I am so grateful for our vehicle(s).  Granted, only one is currently working, but that is ok.  Josh now walks to work, and we are managing to get by.

We are in no hurry to get rid of either vehicle, especially the one that is working.

However, with that said, I will say that our next vehicle will be a bigger vehicle.

We have had some interesting moments in our backseat lately.  Thank goodness we have an easygoing baby!

Things I Like Right Now

• chevron
• grey & yellow
• burlap
• pumpkin
• candles
• fall
• actually being chilly
• nap time
• muffins
• cookbooks
• coffee mugs
• having a dishwasher
• sitting on the front porch
• baby Halloween costumes
• consignment shops/thrift stores
• weekends
• family cuddle time
• pinterest
• craigslist deals
• catch-all baskets
• pumpkin recipes

Internet til whenever Catherine wakes up from her nap...  Considering she's already been down an hour, I'm not sure how long it will last.

This will be all over the place and random.

Updates:

• we have moved to Goshen!!!!!
• Josh is back at work!
• I quit my job in education!
• I am now a full-time stay at home mommy!!!

Phew, is that all?!?  No wonder I'm stressed!

Last week after a trip to Ikea (and Giordano's of course) my back (actually, totally honestly it's my upper butt, but I refer to it as my back to sound more polite) started hurting me.  By the next morning I was in "extreme pain" - an 8 on the 1-10 pain scale.  So much pain that I did all the annoying hassle of calling insurance 5 million times to get the scoop on who I could go to and what would be covered.  Fortunately, my old DO (Dr. of Osteopathy) was in network and with good coverage.  Hooray!  AND he was available to see me.

Since then I've seen him 3 times.  The most recent of which was yesterday when I woke up in "severe pain" - yah, I had to come up with a new way to describe it since it was worse than last week's "extreme pain".  Definitely a 10, as I had not felt more pain before.  It actually was so painful it made me nauseous.  Never had that happen before!

Thank the Lord I woke up much better today!  I am grateful for the prayers of many and the help the doctor was able to provide.  It didn't seem very helpful at the time though yesterday as I was laying on my stomach getting shots in my butt.  Er, um, back.  Yah...

Oh my word, new subject, I hate moving!!!  I hadn't moved in 7 years!!  In 2005 I moved what fit in my car from CA to IN, picked up a few more things IE furniture when my folks moved a month later from the house I grew up in on Brick Road to the new house they built on the southside and then again another month later after that into the place where I've spent the last 7 years.  Follow all that?

Needless to say, I've accumulated a LOT of stuff in the last 7 years, yikes!!!  Moving makes me realize how much stuff I have - and how much I want to get rid of it.  So, anybody looking to pick up anything I no longer need?  We've got two microwaves to start.  Any takers?  What do ya need?  I'll give it to ya for cheap!

Hopefully it will be awhile before we move again!  And in the meantime, hopefully I can sort through stuff and get rid of a lot!  I have to remind myself how freeing it is to have little!!!

Next...

I met a neighbor this morning - the only one so far.  Very nice lady who welcomed us to the neighborhood and invited us to her church - yea!

Something I had not thought about until last week was how much I am going to miss our church.  It has been my home church for I think 3 3/4 years, but it feels a lot longer than that.  Josh served on worship team the last week we were there, and the worship pastor did a very nice send-off for us in the last service.  Totally took us both by surprise and made us even more grateful for that place.  I've made a lot of great friends through Living Stones, and I hope to keep in touch with many.  It certainly has been a place of blessing for us, and I hope we can find another church to call home in Goshen.

Moving to Goshen does put us further away from most of our family - both sets of parents and my set of siblings Jen & Andy.  But it does put us slightly closer to Josh's set of siblings, Jeremy & Liz.  Oh, yes, in the midst of buying a house Josh's brother got married!  We love Liz.  In fact, I have from the moment I met her last summer as we discovered we had a LOT in common!  She is a wonderful addition to the family, and she will be teaching just a few minutes from us in Goshen - yea, another teacher in the family!

Here's us at their wedding:


And our little family:



When school ended last spring we started solids with Catherine.  Guess who loves prunes (along with lots of other foods)!!

This was the day we had her publicly dedicated to the Lord (it's what our church/faith/religion does instead of infant baptism or christening).  Yah, she's always barefoot.


 I have so much more I've got to update you on, but I hear Little Girl waking up!!

So long!

PS, I'm not re-reading or proofing for errors.  So, there may be mistakes in this post!  But consider yourself updated - at least a bit!

