Nesting

Well, I'm sad to say that Aaron and I are no longer invisible-homeowners.

To make a long story short, there were conditions presented at the point of sale that played a significant role in our decision to purchase our would-be home. These conditions conflicted with what we were presented with several days after the contract was signed, due to a clerical error. Despite providing our builder with every opportunity to act with ethical values and correct their error, and having done everything short of pursuing legal action, we decided it would be best to sever the contract.

As you can imagine, Aaron and I are very disappointed with the end result as we begin our pursuit once again. I'm probably taking it a little harder than Aaron is. I had already started nesting if you will, picking out colors, arranging furniture, and the like. I was beginning to envision bringing home our first puppy, watching our future babies learn to walk, and dream-coordinating family get-togethers. Women do these things.

Aaron is doing his best to make the right decisions for our family. I am blessed that he, in love and his desire to provide for us, refuses to let any ounce of bad business play a part in the establishment of our new home.

I am very thankful that God has given us the means to dust ourselves off and redirect our search efforts. After all, if it wasn't meant to be, then I'm even more excited about the prospect of what He has in store. Knowing that our future home is out there takes the edge off of my discouragement, though it is not completely erased.

Anyway, I don't suspect it will be long before I have news of our next-first home. I am confident that if God wants us here and wants us to have a home of our own, He will provide. We are getting anxious to have our own place as talk of babies is filling our current home.


Ha! Don't get too excited. I say babies because not only is my sister-in-law about to pop any day now, but Aaron's cousins just welcomed their new baby girl this week!

Isn't she precious? I cant wait to squish her little face! Soon enough, our new little nephew will be here and we will have a new roommate! Have I mentioned ever that I love being an Auntie? Though, I've long said that we cannot move out of their house until the youngest niece can say Auntie. I'd even settle for "Cwair"! I can't believe I've been so lucky to get to spend these last nine months watching my nieces (and my sister's belly) grow! I know I'm going to miss them terribly when we do find a place of our own. #FavoriteAuntForLife

From Homeless To...

Surprise!!

We're HOMEOWNERS!!

Okay, Okay so we're land owners... or better yet, owners of the first invisible house! As of last week, we are under contract to build our beautiful new home! This is our little piece of [future] heaven on earth.. on a corner lot!

 

As I'm sure you can imagine, we are super excited! Our little home will be anything but. We are going to have so much space in our three bedroom, two and a half bathroom, two car garage, two story home with TWO flex rooms! Sounds like something you'd pick from The Game Of Life, right??

Check out our super sweet floor plan!

 Why yes that is a laundry room upstairs and we will most certainly have that amazing island in our kitchen.


Our neighborhood is going to be awesome, too! We are just feeling so wholly blessed and our cup is so full! God is so very good and faithful!  Now we get to learn a little extra patience by waiting until... wait for it... Thanksgiving to move in.


Never the less, we are ecstatic and can't wait to open up our home to our friends and neighbors and use our little claim on this earth to bring glory to God's kingdom. Thank you for sharing in our joy! Six months ago I would have laughed you out of the room if you'd told me I'd be a homeowner before Christmas ! It just goes to show that His plan for you is greater than you could ever imagine. From homeless to homeowner in less than a year!

Never once did we ever walk alone.

Finally Home

Today marks absolutely nothing special. For once, I happen to have a moment to breathe and catch up to the rest of the spinning world so I'm taking advantage of it and sharing my little marathon with you! Aren't you lucky?

