Tag: Life
Fourteen Days Of Nothing
Today was our middle son’s birthday. He is now 11, and he had a great birthday. Seven years ago we were moving in the middle of his birthday too. We were just moving into this house, so it felt rather ironic that we were celebrating his birthday and then moving a few truckloads afterward.
Today marks one month since I discovered what the mortgage company was planning. Since then, I contacted them, they sent me conflicting letters making contradictory statements and “re-instatement” offers. In the days that followed my initial contact I received multiple letters. Well, let me rephrase that. I received 2 different letters. One that made a ridiculous offer, and another letter (which I received six copies of) that made an even more ridiculous offer.
In the past 14 days, nothing. No phone calls, no letter, no updates, no follow-ups. Like I said, nothing. The mortgage company has made it very clear they have had no interest, from the very beginning, of working with us, or even admitting their own mistake. I sure am glad we didn’t sit back and wait for them to work with us.
Tomorrow, after church, we plan on taking three more truckloads (maybe even more) to the new house. I guess it might be a good idea to get some rest because I have no idea what that will entail.
Sooner Rather Than Later
We couldn’t contain ourselves. We took three truckloads of stuff to the new house. In fact, one of our sons has moved his entire bedroom to the new house. SInce we won’t have a few of the utilities turned on until next week, he’s going to be sleeping on the couch.
We’ve met both of our next door neighbors at the new house and they seem to be real nice people. Unlike some of our neighbors here, I don’t think we’re going to have any issues at the new house.
Now, if I could just find two or three people who can lift a few heavy items I might save my back (and my wallet) a lot of pain.
It’s probably going to take five more days or so, but I think we’ll be living there sooner than any of us thought we would be.
Anxious To Move
Today was a great day! We couldn’t resist making a trip to the new house. We had planned on renting a PODS unit to load everything up and then have it delivered to the house, but it turns out we’re probably going to “truck it”, since we’ve already made a couple loads today and we are planning to make some more tomorrow.
Posting may, or may not, be a little on the light side if we get carried away moving this week. Although we have until the end of the month, we’re all a bit antsy to get moved in and kiss the memories of this house goodbye.
Gidget and I had our first RCIA class tonight, and it was much more exciting than I thought it was going to be (and I thought it was going to be a lot of fun).
Things went so well today, I’m not going to let Stephen Hawking or his ridiculous claim that ‘God wasn’t needed to create the universe’ get under my skin.
He’s free to believe what he wants, it’s unfortunate though, because I don’t think the alloy used in his chair can withstand intense heat.
23 Days Of Angst
The past 23 days, since I discovered the “ploy” being used by the mortgage company to rip our home out from under us, have been some of the most stressful days in my entire life.
The first couple days were filled with calls to the mortgage company “trying to work it out”. The next week was spent contacting attorneys in our area to see if we could stop the fiasco before it reached the point of no return. The mortgage company responded almost immediately and proved there would be no “working it out” in our future.
Eleven days into the ordeal, we started a serious search for a new home. It took a while to find a few places that were (a) large enough, (b) affordable enough, and (c) self-sustainable (from a farming sense).
The first place we found was a beautiful old home on 16 acres of land. It was on the market as part of an estate sale. The deal fell through because we only had agreement from 5 of the 7 siblings. We were sad when we lost that one, because we really, really, wanted it. It had been a family home for almost 100 years, and we we wanted to continue that tradition. Instead, greed has set in and that family will sit back and argue with each other until that beautiful home falls to the ground.
Our second choice was just around the corner from the first one, and it had 13 acres. The house was smaller but some remodel work had already been done. It had new electrical and plumbing through the entire house, but there was something “not right” with that place. Call it a feeling, call it a hunch, whatever you call it, the deal was off after we made a few calls and did some more research.
The third place we found was spectacular. It was at the high end of our budget on almost 6 acres. The previous owner (who has since sold to his company as part of a relocation package) showed us the entire property. We were stunned. We were in love. Then the company that now owns the property would not work with us, at all. They obviously didn’t want to sell the property, not to us anyway.
It was now the 22nd, and by this point we were getting desperate. We were hoping to find a place before the first of the month and it didn’t look like we were going to make our self-imposed deadline.
We found our fourth choice “out in the country”. Seven acres of the most beautiful land you have ever seen, with a 100 year old farmhouse that was riddled with termites and God knows what else. The ceiling sagged, the floors creaked, and we were desperately trying to convince ourselves that we could “fix that”.
We had almost resigned ourselves to make an offer on the “fixer upper” when we found a simple little house, just down the road from our church. Literally. The house is a half a mile from our church. It only has 2 acres of land, but we quickly decided that we could grow a self-sustainable garden, with chickens, on 2 acres. We called the real estate agent so we could look at the house. It is so nice. Plenty of room for everyone, with plenty of room for my chickens and artichokes. WooHoo!
