Officially Closed

We are home owners now. Feels very grown up and a little scary. A little scary and a lot exciting. We could not feel more blessed with the interest rates so low, the tax credit, and the affordable housing in the Dallas area. I am so excited to move into our house, I loved it ever since I laid eyes on it (on craigslist of course). We are leasing the house back to the owners until May 29th, but they are moving out early so we will be able to move in to the house on May 19th. It is nice because we will have about three weeks to move all of our things before our apartment lease is up June 6th. It is strange to be so close to so much change but waiting and waiting for it to finally arrive.

LIFE UPDATE

Well spring break has come and gone and I am baffled by that it is almost April. We made the decision to go ahead with looking for a house one week before spring break. We started looking at houses during Spring break. We had an offer accepted March 27th. That moved extremely fast for me but I am thrilled with our potential new house. We would be nearly equidistant between my parents and The Village at under 4 miles to each location. I have been bummed since we moved to Dallas because I can't make it out to The Village for events on the week days very often. I want to get involved again in Bible Studies and Recovery on Thursdays and possibly the lay counselors training. I feel blessed beyond belief to have a church like The Village to call home and to believe so fully in their mission. I especially feel that way about the Recovery ministry which Glenn and I have gotten more involved with since we went through the steps ourselves last summer. We are both co-leading small groups for the spring session. It has been so good to have the truths of the program put back in front of me. God has shown me so many more things he has done in my heart that I wasn't even able to see before. It is hard to put into words on here so ask me and I will be happy to tell you more. I think it is such a wonderful tool that the Lord can use to show you the truth of who he is, the depravity of your heart, your rightful place before the Lord, and a new way to relate with others in light of these truths. Here is more info for anyone who is interested: http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/recovery All of that to say I love the Lord and what he is doing at our church which is why I am most excited to be able to live closer to The Village.

So in regards to the house itself I am super excited as well. It is 3 bed 2 bath very open floor plan. Just like Glenn's mom's house which we really like. It is beautiful and I can't wait to move. We will close officially the end of April but will lease it back to the owners until the end of May. Perfect timing as our lease is up on June 7th. I will leave you with a few pictures from the house:


If you want to see more just ask me to send you a link to the blog for the house or better yet you can come visit us sometime this summer!

Frederick

Glenn has a new obsession. He looks up videos on youtube and sends them to me at work. The obsession is greyhound dogs. It all started with a video on youtube of a dog named lemon head that was rescued after her racing days were over. Alas, it did not end there. While Glenn thinks greyhounds are the most lovely dog ever to walk the face of the earth I think they look like they are posessed by the devil. There is not a lot of middle ground. You be the judge...


If I saw that thing coming toward me at the dog park I would run. To be fair I will now attempt to locate the cutest and most flattering picture of a greyhound dog:


The only thing we have decided was that our dog's name regardless of breed will be Frederick. The reason is clear to those of you who are history enthusiasts and know the name of our cat. Since I have a hunch that may be zero to one person I will fill in the details. Glenn's step mom can never remember the name of our cat and the last time we were there she asked if his name was Frederick Douglas. We both found this rather funny and thought the name Frederick would be a nice addition to our pet family. It makes me laugh when animals have formal sounding names and both Douglas and Frederick fit the bill. With the added bonus of the historical reference how could you go wrong?

Weight Watcher Update

I wanted to update our weight loss journey. I hit my goal weight (130) the week before Christmas and have spent the last six weeks maintaining that weight. The maintenance phase of weight watchers was a lot harder than I had anticipated. There is something much more satisfying about stepping on the scale and having lost 2 pounds than gaining and losing every other week. I had my lifetime weight in last Sunday and wore heavy boots so that I weighed enough to fit in my four pound weight range. The good news is I am now a lifetime member of Weight Watchers and don't have to pay ever again to attend a meeting. I feel like I have learned a lot from Weight Watchers about having a healthier relationship with food. I love to eat and still do but I feel like my emotional eating and eating to feel happy has been curbed as I learned to eat healthy portion sizes. The added benefit of this is I have lost 18 pounds. My new goals are to get to the gym twice a week and make it to a Weight Watchers meeting 3 times a month. Glenn stopped counting points a long time ago and tries to make healthy choices when he feels like it. This is frustrating to me as I am a control freak and want him to follow the plan but I am trying to let go. I guess he is doing something right because he is weighing in at around 180. He still says he wants to be 175 but I think he is too skinny already. I wanted to make sure that this was floating around the internet as incentive to stay at our goal weights.

