Moving Day!

Today's the day! We're closing on our house. It's been nearly 10 months since we first listed it back in January. It's been a year and a half of decision-making for our family. Through that time we've learned so much about life. Sounds crazy, but it's true.

We made our plans to buy an old fixer-upper, did all that we possibly could to make that happen, months passed, and yet nothing panned out.

Then the economy sinks lower.

Go to Plan B. Find a different house to buy. Make an offer and it's accepted. Now we gotta get our house sold. We hired an awesome realtor who lives down the street from us bc we'd seen how successful/quick she was at selling houses in our 'hood; most of them sold within weeks. Then, a few months into it, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a Christian and a strong believer, so we let her know that we're praying for her and will remain with her while she undergoes treatment. After a couple of more months, she's deemed healthy and is back to work full-time.

We had a crazy amount of showings over these last 9 months. STRESSFUL to put it mildly. The worst part of selling a house, in my opinion.

We won't even mention the number of other houses in our 'hood that are for sale....serious competition.

Finally after many ups and downs, silence, nothing happening, out of the blue I get a call from a realtor who wants to show our house in 30 minutes. Her clients are in town from Maryland and are in a crunch. Great. The kids were gone, I had planned on working on Etsy stuff all day so craft supplies are everywhere, and then a stomach bug hits me and KJ. It was not pretty. He had to work anyway, but I wanted to just get better. Not clean up a house for strangers which probably wouldn't pan out anyway. I prayed the whole time I cleaned in that mad rush that the Lord would just help them to see past whatever mess I might have left behind and that they'd love it anyway. While I frantically made it out of the house in time, I told Him I gave it my best and prayed that He'd just be all over the situation.

I parked in the Schlotzksy's parking lot down from my house while they were viewing my house. Don't ask me why I chose Schlotzsky's. I tried to nap some but couldn't get comfortable. I go home. I lay down and try to nap again. Nothing. Just icky. Then she calls back and wants to see the house again that evening. That was good to hear, but I'd been through this all before so was cautiously optimistic.

So, to cut to the chase, by lunchtime the next morning, we had a contract!!!! We immediately put in an offer on the house we wanted back in January, and it was accepted! She had even lowered the price by $16,000 so we got it at an even lower price.

We learned so much about God's provision in our lives through this journey. About halfway into it, KJ and I both knew that there was much more going on than just a house issue. There were many lessons the Lord was trying to teach us. He is our provider and when money was super-duper tight, we always had just enough. We would have never imagined we'd last as long as we did without my income. We give Him all the glory for blessing our lives. His Word promises that as long as we're faithful in our finances, He'll take care of us. We've seen it happen over and over. Wow. We've got so many close friends and family who have been praying for us for so long. It's meant a lot to us to have such a strong faith family who cares about our needs.

Let the new adventure begin!!! Can't wait to share our new house with you!!!!

Rye?

Our latest Clark Grizzwold adventure....

Being that KJ has a science degree in all things grass, it has made things interesting for our yard. The first few years were spent with me dragging around a hose twice a day in the blazing hot summer so the sprinkler could water the yard. I know the neighbors probably got a kick out of seeing me in my nice work clothes on the way to a deposition, dragging this thing around and then running like heck to avoid getting sprayed. (It always nailed me, though.) KJ was still working as an assistant superintendant at Cedar Ridge at that point, so frankly, he couldn't have cared less about our yard bc he'd deal with that for 15 hours a day at the golf course. He'll tell you that himself. It was always funny that our neighbors knew he was the "grass guy" yet our yard was the funkiest on the street. Yard Man at the end of the street looked like the expert on grass; that guy's always up to something.

Then KJ installed an irrigation system in our front and back yard. Yahoo! Bless his heart, the almanac showed that weekend to be the best time to do a project, so that's what he planned for. Got all the supplies, the weather was looking great for February. Then the day before he started it got blistering cold and actually ended up snowing lightly while putting it all in.

Then last year we had pretty much brown, crunchy grass year-round bc of a simple mistake involving fertilizer and the weatherman's forecast for rain -- which didn't happen.

Then this year we didn't want to mess with it too much bc we thought our house would sell soooner, so what's the point?

The house didn't sell, so here we are in late September and he decides he's going to scalp the yard and seed it with rye grass. (Which should stay green year-round.) So, while everyone else's yards were still green and nice, our yard looked like, basically, dirt. He set the irrigation system to water several times a day and promised me that the seed would germinate in 7-1o days. I was told to keep off the grass. Don't smash it. Keep the kids off. I waited. And waited.

