The Scoot

We've been a one car family for almost a year.  It's been part ok and part awful but mostly unavoidable.

The story of our cars goes like this:
Started our move to Kentucky with a newish Toyota truck and an oldish Saturn wagon.  Saturn wagon broke down about an hour from it's new home.  Bought a Honda Civic.  A few weeks later, Keith got a company car.  Truck (and $$ gas tank) sat in driveway.  Sold truck.  Quit job.  Gave back company car.  Moved to Nevada.  The saga of our unsold house.  Borrowed grandpa's caddy.  Caddy breaks down.  Sick of cars.  Gave back caddy.  Mortgage on above mentioned house prevented a replacement.

And so, we survived with our trusty Honda Civic.  Unfortunately, Keith's job has some unpredictable emergencies and all too often the kids and I were cancelling plans and stuck at home while Keith zipped off to take care of broken people.

Of course, the house finally sold and we were more than ready for another car.  However, we couldn't make up our minds on what to get.  We didn't just want a car.  We really want the vansion of our dreams but that's another story for another time and is going to require a little more patience (translation: cash).  So we settled for the next best thing:  A scoot!

I bought a scooter shortly after we were married and LOVED that thing for a few good years.  So economical, and just so stinkin fun to drive!  And Keith's commute isn't very long.  We're only two blocks from his main clinic so he really only needs a ride to the hospital or other clinics about half of the time.  The scooter is the perfect way to zip around cheaply, quickly, and happily while giving us the patience we need for our vansion.

First of all, is this kid cute or what?

Bryce was absolutely in awe of the big delivery truck that pulled up in front of our house.  This little guy LOVES trucks and he had so much fun getting up close and personal.

Unwrapping the surprise:

This reaction ensues every time the scoot comes out.  "Vrrooom, mommy!  Vrroooom daddy!"

The morning commute!

I steal a ride every now and then.  So. Much.  Fun!!!!

Leah's Dance Recital

Leah begged me to put her in dance lessons last year and I told her she could finally start when Bennett went to school.  So she started last fall and they had their recital in the spring.

So. Awesome.

First of all, three and four year-olds are beyond adorable in leotards.  Besides a baby in a onesie or a toddler running around in a diaper, there's nothing cuter.  But then there's bare baby bums and baby halloween costumes that make me freak out too.  And little boys dressed in Sunday clothes with slicked over hair like a man?  For reals!!  

Anyway, a little girl in a leotard is seriously way up high on the list.  And this little girl was making me absolutely giddy.

She did ballet and tap so we had a costume change during the show.  Such chaos.  And the show itself was just the most fun to watch.  All of them were so distracted.  They spent a lot of time examining the little pieces of tape on the floor with their names on them and moving each other around to be on the right piece of tape.  Then there was a lot of looking around while all the girls realized that they should have been dancing and none of them knew where to start.  But they eventually caught on and did a little dancing after all.

Leah was in heaven all day.  Not only did she get to dress up and be on stage, I even put makeup on her.  Her little girl heart could hardly take it!  I love my sweet dancer girl!

The Blog-a-Day Challenge

So, here's the deal.  I have about a million pictures and stories that I want to tell and remember forever and this here blog is the only journal I have going on.  But my blogging efforts lately are seriously just crap.

So I'm challenging myself to blog every day for a week.  Maybe that will get my writing juices flowing enough that I'll stick with it a little better after that.  AND, I'm offering an incentive for anyone who actually checks this blog anymore (I'm sure that's basically no one) and wants to keep me on track.

First person who busts me for not blogging for seven days in a row (ending next Thursday) gets a $5 bill in the mail.

Who will win?  You (who?) or me?

The "FREE" Piano

When we moved to our current house in January, my mom and dad came out to help.  During their visit, my mom's best friend Judy (they met when they were 8 or something), who lives at Lake Tahoe came down to hang out with my mom for a bit.  Judy was in the process of cleaning out a storage unit that they had for at least a decade.  The storage unit was only about a mile from my house.  Her storage was full of sentimental things but they just couldn't possibly fit them into their condo and it was crazy to keep paying to store it all.  Judy said the one thing that made her so sad was parting with her piano.  She mentioned in passing that we could have it but since we were in the middle of the move, Keith gave a pretty firm NO to that idea.

