More on the House

We've been excitedly, casually house-hunting since April.  The plan was to buy a house when we were finished with Cares, in February 2013. 
Things have changed with Cares.  Long story-short, it just wasn't a good fit for us anymore or for our apartment community.  After discussions with our Regional Director, we felt that it would be better for the Cares Program if we stepped aside and let a new Cares Team come in and start fresh.  We think Cares is great, but with Matt student teaching and with the adoption process, we knew it was only going to be tougher to do a great job as a Cares Team.  So, now we will be done with Cares in September.

So, for the last 2 weeks, the house-hunting process was accelerated.  We looked a lot on our own for the first week.  Drove to all areas of town, explored lots (thinking we would build a modular home), a family home that had recently been re-done, and houses we found on the internet.  We were fairly discouraged with the options that were in our price-range.  So we knew we needed help.  

We signed with a realtor last Friday, August 3rd.  We knew we wanted to work with Brent anyway but didn't know how great he would be!  After our initial meeting and signing a buyer's agreement with him, we got lots of emails with potential houses.  We checked out several over the weekend but only wanted to see the inside of one house.

Love the wood floors, gas fireplace, high ceilings and openness. 

This house, we call it "Ponderosa", like the ranch, had JUST been reduced from 145,000 to within our price range.  It's a Foreclosure, so we were nervous, but it's beautiful!  We saw it on Monday morning and loved it!  It's not perfect, but it's a perfect first house.  Especially compared to the other houses in our budget, we knew we wanted to make an offer! 

Losing closet space but excited about hardwoods, double sink and being on the first floor!

So, we made an offer on Tuesday (after reading through 20+ pages with our realtor), received a counter on Wednesday, made a new offer (don't really know the terms) on Thursday and received a counter that afternoon.  We came to an agreement on Friday morning and setup House and Termite Inspections for this coming week.  If all goes well with inspections, we should be closing in the middle of September.  We are excited! 

Check out the patio and playset! 

The dogs are gonna love having a back yard, and we're gonna love not having to take them up & down 3 flights of stairs!  We can totally imagine bringing our children home from the hospital to this house.  We look forward to having get-togethers with our new neighbors and celebrating birthdays with our family and friends.  Hopefully at this house. 








I'm including lots of pictures.  These are all from the listing site.  I hope to have more pictures after our inspection on Monday. 

Nursery not pictured.  Kinda bummed about no pantry but (hopefully) plenty of cabinets.

'Tis the Season...

... for more change!  

Our season as a Cares Team has come to an end.  A little earlier than originally planned but definitely the right time.  Thankfully, we had been house-hunting 'just for fun' since April.  And we had a really good idea of what we wanted, where we wanted to be and what we could spend.  

We have now put in an offer, had it countered, countered again and gotten another counter.  We have settled on a price, and as long as the Home Inspection doesn't find any major problems, this will be our first home!  

Isn't God good?!  We will hopefully be bringing our child home to a real HOME and not an apartment, on the 3rd floor.  And we will have more time to focus on bonding and growing as a family without the commitment of Cares. 

More later on "our first house" if all goes well.  

You Might be a Cares Team If...

You bake in bulk.

You have about 30 signs like this in your car and/or hall closet.

You stock-pile (donated) drinks from one event to the next.

Again, baking in bulk.

And baking Green things in Bulk!

Your kitchen gets full of friends helping prepare food for 200 people.

You make fruit pretty.

Have I mentioned that we bake in bulk?

You give out Breakfast to your neighbors on their way out of the apartments.

You have a dedicated Cares Thirty-One utility tote (and often use a few more!).

your Halloween pumpkin looks like this.

You have LOTS of candy and LOTS of cookies for passing out treat bags at Halloween.

You cook in bulk.
And you actually use the Microplane Grater from Pampered Chef.

You stock-pile dog treats to pass out at pet events.

You have 300+ of these in your freezer to give out to neighbors at the pool.

You have LOTS of these signs in your hall closet.

You buy in bulk!

