Home Sweet Home

10 months 27 days! Yes, that is how long it took for our big move into our new house! It was definately worth the wait!!! We moved into our house over Thanksgiving weekend! We had lots of help from family! I have to thank my Mom for coming to Saginaw for a few days to babysit Hayden while I packed up our apartment and Mark worked on the house. Sorry we had to have a crummy turkey dinner at Ponderosa, but maybe next year we can actually cook a turkey in our new house!! ;) I also wanted to thank my Mother in Law, Peggy, for babysitting all weekend so we could actually move and try to get somewhat organized! That was a very long weekend for you, especially since you had just flown in from TX the night before! I also want to thank my Dad, Linda, and Auntie for coming down on Saturday to help us move! Linda and Auntie unpacked alot of our stuff and got it organized for us. They even set up and decorated Hayden's room so she had a new bedroom to sleep in that night!! There is no way we could've done that with everything going on! I also wanted to thank Dad and Linda for giving us an early Christmas gift!! They bought us a new table and chairs set for our dining room. Most of you know what our pub table looked like and that it was not toddler friendly! We REALLY needed to get a new one and thankfully Art Van was having the "Biggest Sale of the Year". We managed to get the last one late Saturday night! Hayden loves being able to join us at the dinner table!! (Now if we could just get her to eat!!) Anyhow, THANK YOU for all of your help with our big move!!!

Now for the fun stuff! I really wanted to put a slide show on here showing the before and after pictures of our house. I am not the most computer literate person so I couldn't quite get what I wanted. Instead, I was able to post my pictures on Facebook, so I am really hoping you can click the link and see our before and after pictures. It is truly amazing the transformation of this house! Mark did such an amazing job renovating this house!! Here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50300&id=100000134538736&l=35ae0c6a89

It has been wonderful being in our new house! It is so peaceful and relaxing here. We must say this 10 times a night to each other. We went from living in an 880 sq. ft townhouse to an 1886 sq. ft home with full basement. We actually have room to live in and play in! We can sit on the couch and not feel like the walls are closing in on us. We don't have to listen to the annoying neighbors blaring their music, or revving their snowmobiles. We don't have random people ringing the doorbell, asking if we are the managers and if we have any vacants we can show them. I don't have to brush my car off in the snow anymore....I have a garage to park in!! We won't have to listen the drunk neighbor shooting off illegal fireworks for 2 straight weeks around the 4th of july! We don't have to have a litterbox in our bedroom or dining room anymore. No more cement floors, well just in the lower level!!! I think you get the point! I could go on and on, but the gist is, WE LOVE IT HERE!!!

Now for even more good news. Yesterday, we turned over all of our files, keys, etc. to our boss at the apt. complex. We are no longer the Resident Managers for Ivy Hill Condos! Even though the extra money would've been nice for a few more months, I am more happy to have my Husband home with us to spend time as a family. I can't tell you how much I have missed him over the last yr. He worked so hard, working 2 jobs and renovating this house. We did not see him much. I am looking forward to doing things as a family and maybe even going on a few dates!! And it is so nice to not be tied down to the apt. complex. We could never go on vacation because we did not have anyone to cover the complex in case of emergencies. We were on-call 24/7! Now Mark did agree to help them when needed. So he may be getting phone calls to go do some work, but they will pay him for his services when that happens. This is a much better deal. We do not have to prep the apartments, run the ads, show the apts., deal with the phone calls or sign the leases anymore. We are off the hook! YAHOO!!! I already changed our answering machine greeting!! :)

Last but not least, I have to say the biggest THANK YOU to Mark. You had a vision when we bought this house and you made it come to life. I can't thank you enough for making this house a beautiful home. You need to be extremely proud of the work you have done. It is amazing. I can't believe this is our first home. I absolutely love it here. Thank you for everything. I look forward to many happy years in this house with you and Hayden! I love you!! :)