Who we are, how we got here and where we're going.

Our Family

Welcome to our site! This is the place to follow along with us as we make our first home purchase and make it all our own with DIY renovation and decorating. We've had lots of experience with remodels- but never in our very own home! This family of five is ready to spread our wings in our very own nest. Along the way you'll meet the Hubs, my amazing Hubby who can figure out how to do just about anything he sets his mind to and just so happens to have a background in construction- he's the ringleader of this project, CJ the big brother and mini version of the Hubs, he's super creative and has lots of his own ideas for our home, Ladybug  (Buggy) the "big little sis in the middle" the other half of the estrogen in this fam, she's an organizer and she's fine with whatever the decor, as long as it's pink and purple and Little Man (Monkey), who's three and rather unconcerned with any of this, as long as he can find his army guys and monster trucks. That leaves me, the Mama. I'm a little bit of lots of stuff, including photographer, crafter, writer and decorator and I am SO ready to get this project on the road!

A little background for you: The Hubs and I are originally from Missouri, we both grew up there and lived there until six weeks after our wedding, when we piled our meager belongings into a questionable u-haul and moved 700+ miles to southern Michigan to work with the youth in a church the Hubs church was connected with. Despite the fact that by the time we arrived, we were following a tow-truck pulling our u-haul, it was love at first site. We have gone from staying with a family from the church to a nice little apartment a block from the church, to a large apartment over the church (which we LOVED) to a small house behind the church (which we have also loved!) Hubs has gone from a bus driver to a college student to a college graduate to a teacher to a literacy tutor (consolation for being laid off after his first year of teaching) with any combination of those, plus several other filler jobs happening simultaneously. After three years of being laid off, we're very hopeful that the call-back will finally come this fall! All of that has been just a side note to the reason we are here, our church. We've also done a lot of transition there, going from youth leaders, to college and career leaders and worship team and currently the Hubs is basically serving as an assistant pastor, co-leading worship and leading the youth and the college and career groups. I am now the "secretary" (very loose term there) serve on the worship team and occasionally help with the littles. Many have asked why we haven't gone elsewhere and easily found another teaching position for Hubs and the simple answer is that this is where we belong. We absolutely love it here, consider ourselves true Michiganders now and will have to hear directly from God to be convinced to go anywhere else. He has been so faithful to us throughout this entire journey and we have been and continue to be beyond blessed. We are so undeserving of even a fraction of what we've been given but we receive it gladly with thanks and praise!

That brings us to now, almost 13 years in, with our family of five crammed into a cottage style house that actually does have a lot of space but the simple truth is, we have a lot of stuff AND we love to fill our home with friends and family and a lately we are literally FILLING this house to the tippy top. We love piling on top of our friends as much as the next guy but in a bigger place we could pile in even MORE friends! Plus, as you read above, we have basically lived in church provided housing up until now and as absolutely incredibly blessed as we have been by that, Hubs and I share a burning in our hearts to put down some permanent roots in this area that has become home to us in every sense of the word. It is certainly hard to be so far away from all of our family and childhood friends, but thankfully we are able to visit relatively frequently and in a bigger house we'd have even more room for them to visit us!

So there you have it. At the moment we are in the paperwork stage of the house hunt. Unfortunately we've procrastinated a bit there but we're getting things lined up now and hopefully over the next few months there are some really exciting developments! Of course once we get our home there will be frequent posts and lots of pics to keep you updated with how tos and before and after pics (I can't wait!!!) For now, I'll post as often as there is something new to tell. So glad you've stopped by to share our journey with us!

Our current home (minus the snow!)