Sunday, January 27, 2013

Pure joy!

     The other day Kelli and I realized that we had yet to share the excitement of buying a new house with our four legged girls so we decided to load the outdoor half of them up and take them to the dog park.  This is always an adventure as there is certain to be a plethora of new and exciting smells, sounds, and wagging tails to check out!  Kelli and I figured there was no better way to share our joy of our new place with our "kids" than by taking them to they're most enjoyable place on the planet!
     As expected they each fell into their respective routine once we got there, Duchess began retrieving the tennis ball and Kashi let her social skills shine.  There was probably about 15 other dogs there when we arrived and of course once we were in the area where we take leashes off, every dog inside the park was at the gate ready to meet the new girls.  Duchess as I mentioned walked right in and immediately sat and looked at me waiting for the tennis ball I had in the thrower to go airborne.  Kashi however walked in and pranced her way around the park with nearly every other dog hot on her trail in an attempt to introduce themselves as her new best friend!  As she made what looked like the dog equivalent of a victory lap, the look of sheer joy on her face made Kelli and I laugh out loud, we could almost hear her shouting, "I'm the queen of the world!!"
     We stayed at the park until Kashi had introduced herself to every new friend in the park and Duchess had exhausted not only herself but my arm.  By the time we left Kashi's tongue was hanging out the side of her mouth and Duch needed my assistance to get into the truck, both of these are the tell tale signs of our two big girls reaching full satisfaction in their visit to the dog park.  Every time we go there they are equally as excited as the last time, if not more, and I know they are in a state of pure joy.  What I'll probably never know is if they understand just how their parents reach the same state of joy just from being there with them.

Remember, make sure you take time to find moments of pure joy in your life, no matter how you may reach it.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Finally!

     Well after a couple months of searching Kelli and I have finally found our new house!  In the short time we have lived here we have covered just about every square mile of Spokane county it seems and we have gone full circle.  We began our search with the south hill because of the appeal the quaint neighborhoods have along with the craftsman homes with all their charm, and we ended our search on the south hill, finding a house with just the right amount of that character and charm in the perfect neighborhood!  Our new house was built in 1925 and although it is smaller, the warmth and charm it offers is enormous!  It has a wonderful flow to it and an unfinished basement for us to finish to our liking.
     The irony of this house is the first week we were here Jill took Kelli on a tour of the south hill and in their travels they drove by this one while it was having an open house, deciding not to go into it only because it appeared too small from the outside.  Well the lesson learned from that drive by a couple months ago was to never judge a book by its cover because upon walking into this house it feels much bigger than it's actual size.  After that first drive by we continued to watch the south hill while we checked out other areas, but this house never was towards the top of our list.  We drove all over, scoured the internet listings, and put our realtor through the ringer as we went into over 20 houses that were scattered all over the map.  When I called our realtor asking if we could get into a different house on the south hill last Saturday he had to sift through three different personalized searches he had for us in order to get the right info! 
     I truly believe God had a hand in leading us to our new house as there were simply too many small things that fell into place.  This started almost a month ago when Kelli and I had a different house under contract, a house we had found for sale by owner, only to have that deal fall through because the taxes were too high to give us a monthly payment we were comfortable with.  So we healed our wounds from that disappointment and continued searching which led us to last Saturday.  We arranged to get into two houses that we had found and one more that our realtor had.  One of the ones we found was our new house, it was actually scheduled for an open house the following day but our realtor called the owner to see if we could view it a day early.  Not only did she agree to let us in but she happens to be a friend of our realtor's, he was shocked when he called her and she simply replied with "how are you, I haven't seen you in ages"! 
     God's lending hand sealed the deal when upon walking into this house Kelli and I both fell in love instantly!  She often tells me when we find our house we'll feel it and up until Saturday I didn't quite understand what she meant, I do now!  We were able to have the house under contract before the open house even took place!
     So we're set up for the final series of hurdles in the process of buying a house, the home inspection and appraisal, the first of which is scheduled for this afternoon.  Once those two are done we will be ready to close and move again!  We have been eager to move in to a house of our own since we have been here and this move will allow us to finally feel as though we've settled in to the area.  We will finally be able to unpack all of the boxes in the garage and officially set up our lives for the next chapter!  The fact that this next chapter will be set in arguably the coolest neighborhood in Spokane is just icing on the cake!

Remember, if you present all of your worries to God he will help you put them at ease!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Memories

     The past couple of weeks have, as usual, felt a bit chaotic.  It has been just twelve days since our New Years party with the Nagle clan and yet those days have blown by in a flurry of events!  Between job hunts, house hunts, and trips to ND for grandpas funeral, it seems as though two and a half weeks have really been just one big day!  
     Little by little though things are beginning to fall into place.  Kelli had a couple of interviews last week that have led to two working interviews this week!  She's pretty excited to be close to finding a good fit!  We've also spent countless hours searching every available option for housing in the greater Spokane/Coeur D'alene area.  It seems as though we've pursued every viable option out there and although our minds are beginning to melt from MLS number overload, we both feel like our next home is just around the corner!  
     A week ago Curt, Jill, Jaxon, and I made the trek over to Adrian, ND to join our parents and the rest of our family for Grandpa George's funeral.  It was a very quick trip, three total days with the majority of two of those days spent in airports, but it was a good trip that brought back many fond memories of our childhood vacations to my mothers home town.  On Saturday afternoon after the service Jaxon was in dire need of a nap and he refused to do so unless he was in his car seat in the back of the moving rental car.  So I gave Jill a little break and offered to drive him around for some much needed rest, this time was easily the highlight of my trip as the J-bird caught some z's I drove by every single landmark of the valley that held a fond place in my heart.  It was nice to be able to revisit all of the sights that we visited as kids and see how many of them have not changed one bit.  As Jaxon and I sat in the warm SUV overlooking the Heinrich-Martin dam, the image of a 10 year old Kyle holding the small fish he had just caught in front of the small wooden pavilion right next to the boat ramp was as fresh as ever.  Considering the quickness of our trip we still managed to catch up with many of the friends and family that we haven't seen in years which was very nice.  
     We must have brought some of the ND weather back with us however as temps have been abnormally chilly for this area as of late!  Of course part of what makes the weather seem so bad is it seems as though nearly everyone we know is planning a trip to somewhere warm this winter except us:)  I think once we get our feet back under us form this move we might have to change that next winter and join the migration to an island for a week or so! 

Remember, when the waters begin to get choppy, faith is what will calm them back down.