Our Home!

We've now been in our house for a little over 2 weeks and I am loving it. I'm not quite sure if it feels "real" yet, but as time goes on it's getting there. One of the first things that made me realize that this was really OUR house was the fact that I had a garage opener in my car... That just seemed so crazy to me. I have a garage opener on the visor of my car and it opens the garage to our house... something so simple, but so huge! No more walk to the parking garage each morning or hauling groceries from the parking garage to our apartment, etc!!

I am definitely looking forward to making some little changes to make the house seem more like 'ours'. I'd say that we made our first little/major change on Sunday. Early afternoon on Sunday, kind of out of the blue,  we decided to paint the family room and kitchen. When we woke up that morning, we really had no idea that we were going to spend the majority of our day painting... But I'll post about that later!
We are very fortunate to have bought a house that really didn't need any work. A few things here and there is all it needed and the rest will all be things that we want to do. After just painting one room, it's amazing how much homier the house feels already! It will be so fun to see how the house changes over the years and how it becomes even more wonderful!

I am hoping that I remember to keep taking pictures as things happen around the house so I can keep track of how the it changes over time. I think it should be pretty cool to see. I wanted to make a list of the things that we'd like to do to the house so we can keep track of what we've done as time passes. Who knows if these things will actually ever get done, and I'm sure the list will change quite a bit. It's definitely a list-in-progress! Really, none of these things are necessary, but these are just the things that we have said in the past two weeks that we'd like to do someday... And I'm sure Trent's list is a tad different than mine!

So here's my list (in no particular order):

* Paint the family room and kitchen Done - June 2012
* Paint the laundry room
* Add cabinets in the laundry room
* Add a countertop over our washer and dryer in the laundry room
* Add under and over cabinet lighting in the kitchen
* Add some landscaping bricks and things outside
* Add a cement patio next to our deck (possibly change the steps on the deck)
* Replace the plastic-hangy-stick shades (I'm not quite sure what their called) on our sliding door to the backyard with a new cornice and curtain
* Add curtains in the family room (and every other room that needs them!)
* Add stone and a mantle to the fireplace in the family room
* Mount the TV above the fireplace
* Paint the living and dining rooms
* Paint the master bedroom
* Get new curtains for the bedroom (after we decide what color we're going to paint)
* Finish the basement
* Add a cabinet for storage above the toilet in the master bath
* Get some shelves to go next to the vanity in the master bathroom
* Frame the mirror in the master bathroom
* Paint the bedroom that is currently dedicated to my stuff.... It currently is painted like this:

Not quite the look I'm going for, I guess....



I can't wait to start being able to check more things off the list and see how the it changes over time. I'll keep you updated as it all happens!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

The weekend before last, we celebrated my Grandpa's 75th Birthday!

My parents, siblings, cousins and uncle were all there to help celebrate. It was a very fun afternoon! (But that's true any time we all get together!)

We started off the afternoon with a mini bags tournament. My parents had gotten each of us in the family our own set of boards to have for our own for Christmas last year and even got them painted how we wanted them. Trent's and I's boards are Iowa/Iowa State and they turned out pretty awesome. (We used my sister and her husband's boards, though, so ours stayed nice and new!)

Our boards

 

My cousin, Alex, and Uncle Dan ended up winning the tournament, but I think everyone put up a pretty good fight.

After the tournament, we ate some food. We had grilled burgers and hot dogs, which is always wonderful, along with cheesy potatoes and some chips and fruit and other snacky things. Meals at Grandma's are always the best!

Supper was followed by Grandpa opening his presents. I think he got some pretty good stuff. He, notably, had lots of cards there from all the many people who love him very much!!

To finish off the night, we enjoyed some of Grandma's amazing cake and some ice cream and then we all played some games.

Grandma and Grandpa with his cake. He's also wearing two of his
presents: his Red Green hat and suspenders!

Playing games

It was great to be able to get to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him and spend some time with family. Our Grandpa is such a special man and all of his grandkids are very blessed to have him in our lives!

Love you, Grandpa!

And thanks to my mom for "letting" me use her pictures from Facebook :)

One Year Anniversary!

