Well, it is that time of the year that everyone that blogs on a consistent basis (well probably even those that don’t blog that often too) sit down and reflect on the year that has been conquered. I don’t know that I am much of a reflection type of guy or blogger so I will just give you some of the highlights of my year…and of course they will not be in order so that I don’t have to try to rank everything because that is insane.

• I got married! Still not really sure how I convinced her to do that. I think my parents must have paid her a large chunk of money under the table that she can’t touch until 10 years down the road or something like that. I mean I know I’m pretty freakin’ cool sweet gorgeous amazing rich famous funny different (I’m sure that one we can all agree on), but not sure that it warrants this. But for real, this is amazing. I couldn’t have picked a better woman or wife for me. I am seriously blessed…and I’m going to move on since that could take all day.
• My sister got married! They had a great wedding and are now well on their way through their first year. Take care of her Beto. Work on that golf game because me and my 90′s scoring will take you out!
• My brother-in-law got married too and is now expecting a baby girl! Have some estrogen, Toby!
• I resigned from LifeChurch.tv, a church that I love. We felt God calling us to an unknown place (which of course we will get to soon enough…”hold your horses” as my mom would say) and left everything that we had know for the past 3 years. Maybe some day I will have the honor of working for LC again. Craig did tell me that if I ever needed a job I should call him. Ha!
• I taught KK to wakeboard. That was awesome! She was amazing. A freakin’ natural. After we got past the lymnohydrophobia and the massive panic drinking of lake water, she tore it up. I must be a stud teacher. PS – she was pretty freakin’ hot ridin’ that wakeboard. Guess I will have to find someone out here with a boat and do that again!
• We moved to Huntington Beach, California!…by way of Dana Point, California and the Snyders. Before we left LifeChurch.tv we knew that God was calling us somewhere and it turned out to be the sunny state of California! Woo hoo! (and I was so worried as a little kid that God was gonna call me to be a missionary to some place in the desert…yes desert, not dessert because then I would be a really fat missionary…and never have a shower or TV or sports or anything fun ever again) (and no, Jesus I’m not saying that I wouldn’t go or using the words never or not a chance or anything like that, just in case) We have been here almost 2 months now and are loving it! We are looking forward to the jobs and relationships and life that He has planned for us out here!
• Me, KK, and Jack all got a year older. Hard to believe, I know.
• I learned to surf! Well, I am still learning. I have done it though and I got a surfboard for Christmas! Now I just gotta get the lingo down. Then I can be stoked for the break with the killer swells for me to shred…but not yet.
• We sold our house in 3 weeks! We felt bad for the other houses on the street that had their houses on the market for several months prior to ours…wait…no we didn’t. Thank you, Jesus! Ok, that was kinda mean, but we were still excited.
• We had some hard times too. There was a gall bladder surgery, job changes, crappy jobs, sicknesses, apparent chronic illnesses of the tummy region, the loss of family members, expenses, moving away from friends and family, housing issues, I had a toothpick shoved into my foot, and the list goes on and on.

But I think that we can say wholeheartedly that we have had a great year. No matter what the bad stuff was, we grew closer together and got to deal with everything together! We have been told many times that the first year of marriage is the hardest. Good! It’s almost over and it really wasn’t that bad! So, for those of you that pray for us, please keep that up this year. Pray for good jobs for us. Pray for us to continue growing closer to each other and keeping God right in the middle of it all!

We are looking forward to a year ahead. It has lots of things to come. A wedding in April. A potential trip to meet the Masad (Israeli special bad A forces)…and see lots of sights. Another year with my wife. More surfing, wakeboarding, and snowboarding. Endless summer (like for real, not the movie…well maybe the movie too). A church home. 24 (need I really say more?). Bring it on 2009!

We love you all!

The countdown is well under way. Assuming that nothing changes with our house (which is a big assumption…we still haven’t heard anything from the inspection that was Friday), we will be heading out of town in 8 days! Also, today is the last day that the buyer can back out of purchasing our house by choice. From what I understand there are still things that have to be done but after today, the buyer can’t just wake up in the middle of the night and decide they don’t wanna buy the house! That is great. So we are on the go. We need to keep praying that it all works out and we are still good until the close of the house in December. It’s coming soon! That means the rest of the house has to be completely packed and ready to load when the family arrives on Saturday so we can pack the truck! That will be plenty interesting when we have probably 17 people here for early thanksgiving. Don’t let me forget I have to go buy some walkie talkies so my wife and I can converse during out TWENTY HOUR road trip! WOW! That will be interesting. We are sooooooooo ready to go its not even funny. Yes there are things we will miss, but the time has come!

