on the move

The Broady family is on the move...and still in search of where we are going. :) For a very long time, Keith and I have tossed around the idea of moving. Do we stay, do we go? We would casually look at the real estate market, but I really didn't find even one house that grabbed my attention. (unless, of course, I went up a few hundred thousand in the budget!) Keith would drive me to look at different houses, but nothing 'spoke' to me. :) He drove me out one day to check out a house and it was one of the best I had seen, but I was still very unsure. We set up an appointment to look inside (and took my parents). I got a bit excited about the possibilities of it, but it needed LOTS of TLC. I will spare some of the details, but it was pretty bad. And...our house wasn't even on the market. And...we were told there was already an existing offer on the house, contingent on those people selling their house. So..that was that. I assumed it wasn't supposed to be ours. I didn't think about it anymore. Keith would still look around at some options, but I just didn't.

I LOVE my house. We have a lot of history and memories here, so I wasn't really a fan of moving. I love where we have brought this house, what we have done to it, and where it is now. We basically renovated the entire thing, and I just have a sense of accomplishment with it. I feel like we finally got it to place we loved and were happy with, and then we were talking about leaving it. I could go on and on about the things I love about it, but it kind of gets me depressed, because...it isn't ours anymore. :( 

After months of deliberation over what to do we finally decided to put it on the market "just to see what would happen." I talked myself into the idea that I like change, which I do, and thought I would have a bit of time to process and think about it, and ease into this new idea. Wrong. We met with our Realtor, she put a sign in our yard, it went on the mls listing on a Wednesday morning, we had a showing on Friday, and an offer by that evening. What?!? 

Don't get me wrong, I was excited, but shocked! What had just happened? We didn't even know where we would go...and we had 3 kiddos to think about as well. I am a planner, so this was not an easy situation for me.

After lots of prayer and critical thinking, we decided to put in an offer on the house that we had looked at that one day with my parents. The funny thing was, we didn't really even remember what it looked like! We were told it was really difficult to get a showing with the guy who owned it...really difficult. It took almost 2 weeks just to get the first showing we had. We didn't want to wait any longer just in case the other people who had the offer in sold their current house and were able to move ahead. So...we put in an offer. And that was the beginning of a a very long nightmare...way too long to even remember all the details. It has been a mess.

There are several pieces to the crazy puzzle, but just a few are...this is a divorce situation so they both have to agree and look at all correspondence back and forth...and they don't communicate very well with each other (hence, the divorce I guess), I don't think the guy really even wants to move, and deadlines mean absolutely nothing to either of them. Contract after contract have been broken. When we first put in the offer, the 48 hours they had to respond, turned into a week. We then countered back and waiting another week...at least. The home inspections we had scheduled had to moved back due to the death of one of his dogs. 

These are just a handful of the issues we have had. Our Realtor counseled us a few times to have a strong 'Plan B' in mind just in case. Just when we would think she was right, something would happen that would cause us to think that things were moving forward. So, we would once again jump back in to the waiting, negotiating game. 

It's been such a long process that the excitement of all of it turned into panic, worry, and depression. If this didn't come through, I just didn't know where we would go. We devoured the real estate listings, drove to look at several 'options' only to be disappointed every single time. That was the one thing that just kept us moving forward. We couldn't find anything we liked.

My sadness really came from the realization that our house was gone. I didn't think I was a very sentimental person, but that has completely gone out the window! I have shed more that a few tears about the thought of leaving. All my babies were born and have grown up here. If this other house didn't work out, I could not find anything else that compared to the amount of space our house had, and I felt like I would be downgrading by moving. And I really didn't want to leave. A rough process! Poor Keith. :)

I wish I could say that it has all worked out and we are good to go with the other house, but we are still....waiting. Word has it that we will close next week hopefully, but we heard that 2 weeks ago as well. We have to be out of our house by the end of the month. We haven't even closed on the one we want, and that guy still has 30 days after closing to get out. So...we are homeless. :) My only peace in all of this is knowing that God has a plan. I am holding this all in the palm of my hand (fingers open) and allowing Him to do whatever He wants to do. I had to get to the end of me to really feel that way, but I really do trust He has a plan. And, if he cares for the birds, then He cares and knows what is going on in my little world!! :)

And...God has been so good in the midst of it all. We have had many miracles along the way. One miracle is the huge blessing of Keith's Dad and Grandpa. They were both willing to give up their homes for us to live in during this transition time of one house to another, and some additional time to do some work to the house we would be moving into before we actually move in. Who does that?!? When Keith told me that, I got tears in my eyes. They are going to bunk up with each other and allow us to have one of their houses, which I think is his Grandpa's house at this point. I am beyond humbled. It is such a huge thing for us right now. So...we are moving forward without a clear end in sight, believing that God is in control and will navigate us in the right direction. :) I really do believe that.
So...for now we are loading up our entire house and putting it in storage, taking the few toys, clothes, etc. items that we must have to his Grandpa's house, and praying that our stay there is short...for everyone involved. :)

I have to post some pics of my current humble abode just so I remember the little place years down the road. Don't want to forget it.

 My little Pay Pay's Room

 Addison and Kaden's shared room...yes, the poor little fella had to sleep in a pink room. (it was only going to be temporary until Payton could move in with Addison)

 Living Room

 Dining Room

 Our Room

 Our Bathroom

 Family Room

Kitchen

And...my favorite wall in the whole house. :) I love these pics of us this past summer in Destin. I wanted to be sure to get some good ones while we were there because I knew my kids would never be that small again at the beach. I know that I can obviously take these with me, but just wanted to remember them here.

