Miracles Happen

Oh me, oh my... a LOT has happened since I last posted two weeks ago!  Since my last post, we...

*Went to Springfield and packed up all of our stuff
*MOVED into our house!
*Bought a dog!
*Have had both high school and junior high groups over to see the house and dog
*Finished laying down our flooring
*Got a new stove, washer, and dryer
*Had VBS at the church
*Went to my brother Tyler's reception at the Lake of the Ozarks
*Celebrated Steven's birthday
*Began laying white baseboards in the house
*Finally got a lawn mower
*Working on planning the high school Lock-In this Friday!

It has been one of the BUSIEST times of my life... it's like for every bit as bored as I was in Springfield, I am that amount busy with things to do here in O'Fallon.  I much prefer it this way, because at the end of the day I feel that I have been productive!  I will update soon with pictures!

One last note that I want to remember, last Friday on the way back from Tyler's reception, we stopped to get gas.  On Saturday (Steven's birthday), he couldn't find his wallet.  I thought it would show up sometime (it usually does) so wasn't too concerned about it.  Yesterday, when we still hadn't found it I began to get more serious about looking for it.  Steven and I searched the house upside-down at least four times, and looked through both cars several times.  We went through all of the clothes in the dirty hamper, lifted up couches, looked behind the fridge, EVERYTHING, and couldn't find it!  We checked our bank account, and nobody had been making charges on it though  (making Steven's main concern his Six Flags season pass).  We called the gas station and everywhere we could think of that we had been, but no one had it. 

In the meantime, we made the mistake of leaving Barkley (our dog) unattended in the house while we were both working outside (Steven mowing and me vacumming out the cars).  Steven goes back in and I can hear him from outside telling Barkley that he was a bad dog...  I knew this couldn't be good so went inside to find that Barkley had found Steven's glasses and made them his new chew toy.  We later (but definitely not right then) laughed at how disfigured he had made the glasses!  We went to the JCPenney Optical department, where he got them last July, and they should be under warranty so that made our mood better.  Anyway, on the way back we were talking about how we needed to find his wallet.  I told him that my secret to finding things is praying and asking God to find it for me and then either remind me where it is or put it somewhere where I will find it.  I told him I have had a lot of success this way.

Last night, we were getting ready for bed and I was brushing my teeth.  I went into our bedroom and was going through a couple of things (yes, while brushing my teeth).  I saw our clean pillowcases that we needed to put on our pillows, and tossed them on Steven's night stand, and moved some other stuff around.  I noticed Steven's Discipleship book was open on his night stand (we have discipleship tonight) so went over to look at what page he had it open to.  Right then something brown and rectangular caught my eye.  It was the wallet!  Sitting right on top of the night stand, behind the lamp and fan.  I did a little squeal (because the toothbrush is still in my mouth) and ran to the bathroom to show Steven and do a little dance.  Now, Steven and I had BOTH checked that night stand several times.  He had also checked inside all of the drawers.  I really do NOT think that it was there before!  I asked Steven, and he said that he had asked God to show us where the wallet was by the next night.  I may be crazy, but I totally think that it is possible that God picked it up from wherever it was and put it somewhere obvious for us to find.

Sing a Rainbow

^I struggled with this title!  I have been trying to title all of my posts with song names, and when I googled "song about painting", this was the best one that came up!  ha!

Well, it turns out that buying a house that needs a little sweat equity makes you pretty busy!  We've had a great time working on it though.  It is so cool to be in our new house, and see it develop into more and more of our home every time we leave!

Sunday we had church in the morning, then Mike Adkins was nice enough to drive us to Home Depot in his truck to pick up our new fridge!  We got it loaded in the trailer, and they had tied it down, then he looked at Steven and said, "okay, now you just hold on to it while I drive back."  Steven and I both thought he was joking, but turns out he was not!  Steven stood on the trailer and made sure the fridge stayed in balance the entire 20 minute drive back to our house! 

We finally made it back, and it was much harder than we anticipated to get the fridge inside.  The handles made it just a little too wide to get in the front door, and for some reason the handles did not come off by themselves, so we had to remove both entire doors before we could bring it inside.  Luckily, this made the fridge much lighter so we were able to get it in place just the three of us!  We got back to the Waltrip's and took a nap before youth group that night.  After youth and a game of kickball, we went to... where else, but Taco Bell!

Monday, Steven and I spent ALL DAY painting our new living rooms and entryway.  I am so thankful that the first coat was already done on the trip (from Saturday) because it took me SO long to get that done!  We were at the house from 1 till 11, and went to Quik Trip for a dinner of hot dogs and donuts.  (hey, it wasn't healthy, but we deserved it!)  We were just so exhausted toward the end, both of us getting irritable and we really weren't getting much done because we were so sore.  We got back to the Waltrip's and went to bed!

This morning, thank God, we felt so much better!  Steven had his meeting with Dan, and I cleaned up the basement a bit.  We left around 1 to go back to the house and get started on painting the guest bedrooms.  We spent until 6:30 working on them, when we left to go to Discipleship at the church.  I am so glad that Pastor Dan does this Discipleship class.  We've only been to two so far, but they have been SO good.  I really like that he goes through it and explains why the church believes what they believe, using tons and tons of Scripture to back it up.  It is a lot of basic stuff, but it is really good to go through it all again and have all of these references in one place.

