"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." ~Lin Yutang

Saturday, August 24, 2013

campout!

last weekend I got a weekend away with my big girl.  we had plans of camping together all weekend long.  we headed out around 9am, ran some errands, did some school shopping, ate lunch, and didn't even head up to the mountains until 1pm. 
it was fun to shop, as much as I hate spending money.  we still had fun.  we got her some shirts, a pair of shorts, and some school pants.  one funny story that I laughed about all weekend long was when we were in a little teen clothing shop and one of the sales associates came up asking if anyone had asked us to smell vixen.  as wolfie answered, "no", I clarified, "excuse me?" because I just wasn't sure what she was asking.  she then restated her question, "are either of you ladies interested in smelling vixen?"  wolfie answered, "sure" and held out her hand.  I muttered, "that sounds a bit inappropriate."  turns out vixen was a perfume essence they had for sale.  they had little slips of vixen samples they were handing out.  when the sales associate heard my absolutely hilarious joke muttered, she apologized all over herself for the inappropriate question... which threw me into a fit of giggles because SINCE I WAS AN ADULT she had no idea that I had any sort of sense of humor and therefore had to fix her mistake.  it was funny to me because, well, I am indeed funny.  but also funny for me to get the deer in the headlights look that adults get when teens have to give them when they're caught doing something wrong.  I just haven't gotten that much in my young adult life yet and it was almost as funny as my joke. 
anyway, maybe you kinda had to be there.  I don't know. 
wolfie and I drove up to the lake, played, swam, piled rocks, sun bathed, hiked, climbed, piled some more rocks, fell, met new people, and then went to find a camp spot.  we ended up camping at the same area that our family camped at a few weeks prior, just further back into the woods, by the lake.  the spot was nice.  it was another spot that i'd take the family to.  wolfie did some more swimming and a little hiking/climbing while I perched myself by the shaded beachfront at read some of the book she brought up (Eragon).  we watched some silly teenagers show off to each other by jumping off rocks, saw a swarm of bats wake up and start flying around us, (that was kinda creepy, but cool), went for a late night stroll, and then headed to bed.  I made sure to frighten her thoroughly by telling her all the little silly things that scare me at night when I'm camping, and then we had trouble going to sleep.  :)  but eventually we slept well and woke early to many loud annoying squirrel cries and pinecones being tossed at our tent.  we went to the pancake house for breakfast where wolfie ordered a scrumptious meal of biscuits and gravy with 2 eggs and some bacon.  first she doused the eggs and bacon in maple syrup.  then she scraped the gravy off the biscuit and poured huckleberry syrup over it.  that was odd.  but either way, it went down.  so then we rummaged around the small town, shopping, browsing, etc.  there was a cool large arts and craft fair that was in town for the weekend, so we stopped into it and looked around.  there were tons of really cool yard art, jewelry, signs, and other stuff.  then we went back out to the beach to swim.  once we got there, neither of us really wanted to get in.  so we sat and read.  a snake came up and distracted us.  wolfie spent the remainder of our time trying to catch it I think.  around 2 we decided we had had plenty of fun and we'd head home. 
it was a great weekend away and with her.  i'm glad we did it and am anxious for us to do another one soon.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Thursday, August 15, 2013

GIRL SCOUT CAMP!

