House for sale

Having our house on the market...maybe not what we expected, but nothing to complain about. Now I've moved about a bazillion times, but this is the first time as an adult that I've been apart of the house selling process. Let's just say it's a little different.

First, our realtor recommended we have sweets and drinks available for our visitors to hopefully keep them in the house longer and give them time to fall even more in love with it. :) So, I made about 60 mini cupcakes (high hopes, huh?) and I think Matt and I ate 59 off them. Oh well...

The keeping the house clean hasn't been that difficult. I mean, we have a dog, so I feel like I vacuum about every 5 minutes. Dishes aren't a huge problem as cooking isn't happening too much. We are trying to eat up all the food that the movers will not move (aka - all of it!). So we've had some interesting assortment of meals. I think Matt's dinner last night consisted of nachos and cereal. I think it reminded him of his bachelor days. Yum.

We didn't have any lookers the first week, then, man, things picked up the past 5 days! Having strangers come into your house (sometimes with very short announcement) is kinda weird. There was once when we had freshly vacuumed and you could (so we did) trace their footsteps through the house. A little creepy, I admit. Then there's the time when our "guests" notified me about 5 minutes before arriving...and I had literally just gotten out of the shower. Dishes in the sink. Computer on the table. Dog in the backyard. Towel on my head. I think I burned some extra calories that morning as I got Mocha in my car and was pulling out just in time for them to arrive...only to get a call about 5 minutes later to go back and unlatch the lock on the front door because they couldn't get into the house...grr! Or the time that I sat out at our neighborhood park with Mocha in the scorching heat at 3 in the afternoon for the hour they were scheduled to be coming to the house, arrive back home drenched in sweat, only to have them show up 15 minutes after I returned...

But I will say that there are no complaints - we are thankful that we have lookers! It only takes one person to call this their new home. I hope it goes to someone who will take good care of it! Part of me is really going to miss our first house...

Mocha

One thing that Matt and I are having to prepare to move is our precious, lovable, nervous, only child/dog, Mocha. I adopted Mocha as a rescued 9-week old puppy from a local pound. She is now over 4 years old, and as previously mentioned, like a child to me. She has been through quite a bit...in her four short years. And I've probably spent more money than I care to admit on her, but it's all for the sake of love. For example:

• Due to her extremely skittish demeanor, I believe she was abused as a puppy before I got her. The vets have had to make special notation in their files about her nervous behavior.
• She has moved with me several times and had to readjust to such living conditions.
• She has been hit by a car and broke her leg...which a few weeks later re-broke due to a fluke in the metal bar inserted in her leg.

• She is scared to death of most men (except Matt who she quickly fell in love with).
• She goes into depression and stops eating whenever we have to leave her for more than a day.
• She has endured heart worms and the harsh treatment for it less than a year ago.

I love my dog. I cried when I had to drop her off at a kennel for 5 days when we went on vacation a couple months ago. And I admit that I am slightly freaking out about the fact that she is going to have to be flown on a 8 hour flight or more to Anchorage in about 6 weeks.

We purchased her an "airplane friendly" kennel in preparation for our upcoming departure. We are trying to train her that this is a "safe" place...so she won't cry, bark or go into cardiac arrest during the flight. I remember one time I was on a flight and a dog below was crying the whole time...made me so sad!! I have a feeling I'm going to be a basket case the day of that flight. Not so much that I'm moving 4,000 miles away, but that my poor dog is going to be scared! How ridiculous am I?!

Here she is all snuggled in her new crate. At this point I think she likes it! But I'm thinking - when we lock her up and wheel her away to the cargo part of the airplane - she may have different sentiments.

I'm also doing everything I can not to get scared about her getting trampled by moose, eaten by wolves or attacked by a bear once we arrive in Alaska. I've read my share of horror stories from locals up there to justify my nervousness...so I'm thinking I might need to take a break from the internet for a bit... :)

Oh the chores...

Moving is exciting, but it can also be quite exhausting. Especially when you have like a 72 hour notice to get your house on the market. Let me just enlighten you on the last 4 days of my life.

This past weekend Matt had a previously planned trip to Oklahoma for recruiting within his company. Obviously, he wouldn't pass up a chance to visit his family while on a company-paid trip, so he decided to stay through the weekend. He left Thursday night. Friday we find out he got the job in Alaska - while I'm subbing for a junior high orchestra class. Let's just say that it was thrilling to be hundreds of miles from my husband and with 13 year old strangers on a Friday afternoon as I get informed of such exciting, life-altering news...but that's beside the point. What did this mean (other than the obvious?)? Well, we need to get our house on the market. So...busy to work I went to complete the long list of 'never getting around to doing until you go to sell your house so you don't actually get to enjoy it' chores.

