From the Outside Looking In

Our house is over 50 years old....well, that was when we bought it. It's almost 60 years old now.

It's a sweet little house that I fell in love with right away. We knew we couldn't afford to live outside of town in the country like we truly wanted when we were ready to buy our house. No, but we figured this 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house would be a great "starter" home. Of course we'd only be here 3 to 5 years, then we'd be ready and able to afford something bigger and better.

Ha ha. If you haven't already noticed, 3 to 5 years turned into 8 going on 10 and more. We've currently been here over 8 years, and we're prepared to stay here a while longer.

Do we still love this house? No, not always. (Matt might say never.) It has it's issues like any home, especially an older one, does. And after being here 8 years, it's ready for some major maintenance. But, honestly, it's our first home. I do have some strong attachments to it, and I know it will be sad to leave it.

Part of that is that I grew up in one house. Never moved. My parents bought their house in a teeny tiny town that I called home a few months before they got married. They had me two years later and then my sisters a few years after that. I lived there until I got married. My parents bought a bigger house in the country when I was pregnant for Zachariah. So, that first house was home for a long time.

After owning a house for a few years, you need to start doing some work to it. It never fails. This is especially so with an older home. Ours had new carpet and fresh paint throughout the house. The outside had been painted and things looked great.

That only lasts so long. I've slowly painted some of the rooms over the year. Only two of the bedrooms and hallway are still plain original beige. The bathroom has been completely gutted and remodeled...by us. We've done little maintenance things and fixed things that need done too.

We're at the point where some major things need to be done. The siding is old, the windows are old, and the roof is quickly wearing out. The list could go on and on....and on and on. We've been using extra money and tax returns to complete some projects little by little.

We've prioritized indoor and outdoor projects, things that need done and things that would be nice to have done. It was nice to get some things worked on over the summer and here and there when we could do it.

We are planning to replace our front door and one back door. We purchased the front door, but we don't have a screen door yet that we'll need. We will probably hold off until spring for all this.

There are two windows in the garage that were falling apart, so that was the last priority project this year (before the bad weather sets in). So today being a nice day, my dad came down to help Matt replace these two windows. My dad remodeled their whole house (the one I grew up in) slowly over the years. He's quite handy at almost anything household related. And we're so grateful for his help with these projects. (And I definitely won't complain at the money we save by doing it ourselves.)

So out came the old (rotting away) windows and in went the new ones. I can't tell you how good it feels. And I'm so proud of my husband for being willing to work hard to make our house nicer. Sure, we'd love to get everything done all at once and live in a better house. But this is what we have for now, and I'm so happy that he can help.

On with the old house we'll work. And some day we'll sell this old thing, and start all over at another place (hopefully when and where we want it).

**I do have before pictures, but it was too dark for after pictures. I'll insert them later.

Fun Fact Friday

Well, fun or not, here are some random facts for today:

1. I'm so happy that they are almost done working on our road. At least they've moved on from in front of our house. I think it will be a while before they get the road reopened, but we can get out easier now.

2. I will be sad when our road is reopened. It's been closed since the beginning of June, and it's so peaceful and quiet around here all the time (when the construction crews aren't working). We're loving that. I think we'll be ready to move to the country right away after traffic comes back through here.

3. Zachariah spent an hour or more in the office today playing Barney games from a new DVD. I let him use the old computer in there. He really did great and had a blast. I went in after he'd been in there for a long time. I asked if he needed a break yet. He said "no". I asked if he wanted a drink. He looked at me and said "Can I have it in here?" Ha ha ha! I told him he had to come out to get his water. So he ran out here, got a drink of water, and took one bite of banana, then ran right back in. He stayed in there for a while longer.

The games were great. From Barney they were right on his level. And there were 8 of them, so when he got bored with one, he'd easily go back to the menu and start a new one himself. (This DVD will be part of a set of Holiday ones, and I'll be giving one away soon on my giveaway blog.)

4. Matt got some of his old toy tractors out of the attic this evening. It's already provided plenty of entertainment for Matt Zachariah. I'm sure those tractors will get much more use.

5. I totally had a great #5, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was now. Oh well, this will work for now. Have a great weekend!

College Alumni

So tonight I drug my family to my college alumni event.

