The house is completely empty! Our tenants have signed the lease. We are good to go! 🙂
We have just a few boxes to send to ourselves.
I will try my best to post updates throughout the day tomorrow as we make our way to the 49th state!
Love to all!
Bethany
Sleeping kitties! 🙂
Ruby sleeping in a pile of clothes.
Annabelle sleeping in her kitty cube.
9 days until the BIG move! CRAZZYY! Time has really flown since I started blogging at the beginning of June. Everything is leaving my house & finding new homes, I am now down to – two chairs, a table, a couch, and a mattress in my house. We have been without television since Thursday. (You don’t realize how much you watch TV until you no longer have one! Aghh!)
I have a couch…but you can’t sit on it. LOL!
As most of you know, we had our HUGE yard sale last Saturday here at the house. The yard sale went way better than I expected! We had a constant flow of people at the yard sale from 6am-12pm! (Even though last Saturday was the hottest day of the year so far…Heat index was 112°!!) I want to thank – Ann, Sam, The Hunts, Karla, the Wiles Cousins, and Mamaw for coming to help out at the yard sale! Brandon and I could not have done it without you all!! 🙂
In other news, Brandon’s last day of work was yesterday (Friday). They had a nice little going away party for him at work! They gave him a very nice NEW Carhartt coat and a warm hoodie to take to Alaska.
Ruby loves Brandon’s new Carhartt coat!
So now that Brandon is done with work, next week we will be hitting it hard, getting every last thing moved out of the house!
Please keep me & Brandon in your thoughts and prayers as we make this move across the country! We are relying heavily on God to take away our anxieties and worries as we draw closer to July 23rd!
Love to all!
Bethany
Yard sale went perfect! We had tons of people that came and bought everything up! 🙂 I will post more tomorrow!
I caught Ruby mid-lick!
Annabelle enjoying the sunshine!
Brandon & I worked very hard on the yard sale stuff today! I can’t wait for Saturday to get here!!
Ruby is finally starting to get use to her kennel! 🙂 Yay!
Annabelle found a basket full of comfy blankets! 🙂
Growing up I had an absolutely wonderful family support system. Mom and Dad were always there for me. There wasn’t a single soccer game growing up that I couldn’t look up in the bleachers and find Mom and/or Dad sitting there cheering me on. If I was sick, Mom was there to take care of me. If I needed homework help, Mom and Dad were there to help me. If I needed financial help they were always there to hand me some dough. I could not have ask for better parents!
But family support isn’t always about your immediate family but about your extended family too. I have the BEST grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in the entire world! Every holiday, my cousins were there to play cards with me. At my high school graduation, my aunts had an air horn to blow when the principal called my name. When I was growing up, anytime Mom and Dad couldn’t come to the rescue, they could call one of my grandparents and they would be there.
My parents – Happily married for 29 years!! WOOHOO!!
With this move to Alaska, Mom and Dad are supporting us 100%. (I mean, why wouldn’t they…they live in Alaska. LOL!) Not only are they ALL FOR us moving up there but they are giving us a place to live when we get to Alaska until Brandon and I are able to get on our feet! They are even letting us bring our sweet kitties with us. (That will make 2 dogs and 2 cats under the same roof when we get there!!) Brandon and I are SO thankful for my parents and their help with us moving.
Family is one of God’s greatest resources to us. Families provide acceptance, encouragement, and guidance to one other. God wants us to strive for communication and understanding with our families. It is OKAY to “agree to disagree” with your family members. 🙂
Seeing how much family support I had, I prayed to God that my future -in laws would be that same support system.
In Matthew 6:5-15, Jesus teaches us about prayer.
Jesus says do not pray publicly just so that everyone else can hear, but go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private*. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
*Now this does NOT me that you shouldn’t pray in public, it just simply means to check the motives behind your actions.
I prayed this same prayer for many years, and God blessed me with wonderful -in laws!
Brandon’s parents – Happily married for 24 years!! WOOHOO!!
What makes them so wonderful you ask?
Brandon’s parents have given us (Brandon & me) acceptance, encouragement, and guidance that families are suppose to provide. There have been many times that Brandon & I have needed their support. For example, helping us move to Louisville to attend college in 2007. Or donating items to furnish the new house we purchased in 2009. These are just two small examples of the support that Brandon’s parents have provided us.
