Smells like spring

We have been practicing with our sprinkler system.  Turning on every zone.  Checking for broken sprinkler heads and even coverage.  The smell of wet dirt has made my heart so happy.  We weren't here last year for the all the fruit tree blossoms and the sight of them has me so excited at the prospect of trees hanging heavy with fruit.  I am reminded why we bought this old place.  The potential is amazing.

One of the local hardware stores where we have an account has recently made the mistake of selling baby chicks, feed, and other exciting products.  As I was inputing bills this week for our plumbing company, I noticed invoices with material named "Pearl White Chics" and "Chicken Stratch" feed.  Not exactly what plumbers need to fix clogged lines and such.  That Jace.  And he says I am the sneaky online shopper.

Good thing its Easter.  I stopped in town yesterday and bought a new skirt for the occasion.  Now we are even.  He said his Easter present will bring us eggs and happiness for years to come.  I told him my new skirt will bring me and my closet happiness as well.  Who cares if you can't eat it, right?

The baby chics were ready to move out doors today on this Easter sabbath.  The air is warming up and small, soft feathers now line their small bony bodies.  Jace rounded up a couple chicken wranglers to do the job.

Happy Easter!  I'm so grateful for this time of year and the opportunity we have to start anew.  I hope there is a dust storm of commotion at Mi Casa in the coming weeks.  We need a new roof and a new septic tank by June.  New windows would be lovely as well as new exterior paint, planted grass, and shiny, white baseboards.  Not too tall of an order is it?

Valentine's Day is for lovers; Part 2

Jace came home late one afternoon last week.  He found me sitting in the window sill of the above pictured dining room.  I was in my grubby clothes and was even wearing an apron.  The paint was still wet in my hair and on the walls.  Jace was chomping at the bit to share with me his great find of the day.  Llamas!

Llamas??

"What do they do?"

"They spit."

"Oh.  Do they bite?"

"No!  They spit."

"Can you ride them?"

"Well, maybe.  Well, no but that thing reared its head back today and then spit! Like this...."

Insert Jace spitting like a llama.

"Oh."

He pauses for just a moment here.  Looks around.  Sniffs the air.

"Have you been painting?  Did you repaint this room?  The room we just painted with chalkboard paint?  You tick me off.  We just spent $ on paint and now we are doing it again?"

I stop.  Look him square in the eyes and say,

"I have one word for you.

Llamas."

And that is how it works around here.  Jace loves the new paint.  I can't wait to see those llamas spit. It makes no sense at all but that is how Jace and I love each other dearly.  Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day is for Lovers

A mysterious car sat in front of my house this morning.  I saw balloons flying out the back seat window. I smiled to myself.  That Jace.  He is the best.  I hurriedly put on my pretty face.  I did not want the maker and deliverer of my Valentine's surprise to think I was not a deserving wife.  I was still putting on my deordarent as I ran down the stairs to open the door.  Except, there was no one at the door, so I waited.  I checked my other doors - maybe she was confused as to which one was the front door.  No one.  No flowers.  No balloons.  But there sat the mysterious car.  Perhaps they would like me to come fetch my own gift?  The weather is treacherous today.  So I bound out the front door, make my way to the mysterious car, stand at the window and smile.  The confused driver looks my way, looks to the back seat, then rolls down the window.     

"I saw the balloons.  Just making sure she didn't get lost on her way to the front door?"  A head pops up from the back seat.  "No, I'm not lost, just trying to untangle the balloons."  She then gives a nod to what must have been her husband driver and says, "Give her her flowers in the back."  I sheepishly take my flowers and head back into the house.  10 minutes later - a knock at the door.  Finally!  I answer and put on my best surprised face - "Balloons!  More Flowers!"  He hands them over and leaves in his mysterious car.  The balloons that had caused us so much grief this morning turned out to be for my baby Mikael.  That Jace.  He is too much.  I love that guy.  God bless all the flower deliverers on this wretched windy day.  And in case you are wondering, the correct protocol is to wait inside your house for the knock at the door.  Don't hassle the flower people.  They will get to you.  In due time.

Slump Flump

Jace told me today, "We are in a slump.  Just a little slump."  We have had a bit of bad luck lately.  Someone has it out for me.  I just can't get a break.  I say it every time but this move has definitely taken the cake.  Remember Thanksgiving at our new house?  The Thanksgiving without a kitchen stove?  Well, in this season of being thankful I have to record the blessings and highlights of the day.  Jace hung swings in our trees.

It was adorable.

And the weather was completely cooperative.

It was mandatory everyone take a ride on the big swing.

I'm pretty sure that is Jace in the back ground checking to see if the swing had exceeded it's weight limit.

The kids and I had the stomach flu the day before and even I knew that all of us having it on the same day and not on Thanksgiving day was a blessing.  And Jace is a blessing for making everyday fun and making me laugh when I want to cry.

We don't pay for T.V.  Haven't for years.  It is a blessing.  Except when no one around you gives you the weather forecast.  We were a little thrown off this week when all this snow showed up.  We were out of electricity for 17 hours.  I cooked lunch on our wood stove, while Jace bounced around town in his backhoe clearing the driveways of some of Snowflake's finest citizens.  I told you he is a blessing.  He's going to heaven and I will still be whining somewhere else about my poor life.

And the slump continues:

Found 2 roof leaks in the snow storm.

Dishwasher broke today.  

(My kids thought doing dishes in the sink was the funnest thing tonight, so maybe blessing?  For a day or two?)

Still no kitchen stove.  I'm officially calling this "camping in the new house."

