June 29th, 2012 
Jessica 
This week I spent some time sorting all of the photos on my desktop that needed to be added to my Facebook page or my blog, and I stumbled on this photo that was a few weeks old. Oops! Well, here are some recent freebies that I have already used!
What freebies have you received in your mailbox recently?
June 26th, 2012 Jessica We’ve been crazy-busy for the last month (a short vacation on the West Coast and two weddings in Maryland too!) but now we’re back to doing things around the house again. It seems like every other blogger I know is posting about all the fun things they are doing this summer with their kids. One blogger suggested face-painting, so I decided to try painting my two wiggly toddlers after dinner earlier this week.
Naomi was able to sit still longer, so I was able to do a more complex painting on her face. She loves rainbows and hearts, so hers were easy choices.
Oliver was far more difficult to paint. He seemed to think that the painting tickled, so I had a hard time filling in his heart and sunshine. I was glad I picked easy subjects for him!
As you can see, the face painting lasted for a few days! I took this photo today, 3 days later.
What fun things are you finding to do with your kids this summer?
June 23rd, 2012 Jessica With the combination of warmer weather and our kids being a little older, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to let the kids spend more time outside. It’s great for their health, and my sanity! They love to follow Brad around the yard as he waters his fruit trees and flowers, or as he hangs the laundry to dry. I love to see their creativity blossom as they dig in the dirt, push tractors through pine needles, find worms, drag the hose, fill and dump buckets, pick up sticks, ride on their cars, and draw with sidewalk chalk. They also seem to argue less with so much to distract them, and I love to see teamwork instead of conflict.
As I watch them “working” outside from my vantage point at the kitchen window, I feel like I get to enjoy my own little slice of heaven. Watching Brad and our kids work and play in the backyard while I wash the dishes or prepare dinner is something I have dreamed of doing. You see, I love my family and loved my upbringing. I remember all those long summer nights of playing in the backyard while my Dad worked in the garden and my Mom watched us all from the kitchen window as she washed the dinner dishes. And I dreamed that one day I would have a family of my own to watch from my own kitchen window.
When I look out my kitchen window, I see a dream come true, my own little slice of heaven. Mommy, Daddy, Naomi, & Oliver. A portrait of love, family, and home. I am so grateful for our wonderful life, and our beautiful family. God has blessed us with so much!
June 22nd, 2012 Jessica 
I usually wait until I have a large pile of Freebies to photograph them, so today was the day! Here is what I have received in my mailbox recently:
What fun freebies did you receive this week?
June 19th, 2012 Jessica 
Two doors down from our house is a family that keeps a large kiddie pool filled with water in their driveway. Tonight as we were walking by, they invited us again to come over for a swim. After yet another hot day (it’s been in the triple digits all week), a dip sounded perfect. So we went home, and Naomi and Oliver quickly donned their swimsuits. We returned with our beach towels, and the kids hopped right in while we women watched from our lawn chairs. At one point I counted five children, five moms, two kittens, and one cat in the little driveway.
As the kids played, we talked about family and work and homes. One woman talked about her daughter and her ex-boyfriend and her artwork. She lives with her mother and her sister, and her sister’s kids. Another woman talked about her full-time job, her two sons, and her ex-husband. Her mother watches her kids while she works, and her older son lives with her ex-husband. Another woman chatted about her grandchildren and a recent trip out of town.
As I listened to their stories and their interactions, I looked around and it dawned on me that I was the only woman in the group who is currently married and living with the father of my children. Every other woman there was working and living as a single mother or grandmother, living with or dependent on other women for support and/or help in child-rearing. As I listened to these women talking, I contemplated how difficult my life, and my children’s lives could be without a husband and father like Brad in our lives.
A quick Google search revealed the statistics that most of us already know. Of 10 industrialized nations who keep such statistics, the United States comes in last place with 21.2% of its children living in a home without a father (Unicef, 1996). In 1998, just 27% of American kids lived with both their biological mom and dad (USA Today) and that number is climbing. According to the 2009 U.S. Census, 24 million children in America — one out of three — live in biological father-absent homes (National Fatherhood Initiative).
