Saturday, December 6, 2008
Remembering Lily
No farewell words were spoken
No time to say goodbye
You were gone before we knew it
And only God knows why.
Those we have held in our arms for a little while, we hold in our hearts forever.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Busy beavers
When we bought this farm we knew there were some things we wanted to change about the house...mostly just freshening up with new carpet, paint, etc. Well, once we got in there and starting really looking around, it has turned into more of a remodel than a freshening up! I wish I could post pictures for you to see but I'm using my parent's computer for the time being and don't really want to dowload my pictures on their computer...so I'll have to do that later (I have taken lots of pictures).
Just a quick rundown of things we've done are painting, stripping wallpaper, tearing down old plaster walls, adding a picture window, adding electrical outlets, tearing down a couple half walls to open the rooms up, ripping up carpet and framing a new ceiling in Leah's room. Still to do are putting sheetrock up where the old plaster was torn down, adding trim, getting carpet installed and of course painting and cleaning. Then all that's left is moving our stuff in and unpacking. All in freezing cold weather when I haven't even started Christmas shopping!! Whew! I'm worn out just thinking about it!!!
We are really hoping to get it done soon. We are doing all the work ourselves so it will feel like such an accomplishment to have it done! I am so thankful to have such a smart, talented husband. Jason is completely doing this remodel. All I can take credit for is painting, stripping wallpaper and holding a few boards for him. I am so proud of him!!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Farm tour
....the orchard. There are 3 peach, 2 apple, 2 pear and a couple walnut trees there. We plan to add a cherry tree. Leah and I also want to add some kind of berries somewhere. Maybe blackberries....yummy! Those are pears in the bottom picture. I picked one up off the ground and I'm not kidding you, it was the size of a softball!
Love this! I am a huge fan of old barns and this one definitely qualifies. It needs some repair but still usable.
The chicken house. It also needs some repair/paint but once it's fixed, it will be perfect for some chickens.
The grapevines are along the fence on the left side of picture. By the way, those tractor tires will be going. They were being used as planters, but we'll till up an area for a garden.
This will be our new home. It's small but will be cozy. I'd invite you in, but since we haven't officially moved in I'd better wait. My mind has been racing lately thinking of all the things we want to do with this place. Among other things, I have paint colors, flooring choices, furniture arrangements and storage space issues on my mind. It's probably a good thing we're moving here during the cold season because that way we can focus on getting the house in order and not get distracted with wanting to be outside.
We get possession next week and then the adventure begins!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Green Acres is the place to be!!!
I wasn't expecting the kindness that followed. The auctioneer asked for our names, introduced us to the crowd and asked them to "Give a hand to the new owners of this farm!" So, there we stood....a ball of nerves wondering if it was really real with all these people staring at us and applauding. The seller (an older man) and his family all immediately came up to us and introduced themselves. The rest of the afternoon, neighbors from surrounding farms would come up and introduce themselves and congratulate us as well. It really was such a great experience and a very nice welcome to our new life.
Several different people said how glad they were to see a young family buy the farm. One of the old man's sons said that he thought it would be easier for his dad to let go of his farm (he'd lived there for 62 years) knowing a young family was going to start their farm life there. I hope so. I hope he and his children know how happy we are to have their farm now. I hope they know that we will take good care of it and will treasure it for what it is. I hope they feel welcome to come back from time to time and revisit their homeplace. A place where so many of their memories were made....and so many of our memories await us.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Flu Shot
Leah: "Daddy, I have to get a flea shot."
Daddy: "You mean a flu shot?"
Leah: "Yeah, a flu shot."
silence for about 30 seconds
Leah: "But, I don't want to get a flea shot!"
Batista
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Chicken update
Here is the rooster. Isn't he beautiful? He has started to crow....he doesn't have it down perfect yet but he's getting pretty good. Dad said he counted one day and the rooster crowed 14 times in a row! Guess he knows that practice makes perfect.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Making the quilt
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Good Times
Here we are after several glasses of wine and WAY past our normal bedtimes! Good Times!!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Missing my kitchen
It's only temporary. I should have a kitchen of my own by Thanksgiving and then my family won't have to wonder if I've lost my mind for serving them plain, browned, ground beef (don't laugh....I actually did that one night! At least it had salt & pepper in it. Hey, what can I say...we needed some protein!).
