If you missed part one of the story of how we ended up moving to Rochester, MN, you can check it out HERE. Where that post just left off, Jeff and I were in the waiting place. We did Lucketts, we prepared the studio to move, we packed the house, we had a yard sale, and we prayed that everything would fall into place – the temporary housing we would need, the boys starting school, making sure we don’t have a lapse in medical coverage, where mail could be sent while we were “homeless”…all of that important stuff. We also decided to be proactive and start looking at houses. Now, this is kind of funny, because I started looking at houses the second Jeff submitted his application, so I already had an idea of the market and what kind of houses were available.  I mean, I am ME, after all! We wanted

…Rochester, Minnesota! I know!  What?!  Minnesota?  Yes, Minnesota!! Let me back up and tell you the entire story, because it’s a good one. First off, if you’re wondering why we’re moving, check out THIS POST and then come back here and continue reading. Back in the fall of last year, we started counting Jeff’s credits to completion.  He is working on a Master’s Degree with the hopes of getting a full time job as an associate pastor in a church.  (He had been working at our current church as a youth pastor and then part-time associate pastor for the past 11 years.)  As we were looking at the timing of his degree, the boy’s school year, and my work schedule, we decided it would be best to get ahead of things and start applying for jobs in the beginning of 2017. We poured over job listings, church websites, and prayed for God’s

We started saying it a few years ago…  “We will definitely hire a moving company the next time we move!” Having gone through about 7 DIY moves in our married life, we were done with gathering volunteers to load a truck.  We were ready to relish in the experience of having it all done by professionals. Or so we thought. (You can tell which boxes I packed later in the process, because my descriptions get a little nutty.) We started getting quotes for our move a few weeks ago and the DIY instinct that kicks in when you get professional quotes could not be ignored.  Since it’s not a door-to-door move, it was outrageously expensive.  Like, we-could-buy-a-decent-used-car kind of expensive and we just weren’t willing to spend that kind of money for something that didn’t have value beyond saving us the headache (and backache) of doing it ourselves. It was a bummer

I planned to write this post last night, but I was exhausted and decided I needed to wait until the morning to string together coherent sentences.  Well, once I got going in the morning, there was no sitting down at the computer to write a post.  I had my weekly Skype meeting with my staff (which sounds very serious and impressive, but we laugh a lot and it’s a time to catch up and keep me on task) and then I filmed a Facebook Live Q&A for the Milk Paint line. There was a lot to do, so I asked my Lucketts-workhorse, Debbie, to come for a day to help me price items for my yard sale.  I knew I was stretching her a bit when I handed her a roll of Frog Tape and a Sharpie and asked if she would price things for me while I was on

There are some things that I started and didn’t finish.  I’m sure you can relate.  So, I thought I would write a post to tie up some loose ends – things that ended up in my graveyard of good ideas and other things you just may be wondering about! Whatever happened to… …Kriste? My trusty sidekick now has a sidekick of her own! His name is Grayson and you can follow her journey as a new mom on her Instagram and blog.  She’ll still be working for me, but between her new mom status and my moving, it’ll be in a different capacity.  Life changes and time marches on.  I’ll miss having her in the studio with me, though.  She’s gotten to know me so well and she does a great job of keeping me on task and balancing me out. She knows when I get that blank, overwhelmed look,