A day off and thanking God for our blessings.

I decided today I was not going to do anything stressful or start a new project or much of anything but relax. I started out the day pampering myself with a facial with the awesome free gift I got at the Arbonne party (A few weeks ago I won the whole anti-aging line complete with the gold carrycase!). I did the bare minimum morning routine. I didn't have any laundry in the washer since we have friends over from noon til almost midnight yesterday. So, I started a load, made my bed, read my devotional and got dressed. I did pick out what I'm wearing to church tomorrow at least. (Though I'm still not decided 100% on the top.)

After getting myself ready and getting laundry started, I had my 11 tr old empty the dishwasher and I refilled it and ran it. I had actually let dirty dishes sit in my sink overnight for the first time since we got the faucet replaced. I decided not to be a perfectionist about it last night. I kind of go a little lax on things on my nights off. After hubby went to bed, I ended up sitting up and watching HGTV for a while then read my book some. Just relaxed.

The kids both had a late lunch as did I (they sometimes end up on my weird schedule during the summer, and I don't fight it.), so I've still not even started dinner. We'll have a late dinner. Hubby doesn't get off work til 10:15pm anyway, so he's not going to be joining us anyway. Due to my menu schedule getting all but thrown out the window, we're just now making the chicken alfredo pizzas tonight.

When the washer was done, I did manage to hang the clothes on the line as I prayed and thanked God for a glorious day with the hot sun and the great breeze we get in our backyard. I also thought about where we were just one year ago. We didn't have as much debt, that's for sure, but hubby had just gotten his promotion to manager, but we were still living in that old trailer that was a dump. Oh it had been our home for years, yes. But it was way too small, way too old, and to be honest, not really fit for living in. I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't have let their dogs live there. Yeah it was THAT bad. We did what we could with what we had.

This last year has been such a huge blessing for us though. From the promotion, to my new job where I work from home full time, to us finding this new home which is truly a gift from God. As I was praying and thanking God for all these blessings, I thought of the long road it's been to get into this home. I started house hunting at least a year, maybe closer to two years before we finally moved. We looked at so many options from buying a new mobile home to renting a house to trying to find a rent to own property.

We found a new mobile home we liked the floorplan of and considered applying for the mortgage for that. I wanted to think and pray on it first. I decided to do some research on the mortgage company, and found website after website of complaints about how horrible and cruel the people there were. Some started getting collection calls before their first payment was even due, and the CS person told them with their credit record, it was obvious they'd not make their payments on time so they were starting early with the calls. Can you believe that?? It wasn't just one person saying these things, but tons of people. I knew then that this was not the way God wanted us to go.

We looked at a lot of rental houses. There were two especially I liked. One I prayed for God to give me a sign if it was the one we were to have and when I drove by it the next day, there were two bunnies hopping in the front yard. Was that a sign? I had no clue. I was still new to this whole trusting God and watching for his guidance. However, I DID see the sign when we were about to leave to go meet the property manager to see the house and she called last minute and said it had been rented already. She actually called back two days later and said they had backed out and did we still want it, but I declined. I knew it wasn't the home for us. The other one we'd looked at, my hubby just LOVED, but they didn't take pets, and when my kids cried at the thought of giving our dog Sophie away, I knew that wasn't for us either.

Before the whole Housing market crash happened, we were actually considering trying to get a real house with an actual mortgage through Fannie Mae or something like that. We found a house we LOVED. It was a fixer upper, but compared to the tin box we were living in, it was a mansion LOL. The best part was the two-level backyard with a dog lot and grapevine and creek, and it was in walking distance to hubby's store and mine (I worked at the same mall at the time), as well as nearer convenience stores. It was a great neighborhood for the kids. Every yard had a swingset or basketball hoop. We just never felt right about the price though. It was a fabulous price for what houses go for all over the US ($79,900), but we were terrified that he'd lose his job again or get too sick to work etc, and I wouldn't be able to make enough to cover a mortgage payment like that.

We almost bought another mobile home someone had on their own land that had to be moved. It was older, but not as old as ours and it was 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom and good sized. We had almost enough to buy it with our tax refund last year. They were asking $5500 for it. However, what we didn't realize was how much prices on moving a mobile home had gone up. We had wanted to move it to our trailer park to the lot in front of the one we were in then and use the old one as a storage building and maybe let our oldest stay in it when she went to college or something. HOWEVER... It would cost $3500 to move it. Fresh out of bankruptcy from hubby's heart attack medical bills, there was no way we could get a loan for that, and no family member had it. It was really hard to let that one go too. It wasn't a great home really. It had a lot wrong with it, but it was so much bigger than what we were living in.

