the pastor started his "pre-communion" talk, I looked at the communion table I'd been looking at off and on throughout the sermon and my eyes suddenly widened and it dawned on me that there were four big glasses up there with the bread pieces. Not the little plastic glasses I'm used to.... four big..... WHAT??!!! "AWW HELL NO" (with a southern accent so more like "HAY-ILL NO"), I thought. I quickly wrote a note to Bob saying "I will NOT go up there. I'm not sharing a cup. I'm sitting right here." And I mentally started to write this church off of my list. And then I tuned back in to the pastor who was saying "and when you dip your bread into the cup....."   SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Man! The RELIEF I felt. I'm no Megan Eshbaugh, but even I have a germ-sharing limit, and sharing a glass with 100 people is outside that limit!

Overall, this church may be the one. Its size is SCARY for us - we'd love the kids to have more kids in their classes, and more families to interact with (since we have to copy everything we did at our beloved NH church). This church would definitely challenge us. You can't "hide" in a smaller church. We WANT to take that next step in our spiritual lives - to be held more accountable, to be more visible, to be "pressured" to start a real, genuine, forever walk with God. Not a "salvation" walk - we're already there. But the "okay, you are fully in charge of us now, God. What is your plan for us? Why did you bring us down here?" We see this church as the type that will continue to grow, and it's kind of weird but it's so small yet so similar to our NH church that it's almost like we'd be "founders" of the church we just left. We still have one or two more to visit/re-visit but I kind of have that "recognition/knowing" feeling going on.

Church #5. The Southern Traditional.
We'd heard about this church from so many people - nearly every person we asked re: church recommendations mentioned this church. It is a "denomination" so we were a little leery of that but had heard that this didn't follow the hard/stereotypical line of that denomination. It was more contemporary/laid back. So we show up this morning and there's a police car directing traffic into the parking lot, which seemed small but you go around the corner and it curves left and right and left and right and goes on and on and on. Not big and open like a shopping center parking lot would be (I guess they are landlocked). But there were LOTS of cars. And these people were dressed to the NINES. Ok, some had maxidresses but they had cute little matching sandals and hair and makeup were perfect, etc. Even the teenage boys were dressed nice. Bob probably should have tucked his shirt in. :))

We plowed on and went straight up to the information table and a nice-enough lady walked us to the opposite side of campus to drop the kids off at their building. Two story. With two playgrounds. The lady at the information desk was the nicest person ever and the VP of the school the boys are going to had contacted her and told her to be on the lookout for us (I love this VP!) We entered the downstairs area and everything was so cutely decorated/painted, like you were going into different stores for each room. It wasn't overwhelming/in your face like Church #3 though. When we dropped William off the teacher in there was his favorite lifeguard from the pool so he walked in shyly smiling and surprisingly not complaining about anything. They keep the same teachers all year long. Quite a "burden" for those workers but what great consistency! I guess it's easier to serve in that way when there are two sermon times, thus you still get to be taught every week. The church has THREE meeting times and for the two earlier times there are two services going on at the same time, just with different music - traditional or contemporary. The pastor switches which room he preaches in every week. We went to the contemporary service and it was PACKED. The music was good - not as great as the other churches and I only knew one song but I'm starting to get used to that now :)) The sermon was ok - it's wasn't much about the Bible - was more focusing on the changes coming up in the area with all the students coming back and the importance of all of us serving each other and the church. I didn't leave motivated or filled. We can give it a "pass" since it's not fair to judge based on one sermon. Upon leaving, the traffic out of the childcare area, parking lot and street intersection was CRAZY. Thus the need for the cop, I guess.

Overall, Bob and I agree that this isn't the church for us. It's too big (it really felt like a cattle call at some points), we didn't get much out of the sermon, and it just didn't "feel" right. I did sense the judging eyes of the women sizing each other up, which I am typically immune to. But I told Bob maybe that's what God wants to do is put me in the middle of that and NOT be like that. But SHOOO it won't be in this church. I'd like to be filled, not drained on Sundays ;)) I WILL say that the people we talked to were really nice. They were the greeters and teachers so they had to be but it did seem genuine.