I think that, day in and day out, I take for granted how blessed I am to have Brad for my husband. I have the luxury of staying home and raising my children myself, while Brad earns the income that provides for our family. I have a husband who backs me up when our children need discipline, and who serves as the spiritual leader of our household. He thanks me for my cooking, helps with the dishes, does most of the laundry, and encourages me to pursue my dreams. We aren’t perfect, but we are a team. Brad is an amazing husband, and a fantastic father. I just cannot imagine the difficulty of traveling this road called parenthood without him by my side.
So, although I know I am a little late for Father’s Day, I just want to say “Thank You” to all the men out there who have stood by their wives, and still stand by them, as husbands and fathers. Thank you for sticking with us, through thick and thin, and for being the man God has called you to be. Such commitment and dedication to excellence is rare and valuable. Thank you for loving us when we are hard to love, and for being unselfish in putting your family before yourself. Thank you for teaching our daughters what kind of man they should marry, and for teaching our sons what kind of man they should become.
And thank you Brad for being my husband these last 6 ½ years. It’s been a wild ride, but I do not regret saying “I do.” I love you!
May 25th, 2012 Jessica 
As you can see, all of my magazines seem to arrive at the same time. This week I received the following:
As you can imagine, when I’m getting this many magazines for free each month, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to pay for magazines! Lately I’ve been donating all of my magazines to the art department at our local high school.
What freebies have you received this week?
May 22nd, 2012 Jessica 
Our "Investment Property"
Click here to read “Refinancing? (Part 1).”
When Brad and I were married in 2005, we bought a house in Maryland, thinking that we would live there for many years to come. As you know, life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan. 19 months after we moved in, we were moving out. We left our careers in teaching and moved to China for two years. Unfortunately for us, the housing bubble burst, and our house lost a third of its value. We paid $150,000 for our home back in 2005. Today, according to Zillow.com, it is still only worth $93,800. Our house was on the market for 6 months, but no one was willing to pay what we were asking. We decided to rent out our home, and pay the difference on our mortgage each month. We were blessed with a wonderful renter who has rented our home for almost 5 years now, as we have moved around the world and back.
Another unfortunate aspect of our housing purchase was that we bought it with an 80/20 loan. From what we’ve heard, this type of loan has been made illegal since the housing crisis. We bought our house with two loans: Wells Fargo owned 80% of our mortgage, and Citimortgage owned 20% of our mortgage. So we have always had two mortgage payments every month.
If you read last week’s Financial Update, you probably noted my excitement in announcing that we finally paid off our debt to Citimortgage! For the first time in 6.5 years of home ownership, we only have one mortgage payment. Yeah!
It had been 13 months since I last called Wells Fargo to ask about refinancing, so I decided to try again this week. If you read last week’s Financial Update, you would have seen that we currently owe $107,017.41 to Wells Fargo, but the house is only worth $93,800 according to Zillow.com. So I thought that asking for a refinance again would be informational, but would lead to nothing. Imagine my surprise when I called, and Wells Fargo gave me a list of possible refinancing options!
First, by refinancing, our interest rate will decrease from 6.25% to 3.75%, saving us 2.5% in interest!
Our refinancing options are as follows:
After discussing everything with Brad and Wells Fargo, we will definitely attempt to refinance our 30-year mortgage to a 15- or 20- year mortgage. For now we hope to qualify for the 15-year fixed mortgage (as Dave Ramsey recommends), but if we do not, we will still be happy with the outcome. We hope to pay ahead on our loan no matter what, shortening the years and decreasing the interest due. We should hear from a loan processor later this week, and if we are approved, our refinance should go through within the month.
Have you refinanced, or attempted to refinance recently? What were your experiences, good or bad?
May 18th, 2012 Jessica 
This week we have much to celebrate! If you look at the numbers below, you will notice one large number is absent. Brad and I paid off the second mortgage on our “Rental Property” in Maryland! Our tax refunds arrived, and we promptly paid off our debt to Citimortgage. Now we only have one student loan and the primary mortgage on our “Rental Property” remaining. Currently we owe:
(According to Zestimate, our former home in Maryland is only worth $93,800 right now. It is one of those homes that lost a third of its purchase price when the housing bubble burst.)