I had promised myself and my family that we would not spend another Christmas in that house... but we did. It was heartbreaking, but I figured God just didn't want us moving yet. We had actually completely decided to give up looking. We were going to just try to fix up the old tin box and make do with it til we could save up some money. Then one day around the first of this year, my mother in law was fussing about the front porch light wasn't working and hardly ever did - and I mentioned we were going to replace the whole fixture when we remodeled the house. She looked shocked, and looked right at me and said, "Don't you dare put a cent into this place. You need to find a new home for the family." Then she left. It was the strangest thing I'd heard her say in probably forever. You'd have to know my MIL. She's pretty straightforward and everything, but she's not the type to tell me what to do or state her opinion about anything like that. Oh she'll tell you what a jerk my FIL is or how men are ruining the world etc, but this was very unlike her. In fact I told her about how it was her telling me that one thing that made me realize I had to look one more time, and she swears she doesn't remember saying it and it's not something she'd say. I KNOW it was God talking to me that day. That's why it had such an impact on me.

I checked the classifieds that afternoon, and there was an ad for a 3br, 2 bath mobile home in a trailer park just down the road that was even still on my kids' bus route. It was rent to own for $2500 down and something like $385/month. $2500 happened to be the exact amount that the medical bills hubby had accrued over the year (that I'd been bad about not paying as I should have), and I was going to pay off with the tax refund. Oh it was hard. I wanted to be debt free. I wanted to pay off the medical bills, pay down the credit card balances and work on saving money for a new home... but we just didn't have that luxury anymore. We did. Many years had passed where we got huge tax refund and wasted them on crap I couldn't even recall now, or trips we didn't need to take. I should have paid the medical bills as they came in instead of wasting all that extra money hubby was bringing in. Oh the guilt I felt. Guilt of knowing it was me and my bad habit that had us in the position. Guilt for having made the kids living in that tin box as long as they had, guilt for not having good health insurance that would have covered hubby's heart attack... you name it, I blamed myself. Well, after my little pity party, I informed Christopher I was tired of living this cycle year after year after year. We'd ALMOST buy a house, then be depressed for a year til the next one came around and ALMOST buy it.. NO MORE. I called the number in the ad and arranged to see the trailer the next day. She told me what number it was so I could drive by and look at the lot it was on. The one thing that had bothered me about moving to this new trailer park was thinking we'd be in one the middle trailer that had trailer practically within touching distance on all sides of you. I HATE that. I had lived without the use of my back door in the old trailer for 16 years, and I cried thinking I'd have to live that way forever, and even lose the front yard as well.

When I saw the lot here, I knew right then, this was it. In fact the inside of the trailer was almost unnecessary to see since the lot was PERFECT. I finally had my back yard. Of course we do have a trailer in front of us, but we don't use the front much except for going in and out from the cars (parked in one of THREE parking places). When I saw how HUGE the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms were and how the master bathroom was not one of those space hogs, but the bedroom still had space for my office area and his books etc.. I knew it was meant to be. of course the kitchen isn't a dream kitchen, but I didn't even care. I knew it was meant to be by God. The manager said another couple was going to come look at it after us. I was so scared someone else would get it, but I kept my faith, and I knew if it was really the one God wanted or us, then the other couple would not want it. I asked my husband that evening if he wanted to go see it, and he said he trusted my judgement, and he wanted me to be happy most of all, so if I liked it, then we'd get it. In fact he didn't see it til after we'd agreed to buy it and put the application fee down.

So, when I think back on ALL those other places we ALMOST bought or rented and then think about this humongous home with the awesome backyard up against the woods (that are full of raccoons of course), where our kids basically have a whole wing of the home to themselves... it just overwhelms me with the sense of awe and wonder. Knowing it was all in God's plan for it to work out this way, is amazing. I am so thankful and just wanted to share that with any readers today.

I guess it's about time to go start dinner now. I've been writing this forever, but it's been a great escape from Spongebob and all the kids running around. Sometimes a break is needed :) Tonight is movie date night with the hubby. Well, at least I hope it is. He gets off work at 10:15pm and then we'd have to go out to Blockbuster and pick up a new movie. However, he called a little while ago and asked if we had any toothache meds or antibiotics. He sounded awful. He didn't have a toothache last night. Poor guy. I feel so sorry for him. I know what it's like. I've had toothaches so bad I've had to pull over because the pain was too much to drive. Unfortunately the car is out of gas and I've not go any extra gas money, so I can't run the meds to him. He'll have to wait til he gets home. He's probably not going to be in the mood for a date night. Oh well. I'll just have to take care of him and see if I can get him to go to sleep. I shouldn't stay up late tonight anyway since I want to try to make it to Sunday School tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday night and Sunday!