What-a Weekend

Today I got home from work around 3:00 and didn't have anything on my schedule for my ENTIRE EVENING.

This rarely happens.

Leggings, moccasins, and an Iowa State hoodie were on my bod by 3:11. I'm currently drinking my third cup of cider. I've been on Pinterest for the majority of the afternoon. The windows are open and it's 68 degrees in our house. I think the only thing that could have made this afternoon better was if Josh was home to share it with me, but he's not much for Pinterest or cider, so it's probably best I've been enjoying my house fall wonderland in solitude.

We're coming down from a highly exhausting, yet insanely fun weekend. Josh's mom turns 50 this month, so I was elected to plan a big-birthday weekend at Haven 23, an adorable cabin at Twin Lakes Christian Center (where we surprised Josh's dad last year on his 50th). Patti had no idea until Friday morning that we were all gathering at the cabin to celebrate for the weekend, and once she arrived on Friday afternoon, Jillynn (Josh's sister) and I had even more exciting news to share.

After many years of dating, (and being part of the Boersma clan longer than I have!), Josh's brother, Nathan informed Jill and me last Tuesday that he wanted to ask Hannah to marry him while we were away for the weekend at camp!!! He had the ring and wanted to set up the proposal at the Round Barn at TLCC. Since he and Hannah would be coming to camp at the same time, he needed help with the set-up. He requested the round barn with some lights, a path, and candles...and we ran with it. :)

So Jill and I scrambled to add tea lights, candles, a quilt, wedding magazines, a video camera, and white lights to our looooong list of things to remember to bring to the lake for the weekend. Turns out planning a weekend like this is MUCH harder when the Queen Mother of the family is out of the planning process.

Here's a little peek of what the proposal looked like. :)

So we get another sister and have a wedding to plan. Too fun.

Weekend activities included a walk around the lake, firepitting, eating waaaaay too much, canoeing, shopping, golfing, and relaxing in our cabin, and just a lot of great family time. :)

Best quote of the weekend was when Nathan casually said, 'I love kayaking and proposing,' while we were loading up stating our favorite parts of the weekend.

Here are some other highlights...

We took some family pics on Friday night in an attempt to keep Nathan and Hannah in nice clothes leading up to the proposal instead of sweats. This part of our plan ultimately failed because Hannah ended up changing before the proposal anyway (and who can blame her...it was a 'hoodies and sweats' kind of weekend).

Josh enjoyed hot-tubbing in the whirlpool at the cabin. Even though he wished one of his brothers would have joined him like last year...

He didn't fit into the Instagram box, but Vern is actually sitting on toilet beside the tub chatting with the boys. No worries, everyone was wearing shorts and Vern was not going to the bathroom...I think last year this led to a pretty decent 'life discussion' that Josh is so notorious for having with his dad. Glad this tub provides our family with so many memories?

Brecken caught this frog all by himself while the guys spent Saturday morning golfing.

And while the boys golfed at the Twin Lakes Country Club, the girls spent the morning shopping in Fort Dodge. We are always shocked at the amazing deals to be had, and Patti found some great tall brown boots, a gray cardigan, and a rusty old wheel barrow that Vern was thrilled to have traveling home with them. I was just happy it was a successful shopping trip for the birthday girl. I told Vern in advance that I was responsible for planning, but not responsible for what said birthday girl might spend during our activities. :)

Besides some shopping, we spent part of our morning at Studio Fusion making fun bowls and plates together. The girls think that place might even be worth a trip back someday...and we're excited to see how our creations turn out! 

I had some fun comparing the picture we took at Haven two years ago to the one we took this year and I'm still trying to decide if we specifically look 'older'...Josh and I both think we've gotten a little better with age, but who really knows?

And I don't know about you, but I think we might have a current front-runner for the 2013 Boersma Christmas card picture.

MmB

Three. Years.

Josh and I have been married now for three and a half years, and yes, we are still naturally this cute.

OKAY FINE that's a lie...we did do this but Nikki didn't have her phone out...so we re-enacted the moment on command. Still adorable. Whatever.

We also decided that a convertible Mustang is the only truly sensible car for our future family.

No?

Touche.

So we've been noticing a trend in married couples our age. They're getting divorced right around the THREE YEAR mark. Which is terrifying...especially since the other observation that goes along with this is that it's the wife who goes completely berserk. I've had this conversation with friends and family, and they seem to be noticing the same thing.

