To the East Bay

We've moved!

Finally!

I apologize for the absence; we've been a little busy. Now that the dust has settled, I'm ready to write again.

Our new house!

Our neighborhood. Small and beautiful

Closing on a house is the most stressful thing ever. You'd think once they accepted your offer it'd all just go smoothly, but it doesn't. Of course. There were several timing problems, asking for extensions, and very fervent prayers over a piece of mail from halfway around the world, but somehow, it all came together! I still cannot believe that the Lord has blessed us so much! When I look at everything that happened, I can clearly see that His hand was in every step of the way. Right after our offer was accepted the market shot up and we would have found nothing in our price range. Every little detail fell into place despite the stress and setbacks. I know He answered our prayers and made this happen! I also know there is a reason we are here; He has some work for us to do!

Moving is also incredibly stressful, as I'm sure you all know. I will never, ever again pack our family for a move. I don't care what the cost is, I'm hiring professionals next time around (which hopefully won't be for a long time)! Just thinking about it makes me stressed: me running around the apartment, trying to figure out where to even start, while kids cry and crawl after me. Oh, and there was a crazy heat wave the week we moved, making our apartment into 90s all day and all night. So not fun. But thankfully, we hired movers to actually do the moving part, and it turned out awesome. No more self moves for us.

Our door is the one on the right

Jude checks out the backyard when we first got the keys.

I think it looks like an old lady backyard, lots of random plants and wood chips.

Back of the house. First thing we moved in was the slide

This cutie hangs out while mom and dad carry in half of Ikea

Big empty living room

Slash dining room

Slash entryway

slash kitchen

We have a PANTRY. And a kitchen command center!

I couldn't believe how many boxes we had, especially in the kitchen. Isn't that the way it always is? There's always more than you think, hidden away in tall cupboards and the recesses of the closet. Even with almost twice as much space as before, we've still filled it basically all up! It took a lot of effort, but I managed to get us all unpacked in a week. I hate living in boxes and hate living with things half-way done. A lot of things are just placed somewhere temporarily, but the perfectionist in me can't stand that. I'm trying really, really hard not to go out and buy tons of stuff to make this place perfect! It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we, like, live here. Permanently. I've got plenty of time to make this place amazing.

Now filled entryway & play area

It's not all organized, but there are toys and art station.

Note Jude's pumpkin bucket he found in the move. He's been playing trick or treat on all our doors

Living room/dining room

I love that it's all open downstairs. I can be in the kitchen and watch the kids in the living room.

We have a breakfast bar! Too bad Jude cannot climb up that high

Our backyard. Pulled up most of the random plants and put in a vegetable garden.

We are literally praying that it grows, the soil was not too promising. 

But it looks much nicer now!

More pictures of upstairs to come!

I love this house so far! I'm so grateful that we get to live here and start this new chapter in our lives. I love having so much space, having a backyard play in, having a garage to store boxes! You know you're old and boring when you're overjoyed about doing laundry without quarters or being able to park to your own driveway and not walk a mile to unload groceries.