Later in the week, I received an email from Judy.  Judy loved that piano.  Her mom had gotten it when she was only 8 years old (1920's) and played it her entire life.  Her mom earned a degree in piano performance and Judy grew up listening to the beautiful sounds of that instrument.  But Judy didn't even play the piano and simply didn't have room for it anymore.  She had arranged for the Salvation Army to come pick up the last of the things in storage and she just hated to see the piano be donated.  She asked again if I wanted it (I could have it for FREE!) and sent me this picture:

Keith's fondness for pianos is about the same as he feels for dogs.  In other words, not only no......

The days passed and on the morning of the Salvation Army pickup, I had a moment of clarity.  I wanted that piano.  I mean, it was FREE after all.  And it had this great history (my mom's best friend's mom.  That's practically a blood relation!).  As Keith was leaving for work that morning I admitted my piano lust.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said good-bye.

I frantically searched the phone book for a piano mover.  I only had about 4 hours to beat the Salvation Army to the punch.  A little while later, my dear husband called and gave me a phone number.  He groaned knowing that he was helping me in my awful scheme, but one of his nurses knew a guy....

That guy happened to be available and he met me at the storage unit an hour later.  He blew off twelve years of dust and played a few notes.  He checked out the insides and was pleasantly surprised that it was in good condition.  Only a few adjustments and some tuning and it would be a great piano.  He loaded the piano into his truck and took it off to his shop to work out its kinks before delivering it to my house.

I was so excited!  Keith rolled his eyes.  I should probably mention here that I don't really play the piano.....

A few days later, my piano arrived.  The mover fixed a couple minor things and tuned it about 8 times before it was good to go.

And SEVEN HUNDRED dollars later, I had my "FREE" piano!

Of course, I am committed to learning to really play my FREE piano.  I took lessons when I was little and have taught myself some as well but now that I had my FREE piano, I needed to step it up a notch.

My piano mover gave me the name of a piano teacher in my neighborhood and I called her right away. We arranged for a lesson time and I skipped off to my first lesson.  I found out that not only does she play awesome piano....she's a JAZZ pianist!  My dream!  She rocked a few Louis Armstrong tunes for me and I floated home afterwards, feeling my jazz piano dreams almost within reach.

A week later, I showed up for my next lesson.  As I sat down at my teacher's gorgeous grand piano, she broke the news.  She had been diagnosed with cancer and would have to stop teaching piano lessons while she went out of town for treatment.

I was so sad for her.

And my piano playing dreams crashed down again.  But hey, I had scored a "FREE" piano so maybe just being in the same room with it will give me some awesome piano vibes.

UPDATE:  It took me so long to publish this post that now my teacher is back!  She's cancer free and teaching again!  I've had one lesson with her since her return.  Still not cranking out an improv version of "The A Train" yet but I sense it in my future..... 

She rides!

Last night Keith was out working in the woodshop/garage and the kids all wandered out and started putting on helmets to ride bikes.  I have been meaning to get the training wheels off Leah's bike for a while but kept putting it off.  Last night I looked at my tall 4-year old and her dorky training wheels and decided it was time.  Keith took the trainers off her bike and she reluctantly followed me to the bottom of our culdesac.  I promised her she could put the training wheels back on if she gave it a try for awhile and decided she wasn't ready.

Well....10 minutes later, this happened:

We could hardly get her off the bike for the rest of the night.  This is one happy bike riding girl!

Bring on summer!

The Next Valley of Death

I was so haunted by Death Valley that we had to go back. Putzing around at a one year olds pace was fun, but.... since the longest run that first weekend in Death Valley was 2.something, done with my six year old, I needed a little more burn. I have to admit that those two miles were some of the best I've ever done but what good is a run if you can't feel the muscle pain 3 days later?

Lacking a holiday weekend this trip would have to be fast. That meant arriving late.

I (this is Keith, by the way) had lots of great ideas of how to mix some family fun with a long run. Andrea was not too crazy about most of them. We finally agreed on a plan. We would leave after I finished work at 5:00 PM and drive to the start of the Titus canyon road. Andrea would drop me off in the desert for some illegal camping while she took the kids back into Beatty Nevada to what one of her friends described as the dumpiest hotel the friend ever hopes to stay in. Andrea and the kiddo trifecta could sleep in, go to Denny's for baseball pancakes and come pick me up after I finished running around in the desert.

