Catch up #2 - house hopes

Another "major event" of March was someone coming to look at our house. The holidays made everything slow down so December through February were months of silence and we had almost given up hope that we would sell it. Then one Monday morning our realtor called and asked if I had gotten her email. I said, "no" and she said, "Well, someone wants to look at the house today, sometime between 10:00am  and 4:00pm. I started cleaning like a maniac and called my husband to come fix the floor in our bedroom.

The night before he had watered our fig tree (which we kept inside during the winter) and it had overflowed onto the floor. When we did our laminate wood floors, there were certain places where we cut the planks a wee bit short and it didn't line up all the way to the baseboard (which we have since filled in with wood filler). The water had actually gotten underneath the flooring so he had to take a chunk of the floor apart to let it dry. Luckily he was not doing a delivery route and was able to come right over and get it fixed in no time.

Here is our house from the outside:

 Here is the outside of our house from the back. I took this during sunset, so it makes the paint look like a different shade of green.

 

Here is our lovely "barn". See the numbers on it? We didn't number the rooms. Whoever lived here before us did that. We use #4 for storing firewood. #2 we currently park our truck in and store other stuff in. #1 is currently empty. That's Julian's car poking out but he doesn't live with us anymore. 

Here is the other side of the barn. #6 is the kids playhouse. #3 is the entrance to where we keep firewood (which on the other side is numbered as #4). To the right of the ladder is the entrance to our chicken coop where we currently only have one surviving rooster.

We have 13 fruit trees that were planted 3 years ago. So, technically they should bear fruit this year but they are still on the small side. We have apple, pear, apricot, peach, nectarine and plum.

If you have kids, I highly recommend a sand box. The kids have all kinds of fun exercising their imaginations all in this little box. What's even cooler is that underneath that box there is a big tank that collects grey water from the bathtub. The water then gets pumped underground to water our trees. 

And...here is our garage. Since taking this picture we have fixed that little window there and we plan on putting on real garage doors. It's all closed off so that's why we are parking in the barn. 

So, let's imagine that you walked in the front door (which most people don't - we usually come in through the laundry room). But, here on the left is the living room. Right ahead is the dining room and to the right of that is the kitchen.

We want to put some rock work behind the wood stove to give it that "finished" look, but our realtor said some people may want to take the wood stove out. So, we figure, what's the point in spending the money on something that may be a turn-off to someone who wants to buy the house.

Down the hall, the first room is David's office.

Next on the right is the kids room.

At the end of the hall is the bathroom. This house does not have a traditional "master bathroom" that is connected to the master bedroom. A turn-off for some people, but it's not a big deal to us.

The only room on the left is the master bedroom. We love the bay windows, but one thing we need to get is some blinds. On some nights the moon is super bright and in the day, the sun shines in so well that our bedspread and pillows are getting faded.

There is no "walk in closet" but there is a "his" and "hers" closet that are big enough for us.

If you walk back down the hall, past the living room and dining room is our guest room.

This is actually the largest room, with the largest closet in the whole house. It used to be the garage and it was turned into a room.

This is our guest bathroom. I had to take this off the realtor's site cause I didn't want to take another one and upload it.

 Lastly, our laundry room.

There you have it. Our house. If you know anyone who wants to move out into the desert, let them know there is a lovely house they can look at.

So, when the lady came to look at our house we had barely finished a lunch of pasta with home-made sauce and garlic bread. BAD choice of food for the day. She was VERY sensitive to the smell of garlic and went through the house really fast.

She liked it well enough though that she said she would be back with her husband later that week. But, the day he was supposed to come, their realtor had a family emergency and they cancelled.

That was a bit discouraging but it's in the Lord's hands. If he wants us to sell our house, He'll make it happen.

catch up #1 - Getting firewood

This is old news, but I've got pictures to commemorate, so I might as well use them :)

Back on February 17th we got one chord of firewood. Then on March 3rd, we spent another Sunday getting more. The second time, we brought Julian along. His help made my load lighter and he gained valuable experience using a chainsaw to add to his skill set of manliness.

