We Are Almost Done!!

The kiddos went to my Mom and Dad's in TN on Thursday. We have been packing on super mode ever since. We are very close to being finished!

We have a moving company moving all of our things to Alabama. We had been waiting and waiting for the call to tell us exactly what day they were going to arrive to pick up our things. In the beginning they had to give us a two day window which included Sunday or Monday. They finally called us Friday afternoon. Guess what day they are arriving? Of course, Sunday. We tried and tried to get it pushed to Monday, but they can't. So......

Aaron will go to church Sunday morning. The truck will arrive between 8 and 9 to start loading our stuff. I know that I will have to miss Sunday school. I am hoping to be able to go to the worship service at least. Bo and Amanda are here helping us, so I might be able to just have them here while I go. Not sure though, we had to sign a paper saying one of us would be here. I am hoping it will be alright if it is them for that hour.

With the four of us, we should be able to knock out the rest of the packing today. We will get the truck loaded Sunday. We will clean the carpets on Monday and hand the keys over to the new owners!

I will be back with an update as soon as I can after our move. We haven't chosen an internet provider yet. Comcast isn't available in our new area, so we are still undecided. Anyway... don't know yet when our service will be back up. Until then....

Our Upcoming Week

I wont' be on here too much during the next few weeks.

We had good services today at church. Aaron preached two really good sermons! Today was the kids' last Sunday. After church tonight Mrs. Patty, Chloe's and Abbie's Sunday school teacher, had a cake for the kids that said "We Will Miss You." We were surprised and thankful. It was very thoughtful. Abbie had THREE pieces of cake. I found this out from Aaron on the way home. That explains a little bit of her craziness tonight!

Of course, we have more packing to do this week.

* Tuesday we are signing the papers on our house. We have sold it on a lease to own deal!!! Praise the Lord!!! It will be our home for one more year during which they will pay us a monthly lease payment; then the couple will be getting their own financing, and it will be theirs.

**Thursday we are driving to Lexington to meet my mom. She is watching the kids for us while we finish packing here, drive to AL, and start unpacking down there. She will have them for 10 days. It should be a lot easier on us and them this way. Pray for my mom though! She might be ready to send them back early!! That is a long time!

***Friday my brother and Amanda will be coming to spend the weekend and to help us finish packing.

****Monday, the 26th, the moving company is going to be packing our things in the truck. After it is all loaded, we will be giving the house a good cleaning.

*****Tuesday, the 27th, we will head towards AL.

******We should arrive in AL early on the 28th. We will sign the lease on our house and see it for the first time. We will attend church at Crossroads Wednesday night.

*******Our things should arrive on Thursday. Then we will begin to unpack.

I will probably update again right before we leave or right after we get our computer set up in AL. Until then...

Pictures of the kids decorating cookies on New Year's Day--just now getting a chance to post them.

What A Morning!

Hello again everyone!! I just wanted to pop in and share some pics with you. Also...boy did I have a morning!!!

pics first: We are getting TONS of HEAVY snow here in Indiana. It has been snowing for hours like this. Right now there are no signs of it lifting soon.

Can you find the street? These pics were taken about about an hour and a half ago. It is much much more covered now. I can not tell where my yard stops and the street begins!

I like to look at the snow through the window all bundled up and drinking peppermint hot chocolate. However, since we are moving to southern Alabama in two weeks and this would be a weather miracle down there, I will more than likely be outside with the kids making a snowman. They may not get to have fun in snow like this for years --maybe if we visit grandmama in the winter. I am sure our time out there will not be long. The windchill is way below zero.





Now my morning: I, Rachel Smith, had a crazy "I can't believe this is happening to me"morning!!! I went outside to put some stuff on our enclosed front porch. Justus shut the door behind me. We have an old home that has an old front door that automatically locks when shut! My side door is locked, because I always lock it when I am at home alone. My garage doors are locked. My garage door opener is in my van which is parked in my garage. YES, I was locked outside, and Justus was alone inside!!! It is soooo cold on the porch and snowing like crazy. I had on a sweatshirt, culottes, socks, and my crocks (not the furry winter ones but the holey summer ones). Justus is looking at me through the glass crying. I am looking at him through the glass wanting to cry. I just start laughing. Of course, something like this would happen to me. (If you have heard my lost keys and locked car story from college you understand---I went inside the mall forgot to lock my car, went back out and locked the car, time to go, can't find my keys, search every store, go out to car, it is running, yes I locked the car while with the keys in the ignition while it was still running!! Dumb blonde!!) Anyway, back to today. I ran two houses down through several inches of snow without a coat with my bare legs wearing my holey crocks to use the phone and borrow a blanket. Aaron normally works here in town about a mile from the house. Of course today, he is about 30 minutes away working in another town. I call Aaron. He calls the police. I go back to the house. Justus is still at the door crying. His face is bright red, his nose is very runny, and his shirt is wet with tears by this time. I wrapped up in the blanket and sat on the floor by the door until the police got there. Finally, after a long time and several attempts at different ways to get into the house the police popped the lock to the door, and I was back inside standing over my warm heater vent and holding my traumatized baby. He held on to me and would not get down! Who could blame him. MY! WHAT A MORNING!! So funny though, not quite as funny while it was happening, but hilarious now!!

Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes!

We are busy trying to pack and wind up our lives here in Indiana. It is a lot of work to move a family of six across country!! We are investigating our school options and trying to close accounts here and open accounts there.

We still only have one definate taker on the house-- the family who may not be able to get the loan. They have called us two times since they saw it. The lady who came back with her hubby on Saturday really wants the house, but he really wants a bigger yard. So... that is still a toss up. He said that if it weren't for the yard, he would have no trouble buying it :(. We are probably going to end up going with the family who has called back about it. Even if they can't get the loan right now, we will do a lease to own sale. Please keep praying for the house situation. We want to make the right and wise decision.

