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!