I can think of three 'wild and crazy' things I've done so far during our third year of marriage. 1. Painted the kitchen gray because on a Monday I decided I was done with it being tan and red...and by Saturday it was gray. 2. Told Josh I want a small, black cross tattoo behind my right ear, to which he dramatically replied, "Oh great. This is how it starts...it's been three years and you're about to go crazy." And 3. Back in April I dyed my hair dark brown, and I'm thinking about doing it again.

I really live life on the edge.

But seriously...Three years. Wife goes crazy. Couple gets divorced. Absolute heartbreak.

No one's marriage is perfect. In fact, just last week Josh and I had a day-long fight via text about nothing important. Seeing young marriages all around us fail for the dumbest reasons tends to put things in perspective so we went on a date to B-Dubs and made up (thanks for the gift card mom and dad). Sharing 24 boneless wings can pretty much fix anything. And yes, judge us for using text messaging, but it's been our preferred arguing method since our dating college days...it also leads to more convenient arguing during work hours and while people are living with us so we can have our 'discussion' in silence via text message from across the room while watching a movie and carrying on with guests. #dysfunctional

I think this sort of thing used to be called 'The Seven Year Itch' but not for my generation, no no...apparently my generation is only willing to work at something for three years before giving up. So now it's down to being a Three Year Itch. Does anyone else see this happening and think it's ridiculous?! THERE ARE STILL WEDDING PICTURES HANGING ON OUR WALL FOR GOODNESS SAKE! 

Staying married is easy. Step one: Get married...........................................there is no step two. You are married TO. THE. SAME. PERSON. until you die. 

Sometimes your husband will get annoyed at you for not washing his pants when he had an entire weekend to himself to do his laundry, but he didn't remember, and that is apparently your fault. An easy solution to this would be to buy more pants, but said husband wishes to only own one pair of pants.

Sometimes your wife will bump into your trailer with her Ford Focus and now there are some permanent scuff marks on the back of her bumper, but it was early in the morning and there was nothing on the trailer, so it was hard to see, okay?! Either way, these arguments are not grounds for divorce. They're grounds for a shopping trip to Kohl's and...probably not a new car because that wife doesn't seem like a very good driver...but just be nice to her because she didn't mean to run into that trailer that one time.

The worst part about all of this is that these 10 couples I'm thinking about are all believers. Why is there even a place for divorce in the church? Why is it even an option? ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT READING THE BOOKS I GIVE THEM FOR THEIR SHOWERS AND WEDDING PRESENTS?! Yes, in my old age I've become that lame. Books for wedding gifts...it's like I'm 46.

**Two favorites: This Momentary Marriage by Jon Piper and Created to be His HelpMeet by some hippie woman that I can't remember her name right now. Google it...okay fine, I just Googled it and the author is Debi Pearl.**

This post didn't really have a point...except that I needed a social media outlet for venting because I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed at dumb girls who think they missed out on some sort of Noah-from-the-Notebook fairy tale because there's something better out there than what they have. That fantasy only applies if you think you're as gorg as Allie Hamilton, and chances are you're not because that movie isn't real life and no one wears that much lipstick anymore anyway. 

Disclaimer: The Notebook is a classic and one of my faves, but that part where she goes on and on and ON about being a bird? It's totally weird and I could have done without it.

All seven of you who read this blog have my permission to PUNCH ME IN THE FACE if you ever think I might be starting to lose it. I'm being so serious.

Fall in love. Plan a Pinterest wedding. TAKE VOWS. And shut up. 

Please step into my fairy tale for a moment and meet my version of Noah Calhoun.

I just can't even.

MmB

**I realize there are extenuating circumstances where divorce might be the only option like abuse, etc. I don't want to judge situations I don't know anything about, I just see Satan attacking marriages every single day and it's sad and scary...so these are my thoughts. If you have thoughts, you should start a blog and I would promise to read it.**

seeyasummer2013

What happened to summer?! Sometimes there is so much for me to write about, that I end up having everything and nothing to write about at the same time. Sometimes I compose wonderfully written blogs in my head when I can't sleep, but I don't want to wake Josh up with the light from the iPad, so I act like I'll remember them for the next morning but of course, I never do. So I will try and keep this post short...except not that.

