The Moment We've Been Waiting For

Preparing our house to go on the market and giving it a complete makeover was one of the most labor intensive, mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting things I've ever gone through. The holidays came and went and it wasn't until the very end that I even recognized that it was December and people are still celebrating Christmas despite the fact that we are moving. The finances are so tight we didn't even buy presents for each other or anybody else. Bah-Humbug! I had feelings of doubt and despair and I wasn't sure what we were going to do. I was just praying for a breakthrough, and it came about a week ago.

It started on Wednesday when the realtor came to give us papers to sign and put a sign in the yard. We may not have been completely ready, but we went for it, and it was such a relief knowing we just transitioned from preparing to selling. That same day I got a call from my boss telling me she wanted me to come up to the office that day. My heart was pounding, She heard that we are moving and is letting me go. I can't leave yet, we need this job until we move, I thought. When I arrived to meet her she immediately led me outside and acted very discreet about our rendezvous. She handed me an envelope and said it was off the record. She told me they are not supposed to give bonuses to free lance employees (and never have in the 5 years that I've been there), but she wanted to anyway. My heart leapt. Not only was I excited about the bonus, but I was just relieved to still have a job. Later that day SJ had left me a little surprise of her own in the toilet. I was in disbelief at the idea that she climbed up on the pot all by herself and took care of business when I wasn't even thinking about working on that with her at all! I quickly went to wipe her and long story short, she potty trained herself in one day and has been wearing panties, which for all you mom's out there or anyone that maybe read about what I went through with Z, you know what a breakthrough this is.

Although I had been a bit of a Scrooge this year and wasn't looking forward to any festivities in the end we had an amazing Christmas

and while we were away visiting with family, various people would come to look at the house. In all of this I am just thanking God and grateful for the peace that I felt so distant from in this past season. I know there are more hurtles ahead in this journey to Kentucky, but for now I am just resting in this place that I'm at.

I was feeling normal. All was well again. I could listen to Christmas music without resentment. I could stop working and worrying, and just enjoy time with my kids.

I was staying up late because of playing competitive card games with friends and not because we were trying to finish grouting the bathroom.

Then Tuesday came along. The realtor called and I put him on speaker phone for J to listen in. He asked if we were ready to sell the house. Then he announced that we had an offer. J and I looked at each other. Then he shared that it was for our asking price and we gripped hands and I bit my lip to keep from squealing. After hanging up the phone we jumped around and J scooped me up in his arms and just kept on jumping. It was like winning the super bowl.

So yesterday the realtor came by again for us to sign more papers, less than a week from when we signed the first ones to put it up for sale. We still have to go through inspection, appraisal, and funding (although the buyers are already approved and putting a good amount down, so that shouldn't be a problem). Anything could happen, but I am confident in the sale and if it all goes through we will be moving in about a month.

Now I can look back at this time in my life and know that the word the Lord gave me was absolutely true,

sometimes it's the pressure that leads you to breakthrough.

Merry

I was compared to Ebeneezer Scrooge in terms of holiday cheer this year. Christmas has just been off the radar for me. I'd been trapped in my own little world where getting the house ready to sell was all that mattered and it did NOT involve any Christmas music or holiday shopping or baking. In the end though we were able to get our house on the market just in the st. nick of time to be able to relax and enjoy all the festivities. Here are 10 of my favorite Christmas moments this year.

1. The annual Christmas parties. My mom let me borrow this red necklace, but by the time the 3rd loan came around she just gave it to me.

2. Z was in his very first Christmas performance. He did such a great job and I was SO proud of him. I get emotional just watching the video.

3. We had the opportunity to see one of our very best friends perform Bing Crosby's role in White Christmas. He tore the house down and at the end the cast came out for the iconic scene where they sing White Christmas and it started "snowing" all throughout this historic theater. It was really soap, but it was sooo cool. Two thumbs up.

4. Our annual Christmas card is one of my favorite parts of the Holidays. This year we brought our junky family couch outside and took pictures. We never mailed the cards, but they've made their way around.

