Empty Houses

One of our favorite hobbies is going through empty houses.  We look up houses for sale and many of them are empty and it seems they just about always have an open door somewhere!  I think it is done on purpose actually, because it is consistently done, and we take full advantage of getting to check out a house without having to deal with a realtor. 

This picture cracks me up because I didn’t notice Clara on the staircase until I saw the picture.  What a goof!!

Now Clara that is how you climb stairs!!  LOL. 

This particular house is a favorite of ours!!  We have checked with various different loan companies over the months from time to time to see if we can buy yet.  No, not yet!!  Our credit is good enough, which is great considering the hits we have taken!  The one thing we just can’t get around though is that darn short sale!  We have one more year to wait (not even a full year at this point).  The count down is definitely on, especially since there is a house we would love to jump on (the house in the pics above).  If it is ours then we know God will keep it for us, but if not, then there will be something else for us!

What is very interesting is that we absolutely love it here in Louisiana!!  I questioned the move here big time, and after moving it took some time to feel that we were in fact right where we were supposed to be.  It is different here.  Not a huge town.  Not as much of the conventional things to do here.  But we have grown to love the area and we absolutely love the people here!  We have made such wonderful friends, and the girls too!  The thought of leaving breaks our hearts!!

Mike has an interview the 21st of this month (June).  It is still with the mill and one of the decision makers is the master black belt that teaches the class Mike has had to attend in Atlanta this year.  Atlanta is where corporate is.  This man is the one who told Mike about this position (it is not an already existing position, but one that the company is in the process of creating).  He HIGHLY recommended that Mike apply for it!  Mike’s boss is aware and feels Mike is a shoe in for the job!  We are just praying God’s will and trust that God will make it very clear!  There would be more money (we don’t know yet how much more) and also it would put Mike at a level of receiving bonuses which would be a huge blessing!  It sounds like a great opportunity, however, there would be more travel.  Mike would have to go between several different divisions.  Because of the travel aspect we could live ANYWHERE as long as he is close to an airport!!  It would be best to live near one of the facilities though so at least when he is working at that one he is at home.  We have talked a lot about it and are praying, but we feel that we would want to stay right here!!  I would have never believed that a year ago!

The timing of everything works really well though.  We have to wait about a year to buy a house.  We don’t know yet when this new job would start (or even if Mike would get it of course), but if he did get it they do seem to be moving rather quickly on getting this job up and running.  We really didn’t expect interviews to begin this quickly!  It will be interesting though to see what plant he spends the most time at.  It will factor into our decision processes of course as we don’t want to be away from him longer than we have to be.  So, we shall see….

I know that none of us want to move though.  In fact, as I type this, the girls are at a friends house (they spent the night---it works great too because this friend and several others have two girls about the same age as our girls—so they both get to go—or the others get to come here and each girl has their own friend).  They both have the best friends here.  A really great group of girls that come from wonderful families and a huge blessing to all of us!  We have a church that we all absolutely love!!  We have a house church group that we absolutely love!!  The homeschooling community is the best of any state we have lived in and we absolutely love them!!  We just can’t say enough great things about where we live and what a great place it is to raise a family!  We have lived in a lot of places, and yes, we have loved them all for one reason or another, but here just feels like a better fit and we have always said it is easy to leave places, but hard to leave people and it would be HARD to leave here!!

We trust that God will be clear…there certainly never is a dull moment  :)