So looks like we have some questions to ask about #4 before we decide. I know we should trust our instinct since we prayed heavily (as did our friends) re: finding a church. But I want to know more about their goals/5-year plan/financial info and budget (where do they spend their money)/focus on children's ministry, etc. Will get back to you!

What is the deal???!!

OK, this will be a boring post but....

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE PLUMBING IN THIS HOUSE??? I swear everything that has water going to it has had a problem.

We've been here a month and:
1) Two toilets have overflowed TWICE

2) The ice maker and water part in the fridge door doesn't work. Since we've been married, we've never had an icemaker, so we were SO excited about having easy access to water/ice (so was William... could be a problem but I guess as long as it keeps him drinking water!) Have to call the repair guy.

3) The toilet in the basement runs and runs and runs. Makes for a high water bill (more on this later). Bob will fix the stopper after he gets over the "it's awesome to not do any work on a house for a change" approach to life.

4) Now the master toilet can't be used. Will call the landlord after we address the water bill issue. Ha.

5) The dishwasher. It's new. We LOVE that (have never had a new d/w). But the buttons on the outside are also supersensitive so almost every time I reach for a dish in the upper cabinet, my hip turns on the "Drain" button. I know, it would be less of a problem if my hips were smaller but Bob does it, too, so HA!

6) The kitchen faucet. It goes from drip to POOOOWERFULSPRAAAAAAAAY and water bounces off the sink, walls, puddles on the counters and onto the floor. Just another weird water thing going on here.

7) The NEW washer we JUST GOT has leaked onto the floor twice now, and one time there were even bubbles coming out of the back. It's a front loader, I've had a front loader for years, I used HE soap, AND this says it's LOAD SENSING. Maybe the load I put in was too small for the amount of soap I put in? But what about that LOAD SENSING part? Also - lately I've noticed that the soap compartment has had water just sitting in it the past several times I've used it. Like I pour the soap in and it might overflow b/c there's water in there, too. WHAT IS GOING ON?

AAAAAND last.

8) Ha. Our first water bill. Haha. We've been on a well for as long as we can remember, and have never had a sprinkler system. So we don't really know what is a "normal" water usage amount for a house with a sprinkler system. But 43,000 gallons in 21 days seems like a lot. 2,000 milk containers PER DAY. Either there's a leak somewhere or the landlord has the sprinkler set to "typhoon". Will investigate/ask for permission to at least water EVERY OTHER day.

I'm not complaining - this is a great house and we really do like it. But for a "new-ish" house we expected fewer maintenance problems! Maybe God is telling us we should stick with the renovation thing.

The Great Church Search, Part 1

I get so excited when Sunday comes around. I can't wait to find our church. I have such high expectations - that's where I found my closest friends in NH so I want to pick a church and join a community group and a Bible Study and start making friends! (did I really just say that? Must be something that just came out during my stream-of-consciousness typing)...

Looking for a church is FRUSTRATING too b/c it's not like a home search where you can look at 5-10 homes in a day... I can only go to ONE A WEEK. That's not fun! I want it NOW! But it keeps up the excitement/anticipation. :))

We've looked at three churches so far:
1) A denomination I've never been a part of, that frankly made me nervous b/c I was expecting that the focus wouldn't be on God or the Bible. It was recommended to us by one of Bob's work colleagues who's been looking for a church FOR A YEAR. Wonderful. I get to look at 49 more churches.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the sermon topic - it was about true conversion, what it should look like and how America would be changed if we all experienced it. I liked what he was talking about, I just felt he touched on the surface too much. I wanted him to explain things more deeply, even his personal stories he was telling about changing the oil in his car. The music leader was very engaged and I liked this singing, but it was LOUDLOUDLOUD and I didn't know any of the songs. That was frustrating b/c I wanted to sing! William loved all of the musical instruments. The kids church part was really small - the facilities were large but there were only two kids in Lauren's class and maybe 8 total in the boys (combined K-3). And they showed a video to the kids as their lesson. I would say "I'm not sure how I feel about that" but I know how I feel - I don't like it. Maybe if I ask them about it their explanation will make sense. I don't even remember if they had community groups. We also talked about how we "think" we want to go to church closer to home (it was a 20+ minute drive) so that we can feel like we're connecting with our community.
Overall, we didn't feel this was the church for us.

