update on moving...

ok.
our four days in California literally felt like we were in a tornado.

all our ideas of where we thought we were supposed to live were shot down when we got there.
shot. down.

after the first attempt God made to shut the door to a particular neighborhood (we're dumb, He had to shut the door EIGHT times for us to finally 'get' it!)...anyway, after the first time, we were kinda depressed,
sat down to have coffee in a little historical gold mining town, started chatting with the barista/truffle maker and asked her if she knew of any houses for rent.

I'm telling you, we were de.pressed.

BUT.

She literally sent us up the stairs next to her truffle shop to a property management company office.

And....
There it was.

Our house.

It was trickier than that.
I wanted one house, Jake wanted another.
We weren't fighting over it but we did talk about it until both of our heads were spinning.
And outside of these two houses I kept trying and trying and trying to make this 'one' neighborhood work...God is persistent, which is good 'cause I can be dumb.

We needed to go back and look at the houses again to be sure and from the time we looked at them one day to the next day, the rent on the one we ended up choosing (Jake's...if you must know ;-) was DOWN $100.

We asked for another $100 off AFTER we told them we wanted it not expecting any more $ off....but, in true God fashion...50 more dollars off!

So.
We didn't get what we thought we wanted,
God sent us upstairs to see 'Betty'
We had two beautiful choices.
$150 off the rent and in the beautiful forest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Um.

Wow.

We signed everything today.
We'll get there and IN the house Feb 5.

I'm all sorts of excited and nervous.

We are going to flippin' love it there.

The smell.
Every single time we stepped out into open air, I woud literally stop dead in my tracks and take a huge breath of cedary smellin' air.
It is amazing!

The people!!!!
They LOOK YOU IN THE EYE.
Um.
I love that.
Like, smile and look you in the eye!

The food.
No joke, my first three meals had avocado on them. (and one of those meals was a salad at Wendy's!)
Done.
I'm sold.
We went somewhere for breakfast the first morning and were immediately addicted, we went the other two mornings and all the waitresses kept up on our process each morning, it was awesome, made me feel like I already had friends there!

Time will tell how we really feel but right now I'm getting more and more excited.

We still have no idea where our church will be or how our homeschooling network will pan out but I know God knows that.
I'm a little nervous about it but not scared.

I've never lived 'out' in the country but I've always wanted to try.
And by 'country' I mean, out in the woods and boy o boy are we out in the woods!
(we are 15 min's from town but 55 min's from the nearest Target....breath Holly, breath)
Jake will be 40 min's from work, but that is normal there.
I will be 15 min's from yoga but they have a limited schedule so God just happened to give me a 'yoga' room.
The attic of this house has a sweet ladder to climb and two totally finished rooms with a bathroom.
You can't get furniture up there because of the ladder situation but I can get a yoga mat and heater up there just fine!
FUN!
The other room will be extra play space for the girls and extra rooms for people if we have a lot of company at once.

We do have one neighbor within a stone's hike (not a throw, you'd have to hike the stone to hit the house not just throw it!).
Our house was build with a Mother-In-Law home and we share driveways....sorta...we share one little entry way part of it and then it splits apart towards each house.
If we were in a 'real' neighborhood, you could fit a good size house in between us.

God, of course, put the gal who lives there with her two little boys in the driveway at the exact time we were looking at the house and so I went and met her.

So many things God did to make Himself obvious during the process that I have no doubt that this is the house we are supposed to be in!

'cause I know you wanna know....

 I keep calling it my chalet because it reminds me of the houses I saw all over Switzerland when I was a kid...

I think it needs pale yellow rocking chairs...don't you?...ooooo, or RED!

In the above picture, the window on the right is the Guest Room!

Complete with it's own full bathroom and sliding glass doors to the deck!!!

Book early!

(1.5 hrs to Lake Tahoe, 2 hrs to Napa, 2 hrs to San Fran - just in case you needed that info!)

fire place...IN THE MASTER BEDROOM!!!

 this is the deck that never ends and the balcony off the master bedroom!

The girls even got what they were hoping for.
God heard their requests!
Separate bedrooms (meaning twins together and older girls together) and pets allowed!
I don't know if I love how fun this house is more for me or for them!
That God thought to fulfill their desires is just blowing my mind.



We got back to Texas, repacked, spent the night and then drove (in one miserable long day of 14 hrs) to Colorado Springs.

We are spending a few days RESTING!!!!! and hanging out with my family.

We are enjoying the snow (sorta ;-), enjoying my parents amazing cooking, enjoying our nieces, enjoying everyones company and enjoying REST.

We'll leave from here in a couple of days, take a few days to finish the drive west and then arrive HOME Feb 4th.

I am loving our trip and I am just as excited to get HOME.

I'm not dying to leave here but I am just excited and peaceful that THIS IS WHERE GOD CHOSE FOR US TO LIVE!!!!

Yea!