Pure Gratitude

Well the beginning of 2011 can be summed up in two words by me (U-T-T-E-R  E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-O-N), yes this is me yelling!!!

We started the new year off with a fantastic offer on our house, what was not so fantastic was the fact that after closing we were only given 6 days to be out of our house! With the holidays still going on, our household being sick pretty much the entire month of January, having to pack up the house we've made a home for the last five years, finding another place to live (we only had 6 days after the day we closed to be out of the house), while juggling the daily demands of life, and chasing after an on the move 10 1/2 month baby, has been difficult and stressful to say the least! But we did it, we made it out alive, and even on our grouchiest, most exhausting days we managed not to harm the other.....LOL.....but seriously that is something to celebrate considering our state of  health and mental capacity during this moving process! 

Our previously owned home was nestled in a beautiful gated community, heavily wooded, with a beautiful river that ran through it, wildlife frolicked without a care in the world - it truly is a very peaceful and serene neighborhood. So you may be wondering why in the world we would ever want to leave this little Granbury gem, right? Well back in April we decided we were tired of driving the 20-30 minute drive into town every day, so we discussed putting our house on the market and that following week we had a "For Sale" sign in our yard. Since we didn't have to sell our house or weren't in a hurry to sell it, we were really anxious to just to see what would happen with it. As the months went on we began to even forget it was still up for sale, we'd have a few showings here and there, but nothing ever really promising walked through our doors. We weren't really expecting to sell our house in a very fast manner, considering this economy, Granbury real estate, and the fact that we initially & purposely listed it unrealistically higher than what it was worth. In December we received an offer we couldn't turn down and from the moment our realtor felt like everything was going to go through on the buyers end, we have been going 90 miles to nothing.

Since we didn't have anytime to find a new house to buy right away, our realtor made accommodations for us to rent something on a month to month basis. The first rent house she found us would have worked out fine for a short term basis, if the suspicious man I noticed watching me move stuff in the first week we were there wouldn't have turned out to be a high risk sex offender. So........now we are moving into rent house #2, that we just happened to stumble across finding and it happened to be owned by some dear church friends of ours. Rent house #2 is cute and in a quaint, quiet neighborhood but best of all it is in town and only 2 minutes from work for me! It is quite a bit smaller than what we came out of but that is ok because we only moved our bare essentials in and put the rest in storage until we find something to buy. The rent house doesn't have the upgraded appliances, wood floors, crown molding, granite counter tops, light fixtures, garden bath tub, and the amenities of country club living that we once had at our disposal BUT it does provide a roof over our heads, has running water & electricity, is in a safe neighborhood, & is another place for to create some more wonderful family memories. So if you've lost counting how many times we've moved in one month this will be our 3rd time, so yes I am absolutely utterly exhausted!

Rewinding back to the beginning of this month, I can recall my primary focus just being set on packing up our home and praying we got out by our deadline. I had little time to really reflect upon how I was truly going to feel about leaving it, I didn't have any time to take any moving pictures, I had zero energy to blog about it......all of my time was spent with my face in boxes. I went through several emotions after the move from our first house was officially over and it had time to finally sink in. Seller's remorse was the main emotion. I started thinking about all the memories we had their - the first house we bought together as a married couple, celebrating our first anniversary, our first fight as a married couple (LOL), our first christmases (without and with Cannon), bringing Cannon home for the first time, Cannon's first bedroom that I designed especially for him, all of the rooms that I so patiently decorated and made sure that everything I bought would fit perfectly for that wall space and that nook, parties we had thrown with friends & family, the wood floors & fence we put in........I could go on and on but after I got over all of that I realized that God must have a different plan for us, considering all of the circumstances with the sell of our house.

We are really not sure what our next "home" purchase move will be, in these next few months we are going to spend alot of time praying for what God's plans are for our next home. Whether it's to stay in Granbury, to buy on the water or land, to build.......who knows, but I do know that no matter where we end up as long as we are together the rest will work itself out. Through this move I've realized alot of things - we don't need a new or big house to be happy, we just need eachother; I can actually live with the bare essentials that I need, not necessarily what I want - eventhough our house is super bland because there is no decor, I can live without it but I do miss it b/c I love to decorate; we have a tendency to take for granted all of the things we are blessed with and with the next home we will definitely utilize all aspects of the house and the property; God is so good and is very protective over his children (the sex offender story is a long one so I will spare you) but everything that happened from the beginning to the end was all due to God's watchful eye over our family and that we listened to our hearts and his silent messages to discover that where we were wasn't where we needed to be. I felt so stressed during this whole transitions but God definitely reassured me that he was with me through it all, which was a very humbling moment for me. We are truly blessed in many areas of our lives and very fortunate to have family and friends who pitched in anyway they could to help and all of that definitely did not go unnoticed we owe alot of people our helping hands whenever they find themselves in need of extra help and we will be so happy to give back, we couldn't have done it without all of you that helped and thank you so much!

During that hectic time I decided to take a little break from facebook to focus on what I needed to get done and it was the best thing I could've done! I discovered that I can actually live outside of this addicting, social network BUT I did miss having a place to upload pics and videos of Canman so easily! So I am back but I am putting myself on a strict time limit when it comes to fb! I actually spent alot of time doing other more important things, that may have otherwise been spent on fb, so I learned a valuable lesson while putting myself on fb suspension and plan to stick to the new fb limitations I've put on myself!

As for Cannon he is doing great and I will blog about him soon. I am just hoping we haven't messed him up completely this month, I don't really think he knows where our home is! Original house, Yaya and Poppa's house, rent house 1, rent house 2..........that's alot for a little 10 1/2 month old to take in over a one month period!

Sorry for the long spill, but it's been awhile and lots of new things have happened! I sure have missed ya'll and will blog again soon!