Realignment

We were reminded by the message at church tonight of the real reason we decided to move to Colorado in the first place: the opportunity to start a family with a single income. Not to get the perfect house, lots of cool stuff, or to have total financial security and all that... just the chance to raise a family with a single income in a world that just doesn't make that a priority anymore. That was the idea that sparked the decision. We pushed that to the background a little as the possibilities mounted with what we could do/get with all that cash, and now we've "realigned" our thinking in that vein. No need to get an even better house for "just a little bit more". No big sighs every time we reduce the price on our house, or when we find out we've got termites to "treat". The truth is, either way, we did nothing to earn the enormous equity in our house anyway. Even with the worst case offer, we'll be fine. God has been faithful in everything else, so we know He will be in this. We could use some devine assistance in the details, but the path has already been clearly marked for us, even paved and well lit.

So we've got a little less than a month left in California. Tomorrow I go surfing (a rare thing the past few years, but I figure it'll be a lot more expensive to surf when we live in Colorado). Next month I guess I'll be hiking or mountainbiking or something, hopefully with a little more consistency than the surfing, for the sake of my gut. We've got a furnished studio apartment set up somewhere in Denver, and we're heading out around July 14th.

good news!

I think i had a mental breakdown yesterday, but i'm much better now. Jay and I got to talk a lot last night and I feel so much better. So thanks all for letting me vent, and hopefully the mental breakdowns will be few and far between. They say that selling a house is one of the most emotional and stressful things one can do, so i guess I help corroborate that statistic.

oh, and by the way, thanks Ua for giving me a little chuckle yesterday, that helped too. when i'm in a hurry (which is most of the time) or just being lazy (which is the other part of the time) i don't like to take the extra milisecond to hold the shift key to properly capitalize the first letter of each sentence. or the "i" as it should be also. but in looking back over this post, it appears I just do it sporadically, which is pretty strange...

there is no suitable title for this post...

so can I just say since this is an online journal of sorts, i'm going to use it as such. be forewarned, this is a vent. Do not feel obligated to read it or respond, i just need to vent.

somewhere in life, i must have gotten greedy. and right now i think i am the most frustrated i've ever been in life. our house is not selling, it's not even being looked at. yet I have some sort of mental block that just will not let me feel comfortable lowering the price. part of me feels like the biggest idiot for not listening to my father who told us several months ago (whem we first brought up the idea of selling the house and moving to Denver to my parents) to "sell the house NOW!" the market was still hot, or at least warm, and stupid us, thinking it will sell in a few weeks so we shouldn't list it too early. well if i could, i would literally be kicking myself. if anyone wants to do it for me feel free. kick me and tell me what an idiot I am.

So I guess God is trying to teach me patience, trust in Him, and to not be greedy.

The "Analytical" in me (supposedly a strength - did we post about the strengths test we did at the RH retreat?) wants to figure it all out and have the perfect plan, make the most money and make it to CO fat and happy. The pessimist in me (which if you know me at all, you know this can make up pretty much of me at times) is thinking "why are we doing this again?" was there a point? Can we say Spiritual Warfare, people? And didn't we just have a sermon on both spiritual warfare and trusting in a loving God?

so there it is folks, my pity party. I must be stupid...aren't journals supposed to be private and locked and kept in a box under the bed where no one will ever read them? and here I am posting to the whole wide world all my thoughts and troubles...stay tuned kids, maybe next time i can post about how much better of a person I am for having gone thru this trial...

When Aphids Attack

The picture to the left (hoarked off the internet) is an example of the battle that's been raging in our front yard for a couple of months now, unbeknownst to us. I noticed that the leaves on our hedges were starting to get little bubbles on them, then a couple weeks later, they began to shrivel up and turn reddish brown. Thinking maybe there was some plant disease involved, I did some investigating this morning.

I looked at another bush in our yard and noticed it was covered with thousands of little white and black specs. I walked over to another area and noticed an unusual amount of ladybug activity. Looking closer I began to make out bunches of smaller critters moving about, obviously they were ladybug food... Aphids!!!

Those little suckers had been chewing on our plants and leaving their little leftovers all over the place. Luckily the ladybugs had moved in and started cleaning house, but they were still far outnumbered, and I don't think they could multiply fast enough.

After some deliberation, we decided the best plan of attack was to chop off the first layer of shriveled leaves, exposing the healthy green inner layer, then hose down the really nasty areas to knock off the aphid "remains", then follow up with some bug spray for plants (we'd tried soapy water in the past, but it didn't do anything).

I began hacking away with the electric hedge trimmer, and noticed that I was not only being sprayed with leaf parts, but also thousands of confused insects... what a great experience. Apparently, the bugs weren't done fleeing when Jenna got to them with the spray, because the same thing happened to her as she sprayed the bushes.

