new layout

I'm just trying out this new blog layout that I got for free from Pyzam! However, it deleted all my links to other sites...bummer! Oh well, it looks cool, I think.

Got it!

We found out Friday night that our offer was accepted for the other house! SO, we close on our current home and that new home on November 12...two weeks from today! I cannot believe it. It is still pretty surreal. Lots to do here...

It must be from God though. We really are starting to see different reasons why this is the right time and the right place to be moving to.

Sold & Offer In!!!

Well, I can hardly believe it, but we finally decided after much thought and prayer that we should sign the final ammendment paper for selling our home! And in the same day, we heard that the house that we liked had an offer come in, so we decided to put an offer down on that house! We'll know probably in a few hours if our offer was accepted. So, our home is sold now, as long as the closing goes fine on NOVEMBER 12th, and that is the day that we would hope to close on the other home as well. I can't believe that it is 2.5 weeks away. I have some work to do! We have some packing that will need to take place and then the cleaning of course. Here we go...hopefully...I shouldn't get too excited until we find out if our offer was accepted or not. If you happen to read this tonight and would like to pray for that offer, that'd be great.

We had our boiler worked on today. Remember, this is a 1923 house...but our repair guy said that it was one of the WORST boiler situations he had seen as far as it being very dangerously dirty. Good thing he came, right? He started working on it but will have to come back one more time to do a good cleaning on it. There goes another chunk of $$$ down the tubes...but we're so glad that it will be in good working order for our last few days and then for the new people.

Hope ya'all are doing well...blessings...and thanks for the prayers!!!!!

fires...

You know, as I sit and think about this whole house thing, I'm reminded once again that there are so many people who don't have a roof over their head. Such a real example of all of that are all of the people in California who have been evacuated from their homes or may end up coming back to no home.

I'm so stuck in my own world sometimes that I easily forget how others are suffering...Oh Lord, please forgive me and help me to remember to be compassionate towards those who are suffering...and please be with those people right now in California who are without a home or missing a loved one due to these fires...please help the fires to stop.

Thank you to Adrienne for the reminder about the fires...I read your post and was inspired to stop being so selfish...

It's not over 'till it's over...

Well folks in my blogosphere, here's the latest news from my world...

As I wrote last, our home was sold subject to inspection last Tuesday. However, at the inspection, the inspector apparently found a whole laundry list of things to fix...I'm talking roughly 25 or more things. And some of the things were absolutely hilarious and we seriously laughed about them. For instance:

1. Tree branches in front of house are to be pruned so as to not touch the house.
2. (re. a project of covering up Styrofoam in the basement laundry/storage area...) it shall be painted a shade of white agreed upon by the buyers.

And there were many more things. Some of the things were truly things that were safety concerns and we should certainly fix them...things with the boiler, plumbing, electrical, etc...but these people wanted ALL of these different projects to be taken care of by licensed professionals...and really, why can't I just hop up on my roof and cut the tree branches myself? I guess that would be something that typically Erik would do, but anyway, you get my point.

SO, what we did is come back and say that we would not fix any of these things, but that we'd give them some more money off of the purchase price, so that they could put that towards fixing things. And they said no, "we're done." Now we don't know what we're going to do, except that we must be patient...and that is THE hardest thing for me right now.

In the meantime, we had gone out with our Realtors who are absolutely dear, and we found a house that we LOVE and it was such a good price for us and would suit our needs and dreams very well. Apparently there is now an offer on that home, so we don't know yet if it will be accepted or not.

It is very probable that if we do not sell this home before Thanksgiving that we'll just take it off the market for the winter and wait until Spring when things pick up again. Then in that time period, Erik and I could continue working on the laundry list and have it all perfect for the next inspector. :)

Our Realtors who have been in this business for over 30 years said that they have never seen such a huge and unreasonable list of things to fix.

God must be teaching us some lessons right now, but it is really hard to swallow that pill sometimes. I had my ideas but He has his..."my ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts, declares the Lord." (I hope I got that in the right order...I think it is from Psalms, but can't remember right now.)

If you would please pray that our house sells in the RIGHT time to the RIGHT people and that we find the RIGHT house, that would be so much appreciated.

Thanks so much...blessings to you all...and may you rest very well tonight.

SOLD!!!

Pending inspection, we SOLD our house two nights ago!!! YEAH!!! Thank you to everyone who was praying for us about this. It truly is a miracle of God that our home sold in this very slow market and at this time of year. So, there were the two offers...one was asking $30K less than our current asking price and then another person wanted to make an offer and was told of the first offer existing...SO, that 2nd person made an offer that was only $5K less than our asking price! And the first people put their offer up $5K making it now $25K less than the asking price. All this to say, we accepted the better offer and we're feeling relieved and blessed!

NOW, we are on a quick search to find somewhere else to live, temporary and/or permanent. If we don't find what we want for permanent housing right away, then we will just rent something month to month until we find the right spot for us.

It's all crazy but good here, and the hardest part is over...or so we hope, Lord willing. Inspection is this Saturday, so if you think of it, would you please pray that it goes well and that nothing too huge is found? We're hoping we should be in good shape, but you never know...especially with this old 1923 cute house.

We'll miss our home a lot...this chapter is closing, but another is beginning. It is sad but exciting all at the same time!

