Family Fun Fair

I feel like all I have been doing is unpacking! So it was really nice on Saturday that Forest Park had a Family Fun Fair from 11-3 pm. There was a break in the rain so we decided to walk over. Naomi picked her own outfit for the occasion.


There were all kinds of community groups there and each had a fun activity for the kids to do and we tried almost all of them. But the favorite was the goat and the bubbles!

We sure love our new park!

Cleaning and Enjoying

Sunday was such a beautiful day. They say here in Washington "that all the rainy days are worth it when you have a perfect day like this!" and I have to agree. Since it was so nice we took some time to clean the outside kitchen windows. The boys jumped at the chance to get on the garage roof which is the only way to reach a few of them.

After they were up there the boys had to tell me that they needed to talk to Dad because they have plans for the roof. They would like to build a fence all around it and make it like another deck where they could hang out.

I did a little arranging on the deck and then just sat in the sun and soaked up the rays and enjoyed the view.

Darrick tells me that he has plans to refinish the deck. Right now it is painted and some of the paint is chipping off. It will be fun to work on projects to improve the look of our home!

Moving Day!

I'm back! Today we got our Internet hooked up! We have now been in our house for 6 days and we love it!

But first let's talk about moving day. Thankfully the sun was shining which living in WA is a blessing in itself. On Friday Jenn T. came over and helped me with the last minute packing like the kitchen and things like that. The kids played while we packed and then we had pizza for dinner.

I was up early Saturday morning doing some last minute things. We told everyone to arrive around 8am but people started showing up about 7:45-what eager beavers. In total we had 13 adults, 5 trucks, 3 cars and 1 uhaul. Everyone except 2 people were from our church. I have never seen a house packed so fast. A family from Homeschool came to pick up my 3 kids and took them for the whole day. By 10:15 everyone was in their cars and driving to the new house with everything loaded! It was amazing!

Once we got to our new house the unpacking began. Our street is small so they had to take turns backing their trucks into the driveway to be unloaded.

By 2:00 they were done and I mean done: beds were set up and made, washer and dryer hooked up, living room and dining room set up, and kitchen unpacked.

Another lady from church made two crock pots of soup for all the workers for lunch. Others brought drinks, ham buns and cookies and bars.

One of the boys teachers, Mrs. Doud, brought us the most yummy dinner that night: Penne pasta, salad, watermelon, bread, soup and cookies.

I cannot even tell you how loved and supported our family feels. It was really hard to do this without Darrick but our friends made it easier.

Needless to say we were all so exhausted and ready to crawl into our beds for our first night sleep in our home!

Naomi learnes to peddle a bike

Happy Easter

I don't want to be a downer but today just reminds me of another holiday without Darrick. Usually I am pretty good at putting my feelings about missing Darrick aside but today it was hard. Thankfully I have the kids to keep me busy.

The kids loved their Easter baskets and got up early to check them out. I made cinnamon rolls the night before so we had those for breakfast. We had a very nice service at church and then spent the day with the Timmermans and their extended family. They always make us feel so welcome.

We have less then a week until moving day so it will be a crazy week!

Cats Playing Patty-cake, what they were saying...

Meeting the Seller

April 19: Today we had a chance to meet the seller of our house. She and her husband came up to Everett today to clean out the house of the last stuff that is there. They arranged for someone to come with a truck to haul the stuff to the dump.

The sun finally came out today so we parked at Forest Park so we could see how long it takes us to walk from the park to our house. Micah timed it and it took us 4 minutes and 23 seconds. I took some pictures on the walk so you can see the journey!

When we got to the house Barbara was working in the garage and her husband was in the basement. We had a very nice conversation and when we were ready to leave they told us that they were so happy they are selling the house to us.

Appraisal

April 16: Today marks 2 weeks until Moving Day!

Yesterday we received the appraisal report. The house appraised for $210,000 with a few contingencies. This means that there are a few things the appraiser wants done to the house before he gives the OK. Most of them the seller is already fixing but he requested some painting be done around the windows, eaves and exterior doors. When the work is done he will go back to the property to complete a re-inspection and verify that the work is complete and then we can close.

I have had a piece of scrapbook paper for years that I love. I never used it, in hopes that one day I could incorporate its design and colors into our home.

