surgery update

for an update on the brain surgery please visit my SIDS blog at http://lifeaftersids.blogspot.com/2012/06/day-4.html  Pete also did an update the day before that one if you scroll on down after you read it. 

the circus

Sam and I went to the circus (it was a small one) last night. Here are some of the images from our evening. 

stepped outside during intermission-caught these guys heading home

I was slightly obsessed with this girl

Sam was most impressed with the RVs

I loved her facial expressions

Ravenna sunset on our way home

New blog features

If you’ve nosed around my blog recently, you’ve probably noticed that it has gotten a facelift. I’ve added “pages” on the side to help me categorize some of the entries. That’s become increasingly important now that I have 600 entries that have been written over the past 7 years. Hopefully, it will act as a table of contents of sorts and make it easier to navigate. (It makes it easier for me to find things, if nothing else!)

In going through all of my entries and trying to sort through them, I discovered some things that I hadn’t noticed before. So, here are the observations that came from my journey through the past entries…

1.       I watch way too much television.

2.       I really think I take more pictures than anyone I know.

3.       To the casual observer, it might have appeared as though I was dating Sean during my time in Wales and not Pete.

4.       I seem to be obsessed with Allison Moorer.

5.       I didn’t complain about my pregnancies as much as I thought I did.

Now, for some specific observations…

Wales entries:

I have a bunch of entries from my time in Wales but, honestly, I wish I had written more. In the middle of my time there, I got caught up in a huge drama that had a big effect on my emotional health there and I am sorry that it kind of overtook at least two or three months of my time. It didn’t have anything to do with me personally, but the effects reached me and there was more than one instance where I wanted to come home. I was very cryptic in my writings during this period and only alluded to it a few times. I wish I could have avoided it all together and focused more on my time there.

On the plus side, that drama forced me to find entertainment in unusual places and it also made me a lot closer to my best friends, Sean and Nicky. I loved rereading some of my entries about them and it made me miss them more than ever. Nicky is still possibly the best friend I’ve ever had and I really think Sean might be one of those weird soulmates that you don’ t have a romantic connection with but are still destined to meet.

Sam’s pregnancy entries:

I ended up creating a separate blog series for Sam’s pregnancy and, looking back, I am glad that I wrote as much about being pregnant with him as I did. Although I was very sick in the beginning, it was a fun pregnancy and I enjoyed it. I have forgotten most of it so going back and reading a lot of those were entertaining.

Toby’s entries:

These were understandably hard. Some of these also ended up in the “krumlovbaby” blog so they’re not on here. Still, I enjoyed going back over them. Rereading them, however, gave me new insight on my midwives and how they treated me: I should have sued. I know that Toby’s death probably didn’t have anything to do with their neglect of me in the last few weeks, but it was still neglect.

On another note, Pete’s friend linked to my blog at one point and said that readers might be interested in it but that it was mostly about being pregnant at this point. I have no idea what he was talking about. I had only written about 4 pregnancy-related posts and that was out of about 20. Oh well.

All of the entries related to Toby’s death, before I created the SIDS blog, are hard to read. I don’t read most of them now because they are too painful. If I could change one thing, however, it would be this: people started complaining that my entries were too depressing-I should have told them to kiss my patootie. He hadn’t even been dead a month. I look back over some of those entries and I cringe about how I tried to write about Dancing with the Stars and other, happier, subject matters to make people feel more comfortable.

And I still think that there is probably a special place in hell for those who heaped the horror (as one commenter put it) on us with their hateful comments. I will never forgive those people. Even now, with so much time between it, I am disgusted.

The music entries:

These are some of my favorites! I need to write more about my thoughts regarding country music.

The travel entries:

Some of these overlap with other subject matters. One of the best ones, though, is about my time in Glastonbury. I love that one. I loved that trip.

The Florida months:

Oh, Heavens. What a weird time! If you read those and then read the first few entries about Wales you will not be surprised that I started dating Pete not long after meeting him.

