What I Wonder: Is Honesty Truly the BEST Policy? If so, why don't we use it more?

Honesty IS the Best Policy . . . or so "they" say!

Last Friday after we closed on both of our houses and had a delicious lunch, Dom and I took a quick 1.5 hour shopping trip.  We needed to pick up William's box springs from the mattress store and look at some furniture for our master bedroom.  Before we did either of those things, he jumped into a new store called "5 Below" and I ran into Old Navy to look for some post-baby tops.  He found a car charger for his phone (he's lost two or three now) for FIVE bucks!  I found three shirts that I am hoping will fit me after I have the baby.  After I had paid for the shirts and was about to leave, the cashier did the typical smile and "Have a great day" phrase.  In my head, I responded, "I am having a great day!  I didn't simply buy these three cute tops at a discounted price, I just went through two closings and now I own a beautiful home in Perrysburg!"  But instead I just smiled back and said, "Thanks.  You too."

Don't you wonder why people don't share more?  I know the response is to be polite and just say thanks, but why don't we share our good news with complete strangers?  And if we did, what would they say in response?  The opposite is also true.  There are times when I am having a terrible day and a cashier says, "Have a great day!" and I want to respond, "You know what?  I am not sure that's going to happen, because I'm dealing with __________________ today."  Instead, I still try to smile and say thanks.  Such is typical American culture, but it makes me wonder what life would be like if everyone was simply honest about their lives at that exact moment.  Do you ever wonder that?

I think I'll try this out over the course if the next week and let you know how it goes. Feel free to join me on this honest journey!

38 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

Dear Baby,

THANK YOU for being so cooperative!  I just know that we understand each other.  :)  That means a lot to Mommy!

So here is the news.  Today I went to see how you were doing at my regularly scheduled 38 week check.  For the record, I was down a pound since last week and I have only gained 19 lbs since my first recorded check during this pregnancy!  Anyway, the doctor checked me to see how you were doing and it turns out that you were SO HIGH that he couldn't even tell if you were head-down or not.  Now this was a little scary for a minute, but I said a quick prayer and knew God was going to handle this for me.  He did take a minute to inform me that the heartbeat was higher than last week and that he predicts you are a boy.  So last week your heart rate was lower and he said girl, this week it's the opposite.  I really don't take his predictions seriously.

Next, I was shuffled down to the ultrasound room where the amazing technician was able to inform me in less than a minute that you were in great position!  Head-down!  Instant relief!!! I just love the tech at my OB office.  She always has KLove playing in the background, and it's so comforting to hear Christian music while I'm seeing your picture on the machine.

After the concern about your position was over and we were simply looking at your pictures, I told the tech (who is always very supportive of the fact that we have not found out your gender) that it was tempting for me to just ask her to tell me TODAY, since I am GOING NUTS wondering if you are a boy or a girl.  Bless her heart, because her response was that we are so close to finding out in real life that she would probably just lie and tell me that she couldn't tell even if I DID ask her... just so we could wait to find out at your birth.  I laughed and thanked her for supporting me, because had she been interested in finding out there is a possibility that she might have convinced me to take a quick peek!  Yet she kept your gender a mystery, and honestly I am grateful for that despite my CONSTANT questioning!  I'm still saying girl like I have been since day #1, but lately I have been planning on you being a boy so I am not super surprised.

You measured somewhere around 7 1/2 pounds (sorry, but I forget the exact amount) and showing that you are about 38 weeks.  I am supposed to be 38 weeks 5 days, so this puts the newest due date prediction at July 12th.  Lucky me!  I might get to have you later than planned after all.  I'm still keeping my fingers (and legs) crossed that you don't come until at least July.  We have a house to sell and one to buy tomorrow, and it would be GREAT if we could have most of our stuff moved and your nursery set up for you before you come.  Yes these may seem like high expectations, but welcome to the Krupp family.  If your Daddy gets it into his head that we are moving next weekend, then we will be moving next weekend.  I guarantee it!

Of course, as you know, I am still hoping you come Sunday July 15th.  However, I have made MANY requests to God and I can't be too greedy.  I will settle for your arrival anytime after this weekend, but preferably after we move.  I know you are frustrated because of the cramped conditions you are living in (I can tell by the ultrasound pic that the tech gave me today) so I apologize to you for this news.  However, I must say that I am happy to see that you will probably be staying put for a little while longer.  We will have plenty of fun when you come out; just let us get through a few more to-dos before you join us.  You don't want to be involved with this crazy move anyway!  Avoid it if at all possible!