And he was right!! The warm weather we've had really boosted it so now it's the most vibrant green grass! So, I was laughing with our neighbor the other day that while they all had green grass, we had brown crunchy dirt grass; now that their yards are all fading, we finally have green grass.

KJ likes to think that the rye really helped our house to sell last week. It certainly didn't hurt. Now the poor guy who moves in here will have to mow year-round. LOL

I contributed the pansies :)

Projects

Here's a peek at a project I'm working on. The paint chips are really just a cruel tease for the time being bc I can't/don't want to paint anything in this house. It's just inspiration for when this house sells....

I feel like I'm somewhat in a lockdown these days. I've lived for almost 7 months without having a single photo/snapshot displayed ANYWHERE, half of my kitchen in storage, half of my craft supplies in storage, almost half of my closet in storage, the kids' toys are always picked up, very rarely -if ever- a dish is left in the sink, counters are shined, carpet is vacuummed, and I sweep the tile floor at least 3 times a day. All because I cannot count the number of times I've gotten a call from a realtor who wants to show our house within the next 10-15 minutes. It's made me a crazy woman for cleanliness! I've never asked them to wait or come another day. I've now made it through winter, spring, and summer. We have no idea where we'll be moving once our house does sell, but wherever it is, I plan on being prepared and am always thinking of things I want to do in the "new" house. This peek are things for Lola's room. It'll be fun!

Goodies

On my way home (aka my parents' house out in the boonies) I stopped at an antique store and found all these goodies. I've been wanting some blue Mason jars but they are a little pricey and I found these for $2! The kids' books were 50 cents each and in PERFECT condition. They look like the kind of books we had in Sunday School when I was a little kid. The old cookbooks are for some projects I have in mind. But if those projects don't pan out, I'd like to do this.

The quilt top is going to be a quilt that I am going to finish for Lola's bed when she moves out of her toddler bed. It was only $15 and it's either a full or queen size. Since all of the fabrics are vintagey, I want to get some really pretty modern fabric -- maybe Heather Bailey or Amy Butler -- to do on the backside; create a huge contrast. This, however, is all dependent on if I can get KJ's grandma to help me out :) She's the world's best quilter and has made all the kids, grandkids, and now great-grandkids their own quilts. She's gonna think I'm crazy showing up with this old topper!

The old Christmas ornaments are just bc I love vintage Christmas decor! They're tiny, but will be so cute sitting out with my wannabe collection. I also bought a wooden pop bottle crate but I forgot to put it in the picture. I had so much fun browsing at that store. I want to go back next time without my sidekick Lolabee. She made me a nervous wreck with so many antiques and glassware around. She was an angel, but I just had butterflies the whole time! Next time, I'm on a mission to find vintage Barbie clothes for a project that's brewing in my head....

My "New" Dishmat

I don't really know the point in having a dishwasher. I have one and use it MAYBE once a week. All it ever washes is silverware and our dinner plates. Everything else, like my pots and pans, bakeware, wooden utencils, can't go in the dishwasher. I follow the manufacturer's suggestions on those things bc I use them so much, I want them to last.

Anyhow, I saw several cute tutorials on making your own dishmat out of an old towel. They were super cute and I since I'm always looking for a cute, functional project, I gave it a shot. I didn't follow any of the tutorials, though. Too technical! I totally made up my own as I went along so a real seamstress would probably croak if she saw my handiwork. I just pieced together a bunch of fabric pieces and sewed them on the old towel, flipped it inside out, and it was done!

I usually just throw out a regular dishtowel, but I have to use two at a time to hold all the stuff I wash. Since I got those pretty aqua towels, it gave me an excuse to cut one of the old bath towels down to just the right size. I think it's cute in a rather boring kitchen. :)

I love fabric. Those red polka dots just keeps giving and giving. I used it on Christmas presents, shower curtain, and now this!

All because of the towels

Back in the wintertime, I was at Target and came across the most beautiful, soft, and BLEACH-FRIENDLY aqua-colored towels. I always thought about those towels. Then, they went on a heckuva sale in the spring, so I bought some, along with a matching bathmat, with plans of saving them for our "new" house when the time came. Well, here we are about 4 months since buying them, and I decided I wasn't waiting anymore. Out they came. I washed them and they are AWESOME. So, so soft. I love that I can add bleach to them too and really get them germless.