I'll be honest, there's something really attractive about a man who can climb a tree and use a chainsaw safely. It just screams "manly." Okay, I think the other attractive part is that he is willing to spend his only day of the week to relax to go in the forest with his family to get dirty, sweat, do something that will save a bunch of money on an electric bill and be an example to his children of how hard work can be fun and rewarding.

 

Yes, this is what a "forest" looks like when you live in the desert. Several years ago the Forest Management people said you could only cut "dead and down" but after a huge fire swept through this area, they changed it to include "dead and standing."

The kids helped some, but they spent the larger bulk of time having fun in the dirt. Orion brought the tractor Grandpa gave him and had fun moving dirt piles.


We left around 8:00 am, got to the forest about 9:00 and stopped for lunch at about noon. David, Julian and I ate BBQ gluten burgers (similar to a sloppy Joe) with potato salad and the kids had PB&J's with oranges.  I guess they didn't wipe their faces very well after lunch because at the end of the day, it looked like they had eaten dirt sandwiches. We worked till around 4:00 and got home at 5:00, in time to unload, take a shower and eat supper by 6:30. Nothing feels so good as a good shower after all that work...oh wait, a good massage feels pretty good too.

Thanks again Julian for your help.

California Trip

Seems like I have a once-a-month post thing going on. I would like to post more but I'm slightly frustrated that my blog is all messed up because I decided to organize my folders on Photobucket. I totally didn't think about the fact that if I moved my pictures around on there, my blog would be affected. So, I have tried to ignore the fact that at some point I'm going to have to tackle that. (If you go to some of my archives, you'll see that the pictures are missing.)

But, I can still try to stay up to date without getting overwhelmed with the back-work that needs to be done. So, here's the latest.

Most of the first half of January was spent planning for our trip to California, and then the second half spent being in California. We left on Thursday afternoon and made it to Riverside to stay at Teddy and Susan's house. Friday morning we headed to Fresno where we met up with the Kricks. We played for a bit at the park and then headed to Ricky's where David gave worship to the Big Bookers.

 I don't know why my kids went into shy mode once we got there. They were all chatty in the car, eager to see Savannah and Heidi and then once they saw them they shut down - at least for my picture request. (Notice Omega and Orion have blank stares - they definitely take after their Dad on that. He hates posing for a picture.)

Heidi, the younger Krick daughter said the cutest thing when we got to Ricky's. She came up to me and said, "Mrs. Hope, Ricky has white tile in his home so I don't think it would be suitable to bring the trucks and cars inside since they may have mud on the tires. I have something I can share with your kids during worship so they don't bring those into the house." Now that is why I like my kids hanging out with these kids. Taking the initiative to be considerate of someone else's home? Yeah. Pretty impressive, I thought.

I wish our visit with the Kricks were longer, but alas, so many people to see and so little time. We headed up to Oakhurst to visit my Mom and step-Dad. They live near Bass Lake so on Sabbath we got to spend some time wandering around the lake.

David showed off his manliness by throwing the largest rocks in the water he could find so that it would make a bigger splash. The kids were definitely impressed.

The kids loved getting their feet all muddy.

On Sunday, Jim took David gold panning while my Mom stitched up Omega's quilt that came apart in some places. Monday came too soon and we had to leave to San Jose.

We met up with my Dad at the Veggie Grill (incredibly delicious!) and then spent some time playing at the park.

My favorite picture of the whole trip

 

Seeing my Dad is always a fun experience. "Grampa" spoiled the kids as expected, giving Orion that huge tractor and Omega got a doll.

After only a few hours together, we headed to Capitola to eat with our friends Yoane and Teresa. Then spent the night at my best friend from high school's house - Tiffany. She graciously gave us her King sized bed to sleep on while she humbly slept on the couch! She's always been such a giving person!

That spot on her shoulder is from my camera lens

Early the next morning I dropped David off at his Eco Farm conference in Monterey and I headed to Napa to see my new nephew. My sister in law went into labor that morning and I spent the afternoon watching a bunch of kids in the waiting room while she delivered the baby!

 This little bundle's name is Judah Dillon Gravestock. Happy Birthday little guy!

We spent a couple days at my sister Joy's house. What a treat that was. She spoiled not just the kids, but me too! I love that my kids finally got to get to know their cousins. Sure wish we lived closer. They'd be best friends! They got along really well. I can't believe how adorable Noah is and how intelligent Seth is. I wish I could be more involved as their auntie.