On to #2. A small country church recommended by a friend of a friend. Bob and William couldn't go (W was sick) so we'll probably have to re-visit as a family. It was far. At least it seemed that way. And it was definitely small. But the music was great - the main female singer had the most ethereal voice - and I knew the songs! There was a guest speaker, so we didn't get a feel for the real pastor. The sermon was about Evangelism- how we are all scared of it but that's b/c we feel like we have to attack people/convert them. But it's about sharing the Good News. That's it. No pressure (except prayer). I liked it. Not sure about the kids group - seemed small like church #1. And I think they played a video for the kids that taught the lesson, also like church #1. And they don't have community groups. They meet once a week as a church and do a Bible study all together. I think I'd prefer CG's.
Overall, though, this church is a contender.

#3. Megachurch. Seems like everyone in Athens goes here. The music was like a rock concert. Seriously - there was special lighting and smoke machines. The singers were AMAZING but I still didn't know the songs! The sermon is a satellite feed from another big church in Atlanta. So that was kind of weird but they do have a local pastor so it's not like it's just you and a robot. Bob said he felt the sermon was "Bible-lite" but I pointed out to him all the Scripture references he made and how it tied in to his four points and retold him the story he told and repeated the main theme of the sermon and..... wait. Did you just get all that?? I REMEMBERED IT. And I didn't even write anything down. There's something to be said about that!
Sooooooo the kids' area. Might as well call it a circus. Not in terms of craziness - it was actually very organized. More in terms of the decor. And the clown passing out lollipops. Really. Have you been to New York, New York in Las Vegas? The kids area looked almost exactly like that - a city street with buildings and the street signs on the buildings indicated the grades/classrooms. The classrooms themselves were pretty normal looking. The helpers were super-nice and there were several per class. The boys loved their lessons and they each left with (a lollipop) and a sweatband for their wrists.
Overall, it was pretty theatrical. The goal of the church is to reach out to unchurched people. We felt like we wanted something a little bit more low-key, but the message was solid and I like the mission. A possible contender. I wouldn't be disappointed if we ended up here but we do like the "we know (almost) everyone" feel of our old church.

SUMMARY TO-DATE
We know we will never find "the perfect church". There will always be something we don't like/prefer to have done differently. None of the churches we've gone to in Dallas, Dripping Springs or Hanover have been perfect. One was so big it seemed impersonal and the people a tad snooty but offered tons of Bible studies. Another was so small and didn't really have CG's and didn't have a church building but we loved the message and the people. One was the perfect size but didn't have a church building but did have CGs and the people were awesome, etcetcetc. So we're being nitpicky in what we're noting above but we know we're not likely to check all of our boxes. We haven't felt the "this is it" stirrings in our heart as an indicator from God that that's where He wants us.

Deep thoughts from the long journey south...

I posted a lot of these on FB, but wanted to include them here b/c it will provide a complete picture of the trip!

I broke the drive down into three days - the first day I drove 4 hours to my brother's house. The second day was the "12 hour" drive and I stayed in SC at Bob's sister's house. L;eaving an easy 2 hour drive on the last day (and the ability to "sleep in". Well, as best as you can with a one-year old nephew and my own dog barking at anything and everything at 7 in the morning. So I had to shush him in order to keep the baby sleeping so we could all sleep.... but by that point I was awake. Darn it.)

I took a different route than usual, which was kind of fun but also the most direct according to gogle maps. I  didn't realize that this way would have tolls (I don't do GPS. Just the old-fashioned "take-95 the whole way" method). I paid about $30 in tolls (don't tell Bob!)
I was a little sad when I realized that I wouldn't be driving through Pennsylvania - such a pretty drive! But I've never been to NJ so before I exited the state - about 500ft from the border - I pulled over on the side of the road, opened my door and touched my foot down. Yes, I did and it counts.

NEW YORK Oh.my.gosh. Everywhere I go I look for beauty, and landscapes are my favorite. New York, you have provided my top three breathtaking moments (including Europe, but that was post-college i.e., a LONG, UNMENTIONED AMOUNT OF TIME AGO, so I don't really remember it). On this drive, the view from the Tappan Zee Bridge.was.Breathtaking. And you could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance! Not that I'm a city person but it's kind of neat to see the contrast of nature and buildings (far, far away, of course).

