A new house plus some

So much has happened since the last blog post I wrote. It seems crazy that all this stuff has happened so quickly.

So Andre had been looking for a full time job for awhile. He had been taking a few classes working on his masters degree, but because he already had a bachelors degree and he hadn't actually been accepted into a master's program, funding was extremely limited. We decided it would be better for him to work full time and take a few classes at a time rather than going to school full time. So he began putting in applications.

He got an interview for a company on Bainbridge Island. The company is called Ozone International. So, we took a trip to the island (which is just a short ferry ride from Seattle), Andre did great in the interview, and they offered him the job. So, we took it. We had about three weeks to find a place to live (that we could afford!) get out of our lease in Moscow, pack up all of our stuff, and move.

I am amazed that we were able to accomplish all of this in such a short amount of time. It seemed that we had gotten out of our lease really quickly. but the people who were supposed to take it backed out last minute (like three days before we were supposed to move). I had had a lot of interest on it when I posted the lease takeover on Craigslist, so I emailed everyone that had emailed me about it and told them that if they could come the next day and look at the house and sign the lease, they could have it, first come first serve. We had someone come at 8:00 am and say they wanted it. So that all worked out.

Finding housing seemed like it was going to be impossible as well. Everything is so expensive in the area. We found one that seemed perfect, but the guy renting it didn't really want us there with kids. We thought we were going to end up in a really expensive apartment (but it had free tanning!). Then, the Saturday before we were supposed to move (we were planning on moving on Wednesday), we got a call from a lady we had talked to earlier. Last time we talked to her, she had a house for rent but had already found someone to rent it. This time when she called, she said that she had a bad feeling about renting to the other people (three 18 year olds that weren't sure they could pay the rent), and felt like she should offer it to us first. The only problem was that she wanted us to see it before we signed any papers. We were visiting my sister, Brooke, in Coeur D'Alene, so we drove from there to Moscow, and from Moscow to Boardman on Saturday night. We left the kids with Andre's parents and took another quick trip to look at the house. Andre's brother Atrayu and his Aunt Jessie came with us. We had an awesome time, even though it was just a quick one night trip. So we drove from Boardman to Sequim, Washington (where the house is) on Sunday night, looked at the house Monday, and drove back to Boardman to drop of Atrayu and Jessie and drove to Moscow Monday night. We got to Moscow around 1 am. We left the kids with Andre's parents so we could pack up the house quickly. We packed up the entire house Tuesday, picked up the moving truck and packed it up. We finished packing it up on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Sequim Wednesday night. We got to our house around 9:30 pm and slept on the floor that night. We unpacked the truck (with the help of two sets of elders) on Thursday and unpacked boxes Friday. Saturday we drove about 2 hours to meet Andre's mom with our kids. It was so nice to have them with us again. All this while dealing with being 16 weeks pregnant!

Our house is HUGE. We got so blessed with this place. It is a 5 bedroom farm house on about 7 acres. The best part is that it's only $900/month. The same amount we would have paid for a small 2 bedroom apartments. The downside is that it's about 45 minutes from Andre's work. But, he gets off of work at 3:30, so he's still home by 4:30. We're hoping to find someone he can carpool with the cut down on gas. But its nice to be a little outside of town. The town we are close to, Sequim (pronounced Skwim), is a decent sized town but not HUGE at all. It has everything I need (Costco, Safeway, Walmart, etc). It is close to Port Angeles, which has a few more amenities. For those Twilight fans out there, Port Angeles is mentioned in the first book (where Bella and her friends go dress shopping), so they have lots of Twilight festivals and dumb stuff that like. There is even a restaurant where Bella and Edward ate that you can order the Bella and Edward Spaghetti if you so choose.

Here are a few pictures of our house & our travels:

The kitchen does have a stove now :) 

Jessi & I having fun at Claires

Jessie and I on the Ferry 

Andre and I on the ferry

Andre, me, Jessie, & Atrayu on the ferry

The four of us on the ferry again

Another ferry pic. Jessie is trying to squish the space needle

The four of us at XXX Rootbeer in Issaquah on the way home. They make their own rootbeer and it is delicious