"Free" vacation

What do you do when you have free flights that need to be used? Travel somewhere where you can continue to be cheap and stay with friends for free, of course! Thankfully we have good friends in fun places like LA. 

Amidst graduation, packing, the cross country move, and beginning work we didn't plan a darn thing. Thankfully Chris and Erica were wonderful hosts and entertained us as much as they could. 

We went to Laguna beach where the swell was so big that we got to watch a panicked lifeguard go in a few times after idiots who don't listen to his counsel.

Ryan learned that what's yours is also Hattie's.

I have never been to any Disney park and we figured because everything else had been free, it was time to splurge and hit up Disneyland and California Adventure.

We LOVED California Adventure and their life size recreation of Radiator Springs from Cars. Per Chris and Erica's recommendation we watched the movie the night before making the experience even better.

On our last day we had some time to kill so we went to the Dana Point Marina and enjoyed the ocean air.

And last but not least, we had to have a few meals at Cafe Rio.

This vacation actually felt like a real vacation. We slept like logs (and even slept in) and had enough to do but not too much. It was just what we needed before Ryan has to bury himself in textbooks studying for boards.

In case you were wondering, his boards are July 23 and he starts work August 1. Oh and I've been working back at the dorms where I lived and worked for 5 years as an RA and then Resident Director. It's just a summer gig for now but say a little prayer that I can stay permanently because I love working there!

Are we really "grown ups?"

I don't even know where to begin about this past week.  To describe it one word it would be:

MIRACLE

You know how everyone always says that Heavenly Father's plan for us is better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves? Well this is one of those situations where we have been so blessed we are still in shock.

Let me begin.  After waiting almost two months for the final decision on the Creighton Residency we feel like we had been on a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions and then like we ran right back in line and did it all over again... backwards.  We were confident, then worried, excited, but scared, doubtful, hopeful, and not to mention just plain upset that it was taking so darn long to make a decision.  A few days after graduation we were told that they had narrowed it down to four people - Ryan and three Creighton graduates but only had three spots to fill this year.  At this point, we were once again confident that he was going to get one of those spots but we still had to wait for the official offer.

Fast forward just a few days when we were driving to Chicago and the PERFECT house was listed (see my last post).  We just knew this was our house, but we had no idea how we were going to get it.  Like I said, we hadn't even received an offer letter for the job and with no offer there is no pre-approval and not to mention houses sell quickly these days and especially one like this with all the upgrades we want.  We knew it wouldn't last long but we just knew this was OUR house.  And we even began to call it just that - our house.

Last week was when things got real and it's amazing how it all came together.

Saturday: The house was listed.

Sunday: We got to Omaha.

Monday: We drove by and fell even more in love when we saw the Jeep parked outside.

Wednesday: We decided it wouldn't hurt to call the Realtor and have a visit.  We found out that the owner of the home is the Realtor's 25-year-old son who loves the Cubs and Bulls as much as Ryan does.  Also, the Realtor and her husband currently live in the home with him as they wait for their house to be built.  We explained how badly we want this house and that we have been watching this exact style of home be listed and sold for at least a year now.  We've seen everything they have to offer and this one is PERFECT.  However, we wouldn't be able to close until the fall when Ryan gets his first few paychecks.  She agreed to ask her son how he would feel about waiting that long.

Ryan also got a call from Creighton asking how he would feel if he were placed in the Creighton Hospital as his location.  It was his last choice of the three sites and there were a lot of hesitations, but we felt that it would still be a great opportunity.

 

Thursday: The Realtor calls us back and tells us that she really liked us, has a good feeling about all of this, and has convinced her son and husband that we are the people they want to sell the house to.  Keep in mind we haven't even been pre-approved yet! So, she gives us the names of a few lenders and we get to work calling until we find one we like.

It was also confirmed that Ryan did receive the Residency and would be working at the hospital. But, because everything was going so well with the house, it made any hesitations about the location disappear because it was getting us into OUR house.

We went to BWW with friends, many of whom have recently bought homes and began telling them our situation.  Because we went into all of this without our own Realtor, it saves the sellers money, but we want to make sure we are informed enough to make good decisions.  They all gave great advice and we came out of it feeling very confident in our decision.