First, curb appeal is everything. So, I fought the crowds on a beautiful weekend morning to purchase flowers for our yard. One thing I do not enjoy is yard work and sunburns (both of which happened). So going to a plant store and trying to figure out which of the millions of flowers to buy all by myself was not exactly my cup of tea. But I sucked it up and purchased them and planted these...

...and these...

...and these...

(...and many others...) Let's just say that I'm quite proud of myself - for this and the other hours of bush trimming, weed pulling, rose pruning I've put in. Unfortunately, I still can't say that I enjoy yard work.

I also painted the trim on the outside of the house in areas such as this:

Then I re-stained the front door. The people before us (as mentioned previously) were not the most brilliant and I think actually used just regular old paint for the front door and it was all peeling off. So I sanded it down to this....

And restained it to this...

Again, never done it before, so I'm quite proud of myself. I'm just thankful for the workers at Lowe's and the hour I spent on the 'wood stain' aisle trying to figure out the best way to do it. I just wish someone would have warned me that I maybe should have worn gloves, covered up my recently painted door trim, or that it took like 18 hours to dry...but you know, live and learn.

I also got the carpets cleaned. Maybe the better of $130 we've spent to sell this house. They look wonderful! Much easier than replacing it!

I also touched up the paint around the house on the baseboards and doors and walls. This my wonderful husband painting the ceiling, because my 5'3" frame couldn't reach.

I'm currently in the middle of doing a deep cleaning of the house...and needed a break. But back to work I must go...I only have about 3 hours before the realtor arrives.

If anyone thinks that just because I do not have a full-time job right now I'm not working...please have them call me.

Moving to where?!?

A new adventure to an exotic location. A commitment to a new way of life for an extended period of time. That's where Matt and I are headed. It's official. We are moving...

...to ALASKA!

Why you ask? Well, why not? Is my response. Just kidding...kind of. It does help that Matt's job is relocating us. All the way up to Anchorage, Alaska. Have either of us been there? No. But we've done quite a bit of internet research to help educate ourselves. However, I am excited to see what it's actually like in person soon. The pictures of it do look beautiful! Thankfully I've always had a deep love for mountains - of which Alaska has abundance of. And I've always found joy in adventures and new experiences - of which I'm sure we will encounter.

This will be our future new home. Beautiful.

Matt and I have been discussing this idea for a little while now. Not sure if it would or could actually happen, but we were open to it. And recently we found out that it is a reality. And that is happening very quickly. But that's how it usually works, doesn't it? And that's why God invented airplanes so we wouldn't drop of the face of the earth for the next 3-5 years. We can come back to our home states of Texas and Oklahoma when we'd like. Or friends and family can come visit us too (hint, hint).

But as I have educated myself on Alaskan ways, I shall too inform you of such wonderful features, and often misconceptions, of such a beautiful state:

• Anchorage is actually pretty big. It has a population of 280,000 people - larger than Plano, Texas if you need a comparison. It has all the major conveniences of a typical larger city - a mall, Khol's, Costco, but more importantly Barnes & Nobles and Starbucks. I think I'll be able to survive.
• No, it isn't pitch black for half of the year. Apparently (of which I'll soon be learning) it's like dusk for majority of the day for about 3 months during the winter, but you still get sunlight for about 6-8 hours. And then during the summer it's daylight for like 23 hours. Can we say black out curtains?
• It's not technically on the other side of the world, as one might imagine. It's actually only 3 hours behind us here in Houston. It's just really far north. Ok....really far north!

• There is no sales tax. Ever. Maybe that will help with the increased cost of living up there.
• The state pays each citizen to live in Alaska. In 2009 it was around $1,300. Apparently it has something to do with the oil being drilled out of there. I'm not going to argue with them. But I'm sure you could google it if you really wanted to know why.
• Weather. It's actually considered "mild" due to being so far from the Arctic Circle (in relation to whose map, I'm not sure). The summer has lovely weather in the 60's and 70's and the winter brings temperatures in the 20's - like Colorado, my favorite state so far.:) It also has low humidity, praise Jesus! And I'm guessing - lots of snow.
• And of course there are the northern lights. I cannot wait to experience the beauty of that part of creation!