Grand Total: $133,474.27
If you do the math, we’ve paid off $9291.81 in the last 2 months since my last financial update!
Brad and I are following Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball, and we are so excited to finally cross another debt off of our list! In the past two years we have paid off our truck, two student loans, and now our second mortgage!
Our goals for our financial future include:
We can’t wait until the day when we can do our “Debt-Free Scream”!
What are your financial goals, and how are you accomplishing them?
May 16th, 2012 Jessica 
When Brad and I chose our home in California, we analyzed every last detail. We looked at dozens of houses. In fact, Brad still boasts (and laughs) at the elaborate spreadsheet that I created detailing all the qualities of each rental home we found on Craigslist or the various realty websites. In the end, Brad stumbled on our house while looking at another one two houses away. Our house wasn’t listed on-line, but he fell in love with it immediately. Once he saw the grape arbor and the giant stone woodstove in the tree-filled fenced-in backyard, he was sold.
When I first saw the house, I knew why he loved it. The backyard felt like a park! We have the three largest trees on our street in our yard—two cedars in the backyard, and a sycamore in the front yard. We also have fruit trees (lemon, lime, grapefruit, peach, mandarin orange, Valencia orange, navel oranges, nectarine) , nut trees (almond), holly bushes, azaleas, lots of rose bushes, a bottle brush tree, and of course, grapes! Inside we explored the three bedrooms with wood floors. I loved the big kitchen, the built-in closets and shelving, and the one-story layout. The house was not in great condition, but it had a lot of potential. The landlord consented to some discounts if we were willing to paint and fix up the place ourselves. I was thrilled. I think every renter loves the opportunity to put their personal touch on a place, and I was delighted to get to paint. With each month there is a new project to work on, but we enjoy the work and take pride in making our house a home.
Our house is in a neighborhood full of starter-homes. It’s the perfect location for our young family. We love living in town, near all the activities provided by a city with a population of 60,000. We attend a small Baptist church across town. The pastor is also a writer, and the associate pastor and his family live on our street. In fact, four young families from our church live within a few blocks of us. Having neighbors from church is great, since one of them has recently been giving me rides to Bible Study Fellowship on Thursday mornings. As BSF comes to an end next week, Brad and I have begun attending a Couples Bible Study/Potluck where we are reading the book, Sacred Marriage.
We live two blocks from the high school, so we walk over often for track meets, softball games, baseball games, football games, and basketball games. Brad tutors students after school in math, and he’s an assistant coach for the track team. When the track team is practicing you’ll usually find him running with the distance runners, or coaching the high jumpers. Since we live in town, it’s easy to make it to a student art show, or a track meet at the local community college. We’re also working on our substitute-teaching certification, and look forward to being able to walk to the school for subbing jobs.
Our house is also only about a mile from Brad’s office. This makes it very convenient when he has clubs or meetings to host. In fact, since Brad is also a runner, he often runs to his office, the post office, or to other errands. He also likes to run along the river, by way of the fairgrounds. I can also walk to nearby parks, pools, and even our pediatrician from our house. The library, the grocery store, the mall, and most of our other needs are only a short ride away. There’s even a coffee shop at the end of our street where Brad meets up with the other youth pastors in town every Tuesday.
We love to have guests over to our house. We’re still fairly new to hosting, but we’re figuring it out as we go. I’ve hosted a few play dates with other mothers and their children, and Brad has hosted twice as many youth events in our backyard. It’s so fun to see the teenagers playing games, singing songs, and roasting marshmallows or hot dogs (or bananas!) on the fire. Recently Brad invited the entire track team and their coaches over for a “Spaghetti Feed” on a Thursday night. Brad cooked a giant pot (his first ever!) of delicious spaghetti sauce, and Lucy and I kept the noodles coming. I love the feeling of a full house, even if I’m unfamiliar with the role of hostess to so many people.
As I wander through our home, and explore our new hometown, I cannot imagine a better place for us. We love this house, we love this community, and we love our new lives here. Thank you for the role you have played in bringing us here. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Love Always,
Jessie
May 11th, 2012 Jessica This turned out to be a great week for freebies! I needed three photos to cover everything. Check it out!
What freebies did you find this week, in your mailbox or elsewhere?
