HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tonight was made extra special because Don is here to celebrate the New Year with us. He hasn't had a New Years Eve off in about 5 years now. It was WONDERFUL to have him here. We watched Prince Caspian, which was a Christmas gift to the kids along with a box of Turkish Delights. We added some chocolates my dad gave us, some popcorn buttered to perfection with Honey and Chamomile tea (a new favorite) and hung out by the fire. At 9pm we called Alex to ring in the New Year with him in the time zone he is visiting in Florida, and conference called my mom in California so she could join in the celebration with us. It has been a great night so far.

Seeing my children cuddled up with my husband during such a celebration was really wonderful. It is easy to think of always being alone when you are a police officer's wife. You are alone a lot... but it really makes those nights that Don is with us all the sweeter.

Speaking of which... I have a couple more hours before we get to ring in the New Year right here in our state, and I am going to spend them with my husband.

Love to you all and the happiest of New Years!!!

2009!!!!!

Simple things... and giving up coffee

Here is the wonderful Dove that has been spending his days in our oak tree above our picture windows. Isn't he beautiful? And he is also pretty unrelated to my main topic today.

One week ago today, I gave up coffee. I know it is for the best. Mostly for my pocketbook more than anything... I have expensive taste in coffee. Starbuck's Cinnamon Dolche Latte being my nearly daily drink for the last three months. (That is $3.41 a day if I brought my own cup... which I usually did.) Well for me, coffee was mostly another warm drink during the colder days of the year. It wasn't a terrible addiction as it is for some folks. It was a luxury that I thoroughly enjoyed, but didn't need. So when they were closed and we couldn't get to them during the snow storms of the last weeks, I decided to try my hand at getting over my daily dose of coffee.

That does mean, however, that I needed to fill that space with another warm drink... I get too cold without... so tea it was. I bought a few different varieties and started making pots of tea as part of my morning ritual. I always liked tea and drink it quite a bit, so I have had to get creative to fill that one cup of something hot with teas that are new and different so it didn't feel like I was drinking enough tea to float away on.

It was all made new and fun by my latest Goodwill score.

This tea pot was $2.99 at my local Goodwill and I LOVE it! This picture above is it with my two favorite mugs. Don't they mismatch perfectly? It is also very large... holds nearly 64 oz of steaming hot liquid... which is wonderful. The last two days it has been in near constant use. I am very excited to add it to my eclectic kitchen. It may inspire lots of fun changes in decor soon...

Simple pleasures are the best.

A trip to the airport

I took Alex and Cyan to the airport to drop Alex off at his flight to FL the other day. Despite it being the crack of dawn we were all in a great mood, chatting about our Christmas gifts, and what we were grateful for this year, etc....

We got to the airport with two hours to spare and I was feeling glad because I hadn't had a chance to get the kids breakfast yet and we could sit and have breakfast at an overpriced cafe in the airport together.

In the end, all we had time for was a cocoa and scone at Starbucks as we rushed through.

Here is what happened:

We got to the ticket counter and got rushed through (which still takes a while because there is lots of paperwork with putting a minor on a plane alone). But she gave us the wrong paperwork, so had to run us down on the way to security to give us the right paperwork to get us through. When we got to the security counter (after waiting in line for 20 minutes) he said that because Cyan didn't have her name on the entrance slip she couldn't get through. I have done this 6 times a year since Alex was 5 years old and have never had a problem getting her through, not to mention how they would possibly verify her name if we DID get it put on there. (Um... She's 7. What are you going to do? Ask her for ID?)

So, I decided that we had time, and didn't argue. Went back to the ticket counter, waited in line again, and asked the lady to put Cyan on there. She did... she added "Accompanied by 7 year old sister" on the bottom of my security slip.

Sweet. We were set. We went through the fast lane when we got back to security, which still took 10 minutes, just to have the security guard ask me if she was my '7 year old sister'.

"No, she isn't. She is my daughter. She is the 7 year old sister of the person who has the ticket to get on the airplane."