Rob’s comments:

These are not separate entries, but I did tag them. So here’s the thing about Rob: I loved him and I have no idea what happened to him. He disappeared off the face of the earth. I do have a new theory, however, after reading some of his old comments. It appears that he commented a few times and that, for whatever reason, I didn’t reply to those comments. I have no idea why I didn’t. Since I didn’t comment back in a lot of them, it’s possible that I never even saw them. I have spent a lot of time commenting on other people’s blogs and it hurts my feelings when they don’t acknowledge it back. If that’s what happened to Rob then I apologize. I always looked forward to hearing from him. He was one of my best friends! 

Finding a House:Entry 3

the threat of bad weather didn't deter us!

Sometimes, the house hunting expedition doesn't quite go as planned...this would be one of those cases. We shall call this one "The House that Didn't Exist."

Finding the actual house in our county can sometimes be challenging. Addresses do not always make sense and sometimes don't even exist at all. That would be the case with this one.

just one reason why I love my county

I wrote down the address of this house and found it on the map. I thought that was be enough in helping us locate it. I was apparently wrong.

and here's another reason

back on the road

After two false starts we stopped at a small grocery where we were given better directions. Apparently, the actual road had been about 5 miles further down and on top of a mountain. We were pretty sure it was in another county. But, we trucked back up the mountain and finally found the right road.

The address of the house was 111. The actual addresses on the road went like this: 60, 130, 155, 373, 245, 598, 300. In that order.

didn't explore this one...

After about a mile, we found a gravel road with a handwritten sign. It informed us that in that direction we would find the "eastern" route of the current road. Figuring that maybe the real estate agent was wrong in the actual address, we turned down it.

After another mile of nothing but a bunch of trees and cliffs, we came to a clearing. There was a stone structure with a plaque and, seeing as to how it was out in the middle of nowhere, we were intrigued.

So, we got out of the car and hopped over the "no trespassing" sign and explored.

we use this as a suggestion

The view up there was gorgeous for sure. The clearing, however, was unusual. Ahead of us, we could see another gate and what looked to be an abandoned house behind it. I was obviously excited because abandoned houses are just my thing.

While Pete took pictures of his knives (it's kind of a thing) I climbed over the gate and started toward the house. A large rustle in the bushes to my right caught my ear and when I turned around, I met what would be our neighbor should we decide to pursue this property: a large black bear. He looked at me, I looked at him, he wasn't impressed, and he left.

That was a first.

not THE house, just an empty one

Now, ordinarily I would have explored the barn and maybe tried to find an open window in the house to see what was going on in there. I have to say, however, that as I approached the brick structure (by the way, the house we were searching for was a log cabin) I got a horrbile, horrible feeling. I don't mean that it was like a haunted house feeling, but there was definitely something amiss. A loud banging started coming from the house itself and I could feel eyes n me everywhere. I turned and quickly walked back to the gate, nearly hopping over it in one stride.

You can't mess around with these things. At best, it was a pissed off worse. At worse, it was a pissed off meth maker. I would rather deal with the bear.

On our second try to find the house, we were equally unsuccessful. So, we left the road and started back down the mountain. I did, however, see the top of  a roof from the main road and it looked like it could be a cabin. Not wanting to end
up in someone's driveway at the other end of  shotgun, we stopped in a small country store where the owner was more than helpful.

the store (as seen from the house)

She had no idea what log cabin we were looking for. I asked her about the one across the road and she told us that it was for sale but that she didn't know anything about it. A few minutes later, a man came in and she informed us that he was the one who built the one we were looking at. He agreed that it was empty but said that it only set on an acre. The owner offered to call the cabin's owner and ask her about it but I said that we'd drive down there and see if it was the same one I had seen a picture of and, if we were interested, we'd stop back.

Just in case we wanted to build, the woman told us that she owned 170 acres and she gave us her cell phone number.

From the front, it appeared to be the same house. It was overgrown and looked as though nobody had lived in it for a very long time, but that's the way most of the houses have been that we have looked at. We walked around for a little bit and tried to get a feel for it. At only one acre, however, it just wasn't big enough.

this is the house we found

As we were getting ready to leave, the owner pulled up. Apparently, the woman at the store had called her.

