Happy Thanksgiving/Update

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends that celebrate. Today I am thankful we are in our new house. I am thankful for the food we will eat in a little bit, the roof over our heads, the electricity, the unpacked boxes, the boxes still to be unpacked (we are blessed), the sun shining, family time, and so much more.

We have been in our house for two weeks. The days have been long as the first week we spend 12-14 hours a day trying to unpack, clean (oh the cleaning!), and figure out what we were doing. Once we realized it would be a few weeks for the carpet to get replaced (even though we started the process before we moved into the house), we decided to switch gears and focus on painting. We did not plan (nor will we) repaint the entire house. The only room on the main level we planned to repaint was the dining room, it was yellow, now it is a light green. I will also touch up paint in the bathroom on the main level. Upstairs we have painted Elijah and Kayla's room, we will not paint the guest room or kids bathroom (at least at this point), and Saturday we will paint mine and Matt's room. We repainted our bathroom from yellow to a light brown to match the shower curtain that we have had for years (although we were not able to use it in our last house because we didn't have a tub/shower) so it has been fun pulling that back out. Last week we also repainted the entire basement and we will paint the bathroom in the basement. It has recently been painted and it looks good, it's just too dark a color. 

Matt started work on Monday. He has a view from his desk of Lake Erie which is pretty cool. He likes his co-workers and his boss. He hasn't really started doing his job yet, he is still waiting for his access for different things. We don't love his schedule but that will eventually change (currently 8:15 - 5:15). He has a commute, which he doesn't mind, but very little traffic to deal with.

Elijah had orientation on Monday and it went well. He started working Tuesday, and worked Wednesday and is off the rest of the week. Yesterday they asked him if he wanted to stay late and he said no. Then they asked him if he wanted to work Friday and he told them "I'm good." 😂 (Kayla is here for Thanksgiving break and he is planning to enjoy his time with his sister). He likes his job and is settling in pretty good. He is starting to make some acquaintance friends and he as asked several times if he wanted to play football with his co-workers today (Thanksgiving) and he told them he couldn't, but it was nice of them to invite him.

Kayla is home for Thanksgiving break, she got here Tuesday afternoon. The first weekend we were here she was super busy so we went to her Church that Sunday so we could see her. It was a great service. Then, this past weekend, she came home Friday afternoon and went back to campus Saturday evening. She is LOVING having us close enough to be able to come and spend a night. It sure beats the 9 hour commute!! She will go back to campus on Sunday and has a week and a half left of classes. She has already started some final projects and is prepping for final exams. We are not sure if she will be getting a job over Christmas break or not. She wants to start an Etsy shop and make things to sale (by commission), so we'll see how all that goes.

I had a job interview on Tuesday to nanny for a family, I have another interview next week with a different family. I am not completely sure what I want to do. Another opportunity presented itself this week to apply for a job that would be online doing something I love...but I have no idea if I could get it or not. So, I am in limbo a little bit, but will speak more on these things once I have decided what I want to do. Both families want me to work for them and start sooner rather than later, but I am not wanting to start until mid-December (although January would be better), so again, we'll see. 

Today, Thanksgiving day, we finished setting up our living room. It feels good to have another space completely finished (the only other area 100% done is the kitchen). However, once we got it together we took down some of our decorations to set up for Christmas 😂. That's the way it goes, isn't it? It's our family tradition to set up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day. It is something we started when the kids were little and we were living overseas. Matt would set up the tree and the kids and I would decorate the tree while he was cooking the Thanksgiving lunch. (It was a great distraction for not being near family, and for keeping their minds off of when lunch would be ready 😂) The tradition has continued and we LOVE it. It is always fun pulling out the ornaments and reminiscing about the memories they evoke.

After lunch we went out to Edgewater Park on Lake Erie. I have been wanting to see Lake Erie since we started house hunting here and we have not had time. Today we finally went 😀 It was gorgeous! It reminds me of the ocean with the vast expanse of it. I took a gazillion pictures and shared some below! 

Old bathroom:

New bathroom:

Finished Kitchen:

Finished Laundry Room:

Elijah's room before painting:

 

Elijah's Finished Room:

 

Porch: 

Dining Room before painting:

 

Dining Room finished, the color is a light green but hard to see in pictures

Basement before we painted:

Basement after with one tired boy!

Kayla's room before painting:

The kids have started to put their own stamp on the basement:

Completed Living Room:

Setting up for Christmas:

Starting a Christmas puzzle, we haven't been able to do one for months!

Edgewater Park at Lake Erie:

 

It was such a great day! We enjoyed our first outing in Cleveland!

 

"To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Philippians 4:20

 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17