Too much talking from me on the past few entries.  This time, some pictures.  :)  (Though none of the piano disassembly, b/c it went to new home last Tuesday.  They did have to take it apart, but it wasn't as interesting as it would have been had a hack saw been involved, so I left the camera alone and concentrated on silently praying that no one would end up with a broken toe and that the floors would remain intact.)

We'll start with Joseph's birthday. Lil'Nathan was the camera man, this is the best of the bunch.

He wanted you to see is awesome ice cream.  The cheese was not a part of dessert.

True to tradition, I couldn't find the candles.  He had to work fast b/c matches burn faster.

Opening Aunt Kathie's gift.

And Aunt Roberta's

Charlie and Elisabeth have started working together to defraud me of peas and corn during dinner prep.

These are some pictures Lil'Nathan took of our last snow storm--the very heavy, very beautiful one.

 

And here is Elisabeth getting ready to go out and come in play in the snow.

And my hat model.  I took these for the sewing blog, but they are too funny not to share.  "Pitty hat!"

This week we went house hunting, "bought" a house, had the home inspection on this house (crazy inspector on the roof in a blizzard), and celebrated Nathan's birthday.  Nathan spent two nights near work b/c of the weather.  I made two hats and didn't touch my blanket--which means my 2nd arbitrary deadline will whiz by, too.  (I guess I should find a legitimate one.)

We were stood up (again!) on Sat in trying to rehome our piano.  I was very, very annoyed this time.  Craigslist people up here are flakes.  Huge flakes.  In Boston, if they weren't trying to scam you, they showed up when they said they would.  Crazy north shore nuts.  I have two more people who claim to want it.  We'll see.  I'm ready to pull out the hack saw and call a dumpster service.

Anyway, yes, we "bought" a house.  At least, our bid was accepted.  Nice 3 bed/ 2 bath house, with 2 car garage, larger yard than here, carpet (yay!--I'm a floor sitter and hardwood holds little charm for me),  and a lovely, lovely stove.  (New, gas, center burner, and clean.)  It's in West Leb, a few houses down from where friends of ours used to live, and they loved it there.

Yesterday was Nathan's birthday.  Last of the 30's.  The kids gave him all the rice and spices which was delivered a few days before.  He was happy.  :)  We had pudding pie with cherries and also pineapple ice cream.  He watched a Charlie Chaplin movie with the kids for his birthday movie, and Brigadoon with me.  We ended the day by going to sleep at a reasonable hour and Elisabeth slept through the night as her gift.

We did much shoveling this week.  It snowed like crazy on Tuesday, the day of the home inspection.  I kept checking email thinking they were going to reschedule.  Hoping they would b/c we had to leave for the duration and I didn't want to be out in that stuff!  Lil'Nathan was put on "clean-up-the-driveway-duty, but couldn't keep ahead of the snow and finally, when the inspector arrived, he just gave up.  We hung out at the library until they decided to close early b/c of the snow.  Nathan stayed in a hotel near work that night.  I spent two hours on Ravelry organizing my 287 patterns, and didn't add any new ones!

The next morning we were up to clean up the snow, since it was too dark and snowing too hard when we got home from the library (just as the inspector drove away, I might add).  What a pile!  We shoveled in 4 stages, each followed by a break and a treat.  The first was the hardest--the pile at the end of the driveway gifted by the plow (I won't share some of our thoughts on that gift).  Reward--Trader Joe's Frosted Flakes for breakfast.  Stage 2 was the rest of the driveway (and salting the frozen, packed down stuff from the inspector and realtor driving on the un-shoveled driveway the day before).  Reward--a whole Lindt truffle.  Stage 3 was the back deck and pathways.  Reward--hot chocolate.  Stage 4 was the rest of the clean up, but it started snowing again.  I had some ice and sloppy driveway stuff to clear when the snow started falling and I yelled, "Are you kidding me?!"  It was supposed to be rain!  This meant Nathan would have to stay in Leb again that night, and indeed he did.  I went in, made dinner, and told the kids not to say a word about the snow.  We woke  up to another 4 inches, totally obliterating the work of the whole previous day.

And we had to clear the driveway at 7:30 am b/c our food (125 lbs of rice, several pounds of spices, 50 lbs of pastry flour, 2 lbs of yeast... you get the idea) was being delivered. (Lil'Nathan objected much to being forced out of bed so early in order to shovel the driveway for the delivery of rice.  Rice!)  The plow had a smaller gift for us than the previous morning and it was lighter, so the work went much faster.  But we were sore and stiff from the day before and the mounds were well over our heads.  Nathan came home that night and dug trenches through the snow--the next day was supposed to be 45 degrees and the rain had already started.  The trenches were brilliant, our snow melted and ran to the street instead of puddling in the yard.

