Thanksgiving madness

As everyone around us is getting ready for the holiday, we once again are reminded how odd we are.

The kids haven't, in their mind at least, ever been to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It has been a number of years since we have done anything special for a holiday. None of us care for turkey or most of the traditional foods served during this particular celebration and because of circumstances we don't spend the holidays with our extended family.

A number of years ago we started the tradition of making a number of different appetizers and just eating throughout the day. That fell by the wayside last year in the yurt and I don't think I'm going to revive it. It's just too much work and I just don't care. Since we will once again be spending the day with just the 4 of us I don't see the point of doing anything special.

That's not to say we aren't thankful for the gifts God has given us. We have wonderful friends, a great church we attend as often as our monetary resources allow, and Paul is employed. Especially given everything we have gone through this year, we feel very blessed. Even though it feels as if we have lost some extended family this year we are thankful for the family we have in Christ.

Birthday Celebrations

Lorna's birthday was last Friday, the 17th. When we asked her what she would like to do to celebrate she asked to have dinner with friends. So she got her wish yesterday.

We had dinner at our friend's house where they invited over a few of her friends to celebrate.


Since we are not a normal family, this was not your average birthday party for an 11 year old. But my baby girl is happy and that's all that matters to me!

Trees, Power Lines, and Water Tanks

We learned an important, although obvious lesson, a few days ago. These 3 things don't go well together in high winds.

The wind knocked down a tree that had the power lines strung through it. The tree didn't break the line because the water tank broke its fall. The tree and tank duelled but although the tank fought well, it lost. The tank now has a hole the size of a large orange in the top. That would have been bad enough without the rest. The power line is the main line into the house. It is attached to a riser that goes into the main box. So as the line was pulled down it pulled the riser with it.

We called the power company out to fix the line. They unhooked it but told us the riser had to be replaced before they would reinstall the line. We called every electrician in the valley and finally found one who squeezed us in. By 2:30 pm the riser was replaced. Upon replacing the riser the electrician found a problem with the main box. It's old and since the home inspection a wire has come loose, it got hot and welded the connection in place. We need to replace the box asap. It's a bummer because it will have to wait as I don't have that kind of money laying around.

Once the riser was replaced we called the power company out again. They arrived at 9:15pm to rehook the lines. Amazingly it was the same guys who came at 8 that morning. So the power is reinstalled, our bank account is much lighter, and we have a new riser.

We have 2 more trees in that area that need to come down. Unfortunately one has the phone lines run through it. Both will have to wait for a ladder to be purchased because they need to be taken down branch by branch since they are in between the water tank, dog run, and tool shed.

Oh and just so you don't think it was that easy, in cutting up the tree to remove it from the water tank a branch fell on the clothes line and ripped the support out from under the carport. I could really use 6 months of boredom right now.

Searching

I was reading through the blogs I like to visit and found the following comment from traininup3:.

"My soul is searching for something, but I doubt "it" will ever be found. I mean, I've felt like this for so many years that I've forgot what it feels like to be whole. And how exactly does one find something when one isn't even sure what that something is?"

This really hit me. This is exactly how I have felt over the past few years. We left CA because we were searching for something. We tried living a more self-sufficient lifestyle because we were searching for something. We found things we loved while searching but nothing that ever seemed to fill that void. I thought this was just something Paul and I felt!

But here's the problem, what if you find that something? Do you then dare let yourself have it knowing there is always the possibility of losing it?

I have no idea if we have found "it" but we have found something that makes us feel whole. In moving back here to, once again, follow a job, we rediscovered the feeling of being "near" the people we love. I'm not talking about our biological family but about our church family and especially a few dear friends. They may be 3 hours away but we are closer than we were living out of state and have the opportunity to be involved on a regular basis.

But do you really allow these relationships to fill that void? Every time I think of how much I've allowed these people to touch my life I freeze wondering if this is such a good idea. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it's probably more than anyone wants to know about me but... I think I've found the thing that makes me feel whole but it's something that makes me feel vulnerable at the same time. So now instead of searching for it, I struggle with it.

Boxes are still everywhere.

Just in case you are wondering, yes boxes are still everywhere. I'm not even going to bother to post a picture, it's too depressing.

I hate the sight of them, they depress me since they are a reminder of what a failure I am as a wife and mother. I just can't get excited about unpacking anymore. There is no more room. We still have the deck full of boxes, although the house and carport have been taken care of. I have bills that are MIA, they are probably in a box on the deck. I really need to find them so I can pay them as they are the few that can't be paid online.

