Packin' up

Here's why we're so motivated...


Our new backyard and huge screened-in back porch.
This part of the yard is fenced in and there is a lot more that isn't, and a quick walk through the woods leads to a small lake!

So, we're planning on moving in 3 weeks or so. We've been packing boxes like crazy and I finally found the floor of the closet in the study/junk room. There were things in there we moved from Decatur and haven't touched in 3 1/2 years! Sad. Speaking of sad, I've been getting kind of nostalgic about this house the past few days, it is a really good house and we've loved being here. We are outgrowing it though so even if we weren't embarking on this adventure, it would be time to move on. I just hope someone who sees what we see in it can find it soon and buy it! We're meeting with a realtor tomorrow, she seems pretty cool. Most realtors we've encountered have been snooty bee-ot-ches so we're hoping the one isn't. We just want someone to market our house like crazy and give us a fair deal, we know we're not going to make any money off it and that's o.k., we just don't want a mortgage payment while in seminary.
We're going to a dinner tonight at the bishop's house. Kind of scary. It's for upcoming seminarians and their spouses/partners. We had to get a babysitter, we aren't sure how we're going to pay her, maybe she takes partially used Starbuck's gift cards? Anyway, it should be interesting. ^J^ knows two other seminarians from his discernment group and there are some people from the diocese and maybe a few more seminarians from DYVE coming. O.K., the kitchen floor is starting to crawl away so I'd better go sweep.

Me-time

This coconut cake is my signature (default) cake for all occasions. Made this one for ^J^ for father's day as a bundt. I usually just make it as a sheet cake but it was REALLY good this way and all the juicy coconut stuff soaked in really well. Finished it off yesterday, yummy.
We watched Juno last night, very good, I want to own it. ^J^ was on the phone with our friend JPL for an hour and 40 minutes and, although I was glad they were talking and doing their usual laughing/debating/reconnecting thing, I was growing tireder and tireder (not a word, I know) by the minute. Finally, he was done around 11:15 and I was about to go to bed when ^J^ suggested we watch it anyway...it is summer after all and what else do we have to worry about except losing some sleep. So we did and it was totally worth it! (H) was up early and cranky but no biggie.

We just got back from the park and a picnic lunch and now it's naptime and ^J^ is cleaning out the garage, I should go work on the Junk room, but I'm feeling the need for a few minutes to myself. My birthday is tomorrow and we are super-low on money right now so I asked for my present to be a half-day to myself, I know I can have it anytime I ask, but something always gets in the way or comes up so I think Saturday will be my day to go lounge at the bookstore for a few hours. It's just been hard lately with all this house packing/fixing-up stuff because one of us is working (^J^)while the other watches/entertains the kids (me). They can entertain themselves fairly well for a 1 and 3 year old, but they get needy and bored if we aren't giving them much attention, especially *A*, so I usually have to stop what I'm working on and redirect or play Cinderella or something. Her new game is "ding-dong", she takes her dolls and their stroller and walks around the side of the house and comes up to the front door and rings the doorbell. We open the door and she comes in saying that she's the babysitter and we can go out and she'll watch (H). Or, it's the other way around and she's in the house and we ring the doorbell and when she opens the door she always says in this grand voice "Oh, Hellloooo, Come iiiinnn". Everytime. She never gets sick of this game. Ever.

A house!

We've finally been assigned a house! We were actually given a choice between 3 houses, this one was the biggest (3B, 2b) and unfortunately the most expensive but we're hoping for financial aid to come through. We really have no idea right now how much money to expect and if I should be looking for a job or not. It's just a tad bit stressful on top of the stress of trying to sell our current house. *sigh*.
Anyway, this house is exciting and makes it all more real. We love the stone, mined from the mountain, and we are excited about the yard and the roll-out windows. We don't yet have a floor plan or an idea of what's inside although if you look at the back you can see a peek of a screened in porch. Fun!

And we're back...

O.k., so our "puter' died and it was ready surprisingly quickly, we were still under warranty thank goodness. But, they didn't get it to us before we left for Disney so now that we're back from our trip, I'm finally getting around to checking hundreds of e-mails and catching up on my favorite blogging mamas.

