We bought a house!!! We closed on our new house the afternoon of June 1st. (I spent the morning buying a new dishwasher and stove to go in the new house.) :) Everything went smoothly with the closing, and we spent the evening prepping all the walls for painting. The people who lived here before us really liked vinyl quotes on the walls, so that took some peeling and scraping. Most of them were about alcohol. 😂 The only one I considered keeping was the one in the laundry room that said "Do your laundry or I'll punch you in the face. Love, Mom."
The next two weeks were 100% spent cleaning and painting the house. We (meaning, the kids and I) would usually get to the house by 10 am, and Micah and I would paint until 10 pm at night. Ben would come after work, and Wes and Joyce spent several afternoons helping out as well. By the time carpet was installed on June 11, we had painted just about every square inch of the house - every wall, closet, and almost all the trim. My hand had issues for weeks because of all the work with the paintbrush. But it sure felt good to have a clean, fresh start!
Abby picked out the paint for her room! We love it!
Originally, this sign said, "Wine a bit. You'll feel better." Micah said this would be our encouragement to keep painting: "In a bit, you'll feel better!"
Caleb starting on his bedroom (that he shares with Micah...)
Micah working on the master bedroom:
The carpet in the house was so worn and disgusting, which made it an easy decision to replace, but we still had to sweep around the edges so all the dog hair wouldn't get in the paint.😬
The big stairwell was the hardest spot to get. Thankfully, Mike Jette had a huge extending ladder that could go on steps.
Little bathroom...
The second day we were pulling in to work on the house, one of the neighbors from across the road came running over and told us they had been praying for our house, specifically that a family of believers with a little girl would move in! (They have a 7 year old girl - an only child - who wanted someone to play with in the neighborhood, and the parents wanted a Christian family they could trust.) They brought us donuts the next day. What a blessing!
Every day we would bring some boxes over from the Midbrook house. Here is Abby unpacking the kitchen...
The boys' room back at home... packing makes a mess of things!
We finished painting June 10. While the carpet guys were installing carpet at our new house on Friday, June 11, the kids and I worked on packing at the old house and tearing down beds, etc. We had planned to get a moving truck to start loading that evening, and then actually move on Saturday, June 12... but then the Ziebers said they could come help, so it ended up being a mad dash to get everything loaded and to throw the rest in boxes. End of story: we got everything moved on Friday and spent the night in our new house!! We spent Saturday cleaning the Midbrook house. Then we got to relax a little on Sunday!
The day we moved (Friday), there was a oppossum drinking from our faucet right outside the door. I had never seen that before....but it seemed like a sure sign it's time to move!!
The moving crew trying to find a place to sit once we got the first load in...
The desk Kenton made me in middle school has now been moved 4 times. Mike Zieber and Ben swear it's actually solid steel covered in oak. I told Ben maybe by the next time we move, we'll be old and rich enough to pay someone else to move it. 😂
We got rid of Abby's horrible mattress and gave her our old queen mattress (which is still in great shape.) Which meant Ben and I got a new bed! It was delievered on Saturday to the new house. The best part is that when we picked out a mattress, it was "buy a king bed for a queen price" weekend AND the specific mattress we liked came with a free adjustable bed frame. So instead of spending $500 on a box spring, we went with that... Caleb and Abby thought it was great fun to adjust the mattress up and down!
After moving and cleaning the last of the things from Midbrook on Saturday. Ben and Micah had to take one last selfie at the old house. :)
Dinner in our screened-in back porch on the first day in the house (June 1):
Abby's room, mostly put together...
Somehow there's not room for me in my own kking-size bed!
The view Sunday afternoon...
But what we actually did Sunday afternoon! Yay for a community pool!
Monday and Tuesday were CC Practicum (thank goodness I'm not directing and didn;t have any big responsibilities there!!) On Monday, I left at lunch to go sell our house! It was a smooth process that took less time than we thought, so Ben and I took our $245,000 (uh, minus closing costs) and went to lunch at Flipside! It still blows my mind that we bought the Midbrook house in 2015 for $94,500. One year ago, at the beginning of 2020, it's "Zestimate" on Zillow was something like $130,000. The market just went so crazy with covid and lack of housing that our value sky-rocketed, so we ended up walking away with something like a $140,000 PROFIT. (Which is VERY helpful when you are buying a house with a bigger mortgage and have to furnish it!) Just another crazy way the Lord provided before the twins come home in a way we could have never imagined or controlled!