We arrived at 11:00 PM on a dark moonless night in a raging windstorm at the start of the Titus canyon road. We located an obvious bend in the road that Andrea could recognize the next morning. I told her to walk for 60 seconds directly towards a radio/cell antenna visible on a peak off to the North. I would there cache my camping gear early the next morning when I started to run. She would retrieve the gear then drive into Death Valley where I hoped to arrive some time "around noon" the next day. Some of our biggest family strife recently has involved rendezvous times and locations after long runs such as this so I was more than a little apprehensive about pulling this whole thing off.

They say stolen waters are sweet, but illegal camping is less so when you are fairly close to a well traveled road. Between the buffeting wind and cars on the highway I did not enjoy any sweet sleep. Fortunately I had the alarm set for 3 AM so I did not have to toss and turn for long. I procrastinated getting out of the tent as long as I dared as I only had enough clothing to stay warm while running. I froze as I put away the tent and tried to eat and hydrate. The gear was cached behind some grease wood and I hoped Andrea and the kids could easily find it yet remain hidden from anyone else.

I started running due west at 4:00 AM. It was dark, really dark. I try to run with a headlamp on as little as possible because the big world gets narrowed down to that small beam of weirdly blue LED light. On this morning, Mars was directly in front of me on an arrow straight road and I chased him towards the horizon before he beat me soundly while silently slipping behind a craggy limestone ridge just before sunrise. With my light on I could only see a small colorless area of gravel road twenty feet in front of me but nothing else. If I switched it off I could see the stars and the faint glow of stars above the jagged mountain horizon. I could not see any detail of the rough road I was traveling without the headlight...but those stars!! A sprained ankle would be worse than bad all alone on a cold night when I was dependent upon running to stay warm. I have heard it said that cops think everyone is a criminal but my job makes me think that injuring a foot or ankle is an everyday occurrence. I uneasily decided to trust dumb luck and run lightless while trying to sense the big ankle busting rocks so to enjoy the full beauty of a deep dark winter night. I allowed Mars to guide me while the Milky Way and not infrequent asteroids made enough light to at least stay on the road, oh and totally blow my mind! A cold clear desert winter sky with no light pollution was not to be missed!

I pushed the worries of covering the distance in the appropriate time, Andrea finding my camping gear, sprained ankles, having enough water, finding the correct route, and mountain lions out of my mind and just focused on moving.

The first portion of this run is straight up an alluvial fan for several miles before entering a canyon that crosses the Funeral Mountains over a pass into Titus Canyon that descends to Death Valley proper. I was finally into the canyon when the sun decided to join me on my journey. Inserting yourself into a rugged unknown landscape and then letting the sun reveal the detail of the place is worth the 3 AM start. Better than surprise presents! I was not disappointed! The multicolored strata was amazing in the early morning glow. A geologists dream. A bad runners dream. I could easily keep my mind off the pain of running as I oogled the geological display that only the desert can give with none of that pesky greenery to hide the dirt and rocks. Truth be told, I'm really not much of a runner. Put me on a treadmill and about 0.91 miles is all I can do before I have to stop from exertion. I can manage 3 or 4 miles on a paved road before my body gives up. Here I had been running 10 miles all uphill and hit the top of the first pass feeling really good. If I get out in the woods or on a trail with good scenery it gets all transcendental and weird and I can run for hours. Its not that I really enjoy the running but more that I enjoy moving through the landscape.  I'm something like a hiker with ADD. I don't even have to think about the running part. My mind and body are doing totally separate things. I was so wrapped up in the panorama that I hardly noticed the long, steady uphill section.

I was carrying a gallon of water (Death Valley is supposed to be hot you know) and enough food for all day. Too bad I was freezing.

And.....this is where Keith got bored and stopped the blog entry.  So, I'll finish it up with a few pics of his journey.

 Other highlights of the trip included:

• A sweet hotel room in Beatty, NV
• The ever exciting baseball pancakes from Denny's
• Finding Keith's gear without a hitch
• Poking around a mining ghost town while we waited for Keith
• Finding Keith at our appointed time sitting on the side of the road, enjoying the slim shade of a road sign
• Enjoying the beauty of Dante's View where you are perched high above Badwater (the lowest point in the US) and can see the tips of the Sierra's--including Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in the continental US)
• Losing the kids in the sand dunes and finding them at dusk--thanks to a scout troop that happened upon two dirty little kids and brought them back our way.  (whew!)
• The most ridiculous Park Ranger that, when we arrived to our campsite after dark with a three hungry and tired little kids, made us take down our tent and move it 5 feet.  I have so many four letter words that could pepper this story....

