christmas 2017

Christmas is always a busy season, but I look forward to it every year. This year as Alex and I processed our high and lowlights our unanimous highlight was picking out our Christmas tree with Margo. She was so excited to run through the fields and "help" find a tree. When Alex cut the tree down she shouted, in her sweet chipmunk voice, "oh-no!". 

Our other highlights were spending time with family and the cliche seeing her face on Christmas morning. But she really was so excited and cute! There aren't really any lows from this year except everywhere we looked someone was getting sick, sick or getting over being sick. Somehow we managed to avoid getting sick and had a great holiday season.

harry potter world

I love to read. My favorite books to read and re-read are the Harry Potter books. I don't know how many times I've read through the series, but every time I read them, I enjoy them that much more. You can call me a nerd, I'm really ok with it.

Alex and I were up late one evening two weeks before Christmas talking about what our plans for the next few weeks were. Right now with the office, Alex has a bit more free time than normal and we started daydreaming about taking a quick trip somewhere before Christmas, before Alex's free time runs out.

We talked about going skiing but with a broken foot that didn't seem prudent. Then we talked about going to DC or New York, but that seemed cold and super crowded. We finally started looking to see where Allegiant flew since they fly out of Belleville and Orlando came up. As soon as I saw Orlando I immediately thought of Harry Potter World.

I have been wanting to go for ages and it finally seemed like the right time, so we booked our flight, rental car, hotel and got our park tickets. We did all of this on Monday night, our flight left Thursday morning, to say it was a last minute trip is probably an understatement.

We planned to take Margo with us until my Mom called to see if she and my dad could keep her so Alex and I could enjoy Harry Potter World without a stroller. We were a little torn because we knew she'd have fun and it'd be fun to see her reaction to everything, but ultimately knew that it'd be easier just the two of us. So she got a vacation with Grandma and Pop and we got a trip to sunny Florida.

When we got to Orlando we went to Universal Studios and straight to Diagon Alley. I was so excited that I was shaking. As soon as we walked through the brick wall (behind The Leaky Cauldren) the soundtrack from the movies was tinkling in our ears. I may or may not have teared up. Everything was absolutely perfect and just as it should have been. Our first stop was Ollivanders to get my wand. You can't be in the wizarding world without one.

The shops had brilliant displays, the dragon breathed real fire, the goblins were cranky and the wands really worked. The Butter Beer was just as I'd imagined and I was about as excited as I'd ever been.

The first ride we rode was Escape from Gringotts and it was awesome! It was a 3D/4D ride and it was really smooth and fun. After that we wandered through Diagon Alley some more and then decided to ride the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade. After waiting in a much longer line than expected, we caught the last train out of Kings Cross. The ride was fun and interactive but not necessarily as long as I thought it'd be.

When we got to Hogsmeade it was just about closing time for the park but it was so cool to see everything in the dark. It just so happened that we got to Hogwarts just in time for the Christmas lights show. It was really well done and ended in fireworks over the castle.

The next morning we woke up early to get the park as soon as we could to keep exploring. When we got there we went to Islands of Adventure and rode the Hulk (not HP themed at all...) but it was a really fun roller coaster. After that we wound through the park to Hogsmeade to ride The Forbidden Journey in Hogwarts. The line to get to the actual ride was really fun and interactive. The portraits talked, we went through classrooms with talking ghosts, through Dumbledore's office, we saw the Mirror of Erised, the portrait of the Fat Lady (the entrance to Gryffindor), the Sorting Hat and the bewitched ceiling in the Great Hall.  The ride itself was good, but really jerky so we were both a bit queasy afterward.

After that we wandered through Hogsmeade, ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, practiced using my wand, got sweets from Honeydukes and of course more Butter Beer. We went back to Diagon Alley (by foot since the train line was so long) and continued wandering around, practicing spells and soaking it all up. We also got to see Celestina Warbeck perform a Christmas show with her singing Banshees. We shopped and wandered and somehow ended up back in Hogsmeade at the Hogs Head to drink our last Butter Beer before heading out for the night.

Harry Potter World lived up to my every expectation and they nailed all the details, big and small. Disney may be the happiest place on earth but Harry Potter World is the most magical.

1080p from Abby W on Vimeo.

champaign visit

Before Christmas Alaina, Maggie and I conspired to have a much needed reunion. We hadn't all three been together since Alaina's wedding. So David, Maggie, Margo, Alex and I drove up to Champaign to spend the weekend with Garrett and Alaina. It was so good for the soul to catch up and be together. I can't wait until we're together again!

riviera maya, mexico

For the longest time Becky and I have wanted to go on a vacation without kids + our spouses. We tossed around several destination ideas but landed on an all inclusive, adults only resort in sunny Mexico.