Just a few pictures to show what this "Cares" part of our lives is like.  We do 3 events every month for our neighbors at our apartments.  We also visit all the new move-ins and neighbors whose leases will expire in about 3 months.  We also have a Book Club, Walking Club, and Ladies Bible Study.  We definitely stay busy and enjoy getting to know our neighbors and building friendships with them. 

Everyday Life

Awhile back, I asked if anyone has questions for us in this unique season.  My friend Kristen responded that she wanted to know more about our everyday lives.  Since one of the main purposes of this blog is to journal and preserve memories... I thought it was a great idea.  So, here goes. 

Mom keeps us well-stocked with yummy creamers. Great way to start the day.

Mondays... If Matt opens, he gets up around 6:15 and gets to work by 6:45.  If he closes, he sleeps in and goes into work at 11:00.  Sometimes, he goes in for another shift in between.  He usually takes Nala (and now Zoe) out before he goes to work.   I usually get up around 7:30 (or sometimes 8:00 or 8:15) and get to work by 8:30 or 8:45.  Matt doesn't eat breakfast.  I eat breakfast on the way to work and drink my one cup of coffee (thanks to my Keurig!) throughout the morning.  At work, Matt checks animals in and out of the vet, calls owners of pets to schedule appointments or remind them of their appointments, weighs pets, gets them their medicines, and does LOTS of other things to stay busy.  He comes home for lunch, which varies depending on when he goes into work.  He takes Nala and Zoe out during lunch and chills for a few minutes then goes back to lunch.  

Matt with the girls.

I usually eat lunch at work (used to eat what the chef for the childcare center made, but now I take my own since I'm doing Weight Watchers).  Mondays I usually work on updating the church's website and processing sermon videos to post online.  Depending on what's going on at the church, I often have lots of other projects going on.  

Once we both get home from work, we figure out something to do for dinner. If one of us planned ahead, we took out some meat to make.  If we didn't think it through ahead of time, we will make something from the freezer.  :)  Monday evenings, we usually watch tv shows from the night before online.  Usually, it's Amazing Race and/or Celebrity Apprentice, but they're both on a break right now.  One Monday a month, I do a Book Club with our neighbors through Cares.  

Tuesdays... (Normal daytime).  After work, we usually have a family dinner at Dad & Gail's.  They usually keep out niece, Hailey on Tuesdays, so the whole family converges on their place for dinner.  It's one of the many perks of living in the same town as family.  After family dinner, we come home and tend to the pups then spend time doing things around the house.  And sometimes, we will watch a show together. Bachelorette online currently.  (Of course, this depends on whether or not we can pickup free internet or not.) 

Wednesdays... (Normal daytime).  Since a couple of weeks ago, I stay at work late on Wednesdays and meet Steven at a Weight Watchers meeting.  After weight watchers, we have dinner with Matt. 

Thursdays... I love Thursdays.  For the last couple months, I've been meeting with some ladies and studying Beth Moore's James.  I rush home to straighten up my apartment.  Ladies start coming over around 6:30.  We usually start with snacks and catching up.  Then we discuss the homework and watch a video.  I haven't been great at keeping up with the homework, but when I do it, it's always on time.  And even just the teaching videos that we watch on Thursdays are full of wisdom and encouragement and challenge.  Plus, it's great to spend time with these new friends and learn about how God is at work in their lives and pray with one another.  A lot of times I crash after Bible Study.  While I'm doing this, Matt is usually working on school stuff or Cares stuff. 

Fridays... I have a love/hate relationship with Fridays.  When I get into work, my coworkers and I have a devotion from Experiencing God.  Then we have breakfast together, and my day gets crazy after that.  Preparing worship media, sermon PowerPoint, sermon notes, printing the weekly newsletter, updating the website, and LOTS of other stuff.  Thankfully, my coworkers help with this a lot.  But still, lots of Fridays, I work late.  By the time I get home, I'm exhausted and like to do nothing. :)  

Worship media.

Saturdays... Saturdays are usually filled with Cares events-, planning, shopping, or actually doing them.  And sometimes we do things with friends.  Sometimes we go on walks, but we call it "looking for alligators".  Which we see often.  There are several who live in the big neighborhood we live in.  I love alligators... from a distance.  Housework. Laundry... more laundry.  

