New House, New Job...and sorry this is such a long post, but it's GOOD stuff!

Okay, I've been wanting to blog about this for quite some time but was waiting till everything was a done deal. And trust me, I've been about to burst at the seams. But I feel quite confident that it's all a "go" so I feel comfortable talking about it...sort of. Back up, about 6 months. I was becoming a little discontented with this whole stay at home mom full time thing and was really wanting to get a part time job. However, I didn't want to spend my entire paycheck on child care and I didn't want to work in the evenings or weekends, which would take away from our family time. So I just prayed, "Lord, if you would allow me to have a job, please just send the perfect job my way. I'm not going to job hunt or do any leg work. Just plop it in my lap if it's in your will." And then I waited. And waited. And waited. All the while, feeling very peaceful that something would happen, in due time. About 4-5 weeks ago, I was offered a job, out of the blue. I didn't even know of the position or ask about it or anything. They came to me. I still can't be specific on the job b/c it's not common knowledge yet, but it has been offered to me, I've accepted, and it was voted on by the powers that be, so it's a done deal, I just haven't started yet! It looks like I will start early March. Trust me, I wish I could tell you all about it, but it's not one of those crazy work from home schemes or anything like that. It's a REAL job in a REAL office, where I know lots of people. The job was PERFECT for me, right up my alley. Very technology based, which I love. And with flexible hours. And it's part time. YEA! And the best part is that it would bring in JUST the exact amount of money we need per month to GET A HOUSE!!!!!!!!! Can you see me smiling all the way from San Antonio??? I will be specific about the job as soon as I'm given a start date and it's been publicly announced. Until then, I feel I still have to be a little quiet about it. I don't know why I feel that way, but I do. But thank you JESUS! Oh and I'm still in training to do Kindermusik too, so I'm hoping to do both jobs. Kindermusik will only take about 2 hours a week in the beginning, so I don't think it will be too overwhelming.

And so that brings me to my next big news...WE'RE GETTING A HOUSE!!!!!!!! We will have to rent of course. Housing is still ridiculously priced here. It is coming down. But the time to buy is not right now. The prices will continue to fall I believe for a few more years. The house we are hoping to rent (we just put a contract on it Wednesday) has never been lived in. It's about 2 years old, in a BEAUTIFUL neighborhood. My favorite neighborhood actually, and funny, we never really looked in that neighborhood b/c we assumed we could never afford it. The house is AMAZING! It reminds me so much of the house we lived in in Hurst, TX, my favorite house, but we had to give up when I quit work to stay home full time b/c we could no longer afford it. But I think it's even nicer than our house in Hurst, defintely a nicer neighborhood. I do have pictures of the new house, but I don't want to post them until we've been given the definite "yes". We turned in our application and earnest money on Wednesday. They said it takes 3-4 business days to get the background check back. So I'm prayerfully hopeful, but cautiously realistic, if that makes sense. But it looks like it's a done deal as of now. He said the only thing they check is the criminal background check and since we don't have criminal records, I'm assuming everything will be fine. God totally provided the funds that we needed for a deposit, first month's rent, and moving expenses all at the same time. Our income tax check is a huge portion of that, but He also provided a way for Cary to earn extra $$$ a few weeks ago doing production work for his old boss at the production company he worked for in Dallas. The money came along right when we needed it, which was such a blessing. We know that if this house falls through, then God has something even better in store for us. So we'll wait (but not patiently...heeeheee). We're hoping to move in around the middle of March. I truly am grateful for the little rickety old house we've lived in for the last year, but I'm SO ready to move on to something bigger and more comfortable and newer, with a great big bathtub and a beautiful kitchen, with gorgeous cabinets, and REAL grass, and a big shower, and his and hers walk in closets, and I'll stop there b/c I could go on and on and on. But know that I'm exstatic. I think it will defintely make FL feel more like home to me.

Oh, and I almost forgot. When we were trying to decide which house to put a contract on, this one or another one we had been looking at for like 3 months, we just sat in the driveway at this house after meeting the realtor there on Monday night. We sat in the driveway and just prayed that God would lead us and guide us b/c we didn't want to make a disastrous financial mistake (like we have done in the past). Well, during the prayer, Lexi wanted to go to the park in the neighborhood. So we took her over there to play. And this nice couple walked up with their dog (I'm a total dog person) and their 2 girls, who are almost the same age as our girls. We started talking, and the girl said, "Wait a minute, is your name Heather?" I was totally stunned. She said that our friend, Melissa, who lives on that street and told us about the house in the first place, had told her about me saying that she hoped we would move into that house and that they even went on a prayer walk around the neighborhood and prayed that the right person would move into that house specifically. And then we went on to discuss all the other things we had in common and it was so fun. The next day at MOPS, I was summonsed to do childcare, unexpectedly, and I was pretty ticked about it. Not because I don't like kids, but b/c I have to psych myself up to work in the nursery and I wasn't psyched up that day. But the girl who was in there with me randomly said during our conversation about schools, "I would never go back to teaching unless I could go back to the school I used to teach at before I started staying home with the kids." I asked her which school it was, and it was the school that the new house neighborhood feeds into. She taught kindergarten and said all the kindergarten teachers there were awesome. That made me feel very peaceful about the school situation. I also had one other former teacher from that school tell me the exact same thing about that school last week. It just felt like over and over again, God was leading us in that direction and giving us the go ahead. Then the money we needed to do this fell into our laps at just the right time. Even better!

So that's my very long story. A good story, don't you think?