Sorry to bore you if you don't care...just want to have some documentation for me and my kiddos to look back on. :) I have some pics of the new house as well, but just so I don't scare anyone with them, I will spare you. They definitely require some creative thinking. I am pretty good at that and can envision things, but some people can't!! One day it will look good I hope. :)

Keep us in your prayers as we believe for Him to move some mountains!

easter 2012

Easter morning I got the kids ready for church and let them find their baskets before we left. Addison knew they were hidden somewhere in the house. So cute watching them going around to look for them.

Kaden was obviously excited about his 'find.'

Payton was a bit jealous...check out her face. :) So...we were on a hunt to find hers.

She found it alright and immediately went to work checkin' out the goodies.

Then Addison went on the hunt for hers and scouted it out pretty fast.

I pretty much just love spoiling them and buying them things. :) I think it is more fun for me than it is them. :)


After the basket hunting and church, we headed to Mom and Dad's for the day. It was a beautiful day...warm and 'sunshiny.'

A pic of some sisters...Dan and Nat.

Here we are gearing up for another egg hunt...all on the front porch!

Dan and me!

Uncle Stephen TOOK OFF with Kaden to fill his bag with eggs. What a sweet guy to help him out. Kaden just adores him...and they have so many of the same mannerisms.

Ashley walked around with little Pay-Pay.

Addison was quite the champ filling her bag on her own. ;)

sweet :)

One of the really hard ones to find for Pay Pay. Ha!

Showing Daddy their goodies!

She was so proud.

Good job Kaden!

My wonderful Aunt Tracy brought THIS for prizes for the kids. She wins everything...and I'm really not kidding. She is one of the luckiest people! She bought a raffle to win this a few weeks before Easter and, of course, she won! It was so fun for the kiddos.

Mom was helping pass out all the items and helped decide who got what.

Since this was just Pay-Pay's 'size' this is what she got to bring home. I'm pretty sure she was happy about it.

And thought it was comfy too!

And...once the wagon was empty,....

they got a little ride.

Nat and Ash and a friend, Becca.

Some corn hole action for the day.

Dylan and Austin

Volley Ball time for some.

And....to top it off, we had a big fire as the sun went down. Kaden and Trenton helped gather some sticks.

Kaden just loved throwing them into the fire.

Stephen helped with the big logs.


It was a great day. We left for home with some sleepy kiddos. Thankful for a day to celebrate our Risen King with family and friends. :)

easter egg hunting

On Saturday, before Easter, Chelsey had said she wanted to go with me and take the kiddos to do some egg hunting. Thank God for her because there is no way I would ever attempt to take all 3 three of them to something like that by myself. I don't let much stop me or get in my way with them, but that just sounded a little bit much. Poor Keith doesn't get 'weekends' to have fun and do things all the time. Unfortunately, holidays mean absolutely nothing in our family. We celebrate them, but often not on the day they truly are. And...we just make the best of it. :)

It was a bit chilly Saturday morning when Chels came to the house to meet us, but we bundled up and headed out to a small hunt that our friend Susie told us about for their church. It was really just perfect for us...not huge, but TONS of eggs filled with lots of great, kid-friendly candy. What more could you want? ;) 

They split Kaden and Payton's group from the group that Adders was in. My Dad came and brought Allie and Kyllie too so he kind of stayed with them. I took K-dog, and Susie and Chels helped with Pay-Pay. There wasn't really much to do...they caught on pretty quickly. :)

 The funny thing was...the whole time he was finding these eggs, he had no idea there was anything inside of them. He (and Payton) just thought it was cool to pick up these brightly colored things from the grass and bushes and put them in their bucket!

 

 Lookin' so darn cute.

 Pay-Pay did so good and had a filled bucket by the end.

 Add fell in love with this little dog that belonged to the owners of the farm/house/land we went to. This pic makes it look kind of big, but this was seriously one of the smallest little things I have ever seen.

 Some of the goodness inside of Addison's bucket...and notice the egg in the top left! She found the golden egg! yay!

 Here she is wearing her sticker and waiting for her prize.

This was about the time that Kaden noticed that there was 'candy' inside those beautiful eggs. He then shared that with his little sister. In the little bit of time we stayed there afterwards, they consumed A LOT of candy. A LOT. My Dad kept laughing at how fast they were shoving it in their mouths. And...I just let them do it. :) I didn't stop them at all. There are not many times that I do that, but this was definitely a good exception. They had such a fun time and I'm glad that we went. We had buckets of candy to snack on for many days.

keith's birthday

We have been in the quite the busy season of life recently which has limited what we have been able to do a lot here recently. BUT...birthdays are special and important to me, and I like to make people feel special. :) And...often times it is really just the little things that do that for people. So...I made sure to take some time to make my awesome husband feel that way. He bought me box of my fav cereal for my birthday.

 So...I had this waiting when he came downstairs that afternoon when he woke up...his fav.

 And...I was still working on this. :) We both just love peanut butter and chocolate, so I went on a search looking for a good recipe. I found something magnificent. It didn't just look good, but smelled and tasted good too. And...took a long time to make! Whew! But all worth it!

This was my helper in the kitchen that 'helped' by licking the bowl of chocolate goodness.

Happy Birthday to my Honey! So glad I am walking this journey with you.