....In the Middle of the Street

Finding out that you are actually finally approved to buy a house is like Christmas morning.

But before that, you have to go through a lot of work. 

We searched for 6 months, with multiple offers, multiple fall-throughs, and a lot of disappointment. The first time we saw this house, though, we got a very good feeling about the home and the neighborhood. So we decided to offer on yet another house, hoping that this would be the one. 

We put in our paperwork...and found out our offer had been accepted! We were a excited, but since we'd had offers go through before we tried not to get too attached. 

I mean, seriously you guys, you have no idea how many random, "this never happens" situations we went through. 

But things continued to go well with this house. It was a newer house, had been redone with new carpet, new paint, and brand-spankin-new appliances, and it had a front porch. As more paperwork was pushed through, it came to the point where we were only waiting on the rural housing committee to approve our loan before everything was finalized. And that took 28 business days, to be exact.

Which is the equivalent of forrrrrrrrrever.

I believe we waited 29 business days before finally finding out.....we were approved! 

Which was a small miracle. 

Remember that one time the government shut down? Well rural housing is a government committee....which means it also shut down. And magically, miraculously, our approval was stamped and signed literally the MORNING BEFORE the shutdown. 

Skin of our teeth, right there. 

And I can tell you now, that I firmly believe this is the place we are meant to be. Because we were blatantly stopped too many other times, and this house came with too many small miracles to believe otherwise. 

First order of business? Painting the door of course.

I. LOVE. IT.

And I love our house.

Our great, big, beautiful house.

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {5-12-13}

This Sunday was not the best of Sundays. Whenever holidays come around, all the kids seem to get antsy and twitchy and chattery and reeeeeeally hard to calm down. My only comfort is in seeing all the other classes acting just as bad as mine when we sit down in primary {sorry presidency....you've got it tough}.

My partner was out sick, so I snatched Chris to come sit in on my class. And man am I glad I had a second person there, because they were all. over. the. place.

If there is one thing I have learned from teaching Primary so far, its that you really can't base your teaching skills or self-esteem off of how your class is acting some weeks. Because honestly, they are going to be naughty. They are going to throw paper airplanes at each other. They are going to look at you with that know-it-all face and tell you exactly why they don't have to do something. They will tell you you're a bad teacher. They will threaten to tattle on your bad teaching skills to their mothers. They will loudly whine in sharing time because you didn't let them color.  

They will be kids. 

And sometimes I frantically bust out of church like I haven't breathed fresh air in years. Sometimes I just have to let out a big ole' sigh because I'm pretty sure they didn't absorb an iota of the lesson I just taught. But that's primary. That's learning to be a teacher. And the funny moments always overshadow the bad ones.

Like during a discussion on the bishop's storehouse when one boy pipes up and says, "I bet I could do some calculations to figure out the amounts!" 

And the girl next to him sassily says, "You're not old enough to calculate!"

Or when the sharing time leader asks if anyone has a mom who follows the commandments, and one boy stands up and anxiously says, "My mom is obedient! But she didn't want to raise her hand so I had to tell you." His mother, also his teacher, turned bright red.

Like the times when you tell one girl who has the hiccups to hold her breath to get rid of them, and it turns into a traffic jam in the hallway because all the other girls stop and want to hold their breath too.

{who knew it was so much fun?}

Or when you ask them to explain what 'enduring to the end' means, and one girl compares it to having to re-build her lego castle multiple times. "I just kept having to re-do it because it would break, but I never gave up! And that's like enduring to the end."

I'm learning to be {extraordinarily} patient. I'm learning to say no and not worry about how upset a child may be because they will promptly get over it in the next 5 minutes. I'm learning how to find the humor in everything. And I'm learning how to tie lego castles into teaching the gospel.

And I love it. 

Gratitude

I am a little bit of a gratitude junkie.

I love sayings that deal with being grateful, I love gratitude decor, and I genuinely try to appreciate all the little things instead of overlooking them.

For some reason an attitude of gratitude has always been important to me.

And right now, I am suuuuuuuper {super super} grateful.

Once upon a time, we were trying to move. But Chris wasn't having any luck with a job. 