"Well it isn't on his security slip. It's on yours. She is not your sister."

"You have to be kidding me." Now I start to get snide; "How exactly were you going to verify that she isn't my sister? Do you think she has ID on her? We have the same last name. That ok for you? Related. Good enough?"

"Well mam........"

"Seriously?"

"I'll let you through this time, but next time you have to have her name put on there." He puts the blessed stamp on my pass.

"Whatever. Like you could verify it anyhow." I snatch my pass and head through taking my shoes off for the walk through the metal detector.

I would not have thought about it again after this.... but for all of this, Alex and his suitcase are next in line. The security guard checks the suitcase, puts it on the rail and says "What's your name buddy?"

"Alex." No last name, nothing.

Moronic guard looks at Alex's security pass, and says "Yep." Stamp "Ok, head through."

It took EVERYTHING I had not to make remarks behind his back about something involving his mother and birth control. I just snickered at how mean I can get and thought horrible thoughts for the next 10 minutes.

End of story, we ran through the Starbucks in the terminal for breakfast, and got to the gate just as the plane was boarding the unaccompanied minors and all was well despite the few grey hairs it gave me.

I stand corrected

So I was looking through my archives to find the type of pretzels I used for the chocolate dipped sticks last year and found this:

2007 Christmas Day

Apparently, last year we got a good dusting on Christmas day. But again, I said that it was the first white Christmas I remember. lol... so I may have been wrong then too. So I felt the need to look it up. We are closest to Olympia and it says that Olympia has a 3% chance of ever having a white Christmas. Seattle (which is just slightly farther away than Oly) has NO chance of ever having a white Christmas.

White Christmas Weather Prediction

But we have had two... in a row. In fact, right now we STILL have a very heavy crust of snow on the ground.

And at this second... a big fat opossum eating a bagel in our snow covered backyard.

What a beautiful holiday

We had a very quiet Christmas this year. And it was wonderful.

For the first Christmas morning in about the last 9 years, I woke before my kids and was more excited than they were. Alex, my early riser, was up just after me... and instantly went to get his stocking before the rest of us were out of bed (this is allowed... well, actually, at this point, I would say it is tradition). I walked out there to find him on the couch playing his Nintendo DS with his new green light saber stylus stocking stuffer. He looked up at me and said "Merry Christmas Mama!" before returning to saving the virtual universe.

I went to take a shower (ie: kill time) waiting for the other kids to bound out of bed. When I got out of the shower, Cyan was up, and playing her DS as well with her red light saber. Very cool.

At this point Logan and Don still were not up. Time to take things into my own hands... I mean, after all, it was 7:20am. They HAD to get out of bed and join in the joy and merriness darnit and that was that.

Don stumbles out of bed after I sweetly flip on the light and ask him to get up and I rub Logan's back and ask him if he wants to open presents until, as predicted (and desired) he pops up, bleary eyed and saying "Yeah mama. Yeah."

Stockings in the living room and starting a nice warm fire came first. Then we moved to the great room where the tree is and proceeded to move slowly through our gifts. There were "oooooo's" and "awwwwww's" in all the right places and even some "You are the best parents EVER!"

This was good.

Then there was about a 4 hour lull in festivities in which we filled with playing with Alex's new chess set and putting Cyan's hair in to a ballerina bun to go along with her brand new ballet outfit.

I knew it was going to be a modest party as both my brothers were still snowed in. So just my dad and his partner with her two daughters were expected to make it... and that was questionable because of the roads. Thankfully, they made it fine about noon and I laid out a spread of snacks, quiche, and shrimp cocktail. We hung out and talked and had a sweet second gift exchange in which I got a thistle feeder for my backyard bird sanctuary. Very exciting... now I may get Goldfinch!

They left about 3pm trying to beat the snow covered icy roads and Don and Logan went down for a nap.