So I feel like a complete failure. My goal was to not have boxes everywhere since we were going to unpack things as they were moved here. My goal was to have my kitchen completely in order by now. My goal was... I failed at all my goals. The shed still doesn't have the roof fixed, it's supposed to rain tonight, I can't find any of the tarps...

To top it all off, I'm in email withdrawal. It's been 24 hours since I've received anything. I usually have so many it's hard to keep up, I like it that way! I rely on my IM partner and email lists to keep me sane, it's hard when those things are taken away even if it's only temporary. Besides, what excuse am I going to have to keep from unpacking anymore?

Deep Breath

I need to take one of those every few minutes right now. If you don't want to "hear" me whine just stop right now.

We found that the table won't fit. You know, the dining table where we eat. I bought it 6 months ago and I love it. It's round, I've always wanted a round table. It has a leaf that extends out so it's not all that big when it's folded in. It's a perfect size for school work. And it won't fit. I'm trying not to cry. Nothing is working out the way I wanted it to. Every time I come up with a solution for a problem two more crop up. So I'm going to take a deep breath and try to think up a solution.

To top it all off, Paul brought home 2 more boxes of junk today. Work related stuff that was sent to his boss by mistake. That's the last thing I wanted to see right now. The new job is going good from his perspective. From mine, it's frustrating. We had to buy a cell phone. We had to buy a new computer because the company's software is not Mac compatible. I'm tired of fighting with employers who think you have all the money in the world to spend on stuff for work. And no they didn't have anything in writing about needing a computer let alone a PC.

I'm breathing. I'm trying to be calm. I think it's time for chocolate.

Boxes everywhere!

Our move is almost over. The rental is empty except for the appliances and there is another load or 2 in the garage. Most of that stuff is Christmas decorations and large things like the lawn mower and bikes.

The nightmare at the new house is just starting. I thought I'd give you an idea of how we are living right now.

This is the living room/ Malachi's bedroom. Most of these are his toys that will be going, somewhere (my favorite phrase right now).








This is my bedroom. It gives you an idea how small the rooms are. The desk and table in the corner are about a foot and a half from the bed. Who needs room to walk? We are the lucky ones with the only closet in the house, it's not big but at least we have one!







This is Lorna's room. She opted for less floor space and more storage. Her bed goes from the headboard to the opposite wall. She has to climb over the bed to get to the other "aisle" of her room.






Here is a shot of the back of the house. There are a lot of boxes and even furniture. We have a big job ahead of us going through all this stuff but at least we can take our time, as it doesn't rain all that often and the deck is completely covered.


The animals made it here okay. The horse doesn't care where she is as long as she has food. The dogs aren't happy at all. All four are crowded around the gate waiting for an opportunity to run out and into the house. They will settle in eventually.

Feeling sorry for myself

I know it sounds all whinny and pathetic but I'm lonely.

The last month Paul has been home most of the time. He would go over to train his mom on the computer and work on insurance jobs as they came up but then that died out (he was let go) and I had him to myself. I have become very accustomed to spending my days with him working on the new house.

But today he started his new job and I'm at the rental with the kids. One car means we have to stay here while he is out in the real world. So I'm feeling lonely. The job is a good thing, he has to work so I can stay home, but adjustments to our schedule are always difficult.

I should be excited, all the major stuff is done at the new house and we start moving our stuff in today. But I can't seem to get motivated about packing. I think I'm just being hormonal which usually means I'm needy and lonely, bad timing for this to come on now!

To make things worse I've had no email for hours. How can such a busy email list and all my friends just vanish when I need a distraction? Bad timing all around. Okay enough complaining, I really do need to pack. Or maybe I'll just go back to bed with my favorite book...and some chocolate!

Phone Service Frustrations

We called to set up the phone in our new house last week. We ended up using a third party connection service because it saved us the $46 connection charges and we got a really good deal on unlimited long distance. At the time we called, the anticipated date was October 10th. They said we would receive a confirmation package in the mail, we never did.

We did receive an email over the weekend. It confirmed what we ordered and said they would set up service on the 24th! I was a little annoyed. We had already had issues with our address because they couldn't match the post office records, which makes sense since the whole area doesn't have mail service. I called Verizon yesterday to see about getting the service turned on sooner. They were less than helpful. One lady said it might be because of the weather. I was confused since we have been clear and sunny for months. Another asked if it was new construction, when I said it wasn't she said that was the problem. What difference does it make? Finally the last person we talked to said it was because they are a nationwide company and they are very busy. How does their service offerings in New York affect getting our phone here?

