Boxes, Boxes, Boxes! & video

Well our house is looking a lot like this lately:

There are boxes packed and stacked in every room of our condo. I estimate we still have about one-third of the packing left, but it's mostly things we're using every day such as clothing, bedding, and kitchen utensils/dishes. We are set to close on our house next week and move out of our condo the week after. So we've got more packing (and later, unpacking!) in front of us. It has been quite an adventure to buy a foreclosed home! We have quite a bit of work waiting for us in our new house, and I think we are ready for the challenge.

It's funny what happens when I leave for the evening and Jason is supposed to get some things done....he engineers things like this.....(and yes, that IS our Christmas tree still standing! It's waiting to move, too.)

Video: Noah plays in the boxes

House update

Well the past few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. We have been in the house-buying process for a while now and are hoping to close shortly. In the meantime, this lady is starting to get a little worried with the amount of tasks to complete with only 8 or so weeks remaining before baby __________ makes his entrance into the world. (Not to mention the lack of energy that doesn't really motivate me to get much done!)

Jason and I have been busily doing whatever we can to speed the home closing process along. But due to the fact that it is a foreclosed HUD home and it had some plumbing problems needing to be fixed for an FHA-approved loan, it is just taking longer than we'd expected. Now it is up to the title company to get their act together so we can close. Jason got the insurance figured out, and I was quite proud of him for price shopping around to find the best deal. We bought a residential carpet cleaner on Amazon, kitchen appliances on craigslist, and found a water heater we plan to purchase at Lowe's. My family and several friends have been collecting boxes for us, so that has been helpful also.

Hopefully we will move in two weeks?! but I am not counting on it. I hope to continue working around the condo as much as I can, spackling picture frame holes, touching up paint, cleaning appliances, and spot treating the carpet. Once we are out of the condo we can deep clean the carpet in every room and do a final general cleaning. (Gotta leave a place cleaner than you found it! Plus Jason wants our deposit back =)

Once we get moved in, there is plenty to keep us busy: paint (in any room we have time for!), appliances to install, carpet cleaning/replacement, backdoor replacement, lights and fans to install, locks to change, curtains/blinds to hang, oh and general unpacking of course. :)

So needless to say, I hope we close quickly!! My belly is has an expiration date on it, and by then I would hope a good chunk of the work would be completed.

big decisions

I wanted to share a bit about some big things that this "Team Liechty" has been processing in the past few weeks.

• House Hunting

With low interest rates, deeply discounted house prices, and an $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit, we are very motivated to buy a house this year. Yet what a big decision it is. HGTV makes it look sooo easy to find the perfect home in 30 minutes or less. :) We are finding out just how tricky it is to find the "right" house; plus we are intent on staying under budget. We made a top 5 list for a house in our price range: open floor plan, 4 bedrooms (or 3 with an option to make a 4th), 2 levels (or a basement), yard space to play, and manageable utilities expenses. Other factors are not necessarily deal breakers, but these 5 are pretty much core to what we're looking for in a house. Though we did offer on one house, we are still house hunting at this point.

House hunting has made us realize how excessive the "American way" truly can be. Buying big houses all too often means buying lots of stuff to fill them. We are determined to fight this cultural norm as much as possible by not buying more house than we can afford, keeping our lifestyle simple and being okay with having unfurnished rooms/bedrooms that we will grow into later.

• To Stay at Home or Go Back to Work

I recently interviewed for a part-time elementary Spanish teaching position at a private school. This position forced me to consider where I am in life and what our goals and needs are as a family. After much prayer and discussion, we concluded that though this job might be a good fit for me as a person, it doesn't really fall in line with our family needs and goals at this point. It was exciting being offered a job, and in a way it validated that I am still marketable in the teaching world. However, going through this decision-making process reaffirmed in me again the value of being a full time mother for this season of life.

• Choices can be so challenging.

There are lots of good things we can say "Yes" to in life. And many times we do decide to do those good things. BUT. Sometimes we have to say "No" to the good things so we can instead do the BEST things. God has a plan for our lives and we desire to follow where He leads us and honor Him in the choices that we make. Our prayer is that no matter where we are in life, we are able to discern and choose the BEST things over the good things, that God may be glorified through us!

What's up in Indiana?

What all is going on with the Liechty family? some have asked us. We have had a lot of changes in the past three and a half months since returning to the U.S. after living in Nicaragua for three years.

Jason is working as a software engineer doing computer programming at a start-up company called Indigo Biosystems in Carmel, Indiana. They are designing a pharmaceutical product for Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer drug corporations that would enable researchers to have a compiled database of all of the studies done on a particular drug. It sounds interesting but perhaps boring to me. Jason enjoys it and is very challenged by it, though he misses middle school interactions. Jason is also playing dodgeball every Friday with his brother James.

As for me, I am enjoying being a stay-at-home mom. There are days where I feel a little stir-crazy, but for the most part I stay pretty busy. It's definitely different having to drive to visit friends! I joined a local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group as well as a morning Bible study. Both of those have aided the friend-making process for me.

Noah is growing like a little weed. He is so lovable and chubby, nearly seven months old. At his last checkup for 6 months, he weighed 19 lbs, 4 oz. I am amazed at the growth of our little peanut from his 6 lb, 12 oz beginning! He is crawling and pulling up on things and pretty much just getting into everything! It is so fun to watch him change and grow. He is at a very interactive stage right now and wants to be held, talked to, and played with all of the time. It can be tiresome to take care of him at times.

As a family, we have made many changes together. We moved into a condo in August after staying with my older sister for two months. It's a three-bedroom place...SO much bigger than the little apartment we had in Nicaragua. We have also been looking for a church to call our church home in the area. We have been attending Northview Christian Life in Carmel, but a major drawback for us is the size. It is a very large church. Right now we are enjoying the Bible study / spiritual growth campaign called Life on Loan. We are meeting weekly in Westfield with four other couples and their kids to discuss ways we can reach out and become more intentional about sharing our faith with others.

That's a little snapshot of what we are up to right now.