We got back from church, and heated up leftovers for dinner (at 9:30).  Getting ready for another busy day of painting and cleaning tomorrow!  :)

Working Week

Wow, it's only 8:30 and I am exhausted!  We got so much done at the house today!

But first, I will tell you about our night yesterday!  We went to Chipotle with Dan, Susan, and Greg.  After we finished eating, we showed them our house!  They all really loved it and it was really cool talking about how God worked everything out.  He gave us everything we were wanting in a house, and it being literally 3 minutes away from Steven and I's favorite places (me = Target, Steven = Chipotle) is an added bonus!  After the house tour, they took some pictures of us with the house!

Next, Dan took us to Fritz's, the custard place right next to our house.  It was really really good and it might not be good for our health that it is so close by!  ha!  After dessert, we headed to Steven's softball game.  The first game they got mercy ruled, and the second they only played one inning because it started storming.  It was seriously bad, and I don't know why the umpire didn't call the game 20 minutes earlier like all of the other fields had... they were out there playing with TONS of lightning, thunder, TERRIBLE wind, and rain!

This morning we headed to our house at 8:00 to get working!  We got SO much done... even more than we had hoped to.  They ripped up the carpet, Steven sanitized the attic, painted all of the ceilings, sealed the floor with Killz, and painted the kitchen, upstairs bathroom, and master bedroom!  Several guys from the church came to help out and we appreciate them SO much!  If it had just been us two, we would still be ripping up carpet!  I really didn't feel like I did too much... I was the "errand girl"... took several trips to the Hardware store, to the post office, to Subway to get lunch, and to Sonic for Happy Hour.  We obviously have LOTS left to do, but I think that it is realistic to hope that we will be moving our stuff in next Saturday!

Steven and Todd installing a new faucet in the downstairs bathroom

Our kitchen ready to get its ceiling painted!

See, I did some work!

The damage done!

OUR house, in the middle of OUR street!

The house is ours!!!

We were able to close on it this morning!  It was actually fairly harmless (aside from handing them a big fat check).  Everything went really smoothly and we walked out with our key in hand!

Before signing tons of paperwork

A little weary of handing over that check!

We have the key!  With our realtor, Lisa

The first thing we did was go to Lumber Liquidators to get our laminate flooring (it has to set in its new environment for a few days before you can lay it).  We saved over $200 by ordering our flooring there, compared to Lowe's and Home Depot's prices!  yay!  Then got a quick lunch at McDonalds, then to Sherwin Williams to get a couple of paint samples to figure out what color we wanted in our kitchen.  Next stop was OUR NEW HOUSE!  It was definitely the stinkiest it has EVER been in there, so we opened up the windows (well, the ones that have screens) to try to air it out.  Hopefully most of that stink will come out tomorrow when we rip up the carpet!  We tried the two paint colors on the kitchen wall, and lucky us we both agreed on which one we liked better!  Always nice when that happens.

We left and got copies of the key made, along with house numbers and a garage door opener.  Now Steven is taking a nap before we meet up with Dan and Susan for dinner tonight before showing them OUR new house!  Then Steven has two softball games at 8:30 and 9:30.

God is so good!

Busy Being Fabulous

We have been keeping busy here at the Waltrip Household!  :)

Tuesday, Steven had his morning meeting with Dan and then a dentist appointment at 1.  While he was gone, I went to Target and got a new filter for our air conditioner as well as some bottled water and Gatorade to bring on Saturday for the guys working on our house.  I also went to two Sherwin Williams stores to look at their paint colors and try to decide on some.  This is by far the hardest part! 

Steven got back to the church around 3:30 (he had to run and do some emergency paper signing and faxing), so I met him there along with two of the high school guys to finish putting the basketball goal together.  We got it done around 5, and then had our first Discipleship class at 6:45.  It was really good.

We finally got back to the Waltrip's around 9, when Todd called and said that right then was the best time for him to help put the basketball goal up (we had to "cement" it in), so we headed back out to the church!  We were thinking that if we lived in our new house it wouldn't have been a big deal at all!  Anyway, we put in the goal and then he helped us some more with paint colors, and gave us a list of things we should have at the house for Saturday's work session (duct tape, brooms, masks, etc).  We finally left at midnight!

The old basketball goal

the new basketball goal!

the Trek kids playing basketball on the new goal for the first time

Yesterday was another busy one.  The title company called and told Steven that we were good to go, and just make sure we had our valid ID's with us at closing!  Well, my ID was expired... (it expired on my birthday, and I thought I had to have a permanent address before I could renew it)  so we took a trip to the DMV and it was surprisingly easy to renew my license AND put the new address on it.  We went to the Post office to get a change of address form, (and the Lowe's coupon!), then to the bank, then to a million places to get the utilities changed to our name (all of which needed to be done before closing).  Then we went to Lowe's to get some of the stuff Todd had listed, then to the Jerome's house to pick up Dillon who needed a ride to church.