Regardless of when you arrive, you are loved very much and we are so happy that you are making our family a family of four.

Love always,
Your very excited Momma

This is either a smoosh face or a ticked-off grumpy one. Either way, it is adorable and I can't wait to kiss your cheeks! 

 

 

 

??? Questions ???

I want to document some of the questions that are running through our minds about the logistics of the next 2-3 weeks. And please don't panic, because we aren't!

Here are the questions Dominic and I are currently pondering:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE!  Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg.  Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season.  Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6.  But will we be having a baby then?

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!


And this was just the short list.  Hence the reason why I am focused on Philippians 4:6 right now.  Worry about nothing and PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!  Or the verse below from Isaiah - one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know that God is in control, and He is the only one with these answers.  Therefore I am calm and leaving it up to Him!!!

Thank you, Lord, for handling all of these many stress-ers.  I appreciate not having them all on my shoulders.  I am already carrying enough baby weight!

Selling and Moving: The Timeline

People have been asking a lot about the progress of our home sale and purchase, so I figured it would make sense to put together a timeline of events here because I never remember who I told what to and when... and for a while things were being updated by the minute! Now that it is pretty settled and most of what is happening is figured out, I will fill everyone in on the entire process.

January 2012

• After months of talking about it, we decided to put our home on the market. The primary reasons for our move are to have a little more room, a fourth bedroom, and to be closer to things such as our jobs, babysitter, doctors, etc.  Plus we know that we will ultimately move anyway because our home is not big enough for us and we knew we were not going to send our kids to TPS.  Since interest rates are so low, we knew we could get far more bang-for-our-buck this year and since we "gambled" and lost in the housing market when we bought this place (because we bought in 07 during the peak of the market, the year before the crash when we could have got far more for the buck) we figured we should try to WIN with our next place.

• We made a few calls to our babysitter's former realtor.  We decided we wanted to go with him for our home sale.

February 2012

• During the first week of February, we met with our new realtor and determined what would need to be done in order to prep our home for sale.  He recommended a complete roof tear-off (the final project we needed to get to in order to basically have our home completely remodeled), buying bins and binning a lot of our excess "stuff" (as it was apparent that we were outgrowing our home), sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outdoors, putting a hook where the curtain rod to the downstairs storage shelves are just for added support, tear off the Styrofoam that Fred had used to "insulate" the vents in the basement, finish the trim on the front door that was never done, and thoroughly clean the entire house.

• I should note that during this meeting, William was extremely sick. He had two blow-outs while our realtor was here meeting with us and spent the rest of the time with his eyes half-open, watching a movie.  I felt so bad for the little guy.  February was a really rough month for us over-all and we spent a large part of it sick.  I never got it as bad as Dom later did, but I attribute that to the the fact that I got the flu shot and Dom did not.

• By the middle of the month, only weeks after meeting with the realtor, we had a roofer out here and our complete tear-off and replacement was complete. Seriously, when Dom gets told what to do ... it gets done in no time flat. Luckily for us we had a very warm winter, so that conditions for roofing (and the price during the off-season) were unbeatable!

March 2012

•  We began to have second thoughts about selling our home. These second thoughts mixed in from this point in time until the minute we ended up agreeing to a price with our buyer. We are big fans of Dave Ramsey's, and the fact that we had refinanced our home just last year for a 15 year mortgage that theoretically we could pay off within two years was very much a deterrent to buying a new home that costs twice as much (or more) as this one originally did. 

• Due to our second thoughts, we dragged our feet with the selling process.  I had purchased some extra large bins from Big Lots at this time, but I only filled one up with some clothes that William had out-grown. Work was busy for both of us at this time, so we weren't focused on the selling process.Dom kept talking about sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outside, but the weather conditions were not prime for painting, so we didn't do much at all.

•  At the end of the month, our realtor just "happened to be in the neighborhood" and dropped by to see how our progress was going.  It was the WORST possible time for him to randomly drop by (a few days before my spring break, when we had planned on working on our to-do list) and the house was in complete disaster.  We had just finished eating dinner and this time we hadn't even cleaned up the dishes like we usually do.  Dom had said to let them sit so we could play with Will before putting him to bed, because it had become more apparent that William needed some one-on-one time with us.  It was around 7PM when our realtor stopped by, William's typical "winding down" time. With an exciting guest in the house, rather than winding down, William WOUND UP and went nuts.  He was chucking toys everywhere and screaming, "Can you hear me?!?!?!" into his mega phone as the adults tried to meet.  I can't even describe the pure chaos that was going on, but it ended with William yelling, "cash" (meaning "catch") and whipping a toy right into our realtor's chest.  It wasn't something that hurt or anything, but just embarrassing. The time was now like 8:45 and he was WAY passed his bedtime.  I knew the following morning was going to be a nightmare...