Mikael and Jace took a turn with the stomach bug this week.

When the power goes on and off in the middle of the night, the ipod downstairs blasts music at full volume.  Can you say pee the bed?  Very freaky.

School was cancelled Friday.  The school called and texted our cell phones 12 times starting at 5 am.  Someone owes me another snow day....the kind where you are free to sleep in.

I'm contemplating posting some house progress pictures.  Maybe some before and afters.  Right after I unpack and right after I decorate.

Right after this slump ends.

Countdown: Day 10

The sun is going down and the season is changing.

Moving is like childbirth.  Sometimes the anticipation of it is worse than the actual event. (If you believe in epidurals.)  I have been walking in circles.  Lying awake at night unable to convince my brain that we will be able to survive this.  Again.  There really is no way to prepare for it except to tell yourself -  "The ball is already rolling and there is no way to stop it now.  No turning back. Now breathe.  Breathe."

Childbirth?  Really Lindsay?  Really.  It's a bit dramatic but maybe this time of year when the season is changing I am reminded where I was last year.

Sept. 21, 2010.  Anxiously awaiting Mikael's arrival in a hospital bed.

Giving birth.  And I'm telling you - it feels the same.  Except my hips don't ache when I waddle.

Jace and I met up at the Casa this afternoon.  I followed him around the place with a broom and trash can as he caulked, installed shower trim fixtures, scraped windows, adjusted the new furnace, and set toilets.

On the car ride home I said, "There is no way we are going to make it.  We still have so much to do."

Jace replied, "Funny cuz I was just going to say we got so much done today.  We are so close."

Funny how a husband and wife who are seeing the same thing can have such different perspectives.  

Bit like childbirth, no?

Now a word or two about my last post.

I love Jace.  He works his tail end off for us. 

He bought 2500 pounds of rough lumber from a local sawmill for $19.74.

He was thrilled beyond words.  He told everyone he saw about his purchase.

How could he not build his chicken coop? Right now?

When it was all said and done his coop costs us $9.87.  Or something like that.

I'm thrilled for him.  Well, now that I have had time to think about it - I'm thrilled for him.

And he wins the most handsome soccer coach ever award.

And as for my priorities?

Word on the street is I have been decorating our downtown house for Thanksgiving.

So that I can take it down in 10 days.  Put it in a box.  And hang it back up at the new Casa.

Eh.

We're still at it

There has been some argument between the spouses. The caulking job should be for the tallest man on the job site.  Am I right or am I right?  It is like my favorite pastime to watch that tall guy work.  I seriously just sat on 3 bags of concrete and watched all day yesterday.  And did you notice?  The beams are white.  Jace said it was the cheapest way best way.

So, I choose to put the original, vintage hardware back on the kitchen cabinets.  The main reason being the 4 holes the hardware left in the cabinets was going to be hard to match or fill.  Let's take a vote.  Nevermind let's don't.  The hardware is staying.

The black covered coffin on the ground is actually my new concrete counter tops.  Will you say your prayers for the next 10 days that our $180 in material will set up and turn out to be a really great, cheap counter tops? The cat is a new addition.  He doesn't mind when Mikael mauls him.  Who needs a dog anyway?  BTW, has anyone seen Mille?  She ran away.  I'm trying not to take it personal.  And the roller skates are the best $3 I spent at a thrift store lately.  

This blue paint is still keeping me up at night.  I have a vision.  Or I had a vision.  Sometimes the vision is a little blurry.

Gray bricks.  White trim.  We are getting there.

Jace says move in day is sometime in the next month.

I say baloney.

The view from my back window tonight

While making dinner tonight, this back window sight had my heart singing.

It's a fact.  You can't pick your neighbors.  Jace and I have hit the lottery on neighbors many times.  And other times.....well? Hmmm.  I guess the odds are you will find at least one slob of a neighbor when you move every year like we tend to do.  This current house we reside has a back yard approx. 8 ft. deep.  I repeat - 8 ft.  This has posed a few problems.  One being, we get an up close look of our neighbors back yard.

Jace took it upon himself to do some "community service" tonight in that back yard.  Our neighbors were perfectly OK with Jace going thru their trash and driving his equipment around their yard - so long as they did not have to help him or pay him.  I can't wait for tomorrow morning, when I can look up over my bowl of cereal and see a clean yard.  Someone should tell these neighbors of mine they just might have hit the jackpot with Jace as their neighbor.  It is what I tell myself every night - "Jace is my jackpot."

Mikael's back door view - Millie the dog.

The dog catcher laid the smack down.  Millie the dog now calls the back porch home.  Mikael still hasn't figured out what keeps looking back at her.  I am enjoying this new view of the dog on my back step...it means she is not squeezing herself inside the front door every time it cracks opens.

Noah's beloved Converse shoes.

It's a fact.  You do not get to pick what kind of feet hang at the bottom of your legs.  Noah inherited his Mother's feet.  Blocks.  We have been on a shoe buying rampage since December when the beloved Converse shoes started falling apart.  Noah will take a lap in the new pair of shoes, then declare, "They don't feel so good."  After 57 pairs not feeling so good it was decided that this was a battle I was not going to win. And I did what I should have done months ago - I ordered the exact pair of shoes for the kid.  Size 2, brown, 3 strap, Converse shoes.  He acted thrilled.

As I kissed him good bye this morning on his way out the door to school I glanced down at his feet.  For the love - it was the old ratty tatty shoes hanging there.

When he wasn't looking tonight, those beloved Converse shoes made their long anticipated way to the trash can.  I almost think I heard them sigh.