She told us that she would have opened the doors for us and let us look around but since she didn't know us she couldn't do that. Which is an interesting way to sell the house I guess. She also said that everyone around her wanted to buy it for what she'd paid for it but that she wasn't going to do that-she was selling it for what she owed on it and if it didn't sell she would just let the bank foreclose on her.

you can't beat the view

When asked how we found it, I told her it was on the internet. This flustered her as she exclaimed that "everyone" was trying to sell it but that "nobody" would until she signed the papers herself. She had no idea how it ended up on the internet.

We left a little confused, not really knowing if she owned the house or just thought she did.

When we got back home, I looked online again. Apparently, there are two roads in our county with that road name. We were on the wrong one. The other one is on the other side of the county.

Oops.

Finding a House: Entry 2

By now, most of the town seems to know that we are house hunting. I should add, here, that living in a small town does have some perks. Not only are we kind of local celebrities since Pete is from England and sounds like Prince William, but with cute kids everyone seems to know us. As a result, we are guaranteed the best seat in Pizza Hut on any given night.

Anyhoo...

So the other day we went our for lunch and the hostess immediately asked us if we had found a house yet. Nope, not yet.

A few minutes later, our waiter came over to get our drinks and HE asked us if we had found one. When we said we were still looking, he informed us that he works as a mail carrier on the weekend and that he had seen one that's empty and might be a foreclosure, if we were interested.

Okay, side note here. Have you ever watched THE GILMORE GIRLS? If so, then you have to be familiar with the character of Kirk. Kirk worked in every establishment in town at one time or another. That's pretty much what our waiter is like. He is Irvine's Kirk. Not only is he a server at that place, he also co-manages Little Caesar's, works in the high school during the day, delivers mail on the weekends, and works part time as a EMT. I fully expect to walk into my doctor's office at some point and find him waiting there to check my vitals.

So, let's call this one:

THE HOUSE THAT MIGHT BE EMPTY


Like most places in town, the directions to this place did not include an actual address. It did, however, include a lot of landmarks. If you've ever been given directions in the country then you know that they are filled with a bunch of "abouts" and "probablys."

"You go about 2 miles past the store and then it's probably, about the 2nd or 3rd house on the right. You'll probably see the black mailbox on your left before you see the house. It's about 50 feet back from the road."

Well, you get the idea.

We were told that the house was brick, had an in-ground swimming pool and some skylights, and was REALLY REALLY nice.

He was almost SURE it was empty.

Well, we will take that as a challenge!

Not being ones to pass up the idea of an empty house and a road that we have yet to travel down, we loaded up the kids and set back out.

Sam amused himself by taking pictures of Iris (who was incidentally NOT amused).

And by taking random pictures out his car window. I think he's getting very good at motion pictures myself.

Of course, I passed it twice before I actually found it. I have no idea why he was intent on describing the mailbox to us and didn't just say, "It's the house beside the cemetery." It's like LOST where everyone kept talking about "the Black Rock" yet not once did anyone ever say "that big-ass pirate ship."

the other neighbors

Once we saw it, we could understand why he might like it. It is a very nice house ranch-style brick house. The courtyard and patio area are surrounded by a brick wall that also hides the pool. The yard is large and very well taken care of. Unfortunately, there are neighbors right next door.

this is it

(And no, I am not talking about the dead ones. They probably wouldn't bother us.)

So while it IS out in the country, alas, it's not the one for us.

Since there was a wreath on the door we didn't peek in any windows for fear of being arrested,just in case the house wasn't actually empty. He did, however, tell us if we liked it he could call the owner for us. He thinks it might be a foreclosure.

I love small towns.

at least the view from the back was nice.

Finding a House: Entry 1

I thought this might be a fun series, although I don’t know how interesting it will be to most of you out there.

