I have been going through the zillion pictures I took in California. This is not the best one, but it made me laugh. We were having a "photo shoot" on the beach and they were all getting winey. So, I said, "Who wants candy?" The three big kids straighten up real quick and faked being snuggled and cute. But Tess jumped infront, raised her hand and yelled, "Meeee"!
We're Moving!!
A major monumental change is about to occur in our lives. We are selling our home and moving a whole 5 miles away! Crazy?! Here's how it all has happened...
For the past couple years, after I drop the kids off at school, many times I take a "scenic route" home and just drive by different pieces of land. We have always thought it would be cool to build a house on a few acres someday. As crazy as it sounds - about a year and a half ago I just started knocking on people's doors. If there was a raw chunk of land, I would go to the nearest house and try to find out who owned it. I had a TON of people tell me they would sell us some acreage, but there was always a problem with it. Too rocky, a flood zone, an easement through it, etc. One time the property was actually too close to an "ancient" cemetery and could not be built on w/in so many feet of the graves. Spooky!
Anyway, on one such day in October of 2008 I drove down a gravel driveway that lead through trees and found a little house tucked back in about 1/4 mile off the road. I went up and knocked on the door. (Yes, I am very nervy!) The sweetest people in the world came to the door. I asked it they would be interested in selling their land. They told me that their kids (who are our age) had moved to Colorado and they had sometimes talked of moving there. The women actually said, "I have always said that the only way I would leave this place was if someone came up and knocked on my door!" And so started our relationship with the beautiful 7 acres of land.
Now the problem was we were in limbo with Russia at the time. We thought we were heading to go get "Tess" (the abstract Tess) at any time. The couple told us to take our time and keep them informed. In the past year and a half we have visited them about 5 or 6 times. The kids have been there and played in the woods. It just seemed right, you know? We really feel like God lead us to the land - obviously!
So, last Friday we put our house up for sale in this crazy housing market. On Saturday we had a couple come look at it and said they're very interested. We have also had about 5 other phone calls and emails. So, we'll just wait and see. It is so extremely hard to leave our house in many ways! We LOVE our neighbors! Our kids' sweet friends live here. My girlfriends are here. We have the consolation that we will only live 5 miles away. But, it's not the same and just walking across the street. Plus, our blood, sweat and tears are in this house! We have changed every single room top to bottom. Literally! Plus, when we moved here Blake was 2 1/2, Will was 16 months and Audrey was 10 days old! This has been our life for the past 8 years. Just brings a lump to my throat.
We are praying the Lord will bring the perfect family to live here and enjoy it as much as we have. And we feel confident this is the right move at the right time. Tess is nice and settled. That would not be an issue at all.
We are trying to sell it "By Owner" first. I have tried to do my own adverting. So, what better way than the start a BLOG?? We have it printed on signs all around town. I wish I could know how many people have gotten on and looked at it. If you would like to check it out it is: cominghome2010.blogspot.com
Seriously, God is so good to us. I just cannot believe that we have the chance to live in such a beautiful piece of His creation! If everything goes as planned, we will be building a house around the existing house. We need bedrooms and a family room. It will be a very interesting challenge. Rob has a ton load of ideas running through his mind.
If you know of someone in the Kansas City area wanting to buy, send them our way! Our house has 4+ bedrooms and our yard is one acre. Then, direct them to our house blog!
It's been way too long since my last post! Oh my goodness! So much going on! We took a vacation to San Diego a couple weeks ago. It was perfect! Tess loved it. It took her a couple days to used to being "dirty" with all the sand. She loved the pool and ocean. Although she really threw a fit the first few times I put shorts on her, she ended up telling me, "Me likes short pants!" I took over 700 pictures. I know it's crazy! But, you just have to capture the moments!! I really haven't had a chance to go through everything. So, here are a couple that each tell a story. I'll post more soon.
About 30 minutes after we took this picture we felt the 7.2 earthquake in Mexico. It lasted about 30 seconds. It felt like we were standing on a dock in very wavy water. Turned out it was a big one, but we actually didn't know to be impressed! 
It took Tess a while to figure out that the tide stopped at a certain spot. She just kept running...