Church went well, and afterward Steven (with the help of me and two teenagers) changed the verse on the church sign. It wouldn't have been so bad but the old letters had fried bug guts on them.  (the light of the sign attracts the bugs apparently).  So while they were putting up the new letters, I got to wash the old ones.  I hope I get some kind of heavenly reward for that!  We dropped Dillon off at his house around 10, and the Jeromes invited us in, and of course we didn't leave there until about midnight either. 

Today was much less stressful / intense as the last two days!  We still ran several errands, but we made it back to the house around 6 and I think we will be able to stay here all night.  We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get Steven a more "Masculine" shower curtain, and while there I found one I liked a lot better than the one I got at Ikea.  After a lot of pleading, begging, and pouting, a little bit,  Steven was such a sweetie pie to tell me to go ahead and get the one I liked so much!

Right now we have a lasagna in the oven and I think we plan on watching the Heat/Mavericks game tonight.  Woohoo!!

I had the Best Day With you Today

I had such a great day today!  And yesterday was pretty great too.

Starting with yesterday, church was great, then Steven and I went to Chipotle for lunch.  I talked him into eating outside, then we went to Lowe's to look at paint colors.   We got back and I met up with Lauren and some of her friends at their pool.  That night youth went really great as well, Steven talked about reasons the teens should WANT to read their Bible instead of feeling like they had to.  We then played kick ball and headed to McDonalds.  I got a little lost on the way to McDonalds (the kids I was following weren't remembering that I am new to the area) but we only got there about 15 minutes late.  It was a great night.

Today Steven and I went to Pulaski to give them a copy of Steven's check!!  It was pretty much the last thing they needed until we close on Friday, which has been set for 11:30!  After doing that and signing some more paperwork, we went to Panera for lunch before heading to Six Flags.  We got season passes for Six Flags this year- it is $45 for one entry or $55 for a season pass.  No-brainer to me!  It was SO hot when we got there, that we spent most of the time at Hurricaine Harbor, their water park.  They have a lazy river, wave pool, and several slides/water rides.  When it cooled down a little we went and rode some roller coasters, then headed home because our feet hurt so bad from walking barefoot at the water park all day!

Before getting in the water!

My season pass... I look bald!

While we were at Hurricane Harbor, Steven saw he had a voicemail from both a guy at Home Depot.  We had gone both there and Lowe's in the past couple of days to look at their clearance appliances.  At Home Depot last Saturday, they had a fridge that was a little dinged up without a price tag on it.  Steven asked about it, and the guy (Charles) said he would check up on what was "wrong" with it and call us back with a price.  Well, he called today and said that the fridge was a 2007, had been owned before but while it was still under their one-year warranty, something had happened to the sealing on the freezer so the people brought it back.  It had sense been sent to LG and repaired, but since it was used and had some scratches on it from all of the transportation he would give it to us for $400.  This fridge was retail $1200!  It is really nice, with the side-by-side freezer and ice / water spout in the front.  Yes there are some scratches but they will soon be covered up by our magnets!  :)  So we made sure the measurements worked out and bought the fridge tonight.  We'll try to pick it up this weekend.  We are so excited to have gotten such a great deal.  The very cheapest one we were looking at at Lowe's was $600 and it was very basic and of course the smallest in it's color.

Steven wheeling and dealing with refridgerator and carpet people during a break from the sun!

Our new fridge!

It really was just a great day.  I love that Steven and I have fun together.

We are excited for a BUSY week!  Tomorrow Steven has his meeting with Dan, then a dentist appointment, and then we both have Discipleship at the church at 6:45.  I am going to go to Sherwin-William's while Steven is gone and have them help me pick out some paint colors!  ha!

I think I can, I think I can!

Yesterday we got some great news... that we would be able to close on our house 6 days early!  Instead of June 16 we are moved up to the 10th... only a week from today!  That has been the kick in our rears that we needed, now we are going crazy trying to figure out paint colors, flooring, carpet, washer/dryer, fridge, stove... etc.  Not to mention trying to figure out how to get the stinking (literally) dead racoon out of our attic and then sanitize it!  Buying a house sure is time consuming, stressful, and expensive... but I am so excited!

The hardest thing for me is paint colors.  I came into it with absolutely no idea of what color  I wanted in what room.  I just knew I wanted color instead of neutrals.  I've been playing with the different paint brand's websites, where you can upload your own picture and see what the shade will look like in your space.  But it's just hard to really visualize everything!  Pretty soon I (we) will just have to make a decision, I just hope it looks good, cheerful, welcoming, and classy, not like a clown picked out the colors!  We'll see I guess!

The biggest lesson I have learned so far is to SHOP AROUND!  Never go to just one place and order it!  Even if you like what they have to offer, now you have ammunition for your next stop so you can tell them you had just been quoted a better rate, and soon you will find out that they had some unexpected discounts come up.

The oh so pretty flowers in front of our house!

So we now have one more week to wait and get our ducks in a row until we can close..   I think we can do it!




PS, how do you like my new blog background?  I love it!  It is so much better than the Blogger one I was using.  I got it for free from here