House Hunt Update

Just a quick update...the offer we put in on Monday was beat out by a cash offer. So we made another offer on Tuesday - beat out by another cash offer. Made a third offer on Wednesday, were strung out until 5:00 Friday evening and then rejected. They did not want to wait 45 days (the time we're HOPING it will take for the USDA loan to go through) for their money.

So, we are on the hunt again today. We've got 9 houses to look at, beginning at 3:00. We are praying one of these might be The One!

House Hunting

I'm sorry I've been absent for so long! Things are still going well for the Tarters down here in Florida. The reason for my pro-longed absence has been house hunting! When we moved down here we were going to rent...but in our searching, we've found that in most cases it is far cheaper on our monthly budget to buy! So we were able to get pre-approved for a loan and are now on the hunt.

I have dreamed my whole life of having my own home and highly anticipated the search as well. But I have to admit...it is totally physically and emotionally draining! We've had a few ups and downs in the whole process and the Lord is using it to draw us closer to Him. We're not really sure how it's all going to end up...perhaps our biggest unknown is the fact that we are getting our loan through the USDA (and their partnership with Rural Development) and their government funding is set to run out at the end of April. If an offer we submit were to be accepted, as with any government program, it would take time to process and in reality would not happen before the USDA money is thought to be exhausted. Many reports say that congress will make the decision to continue the funding, but we won't know anything for sure.

So for now we are just prayerful. Prayerful that:

1. The Lord would be pleased to allow congress to continue USDA funding.
2. We would find the house that the Lord wants us to be in...sooner rather than later. :)
3. We would not put our trust in realtors or contracts or government but in God and no matter what the outcome, we would find our contentment and satisfaction in Him.
4. The offer that we are submitting at 4:30pm today (3/22/10) would be accepted.
5. In all we do we would be most concerned with the glory of God and making much of Him. Our desire in moving here was to pay off school debt so that we would not be tied down and open to where God would have our family in the future with regards to ministry opportunities. Through much thought and prayer, we feel that buying a home rather than renting would help us to accomplish that goal and are praying that the Lord would be pleased to honor that!

In relation to #4...we put an offer in this weekend and found out this morning that another offer higher than ours was submitted as well. The bank is taking all final offers until 5:00pm tonight. Through counsel and prayer, we decided to go ahead and make one final offer and leave it in the Lord's hands. So we'll see what happens!

Florida NEWs

In the month or so we've been here, life has changed drastically for our little Tarter family. So I thought to fill you all in on life lately, I would comprise a list of all the NEW things that have happened since we got here! Here it goes...

1. New State - Obviously! I've never lived any where but the upper mid-west my whole life so this is definitely new for me. We are currently living on the gulf coast side in Punta Gorda.


2. New Animals - On our way to church a few weeks ago we passed a pack of wild hogs! And I'm not talking a group of bikers! I couldn't believe it! I have never seen a wild pig before! Zach and I really like seeing animals...so it's been neat to see ones we're not used to! :)



3. New Occupation - Loving staying home with Daivd all day! I'm also trying to balance about 10 hours a week of administrative work for Zach's dad's window washing company. How I organize my days between David, admin work and other necessary things like showering, eating, laundry, etc. is still a work in progress!


4. New Hair-do - You may have been able to tell by the picture above...but I got a perm while I was in Michigan. I quickly realized after David was born that I was no longer going to have 15 minutes to do my hair after I took a shower! So 60 seconds to towel dry and scrunch a little curl cream is working well! Now its only a matter of time until I chop it off! Here are before and after shots...



5. New Truck - I finally have my mini-van back! Zach was previously using it for window washing, but now he has to pull a power washing trailor when he works so he had to buy a truck. Not just any truck, I found out after the purchase, but the "truck of his dreams". haha! Well, ONE of the trucks of his dreams anyway! Apparently he's always wanted a Dodge Ram...


6. New Sleeping Arrangements - For the first time since David was born...Zach and I have our own room!! :) And David has his own "nursery" (aka - Micah's room until he comes back from college!) No more tip-toeing around while we're getting ready for bed! I will spare you from pictures of our messy room (since it's our living room, office and bedroom all rolled into one!) but here's a few shots of David's...




7. New Toy - David is like Ready. To. Move. He has had it with his immobility! If he could just get up and run he would! But alas - at 5 1/2 months that's not happening. But we did go ahead and buy him this exersaucer so he at least feels like he's standing up and doing something productive!


8. New Ways to Play! - Night time around here is Daddy Time! And David LOVES Daddy Time! Don't get me wrong, no one can snuggle and comfort like Mom....but no one plays like Dad! :)




9. New Family Dinners! - We've only done this a couple times, but this past week we had dinner together as a FAMILY for the first time! :) David is not eating solids yet so he just sat with us and chewed on his toys and then threw them all over the place! hehe! But it was really nice to all sit down togeter!