An alligator Matt saw recently.  But not in our neighborhood.

Sundays... Church. Lunch at Grandma's with the family.  Hang out over there for awhile.  Home for housework.  We used to have Community Group on Sundays, but we're taking a break from that for awhile.  Gives us more time to do a better job at Cares.  We look forward to joining back with Community Group eventually.  Also on Sunday nights, we have Family Movie Night.  This is at Mark & Steph's house with them & Hailey, us, and Steven.  We watch Cupcake Wars until Hailey goes to bed, then we pick a movie to watch.  It's usually pretty late by the time we're done with that, so then we just head home and get ready to start the week.  

Movie Night.

Of course,  every week is different.  We try to find time to spend together.  We spend time loving on our dogs.  We go on walks. We go to the dog park.  We cook and bake.  We hang out with friends.  We watch movies and play games.  We have friends over for dinner & games.  

Most weeks depend on Matt's schedule.  He works 4 days each week and spends the other days doing housework, working on Cares stuff and working on school.  

Each day is also affected by our ongoing wait for our baby.  Each day, we pray and hope and wonder.  Will this be the day our lives will change forever?  

In the meantime, we wait.  And go on with everyday. :) 

Mary Kay Fundraiser

When we lived in Texas, I had the honor of working with Misti Bauman on a Cares event.  Since then, we have kept in touch, and she has graciously offered to do an adoption fundraiser for us!  

So, if you need some Mary Kay or could use some or could give some as a gift, order from her!  Leave our name in the comments.  She will take care of shipping it to you ASAP, and she's giving us all of her proceeds!  

I also have an "evite" I can send you if you want to make sure to order the right way.  Just leave your email in the comments, and I'll get one to you ASAP. 
 
Thanks Misti!  

 

Credit Card DEBT FREE!

Source

We cut up our credit cards in 2009, after we used them to buy our plane tickets to Thailand.  BUT, there was still a hefty combined balance at that point... 

A combined balance that equaled more than the cost of a car... more than a year at each of our private colleges... more than one of us made in a year.  A HEFTY combined balance.  

First, we paid off our personal loan (also taken out for us to move to Thailand.) 
Second, we paid off our smaller credit card. 
And last week, we paid off our largest, LAST credit card!!! 

We are officially credit-card-debt-free! 

We did it in our own way.  Not exactly Dave Ramsey style.  But we did learn some things from his class, that we halfway took in 2009. (Remember?)  

These are some specific things we did to knock out our credit card debt. (And you can too!)

• Spent less money than we made.  Not too easy at first.  Took some getting used to. (Shocker!)
• Both got second jobs. (This was hard for awhile, not gonna lie.) 
• Got together an emergency fund.
• Cut WAY back on eating out. (We both LOVE eating out and still do occasionally but not near what we used to. We also went through a few slumps in this area but with Matt's leadership, got better.) 
• Became a Cares team. 
• Cancelled our Cable. 
• Cancelled our Internet. (Thankfully, we can get the apartment's free wi-fi!)
• Sold our body for medical research. (Well, Matt did.) 
• Put "extra" money (like school loan 'refunds', bonuses, babysitting money, gifts) toward debt. 
• Refinanced car loan for much lower interest than our credit card interest.  Put the 'extra' toward credit card.  

Even with the new car and student loans for Matt's grad school, our net worth has increased due to us getting the credit cards paid off.  The next step will be the cars (mine first, then Matt's), then Matt's student loans.  


Bottom line is: if we can do it, you can do it!  Talk to us if you have any questions.  We are both big advocates of not using credit cards anymore.  And so are both of my sisters!  Go Tyndall girls!

Thankful Thursday

Recently discovered that I can still use YouVersion without my smartphone.  This is truly something I'm thankful for because I love their Bible-reading plans.  Using that app on my smartphone was really helping me be consistent with being in the Word.  I also loved having Scriptures read to me.  If you have a smartphone, you should check it out.  Even if you don't have a smartphone, you can still use most of their services online.  Thankful!

