When It Rains, It Pours. But then Comes the Rainbow

As my regular readers are aware, we recently had to replace our dryer.  Others may know that one of the elements in our oven died a couple months before that.  Rather than bore you with the details, let's just say that since then, it seems like every large piece of equipment in our house is dying or has died.  Needless to say, dealing with these issues during the slow time in real estate around here is hard on our already-tight budget to say the least.

All of that changed this week though.  How's that?  Well, today hubby finished a week of paid training for a new job.  A regular paying job.  A job where he is eligible for benefits in a few months.  As a family that has been self-insured for 9+ years this is a big thing.  As a family that has been dependent upon contractor pay (can you say irregular) for those same 9+ years, it's an even bigger deal.  To know that we will have money each month is an answer to prayer.  And what's even better, next week he's set to switch to a "night shift" that will still allow for me to homeschool and work in real estate.

Not only will his work schedule not impede on our current lives (much) it will mean I don't have to work quite as hard and will mean we have the ability to fix those things that are broken or breaking around the house.  God it good!

Oh, and a big shout out to hubby's new boss.  He's the friend that recommended hubby for the job.

Hubby gets to work on this beast (plus many other large pieces of mechanical equipment).  Anyone who knows my hubby knows he loves to tinker.  I think he's going to like his new job.

It's a Beautiful Night

Tonight we are homeowners (again)!  Except for the speed bump we encountered over the weekend, closing went off without a hitch.  In fact it was very smooth.  Our agent was even impressed with how smoothly it went.

We also got to enjoy a restaurant in our "new hometown."  For the record... a delicious Mexican restaurant and probably a place we will frequent often.

The next thing on our to do list is to move our camper from storage to the house so that we can stop paying to store it.  It will also give us a place to sleep if we want to stay at the house overnight since we also want to replace the carpet in all the bedrooms.  We have a few other things to do before we can really move in, but the big thing is going to be the flooring and painting (at least we hope the other stuff doesn't turn out to be bigger).  The previous owner also left a bunch of things behind (some useful and some, not so much) so we will be doing lots of sorting, trashing, and donating as well.

It's been a long and exciting day, so I'm off to work on my to do list for the new house (yes, I'm type A and I have a feeling it's going to come in handy over the next couple months).

And for those of you who've asked... a few pictures of the inside.  For pics of the outside go here.

Closed in carport we are going to make a play room.

Enclosed pool

Lanai (screened in porch attached to pool area)

Living room / Dining room

Guest bedroom

Kid's bathroom

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Son's bedroom

Daughter's bedroom

Guest bathroom

Working Towards a Better Me

While back in Virginia, I visited with a couple of my friends who've inspired me to be a better me.  They inspired me to exercise more, watch what I eat, and be a better mom, wife, and teacher.  To that end, I've:

• been getting up earlier (to get things done before the kids get up), 
• been making a concerted effort to watch what I eat,
• started to exercise again.

Yesterday I joined Nerd Fitness' 6 week challenge for a little added accountability in the exercise and diet areas (http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/10/24/six-weeks-to-awesome-are-you-in/).  I am completely stoked and excited to start on this path to a new me.

I'll keep you posted on how things go.