Ten days later...

I'm pretty sure this month has been the absolute busiest one we have ever seen!  

So...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

A year ago, right after we found out we were expecting, Tom and I bought a beautiful piece of land out on the east side of Asbury in Mason City.  We drew up some plans with a super talented builder and were SO excited to build our house.  

Well...eventually we realized our dreams were a little too big.  When the projected amount came out at $100,000 over our budget, this conversation happened as I was sitting on the couch in our shoebox-sized home:

Tom:  We can afford to build the house if we stay in this one for five, maybe ten more years.

Me: *eyes grow bigger and teeth clench*

Tom:  I think we can make it work...

Me: *blood begins to boil*

Tom:  We just need to get rid of some of your clothes.

Me: *fire shoots out of my eyes, ears and mouth*

I'll spare you the ugly details.  It's safe to say that I had a top-notch, Betsy-breakdown style, full-on MELTDOWN.  And no, it wasn't about the clothes, LOL.  If you've been to our house, you understand my frustrations.

Anyway, after I peeled myself off the walls and ceiling and pieced my broken parts back together, we had another conversation:  maybe it's time to consider selling the lot.

The next night we were playing music and hanging out with our friends Matt and Angie, and explained our situation to them.  In their wisdom (thanks guys) they suggested we take a look at some houses in their neighborhood that had recently come up for sale.  We looked online right then and there, found a few we liked, and set up an appointment with our realtor.  

Long story short, we are now the proud owners of a beautiful two story house in Asbury, and we couldn't be happier.  It's probably about four times the size of our last house and it has features that are perfectly tailored to our family.  I will post pictures soon, but right now the house still has a decent amount of stuff sitting around from the move...so I'll do it after we find places for everything.  

It's all very exciting and fun.  I have to remind myself every day that this is our home now, and that we aren't just trying it out or house-sitting for someone else.  We are so thankful that everything worked out!

What about the other house, you might ask?

Our cute little treasure box of a house (think the plastic treasure boxes you would get in elementary school when you lost a tooth...yeah, we lived in one of those) had a lot of showings but no bites, so we pulled it off the market and we were able to find a renter with the help of some friends.  It really worked out perfectly.  

I walked around in our empty little house a few nights ago and had a few tears.  I'm so glad we had that house for the first four months of Jude's life.  The three of us were so close for those precious early weeks.  I felt like it was our own tiny utopia.  I felt perfectly contented when our family would sit on the living room couches, with the lights dim, and just be together.  We literally had no where else to go because the space was so small...and I will always treasure that.  

And now, we are here.  And this is a house that we can grow into together.  I can't wait for Jude to have friends over to play in the backyard, to host dinner parties and Hawkeye football events, to create tons of jam noise with the Gents in the band space (yes, this house has a rehearsal space!!).  It is a huge blessing and we are HAPPY.  

Love, Betsy, Tom and baby Jude