I don't remember if I talked much about selling girl scout cookies on this blog, but our march and april were BUSY taking and delivering orders.  we had a lofty goal to sell enough cookies to send binkles and I, BOTH, to the mom and me girl scout camp during the summer.  we didn't quite reach the goal, but came close enough.  all I had to pay was the deposit +$10. 
we signed up for a mom and me midweek camp and that was the past few days (aug 12-14).  we left a day early to do a real day of camping prior to hitting the girl scout's campgrounds.  I wanted to make sure and get some one-on-one time with my sweetie before sharing a fun "one-on-one" few days with a bunch of other moms/daughters. 
it was AWESOME!
it started off adventurous though, because... well... that's how we roll.
I was able to take our economical car, since there were just 2 of us.  otter pop and wolfie were left to tend the pups.  :) 
the drive up to camp is so pretty.  I just love it.  it gets you right in the mood for a week or month or summer of camping!!!  beautiful evergreens, a fast-paced river highly freckled with white water, and nice steep mountains sit next to the curve-filled (I can't figure out how to spell winedy/whindy/windy) road.
we made it up there in time to picnic for dinner.  we passed through the "small" camp-town and rounded over towards the east side of the lake which i'm most familiar with.  this is the same camp-town where I spent the 3 summers following my graduation living and working in. 
binkles pointed out and suggested a camp spot that I hadn't ventured to, but since we didn't have the whole family, I decided to oblige.  it was a rugged road up the mountain a small jont, but nothing our Subaru, marsha, couldn't easily handle.  we parked at the first campfire ring we found and then jumped out to explore the surroundings.  it was a vacant area, so we looked to see if there was a better campfire ring to mosey to.  I mean, when you have options, why not?!  in the first 2 minutes of exploring we found a small waterfall and a large doe.  there was an awesome site just next to the stream that created the waterfall, so I immediately decided to re-park and call the otter pop and let him know of our whereabouts. 
when I put the key in and turned it, to start the car though, nothing happened.  the car wouldn't start.  marsha was tuckered out from the long, hot drive up and didn't want to re-park.  so then I called otter pop and he wasn't too thrilled with us being so far off the road and away from all civilization.  woops.  safety first, so the two of us walked down the road and over to the nearest place to safely ask for help.  there happened to be a seventh-day Adventist camp just down the road, so I popped into their office and humbly asked the director for some help.  they had a portable jumper that they brought up and jumped marsha's battery.  dang it to all get out, that didn't work.  we tried and tried, but to no avail.  marsha was for sure tuckered out and didn't want to move.  so I called the mr. back and informed him of the situation at hand.  he was really disappointed in himself for letting me go camping with a kid in a car that died on us.  the thing is... it's a pretty reliable car.  most of the time it does exactly what you want it to.  but every once in a while it doesn't.  and I've made a link in when those times are... but i'll leave that for another paragraph. 
anyway, we just left it and decided that we'd found a great place to camp and we'd just stay put.  I told him that we'd sleep inside the car to ease his nerves and keep us locked up and safe.  then we went hiking, exploring, splashing in freezing cold glacier run-off water, and peeing/pooing in the brush.  awesome fun.  we also played a game of battleship and a game of sorry.  we each had our turns in winning, so that was fun too.  then, we prayed that in the morning marsha would start, for God to keep us safe, and proceeded that with bed.  it was still warm, so we just got out the little sleeping bag and a light blanket.  at 2:30am it was no longer warm, so I scooted over to the passenger side with binkles and cuddled on top of her.  by 7am, she couldn't feel her legs and feet any more and asked if I thought if maybe the car would start.  I was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy cold and told her i'd love it so that I could turn on the heater!  so I tried it and guess what.  it did. 
so we went to our little spot that last time we went camping, we deemed as "our private beach", used the portapotty that someone put there for our private and personal use, played in the sand, stacked some rocks, and then headed off to breakfast in town because I told her we would.  not totally the camping experience, but never how we'll be able to camp as a family because that would be ex-pendity-insive for all of us!  plus, it's an amazing breakfast place with 3-4 adjoining trinket stores that are fun to walk through.  so we did. 
after that we went back to the private beach and took a swim or two.  ok, I waded.  it was cold!  but I got wet enough to be wet, so it wasn't just my feet, people!  then we finished off most of our picnic supplies on lunch, fed a fat chipmunk, stacked some more rocks, and then headed to the campground.  check-in was from 1-3, so we got there shortly after 1. 
we were free to do whatever (which was kinda lame since we didn't know the campground much and didn't really know what "whatever" was allowed) until our first activity at 3:15.  mostly we just tried to get acquainted with the campground and waited for people to join us in our cabin.  the year before, binkles went with her aunt.  her favorite friends were the ones she bunked with, so she was excited to see if any of them were returning, but even more excited to see who was going to be bunking with us! 
our first activity was boating, which was binkles favorite activity from last year so that was exciting!  the boats were these luxury tour boats that didn't go very fast, but that didn't stop the girl scouts from tying a rope to them and tugging a tube of girls behind.  it was, by no means, a tubing experience!  however, if a young girl has never really been tubing before, she wouldn't know the difference and would have fun anyway.  that was the case with my daughter.  I was allowed to take a ride with her on the second round (the young girls first at this camp!) and taught her to lean and try and steer the tube that way.  no such luck though, the speed was just not enough to even get us over the boat's wake.  so, I bounced up and down on my side and gave her a little air as we caught other boat's and jet ski's small waves around the lake.  it was fun.  we smiled and giggled and even screeched a little at the splashes on our faces.  :)
next we went to the archery range and shot some arrows from bows.  that was fun. 
after that, we had dinner, free time, and then campfire.  we learned crazy new songs, roasted marshmallows, and got smoke in our eyes.  I love campfire.
binkles and I warned the heck out of our bunkmates about how cold it would be at night, so we closed all the windows and bunkered down for another freezing night.  however, apparently 8 people in a small closed up cabin --even with a rain and thunderstorm outside-- produce PLENTY of heat!  everyone but binkles was very warm!  the thunder and rain woke most of us, but since binkles and I had already had our horrible night of sleeplessness the night before, we rested well.  I found out that since i'm such a nice light sleeper all the wake-ups during the night don't really bother my rest.  we had a sleep talker, one who needed to pee every hour, and a few snoring moms... and I rested just fine!  we all overslept, but made it up in time for flag and breakfast. 