Our house SOLD! All the other houses on the street that have been up for sale for much longer will be sooooo jealous. Well, officially it’s under contract but it’s sold! Now comes the waiting period.

I don’t like this part. We now have to get through a 10 waiting period that the buyer can back out for any reason and then they have another 15 days to get the loan. If those things all to well we are probably good. We aren’t totally in the clear until the closing but still…woo hoo!

At the moment we are thinking about a move in mid to later November. Yes that means packing everything up and hitting the road. Not sure I’m looking forward to that drive but we can do it. Guess the Snyder’s better start gettig that guest bedroom ready (please?)! Kidding. Well…kinda.

Anyway thanks for all the prayers and support. We still have some big decisions to make so you don’t have to stop praying yet.

(ps- we need to have a farewell poker night sometime before we pack everything up! You down?)

Ah, the too early Saturday morning crisp (yet somehow foggy too) air.  The sound of women arguing over items older than they are (what the rest of the world would call junk).  Having to worry about getting hit on your way back to your car by a car whizzing by trying to beat everyone to the next “awesome sale” (trash heap) down the block.  You all know that you love going to them (not all of us so freakin’ early in the morning though), finding something that apparently you just can’t live without (but are not willing to either buy new or pay the price that is being asked), and then trying to haggle them down $10 on an item listed for $12.  It’s ridiculous, but we all do it!  It’s like Craigslist or the trinket stores in Mexico!  I ask this much, and in turn you offer me about half that!

Well as you probably already know, our house is for sale.  We are planning a move soon (contingent on the house selling or leasing…but preferably selling) and are hoping that someone nice will take care of our home.  Well, this week (yesterday actually) we had someone come look at the house for the second time (we believe).  This person apparently likes the house and last night put in an offer to buy it.  Great!  Well, now starts the period of haggling by them trying to talk us down to the lowest price.  I thought we were already listing it WAAAAAAY below what we were hoping for considering the market su…UCKS!  Well they tossed us…well more like rolled us a low ball offer that is about $14K less than our listing!  Wow.

So now we are sending back a counter that isn’t anywhere near $14K under our price.  Hope it works out.  Anyone out there have advice in selling/haggling for the sale of your home?  I have been on the other end, but I bought from a bank so it was different.  They are even trying to get me to play to this persons feelings because they want me to sign off on a goofy closing date so this person can save a little more (this would also cost me another $1000).  Gross.

Tell me, tell me, tell me!

So we are thinking of leasing out our house for a year or two until the market goes back up. There are pros and cons to this. I have never done this before so I am still working it all out in my head…and apparently my blog too. So here is my list of pros and cons. Have you done this before? What else do I need to consider that I haven’t thought about yet?

Pros
- the market sucks really bad right now
- it as a better chance of leasing sooner than selling (which means we get out of Fort Worth quicker)
- we basically have someone else making our mortgage payment for us for a couple years which is awesome for escrow
- could make several thousand dollars more when the market is good

Cons
- still have a house to worry about
- a home warranty doesn’t cover things like the wind blowing down the fence
- they might not take care of the house
- not sure about the roofing over the back porch (don’t really wanna mess with it but it might be best to get rid of it for good)
- I hope the tennants pay their rent
- I have to pay a property managemant company to run the whole thing

So my wife and I are unemployed.  It brings a whole new meaning to trusting God.  We HAVE to.  Doesn’t mean it’s easy, but I know that He will take care of us.  He has a plan for us that is unfolding as we speak.  

Unemployment is weird.  Quitting a job to be unemployed is even weirder.  But that’s ok.  We have lots to do.  California is ahead (Lord willing) with Texas in the rear view mirror.  Peace out, Texas!  Now we just have to sell our house to get the U-haul and the gas.  Please pray for that.  There are some great churches out in Orange County and we are hoping to find one that is home.

But for now, we are back to painting!  We are repainting the outside of our house (and not asking the home owners association…shhh…don’t tell) so that it will look all pretty for those coming to see it!  Woo hoo!  Come buy our house!

