CRAZY move

So we have been planning to move to the Palm Springs area since August 2007 and have been making plans for our business since then. Before we actually moved out here we did a lot of research on the area to figure out where we wanted to live and everything else you could think of. We decided that we wanted to rent out a house so that we could have our salesmen live with us to save a little money on rent. Craig and I started to look for homes to rent in EARLY February, with plans to move into a home on April 12, 2008. We looked at A LOT of homes! Some that we found on our own through CraigsList.com and the newspaper, while others we found through a few different Real Estate agents. We actually found some that we really like and wanted to get; and others that could have worked but not the prettiest.

When it got to be a month until we were needing to move, we started to put in offers on homes, and for "SOME REASON" things just were NOT working out. It was either the Landlord was being weird and changing their minds about wanting to rent out there home, or not returning phone calls, or they just leased it to someone else. It was so FRUSTRATING! Time after time things just did not work, and the day to move just got closer and closer. So we just had to RELY on the Lord and PRAY that everything would work out. We just pressed on with school, finals, business plans, and packing up our apartment. We planned to drive to California the day after graduation, stay at my sister Tara's house that night, and move into our house the next morning (Saturday).




Well, Graduation day came...we had 90% of the apartment loaded into the moving truck (with the help of both of our parents, Aunt Donna, Julie, Brent, and Aunt Linda) and still no home locked down. So we just pressed on, kept looking, and praying some more. Friday morning...still no home, but we drove to Tara's house. Saturday morning, we had a few homes to look at with a Realtor, the homes were nice but there we some things standing in our way on every home that we REALLY wanted. After looking at those homes we went to look at a home that we were approved on (credit check) but we had never seen it so we wanted to look at it before we signed a lease agreement. Well, we went to look at it and it was not up to my standards...and I would not have been comfortable there AT ALL. So we told the landlord that we did not want it and he got all PISSY at us...it was just a frustrating day. Needless to say all Saturday we were looking at houses.

So there was no luck on homes on Saturday. So we were hoping at this point that we could move in somewhere on Sunday, because my best friend Bianca and her husband Ethan came down from Ventura to help us move in, my parents were here to help too, and Craig's 2 friends (Kiel and Devon) who are our salesmen got into town too! So we had this huge GROUP of people here to help us move into a home that WE DID NOT HAVE! Sunday we went out and got breakfast and picked up a newspaper, and while Craig and I (and the boys) were out looking at homes with another Realtor my Mom was nice enough to look in the newspaper and call some homes from there. She called a "really nice" lady named Karen, who said she would be busy for the next 3 HOURS but she would give us a call and she had 3 homes to show us that afternoon. So, we played phone-tag with this lady for a little bit but then we spoke and she was so nice and we planned a time to meet up, but before we got off the phone she said tell me a little about yourself. So, I told her that it's just me and my husband, no pets, no smoking, no drinking, etc. Then she asked "Are you MORMON?" So I said "yes" and she replied, "me too!" So we were then really excited to meet her and see these houses. She wanted to show us the BEST one first...so we met her there. It was BRAND NEW and EVERYTHING that we wanted! The only "downer" was that we could not move in until Tuesday morning. So, Karen showed us the other two homes and Craig made a joke that the first home was Celestial, the second was Terrestrial, and the third was Telestial. And Karen LOVED that joke!! So we decided that we wanted the CELESTIAL house. It was EVERYTHING that we had wanted...and more. We thought that we were going to have to settle for and OK home...But the LORD provided us with the BEST house because we were ever enduring, and patient, and just had to wait a few days longer. The reason why we could not move in until Tuesday is because ESCROW didn't close until Tuesday April 15!

We were also blessed with AMAZING landlords! They are an older couple from Germany that live here in Palm Desert for most of the year, and Canada in the summer. They are so kind. On Tuesday (the day we moved in) as we pulled up with our moving truck and they opened the home up for us they asked us what time we wanted lunch? And they brought us Pizzas and Soda as we were moving in! How sweet is that?!?!?!?!


Also, on our travels from SLC to Palm Desert we stopped in Las Vegas to visit Tricia and her boys for lunch. Tricia was really sick so we just stayed and talked for a short time. We had fun with Shane and Trevor...they enjoyed an apple snack in the backyard with Gramma Stewie.
Craig and Dad took Shane and Trevor outside to see the moving truck...they were intrigued by it. Shane kept on asking "WHY?" questions. As Dad told him that Craig and I had all of our stuff in there...he asked WHY? and on and on....everything was WHY? I guess he hit that stage in life. The funniest why question was he saw the blue exercise ball and he asked "why is there a ball in there?" Cute boy!
Shane got to look in and see ALL of our stuff!
Over the weekend when we were looking for homes in the valley Bianca and Ethan were helping us look on Saturday and in the evening we went to dinner at Islands. We had a good time! It was so good to see Bianca. I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving...so it had been a LONG time.