Happy Birthday to the Love of my Life!

Twenty-four years ago today, God was very faithful in bringing Zach into the world. He almost didn't make it due to complications in his birth, but God was gracious and gave the doctors wisdom and Zachary (whose name means - Jehovah Has Remembered) was born. God remembered him during his first birth and was faithful in remembering him again 18 years later when he was steeped in sin and rebellion and saved his life once more, but this time, the salvation was one that could not be lost. The Lord had plans for Zach since before time began, one of which was to be my husband.

Marriage is a wonderful gift, but it takes the covers off of all the sin we are able to hide in our hearts for the years prior to it. And so, December of 2006 was a rude awakening to who we really were. For about the first six months of our marriage, I think we were both so dead set on being right and defending our selves there was barely a moments peace, except maybe when we were engrossed in entertainment, an idol we both shared. But sometime within that first year, the Lord sparked something in Zach, I'm not quite sure what prompted it (I'm sure he could tell you, he has a long-term memory like a steel trap!) But something about him changed. For the first time I began to see what true humility and self-sacrifice looked like. I wish I could say his heart change prompted the same change in me...but I cannot. I do see the Lord working in my heart and the idols of it are s l o w l y being stripped away, but it has been a process.

Zachary has been patient, kind, long-suffering and loving. I am so incredibly blessed to call him my husband. God fashioned him perfectly for me in so many ways. Both to grow me into further Christ-likeness and to give me completely undeserved joy and happiness on earth.

So Happy Birthday to the man who makes me smile, makes me laugh, drives me CRAZY, keeps me sane, makes me feel safe and does his best to love me with the love of our Savior Jesus Christ!! I LOVE YOU ZACH! :)

Pictures!!

So I already posted this picture a while back...but as a refresher, this is what the front of the house looks like :)


Here is the view from the "breeze way" going to the front door. David got me that super cute welcome mat for my birthday...he has such good taste! ;)


This is right when you walk in the front door and look to the right - a shot of the living room before...


And after.


Here is the view straight ahead from the front door into the dining room - before...


And after.


I don't have any before pictures with these views...but this is the living room from the dining room


Another shot from the dining room...


This is a view of the kitchen from the dining room - before...


And after.


Here's another view from inside the kitchen so you can see some of my color scheme...I'm loving the bright colors! :)


A view of the dining room from the kitchen


And a little to the right...a view of the living area from the kitchen. Notice the the little sign on the wall - this was a house warming gift from my dear friend Kalli in MN - though there isn't any other turquoise in the kitchen, it was my inspiration for the bright colors! :)


Here's a shot of David's room - before...


And after. I was SO excited to finally decorate David's "nursery"!!! :) I got this whole 'Playful Pond' bedding set as a baby shower gift from a group of wonderful family friends in MI and now we finally get to use it!!


Another shot a little to the right so you can see the cute valance :) By the way - my wonderful husband put up all the blinds you see in all the pictures and also learned how to install ceiling fans!


This is the guest bathroom, kind of across the "hall" from David's room and right next to the guest bedroom - before...


And after. I really wanted to do a fun color scheme in here...but it had this hideously ugly blue counter top - so solid brown was all I could come up with! It didn't turn out too bad though. You can't see them in the picture but I got some really cute bathroom accessories (toothbrush holder, soap dispenser, etc.) that are like a goldish mosaic tile...so overall I was pleased with the outcome :)


This is the guest room (located next to David's room to the left) - before...


And after. We've already had two guests from MN, (my friends Kalli and Stacey - it was SOOO wonderful to have them be a part of my new life in FL!!) Micah stayed over this past weekend and my mom and sister Rachel are coming in a week!! :) So our guest bedroom has been quite useful thus far!! That is precisely the reason I wanted it though...if we're going to live so far away from my loved ones, I really wanted a place for them to stay when they come to visit! The Lord was very gracious in providing that for us!


Here is our empty utility room. This is right off the kitchen and goes into the garage. Nice for when Zach gets home from work all stinky. :)


Zach attempting his first home project...it was already night time and we couldn't find the lever to shut off the water in the dark so we thought - how bad could it be to hook up the washer without shutting it off?


We captured this on camera as I took a second shower. We won't be doing that again.


