This past weekend was so nice. On Saturday Dale, Andy and I went shopping. We had several items on our list, mostly just window shopping, not buying. We looked all through the kitchen, bathroom, lighting, and decor section in several stores. (Andy wasn't as nice as Dale, he escaped to the electronic section a few times) One of my favorite stops was Pier One. They have a lot of clearance, I was pleasantly surprised. Dale and I Meandered through the whole store. It was a blast! We were dreaming of our future house and the things we would like to have for it.
For lunch we sent Andy in to a Chinese restaurant for their lunch buffet to-go for one. He came out with a dish heaped with lomein, fried rice, teryake chicken, egg rolls, and still more beef and chicken, all for $6.45. What a deal! We didn't get to stuff ourselves, but it was quite satisfying.
After shopping all day, we arrived home famished and tired. We ate some leftover hearty chicken soup. Yum! Then proceeded to watch Happy Feet. Dale and I had never seen it and it was a great end to a nice day.
Sunday we went to Brandon and Merissa's and carved pumpkins. I made carmel apples and Dale roasted pumpkin seeds while everyone else did their pumpkins. It was a fun time all in all. I took pictures and will try to post some later.
A Nice Weekend
Amazing New Developements
I have felt lately that I am just sitting here biding my time, wondering what God's plan is. Why is this house not working out? I have been trying to have an open mind and pray for God's will in it, but honestly as of late I have gotten a bit discouraged with it all. Then yesterday came. We have had an offer in at Countrywide Bank (they own the house) for a week with no word from them. Here's the gist of the situation:
- Asking price for the house $84,000
- 2 weeks ago we offered $70,000 plus they pay our closing(4,600)
- 3 days later they lowered the price of the house to $80,000 and offered us that as a counter, so basically a full price offer as a counter and no closing costs included
- 1 week ago we offered $73,000 plus they pay our closing again, so we were about $10,000 apart on the numbers total
- No word from Countrywide, anger, anxiety and prayer all going on in this house
- Yesterday, the deadline day, Countrywide accepted our offer!!!!
I was in complete shock. When my Realtor called and told me, I didn't believe her, then I started jumping up and down all over the kitchen in excitement.
In the days before that, I was getting very angry because I thought the bank was being arrogant and letting us just sit the week out with no answer when they were not going to accept anything less than full price. I had so many conversations with them, in my head of coarse, about how they were acting sure of themselves in these economic times, and that house had been on the market for 8 months and the price had only come down the 4,000 in that time. At night we would watch the news and see the stock market dropping and hear about the mortgage crisis and wonder why the bank wasn't jumping to sell when they had the chance. We had made plans to go look at more houses and basically move on. I thought that's what my realtor was calling about. I had totally given up. But I can see now they had to wait and see if they got a better offer before accepting ours at the last minute. I am so thankful. Some other amazing things played out yesterday too that has allowed me to see that God has perfect timing and he was in control all the time. The bank accepted our deal on Wednesday, Oct. 8 2008 because that's when it was God's will. No doubt about it.
Hopefully all goes well from here, I feel drained at this point and all we have accomplished is getting an accepted offer. We still have inspections, appraisals, and closing to get through. I know that God is in control and will accomplish his will.
*In other totally unrelated news, Andy has made a huge turn around in algebra. He is putting a lot of time and effort into it and while it's not coming easy, it is coming and he is thinking about taking trig next year! Thanks for your prayers!
Just a few tidbits about life in general
1. We are in the middle of our house deal. We offered, they countered, and now we've countered. This has all happened since Friday the 26th. The house is bank owned, so we are impressed with their speed.
2. I went to my first big quilt fair last Friday. It was huge! Similar in size to some of the larger homeschool fairs. They had some very awesome quilts and projects. I just finished my own quilt project. It was my first rag quilt. It was basic, but very cute. I thought it would be bigger when I was done. Next time I'll remember that. My precious new nephew, Gabriel, is the recipient.
