St. Joseph

So we went home to winterize the "beach house" this weekend. While we were there, we finally buried St. Joe. We have had the statue for several months, but he has been sitting on top of the cupboard in the kitchen. So we decided in a last ditch effort to get the house sold before winter sets in, we would bury the statue. I got a call today from our realtor that we had a showing scheduled for today. We haven't had a showing for several weeks now so I wonder is St. Joe going to work now that we have accepted the idea of having this property for a long period of time? Stay tuned.........

The Beach House

We have emotionally come to terms with the fact that we might not sell our house anytime soon. We have been lovingly referring to it as the "beach house". We have decided that really there are worse places in the world to have a property that you can't get rid of. At least it is a place that is a great place to visit in the summer. Living in a land locked state it is nice to have a place you can go to that is minutes from the lake. Of course, it isn't a property that we would have purchase as a vacation home, but we have it so we might as well enjoy it. So ideas of summer vacation plans are now revolving around the
"beach house"

Now what?

We had a lead on a potential renter for our house. Long story short, she just emailed me to tell me that after telling me how wonderful my house was and how excited they were to rent it that they have found another place to rent that is furnished and "inexpensive" We are not really interested in renting the place, we would rather just sell it, but since that hasn't worked for us as of yet, and this opportunity kind of fell into our lap, we decided it couldn't hurt. We don't want to advertise the house as a rental and we don't want to put just anyone into the house, so when a friend connected us with this family, I thought for sure it was a perfect temporary solution to help us ride out this crazy market. So I sit here now and wonder, how many tests are we going to be put through with this house before something happens in our favor? At the rate we are going, we will never own another home because we can't get this one sold and even if we do get it sold, we will walk away with little to no equity which means we will have no money for a down payment on a home here. And as times goes on, all of our savings will be sucked up by the double housing that we are currently paying, the mortgage payment there and the rent here. It is amazing how many people tell us to just foreclose on the house, "let it go", "give it back to the bank" I don't see how that solves the problem. All that does is make us people who don't keep their word and people with bad credit who really won't ever own another home considering the new tighter conditions to qualify for a mortgage. Moving back isn't going to solve the problem either. Now what?

Riding a bike

Ok, so here is a proud moment. Evan who just turned 5 has been trying to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels. We have tried a couple of times to take the training wheels off and work with him to ride the bike and each time he just wasn't quite ready. Most of the time it is the older two kids who are encouraging Evan to ask dad to help him. Evan is interested in learning, but it is mostly Aaron who is encouraging Evan to try again. Well, this last weekend, we were at a festival all day on Saturday. Bill and I were tired from a long day of walking and standing in line for important things like face painting and moon walks. Got home late in the afternoon and of course I didn't plan ahead for dinner so I ran to the store to get some food for dinner. I drive into the driveway and immediately hear Aaron and Jenna calling to me saying "Mom, come here and see this" I turn the corner and to my surprise, here comes Aaron running along side Evan riding his bike without the training wheels! Aaron took it upon himself to train his brother to ride his bike and apparently Evan was ready because he was riding like he had been riding for years! I went inside and asked Bill if he knew what was going on. He said yeah, they asked and I told Aaron if he was careful with his brother he could help him. I told him he better go look because he was riding his bike. Aaron was doing such a great job of sticking with his brother to make sure he was safe and Evan was doing a great job of balancing. He even within minutes was able to start the bike himself without any help from Aaron. Apparently all it took was a moment when dad was too tired to run beside a bike and Aaron willing to help to get Evan to learn how to ride his bike! Go figure.

2 strikes

We got another offer on the MI house this weekend. It was a LOW offer. Considering we have already lowered the price $22,500 over the last 6 months and we currently have the house listed for the price we purchased it for almost 8 years ago, the potential buyer offered 10k lower than our current listed price. He was not willing to go any higher and we weren't willing to go that low. This is our 2nd offer that hasn't panned out. I wonder to myself if buyers are just so confident that they can abuse sellers that they just make offers on houses they really can't afford to buy just hoping they will find a desperate seller who will give the house away. I also wonder to myself, what is the lesson I am suppose to learn out of this experience? I don't think the lesson is to move back to Michigan, aside from the house, this transition has been unbelievably smooth. All of us have adjusted very well to our new life. Bill and I have jobs we both love, the kids are doing great in school, so I ask again what is the lesson to be learned?