The finished product. This is actually a DIFFERENT washer and dryer than the ones pictured above though. We also made the rookie mistake of buying a set off of craigs list...needless to say the guy scamed us and they didn't work. A few days later we purchased this set from a 2nd hand appliance store, which we were GOING to do in the first place but tried to save a few bucks and go the cheaper route. Another mistake we won't be making again. :)


This is the master bedroom, also right off the kitchen and next to the utility room - before...


And after.


Another shot...with our new bedding.


And a view looking out into the "hall" going into the dining/living area.


Master bath - before...


And after.


Another shot before...


And after.

Well, that completes the virtual tour!! :) We are absolutely LOVING being in our own home - all three of us! Especially for me, this is such a dream come true. We feel unbelievably blessed and our prayer is that this will be a home where Christ's name is upheld and glorified! We don't know what God's plan for us is here in FL but we look forward to the years he has for us here! And while we are here - remember there's a guest room waiting if you ever want to come and visit the Sunshine State! At least on until baby no. 2 comes along! ;)

We're In!!

Well its been a couple crazy weeks so I haven't had much of a chance to get on the computer and blog. But I figure its about time for an update! We did end up closing on Friday, June 11th and moved in that night! :) We had a storage unit for most of our big furniture items and many small things we didn't need while staying with Zach's parents so we packed up everything from there in the U-Haul on Thursday. It was SOOO much easier than packing up our little mini-van when we moved from Minneapolis! :) We got the biggest one so we had Plenty of room!
We did have one more bump in the road on Friday morning when we were doing our walk through with our realtor when we found out that closings with Fannie Mae are "dry closings" meaning, you sign all the papers but you don't actually get your keys until the title company sends everything onto Fannie's lawyers and then they approve it. So that was kind of dis-heartening seeing as to how by that time our entire life was packed in a U-Haul. But God was VERY good...by the time we were done with lunch at McDonalds we got the call saying the house was ours!!! Zach's parents met us at the house and helped unload the truck into the garage and then it was time to get to work! We had gotten a good deal on paint on Memorial Day so we already had everything we needed to get started. That evening at about 6:00 or so one of the families from our community group at church came over for a little "Painting Party" and really helped us get a head start on everything - we were SO grateful for their help!! Here are a pics from our "party!"






(Note: Micah was not actually at our party...but he did come to help the next day :) Thanks Micah!)



By the end of the night...we were all pretty tired! :)

Here's our whole painting crew from the first night - a BIG thanks to Zach's parents and the Theiss family for all their help!!

So the first couple days at the house we had to sleep in the middle of the living room floor because we had ripped all the carpets out.

Needless to say...life was a little dis-organized for that whole weekend as all of our stuff was in the garage and we had painting supplies everywhere! But we just couldn't resist sleeping there now that it was ours! :)

David rolled with the punches too, poor little guy had no where to crawl around and meals were eaten at random places throughout the house - but he really did transition well! I was a little nervous because he had gotten used to the room he was staying in at Zach's parents house and was in a good routine, but things just fell right into place at the new house!
Especially after the carpets went in! After the first room was done and still empty I brought him in and he just had a field day!! He was so cute the next morning too after the carpets were installed and we had brought all the furniture in after he was asleep for the night and when he came out of his bedroom and saw all the living room set up he just got this big grin on his face and crawled onto the carpet and just laid flat on his belly and started sucking his thumb...like that was all he needed in the world. Then he stood up at the couch and did the same thing on the couch cushion! He was just so happy to have a place to play! For the first time since he was born we had a place to call our own! :) Speaking of the little guy...he's just waking up from his nap! Pics of the house to come soon!!

Do I Dare Say It?

Well, I'm hesitant to announce that we are again set to close on Friday! It was touch and go this past week as to whether or not everything would go through. The changes that needed to be made to the deed and title could only be done through some additions to the original contract, but because it had been faxed back and forth so many times, it was pretty much illegible. They said it was no big deal, we could all just sign another one. But for us, that kinda was a big deal. You see, the only way we could afford this house is with the "First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit." And the only way you qualify for it (besides being a first time home buyer) is to be under contract by April 30th and close by June 30th. We had the closing part under control and our original contract was signed before April 30th, but signing a new one would disqualify us since it was after the 30th. So our realtor was on the phone with the seller's agent and said we would re-sign a new contract that was submitted for legibility purposes only with the old effective date...but the seller wasn't sure how they felt about that. So all we could do was wait to see if the seller's lawyers thought everything checked out in their favor with our "additional jargon". Of course this all happened on a Friday so we had to wait the weekend to hear anything. :)

But, by the grace of God, come Monday morning there was a signed contract sitting in our inbox! :) We are SUPER excited...again. This whole process has been a huge learning and growing experience for us. The Lord has been teaching us patience and trust and how to find our satisfaction in Him and not our circumstances. So we are praising Him for the growth in our life as well as the AMAZING blessing of a home of our own!!!