The kids and I spent time playing games and reading new books and such before I dragged them outside to make an igloo out of the melting snow. We got two big layers of our walls finished before we decided that melting snow, although great for packing into blocks, was no fun to stay outside in, especially at dusk. Wet and cold we came back in and boosted the fire in the fireplace and made hot cider.

Don and Logan woke up about 5pm and we turned on Planet Earth the series (dh got it for me) while we had a spaghetti dinner that Don made (yet another gift for me after making that big lunch spread).

With Alex leaving early this morning for his yearly jaunt to his dads for the remainder of the holiday, we needed to get the kids to bed pretty early. So they were sent off and Don and I watched Kingdom Of Heaven (another gift from dh) during which I fell fast asleep on the floor (I had been awake since just after 5:30, after all). Don tucked me into bed and went to set up and play with his Christmas gift (a new computer screen).

And this was good.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!!

A passion of mine is beautiful inexpensive decorations for holidays. Usually involving paper... lol... Here is the 7 ft tree I made out of card stock two Halloweens ago. Here are the beautiful 'floating' stars that hung from the windows last Christmas. This year, my decor was inspired by my friend Jessica, who, along with her daughter Lauren, made these for their friends this Christmas. My creative wheels started turning.............

This year, with this big beautiful room, I had a bit of a challenge. The biggest challenge being able to reach the ceiling. I am tall, but goodness... to put some of these beauties up I was on a 3 ft stool... on my tippy toes.

However, to see my children wake up this morning to this was well worth it.

When I told my friend Sarah about the plan she told me that at least I didn't have to take them down right away... technically they are 'winter' decor and not just Christmas... so I could leave them up until March. Smart lady.

BTW... this is the first White Christmas we have had here in my lifetime. I have lived here for all but 2 winters of my 30. We have had dustings of snow the day before and sometimes the day after, but it was always gone on Christmas day... today, I built an igloo with my kids after gift time was over. Yes. We have SNOW. :)

It won't last much longer though.... "rain" is in the forecast for as long... well as long as they will forecast.

Snow and Mushrooms

Obviously, I love mushrooms. Eventually I would like to revamp the theme on this blog and make it all mushrooms, owls, snails, and butterflies with a beautiful leafless tree in the background... but until I can really write HTML much better than I do now, I will have to stick with what I have got and just post pictures of my mushrooms.

I was looking through my picasa albums today and found out that I have a picture of my mushroom through out this last set of snowstorms. lol... I enjoyed looking at it and so I thought you may too.

Make sure you click the captions, it shows the dates and how much snow was on the ground that day. You can see it... but by the end, we had about 15inches of snowfall with about 9 inches actually on the ground. The table in the backyard had about a foot... but it was up off the ground and stayed cooler than the ground so it didn't have as much melt. Right now we are looking at about 6 inches of snow on the ground still, and a beautifully dangerous ice crust over the top.

More about that here.

Winter Wonderland

All is well this morning....

For us at least. Here is a video of two buses in our area overhanging the freeway... which of course was closed until it was cleared up. No one was hurt... but man. It is crazy dangerous all over out there on the roads. The bus video was two days ago... not even due to the storm last night. It is really really nuts. Here is another video of last night.

We ended up getting about 5 inches of snow with a nice thick ice crust over the top of it. Driving is horrible and even the cops are having trouble driving with their chains and gear on.

No, I am not going anywhere.

The winds were nothing really. Not even as bad as the wind storm two weeks ago that was making growling noises in our eaves. I am worried about South of us though. They were supposed to get 3 ft of snow. I haven't checked up on anyone down there yet.

The worst part about all of this is that we are not prepared. Any of us. Personally we don't have things like slippers, an extra propane tank, a load of wood for the fire place, or wool blankets (downsizing is only a pain when things go wrong. lol!).

As a community we don't have things like snow plows, or deicers, or gravel trucks. Why should we? This is Western WA... we get snow three days a year. And it is gone with in two days. School is canceled when there is an inch or more on the ground... some times when there is just ice.