5. Christmas with the in laws was a much needed relief from all of the work we've been doing. We sang carols, read the Christmas story, opened presents, then got up and got moving with video games like kinects and wii.

I think my favorite part though was the cake balls. Mmmm.

6. Christmas day we had a SIMPLE, I mean super simple Christmas, but it was so special. Since we had been doing so much work on the house we didn't put up a tree this year, but I did go to the attic and pull out this little tree that just so happens to be our first Christmas tree as a married couple.

7. The last Christmas in our house was also special because I got some Christmas dishes out that were a wedding gift and the each had a logo on them that said Gibson Housewares, which I had never noticed, but our house is on Gibson street. I love little details like this.

8. We didn't exchange gifts this year, but we were blessed to receive some presents for the kids. Since I had no idea where all of our gift wrapping supplies are packed, I used what I had on hand. This included blue painters tape, masking tape, and a sharpie marker. The kids didn't care and I just loved watching them get excited about everything little thing from play dough to socks. This was the only present I needed.

9. Since Christmas was on a Sunday we went to church where I accompanied J singing Christmas carols and worship songs as part of a small family service. What better way to celebrate the birth of Christ?

J praying with some missionaries

10. We brought in the New Year with J's family, and then left to go be a part of the all night worship that was happening at our church. We were tired, but why not do it while we are still young.

So maybe I was a little bit of a grinch at the beginning of the season, but in the end I was like Tiny Tim, or something like that. God Bless us everyone.

The Grand Tour

We finally did it! Today our house went on the market. I have promised everyone photos of the final product, and by final I mean as good as it is going to get for now. It is my privilege and delight to introduce to you our newly remodeled castle home.

Fresh paint, potted plants, and a new welcome mat greet you at the front door.

When you walk in you'll find the original hardwood floors, beautiful crown molding, and updated light fixtures that are consistent throughout the house

The large living area is great for entertaining and features original wooden framed windows and gas fire place.

The front bedroom has it’s own walk in closet and connects to the jack and jill style bathroom.

The bathroom has the original vintage tile,

with updated brand new sink, light fixtures, and shower.

The 2^nd bedroom also connects to the bathroom and has it’s own closet and windows with window treatments.

From there you go down the hallway to the spacious master bedroom that features two large closets, and an exterior door with steps leading to the backyard.

The master bathroom includes a large tub, new tile, a pedestal sink, and linen closet.

Now back to the dining room where we have even more natural light from another large window, and a built in shelf and cabinet from the 1940’s

The swinging door leads us to the kitchen

where we find a built in booth dining area along with a penisula that works as a cutting board. Next to the eat in kitchen is an original built in ironing board also from 1940.

The floor is black slate from India, and the counter tops are venetian gold granite. All of the appliances are energy efficient stainless steel, and the stove is gas. There is plenty of space to store everything in the updated 42 inch cabinets with lots of costumized features like display shelves, a pull out cookie sheet compartment, and sliding pantry.

Lastly, is the utility room with storage space, a utility sink, and washer/dryer hook ups.

The expansive back yard is enclosed by a cedar fence and proves to have plenty of room for a work shop, gardens, play set, and much more.

Not only is the house incredibly charming, but it’s located in a quiet, low traffic, friendly neighborhood with the convenience of being just a short distance from restaurants, shopping centers, and Waxahachie's beautiful historic downtown area.

Global High school .03 miles

Walgreen’s pharmacy .03 miles

Southwestern assembly of God University .07 miles

H.E.B 1.1 miles

Sim’s Library 1.3 miles

Getzendaner park 1.8 miles

Are you wanting to buy it yet? Me too! Yeah, the problem is we need someone who is interested in moving to Waxahachie. This beautiful starter home is over 1,800 square feet, on .38 acres, and priced to sell at $129,900.

Spread the word.

Pep Talk

Well, I am embarrassed to say that it’s been another week of work and the house is still not on the market. That means that for the past month both J and I have been putting in over 60 hours a week into this renovation and we are just now finishing up. J stayed up 36 hours straight working on the house one day and my record is 24. We’ve taken off work and we have had friends volunteer, so how is it even possible that we are not done? I can go through every little project and explain how tedious it is and how long it takes to do things like prep and paint each of our 20 antique windows, but lets just say it’s been a lot more than any of us bargained for.

