Self storage and other stuff

Well, last week was just so long!! The kids last week of school went great. My last week of school went great. I will really miss the kids!
As for Chris, things were stressful, as big Memorial day weekend was approaching. He lost his days off to go in and assemble grills and mowers. That means he worked 11 10 hour days in a row. He was staying in until 3 am helping them unload the trucks and then going in 2 hours early to get more done. When memorial weekend came and went, he got a phone call from the CEO of the company telling him that thanks to his hard work, the Norman store placed 9 in all the stores for record sales in his zone alone over the weekend. That compliment will go in his folder for records. I think it made him feel like his hard work paid off and that he earned his 2 week vacation.
Originally when he asked for it, we had planned on moving into the house the 1st week and vacation the second, however, it hasn't quite been that. This week has been moving all our belongings into self storage, minus a suitcase for everyone and a paper grocery sack for everyone with fun toys and books. It is after midnight, so later on today he goes to court to fight the landlords about their neglect to care for our apartment. We prepared three folders with pictures and letters and print offs of our responsiblities as tenants vs. them. I am worried about it, but I also know we have a stack of things proving that we aren't just joking with them.
We are prepared that if they ask us to leave the premisis tomorrow, we will be ready to go; but with everyone being sick that one week, i realized I only have one utility shutting down here, so if they offer a few days to get out, we can do that and just camp out in the living room.
Mom and Dad came down this weekend to help out and to take Ben and Percy home with them. We were so grateful for their help. if it wasn't for both of them, we wouldn't be nearly as ready as we are. And their support and encouragement with prayer was really good for me. I talked to Mom today and it sounds like the pets are doing well. She said that Ben got to meet Pooh and Grover and he and Grover went running into some water. They look to have a good time together.
We talked with Kay today. She is the one handling our finances with this thing. She said she got information today from the lenders that they had approved the changes to the sale, since the sellers had gone into foreclosure while we were in the process of buying it. The bank that now owns the house had to approve our offer and in a foreclosure, they are only allowed to pay so much at closing. Since we had offered more in order to get help, they offered their max and took the rest of what was promised in help off the amount of the loan, but that changed all the paperwork. She said that all the changes had been approved. There were a couple of questions that the lenders had for the appraiser that would work the kinks out, but she said that as far as she knew, the sale of the home to us was a green for go on Friday at 2pm. I sure hope so. If not, Chris and I are going to call it a fail and pray for another opportunity to open up. We sure are hoping God just makes it so clear, because this seemed so clear and now it just seems like it is surrounded with problems. so, be praying for us. After the court hearing tomorrow, we are planning on just doing some fun things here in the city. We talked about going to the OKC zoo for a day and hitting Incredible pizza another night. If closing still is a go, we will do that Friday and then at 7pm is our friend's daughter, Dacia's , birthday party. Hannah has been invited to go and spend the night too, so we will go to Jump zone to share in the fun and then we will head to the new house to sleep the night. Saturday we are heading to Grove, Ok for our anniversary trip. We will be there until Tuesday and then we will head to Mom and Dad's. Chris will stick around until Friday and then he will head home with Percy so he can get some essentials ready before he has to head to work on Monday. The kids and I will stay in Kansas until after Leah's wedding and Erin's shower and then Mom said she would take us and Ben back and help move things in if we needed her to.
I am just so thankful that when we need help, they (mom and dad) are always around with so much support. I may not talk to them a whole lot any other time, but when there is a need, they are always the first offer their help. They drop all their plans and come to the rescue. it is such a relief to know they are always there. I am excited about being in Kansas for a while. i can get some time in with Grandma as well as hopefully see all the cousins and the farm before the wedding. We pulled a big pile of board games we are taking with us to play in Grove and at Mom and Dad's.
Well, I need to get to bed. I thought i would post before I disconnect the internet here tomorrow. i have been out in the backyard cleaning up Ben's mess so that the landlords won't have that against us. My thought and it always has been is that no matter how awful or great the landlords are to us, this apartment belongs to God and so He deserves to have it in better condition than when we found it so He can use it for His glory!
Will post again when i get the chance. until then I hope your summer's are starting off nice and easy, like I thought ours was going to. :-)
Love to you all and will post again later!!

Heartbroken and sick!