Boxes are calling me... I have got to get our stuff in them. I am already getting to the bottom of my box pile, and I still have a lot to pack. I need more boxes!!!

Craigslist Made Me a Celebrity

Craigslist has made me a celebrity...not really, but sort of! Due to our big move, I have been giving away for free and selling TONS of stuff on craigslist.com. The local newspaper was doing an article about craigslist. The reporter saw some of my stuff posted on craigslist. The free shoes that I gave away, Aaron's shoes, especially drew his attention. (Yes, I too was shocked that Aaron was parting with some of his precious shoes. For those of you who don't know, Aaron has a shoe feddish.) The reporter sent me an email and asked if he could interview me about craigslist. The more we talked about all that I have sold and given away for free the more interested he became.

We have been cleaning out our garage, basement, and closets. So.....when we have something to give away for free, I sit it on my front steps and post it. The things are usually gone with in a couple of hours. Some things have been gone in a matter of minutes!!! Seriously! If you have something to get rid of this is the way to go. It is great. We put our kids' swingset on the list because we do not want to move it with us. It was out of my yard about 3 hours later! We have given away a chair, dresser, baby cradle, baby mattress, tons of toys, tricycle with one missing wheel, shoes, and much more. All of these things were gone within hours. We have also sold lots of things that we do not want to take with us. We have made a few hundred dollars!!! We put it towards our kids' school bill. Craigslist is like an online garage sale without all of the work. It is like a local ebay without the hassell of shipping. It is a completely free online classified ad. It is wonderful! Try it out. By the way, we even put our house for sale on craigslist. That is where two of the people looking at the house came from.

Back to the reporter.... when I told him that we even put the house on craigslist, he couldn't believe it. Anyway a simple interview about craigslist then became a human interest story. They are doing a full article on Rachel Smith, homemaker clearing out her house and even selling her house on craigslist for a move to Alabama. The photographer came today in between our showings to come and take a picture of Aaron and I. They are running the story in the paper on Monday.

We have been wanting to list our house for sale in this newspaper, but haven't been able to do it yet. We already have paid to have it listed in three others. God has worked it out for us! It is being listed with a picture and a full article!!

Keep Praying

Guess what? We have been BUSY showing our house. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for the quick sale of our home. We had one showing last night. Two showings today. One showing tomorrow at 11:30. A showing Saturday morning at 9:30, which is a returning lady who wants to bring her husband to see it, and another showing Saturday at 11:00. We are so thrilled and thanking the Lord for all of the interest in our home!!! Please keep praying!!

One family that looked at it today really wants it. They moved here from California. They are checking into seeing if they are able to get financed for the loan amount or not. They filed for bankrupcy a few years ago, so this may not be possible for them. The family coming tomorrow currently lives about 45 minutes away, so they are not sure if they want to move to a new area or not. The lady bringing back her husband on Saturday is really interested as well. They are already preapproved for the loan amount. She loves the house. The only question with them (him) is our yard. It is not very big. The lady coming Saturday at 11:00 is a single school teacher. We just keep saying,"God is going to do this. He can do this!" Pray that one of these will have the financing and want it! It will be so amazing if we sell the home and do not have to rent!!!

PRAYER and Paint

We are busy getting the house ready for people to come and look at it.
Yeah!! We have 3 different couples coming to look at the house this week. One couple Wednesday evening at 6:00. They are looking at the house to considering buying it. We haven't even put the for sale sign in the yard yet. They just heard about the house, said that they were interested, came to Aaron's office, and asked to see it right away! Could it possibly be that easy? Our God is the God of doing the impossible. Pray! Seriously, please, say a prayer right now that they will want it. (I discovered a while ago that I often had good intentions of praying for someone's requests and then I would forget. I then made a habit of praying right then and there as soon as they ask me. God listens and hears no matter where we are or what we are doing. This has made me a much better prayer warrior.) God can make this happen!!! Pray!! Please!! Remember: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. " James 5:16 b

We have another couple coming Friday at 11:30 to look at the house to consider a lease to own option. A third couple is coming Saturday afternoon to also consider a lease to own option. If the outright sale of the house doesn't happen, this would be our second preference over just renting.

We have also gotten a few calls about just renting the home. Pray that this huge financial burden will be lifted quickly before we leave for Alabama. Pray that it will just be sold without us having to do the lease to own option. Pray that if the Wednesday night couple doesn't want it another family soon will.

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year to all who read here. Wednesday night after church we had some folks over from church for a little New Year's Eve party. We ate party food and played games to bring in the New Year.

New Year's Day we went to Aaron's aunt's and uncle's for our last big family gathering with everyone before our move. We had a good long day enjoying just being with family. We came for lunch and didn't leave until after 9:00. We had lots to talk about. The kids played and played. They played so hard, and we got home so late. Asher got up at 9:30. Chloe got up at about 10:30. Justus woke up long enough to get some more milk and go back to sleep. Abbie still hasn't stirred at all. She is okay; I have checked on her.

Today, I have been painting the bathroom, and now I am about to begin some touch up painting in the foyer. I am taking advantage of the stillness around here with the kids barely moving around. We have had a few inquiries from people interested in renting the house. Pray that we will find and recognize the right renters to rent the house to. We really want a good family in here that will take care of our home.

I love this house. I am really going to miss it! I have always wanted a big old house like this one. I was so excited when we found it. It has such beautiful wood work and character to it. I just know that if God is moving me away from it, it is because He has something better for me. Something I will love even more.

Enjoy your day. Hi! Ho! Hi! Ho! It's off to work I go!