Long Time No Blog

Okay, I guess it hasn't been all that long, but it feels like it to me. I have been so out of the loop. I can't decide if it is a good thing or not, but I feel a lot more lonely without my fabulous internet connection to my friends and family. Email, myspace, facebook, blogs galore, aim, and my most favorite of all....ooVoo (webcam). I almost resorted to handwriting a letter yesterday because I couldn't get ahold of my friend on the phone! :) Then I remembered, the internet guy is coming tomorrow. I would be able to email before the snail mail ever made it to her. Technology! Gotta love it!
So, obviously we've been super busy. Moving into this house has been soooo hard! I don't remember it being so hard last time we moved....but we also didn't have stairs and literally EVERYTHING was bigger: doorways, hallways, drawers, closets, everything! This move has taken a lot of twisting, turning, removing doors, moving things up and down stairs, etc. But it is almost done. I'm still working on finding a place for my clothes, locating some missing shoe boxes, and finding a spot for all the bathroom gear that doesn't have a place in our new bathroom: makeup, lotions, hairdryer, curling iron, flat iron, hairspray, mousse, on and on and on.
But! We are loving it. Our house is cozy (I understand that is a nice way of saying "small"). It really is great though. Our playroom/school room is awesome and my "studio" is awesome too! Just finished putting all that away this morning before the internet guy came.
Rand and I put up the kids playset in the enormous backyard. That took us 2 days. After it was up we said, "Yes! This is why we moved the darn thing to 2 states!" The kids are loving it and so are we!
So without further ado here are some pictures. Several more blogs to come....like I said, we've been busy. Gotta share it with someone!!!!

moving day________________________________missing Nana & Papa

enjoying pumpkin suckers!

Here it is! Finally! We waited a year and a half to put this sucker back up! It was totally worth it!

The House (Lots of Pictures)

Here it is!

The front from the far corner of the front yard. (Driveway is all the way to the left)


The front yard


Door to the front porch


The enclosed front porch (taken from front door)


Front door


Front door, living room to right, stairs to left (taken from dining room)


Living Room


Dining room (taken from living room-towards kitchen)


Kitchen


Other side of kitchen (soon to have pantry and more counterspace)


Back door


Small back yard


View from back of house (large paved area for bike riding-yard beyond) These garages are on our porperty, but aren't our to use. Unless, I guess we rented one) Local people with "stuff" rent these for storage.


The yard!


The lot next door, connected to our yard (vacant, county-owned lot)


view from the back of the yard


Kids comin' to play


Rand is standing in front of the door to the basement in this one


One of the downstairs (main level) bedrooms


Second main level bedroom


One of the upstairs bedrooms (already messy with toys) This will probably double as a playroom and a school room.


The other upstairs bedroom This will probably be the "office"/craft studio. In other words, MY room. :)


The craft room has an outdoor exit


The upstairs bathroom


Rand's favorite part: the ball fields across the street


There's a park with swings and slides and climbing stuff over by the fields.

Stay tuned for updated pictures including decorations and all of our personal touches. :)
Also stay tuned for pictures from our apple picking adventures with Chad and Amy!
We are off to get our Uhaul and start moving!!!!

Oh! and technically I live in Audubon, PA so the blog name (From Phoenix to Phoenixville is out!) I'm still thinking.......

Big News

I know this is going to be a shocker for a lot people....especially considering possibly the last conversation I had with you about our housing, but here goes.

We have a new house to call "ours"......except, we decided not to buy. Are you shocked????

After spending weeks, possibly months, scouring the Internet and going out looking we made a very drastic change to our plans.