2 offers!!!!!!

We were supposed to meet with our realtors tonight to discuss the offer that came in, but then another offer came in from a showing today! So, tomorrow night we're meeting to discuss BOTH offers. :) This has been such a crazy day...quite a whirlwind. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for the right buyers, the right time, and the right selling price, and then for a place for us to live once we sell this place! If we can't find a house we like right away, we plan on renting something for awhile. THANKS for praying!!!

Oh, and I LOVE teaching voice. It is so much fun to see and hear people improve! I really feel blessed.

Possible offer & Awesome day with church

So, we might be getting an offer on our house but we haven't seen the papers yet or heard what the offer might be! Nonetheless, it is exciting and scary to think about the prospect of leaving this home and starting another...Please pray with us if you think of it.

THANKS!

Also, I had the wonderful privelege of singing with my church choir yesterday for a special 60th anniversary celebration of the church. I had a solo in a new piece that was commissioned for the day, and it was written by a dear friend and colleague of mine. He is SO talented, and the music was just glorious. I felt so honored to be singing yesterday. We truly worshipped God as a church family, and it felt like an incredible bonding experience. Not only did we have a huge special service in the morning, but there was a gigantic concert in the afternoon. It was an awesome day, but geepers, I am super tired out today! After performance letdown I guess! Anyhow, I really felt the Holy Spirit in our midst and it was way cool...

Kleenex is fun!

Who knew that a box of Kleenex could bring so much joy to a 16 month old girl??? This is my child's newest craze...wish I had a picture to share. Now, getting her to learn that you shouldn't destroy all tissues in sight - that is my next mission. :) But for now, it gives me a giggle.

Nibbles on the House

We had a 2nd showing yesterday, and apparently those people are very interested in our house! SO, that's good news. The only bad news is that the people are concerned about our radon levels, as we disclosed that we have slightly elevated radon levels here in our home...but this is a very common problem in our area. We might have to help pay for the cost of a radon ventilation removal system, but that would be okay an we're fine with that should it need to happen.

My dad was joking this morning and said, "Just tell them that the radon comes with the home, free of charge!" He made me giggle...always can get a good giggle from my Dad. He has a great sense of humor.

If you're reading this, would you please pray with us that our house will sell soon? That would be great! It would be awesome if the people who are so interested would just decide that this is their spot. Before their showing yesterday, I was just praying that they would feel God's spirit in our home and feel at peace here if it was meant to be for them. That really helps to pray that way, instead of just praying, "God, please sell our house."

My Little Bug has a nasty cold and cough and I'm taking her in to see the Dr. today. She's been waking up coughing the last few nights...this is the first time she's been sick, which is a blessing, but it is hard nonetheless to see and hear her struggling through this illness.

Blessings to you all...

North Shore Weekend

Hello friends! We just went away for a lovely, long weekend to the North Shore of Minnesota, along mighty Lake Superior. It was SO nice to get away and see some different scenery. It was probably around 50+ degrees all weekend and rainy/drizzly/overcast, but we still had fun and got out hiking several times as well as visited several fun places. Since we were staying in a cabin next to Gooseberry Park, we were able to hike the trails right by our cabin, which was so much fun. Kristi kept saying "hiking, hiking" all the time and loved being carried in her Kelty carrier pack by her Daddy. We hiked around Gooseberry Falls one day, and heard so many different languages represented as visitors from around the globe were there. I think I must have heard Hindi, Swedish, German, Japanese, Chinese and some Texans too...that's almost like another language in itself! No offense to Texas, as I LOVE it there, and miss it like crazy...it was a blast living in Texas. We actually had fun conversations with the Germans and the Texans. I don't know how I end up in all these conversations with random strangers, but I guess I'm usually friendly and it just happens! When I told the Germans that I had been to Germany with my college choir, they wanted me to sing in German. So I broke out into song, "Die Forelle" by Schubert, right there by Gooseberry Falls. Erik just smiles and laughs at me when this song stuff happens on our trips. Everywhere we go I seem to have to break out into song...when we were hiking in the bamboo forest of Hawaii for our honeymoon, I sang there...and when we were in the Swiss Alps a few years ago, I was singing there to the goats and cows on the hills. I just love to sing in nature I guess! Anyway, we also saw Splitrock Lighthouse, which is a very famous and cool place. It was very windy and rainy and cold when we were there so we didn't get to walk down by the lake for the award winning views, but it was still fun to be there. We ate dinner in Silver Bay at what must be the iron miners' favorite little strip mall greasy spoon restaurant. I had yummy fried Walleye, and it was great. On our way home, we stopped at Betty's Pies near Two Harbors and had really good pasties and pie. YUM! It was fun to stay in a cabin and have a fire on our last night! Oh, and on the way up we stayed in Duluth for a night and stopped at the aquarium museum. That was fun! Kristi loved seeing all the fish and the fake moose, as well as the sea otter.

Gotta run...Little Bug is calling for me and needs some attention...I'll post photos soon!

Comments working?

Hi friends! I was just notified that the comment feature wasn't enabled on my blog. Could somebody comment just so I know that it is enabled or not? And if it isn't, could you please email me to let me know? Thanks much!

I love a rainy day...