after breakfast I think we had some more free time.  it was called "free swim" but it was at 9:30 in the morning, so I kinda think it was a misprint.  either way, I found a little library right outside the dining hall and checked out a book on making nature art.  the girls who binkles and made friends with were excited with the idea of trying some projects out.  I started with a nature wreath which turned out so nicely I wish we would've had a hook on our door to hang it!  the group really got going on a twig basket though.  they collected twigs and brought them together and although the book called for hot glue, we couldn't find that ANYWHERE in the beautiful nature surrounding us.  instead we used the long grass and tied the twigs together that way.  it might not be as sturdy as the hot glue, but like I said before... it didn't grown in our neck of the woods. 
after a few hours of being artistic, we went to our first activity of that day: ropes course.  I was excited for this as it's always been my favorite camp activity.  2 of the 3 summers I worked at camp, it was on the ropes course.  the girl scouts don't have any high elements, but the low ones are really just as fun.  we did the trust fall, the v-walk, the plank ladder, swinging vines, and the moving ladder.  most of them are group elements and I enjoy those.  the young girls were chatter boxes and I was pleased that the moms started joining me in joining the girls on more and more activities as the day progressed. 
by that time, binkles and I had found another family that we really enjoyed and had fun with.  they were not in our cabin, but were in our activity group.  one of the families in our cabin also had joined us in a lot of free time activities.  for the most part the girl campers were friendly and accepting.  a few of the girls had come in groups and were not inclusive of other girls, but a lot of the girls were like us and didn't know anyone else there.  a lot of the moms had come to watch their girls have fun.  only a handful were there to have fun with their girls.  I thought that was interesting since I was definitely in the latter group! 
after ropes we changed clothes, worked on our twig basket, and then went for lunch.  after lunch they opened up the lake for more free swim.  I found the doula that helped us with starboy's birth, caught up with her for a might bit, and then stood on the dock talking myself into being a fun mom and jumping in.  after about 10 minutes I did.  I pulled the girls around in a floaty tube until I was out of muscle and breath.  then I got out and tried to talk the sun into drying me off.  binkles spent the whole swim time making new friends with a family that was in our activity group.  this family had 3 girls at the camp.  twin 8-y-o girls and a 9-y-o sister.  all three girls had an uncanny resemblance to marida (from brave), both in looks and personality.  not kidding. 
after free swim our next activity was "funyaking".  funyaks are plastic kayaks.  they come in one and two-person size.  there were also canoes.  everyone chose funyaks except for 3 moms who chose to ride in one canoe together.  it was nice to have everyone participating in an activity.  for most of the activity hour we just paddled and did what we want inside the boundaries they gave us, but in the last about 15 minutes the lifeguard had us play a few group games.  it was fun.  that was probably my favorite activity of the camp. 
after that was swimming.  I sat and chatted with the mom of the girls who we first made friends with.  she was a fun lady and was the first to join me in joining the girls in the fun activities.  she had to drag one of the other moms to try one of the ropes course elements with her since it was divvied out by height.  this mom lives in the area where I grew up.  I really enjoyed getting to know her and her company was much appreciated during the camp session.
after swimming we went and did art/craft.  they had us make memory books which was a ton of fun, but we were the last group of the whole season... so the materials were very limited.  I spent the whole hour on my front page.  yeah... that's why I don't do a lot of scrapbooking.  however, I was pleased with how it turned out.  I decided to take pictures of our new friends and then paste them to the book with their names/addresses and make it into a little address book for binkles.  otherwise it won't ever get done.  an hour per page is just stupidity.  that's just the way I am!
after arts/crafts we had an hour before dinner.  binkles ran around and played with all her new friends while I bunkered down and worked on that durn twig basket some more.  what a project!!!  after that was dinner and campfire. 
after campfire that night, whoever chose was allowed to participate in the GS POLAR BEAR PLUNGE.  funny thing is that that lake is warmest at the end of the day, so the 9:30 free swim would be a much more appropriate time for a polar bear plunge.  anyway, I didn't choose, but binkles did.  she loves to do daring things!  I just didn't want to have a wet head in bed.  :( 
we let the girls stay up talking that night.  the three girls who were in the top bunks stayed up telling stories and reciting movies/plays. 
we woke the next morning and started packing up.  2 of our 4 families in our cabin planned on leaving directly after breakfast.  we took pictures, ate breakfast, tried to take a big group picture and said good-byes. 
our favorite 2 families weren't rushing out, so we got more time with them.  however, the family with the twins did leave right after breakfast. 
binkles, her new friend "Katie", and I asked to use art supplies and spent the rest of the morning before we left making necklaces and finishing off the twig basket. 
binkles and I left the campground right around noon.  when we arrived in our cabin there was trash, candy, crafts, and sand everywhere.  we left later than check-out because we decided to clean it for them.  we found a broom and swept up the mess.  we threw away the trash and hopefully left it how it should have been left for us. 
marsha started right up for us and we drove to the local pizza place where I spent my evenings waiting tables a decade plus ago.  we had pizza and salad.  binkles left her girl scout had there.  :(  then we meandered around the town's farmers market, stopped back to a trinket shop we found before camp and purchased a wood carved-eagle sling shot, aired up the tires in marsha and headed back home. 
at the town right before ours I decided that maybe we need a little more gas, so stopped in for a bit of gas.  unfortunately my earlier guess of perhaps marsha doesn't like to drive for long distances was confirmed when after I gassed up, she wouldn't start again.  the truck in front of us, pulled forward to give us a jump, but once again... she wouldn't budge.  I tried calling mr. pops, but there was no cell phone reception on my little emergency travel phone.  so, I told binkles we'd go in the service station and use their phone.  I locked the car, shut the door, and immediately realized I didn't have the keys!  *sigh*  so, I went in and used their phone and admitted my stupidity of locking the keys in the car to my wonderful understanding and loving husband. 
we waited for a bit and then got rescued by that above mentioned mister hero.  he brought all the kids but the large one for the rescue.  it was so lovely to be reunited by those smiling faces!!!  I think they might have missed me a little.  :) 
we got home and passed out the necklaces we made them all.
to top off the wonderful time, wolfie tested for her blue belt and received it last night too!!!  what a great day!  yeah, some rotten events happened around the 3 o'clock hour... but what a great day AND a great time for the past 3 days!!!