In the meantime, I'll nuke some frozen burritoes or for a special occasion I'll turn on the oven and make a frozen pizza. Oh, I just heard the front door open. It's Jason home from work.......
"What's for dinner honey?"
"You're in luck...we're having gourmet ramen noodles tonight!"
Friday, October 3, 2008
Retail therapy
I decided to get out of the house today and go shopping (for something other than groceries). I put on makeup, fixed my hair (who is that lady in the mirror??) put on some cute shoes (not my broken down flip-flops) and headed out. I found a couple really cute shirts....now I just need to wear them instead of always grabbing the same old thing.
So, that's a start in the clothing department....now the hair and makeup. I made an appointment to get my hair trimmed/highlighted next week and I'm researching mineral makeup (my dermatologist recommended it). Do any of you use mineral makeup that you love? I'm trying to decide which brand to try.
Hopefully, I can pamper myself a little and send this funk down the road.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A place to grow roots?
Jason and Dad took a ride around the pastures to check them out and I stayed up near the house. I walked around and imagined living there. It wasn't hard to do. I could see my chickens wandering around the yard. I could see Leah outside playing with her animals (currently on her list is a horse, some ducks and some sheep). I made a mental list of what I would do with all the fruit we would harvest. Let's see.....grape jelly, maybe try my hand at some homemade wine, peach pies, peach preserves, apple butter, applesauce, pear butter and lots and lots of fresh fruit eaten straight off the tree! I can see Leah now standing under the trees eating a peach....warm juice running down her chin! Yeah....I'd say I'm sold. I can already feel my roots growing and we haven't even bought it! The scary part is that it is being sold on auction and you never know how that will work out. I am praying that it is meant to be ours. We'll find out October 18 and if we get it then we'll have the other house to sell. I don't want to wish my life away but I'm ready to be past this transition phase. I'm ready for some roots!!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Kids say the darndest things
First, a little history. I have been going to the same Father/Son dentist office for about 10 years and I love them. Every person on the staff is so happy and pleasant. They actually remember things about me and will ask when I go in every 6 months. I trust them completely. So, it just made sense that when Leah needed a dentist I would take her to them. Apparently, Leah has weak enamel because she already has had 3 fillings and I promise you that her teeth are taken care of probably better than most. We brush twice a day, floss and rinse with fluoride. Her first filling (about a year ago) was scheduled with my trusted dentist (the son) but when we got there he was out sick. So, the father was going to be doing the filling that day. I was a little reluctant because I wasn't sure what his manner was like with small children. Leah had only seen the son before and I could tell he was good with kids. I didn't say anything because I had been to the father before and I trusted him also...as an adult. I should have trusted my instinct and asked them to reschedule her with the son but I didn't.
He assured me that since it was such a small, surface cavity it would be easier on her to just do it quickly without Novocaine. Yes, you read that right....WITHOUT Novocaine. Without ANYTHING! He assured me that the shot of Novocaine would be worse than the actual drilling. I shuddered at the thought of it but he's the doctor, right? She was crying and screaming, of course. I was fighting back tears because I didn't want to scare her more. He stopped halfway through, picked her up and said "If you don't stop crying, Mommy is going to leave the room. But if you stop crying, Mommy can stay." I grabbed her away from him and told her I wasn't going anywhere. I wanted to punch him. I wanted to take that drill and stick it up his ass. I wanted to take my poor, scared daughter and leave that place right then.....but I couldn't leave because he already had drilled and there was a hole in her tooth. I guess I could have immediately gone to another dentist to try and get an emergency appointment but let me assure you my mind was not working. My blood was boiling and I could hear every beat of my heart in my head. It was terrible, awful, scary, traumatic....you name it. I was still mentally shaken by it a week later. Actually, just thinking about it now gives me chills. That's how bad it was.
So, back to the reason for this post! There I was laying in the hygienist's chair having just had my teeth cleaned and the son came in to check everything out. Leah is content in the corner, coloring away (having just talked the hygienist's ear off) when she pipes up "You know why I don't come here anymore?"
"No, I don't" says the dentist
"You guys weren't very gentle. We had to find a dentist that would be more gentle for me." she says.
All I could do was laugh. I wasn't going to try to cover up what she said because it was the truth.