For the past year we have been looking for a property to buy. (Let’s not get into the whys and stuff right now. Maybe later.) As it turns out, we are extremely picky and our list of “essentials” is enough to make a real estate agent bang their head against the wall. Luckily, we’re not like the people on HOUSE HUNTERS who dicker over the color of the paint and the appliances (we must be the only people in the world that don’t care for granite countertops and stainless steel appliances) but the other things we DO want our real estate agent seems to think is just as bad.

So, keep in mind that some of this search has been going on for a year so these entries aren’t necessarily current or even in chronological order. In the end, I’ll let you know which one we picked and what we’re going to do with it.

WHAT WE WANT

actual view from this house

We are basically looking for a house in the country that we can turn into a small farm. At a minimum, we want 15 acres. We prefer 4 bedrooms although we will compromise with 3 if there is also a bonus room or a separate building where we can have an office. We prefer to have some flat land for a garden but trees are okay, too. Preferably, it will be isolated. Older homes are preferable to newer ones. We don’t mind putting in a little bit of work. (We like old farmhouses.) There either has to be a barn on the property or there has to be enough flat land that we can build a barn on. Fenced in pasture land is a huge bonus. So is a pond. A creek where Pete can fish is even better. Available land around the house where we can eventually spread out to and buy later is good.

Let’s start with:

“The Let’s REALLY Get Away From it All” house

This house was weird looking and confusing. It had been on the market for two years and finally gone into foreclosure. No wonder: it’s kind of homely and I mean that in the American sense of the word, not the British. The price was a steal but I honestly looked at the picture a dozen times, trying to figure out if it was actually even finished. Unfortunately, the acreage was short (very short) of what we are looking for. But, at the low cost and the fact that it was located off of one of our favorite roads, we decided to give it a shot. We are trying to have a more positive outlook on the real estate front and out current attitude is, well, if we REALLY like it maybe we can fix it. Or at least tear it down and build another one.

The kids mildly protested as we loaded them up in the car but within minutes Iris was asleep. Ten miles down the road, Sam had to go to the bathroom. With no gas stations or businesses in sight, our only option was to find a tree and give him some baby wipes. Unfortunately, the only two places I could find to pull over at were a cemetery and a church and neither one of those felt appropriate. We told him to hold it for awhile and he immediately fell asleep.

the kids were not impressed

The fifteen miles to this property took nearly forty-five minutes to drive. In the places of the road that weren’t washed out, the snake that the road makers had traced would have been jealous of all the curves. I found myself repeating, out loud, multiple times, “Please don’t meet a car, please don’t meet a car.”

not the house

The further we drove, the closer the mountains got. We passed several abandoned houses, a couple of old cemeteries, and more than one suspicious looking burned out trailer.

Of course, Pete asked if I had the address and, of course, I replied, “I’ll know it when I see it.” Those have been the beginning words to many of our adventures. (As it turns out, I don’t always know it when I see it.)

Finally, after twisting and turning into what I can only presume to be the furthest edge of the county, we came to a stop in front of a beautiful, new, two story wooden house with two wraparound decks and a magnificent landscaped garden.

not it, either

The house we were looking for was across the road.

It was sad and neglected and set nestled amongst some very pushy and narcissistic weeds that came up to my waist. The bees and wasps that swarmed the yard skydived at our heads and were pretty angry at being interrupted. We tried peeping in the windows, but one wasp was definitely not having any of that and went off to get his buddies in an apparent attempt to turn us in for the $5,000 reward that was posted in the window for trespassers.

I lost Pete!

Having already see the pictures of the interior, I gave up and stood in the road while Pete bravely stomped around the side of the house.

One thing is for sure: this house was out there. We did not encounter a single vehicle in the hour that we were on the road or at the house.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised that the house across the street hasn’t bought this one up just to tear it down and enjoy their view more.

THE VERDICT:

The location is magnificent. It does not, however, have any flat land, enough acreage, or the possibility to buy up more land. It backs up to the National Forest so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about a subdivision going in (believe me, there is no threat of that on this road any time in the near future anyway) but it also means that you can’t expand.

it LOOKS finished, right?

The house itself was okay…weird…but okay. Now that I have seen it, I’m almost positive it’s finished. 

Iris learns to clap