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!

Ahhhhhhh.....Phew! Stinky Bradfords!

Spring is here, the sun is out, the sickness is gone, life is good.

We're in total relaxation mode. We've just returned from our folk school weekend in the mountains sans kids. Our weekend of silence, solitude and art has rejuvenated and healed us and now we are ready to tackle the job of house-fixing-up so we can get it on the market.

The prospect of selling the house is kinda stressful I must say, but for some reason it feels like it's going to work out. I hope my feelings are accurate.

We went to the big orange store and looked at lots of things we think might help make our house more appealing. I had no idea it only cost about $30 to put a new bathroom sink in! We're gonna do lots of cheap sprucing and hope to get it on the market by the end of our break. I really hope we can market it as a great place for a new family or an older couple. I'm a little worried about finding a realtor. The one was talked to was SO negative, talking about taking a loss right off the bat. No thanks. I think the houses in our neighborhood are overpriced and we'd be willing to ask a lot less so hopefully that will be helpful.

I'm excited about our house projects but for some reason this week we've gotten very little done and that worries me. We need the kids out of the house for a day or two so we can really get down to work. It's been hard because all we really have is the mornings, then everyone takes naps (including us, unfortunately) and then J leaves for tutoring so our day is done. This 1st week of break is sort of the catch up on sleep, laundry, etc. week so hopefully we'll do better next week. The last week is filling up fast though so that's why I'm worried.

Sadly we'll be attending a memorial service in Virginia the last week for my uncle who died suddenly. It was very unexpected and he was the healthiest person I know as far as exercise is concerned, so we're all really shocked about it. We haven't told A yet and I'm not sure what we'll do when that time comes. She got to know him last Thanksgiving and they bonded really well. It's upsetting that when it's expected for some one to die, it's not as sad for some reason (like my grandmother who also just passed away who has been struggling with Alzheimer's for a LONG time), but when it's someone young and healthy it's harder to deal with the loss and it just seems so unfair and wrong.

I'm procrastinating by blogging when I should be writing my paper about how blogs enhance student learning. Ha! Ironic huh?

Sicky won't be sicky anymore!

O.k., so I've been out of commission for a while. J got the flu and then A got it, then me. I had it the worst which is totally abnormal because I basically haven't been sick in 3 1/2 years due to my mommy immunities. Well, I guess they wore off because I was sick as a dog. Literally not being able to get up off the couch which is really hard for me. J had to stay home or come home early a few days to help take care of me and the kids and the house.


Oh, the house. It is not possible to run a household with someone sick. We had piles and piles of laundry. We did about 8 loads today and we're finally starting to see the laundry room floor. It was pretty awful. The worst part really was just the sitting. I was so helpless and it sucked. I was able to start Eat, Pray, Love which is a really good book.


Luckily H never got any of the flu stuff. A got better and then started her coughing fits for a few days, had to be on the nebulizer and the doc gave us a steroid which they've done before but I never gave it to her. Whoa nelly, never again. She was having crazy hallucinations/nightmares and had these crazy obsessive ticks. She was literally convinced at one point that a frog was IN her throat. She kept grabbing at her throat and coughing and I finally had to give her water and tell her it washed away for her to stop. Of course one of the ticks she had was coughing, so she was up coughing more then the previous nights. It was rough.


I ended up having a sinus infection after the flu and went to the doctor for the 1st time in MANY years. Had to wait 2 hours before he saw me and he said "yep, it's a sinus infection". Well duh. I totally should have gone to med. school. Seriously, I've had really bad doctor experiences this week and I've pretty much self-diagnosed everyone correctly. But, we're all recovering and life is finally livable again. The thing that really sucked about all this sickness was that we had to cancel our visit weekend to seminary choice #1...so we have to reschedule, but it won't be the planned prospective student weekend. I'm really looking forward to next weekend's folk school and our spring break to recover and renew.

Almost Spring Cleaning

My mind is a big jumbled mess and I feel like cleaning.



This long weekend we're cleaning the house, making lists, getting organized, etc. I hope this post doesn't become incoherent blabber but *warning*, it might. Thinking of the future, thinking of moving on and of moving, period. We've been telling more people about our upcoming plans and dealing with their reactions. J started talking with a counselor who talked about the grieving process and how it is not like a death thing, but more of recognizing the good in an experience and coming to terms with leaving that behind. We love where we are, but we know that we're ready to move on. It's not a progressive place in many ways, in fact it is very stagnant right now, and we are not. We could be, but we're not.

I am somewhat saddened that our children won't be able to attend school there for the next 3 years, but we might have the chance to return; then again, we might move on and realize we're done. Homeschooling is looking good to me some days, as long as A and I can get along. I'm hoping without the influence of some of the kids at school, her attitude will improve. She's just so testing all the time right now (and I know that's her job as a 3 year old) and it drives me crazy, and she knows it drives me crazy so that just makes it worse, and I feel like everyday is a mental workout dealing with her (and trying to outsmart her!), it's really freaky because I recognize so much of myself in her and I know what she's doing because I did it too. Comes back to bite ya huh?

Wow, I am rambling but it feels good to "clean". J, the pyro-husband, is burning right now, perhaps his way of "cleaning" (purging). We're both feeling restless and excited but having to balance that with feeling some sadness and this new idea of grief. There is no guilt though, none at all (this was a word that was offered to us, but we're not feeling it): we've put in our time and have made positive changes, now it's time to move on.

It's out...

We told our boss last week, so a huge weight has been lifted. It went really well, much better than I expected. She said she's just happy J isn't leaving to go to another school. We still can't "announce it" to the school and she told J to "find his replacement", but other than that it's all good. whatever. Ready to move on.
We looked at some of the housing options at S and it's exciting. We're going up for a preview weekend in a few weeks so that'll be very informative. We got some promotional stuff/admissions packets and there is so much involvement with families. Kids in the pool at new student orientation, kids at graduation walking out of the service with their dad, kids participating in the chapel services. It just feels like the right place. I can just see A and H being friends with these kids and S embracing them like our current school community has.
I want to go visit G too just so we can see NYC, but we aren't really thinking of going there because of the distance...it would be so awesome to live there though. I can dream.