Face Lift!

The house is finally done being painted... 

Before (a little drab and fading)

And After

a much cozier color! 

(Please excuse the dead ferns hanging from the porch.  I'm in the process of trying to revive them!!)

Next on the list is the door color.  I want something bright that pops!  I'm thinking cherry red.  Suggestions?   

The parade isn't cancelled...

What we didn't tell you about our moving day is how after gifts were abundantly poured on us, things fell apart, literally.  You can always count on Satan trying to rain on your parade when things are going well.  He always tries to taint the good gifts the Lord gives us. 

So heres how it went....

We leave closing to fill up our U-haul with the first load and have to wait a while for the cleaning ladies to finish up.  We end up not getting to the new house until 6 pm.  Not great when your plan is to sleep there.  While unloading the very first piece of furniture, I watch as my treasured dining room table gets pushed too far and "craaaaack" goes the leg.  I had previously joked with Clint that they could break anything they wanted, just not my table.  Ouch. 

There is a car right across the street from our house whose back window has been smashed.  Not exactly a warm welcome.

Two sweet girls from UNCG showed up a few minutes later with cookies, sweet tea and bubbles to keep my toddler happy.  It worked amazingly well, but apparently the mass amount of sugar being ingested also led to every mosquito in Greensboro finding my daughter. 

We then walk into the now (mostly) empty house to find multiple mouse traps.  Yikes.

A random guy stops his car in the middle of the road, walks into our yard, directs not so nice words at my hubby and asks everyone there for a cigarette.

Someone unintentionally warns us that we now live beside THE party spot.  Great.

I watch as a truck is moved with our glider on the back.  It falls off and breaks.  Ugh.

We don't go to sleep until 2 am and both wake up at 6 am to allergy attacks, thanks to the never-been-cleaned blinds left behind.  We decide to get up and medicate with coffee. We are overwhelmed and slightly scared that we made the wrong decision.  Was this not a gift from the Lord?  Was it just our doing?  And that's when this happened.

I fix our coffee and sit down in front of our huge window that looks onto the side street.  We pray and I look up to see what...?  THE SUNRISE!  Right there outside the biggest window in the house.  I can see the steam of my piping hot coffee in its light.  What a way to start the day.  And I might add that I have had a particular love for sunrises (and sunsets) for many years.  Our engagement morning started with such a grace. We are immediately relieved.  This is the icing on the cake, a sign from the Lord that He is with us, and we have indeed sought Him and found Him in this decision. 

Since then it has been nothing but affirmation.  We love this house.  But the Giver is much much better than the gift! 

Getting Settled

Someone is sure enjoying her new room!  We decided today, with the help of Clint's parents, to do 2 major things. 1) Put up all the blinds (and trash the ones that were beyond cleaning!)  and 2) Get E's room situated.  So...up went the "big girl bed" for the first time.  AND SHE LOVES IT!  Hooray!  And how stinkin' cute is it?! 

So then I started something I've been itching to do for MONTHS.  Putting these precious decals on her walls.  I love stuff like this...I love being settled, decorating things and feeling at home.  I want Eden to feel like she's got her own room that is special and unique.  So here's a little sneak peek into her "woodland wonderland"! 

She LOVES it (and so does mommy)!  The past few days have been spent climbing in and out of her "new bed" and identifying all the stickers.  I can hardly get her the leave it!  SUCCESS!  Even if there are boxes in every other room, Eden is at home :)

What else have we been up to?

In the midst of moving, a semester starting, being 8 months pregnant and chasing around a very active toddler...I had the privilege of shooting a few photos of some dear friends of ours!  Chris and Nellie just got married this past weekend, but a few weeks ago they drove up to Greensboro to capture the love radiating from them.  Clint and I have had the privilege of seeing these two grow in unbelievable ways over the past four years and ultimately fall in love in the past year.  How cute are they??

Congrats Grissingers!!  We love you both so much!!

More gifts!

As promised...here are more new house updates!  We are getting settled slowly but surely.  In the midst of moving we had to go out of town for a wedding we were both in.  SO fun!  But we couldn't wait to get back to our new abode to finish unpacking.

Closing day proved to bring more unexpected and unbelievable gifts. I'll give you a quick brief on a few.

1) Clint goes for a final walk through and finds the house disgusting.  Doesn't sound like much of a gift, huh? A sequence of events led to us having to move in much later than we thought (the first load arrived at 6pm) BUT, the house was professionally cleaned!  A HUGE gift to an exhausted, prego mama.

2) In addition to being really really dirty, the former owners left a lot of stuff.  Some was the usual dishes, cleaning supplies, etc.  But the best leftover? A 2 year old washer and dryer!!  Much newer and nicer than ours!  Not to mention we didn't have to move ours!!

