{from above}

Remember in my last post when I mentioned that Jay and I were going to go look at a possible house to rent this weekend? Well, we signed a lease today on said house!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Insert the most excited happy face here, haha!)

Back story on said house... you know, ‘cause I said there would be a nice post coming about it.

Around Thanksgiving this past year, Jay's mom had been perusing the internet for houses for sale on a whim. She had come across a foreclosure in the area that we were looking to rent when it was time to move. She was wondering if Jay and I had ever considered buying a house instead of renting, especially one as cheap as the one she had found. Granted, the house she had found needed some major TLC... a definite starter house that we'd have to work on as the years went buy. Jay and I thought a little bit about it, looked at the pictures, drove by the house, and ultimately knew that buying a house at this point in our lives just wasn't in our budget. (Is anything really in our budget at this point in our lives?!) Nice thought, but not something we could do at this point in time.

Fast forward to last week... I was doing my daily Craigslist checking for new apartment listings in the area and found one that was posted that same day and in the location we were looking at. *Sidenote* I have been looking on Craigslist almost daily for the last month and this was the third place we had found that sounded like it would meet our needs and be in the area. The first one was a different house that was too expensive and the other was an apartment that was most likely going to be too small. This listing was a house for rent that has three bedrooms and one bath and was being COMPLETELY remodeled inside and was going to be available right when we needed it to be and the rent was the same as what we are paying right now. I would have preferred to pay a little less since we are moving to a smaller town, but at least we won’t be paying more! It was a definite must that we contact the owners of this property and at least check it out.

I emailed the owners and found out that the house for rent was... wait for it... wait for it... the exact one that Jay's mom had mentioned to us a few months earlier! What are the odds?! Seriously, what are the odds? This must have been meant to be and only God knew that when we drove past the house how many months ago that we would be renting it in the months to come! That is the only explanation, really, it is! (more smiley faces!) This is probably a lesson that I need to put my faith in Him more often… something I haven’t been doing very good at lately because I am a total control freak!

The house is an older house and has the character that I love in houses. Is it a perfect house, nope. Even after all of the renovations, will it be perfect, nope. But it will definitely work for our family. The bathroom is super small and there is only one, but honestly, it will work for us. We seem to be moving to bigger places, but getting smaller bathrooms because at our last apartment the bathroom was huge, but the space was smaller and at our current house the space is bigger, but the bathroom is smaller. Now we are getting even a little more room and an even smaller bathroom. There are three bedrooms. The one extra bedroom takes the place of the extra bathroom we will not have. There are a TON of windows and I am literally IN LOVE with that! Lots and lots of natural light! The living room and dining room are fairly big, as well as the kitchen. Well, they all will be once they are complete. There is also an extra playroom which is even more awesome! There is a nice big front yard as well and is really close to a park. Honestly, neither Jay or myself thought we would find something better in that area. And now I can spend the rest of the semester concentrating on school work and not worrying about find a place to move.

Both my mom and dad had some boxes for us to take this weekend too. Actually, my dad had like 30 big boxes for us, so I'm not sure how many more we will be needing. It just makes this all the more real for us. Boxes for moving and signing a lease on a place to live. It just goes to show that all will come in His time and not mine. Shame on me for not realizing that sooner. :/

I didn’t take any pictures today because, like I said, the whole place is being redone. The walls in the living room had been torn down, the kitchen was gutted, the flooring was all ripped up. In due time, though…

CIAO! LOVE ME!