My copper trees

Cynthia and Linda both commented on my copper trees. I love them. Right now, we have one in our living room and one in our bedroom. They're totally unique.


A few years ago, Robert and I were trying to find something to put on a very large and blank wall above our family room couch. We'd bought a few things but ended up returning each one, because it wasn't right. We stumbled across these accidentally and ordered them from the man who made them without ever seeing the product--just photos and the general feeling that he was a pretty honest guy.

The first one came and it was not the size we ordered. But we liked it so much that we kept it and re-ordered our first choice size. It didn't really matter--the trees were not right for that big blank wall. But we'd fallen in love with them and found places for both in our bedroom. I don't think the photo does them justice--they are multicolored and 3-D. And they were the very first things we hung up in the new house.

The space in this house is very different from our old house. It's been both fun and challenging to figure out exactly what will fit here, what pieces will we choose to put on the walls, what we'll get to live with and what will be banished to the basement for now.

After four years, we finally did find something for that one wall, a giant photo, with a giant frame, of the Grand Tetons. It's something else that we loved for its uniqueness (and it filled in that space too, lol). But we don't have a wall here that's right, so unfortunately it's wrapped up and waiting in the basement. Maybe we'll eventually finish the basement, and that picture will also have a new home of its own.

Ten, Nine, Eight . . .

All summer long, I've figured that our school year would begin right after Labor Day, just like it usually does. And this past Monday, I was shocked to discover that it's next week. Wow.

We've done nothing this summer, kept no sort of routine, and I can't imagine how it's going to go (or not) when we start up. I've made a habit though of beginning slowly, starting with a few base subjects gently, adding things in until we are running on full schedule by the end of the month. And then we pack everything in for October, November and December, because I know things will slow down again in January when many hsers hit that post-Christmas slump.

I made the last of my curriculum purchases last night, and I'm getting a clearer vision of what we'll be doing next week. The biggest thing is to keep a *routine.* I'm looking forward to it, and I'll post later about curriculum, including some new choices for this year.

:)

Book Review - Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

I have long adored Maeve Binchy's gift of grabbing me into a story. She has such a talent for weaving different characters' personalities and perspectives into a central theme. Even though her stories are often so similar--small poor Irish town, Catholic priest, alcoholics, philandering husbands, unwed mothers--I never tire of them.

Whitethorn Woods is no different. It takes place in a small, poor Irish town, and there is a Catholic priest, an alcoholic, a philandering husband or two . . . In more recent books, the author has taken to blending together several small stories into a larger one, and this is the case here.

I was not disappointed. It was a great read, took me less than three days. It was occasionally hard to remember some of the characters, but as usual, I was able to figure it out. I definitely recommend this book; if your not familiar with Ms. Binchy's books, it's an author you might want to check out.

Desperately seeking . . .

20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupons. We used to get these regularly in the mail; I've joined the mailing list online and am waiting as patiently as I can (which doesn't say much).

I want to buy stools so we can eat at our kitchen counter, and I would really prefer to pay 20% less. If you have any coupons you are willing to send me, please shoot me an email (see the E-mail me! link by my photo), and I'll give you my snail mail address.

Thanks!

We survived. Barely.

Despite our dreadful trip to North Carolina twelve days prior, and my promise to never go back, Robert was bound and determined to return yesterday. It's surely part of his plan to drive me insane. It was a lovely drive.



There's a lot of tobacco growing along the highway.

Once we hit the Greensboro city limits, we descended further into the lower world. (Translation: We drove on 16 more highways within the city.) Destination: Furnitureland South, one million square feet of shopping space. The kids were convinced the salespeople were robots. I'm quite sure if I went to hell, it would be here. I'd be given some pathetic excuse for a map and made to wander endlessly in search of a bathroom. Or an exit.


Three and a half hours later, quite dazed, we emerged. Robert has repeated several times he will never go back. He almost didn't make it out alive this time, believe me.

On a positive note, using my own brilliantly mapped out locations, we headed for lunch at Chili's.


With $3 margaritas, it was indeed a very happy hour.


Trevor, showing the last visible signs of his trip into the underworld.


We went to Circuit City, Vitamin Shoppe, Lowe's, and Home Depot.

"Aren't we done yet? And stop taking my picture!"

"I wanna go home!"

"Be patient, my darlings, or mommy will take you shopping for more furniture."

And it was GREAT to get home.

If we ever go back in that direction, I think we'll try Winston-Salem instead.

