New House!

Wow, I can't believe I am already announcing the fact that we bought another house--so soon after we sold the one in Wamego! However, since our lease was going to be up at the end of July, we thought it would be good to get in a house rather than re-sign a lease. It is a 3-bed, 2.5 bath mid-century ranch home in NW Emporia. It is not too far from our rental house actually. We close June 30, which will be quickly approaching after we return from Greece! Our new address will be:

1330 Garfield

Emporia, KS 66801

It has been a whirlwind, but I am SO excited to have a place to call "home" and somewhere for us to stay put for the next few years at least. No more moving once a year! My favorite part about the house is the 3-season porch off the back and the huge yard--these things are essential for a certain Great Dane of ours. Well, essential for my sanity at least! We will finally have somewhere to welcome guests, and all of you will be welcome to come check it out and visit us in Emporia! A couple of pictures below...

Happenings

We closed on the house last Friday--such a blessing! In case you had never seen it, I posted a picture below. We sure enjoyed the serenity of the house and learned a lot from the experience, but are glad to be moving on. We took a trailer full of shop things out to David's parents' house in Cimarron last weekend after we closed, and David's mom made me a delicious angel food cake with fruit and whipped cream for my birthday. We also jogged over to Greensburg on Saturday night to see George Jones in concert. This weekend we were able to stay home for the first weekend in what feels like forever!

We have a couple of busy weeks coming up--well, at least I do. One day of class and 3 finals to get through this week and I am officially done with school for the semester. We will be back in Lindsborg next weekend for Cari Jean's high school graduation, then we will have a week to prepare for our 9-day honeymoon in GREECE!! I can't believe it is right around the corner.

Our travel plans:
We will head up to KC Friday evening (5-21) and stay the night, since our flight leaves early Saturday morning. The flight overseas is around 9 hours in duration, but we gain 8 hours during the trip as well. So, our time, we will arrive in Athens Sunday around 1 am, but it will be 9 am Athens time, so we will need to be ready for our day! We catch an early afternoon flight from Athens to the island of Santorini, and arrive there around 4 pm. We will spend 5 nights on the island, specifically in the village of Oia (pronounced ee-ya), at the Esperas resort.
http://www.esperas.com/
Friday afternoon we will catch a ferry back to the mainland (port of Pireus near Athens), which will take 7 hours. We will then crash for the night in our hotel room at the Athenian Callirhoe hotel, which is conveniently located very near the Acropolis and the Plaka district.
http://www.tac.gr/
We will have all day Saturday to go exploring in Athens, and will catch our flight home on Sunday morning (5-30). Because we will lose 8 hours, we will arrive home Sunday (late) as well, exhausted but rested all at the same time! I will be sure to provide you with plenty of pictures!

Love to all and Happy Mother's Day!

Switching Over

We finally made the leap and switched over from PC to Apple. My desktop crashed, so we decided to order the new iMac...our new baby should arrive in the next few days! I hope it is as easy to get used to as people say it is. Very excited!

House Sale

I'm sure all of you know that David's house in Wamego has been for sale for close to a year now. It has essentially been a drain on funds and energy for David since he bought it around 5 years ago. Unbeknownst to him when he bought it, the foundation on the old farmhouse was faulty, and he almost immediately had to make the decision to either fix the foundation to the standards at which it should have been when he purchased it (spending the money and not seeing an increase in value), or to dig and finish a basement so that the square footage and value might increase. He and a few friends have spent countless hours of intensive labor on the basement project over these last few years. It was on its way to completion when a certain girl unexpectedly showed up in David's life...that's me!

After our relationship became more serious, we realized that my plans to go to 3 years of graduate school in Wichita didn't really 'jive' with David continuing to live alone in the (now) 5 bedroom, 3 bath house near Manhattan. Coincidentally, at this same point in time, David's company (Mathis Rehab) had its sights set on opening a new clinic in Emporia, KS. David decided to assume the role of starting up the new clinic, as he would then be closer to me while I was in school in Wichita.

To make a very long story short, we have been working on completing the basement project and/or getting the house ready to sell ever since we began dating. Knowing that we will be selling it (and thus, not getting to "enjoy" all of our hard work), "the house" has been a huge weight on our shoulders. Most of you probably know that we spend many weekends making the drive to Wamego, and for a year now, have been paying a mortgage on an empty property, not to mention upkeep and utility costs. After having the house on the market for a year now, we have FINALLY gotten closer than ever to having it sold. It has passed all inspections and appraisal, and we are slated to close on it on April 30. It is hard to express the mix of feelings this brings for us. While the sale is a HUGE relief for both of us and is sure to make our lives easier, it is difficult for David to "let go" of his house in the country. The reality of the market at this point means that we are definitely not getting out of the house what we have put into it both monetarily and in sweat equity. It is hard to swallow, though we both know that leaving it behind is a positive thing in our lives.

I can only speak for myself of course, but I am looking forward to the future, including us purchasing our first home together at some point. It has been a long time since I have had a true "place to call home". Right now, we (finally) have our belongings in the same town, although some are in our rental house and some are in a storage unit. We are both eager to someday have it all in one place! The month of April has been and continues to be long and hard for us, as we concentrate on clearing out the house, finalizing paperwork, and all the while keeping up with work and school. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go into the sale, and finally close this chapter in our lives, so that we may start another!

Blogging Fun!

Well, it seems like the cool thing to do these days is to start a blog. My biggest fear about starting one has been that I, as a self-proclaimed "Grammar Nazi", might make a grammar/spelling error that the whole world can see and call me out on! However, I have been thinking recently that giving you all a means of keeping up with our hectic lives might just be necessary. Because we are so busy, I don't find time to talk on the phone or in person to a lot of people who are important to me (and I'm sure David feels the same). Plus, we have a lot of family and friends located across the country who might just appreciate this "Crotts Tracker"! I know, I know...every blog has to have a cheesy name associated with it, or it just wouldn't be legit! So, this is our blog's cheesy name, but is also a good description of why it was created. Now, all of you can come here to get the latest scoop on our trials and tribulations and also our joys and celebrations! We look forward to keeping you mildly entertained.

Oh, and you might as well assume that it is Cassie talking to you here, unless otherwise noted. I know it says "David and Cassie" at the bottom, but as far as David creating a post--well, I just don't see that transpiring. But who knows...miracles do happen!

P.S. I like to use ellipses. And randomness. <---sentence fragment