With Two Cats in the Yard

we've spent the weekend taking a semi-impromptu trip to the area around our new base on a house hunting mission! we aren't buying just yet, but this is the first rental home we've picked out before we actually had to live in it! until this point we've put a deposit down "blind" and just hoped for the best.

let me give you a sort of timeline of our lives the past few weeks. at the beginning of march we knew we were moving but we had no idea when or where to. e's graduation date is may 6. we have other friends who had orders that gave them report dates 1-2 months after their graduation time--this gives you a chance to have your husband home to help pack since he works 14+ hour days until graduation. 

we were waiting, waiting, waiting.... finally, e emailed the guy in charge or assignments. we got an email back the following monday. ft. ____, report may 10.

hold on. 

may 10? but e graduates on may 6.... may 6 is a friday... you mean to tell me that we literally have 2 days to get all of our things packed, one day to get in to the new house and then ev goes to work the next day?

WHAT!?!!!?!!??!

THAT'S 7 WEEKS FROM RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!?!!!!?!!!?

after panic semi-subsided, a game plan was formed. i will go to whatever house we want to live in on may 1. well, april 30 which is a saturday. i will stay in the new house for that week and unpack while e clears post and gets ready to graduate. the plan makes a lot of sense if you're willing to live alone with a toddler for a week in a house that is full of boxes. 

in other words, it's a great plan if you're crazy.

lucky us, i AM crazy!!!

that took us a week closer to move in. so, 6 weeks to move. i start packing, we start scanning sites looking for rentals.

i set up viewings 2 days before our trip with 3 different companies. i kid you not, we were unable to see a SINGLE home that we set up a viewing for. "oh, that house is now under maintenance" "that house requires an appointment" (isn't that what i called about on thursday?) "we don't have that home on our rental list any longer" "the current tenants aren't available for a showing". both my husband and i were getting incredibly disheartened. 

but we rolled with the punches and looked through 2 companies available rental homes and went to see them. we had to peer in the windows of some. traffic prevented us from making it to one of the homes. we could see cockroaches without even going into one home. one living room was mirrored, floor to ceiling. we started at 10am. by 2 pm, 4 houses later, we had one house that was a possibility, but we would be unable to see inside until april 6. we will not be coming back here between today and the move in date. 

we spent money on 2 nights in a hotel, food, gas, and all of the other trip-associated costs, to end up just buying blind again.

one last house. a house my husband had seen pop up as available the morning we went out.

we drove out to the country. we slowed down as we passed a pasture of cows. we pulled into the driveway of this house:

and suddenly my heart began to hope again.

it has a cozy country kitchen

a fireplace

and an amazing covered porch with firepit

it comes with rose bushes, fruit trees, a strawberry patch, the beginnings of what will be wonderful landscaping, front loading washer and dryer, and the peace and quiet of a quaint country farmhouse. 

i nearly cried. e plugged in some addresses to figure out how much gas we'd be spending on commutes to work and grocery stores. jp wandered around the massive yard carefully picking out stones and flowers as though they were the greatest treasures he'd ever seen.

i prayed there would be a relatively inexpensive way to lock this house down.

our realtor was a gift from God. she let us sign the lease on good faith that we will give her the full deposit and first month's rent in 2 weeks when our  moving money comes in.

after nearly 5 hours of what seemed like hopeless searching, we found the very house i've been dreaming about for years now. we found a real home. 

i've been busy planning out some gardening and landscaping ideas that we can execute over the next few years. that's right, years. because we should be there for quite some time. 

maybe forever.

who knows.

all i can say is that my life just keeps getting better. 

"life used to be so hard. now everything is easy 'cause of you..."