Posted in Daily Life
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I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! I haven't had much time to write anything lately, but I figured I could probably manage a minute or two to post some pictures!
One wanted to dress up and the other wanted to wear pajamas. Can you guess which is which? A "Dinosaur Extravaganza" "HA-YAH!!" A little sleepyhead girl on Christmas morning She perked up quite a bit by afternoon though... So much so that she turned into a faerie!! |
Posted in Daily Life
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I have not fallen off the face of the planet. Well, maybe the blogging world, but the whole planet! :) Our house closed as planned on the Sept 12th. We were then homeless for over a week (living in an apartment with my WONDERFUL sister-in-law and her little boy while all of our worldly possessions lived in a storage unit one block from our old house and 10+ miles from the new one….). The chickens went to live at my parents' house, but will probably be finding a new, permanent home with someone else (when and who are both to be determined). Just this last Saturday, I got the very last load out of the storage unit (yay!), except now it's all piled high in my kitchen (boo!). But I am making progress, so that's good. It's just a little overwhelming sometimes. And I finally got Internet access about a week ago, so now that I have internet again and we're officially done moving (out of the storage unit), I'm allowing myself some catch-up time here! :) Oh, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my commute. I can even run and visit the kids at lunchtime! So even though I miss my old house and old town a lot, I'm getting used to the new place and really see the bonuses! Well, I've got lots to do, so I guess I should probably go do something! :) |
Posted in Daily Life
Yikes! Our house is
supposed to close on Tuesday. Our new place won't close until at least a day
later because it depends on $ from the sale of this house. So everything we own
will be living in a storage unit, at least overnight! 
While our current
house is by no means grand, the new house is shall we say... much more
humbling... So, I am struggling a little with my attitude
 , but on the bright
side I will be 6 entire minutes away from work!! My current commute takes
anywhere between one hour to 1 3/4 hours round trip, so I will be gaining at
least an hour a day, that's 5 (or more!) hours extra per week. Plus, we will be
paying off all debt and should be able to save a bit while we make long term
plans. So I'm very excited about the changes! (Although, I know I'm going to
get myself into trouble... I've got way too many plans for what to do
with all that extra free time. I know I'm being unrealistic... exercise every
day, cook real dinners, learn new hobbies, play with the kids, read, write, etc,
etc...)So, besides packing
and trying to get last minute details worked out, my dear sister-in-law
persuaded me into having a yard sale this weekend. Really, it didn't take much
persuasion, since I had already been thinking about it. But, that leaves us
with one very busy weekend... Plans for Friday are inspection at the new place,
rent a storage unit, go to work, pick up kids from daycare, get everything
organized for the yard sale, and pack, pack, pack. Saturday will be the yard
sale, host my sister's baby shower (talk about timing! couldn't we have managed
to save one of these.... yard sale, moving, baby shower, for a different
weekend?? ), and pack, pack, pack. I'm starting to think that Saturday may
involve me attempting to be in three places at once.... The question is: am I
really that talented? And Sunday will be more yard sale and hopefully
dragging stuff off to the storage unit. And somewhere in there we need to
squeeze in a trip to Hazardous Waste to get rid of the paint in our garage (from
Matthew's painting business). Ay, caramba!! I'm already exhausted just
thinking about it all. And then I have to work on Monday and sign papers on
Tuesday. And be homeless Tuesday night. And hopefully, start moving into the
new place on Wednesday.
Somebody catch me, I
think I might faint......
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Posted in City Chickens
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More adventures (or shall we say 'egg-ventures'?) in chicken ownership.... Yesterday afternoon, Brannan retrieved a farm fresh egg from the nest
and was walking toward the house when the inside-but-think-he's-an-outside-kitty
made a break for freedom. Brannan spun, rolled, and slid making a dive for the
newly freed cat, and in the process egged himself real good!
