On the Road Again...

For those of you who haven't heard, we're moving! Chad has accepted a position (within the same company) in Trenton, ND! While we are sad to leave Vernal, we are confident that it is time to move on. It was a rough couple of weeks and even stretching into months of uncertainty as he applied for various positions and we weren't sure what was going to be offered and what we could accept. It was a bit test in patience and trusting in the Lord, that's for sure!
Chad is already working up in ND on a regular basis and one of the awesome perks of this new job is that we are finally in a position to buy our first home! I drove up to meet with him about a week and a half ago, we looked at a few different houses and made an offer on one! Our offer has been accepted and we are under contract to buy this home. We are still waiting on the appraisal and inspection but our tentative close date is set for August 15th. School starts up there on August 22nd, so we are hoping to be able to get moved in right away and settled as quickly as possible so Ella can feel as normal as possible as she is thrown into the challenges of making new friends at a new school at the start of a brand new school year. (The job is in ND but we will actually be living in a little town in Sidney, MT.)
I had a little bit of a hiccup on my way home from my trip....well, several hiccups, but the one of great consequence was having a run in with Bambi. Literally. It was late, dark, I was going a little too fast, and hit a deer in the road. I think it's going to take years of therapy to get the image of hitting her out of my head but hopefully I will get there someday. My car was still running and since it was so late and dark, I just kept driving, thinking, if my car was working, how bad could it really be? Well, to make a long story "short", I took out Bambi and Bambi took out my entire radiator. The bill from the body shop is not going to be pretty, but we are just grateful that only my car was damaged. It could have been so much worse and we understand that. So, we're just trying to look at the bright side here and not complain.
So, for the moment, we are just keeping busy with packing and trying to get ready to move! I'm still working down at the high school for the summer and leaving my students is really going to be the hardest thing for me. Ella is struggling with the idea of leaving her friends, but we are trying to focus on the positives for all of us. Included are a few photos of the house we are buying....needs some serious redecorating, but we are more than up for the job!