Nice Matters Award

Lisa at The Berry Patch gave me a very sweet mention on her blog, with a Nice Matters Award. She writes:

Kristine . . . is very upbeat & positive, even in the midst of a cross-country move.
She always has great advice. She's someone I would love to sit down with sometime & have a chat. Now that she's on the east coast, the odds of that happening have increased slightly.

Thanks, Lisa!!

Saturday

The most exciting thing we did today was go to the trash dumpsters. (I'm kidding here.) There's no curbside garbage pickup. I'm sure it's because there are no curbs. But other than having to put the garbage in my car, this is a pretty cool system.

There are dumpsters tucked away in six dozen spots around the county. Although it's for county residents, it's not publicized anywhere. We heard it from the postmaster (really).


The best part is that it's free. In Colorado, we paid $45 every three months for trash removal. And the dumpsters here even have a lovely view.


I did do more exciting things today. I spent the afternoon in town by myself. I went to the library. I can reserve books through my computer at home. The killer is that when my books are ready, the librarians will call me on the phone. Poor things. I've seen their hold shelf, and it may just fit all of my books. They will quickly begin to hate me, and this is sure to bring changes to the library: they will either automate holds notifications or begin charging for it.

They had so many Thornton Burgess books that I almost cried tears of joy. I chatted at length with the children's librarian, and she hooked me up with the local Christian hsing group. (YIPPEE!!!!)

I shopped at Walmart and then Kroger, where I talked to an elderly lady for 30 minutes in the salad dressing aisle. She gave me her phone number and invited me to visit her church and to call her anytime. And Kroger carries Laura's Natural Beef, which made me one happy shopper. (On the downside, this Walmart doesn't carry anything similar.)

After three hours, Robert finally called me. He probably thought I was trying to make my way back to Colorado.

I also got in touch with a local author (with her permission, I'll post her blog later). She casually mentioned that the ground is red because of the high iron content in the underground water--and that since we've not had much rain, my well water might smell like sulphur. Mystery solved!

Free water is nice too. We used to pay a LOT for water, more than we paid for heat in the winter. Of course, there's no need to water the grass here. And no more pesky $50 a MONTH wastewater charge (or was it stormwater?).

It was a gorgeous day, just too hot: 92 degrees, 45% humidity, blue skies, all just like Colorado. And we had a lovely sunset too (not that I can actually see it setting!).

One week anniversary!

We've been here one week and one room is completely finished. Yay!! It's been fun to use furniture, decorations, and pictures in different places than they were in the old house. These pics didn't turn out so great, but it's what I have.



I am adjusting to:

• well water, and when we have time, we'll find out why it sometimes has a sulphur smell. It's lessened considerably since we moved in. I've googled it but didn't have a chance to read much about it. It doesn't affect the taste, definitely a good thing.
  

• condensation on my glass of ice water. I don't like to drink and have ice cold drops hit my legs! (Oh, the horrors!)

• life with a septic tank. It's bad enough that I have to actually touch the dirty dishes and not put any food down the sink. But, excuse me, I can't flush WHAT? (Talk about horrors . . . )

• the bugs are NOT bad, but when a big cricket dropped out of my towel today, I didn't even scream. And Robert didn't even find that impressive!

• My husband parking on the grass. What's with that? He says he lives in the country now. I say he's a civilized human and should never park on the grass. (To be fair, it's a part of the yard that was cleared, and later strawed and seeded. But still. We have a driveway with plenty of room.)

Meanwhile my kids have apparently adjusted to living in the middle of nowhere. They walked down to the creek the other day and came back, alarmed at a "growling" that they'd heard. Although we've heard we get occasional bears, I assumed they were having fun scaring themselves. We walked down the next day, and they heard it again. Fortunately, I was there to ward off any danger--it was a car engine on the road that's a mile away. Last night, Holly was startled when she heard a car stop and a door slam--it was neighbors of ours who live well over a hundred yards away, through the trees.

Holly spent much time today updating my Library Thing. I posted about this terrific site last month. Holly put in another 140 books for me today and then put in 75 of her own. I am thrilled to have her old enough to type competently enough that I know it will be done right.

I seem to have lost my brain and have done the dumbest things over the past few days. We'll not talk about how my arm got stuck in the steering wheel. When I was driving. Robert made a comment tonight about me NOT having a Well-Trained Mind, lol.

I need to start pulling school things together. I have a few more things to order, and I have to get everything organized here. It will be a rough start for me, but I'm sure I'll be more enthusiastic as I begin planning. (Thanks, Jodi, for your post about that, it was encouraging to me!)