10. New Friends - We have really enjoyed getting to know people at our church and have already had a few opportunities to get together with some of them. Most recently I was invited over for a time of visiting & fellowship/play date with a group of women my age and their kids (if they had any). We really had a great time!




11. New Game - David has recently noticed himself a lot more in the mirror and interacting with his reflection! He tries to grab his hands and chew on his face...haha!




12. New Tooth!! - On Friday, February 26th David's first tooth came in! :) We've been awaiting it's arrival for a little while now and knew it would be coming soon because this boy has been gnawing with vigor!! And forget the plastic teethers, the harder the object the better! If you look close enough, you can kind of see his tooth in this picture, it's in the bottom in the middle.


Well I'm sure I could keep adding new things to the list each day...but if I do I'll never publish this post! I'll continue to keep you all posted!! :)

The Moving Process: Part III

We've officially been in "phase three" of our move for a little over a month now - sorry I haven't gotten to writing about it sooner!! Phase two left off in Michigan and the move from there happened in two parts, Zach and my dad loaded up our van one more time...and he hit the open road the morning of January 6th. I then spent another week in Michigan with my family soaking them up! On January 11th, my Grandma Kivimaki, David and I drove to Milwaukee where we would fly out of the next morning. We stayed the night at my Aunt Lynne and Uncle Scott's house - who were Amazing. My Aunt had a home cooked meal for us when we got there, my cousin Lauren gave up her room for me and David and my Uncle Scott got up and drove us 45 minutes to the airport at 5:00 in the morning! My cousin Sam was great too...he finally got over his fear of dropping babies and agreed to get a picture taken with David, the ONLY other boy on the Kivimaki side of the family! :)

So as I mentioned we left at 5:00 am the next morning to catch our 7:30 flight (ok...it was 5:15.) We got there and my grandma helped us get checked in and then I loaded David in the front carrier and prepared to go through security with a baby, two carry ons and a cooler full of bottles of milk!! I had gone over this in my head so many times before I left...how I would get through the security check point with all of this and not bring the line to a screeching halt! I had placed all my electronics in an accessible pocket, along with my plastic baggie of liquids and gels, my boarding pass and drivers license and my printed proof from the TSA website that breast milk was considered a medicinal substance that could be carried on in amounts greater than 3 oz! I was armed and ready to battle it out with any security officer who dared question this momma...but, it was a total breeze! Everyone was super nice, the security line was short, no one questioned my "medicinal substance" (though they did have to check each bottle with a little test strip) and it was probably the fastest I've ever made it through!

Once we got to the gate we probably only had to wait about 10 minutes or so and then we were boarding. The Lord was very gracious, I was in an aisle seat and the seat next to me was empty and the gentleman by the window (who's name was John) was so kind! David really liked him! He held him a couple times and when he would talk, David would just giggle and smile! The flight went very smoothly and after we took off I was able to heat up a bottle and not long after David finished he took about an hour nap in my arms. He woke up just as we were beginning to descend but then his little ears started to hurt. I tried everything I could think of to help him - sucking on a pacifier, sucking on my fingers, drinking from a bottle so he would be swallowing, but none of this worked and he just screamed! It was probably only for about 10 minutes but it felt like forever because there wasn't anything I could do about it. I just held him and rocked him and cried myself! But after we reached a point where the pressure wasn't bothering him as much he stopped crying and was happy as can be again! We landed about 10 minutes later, safe and sound in our new home state of Florida! More on the good ol' sunshine state and our new life here to come now that I've finally finished blogging about the move!

Five Months

I cannot believe that David is 5 months old today...time has gone by so quickly! I thought in honor of this I would recap where our family was 5 months ago. Probably all of you who read this blog are my family and friends...so you already know the story, but here it is one more time!

Five months and two days ago I went in for my 40 week check up (on his due date Tuesday 9/8/09) and found out I was not dilated one single bit. Even though our prenatal classes made sure to let us know that we should really look at our due date as a due month so as not to be disappointed, we couldn't help it! I had eaten spicy foods, ran up the stairs (for any of you who had been to our old apartment...this was a task even for the un-pregnant!) and Zach even tried these "pressure point" ankle massages that were supposed to stimulate labor...yea that didn't work. So, given the fact that Zach was going to be 4 hours away at a football game on Friday, we decided to talk to our doctor about inducing labor so we knew for sure he would be there for the delivery. She was comfortable enough with the gestational age of the baby and agreed to do the procedure. We would come in at 7:00 pm the next day and I would receive some gel tablets to "soften" things up and get me ready for pitocin the next morning at 7:00 am.