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Friday, August 9, 2013

floating tacos veggie style

I had to share this 'cause I really felt brilliant the night I made floating tacos.  floating tacos, you see, are made with hamburger as the main ingredient.  seeing how we're trying to cut out our animal intake though, this meal doesn't work that well.  but we like it.  really, we love it. 
so, I used 1/3 the amount of meat, and substituted some shredded zucchini for the rest of the meat.  I seasoned it up with a lot of shakin's of McCormick's hamburger seasoning (which is delish, if you didn't know), cumin, chili powder, oregano, and seasoning salt.  other than that, I didn't do anything else different.  and guess what!!! 
I'm sure you can't guess, so go ahead and give up.
IT TASTED THE SAME!  maybe a little too seasoned if anything different, but there was NO zucchini taste!!!!!  best part:  otter pop's mom ("nana") planted about 6 zucchini plants that are absolutely THRIVING and HUMONGOUS!!!  so... that's awesome, right?!
ok then.  carry on.  just thought you wanted to know...

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Thursday, August 8, 2013

house hunt part 3

well, we found a house in our price range that we like and will fit our family.  that's exciting.  we put an offer in for full asking price and the next day found out that with the price of insurance and etc. that it would be above our price range.  :(  bummer.  sad day.  true story.
so then the NEXT DAY after that,  our real estate agent called and said, "why don't you find out what you are approved for and we'll offer that amount.  we don't have anything to loose!"

so we did.  and the amount was 10 thiggidy thousand dollars less than the full asking price.  and on Monday, I got a call that the seller ACCEPTED THAT OFFER. 

so... it's a short sale so we don't necessarily have a home owning experience in our future, but we COULD!!!!  the seller's lender still has to accept our offer and that could take another couple weeks to a month.  then the rest of the process could take another 5 months (or even more!).  we'll continue to be patient along this journey, but I totally want to share that our God is so awesome that He will protect us from spending an extra 10K on a house if we don't have to!  He has our best interest at heart.  every time.  'cause he loves us.  and I LOVE HIM!