Weekly menu

I can barely pull together anything, but I need to start somewhere! And it's a killer when I am trying to restock my kitchen from scratch.

Robert's making something with eggplant/mozzarella cheese. Domino's no longer a realistic backup. But cereal is, lol.

quiche, salad, rolls

breakfast burritos

blts, cottage cheese, fruit

jalapeno poppers

cheeseburgers, cabbage ramen salad, corn

fondue?

PW's Beans and Cornbread. Could/would my family eat this?

Daze in pictures

I will say that I'm continuing to enjoy my break from the computer. My Outlook Express has been crippled for a while and finally died before our move. I spent some time yesterday finding my way around Thunderbird, with much thanks to Mozilla.

Cindy asked if Robert liked the house. Well, YES! I knew there would be a few things he wouldn't like, and I was particularly worried about the size of our bedroom. Our old one was really, really big, 14 x 25, and this one is about half that size. But all the bedroom furniture fits, so we are both happy. The main floor is pretty spacious, almost the size of our 3 bedroom house in Littleton (two houses ago), but now we have just a great room, kitchen, master suite and laundry. While the square footage is almost the same as our last house (including unfinished basements), is arranged totally differently. I knew that Robert would like the lot, that was what was important to him. :)

And the kids are doing fine too. Those comments were just that--comments. Any change can be difficult, but I'm surprised how smoothly everything has continued to go.

When we met a neighbor last week, I told him that we'd lived in suburbia, five minutes from three grocery stores, four gas stations, etc. He laughed and said, "The only thing five minutes from here is the beginning of the street!" How true!

We don't have the stunning, always changing view that we had before, but I like this one.

From the end of our driveway, we see this of the street.


From our house, we can see one neighbor; both of our houses are built close to the property line.

So much of the dirt here is red, red clay. It gets messy when it rains (understatement). At first I freaked out a little about it, thinking what it would do to my carpets. But there's not much I can do, and once we get grass and other landscaping around the house, it will be less of a worry.


The animals are settling in. They did well at the last hotel, as we were there for five days, but I can tell they like having their familiar things. Poor Pumpkin had a stress cold (apparently) and is no longer sneezing.


Lucky's happy anywhere with his bed. He got into the garbage today while we were gone, though, and will spend the night crated in the basement just in case.


Vader found a sunny spot in our bathtub. It's a big soaking tub. While it looks great, neither of us take baths, and I'm wondering if I can make it a reading spot (lol).


We drove back up to Roanoke yesterday. There are no towel bars, toilet roll holders, or bathroom mirrors in our house. (And sorry, but I really like having at least one mirror!!) We've found most of what we need, along with blinds for some of the windows. When we got home, Trevor and I made his birthday cake.

He's so sweet and wonderfully easy to please. Robert and I knew life would still be hectic and had planned his birthday out before moving. I'm sooo glad, because we would not have had any time to shop for him here!

He decided that he would go to bed early last night so that this morning would come more quickly. And at 6:30 a.m., he was in our room, ready to open birthday presents. Argh! (We made him wait a few hours and even got to sleep a little longer.)

Exactly WHO bought this child fighting sticks?

He decided he didn't want to go anywhere today and spent several hours playing with some of his new toys. We went into town later, where he spent some of his birthday money.

He'd asked for Dairy Queen for dinner. We're not used to DQs with braziers, so he considered this the ultimate treat. :)


When we got home, he continued to "take calls" from family.


The rest of us waited ever-so-patiently to eat cake.


But after blowing out the candles, Trevor decided he'd skip cake in order to play a little bit more of his new Spiderman video game. At bedtime, Trev declared, "This wasn't a great birthday. It was the GREATEST birthday!!"

Hmm. Maybe next year I'll post the story of how Robert left me at the hospital as I was being induced . . . (snicker)

Kid Quotables

Trevor, distraught about leaving the old house:

"I wish I had a rewind button!"

* * * *

Driving to the new house, I noticed someone who was clearly lost. I commented to Holly, "It stinks to be lost back here," to which she dryly replied:

"With no hope of ever getting out."

(I think she feels the same way.)

Hotelling it and moving in

Last week was a jumble of hotel, swimming, and running around. We had to bring Lucky (the dog) with us everywhere, which was difficult because it was sooo hot.

Trevor swam every chance he got. I took a bunch of shots to get one with him cannonballing.


We checked out the "big" town, including two of the three grocery stores.


After our lender accidentally sent our funds to FLORIDA, we closed on our house a day later than anticipated. But truly, this whole move from start to finish has been really smooth!

