practically perfect in every way...

I haven't blogged too much about Mike's job situation since the inital lay-off, mostly because we just didn't have any answers. So here's the complete and final story.

In January, a friend of ours who owns a local family run business approached Mike and told him he could work part-time to kind of just help us stay afloat. We were eternally grateful, and Mike began working part-time, which was PERFECT for our setup. Mike would work until 3, come home, and then I would begin teaching at 3:30. We didn't need a sitter for my entire spring semester which saved us a huge chunk of money.
As spring approached, they talked with Mike about adding more hours, which of course we accepted, and talk began of how they want to expand their company to selling their products on ebay. They do some online selling now, but would like to do it on a more full-time basis, but need someone overseeing that area.
About 6 weeks ago, they again added more hours. Mike is now working 36 hours a week, and the hope (and the company's plan) is that he will be full-time soon, complete with benefits. They are waiting on full-time status, mostly per issue with getting the ebay store squared away.
Mike LOVES working for this company. It's such a change from where he was before, and definitely a much needed one at that. It's so family friendly, he really likes the guys he works with. It's been such a great match-up for us. They care so much about their employees. Remember when Mike was sick? He missed 3 days of work which we kind of cringed at since he doesn't have sick days yet. When he got his check, there were more hours than he worked that week. When he asked about it, they said.. oh, well getting sick isn't your fault, we just added some extra time in for you! Who doesn't want to work for a place like that?

When Mike moved to 36 hours we began searching for a place to live. We have looked everywhere you can imagine. We love being in Spring Arbor, we enjoy the community, the people, and all that it has to offer, however, it's not the cheapest neighborhood in the area. ;) As of Sunday we had it narrowed down to 2 places,o ne back in Jackson, and one just outside of Spring Arbor. We were in love with neither, but we felt like there were our best options. Sunday night we were praying and talking about it, asking the Lord to just guide our steps because we just felt like we couldn't make a decision, and we didn't know what was holding us back.

then we got the call.

Yesterday morning my sister called and said. Hey, there is a house for rent in town, here's the number. I think it's my head boss' property. I called the number, and sure enough it was April's boss, and the minute I said she was my sister we were in. The sign had been up for less than an hour when I called. The price was BELOW was we were wanting to spend... in spring arbor. It's also in town in SA which is awesome. We had continually said we'd love to live in town, because we could walk anywhere we needed to. I just felt the Lord's hand through everything yesterday. I have been teaching lessons on Mondays from 1:30-6. My lessons were funky yesterday, and everyone had cancelled except for my 1:30-2:30 and 5-6, which I was frustrated with as we hire a sitter while I'm teaching on Mondays. Remember that Mike works 36 hours? Well, Monday is one of the days he gets out of work early. When I spoke with the man on the phone, he said, well I'd like you to come look at it today, because this property is going to go fast, how about 4? Mike gets out at 3.

God in only His way...

• Had it happen on the day Mike off early so we could go see it.
• Cancelled my lessons (which I of course was grumbling about earlier in the day)
• We had our babysitter already here because I was teaching, so we didn't have to take Levi.

We went and looked at it, and the minute we walked in the door, we looked at each other. We both felt it in our gut. This was it. It was practically perfect in every way, down to a need for a space for a piano and teaching lessons, this was it. This was why we hadn't been able to make a decision, why were struggling, because we were supposed to wait for this place to open up. I called him back less than an hour later. I told him we were interested, and he said, well I've already decided that if you wanted it, it's yours, because I know your sister. So just like that, when we were least expecting it, we had a perfect place to live.

Not what we were expecting, but exactly what we needed!
Thank you Jesus for answering prayer, in a most definite way yesterday!

updates

we're officially moved
we spent our first week unpacking and getting settled.

last week mike had 3 job interviews, 1 at target, 1 at lowes, and the other a local church for a part time church gig. he got a call back from lowes for another interview. obviously not what we want, but a job is a job is a job, but we still want to mindful of where the Lord wants us.

this week he is down in hillsdale. for part of his masters he has to do a 1 week intensive course. last year he didn't go because i was quite pregnant and we didn't know when the little man was going to make his appearance. so anyway, he left yesterday and will be gone until friday.
just hoping for a good week with levi, though it hasn't started off stellar. tonight, he fell out of the bathtub. yes OUT of the bathtub. i left him for all of 15 seconds, and he tried to climb out and he did, but gravity didn't work in his favor and now he has a giant welt on his forehead.

would you pray with us that where we need to head, and what we need to do is made amundantly clear to us? we are just praying and seeking the Lord's will for our little family right now. looking for jobs everywhere we can, praying we make the right contacts, and asking for God's direction through it all.

we're planning a small little birthday party for levi which will be fun.
i can't believe he is almost 1!

so much to do

so i've officially reached the "so stressed i can't sleep" state.

last night mike came to bed really late. i rolled over and looked at the clock. it was almost 2am. i couldn't figure out why on earth he was coming to bed so late. he had a HUGE paper due for his class last night due at midnight, so i figured that would come into play, but 2???
i woke up around 3, wide awake, making numerous lists in my head of things that we need to do. i went downstairs to get myself some tea, and found the reason why mike was up. he had spent, i'm guessing, a couple of hours packing up all of the extra stuff in our kitchen that we don't use every day.
i think we are both feeling the stress of moving. yesterday we decided that instead of spending the day packing we were going to have some fun. we packed up our winter gear and headed to my parents. we bundled up levi and went outside and pulled him around on his sled. it was good. refreshing, and i think we both needed a break. i took video and hopefully i can post it soon. my favorite video? the one where he gets tipped over in the sled.. :)

we have so much to do it's crazy.

