The House Hunt

As of last night, we have looked at 61 single family homes in the Vienna/Falls Church/Fairfax/Annandale area since February 12th. Yes, 61. I'm told that's not a record. Our agent (Jill) had someone look at 117. Oh, and we're lugging 2 kids with us to almost all of these viewings. Dylan actually enjoys seeing "Miss Jill" and going to "ook at hous-es." Dylan opens all the closet doors and says "oh my goodness" at the unexpectedly large rooms. He is especially adept at finding the Thomas the Tank Engine toys in the houses where kids live and finding all the good hiding places in the houses. Last night he enjoyed the fish tanks we saw in two of the houses. We usually see about 6 houses at a time and that takes about 2 hours. One day we did 9 in three hours. I guess the fact that we keep going out shows that we do think it's kinda fun. I mean, I could probably weed out a lot more of the houses in our search even before going to look at them but I guess I'm afraid of missing something good and I do think it's fun.

It's not that we haven't found anything that we like. We have. We put an offer down on one house but the seller wouldn't come down enough to make it worth our while. The pricing of houses out there now is just crazy. We saw two houses on the same street, one in prestine condition and ready to move it and the other was a dump and needed new bathrooms and a new kitchen and they were going for the same price. Oh, and the weird things that people do to their houses and the "additions-gone-bad" that we've seen. It's not just in the pricing that I'm saying to Martin "what are these people thinking!?" So the hunt continues. Our agent commented that she's surprised more things haven't been coming up lately. We are waiting to put our place on the market until after we move into a new house. Since we are able to carry 2 mortgages for a few months we decided that was better than trying to keep our place looking perfect and having to be ready to leave the house on a moment's notice in case someone wants to see it.

Our only time constraint is Lydia growing out of the Pack-n-Play she sleeps in. If we move her to the crib we don't have any room for a twin mattress for Dylan in the nursery. We were hoping not to have to move the crib to our room (which requires us to take it apart) or to buy a toddler bed but that may be what we do if we don't find a new place and move by July. I guess those aren't terrible options. I have no motivation to clean or organize things though because I keep saying, oh we're moving, what's the point. That stategy may not work much longer.

I do have confidence that God will provide. In every instance in my life when I needed to change my housing arrangement, God worked very obviously. From a chance meeting at the pool with someone who needed a housesitter for the exact 6 weeks I needed housing during grad school, to Martin and I getting our current condo even though their were 14 contracts on the place and ours was not the highest bid, I have seen God directly work in my life in this way and I have no doubts that he will again. Acts 17:24-28 always calls me back to God's faithfulness in this area:

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'"

Catching up

As you might have noticed, last fall I got really behind on posting blog entries. I was determined to "catch up" during my maturnity leave. Most of the things I was going to blog about, I either incorporated into recent posts or now the topics are so OBE that it's not even worth posting. But I did want to share with you all the pictures from last fall and from Christmas. So I uploaded them into albums on my Picasa page and I am going to link them here. Hope you enjoy!

Here are the last of the summer 08 pictures - Dylan looking at pictures of his grandparents and pictures from the flood we had in our neighborhood.

Here are the pictures I promised of our trip to Kings Dominion with Bob and Jessie and Anna - Dylan's first amusement park ride.

Fall 2008 - my parents and Carrie and Zak's visit, Molly's housewarming party, bubbles, cool rainbow, crazy hair, hiking with the Vanes, Pentagon memorial, cleaning house, being silly, bath time, me and Teresa with our pregnant bellies, our Christmas card picture - 11 tries!, reading on the couch with Mommy, Aiden's baptism party and carol sing, sleeping, and seeing the trains with Charlie and Jamie.

Baby Moon #2 / 4th Anniversary - we went to Charlottesville to see Monticello and UVA. My parents came down and watched Dylan. At first I was glad to be able to go out and be tourists for a whole day without having to stop for Dylan to sleep but by five o'clock I was wanting that nap break! They were opening the new vistors' center at Monticello the day we went. We also went apple picking.

Baby Shower #2

Thanksgiving, including pics of Dylan and Brenna

Trip to NC to see Matt, Kelly, Savva, and Jeremiah - including pics from the Black Mountain Christmas parade - Dylan's first parade! We also took a lot of pics of the 3 cousins for a photo gift for Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.

Christmas in VA - including the trip to the playground on Christmas day and the trip to Gravely point to see the planes and to the National Christmas Tree to see the trains on the day after Christmas