A Month of Crazy Changes

Wow..I had all the intentions in the world to begin blogging on a more regular basis, but life just throws curves. My wife and I have had our home on the market for over 3 months and were showing it regularly (at least 3 times a weekend). With the current status of the housing market, we were starting to lose hope. It drove my wife and I nuts to have to continually keep the house clean in order to be ready to show it on a moment's notice. At the end of January, we almost declined a sudden offer to show the house. Luckily, my wife called the realtor back and said that we could show the house. A couple from Louisiana had been transferred to Memphis and had to buy a house quickly. The low balled us starting out, but we continued to negotiate until we came to a good deal. Surprisingly we came out ahead on the sale even after realtor fees, etc.

Once we accepted the offer on a Wed. evening, we headed over to Jackson the very next day to look for a home. My wife had been scouting houses for the past 3 months, but many of the ones we liked already sold. Luckily we found a home that we had been looking at off and on. About 3 months ago, we would never had been able to afford this house. With builders hurting right now, they had been dropping the home price over the past few months. My wife and I made an offer (which we thought was very low) and were surprised to find out that the builder accepted it right off...guess I should have gone even lower.LOL. With a house sold and a house bought, we had to be out of our house in Memphis within 10 days. Needless to say, this was enough to drive any sane person absolutely crazy. With the help of my family, we were able to pack up multiple loads and get all of our crap to Jackson.

Within 5 days of moving into our new home, a series of tornados came barrelling through Jackson. My wife, child, dogs, and I hid in a pantry under the stairs. We had hail hit our home and cars (yes, our cars were outside because the garage was full of boxes and my wife '65 Mustang). I had about 3 grand worth of damage on my car and my wife had nearly 2 grand on hers. As most people know, the tornados tore apart Union University in Jackson, TN. This cuts close to my heart considering I went there for undergrad and continue to keep close contact with several of the teachers up there. We all need to continue to keep these folks in our prayers.

Well, that's a brief rundown of the past month. We still have a bunch of boxes scattered throughout the house. It might be frustrating, but Rome wasn't built in a day. It's hard to watch a 20 month old, travel, and unpack. It will get done, but might take a little while.