For the last four years our weather has been getting colder. The summers are short and never hot... the winters are ice and snow, storm warnings and storms. It is more like we live on the other side of the mountains (Eastern WA is more like Idaho or Montana weather wise) except we STILL get all the rain.

I think it is time to get prepared.

As I said, the main danger with this area getting this type of weather is not the actual snow. It is the fact that soon after it snows, it warms up, and there is a crust of ice over everything because it teeters between freezing and not freezing. And of course there is always the lack of preparedness (is that a word?) for the whole area to be able to deal with things like this. Now we have had three storms on top of each other. There are INCHES of ice under the newest snow drifts that of course, have ice on top of them. It is a cold hell out there today.

Ok scratch that...

3 to 6 inches according to Accuweather? Not according to this:

Due to the National Weather Service declaring a blizzard warning for the foothills and a winter storm warning for the rest of Pierce County (this is us), citizens are being asked to shelter in place beginning tomorrow at 2 pm (this was today). Because of the high winds also forecast, there is also a strong potential for power outages.

In response to the severe storm predicted this weekend, the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center is activating Saturday at 2 pm.

Sheltering in place means preparing your family and home to ride out the storm -making sure emergency supplies are ready in case of loss of electricity. Supplies include extra food and water, flashlights, radio, batteries, alternative heating sources, extra blankets, first aid kit. Do NOT bring generators, grills, or propane heaters inside, because of potential carbon monoxide poisoning.

Snow Days

There is about 3 inches of the white stuff on the ground with another 3 - 6 inches predicted for tonight... Market is canceled tomorrow. It is COLD in my house. We bought electric blankets while the roads were still drivable today. Now the roads are about 1 inch of ice a good dusting of snow... just enough to make them very dangerous. We have been snowed in 90% of the time this week. Kids get creative....

Make homemade potato chips:

Make food for birds:

Make snowmen (or women... Alex says that no man would wear that hat):

Slide show of today's projects.

Stay warm and safe everyone!

New birds

There are 5 Red Winged Blackbirds in this picture... along with two Stellar Jays. There have been more on this tree... but this was the most I have captured on digital film.

And here is a Spotted Towhee... what an interesting looking character he is! The red eyes just set it all off for me. His female counterpart has the red eyes as well, but she is more brown where the male is more black.

I think there is some commotion going on with the red winged blackbird family... some aunty wants to eat at this table... and dad said 'no'. ;)

The newest addition to our bird records is this little lady to the far right above. She is a Savannah Sparrow. Sort of blah in color but amazing detail if you are able to look closer.

Savannah Sparrow

And here is our newest little buddies... two Mourning Doves... arn't they beautiful? They are rather puffy trying to keep warm, but I can't really blame them as every single one of these shots was taken through my window with the saftey and comfort of the heater blowing right on me.

Mourning Dove

We saw a scrub jay today as well for the first time in this yard. We had tons of them down at the other house, but this is the first we have seen them here. A pair of them flew in a few minutes ago and scared off the Stellar Jays.

The wood pecker is also back and now enjoying the suet along with the others. Hopefully I will get good pictures of these guys soon.

White Christmas?

Things are shaping up that way. Everything is canceled. I know we seem like wimps here in Western WA with our snow fear, but honestly, ours is terribly dangerous. It teaters on freezing at all times... which means that the slush from the snow last night is now freezing. There is a layer of crazy ice underneith the beautiful new dusting of white. People are smashing into each other all over the place. And by the end of the day it will have warmed up again. That means tonight we will have more slush, on top of more ice.

Here is a video of just 30 miles North of me that a friend sent me.

This is today, in Seattle. We are guessing they are on a hill. Because people screaming 'help' means they have NO way to stop... they are just sliding.

There is more than danger in the snow today though... some pretty intense cuteness...

dressed in more than spider pj's and one of his sisters boots. ;)

And for those of you who are dying to see more pictures of the new house... it is almost clean enough for me to take pictures of all of it. :)

I love being a miser.

