Slacker Long Enough

Ok. It has been much too long since I have last updated. It's so much easier to just post some pics on facebook and call it good.
So much has happened since my last post way back in November (which was on Halloween!).
This post will not include any pics as I don't want to mess with any tonight. Perhaps I will post again soon and include pics!
Well, to start, we started looking at houses last fall. I think we started at the beginning of November. We probably looked at between 20-30 houses in Maricopa. We had originally hoped to find something in Chandler to be closer to my work, however, the neighborhoods we could afford was something we had run into back home, so we didn't even bother looking. We knew we could find a nice, newer home in Maricopa (and in Queen Creek, but that's further away and we didn't want to look there), with good neighborhoods, so we decided that we needed to look there. Maricopa is where we had been living with my parents since we moved down here. It does take about 20-30 minutes to get to Chandler, but the drive is something I am so used to, driving it 6 days a week, to me it only seems like 10-15 minutes. Anyway, I digress.
We made offers on two houses before we got our offer accepted on a 3rd. And out of the houses we put offers on or considered putting offers on, when we looked at our house, I walked through the rooms thinking how I could definitely see us living there. It felt SO right!
We made an offer the Sunday before Thanksgiving and it was accepted the next day. It was a short sale, so we had to wait for all the banks and lenders and everyone involved to approve everything. We had a green light to proceed by January and we closed on our house at the end of January! We officially moved in by mid-February after getting the carpets professionally cleaned, getting new appliances for the kitchen (dishwasher and fridge), as well as a new kitchen sink and getting the whole inside and outside sprayed for bugs! ;) We weren't taking chances on finding unwanted visitors!
I just love our house. We've been here for about 5 months now. We've done a lot of things, but of course, there is so much more to get done. We still need to paint, we still need to get a few window treatments, we still want to landscape the backyard, etc, etc. But we have just felt such peace since we bought our home. I KNOW that we were supposed to buy this home and that Heavenly Father led us to it. We had wanted our own home for years, and that was one of the reasons we decided we needed to move down here (besides family help while Steve returned to school). I had a feeling that we would be able to buy a house down here. A nice house in a nice neighborhood.
Our house is 1672 sq ft. 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms 2 car garage :) corner lot. built in 2002
Love it!
That is our biggest thing that has happened.
All the kids have had birthdays since my last post. Larissa turned 4 in December, Sara turned 10 in January. Joseph turned 7 and Seth 3, both in May. And Steve and I celebrated our 12th anniversary, also in May, this year.
The kids are enjoying summer, even though it is hot, we are in our own home and they have their own backyard to play in. Although, it is just dirt right now (and one tree!) they have a sandbox and we are working on putting up a swing set. At some point we want to landscape and put in grass (most likely fake so we don't have to water it) and a few more trees.
Steve completed enough hours to apply for his Associates Degree, so we are waiting on that. In the mean time, he's in the midst of summer classes, trucking along. He is really enjoying our home, too, and basically single-handedly removed all of the weeds in our front yard alone (no small task as we have a corner lot), and has kept on top of house projects and the front yard landscaping watering and kept on top of those weeds!
Work is going well for me, but I am busier than ever. I was trained in the book-keeping software for my school site tuition this past year. I am still the assistant director, but am now doing the book-keeping for BOTH of our sites. I work very closely with our new director at our site, as well as the director at our other site and our owner. I do enjoy what I am doing very much and I am so grateful for the experience I am getting and being able to really contribute to our team. I know the Lord has put me here and is giving me what I need and I am so very grateful.
I do still so miss being with the kids and Steve more, but at least I enjoy my work and I am happy that I can support my family and support Steve in his education. We are doing what we need to be doing for now. And as long as we thank Heavenly Father and do what we need to do, He will continue to bless us.
Anyway, that is some of what has been going on with us. Hopefully another update soon!