The End of Summer

Well everyone....we finally have a house! We've moved in completely and have at least part of the house put away :) It's such a nice place...it's perfect for us.

Life is about to begin again for Matt and I. Matt goes back to work on Monday, August 17th and I go back to school on the 24th. Things will get busy again...but we all have to do the grind. Matt will be teaching an English class this year. It will be cool because the both of us will get to read a lot more together. We've both discussed it and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire will have to wait until next summer ;) I'm excited to start school again. The classes just keep getting better. I'm almost postive that there will be at least one professor I'll dislike this year, but that's life.

Hope everyone has had a good summer. We know we have!

Mi Casa Es Su Casa!

It's Sunday!!...and the house is supposed to close by Thursday. If all goes well (which it should), then Matt and I will have the keys to our new place on 16th. We're going to have to move, of course, but luckily..I've packed most of the house already. It shouldn't be too bad. Matt and I have some small jobs here and there we need to get done too. But other than that...we should be completly moved into our new place by the end of July. We'll take some pictures and send you guys some. I'll also give everyone an address update once we have the keys :)

Also, in case you didn't get to see it...here is what our house looks like

The Begining of the End

Well Everyone,

We finally signed a contract for a final offer on the house we wanted! This is the first step in getting the ball rolling to close on the house. Once we close, we own it. We're both really happy that this is moving along. We actually had some issues with the seller's and their agent. Some unethical incidences happened. We ended up having to switch real estate agents (not the last one's fault) but we like her a lot. We have gotten through, and we still have more ahead. We need to get the place inspected and appraised. Paperwork is going to have to shuffled through. There is also a small possibility that we could close on the house by the middle of July. Moving sucks, but this should be the last time we move in a long while :) Sooooo....just letting you all know.

We're so excited about owning our first home...we'll let you all know as move forward.

Love you all!!!

P.S. We're having a good summer, hope you guys are too!

Happy Father's Day!

Okay...so I'm about 4 days late on the whole "Happy Father's Day" thing. But...I wanted to tell everybody how nice it was to be able to spend Father's Day with my in-laws. Matt and I went to visit the folks last Saturday so we could spend some time with each other. Phil and Matt shot Dad's rifle...he got a new scope and was adjusting it...and while they were outside, at least Matt got bit up bad by mosquitoes. It was perfect weather for those suckers...humid, damp, warm..blah! Anyways, we had dinner...the best dinner. Thanks to the boys who are grillin' freaks :) We really had a great time.

The other half of this is meant for the house update. Matt and I have found a house that we like very much. We put in an offer...they counter offered...more back-and-forth....THEN we finally both agreed on a selling price. So they are in the process now of making up the final offer and then Matt and I will sign the price contract. NOW, for those of you have never gone through this process before, it takes a while to close and there are still more hoops to jump through before this place will even be close to owning. Having said that...Matt and I are taking this very slow. The house still has to be appraised and meet the banks standards. Then it will have to still be inspected. So we hope there is nothing seriously wrong with the house. So, if all goes smoothly...hopefully we will be closed on the place by July 30th. If the house doesn't meet approvals, then we keep looking. SOOO, that is the latest...we will keep you updated more as we go along.

Hope everyone is doing well....enjoy the summer!

P.S. This is the only picture I'm going to show...this is just the outside view of the house we're trying to buy. It's looks a little dorky (maybe), but it has a lot of personality!

What's Gone On So Far???

Soooo, searching for the right house, Matt and I are starting to learn, is not an easy process. We began by looking at a trailer on 3 acres, but that didn't work out. We've driven by at least 7-10 places just to see if the neighborhood was worth living in. Some of them we could throw out immediately and others, we scheduled a time to see the interior. We found another place near Millersberg that had great land AND it was a newer place. But the second we tried to schedule at time to look at it, there was already an offer. That's happened twice now, lol. We've been able to narrow it down to about 3 places. Two of them are off of Route B near Hallsville and the other is near the Lake of the Woods area. Fortunately for us, our real estate agent threw us a listing with no picture and told us we should check it out. It's in the country on the outskirts of Columbia. Matt and I drove by and just from the outside alone, it's nice. We got to peak inside the windows and the interior looks decent too. So we scheduled an appointment to look at it today. If this one has no serious problems with it, we'll probably end up taking this one. If it falls through, Matt and I will most likely choose one of them off of Rt. B. Either way, we should be moving forward with a decision by the end of this week or next. That is what has gone on so far. Sorry we haven't filled you in sooner but since there is so much uncertainty, you don't want to always fill people in :) Hopefully, by the next time we talk, we should have a decision made on a house!

Love you all!!!

My Sister's Birthday!