So we waited, and waited, and spent a lot of time on our knees.

And then suddenly, in the matter of a single day, Chris found, applied for, and was offered a full-time position.

Now, I received a wonderful transfer opportunity for my job, which amazingly {again} happened all in the course of a single day. I get to keep my current position, they will hold the spot for me, and I won't have to re-train for a different type of store, because it's the same as the one I'm currently working in.

And we decided we would take a leap of faith and move at the end of the month, despite not having a place to move to.

But really, I'm not that worried. Because at the rate things have been falling into place for us, I know a good apartment in the right area is just around the corner. 

The Lord's timing may be hard to wait for sometimes, but when the time is right the blessings will come pouring down. 

And right now, my faith in His timing is stronger than ever.

I can't wait to see what He brings us next. :)

Forget Me Not

Yesterday I read this post  by a friend of mine. She asks the questions, "What am I? What makes me special?" 

It was a little crazy to read as she pondered her questions, because strangely enough I had been having some of the same doubts and fears as she did. 

{maybe we all go through the same things at the same time and just don't know it until one brave soul says something.}

You know in classrooms and church when everybody's being introduced, and they ask you to say one unique thing about yourself? 

Oh man do I hate those games. My mind always goes blank.

And afterward, I find myself complaining to Chris:

There's nothing special about me. I'm not unique. I'm not doing anything noticeable in the world. 

These thoughts tend to stick around.

This morning as I was making the bed, I decided to grab the book, "Forget Me Not" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and thumb through it. 

Here is what I read:

God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. 

Let me add: God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not.

And yet we spend so much time and energy comparing ourselves to others--usually comparing our weaknesses to their strengths....As a result, we never celebrate our good efforts because they seem to be less than what someone else does. 

....be thankful for all the small successes in your home, your family relationships, your education and livelihood, your Church participation and personal improvement. Like the forget-me-not [flowers], these successes may seem tiny to you and they may go unnoticed by others, but God notices them and they are not small to Him. If you consider success to be only the most perfect rose or dazzling orchid, you may miss one of life's sweetest experiences.

And I realized, I have been so very caught up in what I'm not accomplishing, that I've missed the tiny flowers that have been blooming all over my life.

Man, did I feel stupid. 

President Uchtdorf compares the five petals of the forget-me-not to five things we should never forget. So, here are five small successes/blessings I will remember:

1. I was worthy enough to marry a strong priesthood leader in the temple. We are sealed for eternity--I know he will be a righteous influence for the rest of our lives, and preside over our family as such. 

2. Even though some days I feel as if I don't have a single friend to lean on {stupid college town--everyone moves away}, I guarantee that I could text one friend who is 300 miles away, and she would happily respond. And even if I felt awkward asking,  my sweet VT partner would be willing to help me in a heartbeat out if I ever needed it.  

3. As much as I worry about my hair not being up-to-date, or not knowing how to do it in the cute fashions I see everywhere, it still looks decent. I am complimented on it almost every week at work, and though I tend to discount that quite often, I must be doing something right. {seriously....i want cute hair.}

4. We live in a beautiful, spacious apartment where we are able to let our two cats run around. And if we haven't found a place up north yet, then it's because this is where we need to be right now. 

5. The Lord thinks we are doing all right. 

A little backstory for you-- a couple weeks ago, Chris & I were called in to meet with the stake president of a single's ward {yeah, we were thinking the same thing you are.}During the interview, he told us that Chris's name had come up. After we told him we would be willing to serve in whatever position Chris was called to, we also told him that we expected to be moving sometime this summer. He kindly nodded and closed the interview without extending a calling. He told us that if we felt that moving was what we needed to do, then the Lord would 'catch us some other time.' 

"Think of it like this," he told us. "The Lord knows that you have been living righteously. He's proud of what you're doing. And even if He isn't able to call you now, He'll call you to serve wherever you are, because He trusts you."

All in all, it kind of sounded like he was saying the Lord was giving us a thumbs-up. 

I hadn't been thinking of it like that, but it changed my perspective. 

We're trusted. He's proud of us.

Our successes are not small to Him.

I should be proud too.