I am obsessed with that pretty aqua color so I made a shower curtain to complement the towels. In my dream world, the walls would be painted a very soft creamy vanilla color; in reality, I have to deal with the khaki. I'm pretty pleased with how the shower curtain turned out. I got it at Kohls on sale, and then added the scrap pieces at the bottom. It's just a mishmash of old Amy Butler, cheapy polka dots, Alexander Henry, and some other stuff that I don't even know the origins of. The next time I make ruffles on something (like later today) I'll know to use almost double the amount that I really think I need. These ruffles were supposed to be more pleated but I ran out of fabric! I was inspired by Gussy's ruffles. She's one of my favorite bloggers :)




This is just some free decor. That blue glass thing was something my mom had. I think it came off of old electric poles or something? The tall glass bottle is being saved until I can do this to it. It was really a used-up bottle of Giada de Laurentis' salad dressing! I have a plan for it, but just haven't got to it yet. The small glass vase/cup was something I picked up a few years ago and had sitting in my closet. I filled it with sand from our recent trip to Mexico, along with the shells we brought home to Lola. The fish is a project Lola made at Bass Pro at Easter. I figured it fit the scheme.
This last pic is a gaudy gold frame that I had in my closet as well. I sprayed it red and added some "art." That's really a t-shirt from my honeymoon in Santa Barbara, CA. Kendall and I fell in love with their food. All of the little surfer diners were so good bc they served like homecooking, but with lots of fresh fruit and stuff. YUM! It's the only thing I really have from the honeymoon so I couldn't bear to throw it away. (It doesn't fit anymore. Can't imagine why.) I just folded up the sleeves and pinned them so they stayed flat, then framed the whole thing. FREE!!! Someday I might make it into a cute dress for Lola, but until then, I needed something on that wall to go with my "new" bathroom.

Cal's Room

Around the time that Cal was born, Kendall and I were already discussing selling our house. Because of that, it made it hard to want to invest much money into really decorating anything. However, we felt that Cal needed to have his own little space for the time being so we opted to paint the walls dark chocolate. I knew I wanted chocolate syrup brown, not brownie mix brown or anything with much red...or gray...just chocolate syrup. We found it! And, that's about the extent of Cal's nursery! My mom bought him some sheets and a mini comforter on clearance at Target. And that's all the room had in terms of decorating until two months ago. I was sick and tired of walking into an empty room, so I decided that I was going to break out some of the stuff I had been saving for Cal's new bedroom. It wasn't a lot, but just some stuff I'd been saving up. It was fun to put them to use to add some "boyness" to his room without caring what future buyers would think. I had been leaving the walls bare bc I didn't want to make nail holes bc we were told by the stager that came over that buyers like getting the feel that it's a brand new house. Well, that was okay for the first part of the year, but at this rate, I'm still the one having to live here and I want a few things on the wall.

These are posters that I had my mom get back home in Hominy. They plaster these posters all over town bc the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show is just a few towns over. Last year's posters looked like vintage prints, so as soon as I saw them I knew I needed them. She hit up several businesses around town to see if they'd let her have them when they got ready to take them down -- and they were kind enough to give them to her! Until I can decide what to do for them, they're just hanging on twine with clothespins from his ceiling.



This is a copy of Kendall's Ferdinand book from when he was a kid. His mom gave us a bunch of his old books a couple years ago and I knew they'd be perfect in a little boy's room -- if we ever had a son. So, now they make their home on Cal's shelf. We read them; it's not just for looks. I thought it was funny that Ferdinand made an appearance on The Blindside.


Just some cowboy pop that I spotted while grocery shopping one day. And a deer antler that Kendall found one afternoon while exploring at my parents' house back home.

Kendall's little wooden toy from when he was a kid. Cal's newborn moccasins. I'm a quarter Osage so my kids have their native cards as well. Cal got his Osage name on his first birthday: Hom-Mah-Saun. It means "sentry elk," meaning he's "outside of the herd, a guard, looks out." Granted, the deer antler above isn't an elk antler, but it's kinda close enough...

We made these shelves after a quick trip to Lowes. Once again, inexpensive was the key. I think they're kind of industrial :) We made the exact same shelves five years ago in our apartment. The framed picture on the top shelf was given to us before a garage sale a few years ago from Kendall's grandma. It's a little funny bc she thought I'd like it since I was Indian. It's really old and dusty. Just another thing I kept in case I ever had a son.

The rest of the stuff is just a little stereo that I use to play classical music during Cal's naptime. Little Golden Books. Piggy bank. I Heart Tulsa postcard. All in all, this stuff was basically free!