Today is a special day. First, it is my sister Judy's birthday! She deserves a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you! She's gonna have a talkin' with me for putting this pic up of her, lol. Second, today is the day all televisions change to digital instead of analog television. Sure it's creating a GIANT hassle, having to buy all the crap needed to still watch your TV. We watch most of our TV on our Internet anyway :) Nevertheless, there has never been a transition like this in history since black & white TV turned to color. And even then, they didn't have to do this much work, lol. We'll always remember this transition.

It's been a while since we've been able to share information with the family. Even though life is still kinda busy, it's the same old game...just a different day. Still not much is happening, but we enjoy it while it lasts. Soon, our lives will be busy with paperwork, moving, school stuff, etc. We should enjoy it while it lasts. This weekend, Matt and I are going to experiment BBQ'ing a pork loin roast. Wish us some luck, I don't see how it can go wrong.

Hope everyone is doing well. We keep you all in our thoughts.

The Month of June

Hi everybody,

Here is what Matt and I have planned for the month of June! We just got pre-approved for a mortgage loan so we're on the next step which is to set up an appointment to look at the place we feel is most beneficial to us. However, finding a time for everybody is a little hard to do :) But, we'll get through it. If we like the place we'll still need a home inspection. If we don't like the place, we look onto the others that we have picked out. June with let us go through the process. The one thing I'm NOT looking forward to is the moving, blah! There are only like 2 pieces of furniture Matt and I cannot move together. I'm recruiting now...anyone who wants to help, let us know, lol. Either way, we'll keep you all updated as we go along.

June is also my sister Judy's birthday. She will be 37, although she doesn't look like it one bit. I'll send her a Happy Birthday blog when it comes around. My bestest friend Krystle got married about a week ago. I'm jealous I couldn't be there with her, but she had over 200 people as guests, there would be no way to spend time with her. Plus, Maryland is a little way a way to just venture :) We had planned on going to visit her and Tim in July, but with buying a house...that might not happen anymore. We'll just have to do a looongg road trip next year.

June still keeps Matt busy with summer school. They have about twice the amount of students making up credits this year than last. He has another teacher helping him out this year too so it helps ease the chaos. This year, he gets to leave once the last student is done with the program. So he might be finished in 3 weeks for all we know.

Hope everyone is doing grand and enjoying their summer so far. Stay cool too, it's gonna be a HOT summa!

"Schooool's...Out..For..Summer"

It's that time of the year again, where Matt & I don't have worry about a thing. We can relax, do stuff outside, enjoy indoor activities or do absolutely nothing. Now, poor Matt does have summer school to teach, but that only consists of month of June. But luckily, it's only a half day and he'll be home by noon. I will have to continue to work everyday of the summer at the preschool, but my shift is mostly from 2-5pm so it's not an all day endeavor.

But all that's old news. Now our summer is going to consist of looking for a house. Yes, Matt and I have decided that this is the right time to buy our first house and we are more than ready for it. It will be a lot of work and very time consuming. It will also involve moving, which is always the worst part, heh. BUT...it will be sooo worth it in the end :) We're looking to stay in the area, we don't really want to leave. We're just looking for someplace a little more quieter than what we have now. So, wish us the best of luck and we'll let you all know how the process is coming along just as soon as we know ourselves. We are excited ourselves and hopes that everything works out for the best!

Mother's Day!

After Thursday for me (Nicole) it's, "School's Out For Summer"! Yeah! Matt will be done by the end of next week and then he gets to work on Summer School stuff, woo hoo! Either way, we will both be less stressed out and able to relax a lot more. We've got plans to look for a house if at all possible this summer. We hope to take a trip to Virginia and Maryland to see some close friends and family. Of course I still work all summer, but we'll have fun with the kids playing outside all day! Mother's Day was this past Sunday!! Matt and I had my mommy come visit and stay with us, so we thew a BBQ bash for her, Brenda (Matt's mom) and my sister Michelle. We had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my mom took all the pictures so I have to wait for her to send them to me before I post them. Hope all the other mommy's had a great Mother's Day! I know I miss my mommy already :) Matt and I are also very excited to see Allen and Amber when they come down for Memorial weekend. We miss you guys tons!!!!!!!

Anyways, we're doing well and that's what matters.

Teacher Appreciation Week

As some of you may not know this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. With me(Matt) being a teacher I feel that this week is a time to express to teachers how much they have impacted your lives. It is ironic that this week one of my co-workers passed away from a long battle with cancer. The reason I bring this up is the fact that I know there are many kids that never got the chance to truely express how much she meant to them. So I encourage all of you, if there is anyone who has made an impact on your lives, to go ahead and thank them for all they've done. You never know when you might miss out on an imporatant opportunity.

Love you all,