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

10 years together

in april of 2002, I met the man who later I would marry. 
at that time I was working at a Harley-Davidson dealership in a small town in south-central Idaho.  I worked in the front of the shop selling clothes and all sorts of H-D accessories.  I think in April I might have been the only employee working up front.  three new employees all started within a few weeks.  two were mechanics and the other one was a second parts guy.  bob, otter pop, and nick.  I had a hard time keeping them straight since I didn't really work side-by-side with any of them.  up until that point we really didn't have a large turnover rate (especially in the guys' departments!)... well, I had only worked there for about a year I guess...
I remember the first time I saw my future husband.  of course he was in his bay in the shop.  I had to go back and ask the service manager, ron, a question.  ron, was a jerk.  he thought, for some crazy reason, that he was God's gift to all things with a vagina.  but he didn't believe in God.  he also thought that being such a gift allowed him the privilege to treat women 1 of 2 ways.  1.) like their eyes were plastered on their chest, making fanTAStic eye-contact. or 2.) like they are absolutely incapable of doing ANYthing.  I liked to return his #2 treatment and throw it back to him... it was easy to do because he was such a pot-head he wasn't very capable anyway. 
anyway, ron was sitting in otter pop's bay going over something mechanical with him.  I excused myself to interrupt them and asked ron the question.  then I asked who the new mechanic was and introduced myself.  we shook hands and then I gave ron a witty little retort to his smart-butt response to my first question.  otter pop laughed.  that caught my attention because although I AM a very funny person, most people don't get me. 
anyway, later I got to know him and then met his cute 3-year-old little red headed daughter and then his mom. 
we didn't really date much because he had a 3-year-old daughter.  we hung out some, but I knew that in may I would move up to the mountains and really had no intentions to come back after the summer job ended.  I was ready to travel the world while growing up and deciding what in the world needed me most (in terms of careers).
leaving him and his cute offspring in may was hard.  we had become pretty good friends.  I liked him.  he intrigued me.  he was (and is) my opposite
so we kept in touch.  and I came back.  and we dated.  and we fell in love.  and 10 years ago today... we got married. 

I am so thankful that God has kept us together.  I am so thankful that God brought us together.  I am so thankful that God made children through us.  God is good and SO IS MARRIAGE.  it's hard, but it's good and i'm everly thankful for this experience.  i'm excited to keep it going until death do us part!


"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

house hunt part 2

 currently we live in a 1188 sq. ft. home.  it has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  it has a 2 car garage and a small fenced-in backyard.  we live in a large boundary for the school our kids attend, in fact, I believe that as long as we're south of the freeway, we'd be eligible to stay at that school. 
so, our hopes in finding a new home are this:  3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with 1400 sq. ft. or more.  we'd like 4 bedrooms, but homes these days are roomy and lots of the 3bd/2bth with more than 1400 sq. ft. have a "bonus room" or 2 family rooms.  we can obviously fit in 3 bedrooms and an extra couple hundred more square feet would be nice with or without an extra bedroom!  we'd like a 2-car garage and .2 (or close)+ acre.  those are our wishes... and we'd like to find that somewhere south of the freeway. 
about a month ago we were getting to the point where the house market was rising so quickly and so dramatically that we were almost ready to stop looking for another year or two.  the houses in our price range are pretty much the exact size of what we live in now AND we haven't seen one south of the freeway in almost a year.  we researched some alternative options exhausting all of our resources.  we took a first time homeowner class.  that was helpful and we were thankful to take it.  everything was pointing to, now is not the right time.
we sighed and kept looking.  we have perseverance.  we have patience.  we have an almighty Lord who we trusted to lead our family where He wanted.  we also expanded our searching territory.  maybe He didn't want us to be south of the freeway.  maybe He had plans for us to minister somewhere else.  maybe we weren't trusting Him enough...
a couple weeks ago a home came to my inbox that caught my eye.  it didn't have a garage (strike 1).  it only had 1 picture and it was of the outside of the home (strike 1 and a half).  it said "fixer-upper" in the description (strike 2).  but something about it told me to pursue...  so we did.  it's about 45 minutes from our comfort location.  the asking price is in our budget.  the size of the house and the size of the property are very appealing.  although the location is a ways away, it is up in the mountains, near other houses.  its surroundings are BEAUTIFUL! 
we traveled up to see what kind of "fixer up" it was.  it took us 30 minutes to get to it from our house.  and the verdict:  we really liked it!  it has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths and is on .87 acre.  the house is 2 story where the upstairs is level with the front yard and the backyard is level with the downstairs.  it has a very large deck off the back top level and lots of large shade trees in the backyard and frontyard.  also, I just have to mention that the finished square footage of the house is 2180 (that's almost DOUBLE of what we have now)!! 