It’s hard to believe that on Tuesday, Trent and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. It feels like this year has just flown by. Just yesterday we got engaged and planned our wedding… then we had became husband and wife… and now here are with a year of marriage under our belts…

Me and my hubby on our wedding day

This past weekend we got all of our stuff moved into our new house and got some stuff situated (more on that later) and then both Trent and I took the day off yesterday to spend the day together and get a few more things done.

We started off the day by bringing Mattie into the doggy daycare place to check it out and get her applied to start going there. We decided that we would bring Mattie to day care a few times a week so she wouldn’t just be cooped up in the house alone for 10 hours a day. We have been lucky that Trent has always been able to come home to our apartment at lunch time each day and let Mattie out and hang out with her and he had a commute that equated to a 1 minute walk, so Mattie was never home alone for extended periods of time. So anyways… we brought her in and filled out some paperwork and then got to see the play room where she’d hang out with all the other dogs that will be there during the day. As we were standing there discussing it all, I got a little emotional just because I don’t want Mattie to be sad or scared. I don’t want her to think we’re dropping her off and leaving her or not coming back again and all that, so it was just a little sad for the moment. I am really certain that she will have a lot of fun playing with the other dogs and will be a lot better at day care during the day than she would be at home all day alone. I will just be very excited when she gets to the point where we can tell she's excited to get to day care and not be afraid of it or think it's the vet or something!

After we were finished checking out the doggy day care, we made our way back home and did a few more things around the house. There are plenty of boxes to unpack and stuff to put away and things to be washed, so we didn't have any trouble keeping ourselves busy on our last day off from work.

Later that day, my sister was in town for a meeting, so she got to stop by and say hi and take a look at the house, which was great! She even got to try out her new room where she gets to stay when she comes over! Haha!!

Yes, she is in our linen closet...

Then, Trent started up The Big Green Egg (our grill) and prepared to make our anniversary supper. We had pork chops, asparagus, and baked potatoes all made on the grill. It was delicious! (As is everything else that Trent has grilled so far since we moved in.) It is so awesome to be able to grill out now and I am definitely loving it!

Trent grilling our anniversary supper

Over supper, we talked about how fast the first year of our marriage went and about the exciting things that happened over the course of the year. Among the highlights were our honeymoon to Costa Rica and our house hunting journey. We finished up supper with some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. YUMMM!

Out on our deck at our new house
on our 1st Anniversary

It was so great to be able to spend a relaxing (yet productive) day at our brand new home together for our first anniversary. What an amazing way to round out a wonderful year! I love Trent so very much. He is the greatest husband and most caring 'dad' to Mattie. He spoils us both with love and I can honestly say that I have everything I could have ever wanted because of him. He constantly goes out of his way to do things that will make me happy, even when it's not something he really wants to do. He calls me out when I'm being a snot and really knows how to make me laugh. I am the luckiest girl in the world and I am so blessed that Trent came into my life. Only God knows what lies ahead of us, but knowing I get to experience everything with the man of my dreams, only makes me excited for all that is to come. Here's to what the next 100 years have in store for us!

Catch Up

It feels like quite a bit has happened since the last time I posted, so I just wanted to do a quick catch up of what's been going on in the past few weeks!

1. We had a family weekend in Des Moines. I can't believe it has been almost a month since this happened! It was actually part of us kids’ Christmas presents, but we were all very busy through the first part of the year and my dad was busy coaching his basketball team to the State Tournament J So the end of April was the first time that we could all get together. It also turned into an anniversary celebration for my parents. They have been married for 30 years!

We all met up at our hotel and my mom and sister and I went and got our nails done and then we all went out to eat and other shenanigans followed by heading back to the hotel and hanging out in the hot tub for a while followed by staying up and playing some games in the lobby of the hotel. I love family time and I hope that we get to do this again next year!



Family picture after eating out.

2. Our house appraised!! After we lost our last house we thought we bought due to it not appraising for the amount we has agreed to buy it for, we were not going to be completely certain that we had our current house until we found out what it appraised for. Thankfully, it did! It was such a relief to finally make concrete plans on when we were going to be closing on the house and moving and actually call it our house! We close on the house TOMORROW! Let the fun begin!
3. I took my 3rd CPA exam test. I took the test on Friday the 11th. I was VERY nervous for the test. I just didn't feel ready and confident with it and wasn't really sure how to get to the point where I was confident in it. So I just had to go for it. I really couldn't tell you how the test went. There were a few things that I know that I for sure got right, but there are things that really could go either way. There was probably only one or two questions that I had never heard of before, so I at least had a chance on all the rest of them! I used pretty much all of my time with this test. I think that I clicked out of it with less than 30 seconds left! So we'll see how it goes... I will find out about the test this week (today or tomorrow). It makes me super nervous to even think about it, so I just hope for good news...

