Our house is listed.....

Once we get the MLS number from our realtor, I will post it. But this morning we signed all the paperwork and listed the house. We really hope it sells fast, as Andy got his first offer (a nice one!) yesterday.

Here is the first listing out there, on Southeast Minnesota Association of Realtors.

Here are some changes/updates we made to the master suite. We should have re-done this bathroom years ago.

In the bathroom we took out the old sink, faucet, & medicine cabinet and replaced it with these. So much nicer. I also painted the walls, put a new valance on the window, put in a different trashcan (which was needed since this vanity was larger and we didn't have the space for the old one) and put a new toilet seat on. The glass shelf was there previously, but we painted the hardware white to match. And I put a new white storage thing behind the door instead of my clear plastic one.

In here we just put up valances instead of our room darkening shades....which if you watch the home shows you know you need to let in as much light as possible (plus we show off the nice new windows we put in last year) and I put a duvet on that was not as busy as the comforter was. And I moved the small desk & chair to the south wall, so there was a better flow through the room, it seemed to open it up. Oh, and I removed the room darkening shade off the french door leading to the three season porch off this room. I need to get some new pillowcases, as I don't like the silver ones w/ the gold throws (which I do like a lot), but these were the best I had here. The other ones were not fancy enough or were too busy. The room looks so much better in person that in this photo, but isn't that how it usually goes.

Kudos to Alliant....

This morning at precisely 6:57am, our power went out. After sitting around in our bed playing with Isabel for an hour, we finally called Alliant and asked What's Up? The showed up in around 15 minutes. Turns out a squirrel (now deceased) has chewed through a wire going to the transformer. It was all fixed with 5 minutes. We were impressed with their service today.

Start of Something New

With all the changes going on in our life, including relocation and job changes. I have decided to be a WAHM, well, in a way work at home. I plan to use my talents and knowledge and start my own business as a Holistic Life Coach. The details of my service will be worked out when we have made our move. I am very excited about this. I did like running a business previously and I really do like working with people and helping them be successful, so I believe that this will be a great career path for me. One of the main benefits for me is that I get to do something I love and earn money doing that. I also can maintain a balance of work & home. I can grow my business as large as I want to. But initially, I just want to keep it small and be home with Isabel as much as a possible. I will approach my life is the same holistic fashion I will coach others on.

Stress Management

Boy am I going to have to practice what I preach right now. My stress level is sure peaking right now. So, to fill everyone in -- Andy left his job 3 weeks ago, but had nothing lined up. He does/did have 6 weeks of vacation (which is now half gone). Now, I just found out today that my contract position is not being renewed. My position will be replaced by some at my contracted place of employment. There were funding cuts and as a result there were several positions cut that can fill my contract position. So, get rid of the contracted position. So, in 3 weeks I will be done working. Both of us will be unemployed unless Andy finds something soon.

We had been talking about him possibly taking a position out of state if a good position was offered to him -- which means moving. But without me having a job in this area, there is no reason we need to stay in our house if Andy does get another job in the Cities. I have alway loved our house, Andy - not so much. He's been begging to move for about 3 years now.

So, it looks like no matter what we are moving. So, PLEASE if anyone has any boxes please send them our way, as I do not have any since I used them to give away stuff on Freecycle.

I think what I am most freaked out about is having to move and leave our home. I know "home is where the heart is", but it's still hard to leave a place I worked so hard on. I like the idea of deep roots, although I married a man with roots that can be easily transplanted.

So, I have no idea what the future holds, where we will live or what we will do for a job. It's all uncertain.

Wine-O

Andy & I like to tour wineries and vineyards when we travel or if they are nearby. It's just something we do. Here is a link to find out wineries all over the place rather than having to do a lot of searching.