Our house from the street.


Trevor checking out the back . . . acres.


We drove down to North Carolina to check out furniture. That was a zoo, and my first clue should have been the directions that seriously said: Go straight on US-220 SOUTH. Drive for 8.3 miles. Go straight to get on US-220 NORTH. Drive for 6 miles.

Then there was the 1 million sf store. And you can't, for example, just look at dressers. They are sorted by manufacturer. It was all quite overwhelming and we didn't stick around. Although I swore I would NEVER go back to Greensboro, Robert has decided he thinks he saw something he liked and wants to go back. This month. I think he's trying to drive me insane.

We ate dinner in the "big town" at an Italian restaurant that is run by Egyptians. Along with your manicotti, pizza, and sub sandwiches, you can order Egyptian bread. I found that quite amusing.

We also spent a day in Roanoke. Roanoke doesn't have many furniture stores--because people tend to go to North Carolina . . .

Friday was my birthday!!!! And moving day!!!!

Unfortunately, it was impossible for the truck driver to get his truck down our curvy, narrow, hilly lane. The original plan was for them to be done in the early afternoon. After renting a smaller truck, they had to transfer our stuff into the smaller truck (three times), drive it to our house, and unload. By the time they were done, it was 10 p.m. It was a r-e-a-l-l-y long day.


I'm not happy with the moving company. They totally dropped the ball on this and didn't support their driver at all. Mayflower contracts with drivers and has agents at different locations. The agent here told our driver to "make the customer happy" and that the driver was to figure out what to do. Tough when you don't have cell phone coverage, a phone book, and are just driving an 84' 18-wheeler . . .

We ended up contacting the agent in CSpgs, who called us back shortly, recommending a place to rent a smaller truck.

Meanwhile, the kids waited ever so patiently, and this was truly the reason for my having a GREAT birthday. What did I get? Among other things, my house!



We met our mailman. Our little town of 2000 has its own post office. The mailman gave Robert directions to the post office, telling him it was on the left, "in the middle of a cornfield." Robert thought he was kidding. (He wasn't.)

I've posted before about the horrible post office in CSpgs. I went to this post office and was the only person there. It was awesome!!!! It's a "new" post office, built in 1999. They outgrew the old one. (Did the population go from 1700 to 2000 or what?!)

As we've been unpacking, I'm amazed at what broke. And what didn't.

Broken: plastic colander; laundry basket

Unbroken: Mikasa crystal fruit bowl; crystal lamps; all glassware/tableware

Something leaked, but since I packed no liquids, I can only think that it might have been the package of birthday candles?

So far, we've seen deer, turkeys, little turtles, and a couple of kinds of lizards. Trevor grabbed for the blue tailed one, and the tail came off in his hand. It was quite funny. :)

The night noises are incredible. It is an endless singing from zillions of bugs and who knows what else. (I don't want to know, but I sure enjoy listening.) I can't wait until it's cool enough to sleep with the windows open every night.

Moving out

A few days before moving, Robert cut flowers from the garden for us to enjoy in the house.


The movers came on Wednesday and took most of the day to load the truck.


We spent the next two nights at our neighbor Mike's house. How nice is that??? It was a hundred times better than hotelling it!

Although we presigned all of our house paperwork and didn't attend the closing, we met our buyers. Here's an odd twist. (Our buyer) Tom's dad built a house in 1957 that was five doors down from our house in Littleton. Tom lived there and attended the same elementary school that Robert's brother and sister did. Six years later, they moved a mile away--to a house on the backside of the block that Robert grew up on. They are military and have moved 19 times--wanting to make our old house their permanent home.

Our friends Dan and Christine had invited us for dinner on our last night. This was so appreciated--I was able to look forward to it for a few weeks! Christine sent us home with banana bread to snack on during our drive too. She's a GREAT cook!

Gas in Colorado Springs when we left: $2.89/gallon.

We drove 540 miles on Friday. I had been so worried that I wouldn't be able to do it! We drove both cars, each of us taking one of the kids. Trevor rode with me most of the time, and he was terrific! Robert followed me the entire way out--which was really nice for me. This was somewhere in Kansas . . .


Kansas was much prettier than I expected, definitely NOT as flat as a pancake. It was very green, pretty fields and hills--and sizzling hot. We spent the night in Topeka, where it was 95 at 9:00 p.m. Holly lost a tooth while chewing a Milk Dud, pretty disgusting!