4. We celebrated my cousin, Danielle's high school graduation with a party at her dad's house. A lot of people came to celebrate with her. We had fun hanging out and eating all of the good food. (And there was a lot!)


Cousin picture!

 5. After Dani's graduation party, I spent the night at my parents’ house and got to be there and hang out until it was time for us all to go to a friend’s wedding in a nearby town. It was a beautiful and fun wedding. I got to see some friends from college that I hadn't seen in quite a long time, so that was a blast. I wished my mom a Happy Mother's Day morning and then was off to Trent's parents' house.

6. We spent Mother’s Day at Trent’s parents’ house. We grilled out and sat out on the deck for a few hours. It was a beautiful day. Trent helped his dad do a little work on their yard and I got to play with our nieces in the yard. A wonderful Sunday!

7. We started packing all of our stuff throughout this past week to get ready to move. Our apartment now looks a little like this…

8. I went on a little mini family trip to Huron, South Dakota to celebrate my cousin Spencer’s graduation. They had great food and it was so fun to see family that I hadn’t seen in a while. And there’s nothing like riding 4 hours in a van with your family and grandparents!



My Great Aunt Jeanne, cousin Angie, Grandma Kock,
and cousin Chris at the graduation party

Hopefully that encompasses most of what's been going on over the past few months. Other than that, I've just been working and taking a little break from studying, which has been nice! Hopefully I get good news on this test and I can look forward to only having to study for one more test!!

I also can't wait to document our experiences in our new house! We had our walk through yesterday to make sure everything was A-OK before we took possession. The current owners were in the process of moving out while we were there, so we got to meet the wife of the couple. She was very nice and I thought it was kind of cool to be able to meet her and hear how much she enjoyed living in the house and the neighborhood. Also, seeing their stuff getting cleared out of there and seeing some empty rooms just got me even more excited to get our stuff in there! I am so excited that the time for us to move is almost here... FINALLY!

Halfway there!

I am sooooo happy to say that I passed my second CPA exam test! I had to retake this one because I had failed it back in February, but this time I came out on top! Not without a lot of nerves first, though!!

I knew that, according to the score release schedule, my score would be released sometime between today and Monday. Originally, I was contemplating not looking to see whether or not I passed this test until after my next one that I'm taking next Friday, but when it came down to it, I had to know...

I knew that today was going to be the day when I saw on Facebook this morning that the site, Another71.com, has posted "The 'powers that be' are officially saying Monday ... so all signs point to Friday for Score Release." I then proceeded to watch online all day as other CPA Exam test-takers announced when they got their scores.  I took the Audit section this last test and by the end of the work day, I had concluded that pretty much all of the Audit test scores had been released. Therefore, I knew mine was most likely out there for me to see too. Although I had decided that I was going to look to see my score today, there was no way I was going to look at it while I was at work. I decided this based on my experience with this test the first go around. After seeing that I hadn't passed the first time, I couldn't help but cry. It was such a let down and I was so discouraged and sad that I had to go through that all again, and I didn't want to have to hold back my sadness all day at work if this didn't turn out well. Therefore, I waited...


I went all day knowing that today would be the day that I knew for sure whether or not I would have to retake this test. I was pretty nervous whenever I would think about it, but I didn't get REALLY nervous until it was time to go home. I almost didn't want to go home because I was fearing the worst...

After work, I went and grabbed something to eat for us for supper and then made my way home. After we sat down to eat, I got my laptop out and went to the NASBA site to check my score. At this point, I really felt like I was going to throw up because I was so nervous and worried. I put in my information but I couldn't push the button to allow my score to come up so Trent offered to do it for me. I handed the computer to him so he could do it but peeked around to see what it was. Then... he pushed the button and this is what we saw:

Now, that looks a lot like a 70 at the bottom of the screen, doesn't it??? Well, you need to get a 75 to pass. So when I saw that, my heart sank. I grabbed the computer from Trent so I could get a better look and really take it in because I was kind of in disbelief that this had happened AGAIN. So I scrolled down and saw this:

I yelled, "It's a 79! I passed!" What a relief!! I was still shaking afterwards while we continued to finish our supper and it really took a little while for it to sink in! I'm halfway done!! I can't wait to get this all over with and finally 'get my life back' as some would say. :)

I've got my next test this coming Friday and then we close on our house and get settled in a week and a half after that and then hopefully just one more to go in late July or early August! Bing bang boom, DONE! Right?! Let's just hope it's that easy!