3. Church has been very good lately. It seems that God has been speaking directly to me, it's amazing. I was praying about testifying last night when a brother got up and read 150th psalms. It is all about praising God. The brother talked about how he sometimes made the faith more complicated than it was. God wants us to praise him. We ended up having several testimonies.
4. Doughnuts. When we lived here before, we started inviting the brethern over after church on Wed. nights for doughnuts from this wonderful little doughnut shop with fresh, hot doughnuts. About 3 years ago we came through on a Wed night for church, then after church we got everyone to go to the doughnut shop. Since that time the brethern here have been going every Wed night. It is awesome! You walk in the back where they have racks and racks of fresh doughnuts and make your pick from bavarian cream, old fashion, long johns, glazed and twists, huge chocolate topped pretzels, raspberry filled.......mmm..... When we first started going years ago, the owner loved Andy and would always give him free doughnuts, which is comical since as most of you know Andy didn't like doughnuts or sweets when he was little, but we definitely took the doughnuts with a smile. We didn't want to hurt Mr. doughnuts feelings and the doughnuts were enjoyed, not to worry. In any case, 3 years ago when we came through, Mr. doughnut recognized Andy when he walked in the door. I was amazed. It had been over 6 years since he had seen him. Last month when we went in on our first Wed night here, Dale and I went in the back room to choose our doughnuts and owner was friendly but didn't recognize us. A few minutes later Andy joined us and the guy looked at him and instantly asked, "What's your name?" Andy told him and he got so excited. "I knew it, I knew it, how are you Andy, it's been a long time..." Imagine all of this coming from a short, little, asian man with a thick accent. Come and see us and we will take you to the doughnut man. mmm... Whew, this tidbit could have been its own post!
5. The terrible, awful, stupid, pointless, dreaded ...ALGEBRA 2... I have never taken algebra 2 but Andy assures me that these are all words that describe it completely. Last night in church one of the testimonies was from a brother who talked about being in college and feeling totally overwhelmed by his studies. He said he would often ask his mother and the brethern to pray for him. He said high school had always been easy for him, but when he took his first college chemistry test that he had never studied so hard for something and done so poorly. He was devastated. Dale, Andy and I talked a lot about it last night and part of the time Andy was very upset and wanted out of the class no matter what the cost. Later when he was talking more rationally, he realized he needed the class to be able to take the science classes that he is VERY interested in. Dale offered to help at night and we will all be praying him through.
6. Dale's job is going good. We feel that God blessed us with it.
News
Dale got a job! Yippee!! That is a huge load off our minds. We are looking at a house to buy and plan to make an offer on Monday. Buying a house here is so much cheaper than rent, it would be crazy not to try to own. In the past we have tried to buy a house from time to time, but it wasn't in God's plan so we'll see what his will is this time.
In other news, we are planning a surprise 16th b-day party here at sis Sharon's tomorrow for one of the girls at the church. On Sunday we are planning a day at Eliches (Six Flags) because it is a free day. Some of the sisters have been getting together every Thursday for lunch and sewing. It has been nice. There is so much going on here, I love it!
New song
I know, two posts in one day is completely unheard of from me, but after my last post I decided I was tired of the song I had had on for months now. I just picked one out of the blue to put on the top. Then I came back to my blog to listen to it, amazed that the words in the song is EXACTLY how I feel. Just thought I would share those thoughts.
Growing up??