So we arrived at the hospital, got set up in our room and met my nurse (who was absolutely wonderful!) and the doctor on duty that night (who was not as wonderful.) They gave me the first gel tablet around 8:00 pm and the doctor told me that since this was my first baby this was probably going to take a very long time, there was no guarantee the pitocin would even work and I could probably expect to see her on her NEXT shift the following night...and with those encouraging words she left. I know...it doesn't sound that bad, but my hormones were all over the map, so she bugged me. Anyway, I was scheduled to get these gel tablets every four hours throughout the night and my nurse told me I should try to get some rest so she gave me some medicine to help me sleep around 11:00 pm. Well, at 11:45 after attempting to sleep for about 30 minutes...my water broke. So we called the nurse and she called the doctor and sure enough, that's what it was and I was even dilated to 1 cm! We were very encouraged by this! Almost immediately after my water broke I started having contractions and they decided not to do any more gel tablets...so it had begun! Two hours later they came in to check me again and I had dilated 1 more cm to 2...at this point the doctor told me they could start me on the pitocin now instead of the morning, but I thought since my body was laboring naturally on its own I'd like to wait, I was also afraid of how I would react to having stronger contractions right away, since these ones were not exactly a walk in the park!

The next two hours my contractions started getting much more intense and when the nurse came to check me at 4:00 am I had dilated 2 more cm to 4! We were so glad that I was progressing and the nurse encouraged me that the first 4 are often the hardest. The nurse came back about a half hour later to fix one of the monitors on my belly and pressed on it to feel my contractions and it was very painful, she told me this was probably because I had not gotten up to go to the bathroom in a few hours and I was being pumped with fluids to keep me hydrated. So I got up to use the restroom (this being much easier said than done...moving in between contractions!) and once I sat down...I felt like I had to push! I told the nurse and immediately she called for "back up" and the two of them got me back into bed, checked me, and found I was dilated to 9 3/4 cm!! I had dilated almost 6 cm in 45 minutes!! From here on out it was a whirl wind of nurses getting everything ready and then a waiting game for the doctor. It was probably only a few minutes that I had to wait but I was not allowed to push until she got there so it felt like forever! Once she arrived, 11 minutes later our beautiful baby boy came into the world at 5:14 am. He was 8 lbs and 7.5 oz of perfection!


Being a mom is wonderful, hard, rewarding, daunting, amazing and humbling. Sometimes I look at this little boy and I just want to cry. He is a precious gift, one that has been entrusted to us by God and I seek grace and mercy everyday - that I would raise him rightly, that he would learn Truth, that I wouldn't teach him my sin tendencies, and that he would see Jesus as beautiful. I love this little man and I'm so thankful to have had him in my life these past five months!


Newborn

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

The Moving Process: Part II

Well, contrary to what some of you might be thinking...we did not drop off the face of the planet!! We did make it to our final destination...but I've had this post sitting here waiting to be finished for quite some time! Phase two of the process was spent with my parents in Michigan. We had a relaxing few weeks visiting, playing games and doing a lot of lauging!! Here are a few pictures from our time there...as you will see, they are all pretty much of David! I guess that's just where the camera gravitates these days!


David on Christmas morning. :)


A present from Grandma and Grandpa West


Along with some clothes...he got our old tickle me Elmo :)


Do you think anyone was excited to have him around?? haha!


He got along well with Krystle & Andy!




Looks like he should just let go and start walking!


Hangin' with Grandpa West


Grandma West making David laugh! :) (I can't figure out how to make this one larger...)


Just drinking his morning coffee... :)



Hopefully I'll be able to get back on here soon and fill you in on the extended phase three of moving!! But it will have to be another day...nap time will soon be over and I've yet to accomplish anything productive!

The Moving Process: Part I

So we packed up everything from our apartment in Minneapolis on Tuesday, December 23rd. I apparently thought our van could function like Mary Poppins magic carpet bag and hold way more that meets the eye...but alas, it was just a regular non-magical van and we had to get rid of like 3/4 of our things. My wonderful husband kept gently telling me that there was a good chance I was not going to be able to fit everything that I was continuously piling up in the corner of our living room...but I was in denial. He even called up one of his friends from school who is getting his degree in engineering to find out all the equations he needed to use to figure out how many things could fit...

Even once I got my "box of space" I still believed that I could fit more. Oh the silliness of me. Because of this false ideal I had in my head we basically had to unpack and repack almost everything. Thus leaving 7 1/2 hours later than expected! So, the apartment didn't get as clean as I would have liked and I accidentally left the milk in the fridge (oops!) and I had to get rid of a LOT more than I had hoped to...but we finally made it out were on our way to Michigan! Our van was stuffed to the brim with just enough space for the three of us. Zach made sure we had a little window so we could still talk during the drive. :)

David was a tooper while we rushed around like mad men! He had to watch his Praise Baby DVD like 10 times our last few days as we tried to make the most of every moment. At one point we had all of our pillows and bedding stacked in the corner, so Daddy took a break and he and David played for a bit :)



Due to our super LONG last day and the fact that everything was packed and ready to go in the van...David also had to take all of his naps on the floor. Poor little guy! :( He did great though!


Once we got on the road, our 5 1/2 hour drive took us 9 hours with the stops that needed to be made, but we finally arrived at my parents house at 4:00 in the morning and were thankful to be done with the first step in our moving process!!