After giving my brother and his wife a day or two to rest with their new baby, we swung back down to Napa and spent the night at their house and played at the park yet again!

My brother's house included lots of battery operated fun.  He's got more than a handful of flying helicopters that he showed off, a super fast off-road racing truck, and a kid sized car that they all got a turn driving!

 

Omega takes driving pretty seriously, I guess. She's concentrating super hard here...reminds me of me when I first started driving. My first car was a stick shift and I white knuckled the steering wheel all the way from my house to school for the first week or so. 

So that's my brother Joel there. It was great seeing him. Our time together was much too short but at least we got to spend some time together. Then we drove several hours back to Monterey to pick up a good looking farmer.

And again, after a romantic sunset we hit the road together down to Templeton to see one of the sweetest families I've ever met, the Chalkers. They were my host family 13 years ago when I did a summer ministry job. I loved laying out by their pool, doing my devotions in the late morning summer sunshine. They were always eager to hear my experiences when I came home in the evening from going door to door selling Christian literature. 

We stayed the night and had breakfast with the Chalkers and then headed out to Santa Barbara to see one of our "daughters" from SOULS West.

Ahhh the beach.  I SO miss the beach. As John Denver would say, it "fills up my senses"...the sea weed smell, the feel of sand on my feet, sunshine on my face, sea gulls and crashing waves in my ears. Oh, the delight of the beach.

 There were a ton of boats sailing by and I guess they were throwing Gerber daisies into the water because we collected a bunch on the shore. The kids enjoyed planting a little flower garden!

 Despite my mother's generous hair clippy gifts to Omega, we failed to use them and her hair is all in her face as usual. Sorry mom! We HAVE used them since we got home! I think they got packed somewhere inaccessible that day.

Orion is loving his new tractor.
All the sand + new tractor = boy heaven.

Thanks again Dad!


After a couple of hours hanging out at the beach in Santa Barbara, we headed to Riverside again. We were pleasantly surprised to bump into more of our previous students from SOULS West, Emely and Erica.

After another night at Teddy and Susan's house, we began the last leg of our journey home, stopping in Phoenix to spend the night at Jason and Krista's house. Omega and Orion were delighted to spend the morning playing with Amber and Esther.

This picture below on the left is exactly two years ago from the picture on the right. They have all grown so much! I love that my kids can have such quality friends, even if they don't get to see them all that often.

After leaving their house, David and Orion spent a moment together watching airplanes at the airport. I stayed in the truck with a sleeping Omega and doted from a distance on this father son time.

We got home around 6:00 pm, unpacked and were thankful to be safe and sound, sleeping in our own bed that night. It reminded me of the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns, "As home to the traveler, and all he longs to see, so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me."

What stuck out to me the most out of the whole trip is how the Lord provides. Before leaving, I had stressed out a bit on how we were going to afford this 10 day trip. Last year it cost $830.00 and we didn't exactly have that to spend this year. But after receiving Christmas money, realizing that we could use our Chase credit card points on a rental car, being able to spend the night with so many friends instead of paying for a hotel, leaving our vehicle at a friend's house instead of paying for parking, and being fed by our hospitable friends and family, we only really spent $200 of our own money. Talk about the Lord providing! Plus, not only that, we actually MADE money off the trip in terms of value. Everywhere we went people gave us stuff - and not just stuff - stuff we NEEDED! Omega got hand-me-down clothes from Savannah, Orion got clothes from Seth, Joy bought me some new clothes, my mom gave me some brand new tennis-shoes that she didn't want, Joy gave us the Bible story set, Susan gave us two 5 gallon water jugs, a friend of ours sold us her washer and dryer for supercheap (front loading!) along with some cal king sheets and throw pillows and other miscellaneous stuff because she's moving, the kids got new toys/books/stuffed animals etc.

Of the things that we were going to eventually have to buy that people gave us or sold us instead, I estimate that we saved at LEAST $600.

I'd say the trip was worth it, not just in terms of money saved, but there's nothing quite like spending time face to face with people you love. The phone and facebook are great and all, but to get hugs and see smiles and eat food with those you care about is like a treasure given to the heart.