Mowing

When we first explored the possibility of renting this house, they told us lawn care was included.  We were grateful, but not not wowed; I mean, mowing the lawn every 2 weeks just isn't a big deal for us.  When we signed the contract they indicated that the conditions had changed: no lawn care, but they left a mower and gas can.

So, after we got our initial unpacking done, I set to mow the lawn.  Unfortunately, the didn't leave us just any mower, they left us a mulcher, and to add to the mounting lawn issues, the lawn hadn't been mown in over a fortnight.  Judging from the dried shards of grass laying among the green, it had been several weeks before that one as well.  I compared the two mowers, and the landlord's had twice the horsepower of my WalMart special, so I opted for that one.  A complete waste.  Not only did I have to deal with grass way too long for normal cutting, but I also had to deal with the very long grass left from the previous mow.

I proceeded to pull out old trusty and went to work slowly but surely.  It only took an hour and my my entire lawn was finally a blanket of freshly mowed grass.  I don't mean a carpet, but a blanket that sits on top of the carpet.  Because it was 9 pm and dark, I called it quits for the night, and after tennis this morning I took another swipe at it.  Again I tried the mulcher hoping it would help chop up the wreckage, but again to no avail, so out came the old mower.  I completely re-mowed the lawn, and I think I'm still going to have to rake it all up to keep from killing it.

Words just don't adequately express my frustration with the situation.  Oh, and the gas can leaks BIG TIME.

Oh well, at least I had a good helper today!

Homeless

I've always wondered how people can end up homeless, but now having been homeless for a week I guess it is easy to happen.  With a week between the end of our last lease and the start of our new one we wondered what to do.  A family in our ward was going to be out of town, so we asked to store our things in their garage which they gladly agreed to let us do.  Then, I started calling friends to stay with.  It is amazing how blessed we have been with such amazing friends who would gladly welcome our zoo into their homes.  Fortunately we did not have to impose as the family out of town offered to let us stay in their basement (finished basement).  It is basically a little one bedroom apartment down there with plenty of space and privacy.  The boys sleep in the family room and we sleep in the one bedroom.  It is by no means extravagant but has definitely met our needs.  They have been home off and on . .  . the joys of being grandparents. . . and have been very hospitable.  They make us feel welcome and treat our children just like their own grandchildren.  They are wonderful people.

I am still, however, looking forward to Monday when we get to move into our own new home.  Ok, I'm actually very excited!  Once we're in we'll take some pictures for you, but it is a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home with a family room.  Yea!  It is a real house in a real neighborhood.  I'm starting to feel like a grown up!  I guess it had to happen sometime.  :0

I just wanted to thank all of our family and friends for their support and prayers during this very crazy time.  The Lord knew what he wanted to happen and though we couldn't always see it I am glad we followed His promptings.  We have been truly blessed.

PACKING!

So, our wonderful lives are moving on again, and this one's a little tricky.  We were supposed to start our lease on our new place next Monday, exactly the day our old lease ended.  Clean.  Simple.  Easy.

Unfortunately, before we signed our contract yesterday, it was pushed back a week, so we were left homeless for a week between houses.  Getting a place for us isn't a big deal, but a week of storage for all our stuff?  Yuck.

Luckily, some wonderful friends in our ward are out of town and we are going to use their garage and basement until we can get into our new place.  It's wonderful to be a part of a church family where you can both give and receive when needed.  I've always found it much harder to receive, but I'm working on it.  Thanks for letting me inherit that, Dad.  So, we're using Thursday and Friday to pack up and get ourselves ready for move out on Saturday.  It's annoying, but it's how things are, and we're glad to finally have definite plans.  We've switched over all our utilities except water because our new water district requires that we go in to start new service (how archaic!  They also don't have online bill pay . . .) and we managed to forward all our mail from here to there and have the post office hold it a week before we move in.  We'll see how that works, or rather if that works.  

We're trying to move as much as possible to the garage so that moving is simple on Saturday.  We couldn't get a truck until late afternoon, so we're hoping to keep everything under an hour or so.  I think we'll be able to do it.  And then we'll do it again next week!  If/when we move out of this ward, the faithful saints will have moved our stuff in or out EIGHT times.  Best that we volunteer ourselves when opportunities arise, no?  Here are some photos of the emerging emptiness of our lovely duplex.  NO MORE DUPLEX!  Have I already mentioned that?

Summertime

And the livin' is easy . . .

I must, of course, thank George Gershwin for that simplistic, unrealistic, yet terribly desired phrase.  No job offers yet.  Likely if it doesn't come today, then there's a tiny hope for tomorrow, but then hope is mostly gone after that.  They said it would be this week.  Still, we did what was right, and we felt good about it, so we have faith.  That said, I think most of our boring time is over for this summer as things are revving back up for our move.  We are 12 days from our contract ending, and though we have no job, no house, and no clue, we're pushing forward with faith and hope.  Bonus, we're trying to show charity to one another during a rather stressful time; trifecta!  Our current thought is to stay here in Columbia, even in our same ward if we can.  Unfortunately, we really need a rather large home and there aren't any to be found with our possibly unrealistic expectations.  We don't ask for much, really, just 4 bedrooms (or 3 with a den or SUPER large family room), living room, dining room, family room, Kitchen, yard, and a bathroom.  The things we'd like?  A finished basement, which can double as a family room, fencing around our yard, a place for a little storage (those little boy clothes have to go somewhere!) and, if at all possible, more than one bathroom.  Square footage required?  2100-2500.  We've tried to whittle down the list the best we can, but this is already rather bare bones.  Here are the considerations:

• We home school.  That requires space not only for the schooling, but also room for children to be there most of every day.  This space must be both inside and out.  Large family room, large fenced yard.
• Liz works from home.  Not like doing PTA work, but real, intense, 30 hours every week work.  She needs an office space where she can have peace away from television and bedroom.
• James also requires home office space, but this can be shared with Liz.  In fact, we're willing to make an all out Liz/James/Boys office where all the work gets done.
• We want to have people over for fun.  I wouldn't call us entertainers, but we've made so many friends here, and rarely do we get together at our house because it's just too small for more than one family at a time.  Living Room necessary.  Yard helps too.

See?  We don't ask for much, but these are hard to come by.  There are some really nice new construction homes available, but they're only 1300-1500 sq. ft. on a slab.  That's smaller than our house now, and without the extra basement storage!  We have a couple leads, one split-level quite near the church with which Liz is in love, and another in Ashland, a small town about 15 minutes south.  That one's on 3 acres, but it might be 900 sq. ft.   Who knows?  We'll have to call and see, I suppose.  So, that is our task for this week—get closer to having a house in two weeks.  Keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you posted.