Just Kidding.....

Ok, so we just got a call today from our mortgage consultant today saying that she made a mistake and something needs to be changed on the deed. She thought that one of the local title companies was drawing it up but found out that Fannie Mae is handling it and we have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it changed...it could take up to two more weeks. :( Micah just moved back home for the summer and is graciously sleeping on the couch so David can continue sleep in his room. Praying for grace and patience as we finsh out our time at Zach's parents.

The Time Has Come

WE'RE FINALLY GOING TO OWN A HOME! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, there has been some ups and downs along the duration of this contract but we're finally set to close on Friday!! :) I won't go into all the details but we did not end up going with the USDA...Zachary working for his dad's company posed a problem with many lenders. We even thought that we lost it for a while and I went out looking at apartments, but we were able to find a lender who would accept us and now (Lord willing) by Friday evening we will officially be home owners! :)

We are going to move our stuff into the garage on Friday after the closing, rip out the carpets and start painting that evening. Then the plan is to paint all day Saturday and have our carpets installed first thing the next week. We are SUPER excited! I will take pictures and post them as soon as I can!

In other news...David is crawling and pulling himself up on things and has also got his two top front teeth in now as well! He has his 9 month appointment next week already, I can't believe how time has flown by!

David Update

As I'm sitting here listening to my son let out intense grunts while playing with his toys, in attempts to compete with the noise of his Gramma Tarter's vacuum cleaner...I thought, I haven't written about David in a while! :) I'll be honest, house hunting has consumed every waking minute. We have existed in two modes - #1 House Hunting Mode or #2 House Hunting Recovery Mode. The latter of the two consists of things like sitting on the bed with blank stares, talking in monotone voices about how tired we are and can't wait to get into our own house and begin normalcy!

So, with a contract pending now, I thought I would take a few minutes and post some new pictures of the little man! I can hardly believe he is 7 months already...and he is over 20 lbs, not sure exactly how much, but he was 19 lbs. 7 oz at his 6 month appointment and I know he's heavier now! His newest development is rolling over in his crib which, mixed with teething has made for some rough nights! He is still ever aspiring to MOVE! Each stage brings contentment for about a week or so and then he's trying new things. For the first few months he was fine to lay on his back and play, then it was the belly and lifting his head, on to a little bit of rolling - but he wasn't really digging that so he stopped. Then he learned to sit on his own and play with his toys, now he's lunging forward to his belly and has brought back the rolling. When he's playing with someone he also likes to lean forward and pull himself up. Everyone keeps telling me once he learns how to move there's going to be no stopping him!

He also gives hugs and kisses...not exactly sure if he KNOWS that's what he's doing, but that's what we call them. Most of the time they are nice and sweet, but every once in a while he really rears back and goes after your face!! There are three ladies that particularly draw this wild animal out of him - a woman from our church, our pastor's wife and Zach's mom. It was cute at first (and still is, I'll admit, laughable) but this boy's got two full blown teeth and is pushing 22 lbs! It hurts! Picture the scene - Mrs. Perez (the woman from church who for some reason really riles him up) comes up to him talking in her baby Spanish (she doesn't speak English) making her little tongue noises and tickling his cheeks. She then reaches out to hold him and once in her arms he latches on to either hair or earrings, which ever comes first, rears back and plants his open mouth on her face - shaking his head back and forth, chomping down repeatedly! And so, for the safety of others and the good of his soul - we have started teaching David what "No" means. Along with phrases like "Be gentle" and "That hurts Mama." :) As we begin teaching him the first of many, many, MANY things...I am humbled and appropriately frightened by the task set before us. Just another reminder that we can't do this alone, that along with the counsel of friends and family who have been here ahead of us, we need to lean on Christ and look to him for grace and wisdom and new mercies everyday.

So with that by way of an update on David...here are a few pictures of him from the past month or so. Enjoy! :)