A look at 2016

This past year, 2016, was full of many blessings, unexpected losses, and opportunities to make lasting family memories.

We now live in this beautiful home that we have named "Belair." I found this home on Zillow when we were still living in Iowa.  I remember being very anxious that it would sell before we could get to Arizona to see it. Even though a few months passed, it was still available after graduation and our trek west!  When Ryan and I and our realtor pulled into the driveway, my heart dropped in my chest,  I knew this was the home where we were going to raise our family.

After walking through it, I was as smitten with this house as I was with the Dr when he asked me to marry him. It had 100 year old cypress front doors which were imported from a castle in Italy, the 10 foot ceilings had gorgeous crown molding,  there were hard wood floors throughout, a custom gourmet kitchen, imported travertine tile flooring, exquisite landscaping, etc., etc.

We immediately made an offer- which was accepted.  But Wells Fargo, who had written us 2 previous mortgages, laughed at us and said "NO!" we will not give you a loan.  You are newly self-employed. We won't talk to you about a home mortgage for 2 years.  I was DEVASTATED.  I went to every bank.  Everyones answer was the same--NO.  They didn't care that Ryan was FINALLY a surgeon and that we had impeccable credit and a decent down payment.  After the crash of 2008 all the rules had changed. They wanted 2 years of W-2's at his new job.   So I cried my tears, and signed a lease to rent a home.

Time passed, as it always does.  Ryan got called to serve in the Bishopric for our church in Bullhead City-35 miles away from my "Belair."The practice we bought had its main office in Bullhead City, and its satellite office in Kingman.  I fell in love with Bullhead.  Its heavy heat was addicting. It had picturesque mountain views and the beautiful Colorado River running through it.  The temperature soared to easily 111-115 degrees everyday in July.  We lived in the pool at our Condo complex. We also met wonderful people that will be life long friends. This reminded me that the Lord always has a purpose for our lives.

I knew that He directed me to find the practice that Ryan bought.  As scary as it was to make the leap and buy a practice right out of school, it has been such a blessing to our family.  We have loved sailing our own ship. The staff that was already established in the practice has been superb, etc.  I felt confused as to why I felt so strongly about buying THE HOUSE and nothing had worked out. After living almost a year in Bullhead,   I discovered a loan program for physicians that would give a Dr a home loan with only 12 months of earnings.  I knew this was my ticket to get Belair.  It had not sold, and by late August the man who owned the home decided to take it off the market until spring.   I wrote him a letter and told him we had every interest in the home.   He was happy to hear that he still had a buyer for his home.  I did all the necessary preparations and the home became ours that coming summer.

After moving in--a little over a year ago now, we realized that a house is not a home without pets.  Our children, especially Gracie, have been begging for a little dog for years now.  For those of you that know us well, know that the Dr and his whole side of the family are very allergic to any animal with fur.  And it's not the sniffle kind of allergies, it's the asthma type, where their lungs get tight when they are around furry animals and they can't breathe and it's super scary.

So what type of pet would be perfect for Belair?  I knew just the one!!

Meet Apricot, our 60 lb. African Sulcata.  He will be fully grown when he reaches 100+ lbs!

This is Moe.   He is our 18 lb native desert tortoise.  We adopted him last year from the state of AZ.  We actually have adopted 4!

This is Peaches and Cotton-  Gracie and Kersti's baby Sulcatas. We got these in Phoenix a few months ago.

Behold the "tortoise stack".  Here are 5 of our 7 tortoises.

This is one of our most beloved tortoises--Mr. White.  He is Jaces little desert tortoise.  He is a year old.

This is our family dog -Meanie. We named her/him Meanie because she always bobs her head at the other tortoises.  This is how they fight. And a 5 lb tortoise bobbing its head can be QUITE intimidating!!!! We won't know for a few more years if this tortoise is male or female.  We are hoping female.   

Meanie

Meanie

Meanie

Left to right--Meanie, Moe, Apricot.  They follow each other around the yard from biggest to smallest!

Do you know what is sooooo great about tortoise pets?  They don't make noise, they eat our lawn, they have slow metabolisms so they only poop about 3X per week, and from October to March they hibernate--so just when you get tired of tending the pets--you get a vacation until Spring!

We are so in love with our tortoises--well the Dr is neutral.  He would be just fine without them--but the rest of us are hooked. We are just one big happy family!!