It comes down to the fact they don't want to help and know we can't go with anyone else. We have one car which Paul takes to work, no cell phone, and live in a remote area with a child with a medical condition but they don't care we will be cut off for long periods of time. Nice company.

We found it very easy to set up satellite internet though, they will be here on Monday.

Floor

We finally finished the floor this evening!

It was very exciting and satisfying to finish.

We have also finished the hardware on the shower.

Flooring continued

We have been not so diligently working on the flooring. We took a few days off to attend church and relax with friends. We are very blessed to have friends that allow us to invade their home on a semi-regular basis and stay the night. Since church is over 3 hours away, it makes it so much easier to spend the night. The drive is much more bearable.

Since we were gone Sunday and part of Monday we didn't make it up to the house until yesterday. I admit we procrastinated and didn't actually get there until after lunch. But we got a tremendous amount of work done. We finished the hallway and only have the tiny kitchen and entryway to finish. The quarter round will go in after that along with all the other end moldings. We did have a few setbacks, the door moldings on 2 doors need to be replaced as the wood split when we were undercutting the frames. Frustrating but very minor.

We are still fighting with the pedestal sink. The drain doesn't want to seal properly so we are going to completely dismantle it and start over again. I'm really hoping we can get it finished this week.

Paul got a call yesterday for a job interview this morning. We are really hoping this works out. He is completely qualified for the job and it is really low pressure sales. The position he has been chasing is much more high pressure. The more pressure the more money but we both agree that we would be happier with less money and stress. I am anxiously waiting for him to come home and tell me how it went.

This is why we drive so far

This church sign is on our way into town.

We are often asked why we drive so far to church, now you understand! This is one of a few churches that is in our area. Many of them frequently have dumb signs but this one takes the prize for the most tacky.

Will this ever end?

We still don't have the flooring in. It is extremely frustrating. We need to get finished this week but we keep running into snags.

My mom and her husband had to leave unexpectedly, we were sorry to see them go but understood. This puts us back to only being able to work on the house when Paul is off work. We are hoping to get a good start on things this afternoon but nothing ever goes as planned.

Paul's job situation is not good at all. He is currently working outside the office and the other employees have been told he quit. To make a long story short, his stepfather has been less than truthful where compensation is concerned. He has been pushing Paul to work on his day off and wouldn't take no for an answer. Instead of fighting with him, Paul decided to leave early a few Saturdays ago thinking it was better than saying something that was inappropriate. At first this was okay with both his mother and stepfather. But each subsequent conversation with them changes their feelings.
First it was, "See you on your normal work day." Then it was, "We want you to work from home this week." The next week it was, "See you on Tuesday." Then Monday night we got a call that he would be working out of the office again with his mom. Now it's, "Once you are finished training your mother, you will no longer be getting paid." So we went from everything's fine to you no longer have a job. We knew that this was not the ideal job but this is ridiculous!

So much for trusting family! He has been actively pursuing other employment for many weeks. He has sent off a number of resumes, had a couple of calls, and repeat interviews with one company. We are hoping something comes up very soon.

More home improvements

The tile may be finished but that's the only thing that is.

We had problems with the faucet hardware for the shower controls, it seems that the rough-in on the plumbing was 1/2 inch too far into the wall. We had to order an adapter kit which was $40! The kit came on Monday and contained a brass ring, a 1 inch stem extension and a long screw for each of the 3 controllers. I expected something more complicated for that much money but it did the trick. But then we realized that the faucet pipe wasn't far enough away from the diverter, Paul made it fit by slightly bending the wall plate. This is when I asked him if he measured the piping when we first started this to make sure that this stuff would all fit, his response was, "Why would I have done that?"

The flooring still isn't here. It was held up at the manufacturer because of problems at the store. Then they shipped it but didn't deliver until over a hour AFTER the warehouse closed so no one was there to receive it. Because that was a Friday, it didn't get put on Monday's truck since it got back to L.A. really late. So it was out for delivery yesterday and we haven't seen it. I'm really hoping it got there late yesterday so we can pick it up today. The old flooring is up and the subfloor is ready for the new stuff.

We should be able to paint the bathroom today and put everything back together. The shelves I bought didn't fit so they will go back to IKEA on Friday, we are getting away for the weekend and going to be near a store. Once the bathroom is finished I will start focusing on the fencing for the animals and the shed for the tools. Once the flooring is in we can start moving our junk in.

