Sheeeeee's BACK!

Hello faithful reader(s)! ;)

It has been a crazy 2 months. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll give you the bullet dots and dazzle you with photos!

First, Mom and Dad Brooks came out to help us close on the house (Dad is our realtor) and finish packing. They had a lovely hotel room which provided respite from our crazy, packed up apartment while we waited for the closing... which was delayed by weeks! That made life pretty crazy, but we had fun in the meantime. Here are some pictures from the hotel room and from the lovely lunch Mom and Dad took us all to at a gorgeous Mexican restaurant in Cave Creek.




Here's a pic of my mom with Lilia at the Children's Museum, around the same time. She loved the feeling of the fake flower on her cheek!




We did, in fact, finally get into the house. Our house. Our house. It has been insane and busy, but also really fun. More on that next time.

Sad, Then Happy

The last two days I've meditated a lot on this verse:

Romans 8:28
²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

After Jeff and I got over the initial shock from the deal on Tuesday night, we made a great plan with my dad yesterday. We would come back to the bank offering to pay $1000 in closing costs (all we can do comfortably) and also pursue other houses. Jeff took the baby to look at houses yesterday morning and found one he really liked. Meanwhile, my dad searched listings and came up with the same house. He called the realtor and he said they were closing to offers yesterday at 5, so we got one in just under the wire.

Then this morning the bank e-mailed back on the original house and said they'll officially accept our counter offer. It's allllmost finished and completely in writing. We'll start breathing again at that point.

So anyway, now it looks like we still have the house and (believe it or not!) we might even close on time.

Holy cow. There is so much to do!

"God's power is shown in redemption, not prevention." Thank you, Lord.

Design on... Nothing.

Today I have realized that the most difficult part of owning a home for me is going to be not spending anything to decorate it. We have money budgeted for paint and to clean the carpet (which is neutral), but that is IT. No great deals at Goodwill, no money for extras at all until we are done paying off our student loans. Which could be a while. And I should add that my taste in decorating is very expensive -- I like traditional stuff, textures, etc.

So, first, thanks for listening to me lament my sad situation.

Second, what's your very best tip for decorating with no money at all?