starting monday i need to call a mechanic about our van. ugh. i hate our van. it's old and it's needs lots of repairs, and over the summer we put almost 2 grand into the stupid thing. after that mess we said... it's going til it dies, we're not putting more money into it... but yeah. we can't really do that when mike loses his job, so it's off to get looked at, and fingers crossed, repaired for not a gazillion dollars.

i also have to call our vet to get mr. cat in for some shots. he's due for them, well overdue if i'm being honest. the crutch of this whole moving thing is that he won't be able to come with us and i want him to be all caught up with everything.
it makes me so sad, and i've cried about it enough already. anyway, we didn't know what we were going to do, and finally my in-laws agreed to take him for us, which was a huge blessing, because we thought we were going to have to give him away. it's not the best arrangement as they have a dog, and they live 2 hours away so we won't get to see him much. we just have to figure out how and when the move is going to happen and i'm going to stop talking about it because i can feel the tears in my eyes again.

oh and we have to schedule an actual day to move. i know that seems silly but this whole... you're being laid off effective the end of december and our lease company saying we'll let you out if you're out by the end of the month has been a bit stressful. ironically, since being laid off mike has worked insane hours. i'm not sure if it's ironic or frustrating. anyway, the plan was to move the day after christmas, but now with the cat situation, we're not sure. we may wait and move the 30th. (if mike can get it off) get everything out there, and then on the 31st, come and clean, give the keys back etc etc, and then pack up and head to my in-laws for several days, in an attempt to make the kitty transition easier...

then there is all the other stuff...
address change
packing
organizing
oh and christmas...

we're on the road again

word on the street is we're moving.

yup.
moving.
in a week.

if you looked at our house you would have zero clue we're moving in a week, because, well, it's a house that's lived in. after much talking and praying, we've decided that for now, it's in our best interest to go ahead and move. we really felt like we had been praying specifically that if the Lord saw fit to let us out of our lease, He would do that, and He answered that prayer abundantly, and while Mike will be taking this part-time gig, it just felt like the better answer was still to move.

where do you move with less than 2 weeks notice?
in with your sister of course!

april and brian have more than graciously offered to let us come live with them, and after talking with them for a bit and hashing out details, we decided to go ahead with it. mike's parents came down on wednesday, and mike and his dad hauled quite a bit of stuff from our basement to their's. they have also graciously offered to let us store our stuff in their basement so we don't have to rent a storage unit.

it's going to be different, and i don't doubt it will have it's challenging moments, but april and i are abnormally close, so i think that will help ease the tension of moving in. so, right now, the plan is to move the day after christmas.

that would be 8 days if you're counting.

so while i've finally finished my crazy 2 weeks of christmas concerts and hoopla, now we begin the ever so delightful task of packing up our entire house.

we have been continually blessed by people in our lives and we're so thankful for the network of family and friends we have here that have allowed us this option.
i think it will take quite a bit of the financial pressure off, and allow us to really focus on job searching.

and because i'm woefully overdue on christmas fun....

levi all bundled up while we were searching for the perfect tree...
i had grand envisions of pulling him around in his sled. instead we used his wagon, wasn't quite the christmas tree moment i was hoping for, but it was fun. :)



mike and levi cutting down our tree.. her name is francesca. :)

this crazy life we lead....

truly.

i haven't forgotten this place.

life has just overwhelmed us as of late.


so here's the brief run-down. we found out mike lost his job on nov. 30. after regaining our thoughts and running numbers we very quickly realized we needed to find another place to live. i make a substantial amount of money teaching, but it is only part time and definitely not enough to pay all of our bills. we would blow through our savings so fast it was crazy. we will receive unemployment, but we have no idea how much and won't know until we actually sign up which we can't do until he is officially unemployed.

so, that wednesday (2nd), we called our leasing company to talk to them and tell them what was going on. they basically said, hmmm. sorry about your luck. we had dinner with friends saturday night. he works for a lawyer. he said, bring by your lease, we'll see if there is anything we can help you with. mike meanwhile continued calling the company who was being less than helpful. they hung up on mike a couple of times, and said they were looking into things and then when we called back, they most certainly had not. our friends called back and said.. it's a really tight lease, the best we can say is to offer them a sum of money to get out. mike was supposed to be calling them the next day to find out on some stuff they were looking into for us. when he called the lady said... if you can be out by the end of the month, we'll keep your security deposit and we'll be good. seriously?

so mike said yes. and yes,
i do mean like December 31st.
which is in 20 days.

So where are we moving? We have a couple of options that we are exploring right now, trying to figure out what we need to do exactly. We are overwhelmed with all of this, but feel like it was the best decision, not just financially but also in looking for jobs. there really is nothing in our little town, job wise, and we felt like if we stuck out our lease longer and then tried to get out it would be even harder because we had just, and i mean just by our new lease started dec. 1st, resigned for another year. So we're looking, everywhere. We really do want to stay in the area, but honestly, it's pretty bleak right now and we have to find work.


so we're moving.

i'm still not sure that has sunk into my brain.

the house is nowhere near packed up


we feel overwhelmed, but are trusting that God is leading us down this crazy whirlwind trip, and that He is continuing to guide us along our journey.
Would you pray with us that we would have clarity and discernment as we search for jobs?