{BOERSMA LAWN CARE}
We are still experiencing the worst drought in the history of our little lawn care company. Pray it rains. A LOT. I know that seems lame to talk about the weather in the first paragraph of a blog , but our life literally depends on the weather. BLC needs to squeeze in two more chemical applications, and neither of them will be possible if we don't get more rain AND it continues to be this hot. That just cannot happen. Josh also has a lot of aerating jobs on his schedule that he can't do if it's still this dry...PRAY. IT. RAINS.

To expound, on the title of this post...Josh and I will probably never look back on summer  2013 and say, 'Wow, what happy special memories we have of that summer,' because it has been dry, horrible, and stressful to the point of high blood pressure. It's by God's grace that BLC has survived these past two summers, and we continue to trust and learn that His plan for us is always better than our plan for us.

{422 13TH ST NEWS}
We finally got rid of one roomate, but gained another...Dan moved in on August 1st and Jamie moved on August 19th. Lots of moving, packing, organizing, and planning happened in the past 30 days. So it's a good thing I'm awesome at all four of those things. I'm not always awesome at 'keeping it together' and the three preciouses that live with me experienced a slight meltdown mid-month about the time when this blog post came about. #yolo

Here is a small dose of what I accomplished at Jamie's apartment:

{OUR BARN}
We don't close on our acreage for another month and half, so we've been doing some research and preparing for all the hard work we will have once October 18th comes. I've mentally prepared both of my parents and my sister for a big cleaning/tearing apart/working weekend on October 19th. Consider this your open invitation to join in on all the hard work fun. In case you missed that big Boersma life update, here it is.

{DOCTOR VISITS}
I get my tonsils out on Thursday, September 26th. I was preparing myself for it to be a pretty bad experience, and I felt like my doctor did a good job of warning me about what I will be going through. Then my friend Kylie (who is a nurse that works with kids who have cancer all day) texted me, 'Why are you doing that? That's a horrible surgery!" and I've entered into a whole new level of terror. My mom is coming to stay for four days. Send flowers.

{LABOR DAY WEEKEND}
Josh and his roofing-friend, Joe, roofed my parent's house last Friday and Saturday. It was hot and horrible, but Josh is really making an effort to stay busy during this pathetic excuse for a summer. I accomplished two solid days of crafting and salsa-making with my mom, so that was a plus. Our jobs also included refilling water bottles; making sure everyone had enough potassium and electrolytes; making sure my dad didn't get heat stroke while working on the roof like a 25-year-old; and feeding the roofers who refused to eat as much as we wanted to feed them...no one fell off or experienced heat exhaustion, so I'd say it was a success.

Here's how we polished off my mom's new and improved laundry room:

We had a great day on the boat with Josh's family on Sunday, and then came back to the house for bruschetta and some catching up with our friends Brady and Jen (who live about 5 minutes away from Josh's parents). We ended the night with a fire pit and headed back to Ames to sleep in on Labor Day.

Monday was spent cleaning, crafting, clearing our house of it's spring and summer decor and decorating for fall! It was a beautiful day to have the windows open and drink cider while I crafted and decorated with my sister as my assistant. Basically what happens when I 'decorate' for my two favorite seasons (fall and Christmas) is just a lot of wandering around my house for about six hours staring and moving one pumpkin around eight times before I find where I want it to go...then I move on to the next item. Jamie follows around after me affirming or questioning my decorating choices. It's a pretty good system and lately she doesn't even get annoyed at me when I go to move the same pumpkin for an eighth time.

I'll save most of these pictures for another post where I obsess about fall, but here is a little taste of what my house looks like as of September 4th 2013:

Say what you will about me jumping the gun on my fall decorating (*cough*cough*Katie*Lauren*), but once pools close for the year, summer is dead to me. I have nothing to live for. Such is life for a pool rat.

{CENTURY 21}
The highlight of my day today was being hugged by one of Tami's clients after helping her clean and pack up her house, where she spent the last 40 years. I don't think there is a more adorable woman...and I was happy that my JOB for the majority of the past month was blessing this client with my gift for organizing. This lady's children and grandchildren haven't been around to help, so Tami and I fell into fell into that role, helping sort things into 'keep,' 'donate,' and 'garbage' piles day after day. I listened to stories while we sorted her deceased husband's journals from medical school; helped teach her about her new iPad; and looked through pictures of their family's cottage at Okoboji...She told me about all her wedding dishes and I heard stories about her twin grandchildren who she is excited to be close to when she moves to Oregon. Yes, my job for the past two weeks was to be a pretend-grandchild, and it was just fantastic. Today she hugged me and Tami and cried a little, and it just made my entire week...probably my month. :)

In other news, Josh and I will be watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin tonight...just get over it.