The Beginning of Glenn and Sarah

Yesterday Glenn and Sarah celebrated their 8th Date-iversary.

It began like any great romance....

Spring 2000:
They had quite a history you see. They had gone to Junior Prom together. And they liked each other but only their closest friends knew and that meant they didn't know the other one liked them. This was high school after all, this is how it went. But Prom ended very badly as Glenn decided to dance with one of Sarah's frenemies and then let her put her head in his lap at post prom. Bad decision.

Summer 2000:
They didn't talk or see each other once the summer before Senior year. He thought she hated him and she thought he was an ass. It was a match made in heaven.

Fall 2000:
Senior year began and she saw him at the back to school party and wondered how she made it all summer without him. They had more classes together Senior year and spent more time together, not alone of course (let's not get scandelous) but with groups of friends. That fall semester was a blurr from football games to the State Fair to being accused of being an old married couple. Feelings continued to develop between them but neither one wanted to be the one to say something first and risk being rejected. Sarah went to Mexico on vacation with her family that Thanksgiving and can remember hardly anything about the trip except listening to Evan and Jaron's song 'The Distance' on her portable CD player on repeat wondering how it was possible she could miss someone so much. She can't speak for how he felt at this time exactly but rumor has it the feeling was mutual.

December 31st, 2000:
This kind of thing continued until New Years Eve when Sarah had a party at her house. It may be the best party she ever threw. First of all it was a boy/girl sleepover. Secondly, there was karaoke and a murder mystery game and 'skating' on the iced over cul-de-sac and jumping on a trampoline covered in snow. And there had been talk Glenn was going to ask her to be his girlfriend. But the ball dropped and no big question....

January 3rd, 2001
Days passed and a mutual friend had a birthday pary. She was so excited to see him again but then he never came. Turns out he had the stomach flu. Of all the luck.

January 6th, 2001
Their friends couldn't take it anymore. Everyone knew he like her and everyone knew she liked him. They decided to ambush them. There was constant harassment at the bowling alley of Glenn telling him he had to ask her out tonight. There was a set up so they had to ride in the car alone together. Then a few of them watched Notting Hill until it was Sarah's curfew. They all said goodnight and the boys told Glenn he had to say goodbye to her at her car. Just the two of them she got up the nerve to give him a letter she had written him to tell him how she felt. He knew what it said he told her. He said he liked her. She said she liked him too. It was 11:52 PM. She was going to be late for her curfew. With the car door between them she said goodnight and she sped home. It wasn't the most romantic beginning but they had a lot of time perfect romance later.

Plans

Being a planner, January 1st often brings about a tendency to plan out the following 12 months the way I want it to go. I wrote in my journal a few days ago about my plans for this year be it buying a house, going on a cruise this summer, possibly starting a new job. I caught myself while I was writing realizing that God must laugh as I plan out my life. I know in my head that He is sovereign over any and all parts of my life but somehow that doesn't stop me from attempting to control it or shape it the way I think it should be. Yesterday things were brought to my knowledge that could change a lot of plans I have for 2009. It is interesting how God put that idea in my heart just the day before about how plans are nothing because he is in control. I pray that I am able to live the way I have professed with my words and believe in my head... depending on God instead of my own wisdom and strength.

Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

The Christmas Spirit

This picture is priceless. In case you are wondering that is Douglas stealing our thunder and standing in front of the camera. For some reason he has no eyes and it is very creepy. I am thoroughly amazed that we even have a Christmas tree up on December 11th and the only reason is Glenn. I am too lazy for holiday decorating. While I am typically a 'bah humbug' type of personality (don't get me started on Christmas music) I have enjoyed having our apartment decorated. It has been super busy ever since we got back from Arizona for Thanksgiving. Not sure what we have been doing, but we have been doing a lot of it. I am amazed at how much busier December is than other months. And it is rather inconvenient as there is a lot more that needs to be accomplished in December (i.e. gift buying). We will be leaving for an Arizona pre-Christmas on the 18th of December and then back to TX for the Christmas-Eve and Christmas festivities. On a side note, I have a habit of starting blog's or b-logs as I once thought they were called and then abandoning them after three posts. No joke, I have one from three or four years ago that ended after three posts saved in my bookmarks. So it is a minor Christmas miracle that I am continuing this blog after three posts. Please contain your excitement.