so i woke up this morning and didn't even realize it was new years eve. landen said something about "bean dip" and that sparked my interest into actually thinking about what the day might hold. "oh! it's the last day of the year!"
i guess my mind has been slightly pre-occupied by the craziness of moving. so i've left a lot of people hanging and i even got christmas cards that said "congrats on buying your first home!" well here's my extremely late tutt fill-in.
we were all set to start the house buying process about 6 weeks ago. we met with a realtor and set up times to go see a few houses. then one night i was talking with a friend from church and she said something that really hit me. "just be patient." i guess she didn't know how much i really needed to hear that in my life. on so many different levels that went far beyond house buying. i drove home that night with this overwhelming feeling (which made me cry... and i'm not really a cryer) that we needed to wait. after landen and i talked it over we decided to take a step back and try and find a rental. i emailed our friend's who were looking for renters the next day and it was all kind of perfect for us.
then landen's company took a huge pay cut and all of a sudden (the day after fixing up our budget) we had no idea how we were going to afford anything with such huge student loan payments coming up. after reworking everything and cutting what needed to be cut we decided we could still do it. and the thought of "just be patient" played out in my mind the whole time. i know we really needed this kick in the pants to realign our priorities of what we really need and what we really don't need.
so we've been painting our friend's place (they have been so nice to let me pick everything... even a turquoise laundry room which i'm sure gave them a heart attack!) and packing everything up and we finally move on monday. i say finally only because my parents have graciously let us stay with them for 7 months! my girl's will definitely miss living with them, but we are only moving 5 minutes down the road so we still get to see them all the time! and we are in the same ward. our new house is in a fun little neighborhood with 4 bedrooms and a big basement to play in. we are so excited to finally have things we've never had before like... a garage! a pantry! a linen closet! a backyard! haha... isn't it funny how you can live with so little for so long and then can appreciate the ammenities even more!? we don't even remember what we brought with us from boston that's sitting in our storage unit. it'll be like christmas all over again unpacking all of our stuff. and i'm so excited to decorate a house. i pretty much stalk craigslist and have been to a dozen cool consignment/vintage stores around portland. this is such a fun place to live with my mom! lots of projects in my future.
so that's my update. we had a wonderful christmas with my whole family home. we were spoiled beyond belief and i feel so blessed to have the family that i do (as well as in-laws!). the girls said the next day, "can we do christmas again tomorrow!?" i'm exhausted.
hope your christmas was wonderful.
i guess my mind has been slightly pre-occupied by the craziness of moving. so i've left a lot of people hanging and i even got christmas cards that said "congrats on buying your first home!" well here's my extremely late tutt fill-in.
we were all set to start the house buying process about 6 weeks ago. we met with a realtor and set up times to go see a few houses. then one night i was talking with a friend from church and she said something that really hit me. "just be patient." i guess she didn't know how much i really needed to hear that in my life. on so many different levels that went far beyond house buying. i drove home that night with this overwhelming feeling (which made me cry... and i'm not really a cryer) that we needed to wait. after landen and i talked it over we decided to take a step back and try and find a rental. i emailed our friend's who were looking for renters the next day and it was all kind of perfect for us.
then landen's company took a huge pay cut and all of a sudden (the day after fixing up our budget) we had no idea how we were going to afford anything with such huge student loan payments coming up. after reworking everything and cutting what needed to be cut we decided we could still do it. and the thought of "just be patient" played out in my mind the whole time. i know we really needed this kick in the pants to realign our priorities of what we really need and what we really don't need.
so we've been painting our friend's place (they have been so nice to let me pick everything... even a turquoise laundry room which i'm sure gave them a heart attack!) and packing everything up and we finally move on monday. i say finally only because my parents have graciously let us stay with them for 7 months! my girl's will definitely miss living with them, but we are only moving 5 minutes down the road so we still get to see them all the time! and we are in the same ward. our new house is in a fun little neighborhood with 4 bedrooms and a big basement to play in. we are so excited to finally have things we've never had before like... a garage! a pantry! a linen closet! a backyard! haha... isn't it funny how you can live with so little for so long and then can appreciate the ammenities even more!? we don't even remember what we brought with us from boston that's sitting in our storage unit. it'll be like christmas all over again unpacking all of our stuff. and i'm so excited to decorate a house. i pretty much stalk craigslist and have been to a dozen cool consignment/vintage stores around portland. this is such a fun place to live with my mom! lots of projects in my future.
so that's my update. we had a wonderful christmas with my whole family home. we were spoiled beyond belief and i feel so blessed to have the family that i do (as well as in-laws!). the girls said the next day, "can we do christmas again tomorrow!?" i'm exhausted.
hope your christmas was wonderful.
happy 2012!
4 comments:
Happy (almost) New Year! That is so exciting to be living in a house finally!
This is a program we're looking into for loan repayment. It bases your payment on your income and family size - not sure all the ins and outs of it but it seems like it will really help take the hit off the budget when it comes time to repay. Thought I'd send it along if you hadn't already seen it: http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/IBRPlan.jsp
something about this post made me miss you SUPER bad! Congrats on the new place, I can't wait to see what you put together!
oh man, landen, me and the new years eve bean dip go way back! I remember Carmen SanDiego also played a major role. Thanks for the update! We are happy you are happy :)
Em kept saying that Sophie was going to come from Boston for her party. When I told her "remember, Sophie lives far away in Portland now" she said "NO! In Boston, with the Temple!"
SO, you're making room for company right!!!!? I can't wait to see pictures of the new place.
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