Surprisingly....even after all this money/economy/bank/housing market MESS, the banks were still willing to loan us A LOT of money. Even more money than we could probably reasonably afford. Rand and I have been using Dave Ramsey's guidelines for budgeting and financial planning. His advice is a very "not-our-culture" way of doing things. So after looking over all of that and almost making an offer on a house that would definitely have left us quite house-poor we decided to rent. There just aren't a lot of options for good housing (aside from townhouses) in our price range (the price range that we would consider wise for us....not the price range the banks are willing to give us) and to tell you the truth, there aren't a lot of great rentals out here either (again, aside from townhouses and apartments). However, we started looking and found a 4 bedroom house we could afford on a beautiful huge lot. There is space for the kids to ride bikes, there is a huge yard, room for a garden, 4 bedrooms, a huge basement and good landlords. The clincher of the deal for Rand was the 6-plex little league park directly across the street (Audubon Recreational Area) complete with little league fields, a park and batting cages. The clincher for me was next door is a county-owned beautiful lot and across the street from that is the Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary, complete with bike paths, walking paths, museum and lots of nature! It even connects with Valley Forge National Park. So, we love it. We feel good about our decision (instead of burdened about a house payment that would have left us unable to do anything else). And the best news of all is we have the keys now! We can move in. No more waiting!

Crazy enough I haven't taken a single picture yet. I will today.

I did find a new kitchen table to go in the new house....and I have a picture of that for your viewing pleasure. :)
Gotta love craigslist. Practically brand new table to seat 6 for less than $200 (we couldn't even afford that if we would have bought a house! :) ) We have a small round table that seats 4 and the cool thing is that these are the exact same chairs (except I stained mine espresso). I might stain these eventually too. We'll see. I have a lot of furniture that I want to re-do to make new! :)
So I'm pretty excited to have a place already! I'll be back soon with more pictures. This morning we are off to go apple picking!

Fall Frisbee Fun

Today I went to Delaware. (First time.) :) Our family and Pastor Dave and his family went to an awesome park to play Frisbee golf. If you haven't heard of it, it's just like golf but with frisbees and these funny little baskets instead of holes.
It was fun. The park was beautiful and the game was surprisingly good exercise....especially since half way through I had to CARRY Wyatt back to the car because he refused to go on. Brendan kept up with the big guys and played 9 holes. He loved it and got better and better as they went along.

In other news, we started house hunting this week. It's hard. It is so different than any house-hunting I've ever done in the past. Everything is really old....and a lot more expensive. We are going out again tomorrow so I hope to have more news about that soon.
Rand is all moved into his office and things are getting set up and settled for the most part....except for all of our possessions that are in a storage unit for the time-being. The rest of the "settling" will have to wait.

Sure do miss everyone~~~

(click on any picture to see it bigger)

Still Here

You'd think I'd have a ton to write about just having moved across the country to a new place. Sadly, I can't really think of anything to say. I know many of you are wondering how it is going, so I will try to oblige. Mostly I am just trying to get adjusted. Searching....once again.....for "normal". I think one of the ways I do that is just by laying low and processing quietly. I usually have to force myself out of that little rut eventually but I can definitely see a pattern in all of it. Mostly, I would have to say things are going great. I don't really have my bearings quite yet, but that will come. I went grocery shopping today. I consider that an accomplishment.
Rand is loving his job.....all 3 days of it so far. :) And even better, he is at a Philly's game with a new friend tonight.
Yesterday I got to go to Lancaster...I think. At least we were close. Saw lots of Amish buggies driving around. It was super cool. I think I secretly want to be Amish. :) I like the simplicity, back-to-the-basics kind of lifestyle. We picked up some apples, tomatoes and the most gorgeous mums you have ever seen...for pennies I might add....okay, more like dollars. That was fun.
We have a nice, furnished apartment to stay in temporarily and I am hoping to start looking around for a more permanent place soon. The kids are loving what kids love most...playing! The best part is that it is cool and not a scorching 105 degrees and there is lots and lots and lots of grass.
Oh, and I'm still trying to decide on a new name for the blog-a-roo.....
I've only taken a couple pictures so here's what I have.

Brendan up a tree. He's been wanting to climb trees for a long time!


The Arch at Valley Forge Park


One of those little cabin thingys




Valley Forge Park


Warwick County Park (according to the kids you can't call it a park unless it has a playground)


Somewhere........


A new friend, Matthew, taste-testing the apples


Amish horse and buggy


A house we're considering.
I'M KIDDING! HA HA