an abundance of gratitude

{found via pinterest from FLY}

our life has been more than a little crazy and chaotic for the past couple of months. it still remains that way, but i had to take a minute to pause and say thank you.

we've had so much help getting the old house ready to list, and readying the new house before and after our move. right now we're ahead of where peter anticipated at this point, and are actually sleeping in our own fully-put-together bed in the master bedroom of the new house.

if it weren't for the massive amounts of help we've had along the way though we would be much much grumpier, and not nearly as far down this path.

you guys, my in-laws spent their saturday afternoon cleaning our old house, and cleaning out our old shed. now, you may think "oh, that's nice of them" and i agree. i especially agree since at some point in the not-too-distant past one or more squirrels got into our shed and defecated all over a bunch of the storage boxes in there. yes. uber-nasty.

not only have we had a monstrous amount of help from peter's family - framing in a closet; massive amounts of painting; time spent watching keane so we could work on things; moving lots and lots of boxes, and furniture; and cleaning up squirrel poop - we have also received help from many other people too.

both of my parents have come through town at times to help us with various projects - painting, cleaning, and a lot of time spent with their grandson so we could check off our list.

and today, three of the guys that peter works with were in town for the weekend, so they came and helped peter demo about 90% of the master bathroom so our contractor doesn't have to do as much.

yes, we still have lots of projects. but the only two rooms left to be redone/refinished/repainted/renovated are the master bathroom and the kitchen. and the kitchen is fully functional, just really ugly.

yes, we bit off a lot, but this house is starting to really feel like home. this would not be the case if we had tried to do it all ourselves.

one of these days i'll get around to taking all of the "after" photos. it may not be for a few months, but i'm so beyond completely grateful for how many people have helped us out along the way.

sometimes it's hard to ask for help, and it's often difficult to accept help that's offered, but it certainly makes a difference.

so thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has helped us out, offered to help, kept us sane, and prayed for us along this not-done-yet-but-can-finally-see-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel journey.

oh, and i just have to tell you that amidst all of everything else over the course of the past few days: my sister-in-law gave birth to our third niece, and my dad turned 60!

crazy good, right? crazy good.

xoxo