And another door is closed...

Many of you have been asking me about the house that Jason and I were going to put an offer on. Well... here's the lowdown. As I wrote in an earlier post, our realtor was doing some research to see if he could get some more information on the house and the current offer on the house. He e-mailed me last night and said the bank that owns the property just accepted the other offer. So... that means our search continues...

As much as Jason and I liked (or loved) that house and what a great deal it was, we're both fine with it not being ours. Even though we've been looking at houses for a year and a half, which is tiring and at times emotional, it has taught us so much:

1 - there are plenty of "fish in the sea"
2 - God knows better than we do
3 - we don't need a mansion (drats)
4 - everything will fall into place when we find "the house"
5 - it's a huge relief to have debt paid off and a down payment in the works
6 - we know what we want/like and what we don't want/like
7 - we're ready to have our own place :D

Sorry, I had to throw that last one in there. I love and appreciate Jason's parents so much for letting us live with them so that we could get everything in order, but there comes a time when a married couple is just ready to live on their own. We're at that time :). Our tentative move-out date is still the end of November/start of December, so we still have time to find a house and all that good stuff.

I started a new Bible study last Monday and I'm already having so much fun with it. It's based off of the book, For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn, which I had to read during our pre-marriage counseling. It was a good book then, but now it's a great book, because I've had 2 years to experience living with Jason. During that time I've developed some not-so-great habits, most of which are just hard-wired into women, but this study is put together so that women can undo those habits (or at least work on them) in order to respect our husbands more and help build a more solid marriage. For those women who might get offended by the prospect of fixing ourselves for the betterment of a relationship, there's also a book for men: For Men Only... so they get to do the same thing ;).

Anyway, I recommend those books for anyone who wants to make their relationship better. Shaunti comes from a statistics/research background, so the information presented in the book is from many many interviews with men, but it uses scripture to validate what is taught. It's quite an eye-opener for women to read about men and what they're really thinking and why they react to things the way they do. It's pretty cheap on Amazon and it's a really quick read, so I hope you'll check it out :). You (and your marriage) will be blessed! Oh, and it's not just a marriage book... it will help with all male/female relationships, including father/daughter, male/female friend, etc.

On another note, I think today is only 48 days from the presidential election. 48 days! I can't believe it's almost here.

On another different note, I got recruited last week to be the teacher of a (previously "Missionettes") "Girls Ministry" class. I'm teaching the "Friends" age group, which is 13-14 years old, I think... whatever age my sister-in-law, Liesa is. There are only 2 girls in there right now, but it should be fun. My mother-in-law has been asking me about helping for months and they finally sweet-talked me into it :P.

My Sunday school 'series' has been going really well, I think. I've been teaching about different religions or "beliefs". So far I've taught about Mormonism, FLDS (polygamous sect, branched off of Mormonism), Wicca, and I think that's it so far.... Jason's going to teach about Islam this week and one of the students is going to teach about Scientology next week. All of the kids seem to be really interested in it, which is nice. I just hope they remember what they learn. When I was in school, I knew a lot of people who were different religions than I was, but I didn't really know anything about them. If I had, I probably would've been a little freaked out ;). I just want these kids to be informed, though, especially if they ever get into a discussion with someone... maybe they'll know a little about them to start things off.

Welp, I think that's about it for now. I still need to upload the trip pictures (I'm sorry!!!), so I'll try to do that tonight, if I get a chance. I have a secret shopping assignment, I need to work out, and I need to stop by a couple of stores on my way home, so if I have any extra time I'll try to get on the computer :).

Have a good day!