 Shoes, socks,
shorts, knees, and of course one very gooey hand. It was pretty amusing! After he got over the shock, he had to
run and proudly show daddy what a mess he had made all over himself.  And a couple days
ago, I got brave and let all three chickens loose (remember I live in the middle
of town!). Up until then, I had only let Josa loose, and she would stay fairly
close since the other two were still in the tractor. Apparently, since the two
Reds could wander freely about the yard, she became much more confident and
disappeared from the yard entirely. I had been keeping an eye on them all day,
but she somehow slipped away when I wasn't paying attention. I looked
everywhere I could think of and couldn't find her. I kept checking every so
often to see if she had returned, but she was gone for hours. Finally, late in
the afternoon, a couple houses down the alley in back, I hear "Bark! bark!
bark!" from our neighbor's Jack Russell. Immediately followed by a very concerned,
"Bawk! Bock! Bock! Baawwwwkkkkk!!!" Immediately followed by a shocked female
voice exclaiming, "It's a CHICKEN!!" I cautiously poked my head
out back just in time to see one terrified chicken fleeing at top speed back
down the alley toward home. Needless to say, one of us has learned a lesson,
maybe both. I have not let all 3 chickens loose again, and Josa stays in the
yard close to her friends in the chicken tractor.
I know I probably bore everyone with my chicken stories, but they are still exciting to us and I just can't help going on and on about them!  Oh, good news! My mom (with my dad's consent, see my last post) has agreed to be a foster mom to our chickens, at least on a trial basis (I promise I didn't harass my dad!  ). Hopefully that will work out, otherwise I will
need to find a new permanent home for them. They will probably move this weekend, but I'm kind of waiting until the last possible minute since I will miss having them around! :) |
Posted in City Chickens
I'm back to
(temporarily) being an excited first-time chicken owner. My uneducated, best
guess is that the death of the chicken was from first-time egg laying internal
injuries. The others are doing fine, so I'm happy. Josephine is healing up
real good. She's been loose from morning until dark, so the other two won't
peck at her wound. So, I didn't think she had started laying yet, but I had
been on the lookout for stray eggs just in case. Well, this evening I went
outside and looked in one of her favorite spots, a nice shady, secluded corner
of the house, and what did I find?? Three green eggs! She's been stockpiling
behind my back!!   I swear I checked
that spot the other day... I could see her getting away with one or two from
today or the day before, but wouldn't three eggs be from three different days?
I know checked over the weekend and there was nothing there! Hmmm...
it's a mystery, but an exciting one!
The bad chicken news
is that we sold our house, and I so far I can't find anyone to take them. We
will probaby be in a rental for 6 months to a year, so I'd like to just "loan"
them until we find a permanent place. I was hoping my parents would be willing
to take them, but my dad said no chickens (for certain readers, I'd like to
point out that he built the best chicken tractor ever and he's the
world's greatest dad and if the chickens live over there, the grandkids will, of
course, have to come visit much more often, since they'll need to see
their beloved chickens that they don't want to give to some
stranger, plus we'll be a lot closer, etc... etc... [insert
sad puppy dog eyes and bat eyelashes]) Seriously, I'm just kidding!!
 (I
love you, dad!!) But I really don't
know what I'm going to do with them. LOL
P.S. If anybody in western Washington would like to borrow three sweet, friendly chickens for awhile, I have some that need temporary foster homes! |
Posted in Daily Life
Our house was just
inspected and the buyers only asked for a few things. The house is 70 years
old, so you can imagine that there was actually quite a bit that they could have
asked for (like two recalled space heaters that our inspector didn't
bother to point out when we bought the house, and yes, the recall was
before we were even married, let alone living in this house 
). But in
the end, the only things they asked to have repaired were a leak in the chimney
and two plumbing leaks that we weren't aware of. But they also gave us the
option of paying $1000 of their closing costs in lieu of the repairs, so we went
ahead and took that option since it simplified things for us, not having to deal
with repairmen. After all, my time is still being taken up with two small
children and a husband, my job, my chicken drama (update: everybody else is
doing fine!), thinking about the fact that I should start packing, and
trying to find a place to live!!  So, the last hurdle
is the appraisal, but that shouldn't be too awful. Closing day is two weeks
(plus or minus) and counting!!