Good times, I tell ya.  Good times.  This is a LONG overdue blog post.  Now that I finally have this out of the way, I can blog about some of our more recent adventures.  It's practically a party a minute for the Card Family! (as Keith sits next to me after yet another late night of work and an hours-long session of catching up on charts.  In case you wondered, that's what our real lives are all about.)

The Valley of Death

We had a three day weekend. And if you know me at all, you know we couldn't spend it at home.

The weather wasn't exactly on our side. It was February, after all. We also didn't intend to stay in a little hotel room for the weekend. Because honestly, we JUST moved out of an apartment the size of a hotel room. We couldn't stomach the thought of spending a few days cooped up in a room together. Even staying home sounded better than that!

And then, we discovered yet another reason why it is SO FREAKING AWESOME to live in Carson City. Not only are we minutes away from the beaches, slopes, and trails of Lake Tahoe...not only are we an afternoon's drive away from the Pacific Ocean, redwood forests, San Francisco (and my SISTER!)....not only can we enjoy any number of amazing destinations up and down the Sierra mountain range....(I really could go on and on and on)...

We can also escape the cold and snow and drive 5 hours to the hottest place in America. Death Valley. Hellllloooooo new favorite winter spot!

We were lucky enough to convince my sister and her kids to come with us. (See her trip recap here. Her pictures are as always way cooler than mine.) Her husband was in China, her kids had the week off school and she was feeling like she needed a change of pace. Totally bueno.

Since none of us had ever been to Death Valley before and we were going to be arriving late, we didn't want to mess with tents. We picked a little speck of a town from a map on the edge of Death Valley and reserved rooms for us and Shannon. Turns out, we booked the entire motel.



It was seriously rustic. Camping without tents. It was FREEZING inside. The room was heated with a tiny space heater that seemed to turn off automatically. The shower had a trickle of water that after about 20 minutes turned lukewarm and sent out about as much water as you might get through a syringe. Very awesome. We actually happen to love a good, memorable hotel. Remember our favorite Double wide trailer?

This kid...needs a haircut.


Turns out, Death Valley is a pretty stunning place. The campsite we found, on the other hand....not so much.

I strategically took this photo. True, it has a stunning view. What you can't see is that we were sandwiched between two land whales (RV's) in a big dirt parking lot, which on a holiday weekend was also loaded with more land whales and scout troops. Also turns out that there aren't a lot of things like TREES in Death Valley that might offer a little privacy.

But that's ok. Nothing a little jaunt to the mountains can't fix. We hiked Mosaic Canyon, an awesome, narrow slot canyon shortly after setting up our tents in dirt city.




The sunset at Zabriskie Point was amazing.



The next morning we woke up to a pretty stiff wind. That happened to not be ideal since we were within view of the sand dunes. Pelting sand isn't my favorite weather. So, we went to Scotty's castle which was on the other side of said sand dunes.

Turns out I'm a cheapskate though (shocking, no?) and didn't end up paying for the tour. I have a feeling we'll be going back again before long so stay tuned for an eventual Scotty's Castle recap.

Then we spent the rest of the day at the Ubehebe Crater. The crazy wind died off almost instantly as we were packing up our picnic lunch and we spent a few hours hiking around the rim of the crater.





After our final night in the dirt lot, we spent the morning hiking down Gold Canyon, another really cool hike through slim canyons and awesome moon-like dirt hills.



And then....It SNOWED!!! Can you believe it???

Just kidding. That's the salt flat of Badwater, 282 feet below sea level. This was our last stop before heading home.


And there you have it. The Card Family (plus Shannon and kids) first camping trip of the year! In the middle of February.

I have a feeling this year is going to be a good one for us.

A kitchen disaster

I think I'm a pretty decent cook. It took me a few years to really "get it" though. Hamburger Helper used to be my best friend--a real 'homemade' meal. Company worthy too!

I really turned the page a few years ago when Keith declared a new years resolution to not cook for the entire year. I admit, he knows (knew?) his way around the kitchen pretty well. And I still harbor a little bit of resentment towards that resolution (I worked full-time and traveled a lot so cooking fabulous meals didn't really work out for me all that often) but let's leave the details for another story, shall we?