So for all those sellers who have been taken advantage of from their buyers and settled out of desperation, this one is for you. We turned down the buyers offer and said we would wait it out a little longer. Here's hoping the 3rd times the charm!

It was meant to be

I started a new job this week. When we originally decided to move, we had made a pact with each other that I would not go back to work for 1 year as we tried to adjust to our new life, however, as we started to get settled and as the kids started back at school and as the stress of the house still for sale has taken its toll, I had 3 moments of weakness in which I hopped on the computer, found ads for open positions and sent off my resume. 2 times I did that, within hours of sending out my resume, I got a response from the potential employer asking to set up an interview. I went to the 1st interview and immediately fell in love with the idea of having that position. I felt the interview went well and I knew I would get called for a 2nd interview. That same week, I had another interview with the other potential employer. That interview also went well. The first employer was a part-time position at a church. I really connected with the panel of people I interviewed with and I really liked the idea of working in a church environment. The 2nd employer was a full-time position in the medical field. I was not thrilled with the thought of working full-time yet, but knew that part-time positions in my field are hard to come by.

I first got an offer for the full-time position. It was with great contemplation that I decided to turn down that job offer. In a leap of faith, I really felt that I was better suited for the part-time position and that the part-time position fit better with my family needs. It was a tough decision. The full-time position would have been enough money to continue to pay the house payments in Michigan forever and would have eliminated a ton of stress, but it would have also added different stress to our family and we decided it really wasn't worth the strain on the family for me to work full-time. So without knowing if I would get the offer from the part-time position, I turned down the full-time position.

A week later, I returned for a 2nd interview with the church. I got and gladly accepted the offer for the position. As I talked with one of the pastors about the position, he commented that they were really worried that they would find a qualified person who would be willing to work part-time. That struck me as so interesting, because I was on the other side of the fence thinking that part-time positions don't come along very often and I need to grab it while it was available. It was definitely a situation in which God had a plan!

I have only been working there for a couple of days now, but I can already tell it is a place I will fit in well and will enjoy working.

As far as the 3rd resume goes, I have had a phone interview for that position prior to the offer from the church. I am curious if I will be called for an actual interview for the position. I am a little tempted if I get a call to go to the interview just to see if I would get the job offer. Then I would be 3 for 3!

Labor Day Weekend

The Davidson clan

We decided to go visit Grandma Davidson for Labor Day weekend. Now that we have moved closer, it isn't such an ordeal to go visit. We decided to take advantage of the holiday weekend to visit. Grandma was very excited to see the kids. It had been about 1 1/2 years since she last saw us.

On Saturday, the boys were in the back yard playing with some relatives that also stopped by to visit. They were in the backyard building a fort by dragging sticks out of the wooded area into the back yard. They were working really hard on it for a long time. Aaron came on the porch complaining of chigger bites. He was itching feverishly at his legs. Someone suggested spraying him with bug spray. Dad lifted his shorts leg to spray his legs and found hundreds of seed ticks all over his leg! We immediately started trying to get the ticks off his legs while also checking the other boys. Both Aaron and Evan were covered in ticks. Both boys were immediately stripped down to their skiveys and the removal procedure started. We found yet another use for duct tape. It worked the best at getting the ticks off. The boys were crying and howling because not only were their legs itching, but their hair on their legs was getting pulled everytime we pulled a piece off tape off. Evan kept crying telling me "I only like Michigan and Waterloo!" Needless to say, they didn't go anywhere but the porch and driveway for the rest of the weekend.

Aside from the tick episode, we had a great time visiting with family.

The Fort

The tick victim