His Will

Something amazing happened last week. And when something amazing happens, I need to write about it.
 

To start out, my husband and I bought a house! We close on our old home next week and then we close on the new house within the next 2-3 weeks. It's a rambler in a beautiful city, charming neighborhood and friendly cul-de-sac. There is a large fenced-in backyard for our pup and 3 bedrooms/ 2 baths on the main level. The lower level is unfinished which is like a large, blank canvas for us to run with our imagination and do whatever we'd like with it someday. There are beautiful cherry blossom trees in the front yard that bloom in the spring and there is a cozy, three season porch off the back of the house. Overjoyed is not a big enough word to describe how we feel about finally finding our perfect home.

With all exciting steps in life come responsibilities. The home is under our budget, so we will be making some improvements to better fit our style. In our new home we'd like to complete the following projects:

1. Take down a wall that separates the living room from the rest of the house. This will create an extremely open floor plan, completely changing the feel of the main level.
2. Pull up the carpet and other flooring and refinish/stain the wood floors underneath.
3. Replace the kitchen cabinets/counter tops and put in a new island.
4. Eventually re-do both bathrooms on upper level with new showers, vanities, tile, light fixtures, etc.
5. Eventually finish the basement.
6. Flatten backyard and do some landscaping.

So that sounds fun, right? We are very excited but thinking about these projects (and the money it costs to do them) has been a bit overwhelming. We visited the house again last week with our contractor/kitchen & bathroom designer (which happen to be our parents, how lucky are we?) and the list of projects got longer and longer. The amount of time it will take to do the floors is also longer than expected which means we will be living with my husband's parents for longer than expected as well. We are so lucky that they are welcoming us into their home during this transition, but we are excited to get into our new home and it can't come soon enough!

Anyone who knows me knows I get very excited about things, very fast. I like things to move along quickly and smoothly and I like instant gratification. I am working on being patient but I just love the end result of a project so much that I race to the finish line as often as possible. Renovating a home is not one of those things that you can race through. It takes time, money and lots of decisions.

On our way home from the house last week, my husband and I were chatting about all of these projects; how we were going to get a home construction loan, how long the projects would take, when we would start moving our stuff into the house, etc. I became overwhelmed and weepy. My husband, as usual, reassured me that this is the right thing to do. We're getting all of these amazing projects done so that it will be exactly how we want it when we move in. It's going to be awesome, we just have to be patient throughout the process while living with his parents. I am just really excited to live in our new home and want to get in there as soon as possible.

As I was starting to calm down a bit, a car in the right lane passed us and pulled right in front of us and continued on down the highway. They didn't cut us off or anything, they just got over into the left lane in front of us and I immediately noticed their license plate. It said "HIS WILL"

If that wasn't a sign pointed directly at me in that moment, I don't know what is. I was in this moment feeling overwhelmed and anxious about the moving process and then THIS car pulls in front of us so I can read HIS WILL on the back of their car. I felt instantly relieved and thought wow, I really needed that right now.

The fact that what happens in our lives is HIS WILL and not ours, is such a relief. What a great reminder for me to drop control of the process and let Him take over. What will be is His will and He only does what is best for us. So I changed the subject and accepted that this is how it is meant to be right now. He has never let me down before, and I don't expect he will be steering me in the wrong direction any time soon.

I also instantly felt the need to blog about this experience, so I'm hoping that there is someone out there reading this who needed the reminder today that what happens in our lives is His Will, and it is good.

I leave you with these inspirational quotes about seeking and loving His Will. 

Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.
-Proverbs 3:6 

Your friend,

Meg

Look To My Right and I See the Hollywood Sign...

My husband and I had an awesome surprise a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting at my desk at work when I received a phone call. The woman on the other line said, "Hi, this is Pam Silverman with Fox 9. You entered to win a trip to see the American Idol finale and...you won!"

I couldn't believe it. I totally forgot that we had even entered to win! We have watched American Idol on and off the last couple of years and we absolutely loved the winner, Caleb last year. Since this was the last season, we figured we would watch again this year. One night, they announced on an episode that you could enter to win a trip to the finale, so I entered us online three times, with three different email addresses. And apparently, we won!

That week, Fox had me on The Jason Show with another winner from the Twin Cities. We discussed winning the tickets, who we wanted to win the finale, etc. What an experience!

The following week, we were off to Hollywood, We arrived on Wednesday and the weather was beautiful. Sunny and about 75 degrees. We took a quick nap in our hotel room at the W Hollywood, and then headed up to the roof to sit by the pool for a couple of hours. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and checking out Hollywood Blvd.

 

 

  

Thursday was the day of the big show, the finale. We had Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, then ate a delicious lunch at Delphine Eatery and headed to the Dolby Theatre around 3:30. The atmosphere was crazy. There were cameras and reporters everywhere. Everyone was dressed up and the energy in the air was full of excitement. We picked up our tickets and headed inside. Our seats were way up high, but there truly isn't a bad seat in the house. Here was our view:

 

The show was so much fun. We met a few other people who had won their tickets through Fox as well. Overall we had an amazing time, especially considering that our guy, TRENT won!! Wooo!

 

Thanks to Fox for this super fun experience! 

We flew out to Des Moines on Friday morning for a friend's wedding that I was in. Even though Hollywood was an awesome experience, I can't tell you how nice it felt to be back where we belong, in the midwest! We finally made it home to Minnesota on Sunday afternoon. Back to our crazy lives and getting ready to MOVE. That's right, we sold our house AND got a new one! More on that later...

So remember, you can't win unless you try. I've signed up for hundreds of things, called radio stations to win tickets, etc. and never won a thing. So it's nice to know that people really DO win and it can be you! But you have to play to win ;)

Your friend,

Meg