It feels like months, not weeks. It hasn't been bad. Just busy. And disjointed. And out of routine. Thankfully we have soothing pine trees, hummingbirds, deer, grass, and quiet all around us.
Two Sundays ago, we visited Woodland Park Community Church. It is unique in that it doesn't have and has never had a denominational affiliation. Some of the pastors seem to have been to Baptist seminaries. One of the elders referred to the foyer as the "narthex", which smacks of Anglican tradition. Maddy loved the Bible class there. She begged to go back so that is where we visited today. They have a newcomer's class next Sunday evening so we may go to that. It seems like a good church. I think Aaron would like to visit a few more churches. I just feel kind of worn out about it. If it is a church that has classes the kids like and believes in death, burial, and Resurrection gospel, then it seems fine to me. It is hard not to have the kids settled in a church or school or anything where they feel grounded in a new place.
We had a surprise birthday party for Amber. The kids loved planning it. We had yogurt pie. It was a lot of fun. It was pretty simple because we'd been looking at houses that day (which I'll get to in a minute) so we didn't even get home until 6:30 that night. The girls made a birthday banner and had some gifts for her.
It has finally started raining. Fire danger has been high to extremely high so I hope that these showers will move that down a bit. We've had a couple of small fires in the firepit as that is allowed under the Stage 1 fire ban.
So, house hunting. We have been back and forth on what we want to do about housing. We can't stay in the camper once it starts getting cold. It is old, poorly insulated, and I'm not even sure we could winterize it even if we tried. We originally thought of buying a place, fixing it up, living in it, and then renting it after we moved out, but we never could find anything for the right price. Then we thought we'd rent, but rentals average 1400 a month in WP and everyone wants a 12 month lease, so we'd have to eat part of the lease when we moved to our new place. So we went back to the buying a house, fixing it up, living in it, renting it out idea. After many hours of showings and scouring the internet, we found a HUD house in Divide. We had to bid on it in an auction. We found out Thursday that our bid was accepted. We have 10 days to get an inspection and say yes or no but we have signed the initial contract. HUD houses come as is so if there are repairs, we have to foot the cost. This is why the houses are initially priced so low. We will have to paint and get new flooring. The house currently reeks of cat pee. That is not a big deal, but if the inspection reveals any major problems with the septic or plumbing or any major structural issues, we will probably have to back out and move on. It is a double wide and was manufactured in 2000. It has a beautiful view off the front deck. We could also put in a garage at some point to boost equity. It is about 15 minutes from school for the girls. So not bad considering everything. We don't know when we are closing but we pulled some lines of credit to do as cash offer so hopefully that will speed closing since we don't have to underwrite a mortgage. Our goal would be to be in by Sept 15 but we shall see.
Meanwhile, we flew back to Dallas for a Scottish Rite appointment. We got there on Saturday, did errands all afternoon and stayed with Tam and Jeff that night. Sunday we went to our old church and officially said good bye to everyone. That afternoon we picked up Bethany and went to Medieval Times. The tickets were Maddy's birthday present from back in March. We found out that 2 and under could go free so we had an extra ticket to take Bethany. We got the tickets at a fundraiser auction for way under normal price so it worked out great for all of us. The girls had the best time. They suckered us into princess tiaras. They looked so cute. How could we say no? Maddy got picked as the Queen of Love and Beauty by the yellow night. We happened to be sitting in the winning knights section. The funny story is that he originally picked Bethany to be the Queen, but Bethany said she wasn't going to do it. So then he asked Maddy and Maddy said yes. I love that because sometimes the person who gets the opportunity to do something special is the person who says yes, not necessarily the person who everyone thought was qualified or best for the position. I think that is such an important lesson for Maddy to know and remember for the rest of her life. Anyhow, all the girls were super happy about how it turned out. Bethany was happy to get to take turns wearing Maddy's tiara and carrying her flowers. The photo bomber girl in the background of the pic below cracks me up!
We spent Sunday night with the Halls and went to Maddy's appointment Monday morning. She is doing great but while there we mentioned that her right heel had gotten a lot tighter from a growth spurt. After checking, the doctor agreed and suggested a surgery to lengthen that tendon. So we ended up scheduling for Sept. 13th. It was somewhat unexpected and throws a loop in travel, school and getting settled in. However, Maddy knows surgery is in the works so I can't really think about putting it off until later, though we could. It is better to get it over and have surgery behind us and improvement ahead.
After the appointment, we went to DBU. The Halls met us for lunch. We ate at Chick Fila on campus and then played around campus even though it was melting outside. Maddy had a super lose front tooth. Aunt Cindy offered her 50 cents if she'd pull it out herself. She was a little afraid to do it but she finally did it! Uncle Jeff had told her that the tooth fairy pays double if you pull your own tooth, and she sure enough did. So it was very lucrative for Maddy.
By Monday afternoon, we were exhausted. I forgot to mention that Aaron's car that we left in Dallas basically has no AC so that didn't help. I think we were all glad to get on the plane and get home on Tuesday. As soon as we got home we rushed up to Divide to look at houses and that's when we decided to put the bid on the house that we're currently under contract for.
In the midst of all this, we're still building a house. The driveway permit finally got approved so they were able to start laying the forms for the foundation this weekend. We have lots of decisions to make about the exterior of the home. We have to pick windows, stucco, stone, and doors. The windows need to be ordered this coming week so we have to make some color choices. We've decided the windows will be a color called cinnamon. We may do patio doors from the window company or we may get them from another company. If from the window company, those doors would match the windows. We have a couple stucco colors and three different types of cultured stone in the running. The builders can get us bigger samples of these and then we can decide on that. We also have to pick a roof color. We've got that narrowed to two choices. Anyway, it is a lot to think about.
We've been trying to get a picnic table. I ordered this off Amazon. It said "six person picnic table". If you are a child, Asian or like to sit really really close together, this is a six person table. If you are an average sized anglo person, this is a four person table. We had to assemble it and it was a nightmare. The pre-drilled holes for the bolts were totally off. It was like a drunk person did them. Maybe child labor. I don't know. Just go local for the picnic table. That's all I have to say.
Here is a picture of the forms for the foundation. We now have to have an inspector come out and then they can pour cement. They are hoping that can start Tuesday.
Stay tuned for further updates!
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Brittany