Meow!

Every year my office has a pumpkin-carving for Halloween. This year I thought it would be fun to do something that Jonathan would like. I found the template for the face on-line, but then added a cut-out in the back to make the tail. I must have done a good job, because he recognized it right off!

And our other "cat" today:


He wasn't too sure about the costume at first, but after I put it on over my head, he seemed a little more willing to give it a try.

Thanks to the Ayers family for letting us borrow your Tiger costume!

Staples

This post is dedicated to my sister. Carrie flew down here from her current nursing position in Nebraska to spend 10 days with us cleaning, packing, baby-sitting, spackling, priming and painting. There were probably a couple other things in there as well, but those are the main things. I was so thankful to have her help that week. And I continue to be touched that she gave up a week of vacation to come down and work her tail end off. And work she did - we could not have gotten everything done that needed to be done without her here. Toward the end of her stay, I decided to give her a new nickname: Staples. Because having her here was like having my own personal "Easy" button, "That was easy!"

If you read my blog with any frequency, you've seen the original color of Jonathan's room. Well, when Wade came by to look at the house, he was quite pleased with the color - UT (that's Tennessee for all you Texas folks) orange. That comment inspired Carrie to paint the following in primer for Wade:

Of course, then she had to show how she really felt:


Carrie was having a lot of fun with primer that week, and went on to paint a car on the wall for Jonathan. It has since been covered with two coats of green, but he still knows where that car was on the wall.

There are a couple other pics of her that week that are pretty funny and characteristic, but I'm afraid she'd fly back down here to kill me if I posted them.

Thank you Carrie! You were a huge help, and I don't know how we would have gotten it done without you. I love you.

Too Sweet

We are moved in. I would put an exclamation point, but I'm too tired. We have had so much help on this move - it has really been amazing. I'm not quite sure how this move would have happened without the help of our WPC family - cleaning, painting, moving, fixing the water heater, bringing us meals, taking care of Jonathan - you have been such a blessing to us in this. thank you to everyone who has helped us with this.

We don't have the computer hooked up to internet yet. So I can't post before and during pictures yet. (after will have to come later) But I opened up my email this afternoon to find a couple adorable pictures of Jonathan that our good friend Heather took last night at the church. It's been too long since I've posted a picture of the little guy, so here's a couple to make up for the absence.

Definitely doesn't get that hair from me! Jonathan is doing about as well as I expected in the new house. I figured this move would be kind of rough, since the last time he moved to a new place, he moved in with new people too. But he's doing pretty well. He still doesn't want to be too far away from us, but I know he'll get adjusted and get used to finding his way around pretty soon. And Brian got the DVD player hooked up yesterday, and life can only be so difficult as long as you have "Cars." ;)

Moving Day

Saturday is moving day! We're getting ready to unplug the computer, and I don't know when we'll get it back up and running. Hopefully soon and I can post some before and after pics. We'll see you on the other side...

We're In!

Just a real quick post to let everyone know that we are officially closed! We even got to get in and start cleaning tonight. It still hasn't quite sunk in that it's ours, but I guess that will come in time.

Thanks for your prayers. As we get stuff cleaned, painted and moved in, I'll post more pictures.

House Update, Take ... What are we up to now?!

Update: Apparently I was a bit too hasty in posting the below. The info about the document being picked up is true to the best of my knowledge. But in talking to Damon, our realtor, it urns out that we will not be able to close this week and get into the house this weekend, due to the number of parties that still have to sign all the paperwork. Sigh. Please keep praying for us. This is getting really discouraging.

This time good news! (We think)

If you will look closely at the image below, it would seem that our document has, in fact, been picked up by FedEx. Yea!! Since this is shipping overnight, it should get here tomorrow. So we will hopefully be able to close this week, we're praying even tomorrow.

If you look closely enough, you'll see that it was picked up at 6:54 this evening. Coincidence that we filed another amendment to the contract (third time's a charm), this time stating that we wanted them to help pay some of our closing costs because they've delayed things so long? Could be, but I kinda doubt it.

Cardboard

68 boxes as of tonight. And tomorrow is going to be packing-intensive. Even more boxes to find a place for.

Cardboard makes such a nice decorative statement, don't you think?

Meeting New People

Four years ago today, after an RUF event at Wade and Marian's, my journal entry said this, "I did meet a few new people tonight. One of them being a new grad student in history. Perhaps he'll become a part of the grad student crowd." Hee hee. If I had only known!

I love you, Brian. I'm so grateful for the way God brought us together, and how you pursued me. There is no one else I'd rather go through life with.

Good House News

We found out today that the missing document that has been holding up our closing has been found! Woohoo! By following a very long, rather convoluted chain of emails, it seems that it will be overnighted either today or tomorrow. This means we will hopefully get to close sometime early next week.

I had really been hoping that we would be able to close this week so that we could paint this weekend. But I have to trust in God's timing. His, not mine, is perfect.

Thanks for all your prayers. I'll keep you updated.

Box Count + 11 Days

So our current box count is as follows:

63 total boxes

32 boxes of books