Anyway, I do love making yummy things in the kitchen. I haven't wiped store bought bread from my sandwich lineup and I don't really plan to, but there is nothing better than a batch of fresh rolls for dinner or mixing up cookies and yummy treats with my little 'helpers'. Asian food with fresh ingredients is so. much. better. than what you can usually get at a restaurant. And we all know I love me some homemade pizza.

The other day I thought I would be super mom and whip up some waffles for breakfast. Keith had left for work super early so I was just feeding my littles. In my baking drawer, I had a bag of pancake mix that I had dumped into a gallon sized ziploc bag and I figured it would be easy to whip up a batch of waffles with that.

I didn't even use a recipe. A little of this, a little of that, and wallah! waffles made with love. I was feeling like a rockstar mom.

For some reason the waffles didn't get nice and brown like they normally do. But whatever. Dump some syrup on there, the school bus won't wait! Bennett took a bite and asked for more syrup. He took another bite and said "Mom, these taste a little different".

Leah, on the other hand, just came right out and said "Mom, these are gross."

How could I screw up waffles from a mix? I can make an amazing caramel cake from scratch! I took a better look at my waffle mix and realized I had confused it with a bag of flour.

Flour plus water.....equals glue.

Paper mache pancakes anyone?

Happy Valentines Day!

I woke up to this today:


For reals!!! I totally adore this man. Further proof that my husband is the BEST.

And after my last post, I totally deserve this one...



Pure awesomeness. Happy Valentines Day!

Man Fail

I am seriously convinced that I have the most AMAZING husband in the world. He is incredibly kind, loving, thoughtful, helpful around the house, compliments me regularly, thinks I'm beautiful, etc, etc, ETC!

For reals, he is the bomb.

So his Man Fail today DOES NOT reflect his normal character. But it cracked me up so much that I can't resist laughing publicly about it.

So, Sunday mornings. They're crazy right? We have church at 9:00 am and it's always a mad house getting out the door in time. This morning, being the AMAZING and THOUGHTFUL husband that he is, Keith let me sleep in. He got up with the kids and played with them quietly so I could snooze a little longer. See people? I am the luckiest girl in the world--times ten.

So I lazily roll out of bed at 7:45 and look at the clock. Yikes!!! We had one hour to be out the door. And so the mad rush begins. I got one kid in the shower, fed breakfast to the others, got clothes laid out, baby changed, and jumped in the shower myself. I was rushing to dry my hair and put on a mess of makeup while Keith was casually finishing up with his tie. He looked at me and this conversation ensued:

Keith: "Can I do anything for you?"
Me: "I'm starving."
Keith: "Let me fix you breakfast."
Me: "No, it's ok. I'll grab something before we leave."
Keith: "This isn't about what you can do. It's about letting me do something nice for YOU. I want to show you how much I appreciate you." (for reals, he said this--my heart melts for this man.)
Me: "Awww, thanks! How about a bowl of granola?"
Keith: "Sure thing."

I continue getting ready. Minutes pass and my stomach growls. "Keith!" I call from the bathroom, my hair connected to a curling device. I imagined a bowl of granola and milk sitting on the table getting soggy from minutes of waiting.

I hear kids playing and realize Keith probably can't hear my plea for breakfast. He must have thought I would come eat in the kitchen, but I don't have time. I need to eat while I'm getting ready.

I rush out to the kitchen anticipating my soggy bowl of granola.

When I get to the kitchen, I see Keith sitting at the computer with a tall glass of soda on ice next to him. He's all ready for church and just chillin'.

Me: "Where's that bowl of cereal?"
Keith: "Oh, it's on the counter."

I look on the counter and see two bags of unopened granola sitting there.

Me: "Huh?"
Keith casually looks up from the computer. "I didn't know what you wanted."

He was stumped by the two different flavors of granola and gave up.

So his genuine concern and "wanting to show much he appreciates me" was taking two bags of granola out of the cupboard and setting them on the counter.

Man Fail!

Perhaps there is an underlying message about how he really feels....but I'm going with it's the thought that counts.

(Happy Valentines Week, Keith! I love you more than rocks! xoxo)

Princess Party

A little girl in our house has been looking forward to her friend's dress up party for weeks!

Liberated

Freedom feels so so SO good.

We sold our house in Kentucky last month. It took 1.5 years and every last dollar we've ever known but it's GONE! I literally lost a few tons of weight off my shoulders. What a relief!