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Posted in City Chickens
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Honestly, I was not
prepared to have to explain what happened to the departed chicken. The kids
spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's last night and went to the fair
today, so they had a busy 24 hours. I was hoping that after the day's
adventure, no one would notice the missing chicken, but after about about an
hour of playing outside tonight, just as we were about to go in, Brannan noticed
that we were short a chicken. I realize that since I had nearly an entire day
from the time I discovered her until the kids came home, I should have thought
about the possibility that they might actually notice. After all, 3 & 4
years old are awfully observant, sometimes too much, to the embarassment of
their parents. Anyway, he completely caught me off guard and I told him that
she was sick and went to chicken heaven. Which led to a long discussion...
including bringing up a recent squirrel incident involving a squirrel that had
apparently been hit by a car. It looked like its back end was paralyzed, but it
was near a berry bush, so the kids assumed that it was sick because it ate "bad
berries". Somehow I managed to avoid the inevitable discussion, but Brannan
remembered it and wondered what happened to the squirrel too. So.... I'm still
not sure I said the right thing. I kind of wish I'd said that she was just gone
or ran away, but that's not the truth, and while they don't necessarily need to
know the entire truth at preschool age, I don't want to outright lie to them
either. But on the other hand, chicken heaven isn't really the truth either.
So, I'm still not sure I said the right thing, but he seems to be satisfied with
the conversation. I guess I'll just have to see if he brings it up
again.
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Posted in City Chickens
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Well, the chickens were fun up until yesterday morning. The first thing was I went out to check for eggs and they had smooshed one and were eating it. I was a little disappointed, but I'd heard of that happening. As long as it doesn't become a habit, I think it will be okay. Then, early yesterday afternoon (I didn't work on Friday), I went out to check on them and one of the Araucanas (Josephine... Brannan named her after Joseph's coat of many colors) was all bloody and missing feathers right where her back meets her tailfeathers. The other three kept pecking at her and making it worse. I can't figure out how she got injured other than they were fighting. There's nothing in their pen for them to get hurt on. So, I had no choice but to separate her from the others. Unfortunately, I had nothing to put her in and I live in town and was hesitant to let her loose, but decided that there really wasn't any other option. So I took my chances and let her loose. She stayed really close (20 - 30 ft) to her friends in the tractor. I was afraid that something might get her after dark so I put her back in the pen last night, figuring they'd mostly sleep and leave her alone. When I went out this morning, they were bothering her again, so I let her loose and she hung around all day. So, she seems fine now, but I'll probably let her loose again tomorrow, so her injury can heal without the others pecking at her. But, here's the bad news... today, for no apparent reason that I can tell, the other Araucana up and died!  Nothing stuck out at the time, but looking back over the day, I think that something wasn't quite right. A couple hours after I let Josephine loose, I was out working on the yard and found a green egg in the chicken tractor. It had to have been the other Araucana, since the other two chickens in the pen are Rhode Island Reds and lay brown eggs. It had some blood on it and was out in the open. Since the chickens just started laying this week and this was only our 9th egg so far, I wasn't sure if that was normal or not (both the blood and the fact that she laid it out in the open). The other 8 eggs (6 brown and 2 green, I think the green were both hers, but not sure) were all laid in the "house" part of the tractor where their nest is. Anyway, so I did see her around a little bit throughout the day, but not much. Then right before dark, I went to feed them and put Josephine back in the cage and when the other Araucana didn't come out to eat, I moved the tractor up and over her and found her dead! She looked like she buried her head in the dirt and smothered herself. So, I'm a little concerned since I have no idea why she died. I don't think it's related to sanitation since they get fresh food and water and bedding and their tractor is moved regularly. There's nothing that she could have gotten into and eaten to make her sick. Plus, other than Josephine's physical injury, the other ones seem to be fine. But still why would a chicken just die like that? Maybe she had an internal injury from laying eggs? Or maybe it was related to her pecking the injured chicken... Maybe she got sick from that? (The injury didn't seem that bad.) Maybe she just wasn't feeling well and accidentally killed herself? I know chickens are too bright, but they don't seem dumb enough to kill themselves like that either. (I'm grasping at straws here!) I just don't know, and the fun of raising chickens is momentarily gone. I'm hoping the others will be all right and that there was just something wrong, like an internal defect or something, that caused her to die. If Josephine heals up alright and nobody else gets sick, I guess I'll feel better, but this is definitely not something that I expected to have to deal with.
