Slip n Slide

The kids have been dieing to try out the new slip n slide. So today was finally not cool and not rainy so we did. Here are a few awesome pictures.

Looking at houses.

Wow. What an evening. We went to see two houses. The first house was an Earth Contact home straight out of my (and DH's) head. I mean it was exactly what we want to build all the way down to the secret safe room and central raised fireplace. I still can't get over it. It was 5 miles from DH's work. He could drive his electric car in any weather with the heat and cooling.

The down sides: It is only 2 acres. We own 12 now and were hoping to build on it, but it is 25 miles from his work. It is much more expensive than we planned on spending. It is a corner lot, next to two streets. DH said we could privacy fence a large section of it and we could, but it would cost more money. It is embarrassingly huge.

The second house was out in the country near Peculiar, MO. 35 acres and a house. The house was built in 1880 and was totally redone on the inside. They also added a basement space and built a new kitchen above it. It has original hardwood floors in it and was just an amazing house an property.

The experience however was kind of weird. So on the way out there Jeff (our agent) says, yeah the realtor said that when she heard kids she said the owner had said this: The man came come in first, the wife should stay in the car with the kids. Then she can come look at it. But the kids should stay outside. Ok.... well we thought it was weird but didn't worry about it, because the agent was the one meeting us at the house. We get there and NO it is the owner meeting us there and she kind of freaks out about the kids. Saying they couldn't come in. Then she says something about being an educator for 35 years so "its not that she doesn't like kids". well she is making enough of a fuss that Massimo was pissed. Jeff says, Do you want to just skip it? Massimo agrees, but I said, come on, we drove all the way out here. One of us should go in and check out the house. I have the baby in the sling, so I say Ok. I will go in, "the baby is fine right?" The lady says Absolutely not. I had a lady almost fall down the stairs with the baby. I just can't take the risk. So fine, I hand the baby to Massimo. He is pissed, but I am just trying to kill time so the kids don't have to ride in the car for a few minutes. The weird lady suggests the kids wait in the car, I said, No they have rode in the car a long ways to get out here.

When we go inside she is very nice. Telling me to take my time, look around. After we get in the door, she asks me to put on booties. The blue kind that go over your shoes, such as you would wear in a hospital. *Must make clean* *insert Macbeth jokes here* Not jeff, he can take off his shoes because he is wearing socks. I have to do this because I have on sandals and can't have my shoes or barefeet in her house.

Oh and after I was finished looking at the house she says, "sorry about the inconvenience. Do you want a Hershey bar or anything? " I just laughed and said no.

The house was wonderful. We will not be buying it for two reasons. One it has foundation problems, because it is over 100 years old. So understandable, but not something we want to mess with. Second, because it was WAY out in the boonies and the roads would not be conducive to Massimo driving his electric car to work and that is something we care about.

So thanks but no thanks crazy lady.

Powell Gardens

Last week we went to Powell Gardens with some homeschool friends. It was really great. I didn't get to see it all because we left when Luca got sleepy. Its an hour drive so I really needed him to sleep in the car. We took a guided nature walk and it was great. Very age appropriate (Pre-K and K) and we saw great things.

This giant pile of dirt is actually an ant hill. The kids were really intrigued by it.


It had been wet, so we saw lots and lots of snails.

After the hike, we played in the fountains. Gioia found this pool full of tadpoles. Each of those black specks is a tadpole.


And finally the highlight of the day! Playing in the fountains! I love this picture. The fountain would get small then big again. As it got bigger and higher the kids ran from it screaming in delight. :)

Up? Down? North? South?

Indecision is the word of the day. Or maybe its poop....we will get to that later.

After hearing about the obstacles facing us in financing our new home building, we are now looking at all our options. Since houses are such a bargain these days, why don't we buy another house, says my husband. WHAT!? Well, wait he has a pretty good idea. If we could buy a foreclosed house, or something on some acres maybe that would be a good thing. Even better if we could find a earth contact or other energy efficient type of thing. OR we could still rent for a year in a house and save, save, save and try again to build next year. Regardless we are going to have to move more than one time. I am ok with that.

Now on to the poop. I know you all are waiting on the edge of your seat. Today, after we woke up, I was reading online on the computer and baby was sitting on the floor playing happily. He started fussing and I look down. He was in a mess of poop all over the carpet! AAAHH! So I change him, his clothes, wash his legs, feet and hands. Yes his hands...ewww!! It was a real mess so I didn't even try to clean the carpet, instead I was planning to call my friends down the street with a steam cleaner. About an hour later we are making breakfast and he has a blow out on the carpet again! DOUBLE GRRRR!!!! WTF, Mate??

Oh, but we aren't down yet. So I borrow the steam cleaner and get the carpet all clean. Then Gioia comes to me with wet hands and says "Is it pee?" I was like, "I don't know, go wash your hands." She says, "I can't the bathroom floor is wet. " Uh, what???!!! Yes, the toilet overflowed and the bathroom was soaked, it also dripping through the vent onto the basement floor. So we spent some time cleaning that up.