Yesterday when I walked into a store, I saw an awesome rug that reminded me so much of that scrapbook paper! I bought the rug for our living room and the best part was that it was on clearance so I got it at over 50% off the original price!

We have dark gray couches which I think will look great with the rug. So now we would like some help! We want to pick a color off the rug to paint the walls. What color do you think we should use?

Here is a picture of our living room to help you visualize it!

Part 7

April 7: I met with Sharon today at 10 am. Darrick was able to call in. She gave us an update on all the bids and who is going to be doing what work on our house. The work is going to start this coming week and she hopes everything will be done at the end of the week. Sharon read us an email from the seller and we could tell by the email that she is really happy that we are buying the house. We also heard from Jill that in just one month we were able to improve our credit score the few points that we needed. She thought it would take a couple of months. So we were able to lock in our interest rate at 4.75% and she said we are aiming to close on May 22. I asked Sharon if there was a SOLD sign up yet and she said that it has been up for a week. Darrick asked us to take a picture by it so Sharon offered to go with us and take the picture. April 11: This morning at 9 am the boys and I met Sharon at the house while Naomi was in preschool. Our agenda was to go through the stuff left in the house to see if we want any of it. Sharon had some of her staging stuff around that she packed up. She left some stuff so it will look nice for the appraisal, which should happen this week. We started in the basement and then the garage. Sharon brought signs to tape on stuff that said "please leave for the purchaser". We made piles in each spot- one for them and one for us. I was quite surprised at what a difference that made already. The basement and garage both looked so much bigger. The seller is coming on the 17th to remove the rest of the stuff. *The woman who owned the house passed away over six months ago and her sister is selling the house. They did an estate sale but the stuff that did not sell is still is the basement and garage*

Part 6

March 29: Sharon called this morning and the seller already signed all the paperwork and did not make any changes to our requests! She wants Sharon and herself to gather bids this week and to get the work started next week, which will give us 4 weeks until we move in. Every afternoon I spend some time packing . I still can't believe this is happening. April 1: I am thinking this morning how life can be like a roller coaster, a life that follows God. Seven months ago when we found out Darrick was being deployed for a year we felt so low but we trusted God. Little did we know God would be blessing us beyond our wildest dreams. We definitely didn't see this one coming! You totally got us God and we feel so undeserving. My friend, Nicole L., told me on FB today that "God is good, so good". And He is but not just in the up times but in the down times too. We believe that our faith gets us through.

Part 5

March 28: I had a meeting with Sharon today at 1:30. Darrick was able to call in and join the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a list of things we want to ask the seller to fix before we purchase the house. We went over each item the inspector pointed out and then decided if we wanted to ask the seller to fix it or not. Once that gets to the seller, she has 3 days to respond to our requests. I also signed the Escrow papers for Darrick with my Power of Attorney. I felt really good leaving the meeting. In the afternoon I worked on assembling paperwork for Jill like 2 months of bank statements and our VA eligability form. Sharon called this evening at 8:30 pm. She said she wrote a 2 page cover letter to go with our requests. She also said that the seller thought all of our requests are necessary.

Adoption Fundraising

It is no secret that adoption is not cheap. Families who desire to adopt often have to get creative to raise the funds they need to bring their child or children home. Our current adoption is on hold for the year that Darrick is deployed. Someone pointed out to me the other day that I am "Pregnant" since we are in the waiting stage! Our dear friends, the Racela Family, are also in the adoption process again. I traveled to Africa with them when we adopted Naomi. We shared an amazing experince together and have shared a wonderful friendship ever since. They are having a "Dump your pennies" fundraiser. We are collecting our pennies for them until the 4th of July along with other people. Can't wait to see the total raised in July!

I found the Chase Family online through another blog that I read. They were having an online auction fundraiser. I do not know this family personally but they are in the process of adopting from Africa. I saw this shirt and bid on it and WON! I so totally LOVE it! They even customized it for me with the heart in South Africa!

Part Four

March 23- Inspection Day! Since Darrick could not be there, I brought my camera and a notebook so I could give him a full report on everything that happened. I followed the inspector around and asked him all kind of questions. We were a bit nervous about the inspection. You never know what is lurking underneath all the cuteness!

There were a few issues with the garage roof, furnance, and chimney that needed to be fixed but no deal breakers. We received the inspectors report tonight via email at 9:45pm.