NEW JERSEY. $10.35 in tolls. Sure would have been nice to have used CRUISE CONTROL, but you have too many cars.... and buildings.... and people.

DELAWARE. $8.00. Your tolls were almost as much as New Jersey's but I was in you a fraction of the time. I blinked and Hello Maryland! Shame on you!

MARYLAND. Don't remember much about you except that I came from the EAST side of Baltimore across a lot of water. Probably stunk like fish but the windows were sealed and the A/C cranking by now!

VIRGINIA. In this state I learned that my mood is 100% correlated to traffic conditions. I also discovered that I have more than three emotions - I experienced a broad range of emotions - from surprise to shock to anger to incredulous to hope to rage to hopelessness... (Michelle McFarland would be proud!) And FYI - NEVER EVEREVER drive on I-95 starting 30 miles north of Richmond. 0 for 2 in terms of awful traffic (or 2 for 2). Like 1-2 hours. To drive 30 miles. I was told by a local that it's ALWAYS bad, esp on weekends. The moving truck driver told me he never goes that route - would choose to go 80 more miles just to keep moving so he goes through Winchester. Note to self.

NORTH CAROLINA. God bless you and your 70mph speed limits! Nothing but a beautiful, traffic-free road to report here!

SOUTH CAROLINA. It was dark so I don't have much to say about it except that I'm thankful for my in-laws' hospitality! I was 2 hours late so at least they didn't have to cook for me (but they ARE good cooks so that's kind of unfair). I did keep them up late waiting for me, however. And Bob and my MIL were apparently tracking me via satellite. Or at least via phone calls to all relatives to make sure I made it ok.
Oh, and within 5 minutes of being there, Allie got out of the fence. I was so glad to be able to let them loose and run around by themselves. That dog is too smart for her own good. And really annoying.

GEORGIA! When I saw that "Welcome to Georgia" sign, I knew there was no turning back! Well, I could have turned back and friends offered to house me/us, but I didn't really feel like doing that drive again. At least not anytime soon.

OTHER THOUGHTS
-From about Virginia, I bet I helped all the little kids playing the license plate game score MAJOR and previously unscored POINTS with my New Hampshire plate! Just think about how excited they'll be when I drive to Texas!
-No I didn't try to get any trucks to honk (Megan/Ethan Eshbaugh!)
-"Speed monitored by aircraft". REALLY? Do you know how much that would cost?

Overall, it was a very weird, cathartic drive. Do you know how nice it is (1) to be by yourself for 14 hours at a time and (2) to drive 14 hours with NO KIDS? Ummmmmm pretty awesome.

We got the(a) house!

"We got the House!"

We will be moving to Georgia in June. We thought it would make sense to look for rental houses after our house here sold and passed the inspection process. It would be a little too much to manage life and showings and packing AND looking for a rental house. We got the "all-clear" after Spring Break in April. And after a torturous 6 weeks (REALLY - seems like the torture lasted longer than that!) of looking for a rental house, not taking the process too seriously and taking our time looking and waiting for the "perfect" rental house, then realizing that these houses go within TWENTY FOUR HOURS  down there.... we have a signed lease, people!

We started off being picky - we want a fenced-in yard, 3 or 4BR preferably with a playroom, in the zone of two particular schools, swimming pool community... and by the end we were like We will take ANYTHING. The swimming pool idea left long ago, fenced-in yard would have been nice but we figured we could work around that, 4BR plus bonus room not gonna happen... our two areas of NO compromise were the schools and timing - we'd like to have the lease start before or when we get down there! There were a few (not perfect) options available in August but we would rather not have to go through that mental/physical challenge of making THAT work.

We went after four houses. And lost every one of them. The first it was us and another family and they were selected. The second was a realtor telling me his client might be interested in renting but once it got closer to my time to visit GA, the house was under contract so that was off the table. House #3 I found via Craiglist. I toured it and it seemed ALMOST perfect. It didn't have a room for a playroom so maybe would could turn the dining room or garage into a playroom? And we would have to rent a mini storage for all of our decorating stuff/boxes we wouldn't be opening. But it had a community pool nearby and was in the school district we wanted. After the tour I asked her what paperwork she needed us to sign/what amount we needed to put down, etc. And then she said there were two other parties interested and both were lease-purchase. Well that goes that. I kind of had a 5 minute mini-panic attack. We were moving in 6 weeks! We had no house!