Have a great weekend!

5th Time's a Charm?!?!

So last time I wrote to you all, we had a house that we were planning on moving into around the 15th of May... Well, a lot has changed in the 3-4 weeks since I've posted anything...

The house that we had got appraised, and it didn't appraise for the price that we had agreed on with the sellers. We weren't willing to pay over what the house was worth and make up the difference in cash (A mere $7500 or something like that. Ha!) and the sellers wouldn't come down in price either, so we sadly had to let that house go and continue on our search.

That was the second house that we had made an offer on, and it certainly ended up not being our last...

This is the first house we offered on:

Our realtor found this house for us because she knew the listing agent and knew the people who were selling the house, so we got to get in and see it before the house was even listed. It was about the 10th or so house that we had seen and I really liked it. We made an offer on the house and went back and forth with the sellers for a while until they decided that they weren't even sure if they wanted to sell it anymore... Basically, they were afraid they weren't going to find another house that they liked by the time they had to be out and so they decided to not sell at that time.  

They ended up listing the house about a week later and it is still on the market today (this was almost 3 months ago)... I know they are kicking themselves for not accepting our offer. Oh well, I suppose that was good for us!

Here is the second house we offered on, and what we thought was going to be our home:

As I said above, this house fell through because of the appraisal... It was a sad day, but I guess that one wasn't meant to be, either.

This beauty below is the third house we offered on: 

I L.O.V.E this house! I seriously probably would have cried if we had gotten this house because it was so great. I mean, look how pretty it is in that picture! We went and saw this house on the same day that it was lowered by $8,000 in price. Needless to say, we weren't the only ones that looked at it that day and got into a competition with other buyers when we made our offer. We were outbid and didn't get the house, which was very sad to me, but oh well to that one I guess, too. We couldn't have been that far off on our offer from the people that actually got the house, and after learning from that experience, had we been in that situation again, I think we would have made a slightly different offer and may have gotten it... But I guess we'll never know... Sigh..

This is the FOURTH house we made an offer on: 

We actually could have had this house if we wanted it. This house was the very first one that we ever thought about making an offer on before we got distracted by the actual first house we offered on, and it has been sitting on the market for about 5 months now. It has a nice floorplan, but definitely needs some work. We low balled on this house and were planning on redoing a lot of things. I would have gotten new carpet and we would have updated the kitchen and put in hardwood floors throughout the main floor and all that good stuff. I think it would have been pretty nice in the end. 

So what happened with this house was that we offered on it and the seller countered back at us Before we countered back, another house came on the market that our realtor thought that we might like, so we went and looked at that one. In the meantime, the seller of the above house came down to our initial offer - he really wanted to sell this house. We ended up liking the other one so we turned down the sellers offer and went after the house that we are now under contract on...

And here is the house we made our FIFTH and hopefully last offer on for a very long time!

We went and looked at this house the day after it came on the market. The listing agent told us that there were about 11 showings within the first 2 days of it being listed, so we knew of we liked this house that we had to do something about it right away. After walking through the house, we knew we liked it and wanted to try to make it ours. We got our offer in within a few hours after looking at the house and hoped that they could get it approved quickly so no one else had a chance to get their offer in. Before our offer got approved, there did end up being another offer on the house, but we won this time. YIPPEE!! I can't believe that this is going to be our first home! I can't wait to move in!

With that being said, I know we've been here before and ended up losing the house... but what are the chances of that happening to us twice?!? I'm pretty confident that everything will work out, but I will be very relieved and excited when the papers are signed and the house is ours!

We have our inspection tomorrow morning, so I'm excited to get to go the house and see it again. Then, in the afternoon, we're going furniture shopping in the afternoon! I'm SOOO excited for that! I think, then, we will get to finally start to picture what our house is going to look like as we start getting things to fill the house with.