SCORE!

Lately we have been throwing money at problems just to make them go away. I have bought instead of made for Christmas this year just to get it done on time (and I still have felt like it was a huge hassle to try and find the few things I could put together myself. Moving is a pain!) Mostly handmade, and mostly local, and some even used, but still, bought... with money... not made by me per-usual. There have been many things that we have needed to fix about the house (as is true with every move I have heard) and that has cost us as well. Many things have needed a bit of cash to be made comfortable. And why, oh why, in this time of giving and need of monetary things due to moving and Christmas do my children pick to have a growth spurt? ALL of them. And why, does it mean that this week both my pair of Dr Martins have broken? lol... at this point, the little things like taking shoes to repair shops and having to buy 4 pairs of pants that fit Alex and a winter coat with sleeves long enough for Logan... well it all just makes me laugh. Because heck... what else can you do?

So today, we were going to REI for wool stockings (for my feet at work, not for above the fireplace) and those pocket hand warmers, and I saw that Once Upon a Child (which is next door) was having a sale. 50% off all winter gear. Logan has one warm coat that fits (courtesy of my favorite other toddler being slightly bigger) and all of his pants are magically too short all of a sudden. So I decided to step in there and for a total of $44 I got:

One grey GAP wool pea coat with a hood size 3t
One Tommy Hilfiger red winter jacket size 4t
three pair GAP jeans with adjustable waists size 3t
one warm red track jacket size 3t
one warm track jacket in navy blue terry size 3t
one pair Stride Right shoes size 9 (toddler)
and one GAP long brown light coat size 10

The brown coat is too big for Cyan, but it was $5 and in PERFECT condition. I figure there are a few things I can store till next fall and feel like it was completely worth it!

It was a fun trip and I felt really good about insisting we went in there for the deal. Now Logan is all set. Every one else needs shoes *sigh* but at least we all have nice warm winter coats for this crazy cold spell we have been having.

I came home, and my cousin Karen had dropped off a bunch of clothes that she got from various used places for the kids. She has GREAT taste and esp Cyan is crazy excited about some of the things she was able to find. All long sleeves. All big enough.

What a fun used clothing day. :)

Christmas Blessings

Cold market day... hot root vegetables.

There was a day, back in late September, that while I was working, it started pouring down rain. It doesn't take long, while moving lots of leafy vegetables around to get soaking wet, and of course, it was September... who wears a waterproof warm coat in September?

I got very wet. I got very cold. I soon after got pretty sick. It was a long and sucky day, and I felt like I hadn't even done my job well because I was miserable enough to have it effect everything I did... even count money. lol...

Yesterday was so much worse it knocked that day right off the radar.

Yesterday, as it started to get light outside I realised that it was going to be a cold and windy day. The bank on the corner said "27*". But it was still dark... surely it would warm up... I had packed warm clothes, tons of layers, and thought I was prepared. Little did I know that it would never get above freezing and I would be standing in the wind.

My right glove got wet about an hour into the market day (11am), and froze to my hand, giving me frost burns. The table cloths froze to the tables. The little droplets that were water back at the farm were ice crystals that never melted as we were putting out the kale, chard and mizuna. And it just got colder.

My brother picked me up at 4:30 and it was 26* outside. I was frozen to the bone. I spent the better part of the day finding excuses to go into stores and defrost... which of course just made the cold worse when I went back out. I can't even imagine how my market partner was standing it, but she disappeared half the amount of times I did. It was crazy.

But beauty out of that crazy ice:

The last of the years veggies have arrived. This miserable cold spell has taken all the life that was left in the ground and frozen it solid. Ok, that is a bit dramatic, but that is what it has done. The ground is frozen, so that means so are most of the things that don't mind the more mild colds of our climate. This was the last week for local cilantro, lettuce, chard, mizuna, broccoli, cabbage, most herbs, and onions. It may be the last time we have leeks, kale, beets, and potatoes... depending on how long this cold spell lasts. The season is finally over. *sigh*

And another will start again in a few months.