We took a MAJOR step of faith by saying no to a house. It wasn't "perfect" but was close BUT it wasn't in the schools we wanted to be in. OF COURSE the people REALLY wanted us to be their renters - said we sounded like exactly what they were looking for as renters. But Bob and I prayed for guidance and felt very clearly that God wanted us to say no. So we did.

We prayed. Agonized. Went through the gamut of emotions - stress, fear, worry, anger, and finally WHATEVER God, you are in charge! Seriously, for me it was such a peaceful place to be - the timeframe was so tight and us being so far away trying to tie-up a house quickly was just not something we could do on our own. I don't like pain or stress so I said "Ok God - you're in charge now! I can't wait to see what you bring us!" We had two women's Bible studies praying for us, friends, parents, great-grandmas... (thank you EVERYONE! Something as basic as having a home to live in is kind of a big deal!) We set a date of June 2 as the "if we don't find anything, maybe we can live in a townhome/apartment and keep our dogs with family for 3-6 months, however long it takes to find a place" deadline.

Which brings us to Monday, May 26th. Memorial Day, a day off of work, the City of Lebanon parade and Stephen's 7th birthday. I was outside on the awesome deck enjoying the sun (haven't seen it in ages) and got a call from our realtor in GA. We decided that we needed help/feet on the ground in finding a home and he has been so patient with us! There was a house that would appear on the MLS the next day so we had a slight head start. Turns out there were three other families going after this house. I had full faith in God at this point (what else COULD I do)? But I wrote them a little blurb anyway to try to tell them why they should rent to us! I told them how financially responsible we are, sent picture of our house to show how we'll take care of their house, and told them how excited we were about this house b/c we'd been looking for so long and it seemed to be perfect for us. They picked us!

I was SURE God would "Refine" us by stretching out the date to the very last day and then "Whammo" there's the house! And can I tell you how perfect this house is for us? It has EVERYTHING we wanted PLUS MORE. A dog-washing station! A secret room in the basement! A soundproof music room! A finished kitchen in the basement! And it's really really big. We don't even use the basement except as a storage room (don't have to pay for mini storage!) and there's a huge room just for the dogs. There's a basketball goal across the street and a community pool 1/4 mile down the road. And it's in the school zone we wanted! AAAAAAAND at the same price as all those other houses for 2x the house. PRAISE GOD! He is tooooo good to us!

When I spoke with the homeowner, he told us "for some reason, we felt led to pick you". I said "I'll tell you why - it's b/c there were about 100 people up here in New Hampshire praying that you would pick us!" :)) And there you have it. God is trustworthy, good, loves us, and has SO MUCH BETTER in store for us than we would pick/settle for ourselves. Bob and I still look around in awe that we are in this house. It's so BIG. And the finish-out is so NICE! Thank you, Lord. We are blessed.

FOLLOW-UP:
About a week or two after signing the lease, two of the four houses we had considered showed up as available again. Interesting how God works (removing them as choices) :))

POST #1. Still in New Hampshire.

Well it took me forever to figure out a name for this new blog so it shall remain nameless for now, plus a web address (really? "blahblahblah" was not available, "ournewlif" was available but not "our new life"). I'm not feeling very clever right now but there's not much to write b/c I'm STILL HERE in New Hampshire (without a home in GA yet - hope to post on that soon, GOD! ;))

I rarely post updates on Facebook - usually just write sarcastic comments on someone else's posts - so for some odd reason I thought I should start a blog. Starting off on a strong note already! I thought I could keep friends updated on the move/settling in, home searches, possible home BUILDING, and of course make fun of everyone down south before I make any friends there (I'm guessing I'll have about three years of anonymity based on my fondness of hibernating and the rapid speed in which I made friends in NH :))

So here's post #1. Wise words from a tired mind. HEY! Maybe THAT'S what I should title my blog! (will go back and rename it if I can find the darn Edit button!)