Turkey Day :)

House Hunters

This is Casey's dream home.....just a little out of our price range I think!

We hear it is common for first time home buyers to be indecisive, but I'm pretty sure that indecisive doesn't even begin to explain this process for us :)

 It has been such a roller coaster ride figuring out what would be best for us and after two potentials (house and condo), we are back to the beginning.  Our realtor has taken the reigns and we are following her lead.  She plans to show us 5 houses this Saturday that she picks out and that we don't get to know before hand.  This is torture for David and I since we nit-pick houses like its our job.  She recommends this since David and I do online searches and have been finding homes that way....it can get hard since pictures don't usually do justice/persuade you.  Although we hate the unknown, we are praying that this process would be fun and enjoyable.  We are also reminding ourselves that there is no rush (even though we are busting at the seams in our little apartment) and to be thankful for what we have now.

Our thoughts on location have changed quite a bit since the beginning of the process.  We used to be looking on the south side of Lansing, but we are now looking more on the west side closer to East Lansing and MSU.  We just feel like it would be nice to be close to EL and MSU since our church is close and there are great Lansing schools right on the border.  We have also loved the Groesbeck neighborhood and this would be right across the way from there.  Lansing homes have so much character and we have fallen in love with the older homes in that area.  They all have hard wood floors and porches.....I'm a sucker for white porches.  Anyway there are numerous reasons that we love Lansing and we are excited at the prospect of owning a home and being close to our "other home" for the last 6 years or so.

In other news, Thanksgiving is almost here and I'm so excited!  I love this holiday a whole lot and enjoy spending it with family.  I have so many great memories of eating turkey and watching movies and playing games as a kid.  I look forward to having those same memories with our little family someday.  I just hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Rejoice in the blessings that the Lord so gracefully gives!  We have much to be grateful for :)

We are off to Portage to spend time with my family and then off to Dearborn with David's side on Sunday.  It should be fun to sleep in and spend time with our wonderful families.  Lots of people in a short amount of time can be hard for me sometimes, but I'm trusting the Lord for strength and energy.  Resting in Him, the giver of all good things.

Love to all!

Busy Busy Bee

This last week has been so busy for us!  We had our 24th Birthdays and it was so much fun.  We were able to see both sides of our families and felt so blessed by their generosity.  David and I received lots of great presents and to name a few.....coffee maker (gourmet Keurig...needless to say I'm ecstatic), Wii golf (wonder who that was for), sweaters, necklace, MSU gear, newspaper subscription, cute bird calender and plates, and money :)  We feel so incredibly grateful to have such generous families!

We were able to celebrate together since our Birthdays are four days apart.  I'm technically older, but David says he was "in the oven" longer so you know.  David surprised me with a wonderful dinner and Mary Poppins the musical for a gift!  It was so great and fun!  Our friends were also there and it was such a great night to enjoy a wonderful Broadway musical.  I highly recommend that if you ever have the chance to go...seize the opportunity because I still have songs in my head.

Another fun thing we did this week was go and see a condo in Lansing.  They are in the process of reduing a bunch of condos not too far from us and we really wanted to see them since they are in our price range.  Technically we would be saving money buying this condo since financing is so cheap right now.  Anyways the condos were beautiful!  They redid all the floors, both bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, stainless steel appliances, front load washer and dryer....the list goes on.  We are just really excited to have finally found something that is bigger than what we have now, but financially feasible for the future.  As of right now, we are thinking this might be our new home, but still organizing some things and waiting on answers from our realtor.  Overall though, we are seriously considering a two bedroom condo!

With a new home comes the prospect of children in our near future which is very exciting.  Over the last ten years or so, I've experienced lots of health problems and with this came the hard decision that my body isn't capable of having biological children.  It was really hard to come to grips with the reality of this, but the Lord was gracious in putting it on our hearts to adopt.  We are still figuring out the financial responsibilities of adopting and hoping that with grants and savings we could make it work. We are also both taking the time to process through what it would look like, but we know that we would like children and would love to adopt an infant domestically.  We would love prayer as we work through this!