At the Jennings-Lutz wedding

Life is trucking on as usual. Actually, I feel like that is (still) all we are doing on a daily basis. The alarm clock rings for this night owl at 6:10a. We're out of the house by 6:30a, though lately we're pushing 6:45a. This puts me at work just before 8:00a, time we fill by listening to our YouVersion Bible app read us through Exodus, Leviticus, and now Numbers. At work, I hop on the treadmill for as much as 30 minutes.. or the elliptical if I'm feeling especially lazy. Then, I'll shower and head to my cube for the daily grind. About that time, Aaron is arriving at his preferred destination (we carpool) and clocking in. Before I can get through  half of my Outlook tasks and emails, it's 5:30p and Aaron has already been in the car for 45 minutes. If I can bring myself to leave my to-do list undone, we'll hop back in the car and pray that the food is still hot when we get home at 7:00p. If we don't have to cook our own meal and after dishes get cleaned, food put away, and we're changed into our evening attire its at least 8:00p again. My territory on the couch has been sufficiently marked with a nest of pillows and blankets just in time for us watch some awfully addicting Redneck TV like Swamp People, Justified,  or the new favorite, Duck Dynasty. If it's the right cable season, the alternative is typically some Zombie/Apocalypse/Survivalist show... eg. Doomsday Preppers, Walking Dead and the like. If I'm smart, I'll snuggle into my bed before 10:30p to finish all of my 'DrawSomething' games and pray that I hear my alarm in time to do it all again.

See why breathing is a little difficult?
I'm sure we could have it a lot worse. And I keep reminding myself that it's only temporary.

In fact, we are going to look at houses this weekend! I'm very excited. Aaron is very adamant about wanting to live outside of the city so we're hoping that we can find a little brick and mortar to call our own Home Sweet Home. I feel like such a grown up sometimes it makes me sick. Can I please just go back to college? Life was hard but I at least didn't have to think about mortgages and property taxes. Oh the joys of adulthood.

Planning to buy a house has challenged us to consider exactly where we want to be, not just an address but actual roots. Unlike an apartment (or mooching off of the good grace of others), buying a house kind of plants you for awhile. This makes me nervous. I'm not sure that I want to live in Dallas for my whole life. Okay, that's a bit dramatic but even thinking that we will probably start our family here is a little YIKES!

Lately I'm wanting to run away and start over. I totally would be okay if God was like, "Claire.. Aaron.. move to Zimbabwe and live in a hut and kill your dinner with your bare hands!" Of course, I say that now and I know God is just laughing at how much I think I know. I suppose this discomfort is one of the burdens we bear knowing that this Earth is not our final home. I can't wait to finally be Home. Well, I can... and I will. :)

Providence

Everyone-visit-Claire's-Cube day at work! Free Donuts!

One of the most frustrating challenges I'm experiencing with my new job is having three hours of my life sucked away every day to commuting. It's a wonder my laundry gets done. Please excuse the lapse in blogging you may have noticed over the past few months. I had forgotten how much I enjoy penning my troubles and homely adventures for public display and had traded that satisfaction for the comfort of a full eight hours of sleep and other absurdities, like dinner. I need to do better. I'm hoping that things will settle back down once we do.

If you've been keeping up with my life via other social mediums you may already know that my sweet husband is also gainfully employed once again! He is now finishing off his third week as a Project Coordinator for the Information Services department of a pediatric hospital. I'd love to tell you what he does but I don't even think he knows the full scope of his title just yet. He's important and he's going places - take my word for it. ;)

On the other side of the city, I work as an Account Specialist for a rebate processing company. Sounds fancy, right? Well it actually is a lot more challenging than you might expect. I manage about twenty unique accounts for clients who run rebate promotions for their products, and co-manage even more. This week actually marks the end of my training, or at least I'm going to say it does since I'm now training the new girl! Of course sitting in a cubicle all day isn't exactly living the dream, but I've certainly done what I can to make it home. I even have a window view!

My office-Beta, affectionately named "Rebait" (Get it?)

Slowly but surely we are both making friends. We are still attending a church that is of course no where near our home or where we work, but it's probably the best place for us while we are in this transition period. We participate in a young, married couples small group (when we can) and have developed relationships there. We go shooting often and continue to stock up on explosive target powder.

This girl is walking now!

The nieces catch a lizard!