So, after 23 days of intense emotions and stress, and 23 uncomfortable nights, waking up wondering where we were going to end up, we found the place we wanted to live. We submitted an offer through our agent, and around 6pm tonight we received word that the seller has accepted our offer. How cool is that?
With the stress of finding a place behind us, the focus now shifts on the remaining 40 days we have to move. Something tells me the packing part of this plan isn’t going to be anywhere as stressful as the finding a place to live part.
Sunday Silence On Tuesday
Isn’t this where he stands on most controversial issues?
After a busy day, I’m taking the night off to relax and prepare for tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, so I better get a good night’s sleep.
Our Semi-Success On eBay
Late last week, Gidget listed a whole bunch of our leftover homeschool books and supplies on eBay. She sold about half of the items she listed and made enough money to purchase a new science curriculum and a Latin set so the boys can start learning Latin. It should be an interesting year.
She sold so many things that I spent the better part of this afternoon packaging, boxing, and shipping most of the items. Because of her success, we are all in “eBay seller frenzy”, looking through the house deciding what might sell and what wouldn’t.
I’ll be spending the rest of the week getting back into the groove called “work”, and I hope to write some in-depth posts too.
Still Disgusted
I am still disgusted at the results of our primary election, so I am posting this photo so I can meditate for a while.
Breathtaking
Early this morning we drove over to Conyers, Georgia to visit the Monastery of the Holy Spirit for a Sweetwater Camera Club field trip.
The grounds were so quiet and serene, I felt at peace almost immediately. What happened next amazed me.
As you can see in the photograph above, the Abbey is quite beautiful. When you walk through the doors and see the stained glass windows against the concrete, the simplicity of the design stuns you, but there is something there the eye cannot see. While we stood there looking at the beautiful colors in the stained glass against the bare gray concrete, the camera saw something completely different.
This photograph is not altered. While the naked eye sees an immense church built with gray concrete, the camera picks up a beautiful abbey with blue toned supports and an alter that seemed to be be glowing, and growing warmer each minute of our stay.
We strolled down by the lake. We visited the Bonsai shop. We browsed at the book store. All in all it was a wonderful day with my wonderful family, and an enriching experience for all of us.
The “moment” of my day was making the following photograph.
When I saw the simple wooden cross against the bare, concrete wall, I was reminded of the lyrics to “The Eagle Song” by The Imperials.
What human intellect can’t sway
Must be explained this way
Earth wisdom, religions of men
Searched without end to find the spirit house within
Simplicity of God somehow escapes man
Absolutely breathtaking.
All Grown Up With No Place To Go
Our baby bluebirds fledged today, but it wasn’t all fun and games for one of the babies.
Each summer, since putting up our bluebird house, we have had a nesting pair of Eastern Bluebirds on our back deck. Each summer, they have at least two broods, and one time three. We have only had one bad egg out of all the broods hatched in our bluebird house, which is 10 feet from our back door.
The bluebirds that spend time in our yard get very accustomed to our comings and goings. They don’t seem to have any problem when we decide we want to use our back deck either. In fact, they sit on the feeder poles 10-15 feet away from the nest when we check it.
Last year, the mother bluebird flew up to our back door in what seemed to be a panic. She was making quite a ruckus, and it was obvious she was trying to get our attention. We quickly noticed that one of the the babies from their first brood had fallen from the deck before it was ready to fly.
Based on her reaction, I did not hesitate to go outside to pick it up and bring it back up to the deck to place it back in the nest. Ever since that day, we have seemed to enjoy a special bond with the bluebirds on our back deck.
This afternoon, we noticed both the male and female bluebirds hovering over the same spot in the yard. I checked their nest and sure enough, the babies had fledged from the nest, right on schedule. I grabbed my shoes and walked out into the yard to find one of the babies hiding behind a blade of grass (it wasn’t camouflaged too well).
After a brief observation it was clear that the baby couldn’t fly, but I couldn’t tell if it was due to the tall grass in that section of the yard, or if it just wasn’t developed enough yet. The parents flew to the bushes nearby and waited patiently.
I picked up the baby to examine it. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t injured. I tried to place it on a low branch of one of our snowball bushes, but it wouldn’t let go of my fingers, so I snapped the following photo with my iPhone.
After a brief rest, the baby was ready to try flying again. As I placed it gently back where I found it, the mom and dad started hovering over it again, trying to persuade the little tyke to take flight. It’s brothers and sisters were flying in and out too, in an obvious sign of support.
As the sun set tonight, after an afternoon of numerous flight attempts, that baby was still sitting in the tall grass by the old swing set, and its parents were still perched on the top of the swing set keeping an eye out for predators. Maybe tomorrow the little bird will find just the lift it needs to spread its wings and fly.
They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Apparently you can lead a bluebird to the open field, but you can’t make it fly either.