Anyways, this is just a small light into the world of which Matt and I will soon be apart of. I intend to continue to write about our adventures as we continue on this journey. In just a couple short weeks we should be heading up there to introduce ourselves to Anchorage and hopefully find a home. Then we shall come back, sell our home, renovate a recently purchased Oklahoma investment property (again, God has a funny way of timing things, doesn't He? and there will probably be updates on that later), hopefully spend some good time with family and friends and will permanently arrive at some point in June. (Unsure of the exact timeline as it takes about 6 weeks to ship all of our belongings over 4,000 miles. Who knew?)

So, if you are interested, please check back. I hope to have some wonderful, eventful stories ahead that I would love to share.

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." - Isaiah 39:8

"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." - 1 Peter 1:24-25

what a strange place...

This past Sunday I traveled an hour south to the city of Galveston to see my sister, Caitlin. I excitedly volunteered my afternoon of yard work to relieve Caitlin of her boredom, while her husband, Karl studied for his medical school exams. We went to this neighborhood "market" (which seemed straight out of the unbelievable Pleasantville movie). It consists of this development of homes resembling Charleston (as seen below) built around a man-made lake with a coffee shop, lofts, meeting spaces, etc just a few miles from the beach. They opened up their homes that were for sale and we enjoyed looking at these amazing places. I also enjoyed learning of they crazy people on this island that live just a short drive away from my own doorstep.

First, I do love cupcakes. So when I saw this...I had to get one. Yes, this is a cupcake stand on wheels. Caitlin's hairdresser's twin sister moved to Galveston to make and sell cupcakes out of this van. There is a full kitchen inside this thing. Crazy. Can you imagine that life? This is her job. Some people seem unbelievable....until....
...we saw this. A gigantic turtle. On his daily walk. Sometimes he gets a leash and actually gets to walk with his owner. But it gets better. His owner (a middle-aged woman) raised this massive African turtle from a baby. It lives on her porch. It's about 25 years old and will outlive it's owner (probably another 75 years). So the natural response? She willed it to her children!! haha! I would love to know what her inheritors think of that idea. :)

Simpler is better

In the last few weeks, my eyes have been open to the world of social classes. Not that I've never noticed them before, but it's interesting how God illuminates certain things all at once sometimes.

My first eye-opener was the world of the upper class that I have not been associated with much (if I were to define there only being lower, middle and upper class). I mean, I did spend some time working at rather nice jewelry store and got to see people who would just come in and spend ten's of thousands of dollars on a ring. But I didn't really know these people except the small interaction when I filled out their paper work, ran their credit card and explained the need for insurance. Then I recently helped throw a shower for a friend. When the hosts were discussing possibly having someone make omelets for this brunch or getting some help doing the dishes - I naturally thought and suggested, oh that's a great idea! I bet my husband could help! I feel kinda foolish now, because I was corrected in that they were speaking of hired help...I've also recently met girls who spending $1000's at Neiman's didn't even cause a blink of an eye. And in times of weakness, I get jealous of their "easy", extravagant lifestyle. I don't think I can even get a full grasp on how someone can even have that much money. But overall, I'm completely content with what I have. I think God has protected me from that desire for more. I'm thankful I don't have that expectation that money is needed for happiness (not that those people I spoke of do). And I'm thankful I don't have that responsibility of all that wealth.

So as this has been on my mind, I randomly picked up the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It is an incredible book about a writer who goes undercover to see if she can get by on hourly wages that a huge chunk of Americans live on. This is my second complete opposite eye opener and a really good read. Please read it. It will change your perspective. That's my two-sense.

Anyways, on a similar note, Matt and I have adopted the motto in our life that "simpler is better". We like having just what we need and not much more. I make us go through our closets and cabinets and donate whatever we haven't used in awhile. (When I moved so much after college, I trained myself that whatever I couldn't fit into 4 or 5 large tubs I couldn't keep because it was too hard to move and no place to store it. And honestly, I haven't missed anything I got rid of!) I sometimes think that this 3 bedroom house is way too big for our small 2 person family (but I will mention it was perfect when Matt had 2 roommates before we were married). I love my little Corolla that gets incredible gas mileage. I love that this weekend I found a pair of jeans on sale for $19. I love that Matt and I are just as content eating at Chick-fil-a than at an expensive steak place. And that we always split a meal at restaurants - to save money and calories. I don't know if I want our lifestyle to change, even if God chooses to bless us more monetarily. Greed can take over anyone and I truly think that the more you have the more it can creep into your life. So maybe it's selfish, but I'm okay with that. :)