We left on Sunday and had five glorious, lazy, sun filled days. We did nothing but eat guacamole and lay by the pool and beach. Our biggest struggle was finding four lounge chairs together. I think traveling is one of the best things for any relationship, sister and brother-in-law relationships too! Thanks for traveling with us Jared and Becky!

Since my foot was broken and the sand was really hard to walk on, Alex gave me a lift when needed

fall retreat

This year we took our high school youth group on a fall retreat the last weekend in October. In years past we've gone to the middle of nowhere Missouri but we always got lost and had car trouble. So this year we decided to stay a little closer to home and go to Camp Durley in Greenville.

The camp's facilities were perfect for what we needed and the weather held out so it wasn't too cold. We did all the normal fall retreat activities- we played games, had a camp fire, did a bible study, had small group prayer time, ate all the puppy chow, some of the boys fished and two of our fellas thought it was a good idea to jump into the lake...the very, very cold lake.

It's always encouraging to study scripture with our students and for them to engage and grow in their faith. Youth ministry isn't for everyone but we love our students and seeing them grow closer to Christ.

the house we sold

We lived in our brown house (maybe it's more tan?) for four years and made so many amazing memories there. Not only did we do a lot of the updates to make it our own, but we grew in our marriage, hosted countless game nights and backyard bbq's and brought Margo home from the hospital to name a few.

We loved so much about the brown house and it was far harder to say goodbye than I'd like to admit. We knew it wasn't our forever home and we felt (mostly) confident that it would sell. Thankfully it did and with virtually no hiccups!

the house we flipped

The blue house was a labor of love but when we finished it we loved it. We saw a lot of the benefits and updates that it offered that our house (let's call it the brown house for the sake of clarity) didn't offer.

The brown house still needed a lot of the expensive updates that we didn't feel like we'd see a return on when we decided to sell. The brown house needed a new HVAC and windows, the floors were getting really worn out (I got a splinter walking in our bedroom!), the oven and dishwasher were on their last legs and I really wanted a deck in the backyard.

So, after a lot of discussion, advice from friends and family, lists of pro's and con's and prayer, we decided to list the brown house (OUR HOUSE!) on the market and see if it sold. If it did, we'd move into the blue house if it didn't we'd try our luck at selling the blue house and see if that went any better.

We decided to sell 'by owner' so I cleaned, organized and staged our house. Then I took pictures, edited and narrowed them down to enough to leave you wanting more so potential buyers would schedule a showing. I was so nervous that:

a) no one would like our house and come look at it and
b) people would come and be really disappointed and not buy it

It was a humbling process for me, but we nervously posted the house and within hours had several showings lined up. It was in our favor that the housing market in Edwardsville was on fire! We posted the house on Zillow on Tuesday and had three full price offers by Friday and were under contract on Saturday.

All of the inspections and appraisals went well, we had a few updates and changes to make but then closed without a hitch on November 2, 2017. 

That gave us 30 days to finish all of the little details at the blue house and move in. Somehow, with a broken foot, several Trailhead Students events (including the fall retreat weekend away) and an upcoming vacation we got everything done and settled just in the nick of time.

the house we bought

We found out that the owners of the house two doors down were planning to put their long time rental property on the market in the fall. So, Alex walked down to ask them how much they were asking and if we could walk through it. They told him their price and we did our first walk through. 

Alex and I are both the type of people that take on too much. We tend to do our best in seasons of busyness. So, why not buy a house in the midst of all of our other chaos!? 

The house is 700 square feet with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a decent sized living room, small eat in kitchen and it has an attached one care garage and a full unfinished basement. All the major (expensive) updates had been done: new roof, windows, electrical, plumbing and HVAC. Not big and fancy, but definitely not a bad house for our first rental property...

We had an appraisal and inspection done and everything came back in our favor, so we went ahead with the purchase and closed on the house on July 28, 2017. 

We had every intention of buying the house to do a little work and then put it on the rental market before school started at the college in August. BUT then we started talking to one of our friends who is a contractor that buys and flips houses and he suggest that we should put a little more work into and try to flip it for a profit. 

So we ripped out the old (smelly) carpet, installed engineered hardwoods and new baseboards, had a painter come in to paint virtually every surface, shiplapped over some 1970's (ugly) paneling, re-drywalled one of the bedrooms, installed all new interior doors, took off the old aluminum awning, painted the exterior, installed a new front door and garage door, updated the landscaping and had new gutters installed. 

All of this work while still having our own house, wrangling Margo, running the office, taking over leading our youth group full time, being in a wedding and having a virus that kicked my butt for 2+ weeks that required several weeks/months of follow up blood work and then falling off the steps and breaking my foot. It was child's play...

But, we did it. We got the little white house flipped and finished and now it's the blue house.