Here are a few pictures I took during the inspection of a few of my favorite things about the house:

The curtain tie backs in the master bedroom.

The view out the livingroom window into the front yard

The stainglass window in the front door.

All the glass doorknobs in the house!

March 24: Met with Sharon this afternoon, Darrick joined us on speaker phone. We went over the list of things in the report. By Monday we have to come up with the list of things we want done to give to the seller. We are both (Sharon and I) getting roofers to give us bids.

After the meeting I stopped by the house to pick up the key under the mat so I can take my roofer, Gary Vandenbosch (a friend from church) in the garage. I just wanted to stay and move in. I am so ready to make it our home!

Justin Bieber - That Should Be Me ft. Rascal Flatts

Part Three

March 15: Today at 1:30 we met with Sharon at the Windermere office. We asked her a bunch of questions and we felt comfortable and satisfied with her answers. So we went ahead and filled out all the paperwork for a Purchase & Sale Agreement. We offered them $209,000 (which is $500 less then the asking price) and that they pay the closing costs. The offer expires March 16 with a closing date of July 1 or sooner. After we signed everything she took us to the house so the boys could see it and we did not get to see inside the garage the first time because Sharon had the wrong key. The boys loved it and I fell even more in love with it! Darrick took a bunch of measurements and we saw the garage. Before we left we took the kids across the walking bridge which is right outside of our front yard. When we got to the other side we stopped and prayed as a family. We asked God to bless us with this house. At 8:30 pm, Sharon called and said she set up an appointment with the seller for 11:00 am tomorrow. She told the seller that she has an offer that she is really going to like but no other details.


March 16: The seller accepted our offer!!! Sharon called Darrick around 1 pm to give him the good news. The seller was really pleased that the offer was from a family. Sharon called Darrick while he was at the Children's Museum with Naomi for her Daddy Date. When he came to pick the boys and I up from their class he was trying to hide his excitement so he could surprise me but as soon as I saw him I knew. He had the hugest smile on his face. Our next stop was the Windermere office to pick up the paperwork from Sharon. She was so thrilled! I was on my cell phone telling my parents our good news and Sharon came all the way out to the car to hug me. She asked me to call her on Friday so we can set up the inspection for next week. While the kids were all in class this morning Darrick and I went to Lowes and dreamed... When we got back home we decided that it was time to call Rose, our landlord, and talk about breaking our lease. We were nervous because she has every right to enforce the lease until it expires in September. Darrick did the calling and Rose said she is happy for us and will let us terminate our lease early! Thank You God, we can see Your Hand in this!


March 18: Darrick left today. I called Sharon this afternoon. Before we even talked about the house she asked me how I am doing since Darrick left. Then we set up an appointment for the inspection which will be on March 23.


March 21: Started packing up the guestroom. Listed bedroom set on Craigslist for $200.


March 22: Someone called and bought the bedroom set. I finished packing the guestroom and moved onto the classroom. We stopped at the Aquatic Center at Forest Park to check it out. It has an amazing indoor pool. We also stopped by the house because Darrick asked me to see if the changed the For Sale sign to pending, they hadn't. But there was a couple in front of the house looking at it . They then went up to the sign and called a number on their cell. I felt a bit possessive like "Hey, that is our house!" The kids said the same thing!

What happened before Part One (Part Two)

