Hello? Is this thing on?

Did I so completely bore everyone to the point of not even looking anymore? =)

Here's Otis.

Here's Maren.

Look at that tiny little bun!!!

Here's Teagan (and Sarah and Declan).

Teagan dramah.

Declan, at Adventureland.

Finally, some of the pack o'Loops.

Thanks for looking!

Teresa is turning into a foodie????

I mentioned taking a series of classes from a nutritionist a few months ago. I was just gearing up when Declan got sick, my Mom visited, school got out, birthdays came and went and the dog died... In other words, when life happened. The main reason I wanted to take the courses were to learn how to cook using 'real' food. Food that is in it's original form, grown locally and organically if and when possible.

This has set a lot of things in motion at our house. Greg was on board for anything that will hold the impending heart attack at bay. He got the new appliances I posted about, he got me a grain mill, a sweet Kitchen Aid food processor, and he doesn't complain when I shop at Whole Foods. I've also recently acquired at least 10 new cookbooks (yeah, ME!) that are along the lines of eating locally, how to cook without a book, how to incorporate grains and lastly, how to bake bread daily. Phews. I spent the past weekend perusing the books, and compiling a shopping list. Like, a "I'm going to have to wait until the next billing cycle on the Am Ex" type of a list. I need a pizza stone, pizza peel, kitchen scale, oven thermometer, dough container and so forth. There is just so much to learn.

The kids start school in about 4 weeks, D will be in 1st grade, and Teagan in 4 yr old preschool. Crazy. I am still scrapbooking pictures of Declan when he was a newborn. It is amazing how quickly time goes by. It seems as if it were literally yesterday that I was completely panicked that I was going to have a 3rd baby. I mean it is insanity, but it was insanity that at that time, I could not even imagine.

Well, I guess I'd better be getting dinner ready....

The Definition of Life...

My friend Pam forwarded this to me, I thought this was pretty cute!

The first day, God created the dog and said: 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.' The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?' So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.' The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?' And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.' The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?' And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said: 'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?' 'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

More House con't.

This is the detached garage. 3 car, plus office. This is where 'Max' was confined. Didn't get a good look at the backside of it.

Front porch. 2 of the 3 little Loops.

This is the other secondary bedroom. It's larger than the other.

Kids bath. Also the only tub in the house. I actually really like this room. The floor is neat little tile, and the bead board is cute. This could be in a hundred year old house.

This is the master bedroom from the retreat. I would like to split this into 2 rooms, in order to have 4 bedrooms.

I think this may be the only room they completely redid. It's the powder bath downstairs. Cute. Wish the tile floor were not dark green though... Let's hope that little 'orb' in the picture isn't a ghost. Yeah.


Laundry room. Door leads to patio/deck. Door to the right is to the hallway just outside the kitchen.

Umm. Yuck. It needs help. It really needs some love.

Again, thanks for reading this far. I love reading this kind of stuff on other people's blogs. Guess I'm just nosey like that!

Changed name of post to hopefully stop spam!

I thought I'd add a few (dozen) more pictures of the house. This is the entry. Family room is to the left, dining room to the right. Straight down the hall is the (really bad) laundry room that leads out the the back deck. Kitchen is to the right just before the laundry room.

Can you visualize it looking more like this:

Can you picture it looking like this:

This is the other side of the family room. Too bad they didn't build the bookcases all the way to the ceiling.

This is the kitchen. Some of the upper interiors are completely bead boarded, so I'd leave them open. The others will need glass doors. We did find the cabinet fronts out in the garage. Recessed can lighting and trim work is not finished. Cosmetic things really.

This is looking into the kitchen from the nook. Greg likes the wine chiller. I like the 3 month old bottle of Cabernet that is on the counter (gag).

I love white cabinets and wood floors. The granite is pretty in that it isn't really busy, or black.

Looks like it won't let me add any more photos to this post. So, I'll take the hint for now!

This door leads into the kitchen from the wrap around porch.

One of the 3 bedrooms.


Door swings the wrong way (grrr...) into the room. The people who design houses must not ever live in them. Of course, had they put the door on the other way, then it blocks the switches. These are functionality things, people.

It's no "Sierra Real" but it's pretty close!

Okay, 'Sierra Real' is the street name of the house I posted pictures of a few posts back. The beautiful house and the glass of wine... remember? Well, someone nabbed it up while we were distracted with a sick kid and end of the school year and birthday parties and such. In other words... we're moving on from Sierra Real. Beautiful, but it was a little out of our price range, and no room for critters.

So now we're thinking more along the lines of 'Blue Sky Road' and here are some pictures of it.

It is a short sale =(

Greg and I drove out to look at it while my Mom was here and left the the twirps at home. Turns out that was a good thing, as the owners have vacated the property, but left "Max" a 200 lb rottweiler penned up by the garage. He 'appeared' to be friendly. The fence was waist height and I'm pretty sure if he were motivated enough he could have gotten over it.

This house is overgrown. Seriously overgrown. That sidewalk is probably about 4 feet wide. It looks like they were in the process of updating when they moved out. It has a big wrap around porch, and a country kitty that followed us all around.

This is the view from the kitchen window. Yes, that is a chicken coop, *with* a chicken. I think that is my very favorite part of the whole house. I could look out my kitchen window, across my huge cottage garden, into the chicken coop! I just heard some of you gasp! LOL! (amy...)

The cabinet doors and drawer fronts are all off (think glass doors), and they have put bead board up everywhere in the kitchen. It needs trim work, and majorly cleaned.

This is looking back at the house from the chicken coop. The area on the other side of the white picket fence was supposed to the lawn, it's all dried up and dead. The ladder is next to the kitchen windows and the master retreat is the bay window upstairs. The staircase goes up to the master bath. Complete with a urinal. Greg was in love.

This is into the dining room from the entrance of the kitchen. The wallpaper freaked me out at first, but I'm getting used to it. I think they had a red thing going on in here.

This is the family room.

View from the master retreat. When we went back yesterday with our realtor, there was a sweet little deer laying under one of the oak trees. Yes, I realize that deer love cottage gardens. And I realize I won't think Bambi is so sweet after destroying the fruits of our labor. That's why we have a Mossberg. **JUST KIDDING** sort of.

I think living in the country will bring all kinds of critters, and packing heat may be a necessity. Funny thing. I live in the burbs with a huge concentration of people, some of which intend to do harm. But I'm skeered in the country??? Bobcats, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, deer (hey, they can get vicious), mice, and who knows what else could be living out there.

Thanks for reading this far. We don't have any idea how it will turn out with this house, but it sure is fun!