Living Among Boxes....

We are all moved in! I am taking a small break from unpacking just to catch my breath. Literally, I have not sat down more then a few minutes since last Thursday. It has just been a very hectic and fast paced few days. The reward however is that we are in our new home and I don't have to deal with anymore moving headaches. Believe me, there were quite a few glitches, but God was faithful and in the end, we are in our beautiful home and a great neighborhood. We feel so blessed. I will have to give you the play by play in a post coming soon. I am sure that everyone is waiting with anticipation!!!! Ha ha!!!

Things are going better....

Well thankfully after my lovely experience on Wed, things have gone better. Well that is if you don't count the fact that I forgot to pick up my son at preschool. He has been going to a little summer program twice a week for two hours. Well I got so busy packing up the girls room (which by the way was no easy feat) with my friend that I lost track of time. Sarah asked me about Noah and I jumped up and yelled for the time. It was NOON...pickup time ...and I was almost 15 mins away!!! YIKES. I have never ever done that. He didn't seem to be fazed by my tardiness. I would have felt horrible if he had been crying.

Anyway, almost all repairs and upkeep have been completed on my home. I think we faired well considering the fact that alot of people have to shell out lots of money for these types of things. My house is slowly becoming a maze of boxes, and we are now one week away from the big move. All I can think is that by this time next week...Lord willing , I will be in my new house and all the moving and closing stuff will be behind us. I can't wait!!!!

Can I scream now?

Most anyone that knows me, has come to the realization that I do NOT handle stress well. I get very anxious, lose what little patience I *may* have, and cry at the drop of a hat!!! Oh I try to cast my cares to the Lord, but for some reason, leaving them with him is soooo hard for me!!! Anyway, yesterday was another one of those stressful days. I am juggling all kinds of things for this move, trying to keep my kids happy, & all this while trying to remind myself that I need to take small breaks. The morning started out great. I had a good workout while listening to praise music and I felt rejuvenated. Then.....I found out my new mailbox (required for the neighborhood) is costing me almost 400$!!! This better be a mighty fine looking mailbox, is all I have to say. Is it made in gold??? I also spent a large part of my day on the phone with various repair people. When you think about selling your house and moving, all you tend to imagine is the fun part. You don't think about all this other tedious stuff!!!! Anyway, yesterday afternoon, Greg gets home and needs to change cars and leave for out of town. I somehow had forgotten to pick his shirts up at the cleaners so I made a mad dash for those. I got home, he kissed me bye and I proceeded to make some dinner for the kids. Twenty minutes later, he calls me to tell me that his van will not start at the storage facility that he keeps it in. I had to throw the kids in the car ( one was still eating), go by a neighbors to pick up jumper cables and run over to the storage place to help get the car started. Keep in mind that the whole reason for the frantic pace is the fact that he has a huge demo today. This was vital to get the big van started so he could take the equipment up to Memphis!!!! We tried for at least 20 mins and FINALLY it cranked. We hugged and I got back in my car and started to back up so that he could get out. Well that was not a good idea. I hear this loud scraping noise and then a bump and my car will not move. Meanwhile, Greg has jumped out of his car and is yelling at me to stop!!!! Oh my word, I had backed over a curve and my wheel was spinning because we were stuck!!!! In my defense, I have only been to the storage place a few times and this curve is new......they put it there because there was a large dip! I immediately started crying. I couldn't believe that I had done this. The girls were soooo sweet. They were telling me it was ok and that I couldn't have seen it!! I honestly didn't. That is the bad thing about driving such a large car ( I drive a Sequoia)!!!! I tried to get out but it wouldn't budge. A nice man came by and he got out of his van and he and Greg tried to lift me out. It wasn't moving. Greg went and got the owner of the facility and she brought some boards and stuff to try to wedge between the wheel for traction ....NOTHING. Meanwhile, I am sobbing and thinking oh my goodness we are going to have to call a tow truck......$$$$$!!!! WHY NOW? Well the guy that was helping us was sooooo nice. He called a friend who came over with his big truck. They jacked my car up and then he put a rope on the front and pulled me out!!!!!! We were probably out there for a good hour and a half. Poor Greg had to come home and shower and then drive to Memphis at 9pm. I felt horrible!!!! I will say this though....there are still nice people in this world. I don't even know that these men that helped us were Christians. In fact, I feel they probably weren't. However, they gave of their time and energy when I am sure they would have rather been at home on the couch watching some tv!!!! It really made me feel good that there are still decent folks. Of course, I know that they were sent by God and he enabled a way for me to get out of a tricky situation......YET AGAIN!!!! Now I am going to go take a few deep breaths and get back to packing. We move a week from tomorrow!!! It WILL be over soon!!!!

