Overwhelmed - and loving it!

Do I have time for this post right now. I feel like so much has happened and there are so many tangents to this post, that maybe it requires more than one...oh well, I will get started and see where it goes.

Let me start out by saying that I am a control-freak, completely anal planner - so everything that has happened is so completely out of the norm for me, that it is almost staggering that I even allowed things to proceed in this fashion. Ok, here goes:

We are moving to Kingston. Ontario. I donèt think that is a surprise to anyone anymore. Tyler has a job with Queens University starting May 2nd. He defends his PhD on Monday (this Monday, the 18th) and then schooling is done. (Here is one of the tangents). Tyler and I have been students for our entire relationship. High School students, Under-graduate, and Doctorate. We have lived on very little, and yet have never felt like we were wanting. That comes completely as a blessing. We determined to pay our tithing, and to follow the prophet, and that is all I can attribute it to. Sometimes money would come in in the form of an extra job here or there, or family helping us out...but it all worked out in the end. A few years ago we bought a house in Cochrane when Lucy was a tiny baby. We lived in that beautiful, wonderful house for a year...and then decided as a way to save money and prevent me from having to go back to work, that we would put a mobile home on Tylerès parentès propety and rent our house out. Elder Oaks had come to speak to our stake and had counciled people to avoid unneccesary debt. We took it to heart, and this was our answer. We have been blessed to have tenants in our home almost every month for the last 5 years. It has paid down our mortgage substatially, and allowed me to stay at home and raise our children. Can I believe that schooling will be done in a week and that we will be *real* grown-ups with a *real* jobÉ No, it is hard to fathom.

We have been looking online at the MLS at houses in Kingston since Christmas. Never really sure when to make our move and when to head out there and look at houses in person. We didnèt want to go before our house in Cochrane sold, because what is the point, but we also didnèt want to wait too long and leave ourselves with no options.

I had been looking at a particular house for about 2 weeks and got to like it more and more the more I looked at it. Our house in Cochrane was conditionally sold, and we joked about flying to Kingston. Well, timing is everything I guess. I canèt leave on a moments notice and fly across the country to look at house! Apparently I can. We were literally talking about it at dinner on Thursday evening, and were on a plane by mid-afternoon Friday. Babysitters arranged (back and forth a bit between Grandmas, but it worked) and planes and hotels booked. A realtor contacted to set up viewings and we were on our way. I was in a near panic because I DO NOT work this way. But needless to say, my body was quivering (literally) with anticipation and with the Spirit, knowing that we had to go, and we had to go NOW. So we went. (I made a large novel of instructions for my mom and Tylerès mom on how to take care of my children, which they teased me about incessantly, but it is what I needed to feel ok about leaving).

We flew to Kingston and got into Ottawa at midnight. Checked into our hotel, slept for a few hours and were up at 6am to get ready and drive the two hours to Kingston to meet the realtor. We hit the pavement running and viewed approximately 20 houses on Saturday. (Side note: flying with your husband and no kids is way more fun...we watched the Kings Speech and a few episodes of the Mentalist and it was glorious).

The first house to be viewed was my favorite based on the pictures and description. I thought for sure that this would be the house. It was ok...not as great as we hoped, but still great. We then proceeded to view a bunch more that all fell into the same category. Then there were a few dumps, and a few more oks. To say we were getting discouraged was an understatement. (Plus we didnèt stop to eat all day, so that was wearing come 7pm). Were we really going to just have to choose between a bunch of *ok* housesÉ or would we find something we lovedÉ

Most of the houses we viewed were on the West Side...our friends live on the East side closer to the military base, and we saved those houses for the end of the day. We walked into a house in Greenwood Park and Tyler and I were revived. This was TOTALLY IT! To say we loved every square inch of it was an understatement. It made us tingle and jump and laugh. Quivering with the spirit again...yes. Only trouble - another couple was waiting in the driveway when we came out so they could view it to. NOOOOO!!!! I panicked. Please donèt like our house, please donèt like our house! (Yes, I was already calling it OUR house). We viewed a house across the street, and when we came out, they were still in there! ARGH! If you hate a house, you donèt hang around! We viewed the last 2 houses in the area and then went back to the realtors office to discuss.

This house was at the upper end of our budget, so Tyler and I paused for a moment, went for dinner to get the blood-sugar levels back to normal (seriously, my head was spinning), and to discuss. After a pause....confirmation! Yes, put an offer on his house! So itès back to the realtors office to settle on the offer and get things going. We did not want to end up in a bidding war. Papers were signed and we headed to our hotel around 9pm. Called the family at home and told our kids we found the perfect house. They were so excited too. Awesome backyard, 4-bedrooms, developed basement - totally awesome kitchen. Yay!