so, "what now?"  you ask?  well, i'll tell you "what now", because I've caught you up to almost current.  but i'll drag this out into another post and leave you hanging.  :)

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

house hunt

in humility i'm writing this update.  God is the leader of our family and to Him be the glory for ALL we endure ---bad and good!
we've been on the market for buying a home for the past... well, I hate to say it, but 2+ years.  we've been searching and searching and asking God to lead our family where He wants us to live.  we have been open to new ideas, but frankly would like to stay in the same area for the simple reason of not wanting to change our whole life with a move.  we LOVE the school that the little ones attend.  we are very close to otter pop's work and wolfie's dojo (for martial arts).  we have friends who live near and it would really be hard to relocate and build up a new lifestyle somewhere else.  it was hard for us to do it 5 years ago and we know it'd be even harder this time being planted here for 5 years this time.
we are not picky.  currently we live in a humble little home of 1188 sq. ft.  it has a small yard and a 2-car garage.  that is all we have needed and it has been more than pleasant!  we love our cozy little place.  honestly though, we'd like to upgrade a little (in size) when we buy a new home.  that's our goal.  we feel like we would love some more room inside and out (more out than in though). 
in nov. of '12, after a year and some, we finally found a home that we thought was absolutely perfect.  it wasn't in our school boundaries, so that was a huge bummer, but it was almost twice the sq. ft. as our current home and was on a half acre out in the country.  it had close neighbors, but wasn't squashed between them and there weren't any intrusive HOA's or CC&R's.  best part: it was in our budget!  we asked our lender about it and our hopes were crushed.  we were told to hold off until otter pop got another raise.  ... :(  sad day.  true story.
in march of this year, the mr got a raise and it was a nice one!  we started looking again.  low and behold, the above mentioned home was back on the market!!!  we put an offer on it, and were put in 2nd position to buy it if the 1st position buyer backed out or fell through.  we were amazed at God's graciousness in the deal.  patience had paid off and finally ---after a year and a half--- were going to get a home!!!  maybe.  (if the 1st position buyer fell through at least).  we were hopeful.
in may, I think it was, it happened.  the 1st position sale was contingent upon sale of their home and it didn't pass the VA approval.  they were out and we were in!!! 
...or so we hoped.  we were offered a $500 to rush the closing if we could get it done in 10 days!  now THAT WAS FUN!  it only took a few days to realize that not only would we not close in 10 days, the specific home couldn't be financed through any of the loans we could afford.  bummer.  closed door.  keep looking.
it was about that time that we really started to see the house market rising.  houses that were previously listed started asking at least 10K but averagely 20K more.  houses were coming on the market at much higher asking prices.  it was frustrating for us, because our budget was right at the same price that investors are able to pay cash, do a few fix-ups and then flip them for lots of money.  set back #1, we don't have cash to buy our home.  set back #2, we don't have the money to do lots of fix-ups, but we're just looking for something to live in!  agh!!!!!!

this is getting long.  i'll make this a series.  stay tuned to more on OUR HOUSE HUNT...
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

Sunday, August 4, 2013

'nother animal-free menu

we're still far from animal-FREE, but we're continuing to work on removing them from our diet.  i have to express how extremely hard it has been!  however, we've seen results like crazy.  for a simple instance: jones and starboy's ezcema has comPLETEly cleared up all over their body.  jones especially had legs that looked like a lepers (or what i imagine a leper's legs to look like), are just bruised and scratched up from being a boy rather than scraped and scratched from itching them raw!  another other pleasant result has been easily lost weight.
anyway, here is our menu for this next week:
  • veggie fried rice with fajitas or quesadillas
  • broccoli salad with bowtie pasta
  • meatless taco soup
  • floating tacos with corn on the cob
  • hamburgers/black-bean burgers with fruit salad
  • something new and good : request for nachos for supper ???
  • breakfast for dinner:  hashbrowns, eggs, and toast


"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31