Update

As some of you know, there's a lot going on in this little Wampler house right now.  All the really important people (our bosses) know the scoop, so I can now blog publicly about our big exciting change!

I'll briefly start from the beginning.  We really like Austin - it's a great, hip, interesting, and beautiful-in-it's-own-way kind of place.  However, I think we always knew we'd move back to Ohio or close.  This became much more real of a desire for us once we had Madison  13 months ago (today! - Happy 13 months sweet girl!).  So, we started praying in January that God would reveal his plan.  Along about April/May we (mostly Jay) started posting for jobs in Cincinnati.  I'm not sure when we narrowed in on Cincinnati as our city of choice.  In June we met with our realtor to begin learning about how to put our house on the market.  We wanted to wait to list it until at least one of us had a job.  After meeting with the realtor, he sent his "stager" to spend a few hours with us walking through our house and telling us everything we should do to make it more appealing to buyers.  This was the longest list I've ever seen......4 pages of things such as repaint your red kitchen and blue bedroom to a neutral (khaki), eliminate one sofa in the family room, repaint your outdoor light fixtures, polish kitchen cabinets, etc, etc, etc!!!  We spent all summer chipping away at this list and hiring some folks to help with a few things too.

Well, Jay received a job offer on August 18th and we put the house on the market the following week on August 28th.  We spent the weekend prior packing more things and decluttering to ensure our house would sell quickly.  They wanted Jay to start on Sept 30th and in order for us all to move together, the house needed to sell because I still did not have a job.  So, Labor Day weekend the house goes on the market and the guy who looked at it at 4:00 the day it went on the market submitted an offer the next day!!!!  Get this, for FULL PRICE!  Wow, thank you God!  We spent a few days negotiating terms and are now officially pending our closing next Thursday, Sept 18th.  Is that nuts or what!?!?  

In the meantime, I got an email from a State Farm HR person with a job description asking me if I was interested in interviewing.  This was the week our house was going on the market and I'm trying to figure out how to get back to Ohio for an interview.  They offered a video interview out of the Austin zone office and the Tuesday after Labor Day I had an interview for Learning & Development Specialist/Bank Rep.  Great interview, love the job description - but they told me it would be another week because they had more interviewing to do.  On Thursday (2 days later) I received call with a job offer!!!!!!!!!!!  What!?!?  So crazy!  When you ask God for a plan and are patient, he communicates! :)  

So, now our house is sold and we both have jobs.......and today my mom just looked at a townhome for us to rent in Cincinnati.  She also met with a childcare provider that we need to finalize once we get there......but everything is falling into place.  We will leave Austin on September 24th.  Jay's parents are graciously coming to help drive our cars and the moving van.  Madison and I are flying and staying with my mom for a few days until they get there.  We'll move-in the weekend of the 27th and start work sometime that next week.  We are so excited to spend October in the crisp Ohio weather.  The snow will even be fun......and yes, we will be cold.  Very, very cold.........but we're excited!!!

Oh, how am I doing with all this change and stress????  Sleeping....sleeping A LOT and recently eating cookie dough! :)  No seriously, I have a batch of cookies made in the fridge but realized we were out of baking soda.  I keep meaning to ask my neighbor for a teaspoon so I don't have to buy a new one before we leave......but I really like the dough! :)