The Holidays are here and I'm a happy camper!  There is nothing better than the love and joy of this season.....and the prospect of a first snowfall :)  I'm beginning to organize gift ideas and I'm so looking forward to buying gifts!  It really is one of my most favorite things!  I just love having the feeling of giving someone a gift that I know they will enjoy and use.  Another fun thing is our Anniversary and our annual trip to Traverse City.  It truly is my most favorite place and in the winter there is nothing more beautiful than the Bay and Lake!  We always stay at a beautiful winery/Bed and Breakfast and I love being able to relax by the fire and play games with David and drink coffee and wine.

So as my classes get more and more stressful and difficult I look forward to this season for rest!  Rest from the busy and rest in our heavenly Father.

Having a Home

Over the last six months or so, David and I have been thinking a lot about our next step in where to live.  There are many reasons we know we want to be here including that we love: Michigan, the diversity of Lansing, our church family at URC, being close to family, friends and being able to allow David the opportunity to teach in an urban city like Lansing (that's not too big for Casey).

I think the both of us have been up and down trying to figure out what would be best for us.  Should we stay in an apartment, go bigger with a townhome, rent a house, buy a house????  Overall I feel like we have been anxious and nervous as to what to do.  We started off thinking buying a house would be ideal since we know we want to be here and would love to plant roots right away.  This didn't work out so well though and after the disappointing loss of a house we both liked, we felt like this just wasn't the right path for us.

Through the house buying process, we became more aware of our financial situation which was really great.  Friends of ours lent us a book by Dave Ramsey that talks about saving and the process of paying off debt and this was so great for us.  We feel like we have been wise the last two years with our money, but due to health circumstances and life in general, we have a good amount of student loan debt.  After much thought, we decided that paying off our debt would be more beneficial than going forward with a large decision like buying a house. 

This is where we are right now.  We know buying a house wouldn't be best right now, but also know we would like to have a family and need more space.  The last couple weeks we have searched and searched trying to find something that would be in our budget, but allow for more room.  Apartments seem to be the best idea for us right now and we have found a couple that are close to David's work at Auto Owners that seem to be both big enough and in our price range.  We still would be a little crammed, but the idea of having a little one makes it well worth it in my opinion :) 

Obviously this is a very long post, but so far this has been one of the hardest and most stressful decisions for us to make.  Finances tend to bring out our selfishness and desire for our own needs above one anothers.  Overall we know that the Lord is going to take care of us and provide us with a home, but we tend to neglect this truth and get wrapped up in our own plan.  Lately I've been reminded by the verse in Matthew 6:26 that says, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they."  This verse reminds me of God's faithfulness and that I can trust Him for my every need.  He provides birds with food and shelter, so what makes me think he won't provide for me.  My lack of faith in his power to provide leads me to worry and feel anxious.  Setting my mind on my heavenly home and trusting in his grace gives me the peace to know he will give us a home on earth and a family to dwell in that home.

Excited for the next couple months as we celebrate birthdays, Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Christmas and New Years....and hopefully the process of having a new home.

Great website for the Holidays!

My Wishpot

As the holidays get closer, creating lists of things you would like can be disorganized and hard for loved ones to follow.  For the last couple years, we have been using something called wishpot to create an easy way for people to view your lists of needs/wants.  When you are online and looking at certain websites and you find something you like, you just put it on the your wishpot and that way you won't forget that you wanted it.  I also find it helpful to review your list and organize the things that you really want rather than things you think you want :)  

Hope this helps as you start shopping for gifts.  I love to buy gifts for others, but baking things is great as well.  There are great ideas on Etsy for simple and fun ideas for inexpensive, but thoughtful gifts.  The Real Simple magazine always has great things as well.

Have fun preparing for this wonderful season!

The Koch's have a blog!

After much thought, I decided to create a blog that shares our life together and all the things we are up to in Lansing.  I'm hoping to be able to share recipes, pictures, job updates and life updates as they come.  I'm new to this, so give me grace as I figure out how to organize my thoughts :)  

Excited to allow friends and family the opportunity to get a peek into our life and marriage and all the fun things in our future!

Blessings,
Casey