Moving Out...

The movers came on a Friday...

They loaded up the trucks and unloaded all of our things into a storage shed... 

But only for two weeks! 

The kids and I "manned" the moving out process that Friday and enjoyed a fun night at the house once Daddy got home... our house was empty!! 

We camped out on blow-up mattresses on the floors of our respective rooms that evening... for the kids it was the last night in their rooms.

The next morning they packed up and headed to Waco to spend the rest of the weekend and part of the next week with their Nana and Bop!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch I was rounded up all the extras... that annoying stuff that seems to multiply every hour you spend cleaning it up. And when Justin got back home from dropping the kids off, he helped... 

We took numerous trips to the dump and Goodwill and threw an occasional trip to the storage shed in between all of the trash and treasure fun. Saturday night we took advantage of another kid free night and headed out to eat at one of our favs. 

I took a pic... because well, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Kaki and Caden were LIVING it up in Waco, as per usual. Can you guess where Kaki is???

That's right... visiting the Chuckster and his cheese. And this is why God made grandparents! :)

Did I mention they also got to go to the Baylor Basketball game before that???

Aquariums... Baylor... Pizza and Games... trips to Walmart... Those are two pretty awesome sets of grandparents!!

I snapped a pic of my handsome hubs at dinner... he was thrilled... so then I said, SMILE... and I got this... Nailed it.

We sat on the patio and enjoyed a nice, relaxing and YUMMY dinner. Then we headed back to our favorite air mattress and our empty home. It would now be our last night in our room in our home. Tear.

The next morning we had big plans of going to church, lunch, etc. But my ever-the-wiser husband woke up at 4:30 panicked at the work still before us and then he checked the forecast and really hit the fan, so it goes without saying that I too was up and at 'em early that morning to get started on our day. I think we visited the dump three times before we even had our coffee!  We had a winter storm headed our way so we had to get busy... in the midst of the cold rain that started falling that morning.

And we started moving things... out... 

That is me... surrounded by stuff... the "extras" attach!

Thankfully, by the time lunch rolled around we were pretty close to finished so we lounged around the house, took our last showers and packed the last few things. We locked up and said goodbye to our home. I wasn't expecting to be emotional, I'm not sure why because I am ALWAYS emotional... it's a trademark of sorts. BUT, I really never got sad until that moment, when I knew it would be my last. It wasn't so much the house that I was mourning the loss of, but the memories that we shared there. Not that anyone can take those from me, but that house represents 18 months of life that I treasure and it all just seemed kind of heavy. 

So I cried my tears, called my mom and pressed on.

Justin and I went to grab some dinner just before headed to our friends' home who graciously offered to host us for the night when the ice started to fall. The weather seemed to get worse and worse, so we literally walked out of the restaurant before we were ever served and picked up pizzas and headed to our friend's to take shelter. Cue the second round of tears. After listening to the radio and the reports, it made it seem as though I might not even get to see my kids the next day. I was supposed to pick them up Monday afternoon... what if I was iced in?

I was sad and I missed my kids... and the threat of ice keeping me from the one thing I felt like would cure my sad self was just ticking me off! 

BUT... it wasn't the ice that kept me from them that next day.

But my car.

My battery died.

The cold air had zapped it.

But road side assistance assisted and I was on my way just a few hours later than I had originally anticipated.

I picked up the kids from Waco...

Said farewell to sweet Nana who all but completely spoiled Caden and Kaki throughout the weekend and we headed to Belton where we would meet up with Justin for the night.

Justin's grandparents just so happened to be on a two week cruise during our homelessness and offered to let Justin stay there instead of in a hotel for that first week. His commute was easy and it gave us all a place to crash for the night before we hit the road for our week of Whitters fun in Nacogdoches.

But then the car...

It did it again...

Nice.

So we got a jump and spent the rest of the day in Belton getting a new battery, an oil change and the like. So we got to spend an extra day in Belton and another night with Justin, so it really did work out for the best. Plus we got to relax... we were all pretty tired...

Waiting for our battery! Wearing 18 layers of clothing... brrrrr!

I got caught snoozing when someone got up from naptime earlier than I expected... 

Night time with Daddy...

Next up... 

A week in Nac-town!

Ending Where We Started, (THE END)

Well...

Saturday... family fun day.

Sunday, the day we were still not supposed to be talking about where we were living, what we were doing, and what our next step was.

That is SO not our personalities and we knew the answer... it was clear and so we wanted to act on it.

After all of that... 

We decided to stay in the same town... Justin would commute.

The end.

Almost.

We already sold our house, which was in fact a huge blessing for lots of reasons. So there was no going back there. So, let's just buy another house down the street, in the same neighborhood. In fact there are several that are lovely.