Saturday continued to be hot, hot, hot. I was disappointed that we didn't hit the pretty part of Missouri on I-70 . . .


Trevor snapped these for me at the last minute. I thought it was prudent to focus on driving--and gas signs when we stopped, lol.



We went over 600 miles, and I was in the total drive mode--with a little (lot of) help from McDonald's iced coffee. I don't remember much of Illinois, Indiana, but Illinois was rural, lots of big trees, also not what I was expecting (Chicago maybe?).

Gas in Indiana.


It was gorgeous coming out of Indiana down the hill towards Louisville, where we spent the second night. I loved what I saw.

We had our two kitties (in Robert's car) and dog (in my car). They were really great travelers too.

We drove the last 500 miles on Sunday. Kentucky was so pretty, more rural on the highway than I expected. West Virginia was wild--crazy drivers, crazy mountain roads. I don't know if they are used to mountain highway driving or have a death wish or a little of both . . .

Gas in Charleston.


We hit Virginia, checked into our hotel around 6 p.m., and took off for the house. This was sunset at the hotel.


Robert's NEVER seen this house, and he's never been in this town either. We are staying 10 miles away, in the largest city (pop. 4,000) in the whole county. I don't know the "pretty" way to drive, but thinking nothing of it, I head for the roads I know. Robert doesn't say anything, but he's less than impressed at this point with this "big" town.

As I drive out, Robert's both appreciating the scenery and thinking THIS IS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. (But I thought that's what he wanted!) We turn down our street, which is a little, one lane, tree covered, well, LANE. (And at least it's paved.) Our house is a mile down the lane, almost to the end. We come across a woman in what looks to be full Amish dress, walking her dogs. I thought Robert was going to have a heart attack right there, poor guy. (We later find that there is a large community of German Baptists here, and three families live on our street.)

We get to the house which, typical of small towns, is unlocked. And it looks fabulous!!


After checking out the house, we head down to find the creek. We stayed about 10 seconds, because it was getting dark, and I worry about getting stuck in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE and having no clue where to go. (Someone or two is in the picture, but I can't see them on this screen!)

More to follow . . .

I'm here!!!!

It was a very good trip, ALL of us held up well, including the kids and pets!

The movers are supposed to unload tomorrow, and I can't wait to be in our house. (Instead of the icky hotel!)

I've been here for four days and I'm startin' to tawk funneh. Othahwahz these peeuple can't undahstan' me, ya know? (And I kin only undahstan' them 'bout 75% of tha tihme.)

Going offline!

My computer's getting packed up tonight, as the movers come tomorrow. We'll be in town here for a few more days. A neighbor has graciously invited us to stay at his house until everything is set to go. (How nice is that?!)

I'm thinking I'll have time to post from another computer before we leave. If not, I hope to be back by the end of next week!

:)

Monday, Monday

Trevor passed his orange belt test this morning. The last day of class is Wednesday, but today was the last day that Trevor will be going. Tina was his karate teacher at our hs co-op; her kids (pictured here with Trevor) helped her teach this summer class.


I took Holly out to Melanie's to work this morning. Her last lesson was supposed to be tomorrow, but Melanie's grandmother just passed away and Melanie is leaving tomorrow morning for the funeral. It started our morning off pretty weepy after that; but Holly's friend Grace was out there too, a nice and unexpected diversion for Holl.

This is Holly's third summer riding with Melanie. She's a wonderful teacher, and she's a perfect fit for Holly. She's, frankly, irreplaceable. She's one of those people that can touch you in a way that will stay with you forever. Melanie had other plans later today and had to leave, but she allowed Holly to ride on her own--a first for Holly. (A friend was on the property, and Robert and I were there.)


Melanie has encouraged us repeatedly to send Holly back out to stay with her for a week, two weeks, a month . . . whatever we'd like to do, whenever we'd like to do it. She's also said (and I know this to be true) that she wouldn't offer this to just anyone. So it's definitely something to figure out . . .

My dinner at home fell apart. I shouldn't be surprised, since my kitchen is mostly packed, and the rest of it is an absolute disaster. We headed for Chili's. This is the second night that we've had amazing lightning and rain. I have NEVER been in lightning like this. It didn't feel so close as to be scary, but it seemed to be everywhere at once, awesome and crashing like crazy for 30 mins. This was a total chance shot, I never could have planned a picture like this! (And I'm in the passenger seat here!)


Within two hours, everything was back to normal, with another stunning sunset.


The computer goes off tomorrow I think. ACK! Holly and I are already plotting out our visits to the library so we can check email, lol.