Friday: Ryan received the official offer letter from Creighton making everything all real.  We found a mortgage lender who was amazing and is convinced that he will make all of this work out for us.  We spent the entire morning answering phone calls from Creighton, lenders, and the realtor.  The past few days had just been crazy and we could not believe what was going on.

At 3:00 in the afternoon we met with the Realtor and began signing a contract.  It was happening! We felt like we should have our parents there because there's no way we were grown ups and allowed to sign for a house, right?  In the middle of it we got a call from the lender ensuring that he could get us approved, but it would take some time due to Ryan's high amount of student loans.  Thankfully, our Realtor is giving us pretty much all the time we need.  We made our offer.  Two hours later she called us back with a counter offer and eventually we agreed on the terms.  She emailed us the contract, we signed it digitally and the house is ours! She cancelled all future showings and slapped a "sold" sign on the sign out front.  We still won't close until the fall but it is officially OUR HOUSE (pending approval, which we will make sure will happen!).

Ummm, what? Yeah. That happened.  Ryan has a job and and we have a house (oh, and I have a job, too. I probably haven't mentioned that).  We've been in Omaha less than one week.  Can you say, "miracle?" 

And now, a few picture of our beautiful soon-to-be abode and information on all the nit-picky details that Ryan wanted and amazingly we got:

It has a three-car wide driveway which we hadn't seen on any other homes in this neighborhood.

It has a red front door! I LOVE red front doors!

It is a corner lot, which I love and faces West which is the ideal direction for a home to face. 

It is 3 bedroom, 2 baths.  Perfect for a starter home!

 

MJ in his place front and center.

 

The whole house has white trim which was a definite requirement.

Some houses only had a single back door so we were excited by the sliding door and all the light it lets in.

I know they will get dirty, but the white cabinet are so pretty!
And so is the wood (albeit laminate) floor.

The counter tops were upgraded to quartz. 
Seriously, we were not expecting that in a house in our price range.

The family room with an electric fireplace.

 

Unfinished basement with plenty of room for storage.

A fully-fenced yard! We can let Ryno out and not worry. SO amazing.

There isn't a deck like Ryan would have preferred but this extended patio will do just fine.

Yeah, that's a shed.  Something else we hadn't seen on any other house and something Ryan very much wanted.

 

Oh my goodness, we just love it so much and are in constant gratitude to our Heavenly Father for making it all work out.  We never could have imagined it coming together so beautifully, quickly, or easily.  His hand was obviously in all of this that we just let it play out as He saw fit and did our part as much as we could.  I was so exhausted physically, emotionally, and mentally that on Friday night my body just shut down.  I got sick and crawled into bed around 9:00 p.m. and was just done.  What a week.

Homaha!

Ryan hates when I use that word.  

Homaha.

Homaha.
Homaha.

I love it.  Because Omaha is home.  I know all my family will read this and want to correct me that Lincoln is home and try to convince me that I should move back there.  Don't get me wrong, I love Lincoln, and I loved growing up there.  But it is my childhood home, I guess you could say.  Omaha is Ryan and I's home.  It's where we met, dated, married, and where our friends are.

Lincoln is MY home.

Omaha is OUR home.

We so very badly want to buy a home here, but we just have to wait.  

(Something we should be very good at by now, right?)

We've had our eye on one specific floorplan in a builder's neighborhood here in Omaha and we've watched many houses list and sell over the past year or so.  We've kept an eye on the upgrade options, distance from the main roads, distance from the neighborhood park, incline of the backyard, etc.  There have been a few that were pretty good options, others we did not want at all.  Then, 3 days ago OUR house was listed.  It has everything we want, including a fully-fenced in yard and a shed! 

When I started describing it to Ryan (because we were driving across the country as it was posted) I knew it was the winner when I told him that in their living room was this poster:

 

Ryan LOVES MJ.

We got really antsy (because it is the perfect house) and drove by the other day.

Lo and behold, their garage door was open and what was inside?

Not one, but TWO Jeeps.  A Wrangler and a Cherokee.

Needless to say, we REALLY want this house.

Tuesday

Tuesday is it:  Our final moments in North Carolina before we head out on our week long road trip to home, sweet, home.