MmB

ThankFULL

People sure were interested in our new farm purchase...I'm a little offended that I don't get 300 views when I post my latest craft. So I've seriously been contemplating scrapping titles that are related to what I'm writing and using titles like, 'We're Moving to Austrailia,' or 'We've Having Triplets,' instead.

It's been a stressful couple of weeks.

Between organizing family gatherings, visiting grandparents, preparing to move Jamie, planning showers, pendings, closings, buying a house, supper with friends, managing finances, headaches, running a business, roommates, and volunteering all swirling around in my Google calendar, I feel like I'm losing my miiiiind.

But then I look at this picture of our corn crib and remember how blessed Josh and I are. 

Just shut up Mollie, you're life is awesome. 

I have a lot to pack in to one blog. I'll try to keep it from growing into a short story. I'm also resisting the urge to start composing our Christmas letter, so this blog will just need to fulfill my writing urges for now.

Thankful for great friendships: I just had coffee with my friend and connection group leader, Carley. I realized it's been a WHILE since I've talked to anyone besides my family, my boss, or Josh. It was a good way to process everything crazy that's been happening. It's also just been way too long since we'd hung out, and a Venti Iced Vanilla Latte (that was purchased with change I've gathered from the laundry!) was just what I needed this week.

Thankful for Mint.com: Starting August 1st, Josh and I have been on a new, stricter budget...buying a 2nd house tends to put things in perspective...and point out how much pizza we order. Ugh. I'm having a grrrrreat time tracking things with the Mint app. Seeing that the pieces in our August 2013 pie chart have only been spent on gas, groceries, our mortgage, utilities, and very few 'extras' has been really motivating and fun. :)

Thankful for sisters: Summer is coming to an end, and I'm realizing that it went waaaaay too quickly. Our dreams of going on walks every night, grilling, laying out at the pool, crafting, and working on projects will become much harder once Jamie moves into her new apartment on Saturday. I'm excited for my parents to come down and excited to help her decorate and 'settle' into her new place (the same apartments I lived in during my third year of school). But I'm also a little bummed she won't be around to help me get groceries; clean the house like a madwomen; and watch movies in bed with me when there are boys and brothers invading the living room watching scary man-movies with Josh. 

Thankful for ShopVacs: Two weeks ago, our basement flooded due to a semi-funny sleepwalking incident. While it was very stressful at the time (picture 20-ish gallons flooding the basement from my bathroom sink upstairs), it really isn't a big deal looking back on it. I had originally planned to compose a lengthy, dramatic blog post about the events of August 3rd, but now it seems really unnecessary. Everything is drying out well and it was a good excuse to get down there and do some deep cleaning. As of now, it seems that our prayers for the drywall, ducts, and walls to dry out on their own have been answered. We also made $56 from taking back our renter's cans...and that turned out to be excellent State Fair spending money.

Thankful for Tami Hicks: My job is just awesome. I've always known that it is...do you have a boss that says, 'Thanks, you rock,' every time you hang up the phone for doing things like running a simple errand or printing a packet? Because I do. ;) I feel valued and appreciated for crafting adorable pop-by gifts and keeping organized files and calendars. B-T-dub, Tami sold two of her listings this week in less than three days. Yes, she's that good. You should make her your realtor. ;)

Thankful for ScotchGuard: On Monday night in the midst of sewing curtains for Jamie's apartment and friends watching a movie in our living room...beer was spilled on our 6-month-old furniture. While I understand a couch is just a meaningless 'thing' that I can't take with me to heaven...I also think it's important to be a good steward of the 'things' God has blessed us with. Couches included. Thankfully, HomeMaker's wasn't joking around when they charged us $40 per piece of furniture to ScotchGuard (with a warranty!). It was worth every penny. I used the furniture cleaner that came with the set, followed the directions, and boom...looks good as new. Note to all future furniture buyers...ALWAYS PAY EXTRA FOR THE SCOTCHGUARD!

I know this furniture spill is God's way of preparing me for children who will undoubtedly ruin my furniture. I'm confident that if I can handle Nikki, Kate, Jamie, Dan, Ben, Tom, Caleb, AND Josh all making the house a mess...I'll be able to handle almost anything. ;)

Aaaaand just because I like to look at it...here's a picture of the ceiling in our barn.

