Moved!

We've moved! The physical move was last year and the digital move was this year! The blog is now over at The Corner of Conklin and Crazy. Please, stop on over and check us out there. 

So, Now We're Adults?

October 2, 2012 we became adults. Not because we had a child, because in fact, we already had two, but because we bought a house!!! So that makes us adults now, right? Here's a breakdown of how it all happened:


Rewind to April 2012:

    We visit with my grandparents down in VA and do some house hunting while we are down there. We find a FANTASTIC house for a SUPER cheap price, but weren't feeling "it". You know, that feeling of "Okay, this is what we should do." I mean WE felt it but we didn't feel it was anything more than us really wanting it; no divine intervention there.

Fast Forward to May 2012:

  We returned home after our little southern break and I found myself thinking about the house NON-STOP! (Which is pretty normal for me-once I find something, I'm HOOKED!)  One day after picking up the girls from daycare I decided to take an alternate route not in the direction of home. While on that route I happened upon an ADORABLE little house for sale on what looked like 2+ acres and suddenly was flooded with emotion and an overwhelming since of "this is where you belong". Of course, I took that to mean in THAT house specifically, but no. We called about the house the next day and it went under contract the day I saw it. SAY WHAT!?!
   Then we met with a realtor and worked out what we thought would be our price range and looked at a couple of houses. Every house we saw I wanted. They weren't great, in fact, they weren't much at all, but each one had its own little quirks or personality that made it appealing to me. Again, we found a house that we thought would work for us. It was on the smaller side, but had 10 acres!!! By the time we decided on moving forward (2 days) an offer had already been put in by someone else and was accepted. Now, this house had been on the market for over a year, and all of sudden was HOT HOT HOT!! SAY WHAT!?!
   By now we are feeling quite discouraged and almost ready to throw in the towel, but we keep looking. We find some online that are above our initial price range go look at them. They aren't anything great and there were still 2 homes on my list that I wanted to look at that we hadn't.
   On a drive from Fritz's parents to my mom's on memorial day weekend we passed a house that we had known was for sale for the past two years or so. The house is gorgeous but WAY out of our price range. Last I looked it was listed for $235k (when it was first listed). It is a fair price for the house, but in today's market a bit out of touch (maybe). I look up the house on my phone and see that it is listed for $165k. WHOA! But still out of our price range... In setting up the next appointment with our realtor on what houses we are going to look at, we decide to just go with it and look at it (plus the realtor said she just dropped it down to $140k- but STILL WAY ABOVE OUR RANGE!)
   We go look the house and one other house I've had my eye on. It was a smaller house, set back from the road, and just about a 5 min drive from town, but it was listed at $140k (yikes!). It was cute on the inside, but I felt like we would outgrow it fast. The other house ($165k) HADN'T been reduced to $140k and was HUUUUUUGE!

Fast Forward to June 2012:

What would we do with all the space? We didn't want anything that big. We didn't need anything that big. Can we go back and look again? And our realtor thinks we can get it for HOW MUCH?! Okay, we're going to put in an offer....

Oh Baby!

I recently was lucky enough to take some photos of the cutest little newborn guy! I loved being able to love up on him. Here are some of my favorites from the day.

I really enjoy learning photography. It has always been an interest of mine, but thought it unattainable. I'm just dabbling and playing as I tend to do with all things.

What do you think?

Almost Lost

*****Note before reading: I had originally posted this (without a title) and then was cleaning up my draft area of my blog when I accidentally deleted it. Cue mild heart attack. You see, once you delete a post in blogger there is no way to retrieve it via blogger. Thankfully, Google, yet again came to my rescue. In short I had to copy and paste from the old post to this new one and now have titled it "Almost Lost" as it is fitting for both the content and the post itself. *****

This blog has gone forgotten for quite some time. In all honesty, I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with it. Was it worth saving? Do I have the time? Blah, blah, blah. The truth is that I couldn't bring myself to delete it. There is too much on here that my mind fails to remember otherwise, but does that I mean I can maintain it? I can only hope to be as good, if not better than, I once was.

Now that BOTH girls are older, mostly the baby, I am finding myself with more time or maybe I'm coming to realization that a little "me time" is needed. I am still teaching full time and working my way through my graduate classes for my Master's, AND there is the ever growing list of hobbies, interests, and commitments.  During this break from work, I've come to the realization that somewhere along the lines of all that I was/am doing I've lost touch with who I am. There has been a weight that has been slowly lifted off my shoulders over the past few weeks commencing with the submission of my grad class final and continuing on with the break from work. I wish I could articulate the freedom that I feel and the profound changes in my dispositions as a result of this, but I don't believe I could do it justice. What I find amazing is that in one week I've become more in touch with myself than I have been over the past year and a half or more. My only fear is of losing it and racing back into the whirlwind of deadlines, pressure, and idiosyncrasies. My hope is that I can hold onto a piece of this moment, via the resurrection of the blog. I'm not sure which direction the blog will be heading in other than documenting my life as it plays out with every bit of randomness thrown in.

Please be patient with me and this blog for time has moved on, things have changed, and so have I (for the better I hope). There is so much to catch up on. Some things can be summed up in short, while others will require a post (or two!). In short here is what you've missed:

1. Fritz (the newest nickname my loving husband has adopted) has had multiple jobs. Some that were even out of state (VA). He FINALLY was accepted into THE UNION as an ironworker (a dream and long time goal of his) only to discover that while the money was good, the time away from family was not. He made a HUGE career shift and is now assistant manager at a local welding/gas store and enjoying it very much
2. Both Fritz and I have grown spiritually and in our faith. Fritz more-so than I, but we continue to support each other in our decisions and beliefs as we define them. .
3. We were seriously considering moving down south (VA) and had even looked at houses down there AND fell in love with one. 
4. We sold some land and bought a house staying local but off the dirt road.
5. I changed jobs within the organization I work for but am still teaching.

Of course there are some other things intertwined in there, but these are the major events. You can expect more details to come on most of these, as they will require a post of their own to do any sort of justice to them.

And what's an update without the girls?! Enjoy some recent photos of them: