Hip Hip Hooray!

Wow! It has been quite the journey in mine and Ryan's life from last summer to this summer. I'm not going to lie, last year was a VERY HARD year for us. But we hung in there, and in the matter of one year we had a new baby girl, Ryan got a new job, we sold our old home, got out of debt, and as of today we are the confirmed prospective owners of a house we are just beside ourselves excited about. I must give ALL the credit to God AND also to my parent's for helping us make the most of every opportunity life has to offer. I am so thankful for the humility I have learned, along with so many other things. So without further adieu, here is the new place we will call home.

Now let me just say a couple things about this property. We bought it for the location, the neighborhood, the schools, the yard (potential) and the generous garage and storage space. The house is actually kind of funky and a little on the small side of things being only 3 bedrooms and all. However there are 3 family rooms and so we can put those to good use. Oh, and also, it REEKS of cat urine. Yeah, we have our work cut out for us. But it's ours (or will be soon) and we couldn't be filled with more gratitude on this day.

We did a counter battle with the bank back and forth six times before we finally came to an agreement, but sadly, we came out on top, even with all we have to update and remodel, and CLEAN!

All of the houses back a common green belt area which I adore. I'll pay for it in HOA, but I like not being all boxed in. The houses we liked in Syracuse were very nice, but you could reach out and touch your neighbors house, we don't roll like that. The front porch can be quite charming if done just right, and the yard needs a lot of initial efforts but will be pretty cheap to get looking it's best. I love that it has two back decks and ivy growing up the side of the house. This is just such a step up from our last home....at least in charming features, but not in quality so much.

To celebrate our long awaited good news we went to Ruby River and enjoyed a gift card a friend had given me. Then we stopped by RC Willey to price out new carpet.....bleh! Let the expenses begin.

My mom who is the QUEEN of moving taught me a little handy trick when I watched her move out of Liberty....GARBAGE BAGS! Genius! I have what I like to call "quirks." My family calls them disorders but I try to steer clear of that line of thinking. Anyway, one of my quirks is that I can't stand cardboard, the feel of it, the sound of it, that film it leaves on your hands, but most of all, writing with a permanent marker on top of a cardboard box...I won't do it. So this time with moving I put all of our bedding, clothes, towels, etc., in garbage bags and I bought actual labels for all of our bags and boxes. Ahhhhhhhh, life is good now that I found a remedy to satisfy my "quirks."