Needless to say, Leah now goes to a pediatric dentist where the tools are "magic wands", the fluoride treatment is "tooth sparkles" and they get tokens for the toy machine, a balloon and a cup of ice cream when they are done! They also use nitrous gas and Valium if needed for doing fillings.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Greatest Show on Earth or Highway Robbery??
I sat there during the show and knew that Leah was watching other kids come walking in with their cheaply made, overpriced junk....oh sorry, I mean with their souvenirs and I wondered what she was thinking. You know that our kids wanted that stuff just like all the other kids and I have to say that they were very good and didn't demand anything or throw a fit when we said "No". They each asked why they couldn't have a light-up sword and we both told them the truth. It's too expensive.
So, when Leah saw a kid come walking in with nachos or something and said "Mommy, I'm hungry", I pulled out her chicken nuggets from my purse that she didn't eat in the car. Then, she sees some kids walking in with their $12 snow cones and said "Mommy, I'm thirsty". What does this cheap mother do? Pulls out a juice box from my purse. (LOVE big purses!)
As we sat in the car leaving the parking garage we watched family after family walk to their cars, arms LOADED with souvenirs. I mean they had BAGS of stuff and most of them had 2-4 kids with them. We each had 1! We sat there and added up each family's purchases as they walked by. One family had $60 worth in their hands and then had about 2 bags full of who knows what!
It was a bit of a joke of course but then again it makes me think. I don't want Leah to sit through every event like this thinking "Why won't Mommy & Daddy let ME have any of that really, super cool stuff? They're SO cheap!" But, I also don't want her thinking she needs to get something everywhere we go. I don't think it's too early to teach her the value of things. If you should think we are depriving our daughter, come on over and take a look around her "toy room". If you can even get in the door that is!
Bottom line is we had a good time and that's all that matters. After all, who doesn't enjoy seeing little white fluffy dogs in green tutus doing back flips??
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Happiness is....
Friday, September 5, 2008
DO feed the animals
We have 8 weeks of city living left and then we're off to a more rural life. For now, our weekend trips will have to do.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Excused Absence
and spent lots & lots of time in their new pool! In fact.....we got accused by a certain someone (ahem, you know who you are) of being lazy bloggers because we were spending too much time by the pool.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The past 2 weeks
Then, it was on to the farm for the weekend where we had lots to do to keep us busy. We spent a lot of time with the chickens. I think one of the Light Brahmas might be a rooster which I am totally excited about! I wanted a rooster but was afraid I was going to have a hard time finding a Brahma one! I'm not 100% sure yet but "he" definitely has some signs of being a roo.....I'll keep my fingers crossed.
We also spent a lot of time in the hay field. Jason just bought an old square baler for $200....they didn't even know if it was going to work or not but for $200 it was worth a try! Dad and Jason spent a little time cleaning, greasing and wrenching on it then took it out to the field for a try.
It worked! This might sound strange, but it was so exciting!! We all kept looking at each other from our "stations" in the field and smiled. We ended up with about 400 square bales!
As I sat there on the tractor, I kept thinking about how this was the beginning of our new lifestyle. I tried to take it all in. I watched my Dad baling with a 50-60 year old baler that was the same as one his Dad used and could tell by the smile on his face that he was completely enjoying himself. I watched my husband bucking bales onto the trailer and knew how happy he was to finally be so close to his dream of farming. I watched my Mom drive Leah around on the 4-wheeler to watch us and hoped that Leah would appreciate the lifestyle we are choosing. I'm pretty sure she will...she has a list of animals she wants to get and also told me "Mom, if we're going to be farmers then I'm gonna have to get a farmer's hat."
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Anyone want to help?
Monday, August 4, 2008
Bittersweet
The hardest part of leaving for me is the feeling of closing the door on a part of our lives. There are so many memories in this house. I know I'll take all of those with me but it really is like the end of a chapter. Two amazing years of Leah's life were here. Our daughter Lily was born in this house. It was here that I broke the exciting news of our twin pregnancy to Jason & Leah only to find out 3 days later that there were no heartbeats. There has definitely been sadness in this house but there has been much happiness - many, many blessings. These walls give me comfort and a sense of security.
I am very excited about the new chapter we are about to start. I'm so happy that we are going to raise Leah in a rural area and that she will get to have some of the experiences I had as a child. This move is a positive thing and something we are very happy about, but I can't help being a little sad at the same time.