Well hello July, and so long June. I can easily say it was the busiest month of 2013 so far. I was substitute teaching nearly every day January through the beginning of May, but summer has been flying by with our to-do list getting longer and longer. We can't keep up!
Throughout June, we were out of town every weekend, tending to our ill cats (including multiple emergency room visits, a surgery, lots of waiting on test results, several diet changes, and lots of worry), Preston worked a ton, when I actually was home I stayed busy in my garden and with projects around the house (we've started the house-hunting process once again --- so between getting our townhome ready to sell and trying to find the perfect new house in a new town, we have been overwhelmed.)
When we first decided it was time to move I was stressed to the max. No house or lot we looked at was even close to what we had imagined. After a lot of thought and prayer we came to the conclusion that right now is just not the right time to build a house/buy an acreage. That's a future goal that we're looking forward to -- but it's also something we want to really take our time planning and finding the perfect spot for. With our budget and the time frame we want to move in, we've decided finding an existing home would be more manageable for right now. Not that deciding this has suddenly solved all our problems, but we feel much more peaceful about our plan now. God has such an amazing way of teaching us the same lessons over and over again and making us feel silly for ever worrying.
It's just our 2 cats and the 2 of us, but we're starting to dream of moving somewhere a little bigger where we have our OWN backyard. The size and layout of our townhome have been absolutely perfect for the past few years -- but now we just want to be able to build a fence or plant a few trees or paint our house pink without having to answer to an HOA. I don't think Preston would go for the pink -- but it's nice to have control over your yard/paint colors/outside doors and windows, etc. I'm sure we'll miss having our lawn care and snow removal done for us, though, haha.
It's a beautiful evening, so I think I'll post a few pictures from the past few weeks and go water my garden and go for a walk.
The first several pictures are of my sweet little sister, Olivia, from this past weekend. Preston and I stayed in Yankton this weekend so that we could see her play from her drama class she has been taking. She played Sal the forensic scientist and was AWESOME! So, so proud of her.
For family members who weren't able to make it to Olivia's performance, here's a shaky, not-great-quality video I took on my camera. Better than nothing :) My very first video I've ever uploaded to YouTube!!!! Maybe I'll start taking some videos while we're traveling -- Spain is only a couple weeks away -- eek!
xo,
Emily