Abby and her friend Emma at practicum...
When Hobby Lobby has 50% off wall decor, and you have a lot more walls than you used to, it's time to go shopping!
Ben had to introduce a Zoom presentation for some of his clients on Eventide, a mutual fund he really likes. He wanted our kids to all hop on at the beginning of the call so he could "show them off" as actual Eventide investors. :)
It may not have been the BEST idea, but we hosted teen group on Friday, less than a week after we moved in. It was a little stressful getting enough stuff unpacked and cleaned up downstairs (especially on top of 2 days of CC practicum), but it WAS motivating, and it was super nice to then wake up the next Saturday morning with a downstairs that looked not-horrible.
Micah got some tokens for Pelican's SnoBalls for volunteering at CC practicum, so we stopped in for a treat. (A cute note: Micah volunteered with the three and four year olds. I got a text from a CC Mom after the second day of practicum. She said there was a little girl from her campus who wasn't going to be there on the third day, and she was so upset she wouldn't get to see Micah again... she asked if I could give her our address so the little girl could send Micah a note or drawing. I told Micah he already has ladies asking for his digits.) :)
Genny Ruth is Abby's new friend from across the road. She is almost 2 years younger than Abby, but they have a great time together!
On June 24, we headed to Ohio! Chuckie was having a graduation party, and since we hadn't been to Ohio in a couple of years, we thought this would be a good excuse to go up. The Ziebers came too and we rented an AirBnB house together. It was great to be with the Ziebers, but the house had a few things to be desired (like comfortable beds... and A/C... and a road that didn't have a million dump trucks traveling on it at 5 AM right outside the windows.) Still, it was only for three nights, so doable.
All of Wes and Joyce's grandkids:
The backyard of the house was perfect for hanging out.
Bedhead on the deck. The deck had no stairs coming off of it, so that was kind of odd.
That's Caleb under the blanket:
Helen got a hold of my phone. And so I will post all of her phone selfies since she was so nice to leave them for me. :)
Ben, Chuck, Carrie, Tyler...
Laughing at Chuck: "Hurry up, I can't suck in for this long!"
With Grandma Ganson:
Ben only has one cousin, and that cousin only has one child named Lucy. Abby met her (who would be her 2nd cousin) at Chuckie's party and they played together the whole time...
Caleb slept on a squeaky air mattress in our room. (Yay.) It was funny to see what position he would sleep in though...
Sunday morning, Mike, Carrie, and the two older Ziebers headed back to South Carolina. Ben drove one of Wes and Joyce's cars back since they were selling their Ohio camper and becoming full-time South Carolinans. I headed to Maryland with my kids plus Helen and Becca.
We actually went straight to the Bender reunion at Ida's pond in Maryland. Pretty funny for Becca and Helen to meet a couple hundred Benders right off the bat. :) Everyone kept asking if Helen was Micah's girlfriend. Haha!
Caleb and Abby and Becca enjoying the pond...
My 75 year old mother making a bad decision...😂 But you've got to admire her balance!
This was the week... spike ball, frisbee, and games galore!
Helen made lava cakes for us one night. They were so good!
Helen trying to show me how to make a messy bun. Mine don't work as well as hers. 😆
Machelle showed us where there is a natural rock maze. We hiked into the woods just a bit and hung out there for a couple hours. Pretty cool!
The kids played hide and seek a lot. Micah was about to jump into this crevice to hide when we suddenly noticed the huge amount of camel crickets on the roof of the space...
If you want to hear stories, just open up a photo album near my Dad. :)
Caleb has discovered how to photoshop. I guess as far as past-times go, there could be worse things to do. He especially enjoys using this one cut-out of Ben... 😂
Google Photos sometimes randomly makes video montages and sends it to me. This one was pretty good!