My mom and her husband are here visiting so we have help with all the remodeling and they are going to watch the kids so we can get away for a few days. We aren't doing anything spectacular, just visiting with friends and enjoying some time with adults. Which is perfect for me!

Shower pictures

Here are the promised pictures of our bathroom remodel.


We started with Paul cutting out the old shower enclosure.

















Here are the bare walls and mess that was generated after we finished cutting out the old junk.














Paul and I cut the Hardibacker to fit in the bare walls. At first we used a circular saw but found that scoring and snapping the pieces was much easier and less dusty.










Malachi really wanted to help throughout the whole project. We needed to replace a few of the spacer strips of wood that leveled out the wall because they had rotted.







Here I am putting on the first few rows of tile. This particular wall was a nightmare because of the window. I would have loved to put glass block in the window but we needed the ventilation.



This is a picture of the spider that came to visit the first night we were putting tiles up. The hole in the wall is the size of a quarter and the spider couldn't get it's body through the hole! The legs you see are just the bottom tips of his long hairy legs. We are going to be replacing the light bar and medicine cabinet with a mirror and light so we will be closing up this hole.

It took two days but we finished the tiles and proceeded to grout last night. I didn't expect it to take 5+ hours so we were there until almost 2am. Needless to say we haven't gotten any school work done the past two days. I disregarded the instructions on the grout about wearing gloves and am paying the price today. I have tiny puncture wounds and blisters on the tips of 4 fingers.

Here is the finished product of almost a week's worth of work. It was definitely worth it!

We have a few days to wait before we can seal the grout. We will be installing the new shower hardware tonight and getting the floors ready for our new flooring. I am looking forward to working in some room other than the bathroom.

Home Improvements

Why do they always take longer than expected?

We closed escrow and immediately started trying to do things to get the house in shape to move in. The first project was tearing out the old shower enclosure and replacing it with tile. It's a good thing we did! The house was built in the late 50's so there was drywall behind the plastic enclosure. The drywall was moldy and crumbling away so we tore it all out. We are still trying to get everything ready to install the cement board for the tile. I foolishly thought it would only take a day or so but we keep running into snags that require things we don't have on hand like 2x4s or saw blades.

We have made numerous trips to the hardware store for various pieces and parts. Paul got on the roof to check out the swamp cooler. It needed new pads so we thought no problem we would also install PVC to vent the overflow off the roof. Nothing is ever easy! The pads were $100! It seems we have a really spiffy and great swamp cooler so it needs special pads. Luckily they can be used for a number of years before being replaced again. Of course the PVC fittings didn't match up to the threads on the overflow so we had to make a few trips to get various adapters and ultimately a new overflow since the one up there snapped. Now we are back to the store again tomorrow to get a new water line, it has sprung a number of leaks.

Lorna's room has gone well, we dry brushed on a top beige color that goes well with her horse theme. I should be able to finish painting the moldings in her room tomorrow. At least one project was easy and nearing completion.

We had the very unpleasant surprise to find that the tile in the main part of the house has to be removed. The house is on a post foundation and the subfloor moves a little. Because of the movement in the floor the tiles keep popping up. The grout has crumbled away in places and we figure that there is no point in replacing it so it can just crumble again in 6 months. Since Paul manages a flooring store we were able to get a really good deal on some laminate. Not what we really want but all we can afford at the moment. Even so it's money we hadn't anticipated spending.

We also found we need to do a little foundation work. The posts are in great shape but they are not anchored to the floor joists. Because we live in earthquake country they need to be better anchored. Two of the posts are leaning at a weird angle. We are currently in the process of ejecting the rats and squirrels that live under the house so we can get under there with a house jack and some support bracing. Luckily we are familiar with the concept since this is what the yurt deck was made of. It may not be expensive work but it's going to be very dirty work and we are not looking forward to it.

I am hoping to have the tile done by the end of the weekend so we can start the flooring installation. I'm sure it's just wishful thinking! We really need to start on the horse and dog fencing so we need to get something accomplished this weekend. Someday I might have time to upload a few pictures of the renovations but not tonight :)

I'm done!

I finally finished that album!

It took me a good 4 weeks and lots of frustration but it's finally done. I will never again get everything out with the intention of finishing a whole album. The whole thing is almost too large to fit in the album. I ended up taking all the extra pictures that are good and putting them on the last 2 pages in a pocket. The pictures were too good to get rid of but we don't need that many in one album. I have included 3 pages below.