I plan to entice you all with pictures so you're itching to help us with the mess we've gotten ourselves into. ;)

MmB

We Bought a Barn

There's our little announcement. We bought a barn. Josh is the proud new owner. of. a. barn.

A big, beautiful, white barn that was built in 1880 with beautiful beams that are begging for little white lights to be strewn across them, and a floor that is calling to me to host a barn dance...and possibly adorable fall farm wedding receptions for our future children who will love growing up on an acreage so much that they want to save our money and have their reception under a white tent and a white barn at our house.

Ohhhh dear. I'm getting ahead of myself.

So this lovely barn isn't the only thing we're excited about...we are buying a property that also includes a farmhouse, a corn crib, and two other old farm buildings that all sit on two beautiful acres surrounded by corn fields on all four sides. This property is East about two miles off the I-35 Huxley/Maxwell exit between Ames and Akneny, and is only about a half-mile on gravel.

Church 12 minutes away. Ankeny and Ames, 15 minutes away. 2 minutes from the Interstate, and a great central location for Boersma Lawn Care Corporate Headquarters to reside for the next...well forever.

Hmmmm sounds exactly like the location we've been praying about for the past two years.

We've spent the past two weeks negotiating, praying, getting wise financial counsel from Josh's dad (who I affectionately call 'Vern Ramsey'), crunching numbers, praying, getting advice from contractors, and talking a LOT about our future and what it might look like if we're living on this amazing acreage raising a family.

And after all of that, as of last week...we have an accepted offer, a signed Purchase Agreement, and a realtor who is probably very thankful that the Boersma's are finally done dragging her around a million different houses so she can get back to her 'real' clients. We're really thankful for Tami Hicks and her patient realtor-skills. :)

So now a little more about the 'real' stuff...

I'll be honest. The house is actually a trainwreck. Which is why we are going to clean it up, and rent it out for the next 5ish years. During this time we are going to focus on budgeting (better than we have during the last three years of our marriage), saving, paying down our debt at both houses, and fixing up the outbuildings on the acreage. Josh is also going to grow some sweet corn and I want a pumpkin patch to help decrease the cost of my outdoor fall decor budget (yes that is a real thing).

Note to all frequent visitors: This means endless snacks and ordering pizza 'on the house' will be coming to an end. No more ordering pizza with us, eating half of it, and then not leaving any cash to chip in (you know who you are: ;)...and I'll be laying the smack down when this happens because my dream home is on the line here, people. While we LOVE blessing our friends and family with our house and parties and food and laundry facilities, this new investment means we need to cut back in a few areas, and the hospitality train is one of them (and yes I'm aware that my previous post about Target is another area where we will be cutting back and I'm working on it thanks to my iPad, the Mint.com app, and a husband who is far more patient with me than I deserve).

Okay back to the house story...At the end of this five-ish year period of using the acreage as an investment property, we have plans to tear down the old house and build our dream home in the same location. This gives us the flexibility to stay in our current house until whenever, and build when we're ready...we aren't on a strict timeline, so if that means we're ready to build in three , or we need to wait longer than five years, we're okay with all of that.

Either way, you can bet my 'Build' board on Pinterest and Houzz will be blowing up over the next few months.

We also admitted that while we're excited to move to an acreage someday, we aren't totally ready to leave 422 13th St yet. We would really miss drop-in visitors, college students and our youngest siblings just five minutes away. We're happy that this new (old) house also gives us the freedom to continue with some of the little projects we're working on (the shop, the cupboards, the kitchen floor, and the Man Cave are things we just aren't ready to leave yet) and stay in the house we both love and a location we really enjoy at this point in our lives.

It's been fun dreaming about our future life in the country (and I can have fun talking about this because I know 'town' is a reasonably short distance away)...but our next goal is cleaning up the house and getting it rented in a short amount of time. With that being said, please pray that clean-up would go smoothly and that we can fill that farmhouse with people who have a clean criminal background and an excellent credit score. We close on October 18th, and aren't really able to market or advertise the property until then. Which means...friends and word-of-mouth will be our biggest help spreading the word that we have a 2,000 SF farmhouse on an acreage in a convenient location that comes with theeeee best landlords in town.

I'm being serious. Now please go tell six friends and report back to me. :)

And I'll leave you with a picture of the latest addition to our family...

Happy Homeowners,

Josh and Mollie