I really see us living in this home and I am very excited to start a new chapter of our life together there. There is a perfect little fenced in backyard for Mattie and a beautiful kitchen with about 4 times as many cabinets as the kitchen we currently have (no joke). There's enough room for a new king sized bed that we are going to love, I'm sure, and I just can't wait to make it our own!!

I truly believe that all of the other houses that we offered on and really liked and could see ourselves in all fell through for a reason. I believe that we ended up where we were meant to be and we are going to enjoy this house for many years to come. Everything happens for a reason! 

AUD, Take 2

I have been MIA for a few days, but about Wednesday of last week I got very nervous and felt like I was running out of time to study for my CPA test I took this morning, so I didn't really want to let myself do anything besides work (which was very busy towards the end of last week) and study as much as my brain would allow!

I did make time on Thursday to go a Francesca Battistelli and Jeremy Camp concert with Trent, my friend, Lauren, and her cousin. It was so amazing. We were a little late because I didn't get out of work until later, but we made it just in time to see Francesca sing. She was so great. I absolutely love her voice and she sings such amazing songs. She is currently about 6 months pregnant and I could kind of tell that she was acting kind of funny during the concert because she kept not singing all of the lyrics in the songs and kept either leaning over or sitting down the majority of the time. Sure enough, a little while into the concert, she said she was going to have to be done because she kept thinking she was going to pass out. It was kind of sad that she had to cut her singing short, but I am pretty sure that no one there wanted to her pass out on stage!

Then, it was time for Jeremy Camp to sing. He is so great. I love his voice and it was made 100 times better because we were there in person hearing him sing. One of the reasons that I love going to concerts is because you get so much more from the singer while watching them rather than listening to them on the radio. They can take the songs that you have heard many times over the years and add so much more to it through the emotion that they can share and the stories that they tell about how the songs came about and what they intended to be portrayed through the creation of that song.

One of the songs that I had heard a million times over the past few years that really struck a new cord with me what his song "Walk By Faith". In the song, he sings the lyrics, "I will walk by faith even when I cannot see because these broken roads prepare Your will for me." What a testament to how we should live?!? Something that I have struggled with at times. These things that happen to us that we see as so messed up or bad or inexplicable really are a part of God's plan and we need to have the faith to believe that He will take care of us.

Another song that I love is called "This Man" and with Easter coming up, it really hits a place in my heart and makes me think. In it, he sings:

In only a moment truth was seen, revealed this mystery. 

The crown that showed no dignity he wore.

And the King was placed for all the world to show disgrace, 

but only beauty flowed from this place.

I could go on and on with songs that I love and words that spoke to me, but I'll let you dig around more if you'd like :) Here we are at the concert (sorry, not very good quality pictures):

So, I spent most of the weekend studying for my test this morning. I was retaking the test that I had failed in February, so the fact that I feel like I can't fail again made it very nerve wracking for me. I, all of the sudden, felt like I didn't have enough time to prepare. By the time yesterday evening rolled around though, I was pretty sick of studying and didn't know what more to do. I felt like there was so much more that I needed to know but really didn't know where to start. I felt like I knew the things I was studying, so I kind of took that as a sign that I was prepared enough for what I was heading into...

This morning, I wasn't really that nervous until I pulled up to the building. I got there around 7:08, but didn't really wanna go in TOO early (my check in time was about 7:30), but I could only make myself sit in the car for 2 more minutes before heading inside. I had wanted to be the first on there anyways (and I was) so that worked out well. I was able to get right in there and get going on the test.

I don't really remember how I felt last time, but I do know that I feel a little better overall this time. I don't want to be over confident (because I thought that I had passed last time and look what happened) but I know there are some questions that I got 100% right and there are question that I absolutely remember seeing in my studying so I'm pretty positive that I got them right and I don't really remember feeling like that last time, so I hope these are all good things... 

I don't find out how I did on this on until around May 7 and I take my next test around the 11th of May... so I'm just going to get to the studying and not worry about this one anymore until I have to. 

I, along with some of my co-workers, got invited to go to a Creighton baseball game tomorrow night as a little recognition thing from work, so I'm taking tomorrow off from studying and then I'll get back to the routine on Wednesday. I don't have as long to study for the next one, so I've gotta really get to it!