Andy assures us that he is liking school and doesn't want to homeschool any longer. I understand his reasons and think that so far the experience is going well. He is a lot more motivated than he used to be. We used to homeschool from 8:30am-2:00pm (he was up at 7:30) with an hour break for lunch. Most days Andy would ask to be able to skip this or that to get done earlier. He didn't have a terrible attitude about school, but he definitely didn't do it until he was told. I want to share with you Andy's day yesterday:
6:30 am Andy got up and got ready for school
7:30 am left for school
1:15 home from school
1:30 left for college classes
4:45 home from school, free time
5:30 went to get hair cut
6:15 back home, clean room
6:30 ate dinner
7:15-9:30 homework
10:00 bed
I realize that Andy has a great opportunity in taking these college classes, I just think it is funny that he doesn't complain about his homework or schoolwork now even though there is a lot more of it. Last night we didn't even know he had homework, he just mentioned it after dinner and went off to get it done. That made a total of 10 1/2 hours of school work vs. 4 1/2 when homeschooling. I am very pleased with the change in him so far, I know that school is always new and exciting at first we'll see how it lasts. I am very much enjoying my role of mother without nag, nag, nagging about school work all the time. To all of you homeschoolers out there, I loved our homeschool life and wouldn't change it if I could go back, but I know life is full of change and we need to find contentment where ever we are.
Update
Here are a few updates on our ever changing life.
1. Andy is going to public school, after 6 years of home schooling. He is also taking some classes at the community college. He is loving it all. Looks like the school is going to accept all of our previoius credits, but it's nots official yet. We'll see.
2. Dale has a job interview tomorrow! Again, we'll see. Looks like it is insurance work.
3. We don't have a house yet. Basicly, no job means no house. We are staying with sis Sharon. She is a jewel!
4. The brethern here have been awesome! They are always giving hugs and telling us how glad they are we came. It makes me feel a little guilty that I feel homesick. Church has been great and we have had several visitors. We have had ministry on being ready and bearing fruit. I have had a soar throat most of the time we've been here, so I haven't been able to sing much, but it's getting better so I am looking forward to being able to sing along soon.
A change in the plans
We are moving sooner than we first planned. We will not be making the camp out:( Today was our official move out day. It was crazy and hectic. First our land lord informed us that he would be charging us to repaint the house! We have lived in about 20 different homes and I have never had a land lord that was so picky or charged us to repaint. Before we left Bend, I found out we were driving our moving truck without insurance. Last year when we moved, our agent went over all of our coverages and told us we didn't have to purchase the extra insurance offered by the truck company. This move, I tried to contact my Oregon agent, but because our moving date was changed with such short notice, I wasn't able to reach them until today. They informed us as we were driving down the road that now that our policy is in Oregon, we are not covered for a moving truck. No insurance on a 26 ft. nice, new, huge truck. No stress there. I got in touch with Penske and they said we had to go into a dealer so they could inspect the truck before they would let us purchase insurance. The closest dealer along our way is in Boise, unless we wanted to go back to Salem where we picked up the truck. Thankfully we have made it safely this far. Early tomorrow morning we will go get the insurance, what a relief that will be. We came upon a terrible wreck about 10 miles back, I am thankful that God has protected us.
Just checking in
Sean and Marisela made it in last Wed. night. He called meeting on Thurs and Fri, then a singing on Sat. It was all very good and uplifting, including Sunday. We heard about doing for others and counting our blessings, just to name a few. I really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. Today I need to get back onto the job of packing, so I thought I would make a quick little post as it may be a while before I return to the blogging world. I will miss you all. Please leave me lots of wonderful comments to come back to.
Busy Days
I have started packing. What a chore! I have almost all of our books packed, all 12 boxes of them! Amazingly we have really down sized these last 2 moves and have gotten rid of a lot of books.
Today I am working on cleaning up the packing mess and getting some groceries because we have company coming. Safeway has a $10 off coupon in the Tuesday paper this week, so I am heading there to take advantage of their other good deals too. $1.89 lb boneless skinless chicken. Not as cheap as I paid last time ($1.49) but still a great deal, especially with $10 off.
Sean and Marisela should be in for dinner tonight and are staying through Friday. I am really looking forward to it. We see each other in passing at weddings, ect., but it's been a while since we really got to spend some quality time with them. She hasn't seen my house yet, so I didn't start packing any decor (normally my first boxes to pack). I still have 2 weeks until I need to be packed, I'm sure I have plenty of time.