I don't have any pictures from this week.  And you probably found this the most boring entry yet.  Sorry.  Hope for better next week.  Maybe you'll get pictures of the piano disassembly!

This has been a big week.

To kick things off, Joseph turned 7.  He chose "Daddy waffles" for his breakfast, though I was allowed to make them (Daddy being gone at work and actually he hates making waffles).  I guess they passed muster b/c there were none left.  For his dinner, he chose Mexican Lasagna (also a Daddy specialty and this time it required Daddy --"Mom, you'll mess it up"-- so we had it last night).  Dark chocolate pound cake with mint cookie chip ice cream (yes, I wrote that right).  He said it was a good day.  Best part:  No school.  (Birthdays are a personal holiday.)  And the 2nd best part:  A birthday movie ON his birthday.  Disney's Robin Hood.  Cards arrived from GG, Aunt Berta (with an awesome puzzle), and Aunt Kathie.  Gramma and Grampa's card came the next day.  I still haven't ordered his birthday book, but he's used to that.

Tuesday we were without a van b/c Nathan took it up north to get some recall work done on it.  It served well that day b/c the missionaries needed an early morning ride to Manchester for a zone meeting.  He passes through Manchester at about 7 am, so they certainly got there "early."

Wednesday Lil'Nathan went sledding with the youth from church.  He had a blast and came home tired and happy, and little cold.  One of the YM advisers gave him a ride and the scout leader gave him an old DVD player to use as a screen for his beloved Raspberry Pi.  And before he left, he made dinner, finishing every last grain of rice in the house.  ("Yes!! No more rice!")  Needless to say, Wed was a great day for our resident 12 yr old.

Wednesday was good for us, too.  We sold the house.  The offer came in late on Tues and by Wed evening it was settled.  The closing is set for the end of March.  The inspection is this week and we need to find a house.

But where to look is our big question.  Up in St. Johnsbury?  60+ miles to Nathan's work, but housing is pretty affordable.  The biggest draw up there, though, is our friends, Rob and Tamara being sooo close and the fact that the kids could go to St Johnsbury Academy.  *sigh*  Or we have the option of staying in West Leb.  Housing is much more expensive, but there is no state income or sales tax sneaking in on top of other expenses.  Plus, it's only 6 mi to work, meaning a LOT less travel time and money.  To say we a torn and caught in a bit of circular thinking would be accurate.

Thursday and Friday were snow days (14+ inches of heavy, wet snow), so Nathan worked from home.  What a mess.  On Friday evening a friend mentioned we were getting a blizzard on Sat night.  I thought she was kidding.  I found she was not.  Suddenly the idea of facing the crowds at the store the next morning (we being out of all food since it was my shopping day) and of shoveling more snow (where are we going to put it?!) made me laugh.  And laugh.  And laugh.  I couldn't stop.  It was so ridiculous--a blizzard!  We had stuff to do.  My mittens were still on my hook.  A blizzard! 

Well, we did  all we had to do and we faced the nutty crowds at the store.  (LONG lines, but everyone there was pretty good humored about it).  There was plenty of milk and eggs for everyone.  It started to snow and the weather channel's predictions got worse as the day went on.  But the storm never materialized they way they forecasted.  It was a pretty easy clean-up for Nathan this morning--light and fluffy, and only about 4 inches.

We're supposed to get more on Tuesday, but it looks like only a little bit.

Yesterday morning the Primary hosted a pajama party at church, complete with games.  The bishopric made breakfast for all the kids--a feast of pancakes (with hot syrup--G'pa was right, it really does make a difference if the syrup is hot!), eggs, and sausage.  (I made a little girl cry.  I snagged a sausage off Charlie's plate and she thought I took it off hers and ran sobbing to her mom, "That big lady stole my sausage!"  I'm not sure her mom believed me--I was laughing too hard.)  During the game of "Duck, duck, goose," Charlie and another Sunbeam jumped up and ran, no matter who was pegged "goose."  When the "goose" jumped up and ran, so did they, all around the circle.  Every time.  Not trying to help, not trying to tag anyone, just running.  One mom laughed they were "taking everyone's turn," but I seriously doubt they had any thought of the kind.  The game was clearly about jumping up and running and, by golly, they could do that as well as anyone else.  So why just sit and watch?

My deadline for finishing my wool blanket was on Fri.  I told myself earlier in the week that it was an arbitrary deadline and nothing of any consequence would happen if it remained unfinished, so no need to stress out about it.  With motivation like that, is it any wonder the day came and went and the blanket remains unfinished?  New arbitrary deadline:  our anniversary at the end of the month.

Important lesson learned:  Dr. Bronner's Soap, one drop at a time on a dry washcloth and scrubbed in straight lines will remove bright green dry erase marker from a freshly painted wall.  Nothing else works.  Hiding all the markers high up on a shelf well out of reach of the baby may prevent repeat learning experiences.