I'm not exactly sure how I should be feeling right now or how I am feeling.  Well, I'm a stressball, that's how I'm feeling right now.  At the beginning of the week I felt like I had an overwhelming amount of things to do and thankfully Ryan just lets me freak out while knowing the whole time that it's really not that bad and we have plenty of time to do it all. 

But between working, packing, goodbye's and graduation, I was overwhelmed.  Oh, and did I mention Ryan is supposed to find out tomorrow if he got the residency?  Enter another panic moment.  We were hoping we would get an email today so I had both of Ryan's emails open while I was at work. No joke, I thought I was going to have a panic attack this morning waiting for an email.  I started sweating and feeling nauseous because I had very little to distract me.  Sadly, no email.  I imagine tomorrow being much like today but worse.  Great.

All in all, I think we are just so excited to go home that we aren't really sad to leave.  I'm sure it will hit us later but with modern technology these days, it's so easy to stay in touch with friends.  I have friends across the whole country (world even) and although you can't hang out, a phone call or texting can keep any friendship alive.  It takes work, but I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it by now.  Now I just have to switch who I call on my commutes to NC people instead of NE people.

I think I'm just shocked that this time has finally come.  If all goes as planned we will never have to move any further than across town.  No more playing tetris in the Jeep and throwing out food every three months.  I can't believe it.  Life is so exciting!

Merchant's Millpond

I know I posted a few pictures before, but I didn't think they did it justice.  

This place was worth every minute of the drive.  I could have hung out there all day! 

 

Staycation

On April 19, Ryan finished his last day of clinic.  We are so excited! He never has to work for free again! (We hope).  His classmates are spread all across the country and need time to travel so last week was his week off.  We debated going somewhere (Cayman Islands, Orlando, New Orleans, DC) and ended up deciding to have a "staycation" for multiple reasons.  First, trips cost money and that is something we wanted to save.  Second, none of our friends could go with.  Third, we wanted to spend time with our friends.  We ended up eating out every night and had the quality time with our friends that we wanted.

Monday we took family pictures (I am so excited to see them!) and then went out to a local pizza place for dinner with the photographer who is my friend, her husband and another couple from church.

Tuesday we saw a matinee movie of 42 (which is amazing) and to the Carolina Hurricanes NHL game with classmates Ashley and Ross and his girlfriend, Meghan.  The game went into overtime and then into a shootout. AND they won! I've missed hockey.  I haven't been to a game since I was in college. (Which, crazy thought, I graduated 3 years ago now. Where did the time go??)

Wednesday we ended up (planned) in the middle of nowhere North Carolina to a hidden gem called Merchants Millpond.  We again went with Ross and Ashley.  It was a three hour drive but totally worth it! I felt like we were in the everglades in Florida (or what I imagine them to be).  The weather was a perfect, sunny 80 degrees. I could not have asked for a better afternoon! And to top it all off, we finished the day off strong with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.

 

Thursday was our third day in a row with Ross and Ashley.  

Meghan joined us once again and we went to a Durham Bulls minor-league baseball game.

Friday was another happy day as some of our best friends from NE, Rob and Melissa, came to town for Melissa's cousin's wedding. Saturday was the wedding and her family was sweet enough to invite us as well to allow us more time with Rob and Melissa. It was another gorgeous NC day - absolutely perfect for a Southern wedding full of boots, burlap, and baby's breath.

 

 The ending to the night was perfect as we picked up Domino's Pizza, Dr. Pepper and played some Monopoly Deal and 7 Wonders (our new game obsession) on the king size bed in their hotel room.  And talk about friendship, all four of us then slept in the same bed.  And slept well (for the most part).  Did we say that we love them?

Sunday was just as exciting as the rest of the week.  Maile and I planned a farewell BBQ because most of us from church are graduating this year and moving on.  The weather unfortunately was not as beautiful as it was earlier in the week, but we made due.  Umbrellas saved the hot dogs and a fire helped keep us warm.

I'm still trying to play with and figure out my camera settings so I'm bummed that this picture isn't totally in focus.  

Oh well, it's finally a picture of most of our NC friends!

Our "staycation" was better than almost any other vacation we could have planned.  

I think we are going to miss this place more than we think! The weather at least...