Our trip was great! Lots of family togetherness and some relaxing "just us" time too. *A* was really into the characters this year, (H) was at the scared age, but that's o.k. We saw lots of shows, rode some rides, ate a ton, sweated up a storm, and walked miles and miles.

*A* seems to have matured so much since we've been gone. (H) is talking so much more now too. Lots of new words, "wadoo" (water) being the favorite since we were in the pool everyday and he loved it. *A* did really well swimming too, by the last day, she was putting her face all the way in, holding her breath and swimming/walking 2 feet or so. She loved how brave she was and kept doing it.

So, today I'm off to find a pool for us to frequent as well as go to our organic co-op pick-up. I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it has really inspired me to eat locally. Our co-op is some local but sometimes from exotic places like Bolivia or New Zealand so I'm having a crisis about keeping it up. I can't wait to move and be able to find a lot more locally grown and raised food up in TN. I've already found out about a few farms and markets that offer produce, eggs, and meat so I'm excited to at least partially be able to participate in staying local.

O.k., (H) is stinky and *A* is "serving" (spilling) her own water so more Disney fun and pics later...

Lookie-Loos

Well I put out the house flyers yesterday evening and today they are gone! So we've had some lookie-loos and that's exciting, but it makes me nervous! We're not really ready to show this house and need to finish a couple of projects before anyone can come see it, but we wanted to get the sign up and get some info out there. Now I need time to get the rest of the inside painting done and clean up some clutter in the 3rd bedroom. Yikes!

On an unrelated note, we're going to see Rick Riordan today at a book release party and signing at my favorite independent bookstore Little Shop of Stories. He's the author of the Percy Jackson series which is a really fun middle grades book about a boy who finds out he is half Greek god and half human. They are really well done and the kids at school love them, so we've been anxiously awaiting the release of the 4th book. Another really great author, Jerry Spinelli, will be there after. The International Reading Association conference is in town this week so all these amazing children's book authors are descending upon the city. Fun Fun! I'll post pics if my camera cooperates.

Time to change

I've updated this blog a little and changed the name. I'm trying to focus it on our journey to seminary and what we do/encounter while we're there. I've been keeping up with many new blogs and I'm always so impressed with their writing, family life, homeschooling, craftiness, etc. I hope to create a similar blog people can come to a get a little slice of our life On the Mountain.

Last week, J finally found out he was accepted to his seminary of choice and we're ready to move on. We actually called about housing even before he got his "official" acceptance letter! They told us they would be choosing housing for us using the application we sent but that they were pretty sure we'd be getting "one of the larger houses". I was slightly irked at first by this, I thought we'd have more of a choice in the matter, but I'm coping. This is not a choice I need to be worried about: it's only for 3 years and we'll make do with whatever we're given. Most of the houses are bigger than our current house anyway, so nothing would really be a bad choice. Our main focus now will be to get our house sold. I'm done with school and not going back until we get settled. We've painted, pressure washed, planted and pruned and the FSBO sign is in the yard. I'm not sure how we'll do by ourselves, it seems so daunting, but I think once we've gotten it listed online and in some papers we might get some action on it. We've listed it a lot lower than all the other houses in our neighborhood so I'm hoping that will help. Now to keep it clean and "showable", that's the challenge!

Long Time No Type

Life's funny, it seems like just yesterday I was writing the previous post and thinking about the house sprusing up stuff, but it's been a month and a half and nothing has really changed. We're still trying to get the house "ready". I think it's like being "ready" for a baby, like my father-in-law told us once, "if you wait until til you're "ready" you'll never have one". So we just need to do what we can and get it on the market. We actually bought a FSBO sign tonight and I'm going to make up some flyers. It really just seems more like us to do it ourselves (would this be DIO then?). We'll see if we have any action on it or not, we have so many houses in our neighborhood for sale, maybe some agents will stop by.

School has been overwhelming me and causing me to not get much done around the house. I'll be so glad when this semester is over!