Pandora.  Wow, I love that it's unlimited again.  Love being able to have songs that point me to Christ playing in my ear as much as possible. (Definitely handy since I work at a desk most of the day.)

For other friends who are adopting.  It means so much to be able to follow their stories and read about how God is writing their family stories.  It helps me remember that He's in control of ours too.  


Our church.  Though we have had to miss gathering with our community a lot lately, I'm so thankful for friends who pray with us, encourage us and challenge us to be more like Christ. Recently, I was having a rough day and a good friend popped in to love on me and helped me out in very tangible ways.  I also love that the sermons are online so I can stay connected to what God is teaching us as a body. 


Wedding weekend!  My sister and Zebediah are getting married this weekend.  I'm so excited to see so many family and friends.  And I'm excited to celebrate with them as they enter into marriage.  

Speaking of marriage, I am beyond thankful for my husband!  He serves me, challenges me and loves me so well!  God definitely knew what He was doing when He gave me Matthew.  I can honestly not imagine life without him. 


Cares.  Thankful that this is how we can serve right now.  Thankful that we get to meet so many new people and for the way we see God working in so many lives. 


Focus Roommate Reunion.  Starting one week from today, I get to start welcoming in friends who started off as my roommates at Focus on the Family Institute in Colorado.  We were there together for a semester in 2003.  We haven't all been together since August 2003 when Serena got married.  Soon, everyone else is coming to Charleston, and we get to catch up!  I'm so excited about this.  


And there's so much more, but I'll need to save some things for another post, right? ;)

Matt's 27!

This is what you looked like as a baby.

This is what you looked like yesterday.

Today is your 27th birthday!!!

These are things about you that are true today:Jobs: Client Service Coordinator at Banfield Pet Hospital & Grad School Student.

Things I love about you: You are a man who has great Faith.  I am so thankful that God gave me such a faithful husband.  You are also hilarious and incredibly loving.  You are an individual-you do things when you want, how you want.  You have great compassion.   You are an amazing husband to me. 

You're my best friend, and you are my favorite person to hang out with. I love that you kill spiders and bugs for me even though you don't like them either. You love Nala so much, and I can't wait to see how much you'll love our kids. You remind me to turn to Jesus instead of you sometimes. You really love your family. You aren't perfect, and you know it. You're real! You help me to be real. I love your eyes. Your kisses. Your hugs. I love how you get excited about things I think are silly. You do the dishes and laundry. You read out loud to me. You write me love notes.
Activities/Interests: Movies!, Hanging out with me, Nala, Community Group & Church stuff, Reading, TV (stuff we have on DVD or can watch online), Aquariums, Wii-ing,  watching scary movies, photography, animals, playing games (Nertz, Spades, Settlers...), playing computer games (Words With Friends!), watching Spongebob, cartoons, traveling.

Favorite foods: Japanese, Italian food, Sushi, Salads. Ginger's frosting. Desserts! Sugar, Brown Sugar, Powdered Sugar. Raw hamburger meat. Stove Top. Rice.

Least Favorite foods: Anything Breakfast. Meatloaf.  Grandma's Mac & Cheese.

Things you did while you were 26: Moved to a new apartment and started being a Cares team!  Became an uncle for the first time!  Took lots of grad school classes-even one up in Virginia at Liberty.  Had your sister-in-law live with us for a few months.  Borrowed your mother-in-law's convertible for a couple months!  Went to adoption trainings & did adoption fundraisers.  Got a brand-new car for a Christmas present! Paid off another credit card.

Favorite Movies/Shows: too many to name: (You are currently in the process of watching every single movie you own during 2012), The Nightmare Before Christmas, Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Christopher Guest movies, Transformers series, LOTR series, ...What you want to be when you grow up: Elementary School teacher and stay-at-home DadLast year, I wrote that the previous year had been the toughest year of our marriage and prayed for more joy this year. I totally think God answered that prayer as we figured out how to have more time together and time doing ministry together.  Though we still face challenges, we are moving forward and trusting God to lead us.  I'm so thankful for this past year and what we've learned about living together.  Maybe next year, we will be celebrating you becoming a father!