• Perhaps it was because of our realtor's random drop-by, but after this visit I was feeling very anxious about the entire for sale process.  I felt totally unprepared, and since I was about 26 weeks pregnant, I began to worry about the amount of time and pressure this would take on our family and my body.  Had we made a rash decision? Either way, we had just promised our realtor to have things ready for pictures by Easter.  Actually, Dominic promised that. I promised the exact opposite:  That there was no way we were going to be ready to have the pics taken in a week's time with work being so busy.  I love my husband, but he thinks in terms of getting stuff done and not in terms of the time we have to do them.

 April 2012

• Things started happening quickly in April.  From here on out, I will try to use dates to show you how close the events happened.

• April 14th - We completed our "Spring Cleaning" and made the house as organized as possible. We finished up the projects our realtor had suggested, except for the one about painting the rod iron railings outside. We still haven't even done that, and now we probably never will...

• Sat. April 21st - Our realtor came over to take the pictures of our home in the morning. (See I told you we would never get this done by Easter!) We also finished signing all of the paperwork for our home sale.

• Sun. April 22nd - After MONTHS of dragging his feet, Dominic finally broke the news to our neighbor that he is close with.  I know he was putting it off because the neighbor was going to be sad.  They have built a great relationship and friendship, and the entire home sale is very hard for us because we don't want to leave our neighbors and neighborhood.

• Mon. April 23rd - We put the sign in our front yard.  Our home was officially on the market.

• Sun. April 29th - We had our first and only "Open House".  We had three couples and one neighbor go through our home.  One of the couples seemed very promising.

May 2012

• Thurs. May 3rd - The promising couple took a second look at our home.

• Sun. May 6th - We went out looking at homes for a second time. This was the day we found the home we ended up falling in love with.  William was even with us this time (this was the only time, the other times he was being watched by either his regular babysitter or our good friend Danielle - thanks to both for all of the support during all of this!)  I'm glad that William was there this time, since we are now buying a home we saw that day.  The house was not one I was even sure I wanted to see at first, but I threw it on the list and when we were there I FELT something.  I specifically even told that to Dominic as we were leaving.  I really do believe that God gives you a little nudge when you find the right one.  The way the home is designed is completely perfect for what we are looking for.  It is not grand or showy, like many of the places we looked at in Perrysburg.  There is nothing wrong with "grand or showy", it's just not who we are at this point in our lives.  It's a large home (over 2400 square feet with a complete basement) but it feels so HOMEY.  The biggest selling points were the fact that the upstairs floor plan feels like it's HUGGING you in a circular motion, there has only been one owner and it was custom built so almost everything is very nice and extremely well-cared for, it's in the township so we don't have to pay income taxes, it's super close to almost EVERYTHING yet it feels a little "removed" from the hustle and bustle of city/town life, and perhaps most importantly it has an awesome, private, good-sized backyard.  As with all properties within our price range in Perrysburg, there is a downfall...you can hear the turnpike because it runs right behind the house. :-( Yet that's most likely the reason for the very good price!  So it's half a dozen in one hand, six in the other... and this home has EVERYTHING ELSE we are looking for.

• May 12 - We looked at homes for a 3rd time, including a 2nd visit to the home we felt pulled toward.  We looked at it longer and more closely at this time, checking for details that we might have glossed over during our first visit.  I took a plethora of pictures.  This home was the first we saw that day, and nothing before or after it ever measured up to the way we felt about this place. Dominic agreed that this was the home for us.