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Posted in Cute Things to Share
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This is so sweet, I had to share.... "Tomorrow morning," the surgeon began, "I'll open up your heart..." "You'll find Jesus there," the boy interrupted. The surgeon looked up, annoyed. "I'll cut your heart open," he continued, "to see how much damage has been done..." "But when you open up my heart, you'll find Jesus in there," said the boy. The surgeon looked to the parents, who sat quietly. "When I see how much damage has been done, I'll sew your heart and chest back up, and I'll plan what to do next." "But you'll find Jesus in my heart. The Bible says He lives there. The hymns all say He lives there. You'll find Him in my heart." The surgeon had had enough. "I'll tell you what I'll find in your heart. I'll find damaged muscle, low blood supply, and weakened vessels. And I'll find out if I can make you well." "You'll find Jesus there too. He lives there." The surgeon left. The surgeon sat in his office, recording his notes from the surgery: "...damaged aorta, damaged pulmonary vein, widespread muscle degeneration. No hope for transplant, no hope for cure. Therapy: painkillers and bed rest. Prognosis…” – and here he paused – “…death within one year.” He stopped the recorder, but there was more to be said. "Why?" he asked aloud. "Why did You do this? You've put him here; You've put him in this pain; and You've cursed him to an early death. Why?" The Lord answered and said, "The boy, My lamb, was not meant for your flock for long, for he is a part of My flock, and will forever be. Here, in My flock, he will feel no pain, and will be comforted as you cannot imagine. His parents will one day join him here, and they will know peace, and My flock will continue to grow." The surgeon's tears were hot, but his anger was hotter. "You created that boy. He’ll be dead in months. Why?" The Lord answered, "The boy, My lamb, shall return to My flock, for He has done his duty: I did not put My lamb with your flock to lose him, but to retrieve another lost lamb." The surgeon wept. Later, the surgeon sat beside the boy's bed; the boy's parents sat across from him. The boy awoke and whispered, "Did you cut open my heart?" "Yes," said the surgeon. "What did you find?" asked the boy. "I found Jesus there," said the surgeon. |
Posted in City Chickens
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Okay, I admit that I have lots of random things on my mind right now! So I'm limiting myself to three topics! So.... I came home today and found a GREEN EGG!!!!! And the third brown egg in three days! One of the Reds has been laying for three days straight and apparently, one of the Araucanas decided that she needed to get in on the action and decided to produce something too! All four of the eggs so far are noticeably smaller than the store bought eggs, but they are supposed to get bigger (or so I'm told!) How exciting!  Yesterday I took the kids in for their annual exam. Their pediatrician is a kindly older gentleman who is great except that I think he's either getting kick-backs from the vaccine manufacturers or has been to vaccination brainwashing bootcamp (or both). He will gently and kindly, in the most non-confrontational way possible, really, really strongly recommend the entire line-up of vaccinations. Personally, both my husband and I are in the middle when it comes to vaccinating, leaning towards not vaccinating. Meaning, our kids both have the DTP shots, but they were done later than the official government recommendations. In my eyes, tetanus is a reasonable concern, and when Brannan was born (at a free-standing birth center) the hospital that we would have gone to (if we'd need to) had a whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak that very week, so that one was brought home as a reality also. So, they get the DTP shots. I think the doctor's office also managed to talk me into getting Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) shot to Brannan at one point, but since then I've stuck to my guns and said No. But it's still kind of annoying to have to deal with this. The doctor has tried to push the Hepatitis B shot on them since they were newborn. That one really bothers me since you are only at risk because of certain behaviors (same risk factors as AIDS) or if the baby's mother is a carrier or at risk. Other than the mother argument, there is absolutely no reason to be concerned about this at all!! His reasoning for giving the Hep B shot is not to protect them now, but so you won't need to worry about it later on as they become teenagers and adults. That just seems like the silliest logic..... So I'll wait until they're older and might actually be at risk. But even more importantly, if I raise them right, Hepatitis B shouldn't even be a concern at all. Oh, well... This time he was pushing Polio... "I really think it would be a good time to get them started on the Polio vaccine. You don't hear about it in the US, but if you travel outside the country, there are a lot of places where it's still a concern." Okay, I won't argue that, but I'm not leaving the U.S. If we do leave the U.S., we will most definitely reconsider the entire vaccination situation, but as it currently stands, we rarely leave our county, let alone the country. That said I don't want anyone to think I'm anti-vaccinations or criticizing people who do choose to vaccinate. I'm NOT