This is what you look like today!

 I love you, Matthew! Happy 27th Birthday!

What do you think?

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

Seaman Visit

Jack, Dan, Kylie, Megan, and Kristen!

We had some very special visitors a couple weeks ago:  the Seaman family who we know from Thailand.  During our time there, we became very close with this family: we loved playing games, going on adventures, being in LifeGroup, babysitting, having dinner, and generally just hanging out.  It was very sad to leave them (and several other people) when we left Thailand.  

Thankfully, this family is in the States this summer as they are transitioning to a new home next month.  They stayed with a us for a couple of days on their US summer tour. :) 

They got here Thursday night, right when I was getting off from my job. We met up at our apartment and hung around for a bit.  They got to meet Nala (who they had heard a lot about), my mom's dog, Tori, and Valerie's dog, Daisey.  The kids and I took the dogs on a short walk, which turned out to be their favorite thing to do in Charleston.  :)  We ate dinner that night at the Bear E Patch, which is one of my favorite local places.  Then we went to visit Matt at work.  

Kiddos at Bear E Patch

We didn't do anything too exciting that night but went back to our apartment where they got to meet my Mom, then later went over to Dad & Gail's house where we spent the night.  (Mom and Valerie were at our place already so adding the Seamans too would have been a little too crowded.) 

On an evening dog walk.

Matt and I both took Friday off so we could hang out.  We went to our place in the morning and got ready for the day, took Mom to the airport for her mission trip to Guatemala, then we all met up downtown at Fleet Landing for lunch.  I really like this place, and I wanted them to be able to eat some good Charleston food.  We usually sit outside and can see dolphins playing, but we sat inside this time which was still enjoyable.  

Guys at Fleet Landing

View of Fleet Landing from Waterfront Park

After lunch, we walked around Waterfront Park for a bit.  We were heading to the Market when Jack started having problems with his shoe.  So we piled into their van and did a driving tour of Charleston: the Battery, the houses, Rainbow Row, etc.  I learned from Matt that the Market was actually never a "slave market" but actually just where most of the slaves would go and do their shopping.  

With the bridges in the background

On the swing at Waterfront Park

We also drove over the Cooper River Bridges then drove by the USS Yorktown then went to Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Park for the kids to play at their cool playground.  While they walked out to the fishing pier, I went to the store to get ready for our Cares event that night.  We met up back at the apartment and made tacos for dinner then took the dogs on another walk (seriously: their favorite part about Charleston).  After dinner, we headed over to the Bolton's Landing movie theater for the Cares Family Movie Night and got all setup for snacks and Finding Nemo.  No one else ended up coming to that event (our first event with truly 0 other residents), but it ended up being pretty nice to just be us.  

After the movie, we headed back to Dad & Gail's where the kids went to bed and the grownups played Settlers of Cataan.  :)  Brought back lots of fun memories of playing at their place in Thailand, and it was nice to play with such good friends.  Flaglers won one, and Seamans won one, so that was fitting.  

The next day, we came back over to the apartment and just hung around (and took the dogs for walks) and were also joined by Valerie's boyfriend, Zebediah, then went to Costco to stock up on some things for their next stop on the East Coast and ate lunch while we were there.  It was my first time having lunch at Costco, and I gotta say that the $1.50 hot dog combo is a pretty good way to spend $1.50 for lunch.  Matt met us there on his lunch break, which was nice but kinda sad to say goodbye in the Costco parking lot.  After Costco, we came back to the apartment for one more dog walk and for them to load up their van and get re-organized for their next stop, then for them to get on the road.  

Each of the kiddos had his/her own dog, which was maybe why they loved it so much!
Certainly was nice having some extra helpers too! :)

I totally played it cool while saying goodbye but cried as soon as they drove off.  








 Seaman fam, you guys are so special to us for the unique season of life we shared with y'all and for the many ways y'all showed love to us while we were there.  It was wonderful to reconnect for a few days while y'all were here, so thank you so much for coming and for being such gracious guests.  We love you guys and look forward to seeing you next time! :)