Ok, so the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. The following week of my writing, Hannah had her birthday party, which was a great time. We had the appraisers look at the house and the home inspection came out great. Only a few shingles to repair. it was set to close the 16th. We took another go through the house the weekend of mother's day. Then Nathaniel went down with a stomach bug. Then Chris went down, then Hannah and I fought it all week. it was horrible. 4 days of nothing but throwing up and having diahrea along with dizziness, i am assuming due to the fact that dehydration was inevitable. it was horrible. We ate chicken noodle soup for Hannah's actual birthday and have promised to make it up to her shortly. In the process of all that, we heard nothing from Cheryl, so we gave her a hollar Thursday afternoon, wondering about closing Friday. She said they were going to postpone it because there were still issues to be worked out. We were sick, so we didn't ask many questions. That is, until today. We wondered, since we have given our 30 days notice and we have to be out of this place in 10 days what the plan was. We found out today that instead of $1800 like we had figured on taking to closing (our tax rebate), they were expecting us to bring over $4000. We said, there is no way. Also, they have no idea. it is "very unlikely" we will close on it this week, let alone by the end of the month. Their suggestion was to get a storage area to rent. Chris came unglued. he told them if they didn't have a plan by the end of the week, he wasn't going to put up with it anymore. Our hearts are smashed because we were under the assumption that everything was a quick go, and now it feels like the whole time they were lying to us, or that they are now to get more $ out of us. Luckily Chris has worked with loans before and so he told them that what we signed to agree to pay at closing is what we are paying. paperwork validates that. So, anyways, if you would keep us in your prayers. WE have trees and shrubs and stuff that are sitting here waiting and we have hardly boxed anything because we thought we were just going to take it over there and put it away, but now it looks like maybe we wiill be homeless for a while.
And the kicker is this, our current landlords are taking us to small claims court for the lack of rent we paid, however, I have pictures of our sleeping arrangements as well as the flooding and the black mold that is growing on the ceilings. In looking online for a quick place to live, they have our aparment listed to rent as a 2 bedroom with an office, so it looks like they aren't planning on fixing it but rather covering their tracks to make it look like something else.
if you could be praying for us, we are rather panicked. WE are trusting God to be in charge of this but having peace about it is a whole other issue.
we dont' know what to do. That is about it. Everyones last week of school and then we move to wherever to head to a family vacation and a wedding in kansas before figuring out what's next.
Our phone numbers are going to stay the cell phones for now. As for mail, we will determine that here soon. Will keep you posted.
Hope all in you all's world is less crazy. till later, in His care!!

So much going on and its only Monday!!

Ok, so last week was a rough one for me, as I was just struggling with waiting on the house and situations at work and the kids school and then sleeping on the floor for a month is annoying. Bless my family's hearts, they put up with me. Well, after yesterday at church and God giving me a good spanking, I had decided that I really need to be better at being a good steward with the situations and relationships he has already given me and not worry about the rest.
So, we were going to sit down and talk tonight about how we could be better about praying for one another and holding each other accountable as a family for honoring God.
We had that planned last night. Well, we woke up and I started sewing for Hannah's birthday outfits and talked to Cheryl, our house helper, and she had some paper work for us to figure out who we wanted our home insurance with and who we wanted to inspect the house when we finally got the word from the bank.
Well, I went to work and after getting off, I had a message from her to call her back. She said when she answered, "So, how about one week from Friday?" i said , 'for..." She then proceeded to say that she had gotten word from the seller's that the bank had gotten to their file and had finally given the thumbs up for the sale. i started to cry. Just remembering that God does care about the desires of my heart, even when i am stupid. :-)
Upon a full afternoon of phone calls, the appraiser is going out in the morning to officially make sure the place is of value and the home inspector will pay it a visit Wednesday at noon, which chris has off, so he is looking forward to seeing where everything is and how it all rates. if all that turns out ok, we are set to take ownership the 16th of may. Hannah is so happy. For her birthday, she is getting a house where she can make a beautiful flower garden. Well, after all that excitement, we are sitting around the table talking about our lives and how we can be better at being available for one another and the conversation about Nathaniel and baptism came up again. He said, I really want to be baptized. i really want to be what God wants. " After Chris asking him some basic questions of faith, we are very sure he is ready. so, it looks like this week just keeps getting fuller. Nathaniel wants Chris to baptize him, because, "they are best buds, and he knows his dad is always there for him". so, it looks like our week runs as follows. Home inspection Wednesday, thursday and friday are birthday party prep, for hannah's party on saturday for her and her little friends, followed by our one last walk through of the house Saturday afternoon and mother's day supper at aunt glendas, which will follow with Nathaniel getting baptized Sunday maybe. We are still working out all the details on that. We thought it might be neat to do it at Brent and Sarah's church, since that is available to us, but we just don't know. Chris hasn't gotten ahold of Brent yet. Then the following week will be Hannah's actual birthday and we will take over the house in blanchard. That saturday is Leah's college graduation, followed by a wedding shower for her and Alex, followed by the kids and I's last week of school and moving into the house. Chris took off the last week of may and the first week of June. he is hoping to get us settled into the house and out of here by then. Then we are off to Grand lake for our anniversary and hopefully to make a jaunt to Joplin to see the Bonds and the Hill family. Upon coming home from that trip, we will have a few days until we need to turn around and head back to Kansas where the kiddos will be ring bearer and flower girl in Leah and Alex's wedding. After that, our lives should come to a stop. So, if I don't get on in the next few, that is what is going on here. it is only Monday and wow, so much has happened and so much is going to take place!! I am so thrilled!! God is good all the time and he is SO worthy of our praise. I hope that you agree!! Miss all of you and will write again soon!!