Well, here we are.  My wife and I are embarking on a new journey starting next week.  What’s that journey you ask?   Well, we don’t know.  But we do know this.  Sunday is our final Sunday at LifeChurch.tv.  Will there be LifeChurch.tv in our future again sometime?  I would like to think so, but I really don’t know.  For the last week or so we have tried to let everyone know (and we apologize if we haven’t been able to get in touch with you yet) but this Sunday is it!

Next week starts our new journey.  We are both looking for jobs now in our respective fields, but we want to move to California.  Get out of the Great Plains (which are still great, don’t get me wrong) and move to the west coast!  We don’t have much planned other than we feel strongly about heading that way.  Know anyone out there?  Know of a church that might need us?  We would love to know!  I know I haven’t blogged much over the last couple weeks, but we have had sooooooo much going on recently that the time hasn’t been there!  I will be more consistent soon I hope.

So there you go.  It is Friday, tomorrow is OU saxeT, Sunday is our last Sunday leading at LifeChurch.tv, the house is up for sale in one of the worst areas for selling, and we want to move out west!  I think that about sums it all up!  Please pray for us!  This is a big move!  We love you all!

So my wife and I have been working on the house a lot recently.  Tearing down the back porch, repainting things, planting things, etc.  One evening we were working in the backyard, and our Hispanic neighbor came out and called us Mr. & Mrs. HGTV.  That was kinda funny.  I think he just forgot our names personally.  Today we were back at it again.  Can anyone explain to me why we paint our house multiple times?  I thought it looked great before.  I didn’t know that last time we painted we should have just kept going.  That’s how we spent our Saturday.  Granted, yes, I did get to watch half of the Ryder Cup and the Auburn LSU game,  So don’t think that I’m complaining.  If we ever decide to sell our house, I’m sure that it will be much more desirable (I hope) to those looking for a house.  I just have never understood it.

So, for those of you that know me, I moved into this house here in October of 2006.  And it was a fixer-upper.  Well, we have done so much.  I thought I would give you all an update for those of you that don’t get to be here very often.  Here are some of the things that needed fixing and what we have been able to do to fix them!

• Tiling – When I moved in the kitchen, master bath, second bath, and utility room were either vinyl or carpet.  We have replaced all that with tile!  (thanks to those of you that were amazing help in all of that!) 
• Paint – When I moved in the house was totally builder’s white.  They didn’t do anything at all to the walls.  Good times.  With plenty of help, the walls in every room have been painted!
• Utility Room – Apparently the utility room needs paint too.  I had no idea.  Well my wife has done an incredible job fixing it up!

• Rose bushes – Throughout the yard (front and back) the owners before me had planted rose bushes and they were VERY over grown.  Gross.  So those have all been pulled out and tossed.  A total of at least 18 bushes.  GONE!

• Trees – Yes mom, I have removed 4 trees from the back yard.  One of them was a thorny tree that you basically walked into as you walked out the back into the yard.  Fun.
• Pond – My wonderful predecessors thought it would be an outstanding idea to install a “pond” in the backyard.  Fun.  Oh, and they didn’t take care of it.  The firewood that the placed around the black plastic tub…I mean pond was completely rotten.  The tub was dug down into the ground about 3 feet.  That was difficult by myself.  They even added in what I call the Narnia lamppost.  Thankfully that is aaaaaaaaaaaaall gone!  That was a rough couple days!

• Grass – There were plenty of places in the yard (front and back) that needed some grass.  That’s still a work in progress, but the places that need grass are much smaller and further between!
• Garden – As if the pond wasn’t enough, they wanted to plant a garden.  Yippee!  Well, their garden consisted of a large section of the yard with cement blocks half buried in the ground and with more cement poured over the top.  Yeah.  That took a sledgehammer and several hours.
• Back Porch – There is a back porch that has a “roof” and other things built onto it.  The last couple days my wife and I have spent several hours tearing it apart!  You should see it!  We have a brick wall!

So I moved to Texas and less than a year later, I bought a house.  It was a foreclosed home that the owners before had obviously not taken care of…sorry I ended a sentence in a preposition (my bad.  I recently learned through the blog Things White People Love that we white people love good grammar and that wasn’t).  But the house had potential.  So after lots of work with tiling, painting, digging, removing, throwing away, etc. (with lots of help from loved ones) the house is actually coming along.