As much as I hate to say it. Thank you California. Thank you for making it so we don't have to stop and think about this season being over today and we can just go on living our lifestyles as we choose. I am not thinking about whether we have enough food to last the winter. Or whether my root cellar is deep enough so my potatoes, apples, beets, onions, garlic, etc doesn't freeze. California makes most of this possible to be something you pick up from the store on a weekly basis. You don't have to think about where or who it came from... because in the land of green pastures, far far away, there will always be garlic and potatoes growing on abundant grassy fields.

Oh wait...

Fun crafty type stuff

I have been reading creative type books again. Looking through old Martha Stewart magazines I pick up from the library (I have a whole collection, but still have no idea where they are) and finding fun old school craft ideas on line. My current (and Cyan's) favorite is Stiched In Time a book by Alicia Paulson whom also writes the "Pozie Gets Cozy" blog. What great ideas she has! A lot of them are too complicated for me at the moment, but when I don't have a toddler in tow everywhere I go this will be a book I want to own. She has a similar style to me (a bit more 'shabby chic')

It is nature nutty!

It is downright astounding how many critters we get here every day. Not just varieties (although my list will shock you) but the number of each of them that comes to our yard!

Here is my variety list so far:

Stellar Jay

Acorn Woodpecker

Chestnutbacked Chickadee

Black Capped Chickadee

Spotted Towhee

European Starling

Nuthatch

Eastern Finch

House Finch

Redwinged Blackbird

Junco

Robin

Northern Flicker

and a tiny woodpecker I have yet to find a variety for that likes hanging out in my oak tree and pulling moss off to find bugs.

This is a pretty common list for around here. In fact, there are some varieties that I had at the other house that I still have not seen here. BUT, it is the amount of birds that astounds me. At any moment each morning, you can see about 25 birds in my backyard. They come in flocks. 5 Red Winged Blackbirds that decide to raid the suet feeder at the same time. 4 Stellar Jays that come for the acorns and can be seen pecking the ground and flipping leaves up in the air. Chickadees and Nuthatches coming one after the other all morning long to the black oil sunflower seed feeder. It is amazing!

Here is a slide show of all the critters we have seen and gotten pictures of so far.

provoking deep thoughts

Learning my way around

When you move, it is like you have to come off auto-pilot. You can't just take a drive to your favorite store, take a walk, or even make a sandwich without making sure you know where everything is. Cooking has been hard for me this last month. I honestly haven't done much of it. The world has felt upside down... but in a good way. I am really enjoying the new house. But I have to think about EVERYTHING.

Where is the bread?

Ok, where is the knife?

Ok, now I have those things, is the meat buried in the freezer (which is buried in boxes) out in the garage?

No, got it.

Ok, now I have to find the cheese...

Did we even buy cheese?

I am getting better. Three days ago I tried to make a 'home cooked meal' in my new house.... and ended up making salad and buying a take-and-bake pizza. I just didn't know where everything was.

This issue was compounded by two things: The last two places I lived in had either a TINY kitchen (not much to learn), or a kitchen I had known for my entire life (not much to learn). This kitchen is wonderful. It is well organized and some of the things I will really enjoy once I get used to them (gas stove, huge strangely organized shelves). But I am not used to them. Which makes cooking here a pain.

I feel like I am passing that hump though. Tonight I made stroganoff, garlic green beans and even warmed up chocolate lava cakes from Trader Joe's. Last night I made potato Au gratin with feta and pesto, salad, and fresh baked bread. I am still doing things like buying Trader Joe's cakes, and buying bread dough to make my bread out of because I have no idea where the hook to my mixer is... but I am coming over that hill. I am starting to feel like I could find the garlic powder had I needed it and things would have been ok.

I feel almost triumphant about it really. Like I have conquered something.

I am also very tired. That may have something to do with the babbling. ;)

Night all. :)

So many critters!

