Meg's Memo

. . .writings from Wilmington.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

sisters

It's hard to resist TWO cuties in their jammies.
 

Ella
will be 4 months old tomorrow.  She is WAY bigger than Lily was at this age (length & weight).  Right now she is wearing 6 month (Thanksgiving) jammies.  We have her 4 month checkup on Tuesday.  I can't wait to see how much she weighs & how long she is.  She is going to be a tall one.



Here is Lily at 5 1/2 months (Thanksgiving 2010):
 

Here are a few more pictures of Ella.  She is such a sweet & happy baby.  


Monday, September 24, 2012

blessings upon blessings

We just have to share how GREAT our God is & how He is blessing us immensely!  We don't deserve it, but we are thankful & humbled.

Let's back up a little bit (two months to be exact)....
I was planning on returning back to work (I work 30 hours a week from home) after Ella's birth.  Jake & I had been praying about what God would have for our family.  We had decided that I should return to work, but we would reevaluate if it just was too much with my working from home & having both the girls too. My maternity leave was up after my sister's wedding. I went into work for a meeting & was told that they no longer had work for me.  The business had slowed down & I was being laid off.  This was a blessing!  We had prayed for clear direction from the Lord & being laid off was definitely clear direction.  So I became a full time stay-at-home-mom. My dream job!  I love it!
Now we are on one income.  Jake & I had both talked & decided that if at some point we had to sell our current home, we would.  We feel that it is so important that I am home with the girls while they are little.  It's only a short time until they will be in school & we want that time with them.

Now fast forward to last Saturday night - September 15, 2012
To clarify, we have not been looking for other housing.  Jake just likes to check Zillow periodically.  Well, Saturday night he found a foreclosure very close to us that was priced at almost 1/3 of the cost.  Sunday afternoon Jake told me that he found a house he wanted to buy.  I said okay!  Sunday night we went & snooped around the property (it is vacant).  On Monday, the house moved from being listed to a bidding site.  Also on Monday Jake worked on getting in touch with our realtor & our mortage guy - we used both of them to buy our current home.  We didn't have current email addresses for them so Jake got a hold of them Tuesday from their cell numbers.  We met our realtor Wednesday night (9/19) at the house.  It is a BIG fixer-upper, but we "loved" it.  It is listed as 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, sunken den, sunroom, rec room.  It is 2,400 sq. ft. which is a lot bigger than our current home. We talked & prayed a lot Wednesday night.  Jake continued to get finances nailed down with our mortgage guy.  We placed a bid on the house on Friday afternoon.  Friday evening the bidding site changed status to "accepting the Highest & Best Offers."  Bidding closed Saturday (9/22) at 3:31pm.  We talked about it & decided to up our bid $5,000.  We really didn't want to lose this house over a couple thousand dollars.  On Saturday we found out that we WON the bid!  So exciting.  God really gave us this house.  Jake found it & in one week God gave it to us.  It will substantially decrease our house payment & give us more space.

And here is floor plan I drew up of the house.  You'll have to click on it to enlarge the image. This is how the house sits now...we will be changing A LOT of this.  I had to guess on dimensions, but I think that this is fairly accurate.


There will be ONE item on each of our Christmas lists this year:  LOWES Gift Cards

Here are a few things we are praying about:
  • Our current house will sell quickly & for the right price.
  • All the inspections will go smoothly at the "new" house & that there will be no big issues (besides the ones we are already well aware of).
  • We will be able to do the necessary remodeling (painting, flooring, gutting the kitchen, etc...) quickly & prior to moving in.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
Psalm 68:19

Monday, September 17, 2012

this girl can sing

and she does...non-stop.
LOVE her & her constant singing.  

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray.
Is anyone happy?  Let them sing songs of praise.
James 5:13

Monday, September 10, 2012

Lily's first DANCE class

Today was Lily's first dance class with Tip Tap Toe.
We decided last night that we were going to do the class, so we still need to get some real dance clothes.  Thanks for the tutu's Auntie Em!



She had fun & we can't wait for next Monday.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Labor Day Weekend with Auntie Em

My sister, Emily, came to visit for Labor Day weekend.  It was so fun to have her & Lily loves her Auntie Em!  She especially loves going thru her purse.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend:




Emily even babysat the girls so Jake & I could go to a movie.  Thanks Em!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

look alikes

My mom emailed me this picture last night....so now we know...Ella looks just like I did at 3 months.






Saturday, September 1, 2012

Game Day 2012

Our family was rather excited that the Notre Dame season started today.
Lily woke up & immediately asked to turn on the game & put on her ND jersey.
Go IRISH!


I love seeing how our family changes & grows over the years....