Our Soft Place to Land

My oh my, it's been a while. 

Well, we moved! It was a long, exhausting weekend but we are so happy in our new home and so glad to be out of what has now become affectionately known as "The Cave". It wasn't until we were sitting in our new living room after we emptied the truck and were taking a breather, that my Dad remarked, "I never realized how much of a cave you guys were living in before". 

This new place is so bright and airy and feels so much bigger than where we were before. We are thrilled at the promises of new memories to be made here.

We signed the lease and got the keys and officially "moved in" on the Saturday before Memorial Day. We brought over the bed my parents had been storing in their garage for our "someday guest room" (Dad was THRILLED that "someday" had finally come) and slept here that night. 

Sunday morning we got up, went to church, then to Lowe's to pick up a few last minute things we needed for painting, as well as some various herbs and other plants for our little garden. Then we came home and got to work taping, cutting in, and rolling. It was Mr. Ford's first time painting and he did a great job! We (I) chose a light grey color with some lavender undertones that really come out in certain lighting, and it looks FANTASTIC with the crown molding. I am so happy with it.

My parent's came by to see the place and I had sworn we would not make them work, but my Mom can't help herself. She VOLUNTARILY rolled an entire a wall. She kept saying, "Oh, I'll just do one little bit and then you can take over again". Nope...she did the whole darn thing. Thanks, Mom! 

That was a long day...we (I) decided at about 10:00 that night that we needed to do a second coat. So we were up until 2:30 that morning finishing that, and we still haven't even finished the second coat in the hallway. :/ We still have some odds and ends to finish up...

Monday was official "Moving Day". I dropped Mr. Ford off at the U-Haul pick up and I went on ahead to the apartment to finish packing up the kitchen. Mr. Ford's wonderful brother, Ben, met me there to help and we are SO grateful for him. We could not have done it without him. Mr. Ford and Ben worked so well together and were terribly efficient and Ben was the puzzle master that made everything fit into the truck. My parents showed up a bit later (they ran/walked a 5K that morning with my Dad's company), and we finished loading up the odds and ends in my car and their car. My parents are wonderful too, always willing to help us out with whatever we need. It is so nice to have them nearby. Then we all caravanned over to the new place to unload. Ben stopped by Grampa Ford's to pick him up so he could help with the planting, which was also an enormous help. That project would probably still be wallowing around if not for Grampa. That man's got a green thumb like nobody's business. 

Mom and I untaped the living room and I directed as the strapping men unloaded the truck. I was amazed at how quickly they accomplished it. I think they just wanted to be done with it. For all my effort to purge and get rid of junk, we still have a lot of stuff. Maybe I wasn't as harsh as I thought I was...

After everything was unloaded, we grilled up some bratwurst and had a nice little late lunch/early dinner, before everyone left and Mr. Ford and I were finally fully and completely IN our new home. We are so beyond blessed to have wonderful family so willing to spend their Memorial Day helping us move. We are grateful and do not take it for granted. And then it was time to start unpacking and settling in. I refused to stop until I had our bedroom and the kitchen more or less completely done. One thing I learned from my mother in all those years moving was always unpack your bedroom and the kitchen first. Those are the rooms you'll need/want to use the most. 

And then Tuesday we went back to the old place to clean and have an initial inspection. We learned in the initial inspection, that regardless of how clean we left the place they were still going to bring in a professional service to clean, as well as shampoo the carpets, and were going to charge us for that no matter what. So even if we had scrubbed our fingers raw to make it as clean as when we moved in, they would still take $70 out of our security deposit for a "light professional cleaning" because it was "policy". I lost any interest in cleaning at all, right quick and in a hurry. What a joke. And a rip off. So, we did the bare minimum to make sure they didn't take more than $70 and boogied. I was over it. 

We have spent the time since then trying to unpack and settle in and take care of all of the "other" moving stuff, like internet, change of address, insurance changes, etc. We found the exact couch I'd been wanting for a long time from IKEA for MUCH cheaper on Craigslist and are now trying to figure out how to get rid of the old one that is taking up an enormous amount of space in the middle of my living room and preventing me from really feeling settled. We also have to get all the stuff up on all the walls and finish the second coat in the hallway. Once those things are done, I'll share pictures. :) The next steps will be painting the bedrooms/kitchen/bathroom. 

We are so pleased and feel so blessed to be able to call this place home and we cannot wait to open it up for all of our friends and families to visit, break bread, and commune together. Ultimately, that was the driving force behind the desire for a larger place. We wanted to have space for people to gather, to get away, to laugh, to rest, and to recharge. 

Our guest room is open to you...yes, you...and our table too. Whatever it is you need or want, let us help you find it here in our home and at our table. If you need a calm from the storm, come. If you need nourishment for your belly and your soul, come. If you need a safe place to work out whatever it is you need to work out, free from judgement, advice, and blame, come. If you need a place to laugh and forget the hard things and remember the good things, come. 

