Whirlwind of God's Goodness

   The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. After some last minute craziness, we did take possession of the house on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were spent installing door knobs, garage doors, cleaning up the yard (a big task!), cleaning up the inside, moving appliances, and on and on... The next few weeks are going to be a lot of work, but we're really excited and can't wait to move in asap.  Today, we decided to have the wood floors refinished, which will set our schedule back almost a week, but in the end, we'll have some sweet matching floors throughout! 

   So getting keyed sucks. My car, the beautify blue Jetta, who fell victim to random acts of key violence recently, is scheduled to get fixed in a few weeks (after the move). I'm finally past my "Why me?" rage and have moved on to a more subdued dislike for all trouble-making teenagers. (Sorry, if I'm totally stereotyping, but I can't help it right now.) I am thankful for my laser blue transportation even though it needs a bandaid and a new paint job. 

   The other large and looming thing that has been stressing me out lately: Portage County. Finally resolved! We went to court today and everything is OKAY! Yeah! We are so relieved and thankful that it's finally over. I don't think I have ever breathed such a sigh of relief. 

   Zac was taking some "before" pictures of the house tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow. I think the transformation is going to be pretty amazing! : ) Thanks to all our friends and family who've helped with the work so far. The leaves would have been overwhelming without all the hands to help out! 

   

Taps

Sister Laura, who is in active duty at Fort Polk, Louisiana turns 19 in a few weeks! Crazy, I know. She is currently on funeral detail which means that when there is a military funeral in Louisiana or East Texas she travels to do the ceremony. Her job is to play taps! Ugh? Don't worry, its prerecorded so just has to pretend. (Thanks for the update Mom.)

I should have known better ...

Okay, so I should have known better than to jinx myself. A previous blog headline like "Our house ... Finally" was just asking for it. We've hit a snag in the house closing. Nothing that will ruin everything, it's just going to set us back some days. Something that should have been taken care of before today - didn't. So now we wait ... some more. And me, the impatient control freak cannot take it anymore!!
I would explain more, but I'll just get even more mad at all the legal mumbo jumbo it takes to buy a house, especially from HUD. Friends, just please be praying that God gives us patience!

A few things I am thankful for...

1. Good, good friends to have lunch with, share life with, and to laugh with. (is that proper grammar?)

2. Car insurance. Because without it, I would have to pay the full amount to have my car fixed because the stupid teenagers in my neighborhood with nothing better to do, decided it would be fun to key my car (three separate times) in the middle of the night.

3. Kreiger's Market in the Falls. You can always count on Kreiger's to have fresh, reasonably priced produce and healthy food products even in the middle of winter. Can you say chips & salsa?

4. Family. No explanation necessary. They're just cool people.

Our house ... finally!

It's finally official! We're scheduled to sign the last of the papers this Thursday, and transfer on Friday. Yeah!!
So this means that we will be able to get into our house this weekend and begin doing all the things on the long list of things to do before moving in. Oh fun things like install new furnace, dry the place out, wash and clean everything, paint every paintable surface, clean gutters, rake leaves, install garage door opener, light fixtures, seal windows and doors, rip up carpet, and on and on and on...
But we're not complaining - we're actually super-excited to be doing all this. Zac and I have been planning and window shopping for months now, and it will be fun to finally get in, get dirty and make this little house a home!

Washer & Dryer

So since we're buying a house, that also means that we need to buy a washer & dryer. great. So anyway, I've been doing my research because this is a significant purchase and we've decided that since we've got to buy all appliances for the house here is where we want to spend our money. Luckily, we got a free fridge from someone who knows someone, and found a used stove on Craigslist for $200.  I've convinced Zac to let me make the W&D decision because... seriously ... when's the last time he's done a load of laundry from start to finish? 

I had myself pretty well convinced that I wanted the Whirlpool Cabrio (top loader with no agitator), but after hearing a bunch of bad reviews first hand, I've changed my mind. So, now I'm back to deciding between the many front load sets out there. Any suggestions? 

Here's what matters to me. 1. Get the job done - make dirty stuff clean. 2. Be efficient - water & electricity are expensive. 3. Quality - I want this purchase to last for a long, long time. 

On a side note - to all those people out there who spend an extra $400 to get the "Arctic blue" or "Glacier Mist" colored machines that are exactly the same as their white counterparts ... you're crazy. 

Weeds

   A few months ago a friend from work recommended that Zac & I rent the Showtime series Weeds on dvd. So for the past few weeks, every time we'd go to Family Video, we checked to see if it's there. Normally, no luck seeing as there is only one copy of each disc in the store. 

   This weekend we finally got lucky. We were able to rent season 1 (both discs) and the first disc of season 2 for $1 each (5-days).  So all afternoon on Sunday we sat on the couch watching episode after episode because we got sucked in and couldn't stop!!  Seriously this show is one of the best I've watched ... ever. It's got an engaging mix of humor, drama, heart-wrenching truth, and social stigma. In summary: Southern-Cal widow sells weed to support her family and maintain living status. 

  I recommend it to all of my movie-watching friends out there. But one note of caution. If minor language and/or pot humor offends you, this might not be your thing. 

Chasing Chariots @ Musica

Mark you calendars! Zac's band, Chasing Chariots will be playing at local venue, Musica, next Saturday - March 22nd. Show starts at 6:30 and they are the 1st band. Cover is $7. Musica offers a unique atmosphere, with great sound. Tasty, adult drinks & coffee will be for sale in addition to the cover. Hope to see you there!

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

"Carrie, what did you do this weekend," you may ask. Well, my answer would have to be, NOTHING! Since the skies dumped over a foot of snow beginning Friday at noon and continuing all day Saturday, Zac's band show was canceled for the weekend. What I had hoped would turn out to be a romantic snowed-in weekend, was so NOT.

You see, when two people (named Zac and Carrie) are stuck in a very small condo with nothing good on TV, nothing good to eat, and nothing to do - patience is short, tempers flare and boredom makes it all ten times worse.

I am not the type of person who likes to be constrained. And when I'm told that I can't do something, I want to do it even more. When common sense tells me I can't run my Saturday errands because it's a friggin' blizzard, I get ticked. "Snap." - When Zac's bored, he gets ansy. When he gets ansy, his patience fizzles. "Crackle."

Add to the equation not having our parking lot plowed until 6 p.m. SUNDAY evening. Over a foot of snow + 2-wheel drive truck + 2 cranky people = POP!

If it weren't for our Jabbour intervention on Sunday, I don't know if we would have made it. Thank God for good, good friends, meatless chili, random Jackson comments, the Wii, and Eli hugs.

Choosing

Wow, buying a house is serious business. Searching, searching and then finally finding the one we want. Can we afford it? The bidding process. When, oh when are they going to accept our offer?!?! Falling more in love with the house day by day. Falling in love with the idea of OWNING a house. Finally having our bid accepted. YEAH! Paperwork out the wazoo. Not able to sleep because we're so excited! Talking to the mortgage guy. Calling the utility people (not fun). Scheduling inspections. Mind war between second-guesses and gut feelings. More paperwork. Leaving work early for this and that. Signatures, lots of signatures. More signatures. 

But some day soon ... maybe even as soon as March 15th ... we'll sign the last paper and 3669 Elm will belong to the Halls. Well ... in 30 years when we pay off our mortgage. : )