Mostly, we are looking forward to being in our own place again. We have really enjoyed living with the brother and sister in law but the drive is not manageable long-term. Plus, we cant drink the water (they are on baby no. 4)! With the horrendous price gouging that seems to have caught on like Swine flu (...too soon?), we're abandoning the hope of finding an affordable apartment within a <30 minute commuting window from work. It's looking as though this Thurmon duo will continue to live with the aforementioned Thurmons' until about the time that their newest rug-rat makes his debut. While putting away our paychecks, we are hoping to save up to buy a house!

I think that should get you up to speed. With holidays, weddings, bridal showers, graduations, reunions and what ever else you want to throw at us coming up in the next few weeks, life is going to continue in this bliss of chaos. ...Aside from that you can continue to pray for us to find a home, a church home, friends and a little peace.

It's funny how God works. I know you don't need to hear that but from this end of things, having played witness to a bit of His Providence, things aren't so bad. I began this blog having just lost my job only to have my husband lose his weeks later. We moved, not only to a new city but into someone else's home. We sent hundreds of resumes, went on dozens of interviews, and are finally here. I am so thankful that God brought us through it all, not just that things are semi-normal again but I am thankful that it happened. God is so good and even though I don't understand why these things happen, they do. I'm blessed to know that God trusts me with a little struggle every now and then.

Coasters Cupcakes and Commuting

Well my first two weeks of work have gone great. There is a lot to learn so I'm super busy all day. This is a much welcome change from my last job. The biggest downside is that I have an hour and a half commute each way. [Hence my lack of blogging.] I've taken to leaving the house before 6:15A so that I can hit the in-office gym for about half an hour before work. This is nice because I just go to bed in my workout attire and grab my bag in the morning and go. It makes for an easy morning.

On Friday, me and 100 of my closest friend-commuters were stuck for four hours behind the cleanup crew of an early morning accident. I had just passed the last viable exit as I came to a parked halt on the road, blocked on one side by a cable fence and on the other by a ditch. So for the majority of my morning, I rationed my phone (no car charger) and radio (for fear of draining my car battery). I changed out of my gym clothes in the car. And abandoned the car to hop the freeway to use the restroom at some tractor company. It was an eventful morning. Thankfully, my boss thought it was rather funny and didn't mind at all when I strolled in for work just before lunch.

My Desk!

I can tell that I'm going to like working here. We even had a mid-afternoon ice cream social just because. Ahhh snack time. Someone knows the way to my heart.

Aaron spent all of last week camping in Oklahoma. Ever the survivalist, he fashioned himself a bed out of rope and thick branches, sleeping under a tarp.

Turns out, despite his lack of a comfortable nights sleep, he was the only dry camper, as it poured for the first 48 hours of his little adventure. It was a great time, or so I'm told.


Now that life's starting to look more normal, we've had a few fun adventures around the house.

For my boss's birthday, I made DIY coasters! I swear these are the easiest craft ever - so cheap and super fast to make. I ended up making four sets. They turned out great!

Coasters

The father-in-law came to visit this weekend, which meant a trip to the local gun store. Thankfully, no one came home with more than what they intended to purchase.

Between my sister and myself, SIXTY cupcakes have been made in the past week. I revisited my go-to French Toast Cupcake recipe for "Cupcake Wars" that took place at my sisters office.

Aaron and I played house a little bit on Sunday, we took the older two nieces to see The Lorax. Everything went so smoothly. Both the girls stayed entertained throughout and we didn't have to take anyone to the bathroom mid-movie! Quite a successful outing if you ask me.

Now we're just waiting for things on Aaron's end to come through, jobwise. I'm getting super excited about the idea of having our own place. It's actually rather bittersweet. I like living here a whole lot, but it's going to be fun to have our own home. I'm too much of a Susie Homemaker to be restricted to being hosted and not getting to play host. It's going to be nice.

Someone please point out to me when we are in the moving process that I actually put in writing that I was actually looking forward to it. I'm sure I will need the reminder.

In the mean time, pray that a job comes through for Aaron. Pray that my commute is light and swift. Oh and pray that The Walking Dead comes back soon!