We also closed on the house yesterday. It is very difficult to get too excited. We have made a few decisions about the projects we are going to complete before moving in. We will be gluing down the tiles that are lose and regrouting as opposed to replacing the flooring. Neither of us likes the tiles very much but I don't want to invest that much time and energy on something that is in decent shape. We will be leaving the kitchen cabinets alone but changing out the knobs. The shower surround will be replaced with tile since it needs to be redone but we will just clean up the tub that's in there. We are not going to paint the living room because it will be too dark with the exposed beam ceiling. Outside we will be redoing the two sheds and moving them. As always there are lots of plans for after we move in but that's about the extent of the stuff we will be doing right away. We had our first dinner there last night while we measured windows, made some decisions, and just tried to get a feel for the place. It's going to be tight and very cluttered until we can get the yurt but we will find a way to make it work :)

Employer's ability to dictate your life

Paul has looked for jobs quite often over the past few years due to all the layoffs and we both have appreciated the ability to apply for jobs via the internet. But in my opinion the new requirements of prospective employers have gotten ridiculous.

Increasingly we are coming across employers that want to speak via cell phone only, it sounds simple enough but we don't have cell phones. Today Paul received an invitation to apply for a position, part of that application process involved a personality test. This is something I don't like but it's really common, the catch this time was that you have to have some type of broadband!

Okay this is ridiculous, the cost to just apply to these jobs by having all these things is just stupid! We don't have cell phones because we can't afford it. We live on a very strict budget and the money just isn't there. We don't have DSL available in our area and we certainly can't afford satellite. Even if DSL were available, I don't know that we could afford the monthly premiums.

When did employers start dictating people's way of life? I know that this is part of the reason Paul lost his job in CO, his boss didn't like or agree with our lifestyle. I thought that was pretty invasive and wrong but I also thought it was a freak thing. But now these prospective employers, ones that haven't even offered you a job, require you to have a private cell and broadband! If this was just a one time incident I wouldn't be so upset but it's not. It's like we are stuck in this vicious cycle, without money we can't have these things but in order to obtain a job that will allow use to afford these luxuries we need money.

Maybe I'm just whining but it's frustrating. Maybe we are an oddity because we want to live without credit card bills. In order to do that we don't have all the latest gadgets but we aren't living in the stone ages, we do own a computer :) So what's the solution? I don't know but I do know that we aren't going to do the easy thing and bow to the pressures of society to take on needless debt just so he can apply for jobs!

Decisions, Decisions

After talking it over for a few days we have decided to order another yurt for our new property. We have some money saved and decided instead of trying to add on to the new house, a yurt was the more economical way to go.

We are all very excited as we really miss living in a yurt. There is something really neat about living in a round structure. So now that we have decided that we have to figure out where to buy it from. So many decisions, but at least they are good decisions :)

We think that we will get a 16 foot yurt to use as a school room/office and bedroom. We desperately need another bedroom and our daughter very enthusiastically offered to have her bedroom in the yurt. We will be attaching it to the house so that you can exit the house and walk through a breezeway into the yurt.

We have narrowed it down to either Rainier Yurts or Spirit Mountain Yurts. We like the finished aspects of the Rainier Yurts but like the price and options of Spirit Mountain. We have found a number of platform plans online and will be pulling the best aspect from each of them to hopefully get the best deck for our money.

I just can't stand to be normal! This seems the perfect way to live in a house but still be different :)

Perceptions of isolation

A few weeks ago a well meaning friend mentioned that we isolate our kids too much and wondered how they would learn to live in the "real world". Of course this is in response to the fact that we homeschool. According to this friend they would encounter the "real world" if they were in school. I, of course, took up the usual banner and countered that the real world doesn't segregate us by age and job. He couldn't really argue with that since he is 15 years older than me. But on the whole he didn't seem to agree.

Fast forward to last night and an email list I belong to. A few participants were discussing the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. One warned of the possible inappropriateness of the movie since there is implied sex and the man proposes while lying in bed with the woman (she is clothed at the time and they don't show him below his shoulders). I was pretty shocked, I honestly think this movie is very clean. There is no nudity, no foul language, and although the sex is implied nothing is really shown.

So I guess it's all perception. By many's standards we isolate our kids but by other homeschooling families' standards we allow our kids to watch inappropriate movies. I find the whole thing very interesting!