My alma mater just got a new president. He is making a tour of other towns to meet and greet alumni. I was surprised to get an invitation in my town. But it was a good chance to actually attend something.

I'm a bad alumni. I've never been to Homecoming or any other events. I don't donate money, and my class hasn't had any activities since graduation.

When I got the invitation for this mixer, I thought it might be fun to meet a few faces in my community that attended my college. There weren't a ton of people that, maybe 12-15, but it was nice meeting new people.

And the new president is very nice and friendly. He has done some great things for the college already. And he's hard at work on many more things. It was also nice to hear about all the new things happening at the college.

Of course who can complain about free food, a fun evening, and great door prizes? I'm glad that I went.

Wordless Wednesday - Bowling

About a week ago, we took Zachariah bowling for the first time. They didn't have bumpers, so we had to use the ramp (which meant it was up to us to aim it). It didn't matter, if the ball knocked any pins down he was thrilled! It was so much fun! We'll definitely take him again.

Do you know people like this?

Do you know people in your life who seem to have one problem after another? When they finally seem to be catching a break, something else happens. And again and again it goes.

Honestly there are two friends in my life who have terrible luck with this. They both seem to have issues stemming from health related problems. But the health problems aren't even related.

It just doesn't seem right.

I spent 4 hours today driving a friend back and forth to a specialist (and waiting during her appointments), because she couldn't take herself. She is single and has no family nearby. She fell and hurt her arm/wrist and found out today that it's much worse than originally thought.

She was scheduled to have surgery on Thursday already (completely unrelated female issue). Then Sunday she fell. Monday she went to the doctor to have her arm checked. He referred her to another. They decided she needs surgery on this.

I can't tell you how bad I feel for her. She will have to be off work for 8 weeks or so. She can't drive during that time either.

I will help her as much as I can. I know that she has plenty of other people/friends in her life that will support and help her too.

But still...why do these things happen over and over to the same people. Like she hasn't been through enough lately (so much more going on too that I won't get into).

Early

I just love **dripping sarcasm here** being woke up early in the morning by my son.

At about 5:00AM today Zachariah woke me up from a peaceful slumber. Poor guy had a bloody nose. It took about 5 minutes to get it to stop, then I had to clean up all the spots he'd dripped on across the carpet in his room through the hallway. That took me at least 15 minutes. By the time Zachariah used the potty and got back to bed, it was time for Matt to get up. He doesn't usually get up that early, but he was headed out of town for the day.

Fortunately he did go back to bed for a while. But he laid down for a late nap, which was a battle. And of course he slept until suppertime. I don't bother really preparing much of a meal when Matt isn't here, so we had leftovers. Then it was almost bath time and back to bed.

Because of this wacky schedule today, Zachariah had a hard time falling asleep this evening too. And the poor guy had another nosebleed. (That is so difficult to deal with such a young guy too.)

Tomorrow we're going to be a little more strict. He will be taking a nap earlier, and I am moving up bedtime until further notice. With daylight saving time it's dark much earlier, so putting him to bed earlier is not too much of a problem.

All this goes to show how important a good schedule is for children (and moms too)!

When Did Summer End?

It seems like yesterday was the end of summer. How can it possibly be November 1st already? September and October flew by in a flurry of activities.

I know that the holidays are upon us know. Once we hit Thanksgiving our schedules will get a little crazy. But that's part of what I like about the holidays. I love the different events and things to get involved in. And I love seeing family at the gatherings.

In about two weeks time all our leaves changed and now have already fallen to the ground. And so far, other than a pile of leaves for Zachariah (and another bigger pile for him), we haven't raked or blown any leaves. We will have to get that done soon, or the snow will make that impossible. (No snow in the forecast, but it always seems to come when the leaves fall even if early.)

I've already started thinking about holiday baking. In face I've been stock piling chocolate chips (and butterscotch chips, PB chips, etc) when I see them on sale. May as well buy them cheaper, because I got through them quickly with holiday baking. Many of the things I make for Christmas can be easily frozen, so to start making cookies in November isn't completely crazy. It does help save a little of my sanity later.

But I do love this time of year. I can't help by enjoy the anticipation of so many things. So relax and take a minute to enjoy the peacefulness now before the holiday craziness and business descends upon us.