If it wasn’t for the approval from Brandon’s family, this move to Alaska would not have been possible. They are buying my new vehicle from us, they are helping us get ready for this yard sale (JULY 7TH), and they are even taking care of Bagel (my sweet puppy-dog) while we are gone.
I prayed that I would have an -in law support system and God answered!
With this move to Alaska, Brandon & I need our families. We need our families to provide us with the acceptance, encouragement, and guidance we need to make this journey. When you follow God’s will, he will bless you in abundance.
Just remember, your way isn’t always GOD’s way. It would have been a THOUSAND times easier for Brandon & me to ignore God’s calling for us to move to Alaska and just stay in Henderson. But when God calls, we answer, with NO regrets.
–Love to all!!
Bethany
When we started the discussion of moving to Alaska, my initial thought was, what the heck am I going to do with all my STUFF?!
Those of you who know me, know that I love my THINGS. I’ve always been a sort of hoarder. It’s extremely difficult for me to get rid of things. I am VERY good at justifying the reasons behind having all my material possessions. For example, that red sweater with the tag still on it that’s been hanging in my closet for 5 years, I might wear someday! Or the 10 pairs of jeans stacked in the office closet that no longer fit…I was keeping, in hopes that I could get my butt back in them. How about the soccer cleats that I haven’t worn in 7 years?…I mean I might play in a soccer game sometime. LOL!
Writing out my justifications seems so silly but it has helped me to let go of possessions that should have been gone 5 years ago! BUT I still had my reservations about getting rid of many things.
Bear with me, I promise there is a point to my nonsense….
I’ve found that there is one SURE way to help me get through this HOARDING issue of mine…
God
So I’m sitting here on the couch watching TLC, not thinking about all my STUFF, and God says, “Bethany, go get your bible.” So I get off the couch, grab my bible, and just start turning the pages. I have no idea what I’m searching for, but I stop in the book of Matthew.
As I’m reading the book of Matthew, I come across an interesting story about a man and his possessions.
Jesus speaks to the Rich Young Man: Matthew 19:16-30
I’m not going to write out the entire story, but basically a man asks Jesus what he has to do to have eternal life. Jesus replies- “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus says it is impossible for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. BUT with God everything is possible. (Not anything but EVERYTHING.)
Now does this mean ALL believers should sell everything they own? No. We are still responsible to care for our own needs so we do not become a burden to others. HOWEVER, we should be willing to give up anything God ask us to do so.
In January when God laid it on my heart to give up everything to him, and move to Alaska, I had no idea the blessings I would receive.
Now that I am getting rid of almost everything to move to the last frontier, I feel that I have become more humble in my life. I’ve come to realize that possessions do not make the person. Getting rid of all these belongings, I am still the same person I’ve always been, but BETTER!
I learned that God doesn’t just give you the qualities you need; he gives you opportunities to earn those qualities. I was lacking this humble feeling in my life, and God did not give me humility but the situations in which I needed to feel humble. (Now does this mean, I’m perfectly humble and don’t need to be reminded how to be humble?! NO!)
Now back to Jesus and the rich man, think about the most powerful or well-known people in our world – how many actually got where they are by being humble? Not too many! But remember in the life to come, the last will be the first.
I don’t want to give up on the eternal rewards for temporary benefits. I am willing to make sacrifices now for greater rewards later. I am willing to accept human disapproval, while knowing that I have God’s approval.
Brandon and I have a wonderful house, great jobs, nice vehicles…everything we need in Henderson.
But when God calls, we answer, and we will have NO regrets.
We’ve been working very hard on getting everything ready for the big move!
I got the kitty carriers in today! Yay! Annabelle and Ruby love them now but I’m not sure they will love the carriers when they are in them for 15 hours! Lol.
Ruby
Annabelle
Love to all!
-Bethany
Everything is quickly leaving our house and finding new homes!
Before:
After:
Good bye STUFF!! Hello ALASKA!! 🙂
Love to all!
-Bethany
I sent my kitchen table to its new home today at my cousin Kiley’s new apartment!
So my kitchen table is enjoying its new home tonight.
My yard sale pile is getting quite large!
We will be having a yard sale on July 7th and we will need to get rid of everything (but the kitchen sink of course)!! So be there July 7th!!!
Love to all!!
-Bethany
Bethany
Lingerfelt's in Alaska 