Today is our farewell luncheon at the church, although thinking about celebrating this transition is actually the furthest thing from my mind right now, especially since it will be a while before we actually go anywhere. I feel an immense amount of pressure, but I know we will get through this. I heard a podcast by Danny Silk of Bethel the other day called “The Master of Breakthrough” and since I had just said I wanted to go from breakdown to breakthrough I knew it would be pertinent to my situation. In this sermon he talks about when you picture water breaking through a hose, a water balloon, a dam, or whatever it is there has to be pressure behind it first.

We have been using a lot of power tools around here lately and one of the things is an air compressor. It’s really noisy, and I don’t know exactly how it works, but I do know that it supplies air pressure to a nail gun that allows the nail to breakthrough the surface you are working on. We’ve also had to use a pressure washer, same concept, but using pressure to use water as a powerful tool. When I apply this concept to my life I can see pressure as a good thing. It feels so difficult, but maybe God is using this as a tool in my life.

And since I really don’t know much about tools (although I’ve learned some in the past month) let me give one last metaphor using something I do know about and that is childbirth. You have life inside of you that is growing and forming and it feels like it can take forever. Sometimes you are excited, other times you are nervous, or just plain nauseous. This is how I feel these days. Then the time comes and you are in labor and you know the end is near, but the pain seems unbearable. And it's the moment that you feel the most intense amount of physical pressure that is the moment that the baby is about to “breakthrough”. Sorry if that mental picture is a little too graphic, but it is a beautiful moment in any parents life to hold that child for the first time and know that all that you went through was completely worth it.

I've had two babies and I can tell you that the whole process including the pregnancy was a cake walk compared to what I am going through right now. However, I am trying to stay positive, at least for this blog, if you were my best friend you would get to see the really ugly side of things. It won't be much longer though and this picture will show up in the real estate listings.

The New Deadline

Today makes three weeks of constant attention to our home renovation. The original date of December 1st was unrealistic, but I really believed that plan B would take off and we would be done by December 10th, but here I am in an unfinished house that is not ready to sell. Our new projected date of completion is this Tuesday December 13 because we have scheduled for a realtor to come out that day and hopefully put it on the market. I hate to be the whiny gripey type but the words "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to... You would cry too if it happened to you" come to mind.

I feel like I have been fighting a battle trying to make this thing happen, and my weapons are construction materials that I feel completely inadequate using. I am tired of asking for help, I am tired of considering 6 hours of sleep a really good night. I am tired of watching thirsty wood drink up paint, and smelling nauseating fumes that have little room to escape into the cold.

It's been tough. I have as many stories as their are swatches at the Home Depot to give you a sample of just how tough it has been, but I will just share a couple.

The day after Thanksgiving I felt sick to my stomach and took a break from working on shutters to go to bathroom. The hallway was dark and the entrance with the light switch was blocked with furniture that was stacked up. I steadily made my way through the maze of construction when in a split second I found myself in a 4 foot hole.

This hole was an air vent that had no grate on it and I walked right into it. At first I only felt a small sting and getting out of the duct work and to the bathroom was still a priority, so I climbed out to make it just in time to throw up. I was determined to not be a baby about and originally I wasn't even going to tell anyone (all the my jeans being shredded to pieces might have been a clue to what happened). Eventually the adrenaline wore off and I was left with an achy scrape/bruise that ran from the top of my thigh to my knee. It's almost completely healed know, but it's gone through a lot of stages from causing my to limp, to swelling, scabbing, and itching.

Then last night we actually took a RARE break from our manual labor to get cleaned up and go see one of our best friends perform as the lead in White Christmas at a theater in Wichita Falls. It was a long drive on dark windy roads so I took the opportunity to sleep in the backseat when suddenly I was awakened by an alarming WHAP! We were all wondering the same thing. Something flew into our windshield, but what. Some speculate it was an owl and I tend to think it might have been a bowling ball. Okay, maybe not a bowling ball, but whatever it was it SHATTERED J's windshield from corner to corner. It didn't break through the glass, but the entire driver side is covered in a giant spider web pattern of glass smeared with feathers and guts. Here we are just trying to have a break from all the break downs and this happens. It didn't spoil the evening, but it's just one more dent in our budget, one more thing to fix.