saying that at all! After all, I have all my vaccinations (I think). And my kids have some. I do, however, feel very strongly that this is a decision that each family needs to make on their own (hopefully after researching the pros and cons and prayerful consideration). I mostly just wish the doctors would respect the non- (or mostly non-) vaccintating parents' wishes and stop pestering us! I've researched the subject til my eyes are crossed. I'm informed and I don't want to. End of story. (All that, and Heike did get her DTP booster yesterday and was an all-star! Didn't even bat an eye!) The other thing that I had on my mind was a co-worker friend. He has worked at the same company as me for about the same amount of time (7 years). I don't see him very often any more, except I occasionally go to a weekly Bible study and he's usually there. Anyway, he and his family are relocating to Singapore this weekend. He has the most awesome testimony that I just had to share a little bit. We (the Bible study group at work) have been priviledged to watch everything unfold and it's just truly amazing what an awesome God we serve! About a year ago, he and his wife felt called to become missionaries to China. Basically, they answered, "Yes, Lord" and were willing to lay everything down for Him and go. They went on one or two trips, went to missionary training, and got ready to quit his job, sell their house and go. Their hearts were willing, but God has led them down a slightly different path now. I won't go into details, since it's not my story to tell (and I wouldn't do it justice), but suffice it to say that they are going to Singapore instead (at least for now). He is staying with our company and transferring to a newly opened office in Singapore (he found out about the new office the week that he was going to turn in his resignation). In Singapore, the population is 70% Chinese so they'll be able to learn the language, maybe make brief trips to China, and they will feel more confident about the safety of their kids, ages 3, 5, & 7. And who knows, maybe our company will open an office in China in a couple years and he'll be able to transfer again. It has been truly, truly amazing to watch the Lord directing their steps and to see them so willingly follow where He leads. I just think of them and feel like Wow. Wow, because their hearts are so willing, whether it's to China or to Singapore, which may or may not be a stepping stone to China later on. And Wow, because it's just so amazing to see God's hand and direction in the whole adventure. Things that shouldn't and couldn't happen, have happened. And all in His perfect timing.
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Posted in City Chickens
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The long awaited first egg finally arrived!!!! I went out to move the chicken tractor this evening and opened the door on the house side, not expecting anything, and there it was! A tiny little brown egg. Honestly, from my shock and surprise, you'd have thought I had given up on the idea that my chickens were ever going to produce anything! I think I may have screeched in excitement... I was so excited, you'd have thought I was directly responsible for the egg. But the chickens weren't that impressed, so somebody had to be tripping over themselves in excitement!! I guess that responsibility fell to me. (Remember, this is someone who's never been around chickens, and knows that eggs come from the refrigerator section at the grocery store!) Of course, Murphy's Law states that the chicken(s) will start laying immediately after the owner of said chicken(s) has purchased an 18-count carton of eggs from the grocery store.  Here is the little, tiny first egg and the fresh-from-the-store egg. The store egg looks huge, but it's just normal size. The brown one is just tiny (and cute... can an egg be cute?  ) |
Posted in Daily Life
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Here are some recent quotes and definitions from Heike, my fearless 3 year old! Swim soup - The thing you wear when you go swimming. Spongebob - The thing you wipe the counters with, as in "Mommy, can I wipe the counters with the spongebob?". Kitty feathers - The fluff left behind when petting a long haired white kitty, as in "Mommy, wipe the kitty feathers off my dress!" Lady - The dress-like thing that you wear to bed, as in "Mommy, can I wear my lady?" Holder - The 'handle' part of the broccoli, as in "Mommy, I ate the holder!" (a big accomplishment!) And of course, don't forget the Air Porch, which is that place where airplanes land. When galloping her imaginary horse up a rather steep hill and pausing to catch her breath, "My horse is tired!!" The other day I started singing the "Chin Up" song from Charlotte's Web, and Heike informed me that I was not allowed to sing it, because I'm not a spider. And one from Brannan, who, for months would constantly refer to "the buddy". For the life of me I could not figure out who the buddy was, and he talked about the buddy all the time. "The buddy fixed our car." "The buddy is on the phone." " I saw the buddy at church." Then I finally had a lightbulb moment when an ambulance passed us, and he said "They're goin' to help the buddy!" The buddy = somebody!! "They're going to help somebody." "Somebody fixed our car." Life made so much more sense after that! |
Posted in Daily Life
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We sold our house!