When we moved here, I knew we backed a large green belt. But I was forgetting what that meant (we backed a small green belt at the Maringo House). Today alone, the kids and I have counted 4 squirrels, 5 different kinds of birds (and about 25 of them), and a small tree frog. And we were only out here in the sunroom for 2 hours. We are going to go through our weight in bird seed alone... but wow... what fun!

This little guy and his brother fought over this pretzel the kids left outside for about 10 minutes. Chasing each other around, climbing up trees... in the end, as we were watching, they noticed that neither one of them had the pretzel anymore and they sat quietly in a tree for a while to contemplate where it could have gone. It was quite the performance!

Can you see them both? It isn't a very good picture, but one is on the swing branch, and the other is up to the right on a curved branch.

It will be lots of fun documenting what types of critters we have here. I feel a unit study coming on! (In homeschool related news, come and see what we have been doing over here!)

Pantry shelf

Here is our long awaited pantry shelf.

My dry goods are a source of pride with me. It is sort of funny that I have a picture of my pantry from everywhere I have lived. Some of these jars are as old as I am (that is 30 for anyone who is trying to figure it out). My mom was collecting these sturdy pickle jars from delis to store her bulk dry goods in when I was a little kid. We had a huge cupboard under our sink and countertops in the little house, filled with glass jars of flour, oatmeal, rice, brewers yeast, etc. Everything was in a glass jar. I always thought that is what a pantry should look like... lots of clean glass, filled with good whole dry foods.

So here is the picture from the Maringo House:

And here is at the "W" St house (there were more in the garage on the pantry shelf in there):

But always the jars remain the same old trusty glass jars that I have washed and refilled hundreds of times. I think I have only ever broken two. And one was in an earth quake when Don and I were first married. So that doesn't count, but let me tell you, a glass gallon jar of rice and 4 quart mason jars of homemade applesauce can create quite the mess.

I am excited to have created this pantry in my new house. It is starting, slowly, to feel like home. I just put rub-on fairies and bugs up on Cyan and Logan's wall, I hung and filled some of our bird feeders and put out the bird bath, I put our bed side tables on the sides of our bed (imagine that. ;) ), I pulled the boxes of cloth napkins out and put them in newly fixed drawers, I did laundry with the dryer my handy husband fixed yesterday. Things are starting, slowly but surely, to feel like my home.

HAHA! I have found stuff. :)

Mostly I have found stuff like the books that go on our shelves, the can opener that magically disappeared, the cord to my camera, my first aid kit, and my drill charger. You know... little, important stuff that likes to go missing when one moves into a different house. It is like a small protest from the universe. "You shouldn't move. Ever. Now you can't find your electric eyelash curler or the charger to your cell phone. That'll teach you."

These are the first pictures of the house.

Mostly of the parts that are clean and lived in, like the sun room and the backyard, but still, on that beautiful day, everything seemed wonderful to hang out in the yard with my family. Enjoy the pictures! There are more to come of the rest of the house soon.

Advent

Starting a little late because it took some time to find the calendar and everything that goes with it. BUT it is out now. :) We just can't find the camera cord so I can show you pictures. It will just have to be a link to the pics from last year.

Our Advent Calendar

This year I have been picking up things to go into the pockets. Sometimes I just have chocolates, very much like the boxed advent calendars, and other times, I have things like a card that says 'see mom for a new coloring book', or chap stick, or glow sticks, or glow-in-the-dark frogs. It has been fun picking out things. I have tried to keep them as consumable or not 'made in china' as possible... and only half succeeded. Tiny things are hard to find locally. Esp when you don't want filling your advent calendar to cost $150.

Home, Sweet Home

This afternoon, I decided to take a nap for the first time in weeks.

I woke up with a panic thinking about all the things I had to do.

And then, with my eyes still shut, I smiled.

It is Dec 1st. We are out of that house. The dump runs are done, the trucks are returned, the house we moved out of is clean and repaired, even the pets are here... and everything is settling down.

Home. Sweet home.