• May 25 - I got a text from Dom shortly after school.  I will probably always remember this, because it was the Friday before exams and I was sitting at my desk finishing up the last bits of my exam.  I saw the message at 3:15.  It simply stated, "Got an offer.  Realtor wants us to call him when we get together today." Instantly I broke into tears. It was all happening, and happening so fast. We would soon be moving away from the first house we ever called home, the place where William grew up, took his first steps, and the only place he knows as "home", the place where we poured our blood/sweat/and tears and remodeled almost EVERYTHING, creating our perfectly designed house.  It was a lot to take in at once.  I cried by myself in my classroom for a good 20 minutes before going down the hall just to cry for another 20 minutes while I was making 90 copies of my 16 page exam.  I know that some people will want to attribute this to the fact that I am pregnant, but it's so much more than that. Many of you know that Dom and I hand-designed and remodeled our entire home with the help of his father and some friends. We feel very tied to the home, and it is challenging and emotional to leave it.  
• Later that evening, on our way to home group, we heard the offer from our realtor.  I felt as though it was a slap in the face, but looking back I shouldn't have taken it so personally.  It's a buyer's market and what this guy did was start a conversation that eventually got us to a point of agreement.  We spent the next few days countering with the guy.

• May 29 - We went out looking at homes for the 4th time (we saw about 20 homes total) and saw the house we liked for a 3rd time. We also saw another house that was new to the market on this day. My realtor and I liked it, but Dom wasn't thrilled. It was a lot smaller on the inside, but the backyard was amazing.  They had a long, fenced-in lot with nothing behind it but a field (which knowing Perrysburg will one day become a shopping center or highway).  They also had a sweet glassed-patio, hot tub, amazing landscaping, and an in-ground pool. Yet there were some features in the house that we didn't like as much and like I already mentioned, it was smaller on the inside than the first home we liked. They were asking the same price as the home we liked, so it seemed as though they were trying to recoup some of their "utopian yard" costs.  Ultimately, we ended our day at the home we were still feeling pulled toward and it felt as though we were kicking off our shoes at the end of the day.  We even said, "Honey! I'm home!" as we entered the front door.  This was the home for us. Earlier that evening, our realtor had given us some really great news... the owners of this home had JUST CLOSED on their new home on this exact day.  As my coworker and friend later said to me when I told her I was looking for a sign, "That's not just a sign!  That's a kick AND a push!"  I couldn't agree more.  God had been directing us to this home since the first day we saw it, and this was to be the home for us. To top it off, we signed the sale papers for our current home at the new home's kitchen table that very night.  Things were set in motion.

• May 30 - The following day, we had agreed to the price we wanted to offer on the home we wanted to buy and we put our offer in.  Up until this point, there hadn't been much activity on this home since it was placed up for sale in January.  However, we were getting word from their realtor that there were two more scheduled showings that week on the house and one was a doctor who was currently in Italy.  We wanted to act and act fast, since there was nothing else on the market that compared to this place in our minds and our budgets.  We spent the next couple of days countering with the family.  We had asked for their kitchen table and television console because it perfectly matches their woodwork, but they initially came back and told us that the furniture was NOT for sale. 

June 2012

• June 2nd - We settled on an acceptable price for the new home.  Fortunately for us, it included the kitchen table AND the television console (which we really needed after agreeing to sell our bookshelves that we built as our current entertainment center with our home.)  Furthermore, our final agreement included their LCD television that was sitting on the console, an amp that is in the console which amplifies the speaker system that runs throughout the entire home (owner's brother is an electrical engineer who custom-wired the speakers throughout the home when it was built), and a large armoire and an older-style tv in their basement!  So I would say we made out ok... less furniture to buy which is great since the baby will be coming at the same time as we are closing on this house.

• June 5th - The buyer of our home had our home inspected.  We are now working on three small issues: replacing a missing spring in one of the master bedroom windows, adhering the electric panel to the siding, and spraying for carpenter ants.  Man, I wish I would have sprayed for the ants a month ago.  They have been driving me nuts since it got warm out!  Now I won't get to reap the benefits of the exterminator. 

• June 8th - We did our inspection on our future home.  Their house is 15 years old, so things are starting to come to the end of their life.  There were some minor problems and a couple bigger ones.  The main concern is a piece of flashing that is missing on one of the spots on their roof which has caused water to get into the garage ceiling.  Additional items to be repaired include the sump pump, the electric box outside, and leveling the A/C unit.  

Where We Are Now

• Now we call for repairs, have things repaired, and wait... Please keep your fingers crossed that everything turns out hunky-dory and that we are able to make a smooth transition on June 29th when we are tentatively scheduled to close on both of our homes.  Side note:  We worked it out so that we will have possession of our current home for 30 days after closing, yet we will have possession at either closing or 5 days after for our new home.

Thank you for your support through all of this. It has been an emotional journey, but we are grateful for God's blessings and we look forward to moving on with our lives and raising our children in the home they will always think of as their "childhood home". 

A Top-Secret Sneak Peak of the FUTURE Krupp Family Residence!