We listed it ourselves on Craig's List and have a signed Purchase & Sale agreement
from the first (and only) week it was advertised. Provided the inspection
(which was this morning) doesn't turn up any surprises or the bank tries to make
any strange requirements, closing should be in a little more than 3 weeks!!
I'm kind of holding
my breath
 waiting for the inspection report/bank requirements before I feel like
this is a done deal. I can't think of anything that would be a major surprise,
but the house is 70 years old, so we'll just have to wait to
hear.Besides the house,
it seems like everything else has been busy, busy, busy too, and life is in fast
forward right now. It's hard to have a minute to sit back and relax!
Hopefully, the dust will settle soon though.
However, I still have no idea where we're going to live though!! Call it an adventure...  |
Posted in Daily Life
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I love the cute
things that little kids say! The other day we were driving near the local
airport, and an airplane had just taken off. Heike saw it and went on to tell
me that it came from the "air porch". Which reminded me that not too long ago,
Brannan had been referring to it as the "airplane station".
Aren't they cute?
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Posted in Miscellaneous
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This week's Ten on Tuesday is Your Ten Favorite Songs.... (Click on the titles for the lyrics!) 1. When the Sun Goes
Down - Kenny Chesney
2. Next to You, Next to
Me - Shenandoah
3. Fishin' in the Dark - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
(# 2 & 3 are my all-time favorite country songs... they've held that honor for 10 years! )4. Take Me to Your Leader - Newsboys (This is fun song! Plus I always thought it would be fun to have a sign or something to remind me to "Take 'em to our Leader's Son"! Now you'll have to read the lyrics if you don't already know the song! )6. I Can Only Imagine -
Mercy Me
7. King of Glory -
Third Day
8. One of These Days -
FFH
9. It Is You -
Newsboys
10. You Are So Good to
Me - Third Day |
Posted in Daily Life
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Here are the pictures of our house! (Normally, I probably wouldn't give so much detail on the internet, but since we will not be here that much longer, well, here it is….) This is the outside (which is pretty obvious). I wish I had a before and after picture. When we bought it, it had old faded, tan vinyl siding, the cedar shake roof was falling apart and it had an old cyclone fence around it with no landscaping and a dead apple tree in the front. Not a pretty sight. Pretty much everything you see in the picture (except the sidewalk!) was replaced by us.
Looking at the house, to the left is our swing. I've always wanted a porch swing. This is the next best thing. I sit in it all the time!
Next to the swing is a fountain. It had accidentally got turned off, and within 5 minutes about 15 tiny birds came to drink and take a bird bath. I scared them away when I went to take the picture, so you can only see a couple here.
This is the view from the swing. Matthew did an awesome job on the landscaping!
This is the view of the living room as you walk in the front door. It's hard to see how big it is, but I wanted to get that vaulted ceiling in there. Our living room actually has a little bit of a cabin feel with the dark red paint and wood panelling (and woodstove).
This is another living room view, we keep the computer desk in the corner.
And last living room picture. This is the built in bookcase. It's the best picture that I have of the loft. You can see the stairs on the right side. The loft is on both sides of the stairs with a catwalk above the stairs connecting the two sides. (We were experimenting with colors on those drawers! Ah… being married to a painter!)
This is the only picture I took of our kitchen, and it's actually our dining room table! (Check back later tonight and I should have a real picture of the kitchen!)