First Round of Beach Pics:

I am taking a break from house stuff. It is exhausting. Here are a few pics from our first day at the beach. I used my older point and shoot so forgive the quality. It was still fun!

Did I really ask for this?

Did I really pray so hard for 10 months and ask for all this stress?

Did I ask for non stop phone calls about anything and everything?

Did I ask for facing the daunting task of packing up my 3300 sq foot home???

Did I ask for the endless expenses for everything from getting a lower rate to putting blinds up in the new home to paying TWO moving trucks as they haul all my stuff just 12 short mins away?

Did I ask for this sheer exhaustion due to making too many decisions?

Did I ask for the pit in my stomach when I think about all that has to be done in two weeks?

Did I ask for having to explain to a different person each day why I am moving and how much I WILL miss my neighbors?

Did I ask to go from good sleep to restless nights and mornings?

You know what? I sure did! However, I can ask for something else. God's grace over these next two weeks, which I desperately need! :)

The Long Journey and My testimony....

I have tons of pics to share of our beach trip, but I need to post something else first! Most of my friends/family know about my year. Back in August of 2006, we felt led by the Lord to put our home on the market. We had found a home that we loved and after much prayer, decided to go for it. Little did we know, that it wasn't going to be an easy sell. We had one offer immediately, but after that nothing. Seven months later, we changed realtors. This was a godsend because it turned out that the realtor recommended to us went to high school with Greg and most importantly she was a Christian! Immediately, we started to see more action, but still no offers. I found at least 3 other homes that I loved, and we even went up to North MS to look thinking that maybe God was wanting us there. Still, nothing happened. I can't tell you how many times I cried and felt so alone. I felt like God was not hearing me and I wondered why. I wish I could say that I held a steadfast faith, but I did not. My husband did however and he was very strong when I was weak! In early April, I was searching the MLS and I found a home that looked promising. I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I called my realtor and we went and toured it. I fell in LOVE with it. It wasn't much larger then my current home but it had almost everything that we wanted in layout and rooms. I looked at it two more times and even took Greg to see it. I thought for sure that since I had found *THE* home, that God was going to sell ours. Still nothing, and so I did what I often have to do when I have a hard time surrendering. I took the listing sheet with this particular home and wrote on the front that it was my dream but that I surrendered it. I also put the date of April 15, 2007 on it and tucked it away in the little box on my nightstand. Three more months and nothing on our home and I pretty much had forgotten about it. Two weeks ago, after many discussions and lots of showings but no offers, Greg and I came to the conclusion that when we returned from the beach, we were taking our home off the market. We met with our neighbor and made plans to do a minor renovation in my kitchen. I was excited about that. The first night of my vacation I get a call from my realtor telling me not to get my hopes up, but we were supposedly getting an offer the next morning. WOW! I didn't get my hopes up and the next day we got a pretty low offer. We prayed and countered back. They countered again and we had a decision to make. We slept on it and prayed and had arrived at a number but at the last minute decided on one last offer. After my agent hung up, I sat on the bed and felt a mix of emotions. Then Greg came out of the bathroom and said he felt like we needed to pray. We held hands and prayed together...as soon as we finished, the phone rang and I heard those words I have longed to hear for months....CONGRATULATIONS!!!! The panic set in soon though when we realized how quickly they wanted us out. My agent sent me tons of listings to view on the computer. I spent a large part of vacation on my laptop. We had very particular requirements so I didn't see much of anything. I decided to ask if *my* house was still available and remarkably it was, and had gone down a little in price. We looked at it on Sunday and a few other things but decided that we would try an offer. We offered a much lower price and yesterday the builder came back with a counter. It was lower then I had expected and after realizing how much of a deal we were getting, we decided to accept. This home fits all of our needs and location wise puts us right in the middle of where we want to be. We are about 12 mins from church, 6 mins from shopping, and the girls will return to the school that they attended in the very beginning. We are getting such a deal on this home because it is truly a buyers market right now. There are things in this house that I can't believe we are being blessed with. Can you tell I am just a little excited? So long story short, we are scheduled to move on July 27th. Yes this is happening quickly but you would just not believe how smoothly everything is going. My current home inspection went extremely well. In fact the inspecter told the buyers agent that it was the cleanest one he has done in a long time. My heart is singing with praise to the Lord. He has answered my cries and given me the desires of my heart. I do not in anyway deserve this, but in his great mercy, once again his timing is perfect and his plan is far better then anything I could come up with. TO God be the glory! He alone gets the credit for this! He is so worthy to be praised! I just had to share and had to proclaim my deep thankfulness! We are so blessed! Thanks for reading and I pray this has been encouraging to someone! Psalm 18:30