AND, to add to the fun....2 days after we signed the papers on the house, we moved. After 6 months of living in a two-bedroom, 800 square foot, so-ridiculously-small-with-3-kids apartment, we were able to bust outta there and move on. SO LIBERATING!!

We had to move to the apartment last summer after our house, which was under contract, fell through at the last minute. When we got that offer last summer, it seemed like perfect timing. Our lease was up on the house we were renting and we could seamlessly move on with our lives. We had our eye on a fantastic house in Incline Village with a view of Lake Tahoe on one side and Diamond Peak ski resort on the other. We were so excited to experience the life of the Tahoe ski bum for a year or so before we came back to the valley and settled down for good. I had actually hired a babysitter and was driving to sign the contract to rent that house when we got a call from our realtor. The buyer backed out at the last minute. The info we had was that she decided to move to Africa. WHA....? Who does that? And how she wouldn't have known that a month prior when she made the offer, I'll never understand.

We called our landlord right away to find out if we could keep renting the house we were in. Unfortunately, he had already signed a contract to rent it to someone else. Total Bummer. So, with only days before we had to move, we frantically found our tiny townhouse. It was clean, although small, and we could rent it on a monthly basis without signing a lease. "The house will sell soon. I'm sure we won't be here long"

A few weeks turned into a month. A month turned into six. We were all going crazy--especially once winter hit. Our backyard was a concrete pad--not even big enough to set up our patio table and chairs. Our front yard was the parking lot. Our one-car garage was packed literally to the hilt with everything we owned. We put only the bare minimum inside the house so we could at least move around. Beds, clothes, only a few toys, our table and a loveseat. The kitchen was so small that there wasn't enough cabinet space for food. Our food was in plastic bins on top of our washer and dryer. It was a struggle. But the house will sell soon. It HAS too.

We thought we hit the jackpot when, in a desperate move, I sent an email to the TODAY show to try to get our house featured in their real estate segment. I'm not joking when I say this house was awesome. It was beyond awesome! A total dream house. So when I got a response the very next day, I knew this was our ticket out. We had to go back and forth with some info but they said our house would be featured in mid-November. I told everyone I knew and my realtor made fliers which she sent to hundreds of people. The morning of the show...some stupid celebrity couple breaks up and the segment isn't on. I got calls and emails all day. What happened??

According to the show, our segment was bumped due to "breaking news" but we were put back into the lineup a couple weeks down the road. Cautiously optimistic, we told everyone to watch and our realtor again plugged it far and wide. When we tuned in that morning....it wasn't us. They had a real estate segment but it wasn't our house.

Totally deflated this time, we gave up. I called my realtor and said we were done. After a year and a half of making a substantial mortgage payment and living a life elsewhere, we were sinking. We were going to find a renter and move on. It was that or just quit paying the mortgage and foreclose. We were desperate to get on with our lives and get that burden off our backs.

My realtor panicked when I told her this. After all the work she had done, she did not want our house to go off the market for a year or more since it would mean she would never make a dime. She contacted everyone that had ever been interested in the house and told them it was time to make a move or kiss it goodbye.

A few days later, we had an offer. It was the worst offer we had ever imagined. We never EVER would have thought we would have to sink so low. It meant a total loss. Every last dime we had ever made and saved in the last decade would be on the table with this offer. It would obliterate us. But it also meant no more mortgage payment every month. No extra set of utility bills every month. No more paying for lawn care or a cleaning lady for a house I didn't live in. No more trips to Kentucky every few months to check on the pipes or the yard or the roof or all those things a responsible homeowner needs to care about.

We took the offer.

A week before closing, I got an email from the Today Show. Our house was getting featured--5 days before closing. What timing. The segment aired and Al Roker was oohing and ahhing over our house. My realtors phone rang off the hook that day. A painfully classic case of "a day late and a dollar short."

Two days after closing, we moved out of our tiny apartment. We are renting again and are much more comfortable in our new house. Plenty of space, a nice backyard, a normal kitchen, my kitchen appliances and the kids toys are all enjoying daylight again. Renting is pretty nice. When something doesn't work, we make a phone call and it's someone else's problem. Although I expect this experience to be something like childbirth. Once the pain of our last house wears off, we'll be anxious to own a home again but for now, we're in recovery.

If you felt a crazy wind lately, that was just me breathing many, many sighs of relief.