We did a drive around Sunday evening and scouted some options and then we set up an appointment with our realtor for the very next day.

But the next morning, we had a little visit to the local firehouse with our MOPS group where I got to share the news with some dear friends... 

Was it really true? Were we actually staying?

Caden and Kaki had a great morning at the firehouse and I was affirmed that, in fact, this was the best decision for our family at this juncture... we had too much here to walk away from it for a shorter commute. Friends... 

So after the firehouse and a fun lunch with friends we ran home for a quick nap and then back to a friend's house who offered to watch the kids while Justin and I went to make another offer... what we hoped would be our FIFTH and FINAL offer on a home.

So we set out... we looked at 5 homes in our neighborhood that day. We decided on one that had been on the market for quite some time. In fact it had been on the market for almost 700 days... yes, 700! For some reason it hadn't sold... it was brand new construction and was going to be a GREAT fit for our family and just right around the corner from our old house... not much would change.

Seeing as the house had been on the market for 700 days, we thought we'd have an easy time of it, until we drove up to look at it the second time and another potential buyer was there, taking pictures with their iPad, we knew that meant business. But we didn't worry, we put in our best offer and waited.

Our realtor called the next morning and said that after 700 days of being on the market in ONE day, which happened to be the SAME day we put in our offer on the house, THREE other offers came in... so that would be FOUR total offers on the house that had been on the market for 700 days.

Seriously????

Our realtor was pushing us to put in a higher offer, but we didn't want to, feeling very strongly that we did not want to max-out our budget any further than we were stretching it already and that if it was meant to be, it would surely be.

But we were pretty sure after that phone call that we would definitely lose the house.

So we were down to T-minus days, just days, before we had to be out of our current home. So maybe we'd rent in Georgetown.

We pulled up our MLS search again and again and drove by lots of different neighborhoods, trying to figure out where our next move might be... no luck. But there is and was this neighborhood that MANY of our friends live in, we've always loved it, it feeds into one of the best schools in the area... a different school from where our old home fed into. We had never truly considered living there for various reasons, but we thought hmmmm... let's take a look... see what was for sale. It would be fun! Kids... families... it would be completely different than what we had.

And then...

There was this house. It fell comfortably and intelligently within our budget, it met our most basic needs... it was smaller by almost 1000 sq ft, it didn't have many of the rooms we had in our old home, it was older, but not old, but it was charming and it backed up to the elementary school. It was down the street, around the corner and up the block from about 9 of our couple friends. So we decided to pull the trigger... this was it.

Before we ever looked at it... or even walked through its doors, we called our realtor, who had definitely thought we had finally fallen OFF our rockers, and told her we wanted to make an asking price offer on this home. 

Without seeing it?

YES!

Full price?

YES!

Okay...

NUMBER SIX!!!

So she did it and the next day the seller's called her and told her they wouldn't accept our offer until we looked at the home... picky, picky! :) And naturally we would have seen the home, but we did it that morning, loved it as much in person as we did by the photos and then a few weeks later it was ours...

Done and done!

SIX!

From there it was a whirlwind...

Packing... garage selling... packing... moving... traveling... being homeless for two weeks, etc.

But none of it mattered because we were at peace... and that peace came with excitement and anticipation and lots of fun! 

So truly, our ending was where we started... 

It was a long, and at times stressful, painful, confusing road but we walked it, we survived it and we came out on the other side and we're in a good place. God knew this house was ours, He just had to wait for us to figure it out and we are so thankful that He continued to extend His grace throughout the process. We are so grateful He spared us from a mistake this time... so, so, so thankful!! 

There are so many things about our new home that speak volumes to the ways in which God answered even our most minuscule desires. And we fully acknowledge that we are not deserving of any of it which makes it all the more special.

I am so grateful HE KNOWS... because I NEVER do! :) 

So, once we had all of that drama drama drama settled it was time to get busy...

PACK UP, PACK UP, PACK UP!

On the way I found this... 

Didn't even know I was in possession of it... FOURTEEN!

It was a big year... for my hair, nose, eyebrows and style! :) It's too bad you can't see my first set of fake nails... cah-ute!!

One weekend we had a garage sale... so we sent the kids to CC so we could get ready for the sale and then knock out some serious packing!

There had a SUPER FUN time... as always... 

And came home with more friends...

Max...

TMNT...

The SALE!!

Max and Molli and their favorite curly-haired friend!

Cade-man

Of course KK and Albi treated them to a trip to the aquarium... they visited Shadow and Kai...

And brought home even MORE friends... how about a dolphin the size of a king-sized pillow???!!

Caden in his dude pad... sound asleep!