The couple who owns the house were out of town until late Saturday night, so their realtor wasnt able to get them the offer until Sunday morning. We headed to church and told our realtor we wouldnt be viewing any houses on Sunday, and that we would be unavailable from 10-1 while we were in church (I will talk about the branch in another post). As we left the building, we got a text from the realtor that we needed to call him. du-du-du! They accepted the offer (including the price, which was awesome, because we had low-balled a tiny bit assuming they would counter), except they didnt want to include the condition *waiting for the sale of our house*. Who does thatÉ Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Just before we got on the plane in Calgary, our realtor in Cochrane called and said the deal on our house had fallen through. So it was no longer conditionally sold and it was back on the market. We were really hoping to not have to deal with the fact that our house wasnt sold, but so it was. Well, we cant buy a house until we have sold our house...my name is NOT Donald Trump. I do not have a spare $400,000 dollars sitting around just burning a hole in my pocket. We stressed. We told the realtor we would call him right back. We called my sister who was at home in Calgary getting ready for church. We decided that the best thing to do was to tell him that we would have to get back to him on Monday, because we just didnt want to do business on the Sabbath and then pray that our obedience would mean something. We had already determined to fast the night before, so we were well on our way in that. So we spent the day driving around the town and checking things out (getting lost a few times) and visiting with some friends in the ward who invited us for dinner. AND trying not to think about it. We watched Elder Bednars talk from Conference on my iPhone because I had missed it, and then read over my lesson that I am giving in a few weeks.

As we were sitting in the hotel that evening, we decided to call home and talk to the kids and get some advice from our parents. The cell phone reception in our room was poor, so we decided to drive around town again and use the handsfree in the car. As we were talking to Tylers parents, his dad said, ÈHey Tyler, your realtor just called me on my cell phone. He says he has a new offer on your house and wants to know how to get ahold of you.È Seriously!É (I am literally quivering as I type this too, because the experience was that amazing...I know my description is poor). So we got off the phone with our parents, called the realtor, and discovered another offer was made on our house (by someone else who wasnt keeping the Sabbath...weird, but oh well). He gave us the details and said he would fax us the paperwork in the morning. We paused in the parking lot of our hotel and had a prayer of thanks. (Seriously, one of the most spiritual and amazing prayers we have ever had as a couple). We were truly overwhelmed by the circumstances and the outpouring of the spirit. Tyler commented that who knew flying to Kingston and house-hunting would be such a powerful and faith-promoting experience.

So paperwork was taken care of the next day. We were able to accept their counter-offer now that our house was again conditionally sold. We spent Monday working on banking to get a deposit and visiting Tylers new office. I was even able to squeeze a massage in (Glorious!!), and we went to Five Guys for lunch (SO DELICIOUS - another post). We drove back to Ottawa, hung out in the hotel, got up painfully early (5am Ottawa time, 3am Calgary time) to get ready for our flight home. Oh, and we stopped and looked at OUR house one more time before we left Kingston. Still love it!

This is my interpretation of the workings of the Spirit in our lives over this:
- We accepted the offer to move to Kingston, not knowing why, but feeling at peace that it was the right thing to do.
- Our house in Cochrane was conditionally sold which allowed us to have confidence to book a flight
- A house became available in Kingston that also motivated us to fly at this time rather than later
(Because the buyer on our house, and the house we bought ended up being totally different at the end of the weekend, than what they were at the beginning...but I assume those things were in place just to give us the peace-of-mind to get on the plane at least)
- We decided to obey the Sabbath. Now, I cant say whether it changed anything in the process of buying this house. The Lord may have had no problem with us making a phone call to our realtor on Sunday. But I do know this: waiting out the day gave us more leverage that we wouldnt have had earlier in the day, AND more importantly, waiting, and observing the Sabbath increased OUR faith that obedience is ALWAYS the best option.

Conditions come off on our house in Cochrane on Tuesday, and on the house in Kingston on Wednesday. And I feel at peace, but also completely in awe and again, quivering with the Spirit everytime I think about it. It has been awesome. I dont think I have felt more sure about ANYTHING since I knelt across the alter in the temple and said, YES.

Apparently the Lord wants us in Kingston, and he wants us in that branch. So whatever he has for us to do out there, we will do.

I will write about the abnormal and crazy times we had in another post. It was also nice to get away with my husband...so there is much more to tell.