But we both pushed on and got the job done despite the grossness, and walked away covered from head to toe in tiny bugs, both dead and alive. We are confident, however, that our efforts helped turn the tide for the ladybugs. We will survey the battlefield tomorrow to observe the progress.

On that note I'd also like to take a moment to recognize the efforts of the brave ladybugs that gave their lives in the aphid battle, as I can't guarantee that the hedge-trimmer/bug spray combination didn't involve some friendly-fire casualties. Their service to their yard will not have been in vain.

We will win this war.

We will indeed.

Garage Sale Day!!!

wow, we had a huge multi-family garage sale at our house today and it of course was the hottest day of the year! 95 degrees outside! It was really fun, though, and we made a bit of extra cash, and Goodwill got thier fair share as well. My friends from the barn wanted to have the sale here since they live in an apartment, and then of course we had some stuff since we'll be moving, and our friends Joshua and Erin wanted in on the fun as well, so we had a lot of stuff. Everyone made out pretty well in the end, making at least $100. The big winner of the day was my friend Lauren who made over $300!!! Here are the pics, enjoy!

Here we are at the beginning...

Silly Jay trying to attract more customers

some of the girls, bored and hot (that is temperature hot, but we'll take hot hot too)

now it's Joshua's turn to attract customers (maybe we should have put some of those "hot" girls out front...no offense to Joshua of course...)

and of course, everythings for sale, even the house! (and we did give away a few flyers and gave a couple tours of the house!)

Joining the bandwagon

So Jenna let the cat out of the bag (woah, my allergies perked up right then just thinking about cats). We are moving east, following the billions of Californians making a beeline out of this godforsaken place with its pleasant weather and miles of beaches...

So to further elaborate on the job situation, I interviewed at two firms in downtown Denver while we were out there, both of which were great. My personal favorite emailed me back the same day asking for a phone interview, which went well, and made a very good offer. Good pay, good benefits, great location, great projects, so its a no-brainer! So it looks like mid July I'll be working in Denver. Hopefully our house will be sold and Jenna will be with me!

So as Jenna said, we looked at a few houses while we were out there (around 35-50 to be exact), and realized WE ARE PICKY PEOPLE! I guess you'd figure that given my particular line of work and considering how cool our current house is (despite its location and bedroom-count deficiency). We realized that our ideal house would be a mid-century modern house (only built last year) located in Parker with a nice open floorplan and floor to ceiling windows with a view of the rockies and a horse stable and light rail station nearby. Unfortunately that house doesn't exist, so we're going to have to settle.

We basically looked in Parker and Highlands Ranch, two sprawling suburbs south of Denver. We decided we are through with maintaining an older house, and like the idea of moving into a new neighborhood where people are still settling in so we will hopefully be able to make some friends, and any little rugrats we unleash on the world in the years to come will have a nice place to grow up and go to school. They are both relatively close to the last stop of the new light rail line going in, so I'll be able to catch a train downtown to work (good planning, Denver!). So, since the neighborhoods like that closer to town are too pricey, and the commute isn't that bad, I'm willing to swallow my architectural pride and move out to the 'burbs.

I just wish they'd have consulted me when they designed these houses... WHO REALLY NEEDS A FORMAL LIVING ROOM? Give me an empty box and just let me put walls up where they need to be... They do that in China, maybe they're on to something (of course their houses are also built entirely of concrete, too).

Anyway, we'll keep you posted with the goings on. We'll try harder to write stuff, we promise!

And here's a picture of us with Mike & Rachel at Helen Hunt Falls (you know, the actress from Twister. I had no idea she was so important. )

The big CO

Well, since i'm getting grief about not posting about our recent trip to Colorado, here it is. We had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend in Colorado, and I was actually sad to come back to California. I can't wait for the day we can call Colorado "home". The Heldts were very gracious hosts once again, and we can't thank them enough for letting us stay with them.

We actually spent a ton of time looking at houses, both "used" (as I like to call them) and model homes. This trip was really a confirmation that all our thoughts about moving to CO are right on. We loved downtown Denver (where Jay would find work) and also the suburbs where we would live. So, the house here is on the market and both of our employers know we're serious about moving to Colorado, so "the heat is on" (inside joke from our excursion to the CO Springs hiking spot - but it's not really funny and it wasn't really even that funny then). Anyways, I'll have to let Jay post about the job possibilities and all that good stuff. The only pics I have downloaded to the computer yet are of the Colorado Horse Park, which is really all I care about anyways...j/k. The barn was awesome with different wings all coming out from the central indoor arena. Then the other pic is of this cool arena that had grassy bleachers you could sit on to watch the show. It was so weird though to be there on a weekend and not have a show going on.

I'll let Jay post some pics of houses or whatever else he wants to show you all...