Me and My Best Friend!

We bought a house!!!!

That's right -- we finally found a house that meets all of our "requirements"! We're closing the end of February and are hoping to move in by mid-March. We are very excited and can't wait to have all of you to our new home sometime soon! :)

House Update

Well, it's been another long couple days. Last time I left you all we were about to make an offer on the house that needed some repairs. Well, we made an offer and then we counter-offered for several days only to come to a stand-still. They weren't willing to come down to what we wanted to pay and we weren't willing to go up any because of all the repairs that needed to be done. So, we went and looked at a few more houses yesterday. We are seeing some more tonight and then a few more tomorrow. We have found a nice neighborhood of newer homes (mostly built in the mid to late 1990s) and are hoping to find one there that has the floor plan we like. They don't have as large of lots as we had hoped on finding but the homes are nice and we have friends that live nearby. We are hoping to have found a house by the end of the week so that we can get everything settled and arrange a closing date -- we don't really want to be evicted from the house we're living in! Just kidding -- we have another two months before we have to be out. :)

Other than that, not much has changed. Emily and I are still sick but slowly getting better. I've lost my voice again but I do have more energy. The doctors say that this is a 10-14 day bug so hopefully only a few more days of it. :) But because we've all been sick, I don't have too many pictures for you. I took these on Friday afternoon -- she's really getting big! :)

6 Month Pictures

Here are Emily's 6 Month Pictures. I was a little late on these again, so I ended up combining them with her Christmas pictures. Isn't she adorable?! :)

Feeling Better

Just an update on the family's health. Emily is still congested and coughing a little, but much better than on Monday. Her fever has gone completely but she's still sleeping for most of the day. Which has been nice for me because I'm still not feeling much better. My voice has come back more today but I still have a sore throat and am very congested.

We did go see those two houses last night and we are making an offer on one of them tonight. The family moved out of this house to relocate for another job last August and we've gotten the impression from their realtor that they are very anxious to sell. Hopefully this will enable us to get a good price and be able to do some repairs right away. Yes, I said repairs. We've chosen another house that could use some remodeling. But are you surprised? -- You know Nelson and I always need projects! :)

A Rough Night

To top off all the exciting news of the week, Emily and I have both gotten sick over the weekend. I started feeling ill (head cold) on Saturday and Emily woke up this morning at 3am coughing and crying. She had a temperature of 101.4 and I immediately called our doctors office to find out what to do. They gave me a few helpful tips but said the cold is going around and there isn't much they can do as far as antibiotics. She is doing better now but very tired and her cough seems to be the same -- very wet and "flemmy" -- sorry for those of you who don't care about the details! :)

She's pretty miserable (congested, runny nose, coughing) but is sleeping fairly well now. I'll keep you updated if anything changes.

A Very Busy Week!

Wow -- the last seven days have flown by! As I mentioned before, we were expecting an offer on Wednesday for the house we're living in. Well, we actually got two offers. Both offers were good and we began negotiating them on Thursday. We went back and forth with both parties and ended up coming to a final decision with a young married couple on Saturday! The closing date is set for February 28th and we will have 22 days after that to move. So, God provided for us as He always does and we sold both houses last week! :)

Then on Saturday afternoon we went "house shopping". We have narrowed it down to two homes and are planning to go through both of them again tomorrow night. We hope to have made our final decision by the end of this week and to start negotiating on that front.

God has been very good and we are just so blessed! We'll keep you posted on what happens! Until then . . .

Yesterday's Auction

We had the auction for the rental house yesterday. It had been one of the coldest days of winter so far and there were snow flurries all day. The auctioneer opened up the house an hour before the auction and I was surprised and pleased to find 5-6 parties there when I arrived. We had the auction inside and gathered around the kitchen, living room and dining room. The ending bid was a tad lower than we had hoped but we were pleased as well. The couple that bought it wants to close in two weeks and then it will no longer be ours --- and that is a huge relief worth many $$$! :)

Overall, the house was a good experience. We learned a lot and it was worth doing. If to do it over again, we might even do the same things. But between the breakins and the extensive work we hadn't quite expected, we're glad that it is done and over. So, the day was a success! :)

And some more good news -- we are getting an offer on our house tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good offer and come to fruition, but we'll keep you posted! :)

Emily's Cardiology Appointment

We took Emily to her heart appointment this morning up in Akron. They did an EKG and found that she does have a heart murmur but it is normal and nothing to be worried about. Dr. Jacobstein said that a heart beat without a murmur sounds like a "lup-lup". Emily's murmur makes her heartbeat sound musical or like it vibrates and it sounds more like "lup-swoosh-lup". They checked her blood flow and organs and everything appears to be working perfectly. Dr. Jacobstein said that over 50% of children develop a noraml heart murmur like Emily's. So, that was good news for us this morning! :)

As many of you know, we are auctioning the rental property tomorrow evening. We are very anxious to be done with it and are trusting that God will bring the right buyers and provide financially for us. But your prayers are always appreciated! We'll let you know what happens! And in regards to our house selling, we have several parties interested and are just waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully any day now. :)

The pictures of Emily were taken yesterday morning before we left for church. She still hasn't gotten used to wearing shoes and is quite fascinated by them -- as you can tell. She is also starting to make different vowel noises/sounds and I swear she said "firefly" the other day! Nelson said it was just "ay-ay" but I think it was "firefly"! ;)

I'm getting so big!

I can almost sit up on my own!

I tried to feed myself . . .

. . . but I just wasn't real sure what to do once I got the bananas in my hand. So, I smashed them between my fingers and let them fall onto my bib. Oh well -- maybe next time! :)

New Years 2007

We hope you all had a wonderful and safe New Years! We are back home from Baltimore and had a great weekend! We were able to see some of my family and many of our college friends and it feels like we laughed the whole time we were together!

Enjoy the pictures and have a good week!