Yeah!!  We are actually progressing through this process.  While we do not yet have a renter for our current home in Colorado (which I am *not* stressing about, nope, I am NOT), we have decided to go ahead with the move to Michigan regardless.  Basically, this new job is anxiously awaiting The Pastor's arrival not to mention our Baby #4 will be arriving in mid-Feb. - he doesn't care what else is going on, he's coming OUT!! 

So we are packing up this house into the truck on January 6th (yup, that's three weeks away and NO, I haven't started packing yet).  The moving company will be driving the MONSTER huge truck cross country while we make the drive in our mini-van with our family.  I'm not exactly sure how these things work, but at some point the next week, the truck will arrive at our new house in MI (I hope they give us a day or two notice so we can get some church members there to help us unload).  In the process of the cross country trek, we will spend a night or two with my folks in NW Indiana.  The three kiddos will stay with them a few days while The Pastor and I continue on to MI and get the stuff settled into the new house.

Ahh, the house.  Yes, we *did* find a house to rent and it is big enough to fit our family and our stuff.  While I seriously don't consider our family "packrats" by any means (dh and I actually enjoy purging our stuff here and there and HATE clutter), we do now have four kids and all the "stuff" that entails - lots of beds, dressers, bins of clothing (0-3 month Girls clothes, 3-6, 6-9, etc. - in Boys as well) and of course the toys (inside and out which I will be purging again before the move and before Christmas time and grandparent gifts).  So anyways, one of the pastor's there and his wife found us a great house, in a nice neighborhood.  The owner was actually trying to sell the place, so it's not just a rental/investment property which isn't very nice.  It's actually VERY nice (I'm a bit amazed) and within our budget (again, amazed).  I'm guessing he went down a bit with our "Pastor family" status - I'm not sure, just a guess.

So it's over 1900 sq. feet, just a bit smaller than our current 2150.  It is all one level, which I have enjoyed in past housing we have had for it's easier-to-keep-clean managability (did that make sense?).  It also has a fireplace (not sure if it's wood burning or gas) which I wanted for those MI winters but didn't think we'd actually get.  The yard is HUGE (at least to us here in CO, where the yards are tiny, tiny, tiny) and there are actually TREES in the yard (again, doesn't really happen out here in CO).  There are already nice looking appliances, a 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, family AND living room and formal dining room.  It will be available for us to purchase later on (in a few years) if we really like the area/house but The Pastor already said we would have to be able to add-on to the exsisting house as he would really like 4 or 5 bedrooms so we could have a guest/sewing room plus another bedroom for children.   That's all so far in the future, I can't even think of that.  Right now I'm just thrilled we have a nice place waiting for us in MI!!

The Pastor is also excited as it is less than 5 min from the church.  Seeing as how we drive 30 min to our church currently, this is a BIG factor for him.  He could bike it in the nicer weather - or even get a motorcycle later on.  We are thinking of selling his little '77 Volvo to someone here before we move - we won't really need it.  It won't get us much money, but every little bit helps - plus one less small bill per month (insurance) is good too.

The only drawbacks (there's never a PERFECT house, huh?) are:  no basement and no fenced in yard.  The basement thing, well, I'm basically PETRIFIED of storms.  I've gotten better (maybe, it's hard to tell since we literally have NO storms here in this part of CO) with thunderstorms, but any wind and I get terrified a tornado will hit us.  So not having a basement is pretty scary to me.  Very few houses in that area seem to have basements.  We are wondering if it has to do with being right on Lake Huron.  Perhaps there's high water table levels or something that makes basement a not so good investment?

As to the no fenced in yard thing - on one hand, we like it.  We really don't like the feeling of being "corraled" in our yard, seperated from our neighbors by this huge privacy fence.  But then again, I have really enjoyed the freedom a fenced in yard has afforded me with our small children.  I was able to let them play outside in the back yard withour fear of one of them wondering off or someone snatching them away.  In the future, when we own a house, I think a compromise for me would be a split rail fence or something like that.  Practical, yet nice looking and wouldn't seperate us from our neighbors.

So there ya go, more than you could ever want to know.  Oh, and there's some wallpaper in the master that we want to take down (we are NOT fans of wallpaper - yuck) - again, like you needed to know.  I will be excited to share some pics with you once we are a bit settled in.  Ya right, during ALL that time I have from the time we move in until this baby comes - right around a month or so.  Yup, during that time I'll snap some pics of my perfectly arranged home.  uh huh....

Whoo-hoo!  Now it's really time for me to get serious and start packing.  My mil and bil are coming in about a week and a half, stay for week, then one more week after that and we move.  Ha, little did my dh's relatives know they would be coming to help us pack...

In Him~  MommaJoy