Had a GREAT 4 day weekend in Wisconsin!!  I love being back there.

We went with Jen and Andy and of course the girls.  It's awesome when we can borrow my folks' mini van and all ride together.  Well, except for the fact that long car trips with babies are hard, and sometimes they just take turns screaming and crying.  But other times they are quiet and content.  :)

We stayed with family friends the Kemna's the first night in Fort Atkinson where I used to live.  We actually didn't get to see any of the town, as they live in the country.  I love, love, LOVE staying with Kemnas.  Mrs. Kemna was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher, and she has long been someone I admire - largely for her amazing gift of hospitality.  It always truly feels like a retreat when I am in their home.  Such a treat!!

We enjoyed reminiscing and visiting in their farmhouse and eating ice cream sundaes on the back deck admiring the gorgeous view of farmland.  Ahhh, Wisconsin...


We then headed north to Marshfield for my cousin Leigh-Ann's wedding.  What a beautiful bride she was!


We had a nice time visiting with extended family, enjoying good food, and rocking out on the dance floor.

We also enjoyed the pool at the hotel we stayed at!  Catherine's first time in a pool.  She was a bit hesitant at first, but we all ended up having lots of fun!


Saturday we continued north to Wausau to friends Tammy & Michael's house.  Their son was celebrating his 5th birthday with a big space themed party.  Tammy did a great job planning, organizing, and throwing the coordinated party.  She also fed us lunch and dinner and let us hang out there for the day.  It was great to visit with 4 of the 5 Richmonds!


We stayed at another hotel with a pool so the babies could enjoy more swim time, and we then traveled to visit friends Sean and Ali in Chicago suburbs.  We picked up Giordano's (YUM!!), gobbled down freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and spent a good time talking and giggling - two guaranteed activities around Seanners.


 And now back at Home Sweet Home, for at least a few days!  :)

Josh & I were super excited to see a new house hit the market just about a week and a half ago.  I'll call it The Yellow Farmhouse because that's what it reminds me of - even though it's not on a farm.

The pictures looked GREAT.  The house sounded GREAT.  We did a drive-by and couldn't wait to see it on the inside!  Seriously, before we had seen the house we were already planning on how to arrange rooms!

We saw 8 houses 2 Fridays ago and then 2 more on Tuesday.  The Yellow Farmhouse was the 1st one we saw on Tuesday.  We agreed that we could definitely see ourselves living there!  We went back for a 2nd showing on Wednesday, bringing along lots of family for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. opinions.  On Thursday we made the offer.

Throughout all this, we frequently prayed for God's will to be done and for God's will to be clear.  Wednesday night at small group our leader suggested we have a specific amount that we pray for the house to not be more than.  I got a figure in my head, planning on lots of countering and hoping we could agree on an amount somewhere in the middle, but not knowing if it would happen for no more than that amount.

We started with a low offer.  They countered with not a great offer.  We tried again.  They countered with again a not so great offer.  In fact, it sucked.  We were not happy.  We gave it great thought.  We considered going with a final offer that would be the max, but I did not feel peace about it.  We kept praying, and I kept thinking about the amount that I put in my head Wednesday at small group.  We finally decided to offer that amount and just see what happened next.

Time passed.  We waited.  We wondered.  We pondered.  We prayed.  A lot.  I got to the point where I was able to fully trust that God's plans are the best for us - even if it meant we didn't get The Yellow Farmhouse.  I had peace.

Tonight we were up north celebrating a belated Father's Day at Josh's folks.  All the family is in town for his brother's upcoming wedding. I missed a call from our realtor (oh, have I mentioned how great she is?).  Then a text:  "Pls call"  Josh and I excused ourselves, and we called her on speaker phone.

"It's time to kill the fatted calf." she said.

My brain started racing, and I thought that meant a celebration was in order, but I was doubtful.  She said something else still confusing me.  So I said, "I need plain English for clarification sake."

"They accepted your offer."

No way!!!

I am amazed at how God has worked in this situation.  We kept asking Him for clear direction, and He certainly made it clear.  I also had to get to the point where I was willing to give up my desires for this house if it wasn't meant to be.  I clearly see His hand in all of this, and I want to give Him the glory!

Not only is our house much more organized, picked up, orderly, cleaned up, but I took a moment to do the same to my blog.  My "Blogs I Read" is updated.  If friends hadn't posted in a year, out they went.

Maybe one of these days I'll update my profile.  And I suppose I should add some pictures of Little Girl in the photo header...