10/28/07-10/28/08 One Great Year!

One year ago today we bought a new house, and made the leap from Tempe to Mesa. This was a huge deal for all of us. We were well nested in our little Tempe home (we lived there for 10 years!)...snug as a bug in a rug, A really big bugs in a really small rug! When we moved to our Tempe home Brandon was 3 years old and Davis had just turned 2. The house was HUGE compared to our apartment. I remember thinking, it takes FOREVER to vacuum these floors! Time flies and before you know it, you have way to much stuff, a couple more kids, a garage full of wheels and not an inch to spare. I bet I was the "master tetris mom" by the time we moved!
In September of 2007, we finally got the nerve to put a for sale by owner sign in our front yard. We thought there was probably not a chance anyone would see it, much less buy the house. We just wanted to test the waters, before we put out the money for a Realtor- sorry Scott! That week we got a few calls but the housing industry was starting to plummet, and fast... One morning as I was going about our usually routine, of breakfast, school, etc. I got a phone call. Someone had see our sign, he lived around the corner and would like to come and look at the house. Hmmm I thought, lives around the corner, neighbor curiosity. I told him to give me 20 minutes. So I straightened a few things up and had him come over. As he walked through he kept raving about how nice the house was, and now nice the quality of the workmanship was, and how much he loved the lay-out. As he was about to walk out the door he made me an offer on the spot... WHAT? I about passed out! I started shaking, and had to do my best to fight the tears back. After referring him to Bruce, and a little haggling, we made a deal. Now that was easier than I thought it would be. Me, being typically pessimistic, kept waiting for something to go wrong.. nope all went according to plan! Only thing was now we had no where to live. We knew just where we wanted to go, so we did not have to look to hard. Only would there be a house there for us, or would we have to rent while we waited for a house (I was not to fond of that idea!) Our dear friend, and A #1 realtor, Scott Varvel, AKA the Avocado man, took us to the neighborhood we had picked out. We looked at new homes, and lots of used homes. Finally we went though a house that we had walked through earlier that year, when the Martineaus had been looking. It was THE house, everything was perfect (except the itty bitty pool). So we bought the house ONE YEAR AGO TODAY. We moved one year ago- tomorrow!
I feel so blessed. We love, love, love our beautiful home. We love our neighbors! We love our new ward (even though we will always have a love for our Kyrene Ward).
I know God knows us. He knows our needs. He puts us in places where we will have an opportunity to learn and grow. Not always does the answer to our prayers knock on our door and say, "hey, I hear you have been praying to sell your house, can I buy it?" (but sometime it does happen that way!) Usually the answer is harder to find, but I have learned it is always worth looking for!