Well, that's it for now! |
Posted in Daily Life
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We will probably be listing our house any day now, so I had been thinking of posting about it already, but then Trixi had mentioned the Tour of Homes. I was going to post on Friday with everyone else, but I just didn't have a chance. I guess, better late than never….. First though, I just have to say that I love our little house and will be very sad to move. I know that God had his hand on us the entire time. We found the house on "accident". Then we made a contigent offer on this house before our condo was even listed. Because of that we had to list our condo before it was finished (we were in the process of re-painting and putting in new carpet). At the same time we made our contigent offer, someone else made a full-price cash offer on our house (which trumps a contigent offer any day). Which meant our condo had to sell that very day or the house would go to the other buyer. Our condo did sell the first day it was listed, even though it was a mess! It actually sold to a renter in the complex who was just waiting for one to come on the market! But, the owner of our house still could have taken the other offer since it was cash and we had to finance through a bank (and the bank required that the house be re-roofed plus other requirements prior to closing). The other offer was much better for the seller, since even though the sales price was the same, they could have bought the house as-is. All that and even the street name is similar to our last name! And those are just the big things that had to go right for us to get this house, there were lots of little details that had to work out too…. I know our real estate agent was amazed when we finally closed! Well, that's how we got our house, now onto why I love it so much…. I could go on and on, but I'll try not to (at least too much)… Since I can't live out in the country, I think living in town is the next best thing. It beats the suburbs, especially housing developments (for me, at least). I love that I can walk with the kids everywhere! Within just a few blocks, we have two parks, the library, a walking / bicycling / horsebackriding trail, the pharmacy/drugstore, the doctor, bank, hardware store, and farm co-op. All that and our house is on a quiet dead-end road across the street from the river with a view of the farmland below. It's so quiet, and with the view, it feels like I'm in the country. (And we get to watch hot air balloons and skydivers practically everyday!) Our house is pretty small (less than 1000 sq ft), but seems really big. Our living room is huge with a cathedral ceiling plus a loft and catwalk. The living room (and the location) is what sold us on the house! I love houses that have a lot of natural lighting and are very open, and the living room couldn't be better. And the rest of the house is nice too, but I won't bore y'all with the details (If you weren't able to guess by now, I think I'm unintentionally writing most of this for myself, since I will miss this little house!) One last thing, I'm not normally so obsessed with my house, but with the idea of selling my home, it's hitting me kind of hard. Besides all those previously mentioned reasons for why it's been the perfect house for us, we've also put a lot of time and effort into it. We bought it as a fixer and have re-sided it, re-painted it, landscaped it, carpeted it, remodeled the bathroom, replaced the carpet in the kitchen with laminate flooring, etc…. A lot of work has gone into this place! I'll stop rambling for now. Click here to go to Part 2 to see the pictures! |
Posted in Daily Life
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I woke up to a loud chicken-related ruckus outside. I have a friend at work who used to have chickens and she had warned me that they can be a little loud when they're laying their eggs. Soooo…. since it could be any day now and I have no idea what sounds an egg-laying chicken makes, I got all excited and ran outside to check, but nope. I was half-asleep when I heard them, so I don't really recall all that well, but I'm guessing something just startled them. Oh, well….. someday soon. But, since I was outside, I got to see something as equally impressive as the long-awaited eggs. First though, let me explain… we see hot air balloons all the time. During the late spring, summer, and early fall, they are a daily occurrence. They take off just about every evening about two miles from our house, usually two or three of them, sometimes only one. I think five is the most I've ever seen at once. We can see them from our house, but they're always in the distance and floating farther away. Sometimes after work, we'll be driving past the little airport just in time to watch them take off too. That's always fun! Those are the days when I enjoy the stop-and-go traffic jam… we're surrounded by farmland (which is not common around the Seattle area), and it's just a beautiful site, very peaceful. Anyway, we do have a tendency to take hot air balloons for granted around here. Back to this morning….. I was checking on the chickens and I heard the distinctive "ssshhhhh" sound of the hot air balloon, and looked up and one was directly overhead. We've been here 5 years, and I've only seen one float by our house once before (I think the sunrise runs take off from a different location. I'm sure they've probably floated by our house more than twice in all that time, but I've only been awake and outside to witness it once before… ). The other time, the balloon was a lot closer (I could see the people!), but I think this time was really cool, because it was directly overhead! I got to see the hot air ballooon from the bottom up, which was an interesting perspective. It was overcast today and the clouds were really bright, but I managed to get a semi-decent picture. In case you've ever wondered what a hot air balloon looks like from directly underneath, your curiousity can now rest at ease!
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Posted in Daily Life
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So, things have been crazy, crazy, crazy around here (and HOT). On Saturday, we went to the wedding of one of my co-workers, actually two co-workers (they met at work!). It was a beautiful wedding. It was outdoor on a "rent-a-farm", the kind where they do corn mazes and pumpkin patches in the fall. They rent their old milking barn (now fixed up like a farm-themed banquet hall) for events like weddings, birthday parties, etc… The wedding was great except for the fact that it was soooo hot and it was outside in the sun at 4 in the afternoon. I think a couple of the guests might have melted. Matthew is in the process of trying to go from professional house painter to professional photographer, so they actually hired him as the wedding photographer which was very cool! He has done a lot of other types of photography, but this was his first wedding! I'm so proud of him! So, while he was an official guest, he was also working so I didn't get to spend much time with him since he was running around taking pictures. I think he sat down for about 15 minutes to eat dinner and then he was off again. It was so hot and tiring that Brannan actually fell asleep at the table!