Now that I have you interested I want to tell you the part of the story before Part One. First of all you have to know that Darrick and I were not looking to buy a house anytime soon. This August we will celebrate 14 years of marriage. We have dreamed of owning a house all that time. But since Darrick is in the military we have never thought it was a good idea because we never stay anywhere more then a few years. Plus he was only home on leave for 12 days, not the ideal time to buy a house. Second you need to know that WA is the first place that we have been stationed that we can actually see ourselves living here the rest of our lives. The weather took some getting use to for me but Darrick loved it from the start. We have always dreamed of owning a house in the forest, maybe even a cabin. WA has so much forest everywhere and we love that. We love our church, our friends and our schools. Third you need to know that we stink at managing money. Darrick and I are both spenders and not savers. We can manage a check book and pay our bills but have never done good with saving or sticking with a budget. Have you heard of tithing? If not then as Christians we believe that one way we worship and thank God for all that He has blessed us with is by tithing. Tithing means that 10% of what Darrick brings home in pay belongs to God. We give it back to God at the offering at church. We have struggled with tithing too. When we moved from Hawaii to WA we lost about 1/2 of Darrick's pay due to allowances and different things. When you hardly have enough to make ends meet it is hard to write out that check to our church. At the beginning of 2011 I made a sort of resolution with God. I made a commitment to Him that I would tithe 10% to Him off every pay check all year long, which means 2 times a month. Now things were going great until we got to a week when extra expenses came up. I was struggling whether I should write the check. I decided that the next time I talked with Darrick I would ask him if I should write the check or not. Darrick was concerned about us having enough money for every day things and said I should skip it this time. But I still was struggling. After much inner turmoil I wrote the tithe check and put it in the offering plate and have been faithfully since then. Darrick sent me this email today: Jenn, God is too good to me and I think that this house is because of your faithfulness and not listening to me. I am so proud to have a Woman of God for a wife. I think that this is what is happening to us because of you tithing when we did not have the money. You are so wise. I love you and are so thankful that you are my wife. If this won't help people believe in tithing then nothing will. I am so excited for our house and so thankful. See verse below. Love, Darrick Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 'Test Me in this' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it'. I am not sharing this story to show how awesome and faithful I am, because I am not. There are plenty of times that I have not followed God. I share this story in order to give ALL the glory to God for this house! Stay tuned for Part Three

The Story of our First Home Part One

I know that many of our faithful readers have been anxiously awaiting for more news about the house. It has all been such a whirlwind I have been keeping a journal!

February 24-The Bontroger Family invited us over to their house for a playdate. They live in Forest Park which is a neighborhood in Everett. I fell in love with the neighborhood. I picked up a flyer for a house for sale around the corner from them. $349,000 which is out of our price range!

March 8-Darrick is home on leave. After the boys Spanish class we drive through Forest Park because I want Darrick to see the area. We stop at the actual park to play at the playground and take a little hike. We talk about how much we love it and I tell Darrick that I am going to be spending a lot of time here this summer (little did I know...)

March 9-After we drop Naomi off at preschool we have time before the boys class so we drive around because Darrick wanted to show me the Port Gardner neighborhood. We see a house we like and pick up a flyer for fun-too expensive. We make our way over to the school area, still exploring. We end up on Federal. We see another house for sale and pick up a flyer, $209,500. It is super cute. Darrick gets out and looks around, and goes in the backyard. He comes back and tells me that I should peek in the windows so I do and I love it. We decide to call the Realtor. I'm not sure why we did this. Darrick calls her while I take the boys into class. He comes in and says she is not too busy today and can show us the house. We decide we want too see it. Darrick calls her back and sets up an appt. for 1:00. We get there a bit early and walk across the walking bridge that is right by the house. We discover that it leads right to the hiking trails at Forest Park.

Sharon arrives and we tour the house and love it even more. She gives us the name of her finance person. We call her and her name is Jill. She takes our information over the phone and she will let us know if we qualify. She calls us back later and says that we are super close to qualifying. She suggests a few easy things to do to improve our score and she mentions renting the house until we can buy it.

We call Sharon and she mentions renting the house until we can buy it. We go out to dinner with the Timmermans and tell them about the house and seek their advice.

March 10-We start off the day doing the things Jill asked us to do. We call my parents for advice. They look at it online and like it.

March 12-We are on vacation in Canada and check our email. We got an email from Jill. She lays out specific steps for us and requests our landlords name. We decide we should let Rose, our landlord, know that we are thinking about buying. We are nervous about what she will say because our lease is not up until September. Rose texts back "Wow. Awesome" We feel good about that. We show Sam and Darcie pictures of the house and they like it.

March 14-We get a voicemail from Sharon asking Darrick to call her. Darrick first called Jill. She says that she thinks it is totally possible for us to buy this house and that it will happen fast. She is going to write a letter to Sharon saying that she believes we will get there in a couple of months. She also mailed us our credit report. Then Darrick called Sharon. She is waiting for the letter from Jill. She also talked to the seller and doesn't see any issues with paying rent until we can purchase. We made an appointment to meet her in her office at 1:30 pm tomorrow. The letter from Jill came via FedEx.