NEWS

I thought I would share a piece of news. It is no secret that Dave and I feel that God has orchestrated everything regarding the house in Montana. From my contacting our Realtor Bill (who wasn't involved in any sort of way with the first house we looked at 4 years ago) to the foreclosure price, to Randy as our contractor, etc. it's all been God's Divine hand guiding and providing. Realizing that, we made the decision that the Mountainview Hideaway was a blessing to be shared with others and have plans to offer it as a "retreat" for ministry. We can be as involved with guests as they like, playing tour guide, etc or as uninvolved as they like, basically being a place for them to crash at night. We want to be able to share what God has provided for us and in the most beautiful setting imaginable.

Needless to say, over time, Dave and I have talked about the practical logistics of our retirement move. As they say, "timing is everything" so there were the questions of, "When do we put our house on the market?" "Will we have to move into an apartment between the closing and his last day of work?" "Maybe the Mobile Home Park would buy it from us and we can stay until we move out?" (We know that we would get less money from them because they want to make a profit but that might be a wash for us if we had to rent an apartment, stay in a hotel, etc.) "How will this play out?" and so on and on it has gone. I have said from the get go, that God has orchestrated everything so far and that I had total peace that He would work that out as well and that I wouldn't stress about it.

Right after Christmas, we had new neighbors move in next door to us. They are a nice couple with 3 young children. He is from El Paso and she is from San Antonio; right after they moved in, he was out in the yard and introduced himself to Dave as he was coming home from work. A couple of weeks ago, I was at Lowes picking up more paint and supplies when he approached me and introduced himself, 'I believe I'm your new neighbor", he said. We began chatting and at the time, he apologized for the extra car parked on the street in front of their house and said that he hoped they hadn't been too noisy. (We look like a used car lot so I told him, if anything, I should apologize!) He said his wife's parents were visiting from San Antonio and that they liked our mobile home park so much, that they had driven around looking at empty lots because they want to sell their house in San Antonio and move up here. I said in passing that I was there buying paint supplies because we are selling our house later later this year and moving. We just looked at each other and said, "hmmm...." During the course of this conversation I learned that they are Christians as well; part of his concern about the noise was that they were having an evening of praise and worship.

I shared with Dave about our exchange at Lowes but hadn't thought about it since. Last week our new neighbors knocked on our door and asked if we had given any thought to an asking price for our home? I invited them in even though we look like a disaster area with boxes and stuff strung out all over the place. I gave them a limited tour of the house and we began talking. In a nutshell, they are serious about us selling the house to their family! We talked about our situation of hoping the park would buy it so we could stay until the move. He does home remodeling for a living and said that we could work out a deal where Dave and I don't do any more home repairs or painting, etc. reflecting that in the price and we could stay until we needed to move. A win/win situation for everyone!

This is an answer to prayer!! Dave and I have began to pray over the selling price, we typically pray individually over big decisions and then come together to see what we feel the Holy Spirit's leading is; nearly every single time, it is identical! So, this is the beginning stage, laying the possible groundwork for what happens in just nine months. I am excited, amazed and thankful over how God works out even the smallest details in our lives. He alone is worthy...

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." Psalms 84:11

PAINTING, PURGING AND PACKING

With only two months left until our first U Haul truckload, we've been in overdrive down here. We painted the Master Bathroom last month and now we are in the midst of purging, sorting and packing. There are boxes and plastic containers piling up and the house is in such a state of disarray but it's only going to get worse before it gets better. We are planning on taking ALL of Dave's Colorado milk bottle collection and "go-withs" as well as the shelves and bookcases he has everything displayed upon. I am looking forward to a time where all of his stuff can be contained in ONE room, his hobby room. With well over five hundred bottles out and on display, it is a lot of work for him to properly prepare everything for a 3 day drive. Better him than me since I have enough on my own plate to prepare!

Once the bottles and shelves are down, we can spackle and repaint the living room. There is another wall with nearly the same amount of milk bottles displayed.

This past month we ordered some new lamps as well. I wanted something different, yet still rustic for the Master Bedroom. I really liked these when I saw them on Black Forest Decor but Bed, Bath & Beyond carried them as well so overall, we saved more than a hundred dollars!

We unpackaged the lamps and put these out on our night stands to see how nicely they would go with our log bedroom set and I am very pleased!

The matching floor lamp is currently out in the living room and I can't wait to see it up in the bedroom!

The plan is to put the floor lamp in this corner in the Master bedroom.

Dave has had his heart set on a log floor lamp ever since we got the table lamps that are out in the family room...

This one, in the lighter Aspen wood will go nicely in the living room in between the two rocking chairs. We've decided against table lamps but we need another light source along with the overhead light.

I purged the curio cabinet which holds my Pink Glass Depressionware pieces; setting aside those pieces that I want to pass on to our daughters. I catalogued those pieces and wrote up a brief summary of the different designs along with their estimated values. Once that was finished, I spent a couple of hours reconfiguring where everything should go, photographing it and then labeling which shelf it went on. I'm anticipating that it will go quicker when I recreate the display once it's up there!

For some reason, packing up the Pink Glassware made me a little sad...

I started packing up the china cabinet yesterday but ran out of bubble wrap near the end. I am putting the china cabinet up in the craft studio once it's finished and I am pretty certain, I will keep special things that were my mother's up in the hutch portion. While wrapping things up, I labeled all of those things too so they can be separated and set off to the side until they are ready to be displayed.

I feel like the clock is ticking...