3) In the midst of signing the closing papers we were informed that the owners paid too much on the closing cost.  We left our signing with enough money to cover the cost to paint the outside of our house.  Something we decided was necessary to do even if it meant not being able to get some other needed things.  Unbelievable.

4) We have been praying for a house and a car for 12 months now.  The same day we signed our closing papers on our new house, someone gave us their (very nice) Passat.  Overwhelmed.

Needless to say we are still recovering from the amazement that the last week has brought.  We are so thankful for the gifts He has given us!  Our deepest prayer now is that we would worship the giver and never the gifts!  No matter how many or how great they are.

Here are a few pics of the house! 

                                                               Before the new paint!

cute lil cabinent

Living room

Trading Spaces...

Well, its official.  We're moving....THIS WEEK!  Does that sound as crazy as it feels?  Because of a few of the contingencies in our contract (getting renters for our current house, structural questions, etc) we didn't really know for sure if it was all going to work out until last Saturday!  And we are moving Tuesday!  Needless to say this week has proven to be a little crazy.   The Lord is sustaining us in all the transition and busyness.  We are extremely excited about having a home of our own, especially one so close to campus!  Clint and I will be married 4 years in November.  This will be our fifth move in those 4 years!  We are both longing to be settled and to have a home where we know we will be for the next season of our lives.  We are so thankful to the Lord that he has allowed us to find a GREAT house that we can afford in such proximity to the students we will be ministering to.  It is truly a good and perfect gift to us.  His goodness is unending.  We are consistently reminded of that in His graciousness to us!

On top of packing and moving this week, our semester also started Monday!  This is the first semester that Clint is in charge of leading the staff at three campuses!  Please pray for us as this is yet another transition for us! 

As far as the house goes, here are a few specs:  It's a 3 Bedroom, 2 bath bungalow that sits up on a hill .2 miles from campus.  It has an office that is enclosed (it has been used as a sunroom and a bedroom)!  This was a HUGE thing for us.  We love to host people and our parents and family often visit so the flexibility of a 4th bedroom was something we wished for but never expected to get.  Also, Clint works from home a lot, and lets just say, Eden isn't so concerned about his personal space.  The door on the office will close, and even has an outdoor entrance.  The living area (which I fell in love with) is very OPEN!  The dining room and living room are hardly separated from the kitchen.  And OH the kitchen.  I have one word for you, Granite.  :)  Ah!

Pictures of the move, the house, and the lovely UNCG students who have offered their time, labor and trucks to help us will come soon! 




Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:17

Our couch is really big..

We bought it about a year ago and we LOVE that couch.  It's great for company, napping (which I have been wearing it out doing), and for jumping as Eden has discovered.  But recently we came to a realization that we may have to get rid of it.  I thought this was an investment that we would have for years to come.  As our babies grew up they would have memories of snuggling up to watch movies as a family on it.  Oh well.  So why would we sell such a wonderful thing?  Because in place of it we may be getting this...

Surprised?  Us too!  We didn't even know this little gem existed until one week ago.  Hubby went to look at an old farmhouse that needed redone for fun and on his way saw a sign for an open house outside this bungalow.  (For the record, I have ALWAYS wanted a bungalow).  Upon seeing the inside he called me and told me I had to come see it. 

As I stepped in I whispered "Why are you doing this to me?"  Its so beautiful.  Charming, cozy, not in need of much repair or even paint (ie: good for someone 7 months prego).  It has 3 bedrooms and an office.  Something we have said we really really want and need for what we do.  And a fabulous kitchen.  :)  It's also .2 miles from campus.  A must for the way we most enjoy living and doing ministry.  Perfect, right?  You see,  we were not exactly in the market for a house right now.  The plan was to wait out our lease until March and pray the Lord would have something for us then.  However, my sweet husband has been itching to get us settled before baby #2 arrives in October.  And I would love that.

So here's how it went from there.  We went to the bank and applied for a loan that we were not eligible for 3 weeks ago....and got it!  Ok Lord...that's strange...

We then made an offer on the house and they countered.  I got majorly cold feet and so Tuesday night we sat down and prayed that the Lord would make His will clear to us.  We did NOT want to move forward if all of this was our doing and not His.  When we sat down we both thought we were about to pull out our offer and as we listed out pros and cons and prayed to the Lord, we both felt like we needed to continue to move forward.  So we did...and countered.  And they accepted.  Whoa.

One of the things we decided we needed to put in the contract was a contingency that we find renters for our current house in Greensboro.  We are doing all this a little prematurely and did not feel like it was honoring to the Lord or serving to our landlord to tell her we were potentially going to be out by September when our lease is up in March.  So we have until this Thursday to find a family to rent the house we are living in now.  WOW. 

We really feel that the Lord has done this for us.  Please be praying with us that if it is His will, we would find renters quickly and be able to move forward on this house!

As for the couch, don't worry, we have already found it a great home in a place where we can visit it consistently.  :)