Goodbye to Ann Arbor and Hello to Our New Home

On June 30th we went to church in the morning and then did the last tiny bit of cleaning of our old house and then we left Ann Arbor to head to Columbus. There is a lot of stress that comes with moving and I think I fall into the category of person who gets the tired kind of stress and the emotional kind of stress to deal with most. The weeks leading up to the move I just kept wishing we could do everything I or the kids or Jeff wanted to do one more time (or even for the first time...never did try Blimpy Burger, sigh) and then when it was time to leave I just kept thinking about all of our wonderful friends, many of whom had left before us, and all of the great things I had personally learned during Jeff's graduate school years. I know that the Lord truly blessed us in our time in Ann Arbor and though it sounds like we've been gone for years or something to say it, I will always treasure the time we spent there.

Trying out the backyard after the closing!  

One week before Jeff and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, we closed on our first home. As Jeff said a few months ago, "we're one step closer to the American Dream...of the bank owning a home in our names!"  There were a few ups and downs with things like the appraisal and such but we were glad to be able to close on July 1st. Our belongings were delivered the next morning after we had pancakes for breakfast.

Using the swingset table since ours was still on its way!

We turned the dining room into Paper Mountain for a few days. We all had a pretty good time playing in there but eventually it was time to visit the recycling bin. Jacob and Rebecca still refer to it as "the room that Paper Mountain was in." I guess we better put some furniture in there or something...

I had forgotten Jeff took this picture of me. I share it for your viewing pleasure/to give you a laugh. I think I damaged my knees when I came down. :)  

 One Sunday after church we tried taking timed pictures with everyone. Here is the first one, which actually turned out alright for the most part:

Jacob smiling, Rebecca trying on sunglasses...

I thought this was cute of Jacob looking up at me.

I laugh every time I see this picture. If those faces don't make you want to come visit, I don't know what to tell you :)