I was a little sad because the wedding was at the same time as the high point of our town's annual celebration. I was hoping to take the kids to the parade and some of the other things (frog jumping contests, bed racing, etc…), but we missed it all. Oh, well… the wedding was great and I'm very happy for them, so I'm not too sad! So the rest of the weekend involved scrambling around trying to get the house ready to have a real estate agent go tromping through the house. Carpet cleaning had been on my to-do list for awhile, but with an agent coming over in a few days, it turned into a "I need to do this now" kind of thing. So, I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned my carpets. Did I mention that it was 98 degrees? I know in other areas of the country it has been over 100, but 90 is warm for us here, plus we have terrible humidity. I've been told my countless people that our humidity makes it seem hotter/worse than it really is. So, when it's humid like that I just add 10 degrees to even it out…. So that would make it 108 degrees. Matthew worked all weekend, so while I was carpet cleaning, I was home alone with the kids, very hot and grumpy (me, not them). Thankfully, my mom came and whisked them away to the park, a horse show, and the carnival. I know they definitely had a lot more fun with her than if they'd stayed home with me and watched me clean the carpet…. And I was able to get a lot more done and not feel so guilty for being grumpy when they walked across the wet carpet for the twenty-second time. Yesterday, I took the day off from work to try to get a few more things done around the house. I also had to meet the refrigerator delivery guy… Remember a month ago, the refrigerator door fell off my almost new fridge? (Click here for a reminder). Well, it was pronounced "unrepairable" and a brand, spanking new one was delivered yesterday afternoon (no cost, as it was under the factory warranty). And, in case you're curious, the door only fell off for the first week And the final news is that the real estate agent did come out yesterday and gave us a recommended asking price. We thought it was a little low. I realize that trying to put a price on your home is difficult and can be a little emotion-driven, but trying to be realistic, Matthew and I both think it's worth a little more than some of the comps because it has a "unique-ness" factor. I know when we bought it, it was only $4K more than another similar house a block away. On paper they looked very comparable, but in person, there was a world of difference. We thought we got our house for a steal and would have willingly paid more for ours if the asking price had been higher. So, I'm hoping that's still the case. Without trying to take advantage of any potential buyers, we do need to clear as much as possible if we sell it. I'm not too worried about that though, since if we really do ask too much, then it just won't sell… However, I just want to get the price right the first time, for us as the sellers and for whoever the buyer might be. Trixi had mentioned the idea of doing a "Tour of Homes". It was kind of funny because I had already been planning on doing a post on our house similar to what she mentioned, since it's such a cool little house and the Lord really led us to it… To quote the real estate agent when we bought it, "I've NEVER seen a sale squeak by like this and still actually close." She went on to tell us we must have the best luck in the world, and I don't remember our exact answer, but it was basically along the lines that it wasn't luck at all, but the Lord making a path for us. It was really our little miracle house. If it sells, I am sure I will cry. I could be wrong, but I really feel like this is the Lord's will, and it's time for us to move on now. So, that makes it a little easier. I will try to post about the house on Friday as part of the tour, but with everything going on, I won't make any guarantees! And I would appreciate prayers! This is a huge thing we are embarking on and we really want to make sure we are in His will! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sorry that this post is kind of rambling. My mind is going a thousand miles a minute, and my fingers don't always keep up! Hopefully everything is coherent! |
)Posted in Miscellaneous
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A couple other people (Martha's Kitchen, Lancelot Acres, and Homestead in the Making) have this on their blogs, and it looked like fun!
Ten things you've done today: Made lunches, dropped the kids off at daycare, stopped at the bank, went to work, called about our refrigerator warranty replacement, gave my honey directions to a house for sale(!!!), fed the chickens, walked to the library with the kids, called my mom, watched a hot air balloon fly by. Nine things you have to do
tomorrow: Eight items always in your pantry Seven things you need to feel "at
home": Six things that sum up your
childhood: Five items of clothing you wear again and
again: Four places you've lived: Three books you've loved reading
recently: Two heart's desires: One thing everyone reading this can pray
about for you: |