Buying a House

Does anybody other than me find it interesting that the most important financial decision you will probably ever make is the one that you know the absolute least about? Hmmmm, maybe that is why you have to sign all these papers that say you believe that your realtor and mortgage broker are acting in your best interest, because I think that they are. Our realtor has been nothing but WONDERFUL and I am thankful for the hard work she has been putting in on our behalf. Not to mention the fact that she is a believer and it's nice (biblically compelling as well) to work with the Body of Christ. BUT, the down side to knowing very little about a large purchase is that you could lose a bunch of money. Knowing that, read on...

Sarah and I have been running around like crazy, trying to fax this here and that there, sign this here and date it, get this information about such and such, and make a decision about this and if you mess up, there is a possibility that it could cost you thousands. That seems a little crazy, but we just have to do that to make an OFFER on the house, not actually buy it. I can't wait until the day we close on it, should be interesting (if it all works out). Anyhoo, if you plan to buy a house in the future, start making friends with a mortgage broker (if you're not related to one) so that they can help explain things, cuz it gets a bit confusing. My uncle is a mortgage broker and he gave me a 30 minute lesson over the phone today, and man, it was helpful. Just something to think about. AND if you ever start looking at purchasing a house, you may go ahead and ask your realtor to give you a copy of all the paper work that you will eventually fill out. Sarah and I would like to have been a little bit more acquainted with all the forms and whatnot. I am not saying that our real estate agent or mortgage broker is doing a bad job. In fact, I bet they are ready to work with someone who knows what they are talking about. What I am saying is take some initiative to prepare yourself for the most important financial decision you will ever make, it will pay off big time (and I mean it will pay off monetarily and it will lower your stress level).

More on house purchasing later.

No pregnant jokes this time.

Longing for Loui,
Beebs

I'm in

Saturday afternoon I received an envelope from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that said, "We would like to congratulate..." that's the only part I really read. Then Sarah and I were jumping up and down all excited that the Lord had confirmed the call for us to attend seminary in the fall of 2007. Instead of calling my friends in Kentucky, I just ran to the airport and flew in to tell them about it. Everybody was really thankful that I flew in just to inform them of my acceptance.
Not really, I flew up there to take a look at a house. We found a very promising duplex that is very close to the seminary, the price is right, and it looks like we will have good renters (I hope). It is a beautiful redbrick duplex. You can take a look at it here. Hopefully we will make a bid on it tomorrow, Tuesday, and start drawing up a contract by the weeks end.
By 1:00 am Saturday night, Eron and I had registered for my fall classes. I will be taking 10 hours total.
-Biblical Theology with Dr. Wellum
-Systematic Theology with Dr. Moore
-Written Communications with (I can't remember)
-Personal Spiritual Disciplines wit Dr. Whitney
It ought to be a good time!!
Right now Sarah and I are in the process of moving to Liberty Hill for the summer and finishing up staff training at Camp Buckner (still the best camp on the face of the earth). Things are busy, but that's probably good for me.

Sarah's preg...naah, just kidding.

Beebs

Quick Update

Thought I'd give you a quick update. Sarah and I are waiting anxiously to hear from the seminary. We should find out sometime this week, if the seminary is correct in telling us that it will take 8-10 days from the time they have all our info.

Last week I should have spent a lot of time reading, but I spent a lot of time fishing instead. You can't blame me right? Pretty soon I'll be reading enough to make up for all the lost time of that past. But I don't really consider fishing to be lost time either. I caught enough fish (with the help of Jason Shaw) to feed 15 people Friday night. It was nice to fish with a purpose.

Sarah is still laboring intensely to get things ready for summer camp. The Lord has faithfully brought the needed staff together for camp and things are looking great. Continue to pray for her and the other summer camp staff; right now is a very stressful time of year.

I have 7 and 1/2 days left of school and I love it. 67 out of 68 of my kids passed the TAKS Math test (I'm in charge of all of 4th grade math). And 47% of those kids earned a commended performance (they missed less than 4 problems). I have to be honest here...I was more excited about my kids succeeding than I ever was over winning a ballgame of any sort. 180 days is a long time to spend with 80 kids, pushing them to learn math, and then find out that they paid attention and learned. It's quite satisfying.

Sarah's pregnant...just kidding.

I'll let you know if Southern accepts me or slams the door in my face.

Ryan

Been a While

Good Grief and Honor...It's been forever since I last posted, and I have fully come to terms with the fact that I deserved to be kicked off Eron's blog list.

Well, my kids have all taken the TAKS test and now they have absolutely no motivation for learning. This results in a husband who is worn out at the end of the day and praying that for the last 4 weeks of school corporal punishment (or maybe capital) will be reinstated in elementary schools. We have a Soap Box Derby coming up, the Science Fair going on right now (literally, as I type), an archeological dig field trip coming up as well as a swim party all in the next 4 weeks. Oh yeah, and a musical production that we are putting on with the 4th graders. A busy month is ahead and I am ready, I mean READY, to be in Looeevill.

So I told Eron that I would like to contribute to his new blog on books called The Booked Blog. This is good for me. You see, I am a bit of a competitor and it might be good for me to see Eron and friends blogging about books they have read. Check that out, it will be great.

Sarah is meticulously laboring in pursuit of summer camp. As it draws nearer the pressure is really building but it is nice to know that we will not be there all summer (although we would love to be). It would be pretty tough to try to move to L'ville while maintaining our jobs at camp.
I just finished a book by Joseph S. Carroll called How to Worship Jesus Christ. For anyone who needs an encouragement to just savor Christ and ascribe worth to Him, this book is for you (by the way, that's everybody). I'll post more in depth on it later (probably on The Booked Blog)

Sarah caught an 8 pound bass Sunday. Yeah, that's right, 8 stinkin' pounds. That made for a lot of fried fish as well as one humbled husband!!

Love you guys, hope all is well. Adios...