Kaki loves cars!!

We were SO excited to have them home and celebrate with some ice cream using some of our sale proceeds... Caden was MOST proud of our earnings!

And then it was time to move out...

Just. like. that.

And these two were GREAT helpers!!!!

We couldn't have done it without them ;)

Or the tons of love and support and weekends away from all of our family and friends!! 

Thanks for keeping our kiddos for the weekend KK and Albi...

Next up...

The ACTUAL moving weekend when the kids went to Waco!!

And we had another ice storm...

And our two week tour de Texas began!!

Ending at Where We Started (Part III)

So we left off with house #4... it wasn't right. And maybe Lakeway wasn't right either.

Well, we were pretty sure that was true, but that next week we had lots of processing to do. We talked about living in Round Rock, North Austin, we thought more seriously about renting a home. We priced out apartments... again... we researched our options, we talked with our realtor and we were still unsure of what to do. I didn't want to think about it... I wanted to keep breathing... waiting... 

There was some job stuff... some big job stuff that we were seeing through...

It shifted our direction a bit...it made things change course... things became clearer.

But still...

We needed to be still...

But when the clock to being homeless is ticking this was much easier said than done.

As we approached the weekend we decided that the kids had been through A LOT. Lots of change, lots of "backseats..." lots of sacrifice in their worlds. So we decided to have a day that was dedicated just to them... our family as a whole, but we decided to do things that would weightheavily on the KID side...

Again... it was just what we needed!

Throughout the week we had thrown around the idea of staying right where we were... in the same town... even in the same neighborhood. The Lord was pulling us there and we felt it, but again we were trying our best to wait it out... be patient... wait for clarity.

This day would continue to tug on our heartstrings...

We ended up spending the first part of our day enjoying the fun in our sweet, little town...

Beginning with breakfast at our favorite spot...

Where the kids thoroughly enjoyed the BACON!!!

And we took pics all around... 

And the kids slicked down their Mickey Mouse pancakes!!

After breakfast we headed the park for some playing...

The "purple dinosaur park" is one of their favs... they were THRILLED when we pulled up. We also made a pit spot on the way to get some crackers for our duck friends who we were hopeful of seeing! :)

Guess what??? They were there... in all of their quacking glory...

Of course Daddy was the only one brave enough to approach them at first... these were actually geese... and I don't do geese! 

Ever since Justin and I's canoe was attacked by an angry goose on Town Lake 10 years ago, geese have been dead to me! 

The kids were a bit timid but tried to warm up to the idea of the gaggle of squawking feathered creatures... 

After the park we headed to a new part of  our AWESOME trail system for a little hike... 

We came upon a lovely little treat someone put out for the passers-by... 

We made it one tenth of a mile...

My heart...

The stick collector... aka the collector/hoarder of all THINGS... Kaki, convinced Daddy that he TOO needed a good hiking stick... and he found one! :)

And then the hunt was on... they found several!

I believe we made it another two tenths of a mile before we turned around and headed home... Kaki is a slow, slow creature... she stops to smell the roses in the most literal sense, so if she's not in the hiking backpack we can be assured that our hour long hike will not take us very far... BUT we enjoyed our time nonetheless... it was an absolutely majestic day!

After hiking we ran home for a potty break and to shed some layers and then surprised the kids with the BIG event for the day...

Kiddie Acres...

We didn't tell them until we pulled up... 

THEY WERE SO EXCITED!!

They rode and rode and rode... 

After Kiddie Acres we headed home for a late nap... we had a BIG ending to our special family day...

Dinner at one of our favorites... this was more of a Mommy and Daddy treat than a kiddo treat, but they do love going out on the town and we love to take them with us... 

We had a FUN, lovely, YUMMY family dinner that ended with a big bowl of ice cream for the little kids and one of the tastiest cappuccinos ever for the big kids!

Kaki girl can pound her some ice cream... 

The girls...

And the boys...

You can dress her up...

This boy is an ice cream lover too... the original...

It wasn't until we got home that we realized that Kaki's dress and tights were COVERED in chocolate syrup tinted ice cream... she was truly a mess! :)

At the end of our day exploring the sights and sounds of our hometown and then venturing out to enjoy some other local favorites, we believed our answer was getting clearer. Our hearts were full of appreciation for the time we had to spend together as a family. Throughout our day we found ourselves saying things like "Gosh I love this city!" "Why are we moving again?" "Why are we leaving this place?" "We finally got here... why are we leaving so soon?" Over and over again...

Maybe our end was way back at the beginning. Maybe the ending of our story would be right where we started.

But, let's not think about that today...

There will tomorrow for that...

And if there's not...

We will not be any worse for it... :)

To be continued...