Home Sweet Home

Great news! We are the winning bidders on our house! Whoohoo! Third time is a charm I guess! I am so thrilled to finally be a homeowner! And now my packing must begin and I have never been more excited to pack! I feel like our lives are finally falling into place and I am so grateful to GOD for providing for our needs and guiding our decision! I also found out at work today that one of my colleagues lives in the same neighborhood, it will be so nice to already know someone so close by! God is SO good!

Birthday week recap

This week didn't start out busy but ended up that way! I have been working alot lately. I ended up working 2 extra days at Traditions (my prn job) this week which turns a 8 hour day into a 10-12 hour day! 

Wednesday was my 25th birthday! I can't believe I am now a 1/4 of a century old! That is just crazy to me!!! My birthday was great. Pat had to go to class after work so I didn't get to see him all day. But he did get up early and bought me breakfast which was so sweet of him! He also got a gift certificate to Charles Penzone for a full body massage! YAY! I am so excited! He also got me this really cool road bike which I am stoked about! Now we can start training for our century ride (100 miles)! It is a really AWESOME bike and it even has arm rests which will hopefully allow me to ride longer distances!

Since my birthday was on a Wednesday,we decided to celebrate on Friday with some of our favorite people! DJ (brother), Lindsey (sister-in-law), Charity and Ted (neighbors good Friends, & Lindsey's cousins), Brad and Drew (Pat's work friends) all joined us! We went to House of Japan! It was so cool! They cook the food right in front of you. Our chef made a flaming volcano onion and even caught shrimp tails in his hat! I was mesmerized! and the food was delicious! It was such a good time, and I am so blessed to have such great friends and family to celebrate with!

In other news, we lost another house that we put an offer in on. :( This is the second time we lost a house and the second time we had bid more than the asking price! I can't believe it! I was enjoying house hunting at first but now find that it has become very frustrating! Well we found another home and we have placed a bid on it (above asking price again!) and we should know Monday morning if we won the bid. Here is a picture of the house and the website with all the info on the house: http://www.postlets.com/rem/1983276 This house has 3 br and 2 baths. The location is great, westerville schools, and nice neighborhood! 

Well I am off to finish my Saturday cleaning and hopefully head down to the Jeffersonville outlets! I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

40 day hiatus

So I have given up Facebook for 40 days. For those of you not familiar with facebook, it is an online networking site that allows you to waste hours a day looking over profiles of friends and acquaintances. It allows you to know what people are doing without having to actually talk to them. It is a good way to stay updated on friends/family that you don't see or talk to very often.But also a good way to waste alot of time.  Anyways, I have found recently that I spend an obnoxious amount of time on facebook and therefore, have decided to detox for 40 days. I have not been on facebook for 7 days now which is a big deal for me. Hopefully, I can continue my hiatus for the whole 40 days. In addition, I am reading a devotional called 'Call to Die', which suggests you give up something for 40 days while you go through the book. I have obviously given up facebook. So those of you on facebook who are reading this...if I don't respond to you, now you know why!

Now I must prepare for another week of work! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and have a GREAT week!

Signs of Spring!

Well I have been enjoying an rare day home alone, and I am loving every minute of it!. My brother is in Boston for a week and my husband is in Cleveland seeing a play! :) And I am home alone doing absolutely nothing! Whoohoo! this past week has seemed to last FOREVER!  I started working prn on top of my full time job and it has been a challenge. I love what I do but it really wears me out by Friday. So I am enjoying the peace and quiet for a change. And wil soon be heading out to babysit two of my favorite girls! What a great day!

To top it all off...the weather has been a roller coaster lately and has tricked some of the daffodils into blooming! So here are some of the first signs of spring from my brother's house!!!

CHAOS

James 1:27 says, "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress..."

Over the last six years or so God has continually placed this verse on my heart. I first took notice of this verse while at college at Liberty University during a convocation about service to children in need. I keep finding myself coming back to this verse and trying to find out what it means for me in my life. The last couple of years I have focused on finishing my degree and starting my career and felt that I was justified in putting off the longings GOD has placed on my heart. But now that I have started my career, we are looking to buy a house, and have begun thinking about starting a family, this verse has been constantly resonating with me. I feel that GOD is trying to speak to me and guide our  next steps.  I have always had a longing in my heart for helping other people especially children. And have a great desire to provide a loving home for children in need because every child deserves to have parents who love them and are able to care for them. Both me and my husband had difficult childhoods and realize now looking back, how important our parents were to us and the role they played in forming us into who we are today (both good and bad). I feel that no matter the circumstances no child deserves to be abused, abandoned, or neglected. Every child deserves the chance to be given a loving, caring home and the opportunity to succeed regardless of the circumstances they are born into. There has been a song recently that seems to always be on the radio that seems to explain in words that I cannot how I am feeling inside.  I feel like GOD is changing my heart and soften it for something great he has planned, but  "it feels like chaos inside of  me but somehow there is peace.  It's hard to surrender to what I can't see but I'm giving in to something Heavenly" I have always known that I wanted to adopt children and thought that maybe I would like to be a foster parent, but I find that doubt always seems to creep in, as if satan is trying to deter me from what I feeling and thinking. I feel that GOD has given me such a big burden for children so that I may be willing to open my home to children in need of  GOD's love. I am opening up my heart for whatever GOD wants for me. And therefore, I have come to love this song and what it means to me in life right now. I continue to pray and seek GOD's face and his will for my life. I want only to love and serve him and do what he has called me and created me to do. Check out the music video by Sanctus Real!

The waiting continues

....so we did not win the bid on the house. We are extremely disappointed because we loved that house!... but we are trusting God that one that is perfect for us is still out there. This process is very difficult for us. I am usually a patient person but for some reason in regards to buying a house I am very impatient! so we will continue to look and pray that we will find the right house for us.

In other news, I continue to be a frequent visitor of the dentist. I had a root canal 2 weeks ago and yesterday had a temporary crown put on and I have to go back in 3 weeks to get a permanent crown put on. UGH! I have also started my 2nd week in the working world ! Whoohoo! and I will soon be starting a prn job at another facility to supplement our income.

In baby news, my friend Julie from my OT class had her baby, William James today and he was a BIG little guy! Congrats Julie!

The waiting game...

So we went with our realtor yesterday to look at a house. We instantly fell in love with it! It meets all of our needs and then some! It is in a great location (Morse and Hamilton) and has New Albany schools which is awesome! It needs a little work but nothing that we can't handle. So we placed a bid on the house and will find out tomorrow morning (Monday) if we won the bid. It is such an amazing house and we are hoping and praying we get it! but I am trying not to get my hopes up because it is such a great house I am sure others have been interested as well. so if you think about it pray for us as we anxiously await a call from our realtor.

Here is a pic of the front, it has 2.5 baths and 4 bedrooms: