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And Breathe...

It's a warmer day in the middle of January, after a long weekend which we stayed busy looking at houses/areas, attending a birthday party, and visiting with friends. The snow is nearly melted with the slow and steady rain, but we're expecting colder temperatures and some minor snow later. We'll enjoy the grass while we can! Shelby is at a meeting and the kids are not home quite yet, so I'll try to post some thoughts. We went looking at houses on Saturday - houses that we saw on the internet and decided to check out in real life. We're not ready enough to look inside these homes, but wanted a sense of the areas these homes are in and the actual condition of these homes behind their strategic photos. We discovered a beautiful part of the state out west in Camden and all the way down to Oxford. We drove by an awesome home in College Corner! A bit above our price range, but a beautiful home in a beautiful setting - what a great town! We had lunch in Oxford at a place called 45 east, thanks to a tip from a guy we passed by. Oxford (at least the area we visited) is very college, very friendly, and very nice. I especially like the hills and wooded areas that we drove through on both sides of the state line, and I'm finding it harder to look at homes on flat parcels cut from Ohio's corn fields. We ended our house visiting at Huber Heights, of all places, to show the kids the abandoned five-bedroom home Shelby and I visited earlier in the week. We drove up to find that someone had broken into the house which, after the "all clear" from the police officer, gave us the opportunity to see the inside. While this property isn't really rural, it is on a couple acres in a more secluded part of Huber, and very much within our budget. All in all, the day gave us a better idea of the kind of home we want, and the area that we would like it to be located. We're getting closer day by day.

College Corner $173,500













Huber Heights $69,900


















Shelby's career is going well - a smooth transition from last year's program to this year's program, much better than last year. We're working forward on paying down bills and beefing up Shelby's credit, since she has the job right now. I'm beginning to look more seriously at working, although we still don't know where we'll be living, exactly, so that part is hard. It is nice that the year has quieted a bit and we can breathe a little bit for now. Here's looking to an adventurous year, and the help of life to place us in the right spot to live out our dreams. There's a big year ahead of us - lots of unknowns and lots of trust in the hands of destiny.

Kids are nearly home :) Time to get ready for the rest of the day!

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