We believe in the very depths of our souls that this is our calling and our purpose in marriage. To create and foster an environment where intimacy can flourish, for all who need it. We strive to make our home a soft place to land for each other, and all who walk through our door. We would be honored to have you here. And children are, of course, welcomed with open arms and open windows! ;) (Extra cookies when you come if you get that reference!)

We are headed to Napa this weekend for a Marriage Retreat with our church and are so thrilled to hear what God has in store for us. Clearly, it's something important...He's called us to Napa after all. ;) Our dear friends and mentors, wisely counseled us before we got married to find an opportunity once a year to intentionally focus on our marriage and that is what this. We are humbled by the generosity of my parents to gift us this opportunity, because it probably would not be happening without them. 

Y'all have a great weekend and start planning that trip to Hôtel Ford! ;)

Moving Weekend!

Well, it's here.

We get the keys tomorrow, paint on Sunday, and move in Monday. 

Oh, and I have a marathon packing day ahead of me today to finish up the last of it. 

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend...We'll be remembering with one of our favorite vets by making him help us move. Thanks, Dad! :)

I'll let you know how it went next week. 

Here We Raise Our Ebenezer

So...after that last post...things happened really fast and with much less stress than anticipated and we found an absolutely adorable little place, less than 24 hours later. It is so perfect for us and we instantly fell in love with it. Not two hours after we saw it, we were turning in our applications and the leasing agent was telling us it was ours. 

It's a sweet little two bedroom, one story condo with laminate hardwood floors, crown molding, a GIANT pantry, open floor plan, tons of storage, security screen door that the silly canine can't claw his way through, and no shower doors! That last thing sounds weird...but it was a biggie for me. I hate, hate, hate doors on a shower...I think they're super gross and super hard to clean. I much prefer a pretty shower curtain. SO much easier to clean. Our current place has shower doors and I was really insistent that the new place did not. Silly, yes. But whatever. It's the little things.

The front of the house...I'll post inside pictures once it's like I want it. :)

The landlord and the leasing agent are both great and are pretty much willing to let us do whatever we want, which means I can PAINT THE WALLS and we can plant a little herb garden in the front and there's plenty of room for our grill and little table and chairs. The place is the front unit on a building with only four units total, and the only one story on the building, so it's ALMOST like owning our own house. Almost. We'll take what we can get for now. And the leasing agent is going to push to get us our own washer and dryer in the unit too. She seems really optimistic that the landlord won't have a problem with it at all. Yay!

Needless to say, we are thrilled. And we get the keys a week from tomorrow! So, I've spent the last two weeks purging closets and nooks and crannies getting rid of stuff and Mr. Ford has been collecting boxes from work. Things have been moving right along. But I've started to get a little nostalgic too. The place we are in now has its set of issues that really drive me crazy and I couldn't be more thrilled to be moving out, but...this was our first place together. The place we came home to after our honeymoon. And I've worked hard to make it a place where intimacy can flourish. 

Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to snap a few pictures before I got too caught up in the packing process. Forgive the awful, awful quality and the less than stellar appearance. I'm moving. ;)

My (very) little kitchen. 

Our expanded kitchen/library/study. 

"Dining Room"

Living Room

Bedroom 

Beverage Cart...maybe one of my favorite parts in the house. :)

And because I just can't resist a cute picture of my pup...

We have lived so much life here already, in our 8 short months of marriage, and even in the year before that when Mr. Ford lived here alone before we got married. This apartment holds our tears...tears that have been shed over sorrows and tears that have been shed over joy. This apartment holds so much laughter...late nights of endless laughter and fun. It holds a young woman's first attempts at figuring out the duties of a housewife...many experiments in the kitchen gone horribly wrong and also wonderfully right. It holds a young man's first attempts at providing in many ways for his young wife and their canine. There are moments of self-discovery held within these walls, both individually for each of us, and as a married couple. And most of all, a deepened comprehension of one another and who we are called to be for the Lord and for each other, were observed and found, here in this apartment. The Lord has been so faithful to us and has provided for our every need...emotionally and physically and spiritually...and so much of that is held here, in this apartment. I felt like I needed to remember that...somehow. 

So, I suppose this post is really me raising our Ebenezer. When the Israelites were being pursued by the Philistines in 1 Samuel, chapter 7, Samuel called them together and they prayed and offered sacrifices to the Lord and asked for His provision. And the Lord delivered the Philistines over to the Israelites to be defeated. And in verse 12, it says, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, 'Till now the Lord has helped us'." Till now, the Lord has helped the Fords. We have prayed and offered our own kind of sacrifices and asked for His provision. And He has responded with the kind of provision that only the Lord God Himself is capable of. He has helped us till now and it should be recognized. The Israelite's Ebenezer stone was established so all would know of the Lord's help to them till now. This Ebenezer post is established so all will know of the Lord's help to us till now. 

All we have and all we are is a direct result of God's goodness to us and we are grateful beyond measure and we move on in faith that He will continue to be good to us. Here we raise our Ebenezer. Amen.

30 Days Notice

The Fords have given their 30 day notice to move out of their current apartment, which means a lot of this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

for the next 30 days.

If you need me, I'll have RENT and Newsies playing on a loop to get me through.

Godspeed to us.