Almost ready to show!

I've spent the past 2 weeks cleaning out the house.  We got rid of a lot of the junk that has accumulated since James was born.  I discovered we have TONS of toys.  But mostly everything is under control now.  I will be spending this next week cleaning what remains.  We're getting the deck done and the driveway resealed.  Hopefully we'll be able to sell for a doable price fairly quickly.  We're still praying that Jon can get the job at Fenwick.  It really could just be an amazing life for us.  We figure that if they can come in at $50k, we can make it work.  And that's not too crazy with his 5 years of experience, master's and lcsw.  Oh, how much simpler life could be.  There's some houses over there that we can look into once we get a savings built back up as well.  I just want to be able to walk places!

Life feels a little less stressful now that the house is cleaner.  The kids are enjoying having lots of space to run around in, especially as it's over 90 outside today.  What's amazing though is that we haven't had to turn the a/c on yet.  It is still under 80 in the house since we closed it up early this morning.  Tomorrow might be rough though since we won't get a good cool-off tonight.  But it's supposed to be 60 by Thursday, how crazy.

I'm interested to see where life will be by August.  We have a lot planned for June, but plan to relax in July.  We would love to get the house sold quickly and then start planning where we'll go.  Hopefully we'll know where we want to be headed in the next 2-3 weeks.  Ideally Jon can have an interview next week, then we go on vacation and sell the house.  We've been waiting for a break, maybe this will be it?  Certainly would be amazing, but it's all in God's hands at this point.

Another pound makes 12

I'm down 12lbs since I started this in January.  Not rapid weight loss, but slow and fairly steady hopefully means it'll stay off.  I don't feel deprived either, which I think is key.  This past week I've been indulging in dark chocolate a lot more frequently.  What's awesome is that just 1 square hits the spot whereas I ued to want 1/2-1 whole bar of milk chocolate - how crazy is that?  I think Jon is coming around a little more as well, enjoying eating more meat in place of the pasta.  Looking forward to this week's meals too as I thought about them: whole baked chicken (fries and fresh brocolli), meatloaf (mashed potato and frozen veg), steak (watermelon and veg), and sausage and peppers.  I've found that by eating a fairly high carb dinner I feel better overall, so I'll keep doing that.  I'm enjoying exercising more now as well since it's not so forced.  Looking forward to my body weight workout in an hour or so.  Can't wait until I can actually do a pull-up!  Losing weight will obviously make this easier too.

Lots of changes going on around here lately.  This biggest is that we've decided to officially try our house on the market.  I spent last week getting started on the house and have 2 more weeks to finish up.  So my goal is to have the house completely decluttered by Memorial Day so I can spend that week really cleaning everything.  The first floor is almost done, so I don't think it should be too hard.

Jon also has an interview on Tuesday.  It's a middle school, but would mean ~$5k raise, cheaper insurance, and if we can sell, cheaper rent closer to there.  It could be a pretty awesome set-up.  Looking like we have a few choices that could lighten financial stress if he can get out of Zion and we can sell.  We'll have to see what God has in store for us.  Surely something will work out!