movin' and groovin'

There has been some news brewin' for a little while and now that everything is official, it's time to share :)

1) My dad is a Free Methodist pastor, and [in a nutshell] the way that it works is that he can be asked to move to a different church when a need arises.  When he first started out, he pastored at our hometown church that we were already attending which was awesome.  Six years ago, he was asked to move to a small town south of Buffalo, where they live now.  However, a couple months ago they came to him and asked if he would move back to Batavia, our hometown.  At the time my parents couldn't tell anyone where, but when they were able to, we were so surprised!  It's so amazing that none of us could have planned this, the timing seems great with our adoption, they'll be closer to all of our family and Col and I, and back at our old church.  It will be hard for them to leave the awesome people of G-town, and I'll miss visiting there, but I'm thankful for a much shorter drive to see them.  He starts in September, hooray!

2) I was officially offered a promotion at work, which has been a work in progress for a while.  I am now the Marketing & Online Content Specialist and Lindsay House Surgery Center Specialist.  Eventually, after training a replacement and getting things settled, I will be doing full-time marketing as well as the operating room schedule (which I do already).  Things have been in transition, so I'm doing multiple jobs at once, but I'm excited to begin focusing fully on the marketing aspect and using my English degree by writing a lot of content.  I'm nervous and have a lot to learn, but it should be great!

on moving

our families are awesome.

our friends are awesome.

we are officially moved into our house, furniture and all.

our apartment is completely clean and sparkling, ready for its new tenants.

we have our security deposit in hand.

my mom has been a beast at painting/cleaning/unpacking/putting away.

the helpers are all fed thanks to my in-laws.

the bed is set up and made so we can sleep tonight.

we have a new home.

we can't thank you all enough for all the hard work

and for the willingness to help even when we had plenty of hands.

"I can no other answer make but thanks,
And thanks, and ever thanks."

William Shakespeare

oh my gosh, it's really ours!

Guess what, everyone?!  We're bonafide homeowners now!!  We had a successful final walk-through (oh house, so good to see you again after a few months) and after running a few house/closing-related errands (yay paint for the bedroom!  new locks to install!  certified check from the bank!), we closed on our house.  I can't even describe how happy and excited we are!  Our closing costs were even less than our estimate last week which was awesome.  And, we got to take our first load of stuff over.  We are going to stay overnight in our new home tonight, camping out on our futon mattress on the floor.  How sweet is the end reward after our waiting!  Thank you, Lord!! :)

{pics to come soon...I have them, just haven't gotten to download them to my computer to upload here.}

"get me out of here!"

If you've ever had your house packed up, or have ever had no use of a room or two for a while, you know that after a couple days, or maybe hours, sitting in the house drives you crazy.  After a particularly lazy string of evenings this week, I was ready to get up and out and do something because all the boxes are driving me nuts.  I was feeling a little like the voice that yells, "Get me out of here!" from a box that my husband received as a toy when he was a kid stuck in the hospital.  So I came home Friday from work and told Col that we were going out on a date.  Off to Olive Garden we went with gift cards in hand where we had a delicious dinner and didn't talk about the house, grant, or stress of waiting for the approval.  It was wonderful!  That evening we also decided last minute to have a game night with friends which was fun and a bonus out-of-the-house time.

Because Saturday was supposed to be super warm for January (50's!), we both had the uncanny idea to go to Mendon Ponds Park Birdsong Trail (where we got engaged!).  And so off we went (after a delicious gift-card-paid-for stop [gotta love those gift cards from Christmas!] at Panera for breakfast) to meet my in-laws who also had the same idea for the day (weird, right?).  We hiked the trails for a long time, got some great exercise and fresh air, fed some birds out of our hands, and showed them our engagement spot.  That afternoon we took a nap, awesomeness, and met up with Col's rents again for dinner and ice cream while they watched our niece.  We ended the evening with a Redbox movie.

on the bridge we got engaged on, overlooking the brook

Today we enjoyed church, football with friends, and an evening getting things done around the apt.  It was the perfect mix of out and about and productiveness.  While I cherish an empty, no plans, stay-at-home weekend more than most, this time I was happy to fill it up spending time with people outside the apartment.  Learning to love the in-between!

tomato soup & punch cups

Waiting is hard.  Especially when you have only half the ingredients you need to make dinner and you haven't gone grocery shopping in weeks and the whole kitchen is packed up and you finally dredge out a can of tomato soup only to realize after it's warmed up that you have no bowls to put it in and have to make due with tiny plastic punch cups.

It's hard when you have every piece of information into the bank and they have approved everything and the papers are signed and you are waiting on one last thing that neither you nor the bank has any control over.

Right now we are anxiously awaiting the approval and dispersal of the grant from our first time home buyer program.  Once the bank receives that from the federal organization they can give us a closing date.  Until then, we wait, pray, and hope that it does not come much later than our original date or mess up our contact as that expires next week.

House, we can't wait to fill and live in you.  Apartment, we love you and will miss you, but living in you like this is no fun at all!

our current state of existence

This is what our apartment looks like right now:

There are packed boxes in almost every room of the house.

Most of our things are in those boxes, so we are living out of our closets and on paper plates/cups.

(Thanks again to my mother- and sister-in-laws for packing our kitchen for us!

It was one room I didn't think I could handle.)

And if you know me at all, this means that I feel completely discombobulated and stressed.

I am even more excited to move and unpack into our new home.

Counting the days and anxiously awaiting a closing date!