I am hoping that the next time I do an update on this blog there will be good news and gorgeous pictures of all the work we have done on the house. I am ready to go from breakdown to break through, and I know it will happen even if it isn't in my timing.

One Week To Go???

Okay, I will try not to allow my emotional roller coaster to fly off the tracks and crash land onto this blog right now, but I do want to give a brief update. J and I, along with the help of friends and family, have been working around the clock for the past 2 weeks trying to finish the house. It started with having the college crew from the church pull together to help us move all of our furniture off of the hardwood floors so we could refinish them.

Our entire 1800 square foot house is hardwood flooring other than the 2 bathrooms and kitchen so we had to cram all of our belongings into those 3 tiny spaces which is where it stayed for an entire week.

My dad, brother, and sister-in-law showed up the day before thanksgiving to help and they were quite the workforce.

We fixed the awning, took off the storm windows, removed dead trees, stripped the shutters, painted 5 rooms, and I will not bore you with the rest of the hours upon hours of work that was done. After they left one of our dear friends who is a professional painter came and painted the exterior.

This was a long overdue project that transforms our curb appeal like no ones business! Even with all that we've done there is still a lot left to do before it's complete, so unfortunately we missed our original deadline of December 1st, and now we are aiming to have the house on the market by the 10th. I have been in complete panic mode most of the time. On the one hand it's been exciting to see our 7 year dream our home finally be fulfilled, but on the other hand I am completely overwhelmed with the stress of knowing J will be unemployed in less than a month and our ticket to paying our bills isn't even on the market yet! All I can say is that I am operating out of a level of adrenaline I didn't even know existed. Eventually there will be a time to process it all I am sure, but for now I just have to keep going.

The Most Difficult Decision We've Ever Made

November is just about over and I've written 3 blog posts total, which is ridiculously scarce for me. I have good reason though, I just haven't been able to spread it all over the world wide web just yet. Even now might be a little soon, but I can't take it anymore. I have to be able to get this off my chest.

We are moving. We are leaving our jobs, church, loved ones, house, and the life we've known our entire marriage. We are moving to northern Kentucky where my family lives. Long story short we feel like that is what God is calling us to do. It's the most difficult decision we've ever made. Getting married at 18 was a big risk and a huge decision, but I was so in love I felt more like it was a no brainer. Buying our first home was another major milestone, but it didn't affect our location that much. J quitting his job for full time ministry was another big choice we've had to make, but we still had a steady income either way. Even when we had our kids it felt like we were stepping out of the boat, but we had made a lot of plans and provisions over 7 years of marriage before we became parents. This move however changes EVERYTHING. We don't know what we are going to do when we get there other than live with my parents for a while. It's a big risk, but it's one we feel like we need to take.

There is so much more to share and now that the cat is out of the bag I can pop online every once in a while to give updates, but I still probably won't be able to really blog again, in the way that I like to, until next year.

So that is the deal, please keep us in your prayers. And if you want to be really specific you can pray that

1. We complete the home renovation project and that it doesn't cost too much, take too long, or destroy our marriage (just kidding, although it does put a strain on both of us).

2. We sell the house quickly and for the right amount. J's last day is December 31 and would be great if he didn't have to get another job before we move.

3. That there would be peace in our home and strength for our family during this stressful season, and that we would have closure and fond parting memories.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will certainly post more details in the weeks ahead. It's going to be quite the adventure.

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

-Andre Gide

My Crafty Posse

I consider myself artsy, but not necessarily crafty. Although I always excelled in my art classes and even won awards, I distinctly remember a rare low score on a project that I did my freshman year. We had to create an intricate snowflake type design using an x-acto knife on some layers of white poster board. I don't remember my grade but I can still envision the words my teacher wrote in red pen with her beautiful cursive handwriting, "Poor Craftsmanship". Fortunately I am surrounded by people that have AMAZING skills in all areas of craftsmanship.

For starters, my mom works for Delta and the employees all dress up on Halloween day. Last year she decided to go to work as the Travelosity gnome. I figured since she had already created one gnome costume it should be easy enough to make one for SJ this year and the results were too cute for words!

and here is a little picture I created of SJ beside Juliet from the movie Gnomeo and Juliet

My mom ordered Z's Mr. Incredible costume on line, but it still had to be altered because it was too big. The mask didn't fit right either so we made a new one with left over material from "Julia's" dress along with a removable black bra strap. Thank goodness he's too young to be embarrassed by me!

and of course here is Z next Dash and the other Incredibles.

Along the lines of sewing and creating, SJ has been in desperate need of new hair clips because her hair is always in her face. Thank goodness for my two friends who volunteered to make some adorable bows for her! I even wore one and when my friend spotted it she said "That looks great. I think I might make some bows for myself". It might sound strange wearing a little girls hair accessory, but bows are hot right now, and besides it was a flower. Who knew I would start raiding my daughters closet so early on.

I don't have any close up photos of the bows, but they are all unique and super cute.

Lastly I told my husband that he never ceases to amaze and he begged to differ so I elaborated by saying your carpentry skills never cease to amaze me. When the coffee shop needed a stage and outdoor seating area for the art festival they had a non existent budget and very little time to work, but J took the bull by the horns and built these benches and chairs using entirely freecycled wood from Craig's list.

This idea was inspired by something he found on pinterest, (Yes, he has a pinterest, I don't. Yes, that is sad) but he designed and executed all of this from that genius mind of his, and I am wondering why I don't have some of this furniture in my yard! We are talking F-R-E-E here.

I have my own strengths don't get me wrong, but for all the crafty shortcomings I am thankful for an entourage of craftsmen by my side.

The Madness Continues

Yesterday, in the midst of preparing dinner and caring for a child that had decided to disrupt an ant colony, my phone rang and I answered it, a knee jerk reaction I guess. "Hello, this is Natalie" I said in my professional voice because when I don't recognize the number it's usually business related. They said "Hi, this is Staci, are you busy?" I have been in this position before where I can't really talk, but then I have to ask myself why I answered the phone if I can't talk, so I replied "Uhhh... kind of, but I have a second." So she went right into it about her husbands schedule and when we would meet and I thought it was a lady I had just talked about a photo session so I was making plans for a shoot and in the end our conversations didn't match up and she said "I think you are talking about something else. I am calling about the chickens". She laughed and I hit myself on the head a few times.

2 weeks ago in my last blog post I briefly mentioned tripling my work load. I had to send my kids off to grandmas so that I could work, have a yard sale, and use a groupon we got for our anniversary. The juggling act has been somewhat of a success, but not without a few meltdowns on my part. It's only for a season though. When I accepted this work it was because another photographer at the magazine had a family emergency come up and she had to abandon all of her assignments. There is no way I could keep up this pace long term. I just keep thinking "Gazelle Intensity" (you Dave Ramsey people know what I am talking about). So that is where I've been.

Hopefully things will start to slow down soon, although with Thanksgiving being next week I know that is probably wishful thinking. None the less EVENTUALLY I will check back in so I can explain why someone was calling me about the chickens. And then I can to tell you a little more about trick or treating and how the last two houses we went to Z went up to the door and when they offered candy he said "No thanks, I have enough already".

I also have lots of tales from the sales, yard sales that is, both shopping and having.

Then of course I did celebrate 11 years of marriage with J and I have a few photos from the Villas that we went to in Austin.

You've been missed little blog, but for now I've got to get back to work.

Dash and Juliet

I have too many irons in the fire. I'd go as far as to say my whole schedule is on fire right now. My work load has currently tripled, plus I have a yard sale and my anniversary this weekend. This is why I am forced to take a blogging break. I will resume sometime in the future? Seriously though, I won't be gone too long and I'll get back to writing as soon as I get a chance, but before I go here is the outcome of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

More photos of all this cuteness and some stories when I return!