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We heard that the buyers of our current home had their financing approved. That’s great news because we haven’t heard anything about it in a little while and we were wondering if there were problems.

Here’s an aerial view of our new house: 

We’ll be moved in, in less than a week. There’s a lot to do before that happens – moving, yuck. We have some things in a storage unit, but the furniture and some other heavy and bulky things will need a U-Haul and some hired hands to help move. Hopefully the hired hands will work for peanuts.

Aren’t you supposed to have a garage sale before you move – to reduce the junk and clutter so less needs to be moved? We are going backwards, doing just the opposite. We have recently purchased a riding lawnmower, a church pew, a bench, a patio table and chairs, picked up 6 free lawn chairs and are going to look at a truck today! Our garage is nearly full and there’s a bunch of ‘stuff’ on the driveway that won’t fit in the garage. I’m guessing that our neighbors will be glad to see us and all our stuff go away!

Since our new house is about 1000 square feet bigger, has a couple decks, a 4x larger yard, a bigger garage and huge pole barn, we’re doing our best to fill it all up. Today, when we go look at the 1990 Ford Ranger 4×4 (for Mitch – he wants to buy it with his own money), Brenda is going to have me look at another bench if she can contact the people on Craigs List. I have never met Craig, but our family is very familiar with his list.

The direction our country is heading made our recent Independence Day holiday somewhat of a downer. Don’t get the wrong idea – I do believe that we live in the best country in the world. Our country has done more to spread freedom and prosperity, protect and rescue various people and countries and most importantly, share the news of salvation through Jesus – than any other country. Yet, some Americans go out and apologize for our greatness and generosity. They want to change the direction of America to copy the socialist countries of Europe and other parts of the world. There are communist leaders praising our president. Something really wrong is happening here. We need to get back to what our Constitution really intended. We need to stop the increased Federalism and get the power back to the states. The states need to stand up to the federal government, and that is starting to happen. Many states are passing ‘state’s rights resolutions’ and at least in principle, standing up to the increased power of the federal government. We need to fuel that fire and protest against federalism/socialism.

It is now just three weeks until we close on the new house. Hopefully, we can move our stuff (junk?) there the weekend before at the latest. Our current garage is getting full of boxes and we’re running out of room – with much more yet to pack. We’ve also been looking on Craigslist for items for the new house. I’ve picked up some free lawn chairs, bought a new lawnmower for the super-sized yard, and we’re still looking for some furniture and decorating items for the new house. I’d like to decorate the shop with a welder, a large air compressor, a floor-model drill press and many other things, but the house will have to come first. The new house is about 2/3′s bigger than our old one, so there’s more space to fill/decorate. I can see a pool table, foosball table or pinball machine helping fill some of the empty space…..

Holly still seems apprehensive about moving. She’s concerned that they’ll stop seeing friends and going to homeschool activities like they have been. We’re trying to reassure that it won’t change. She did pass her driver’s permit test – and is now a beginner driver. She did fantastic on the test and is doing pretty good driving, too. She now needs a purse to put her permit in and keep it with her.

Mitch is looking forward to mowing the new yard with the mower we just bought. Mitch is really looking forward to getting a boat of some sort so he can go fishing in the lake. I think that is even higher on his list than getting an ATV or motorcycle.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament just finished yesterday. The men’s final was quite a match. Roger Federer and Andy Roddick played for a Wimbledon record number of games in a match. Federer ended up winning 16-14 in the 5th set. I was really surprised at how well Roddick played and actually would have liked to see him win. I’ve always been a big “The Rog” fan, but it’s starting to get a bit too much with all the commercials on TV and even his logo on the plastic bags his raquets are wrapped in. I was surprised that Serena beat Venus in the women’s final. I thought Venus looked unstoppable and more dominate in the matches she played in the tournament. Now that Wimbledon is over, life can go on until the US Open starts at the end of August.

It was recently Erika’s 10th birthday – on July 3rd. I mentioned it to Brenda and it was not well received. I hope that Erika had a great day. I hope she is well taken care of, loved, shown compassion and is happy.