So. I am done. Done with poop and cleaning up messes for today.

The saga begins.

SO we have a contract on our house! Hooray! Now the moving/building stage begins. I have heard horrible stories about couples building house and I am determined that will not happen to us. DH and I are pretty smart people. We like to research things, come up with creative solutions and do new things. With all that in mind I think we can make this all work.

I have a plan that every night we will work about 30 minutes together on house stuff. We also might assign each other certain tasks and things to get accomplished during the week. This way we are chipping away at things a little at a time and not stressing, putting things off or arguing.

Today I sent an email for some radiant heat/geothermal pricing. DH made a call to a guy who might end up being our builder. He also called our friend in the mortgage business. Here is where we cue the hysterical laughing. Mike said that none of his lenders are doing construction loans right now. OUCH! Uh.... well that sucks. But apparently established builders like the man we called are not having problems getting loans. Also we called the bank that gave us our land loan and they said it should not be a problem getting a loan with them, since we are customers already. WHEW! Ok. So we have some options.

I found a few listing on Craigslist for rentals that I am going to call later today or tomorrow.

Big Trees and Big Changes.

Wednesday night we went out to our land because the nursery was coming to plant the trees. We don't have water out there yet, so it was something we were trying to figure out. My friend had some rain barrels she sold us. We got smaller 35 gallon ones. Then we just used a new garden hose and siphoned the water out. The kids thought it was great fun watching the men plant the trees. We also got to meet one of the neighbors. They were polite but not all that excited to meet us. Hopefully they will either be nice to us or we can all ignore each other.

In other news, we have a contract on our house! Yippee! I will admit that Yippee is pretty forced. The offer is not stellar but we can live with it. Also now we have to find a rental, get cracking on the house building and all that. I will be excited when the house starts going up.

Handme down clothes.

Handme down clothes are the best thing since sliced bread. Not only do they save parents TONS of money, but it is convenient too. Today my daughter was complaining that she had no shorts. So I decided to go through the stuff my sister in law had given me. Since Gioia has been born, we literally have never had to outfit her. Barb has given us all her girls clothes. We occasionally buy a new dress, underpants or PJ's, but thats about it. Again, we hit the pay load a summers worth of clothes and winter as well in a box.

Dominic hasn't always been so lucky as we don't have lots of boys to recieve handme downs from. This last season though a friend had some 3T-4T stuff. So I said I would like them. Dominic was so excited this morning when he got his own box of clothes to go through. He is also outfitted for summer and the upcoming winter.

We have continued the tradition by passing on Gioia's clothes when she outgrows them. Dominics are being saved for Luca.

Oh and do I even need to mention the headache it saves not having to take small children shopping for clothes. OY! Thank you Lord! And Thanks to everyone who has ever given us kid clothes!

New jersey folks and cousins.

My sister had her wedding reception this weekend. Congrats Mel and Scott! It was so fun. My cousin surprised us with a visit. He is in the Air Force and we didn't expect to see him. I got to meet tons of Scotts family for the first time. He has an Uncle from New Jersey named Mike. Uncle Mike had never been on a farm before. He loved it. He had also never been to a dance/wedding reception in a hay barn, with a live band. He kept saying it was unique. :) I guess the band played until 1:30. Their tour bus is an old school bus. My kids were playing in it Sunday morning. The band was too drunk to pack up and drive home so their girlfriends and such took them all home. This is called being country. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! LOL!! When the band was setting up they let Dominic take a whack at the drums. He was so excited. The drummer said he was really impressed and Dominic has good rhythm.

The pictures below: Melanie and Scott, Gioia and Rory (Scotts niece) they were peas in a pod, and Dominic drumming.

Weekend at Grandmas.

Well we are heading out this afternoon for a weekend at my moms house. The kids are excited. Even better we get to sleep at my Grandma's house. The kids haven't ever had a sleepover there, so they are excited. My sister is having her wedding reception this weekend at Moms. She and her husband went to Las Vegas at the end of April and got married. Both sets of parents were able to be there as well. They are having a fire pit, food buffet and a live band playing. It will be lots of fun.
My siblings and I got my mom an outdoor swing with a canopy top on it. So my brother and husband get to put it together tomorrow. Hubby is also bringing his fishing gear. I should have lots of good pictures to share Sunday when we get back.

The house selling. It is still going slow. TONS of showings, now we just need that elusive offer.

Ticks!

So the ticks are already bad this year. Great. Every time we go to our land one of the kids gets a tick on them. They are the teeny tiny microscopic deer ticks. Yuck. I am going to try to remember the bug spray from now on to see if it helps. Gioia has had two, Dominic one, and now Luca one.

Luca's I found yesterday after we had been there for Mothers Day. It was on the back of his neck. So i get the tweezers and try to get it off. I broke and the head was still stuck. Now, however, it is even a tinier object than before. Great. :( I called the Dr. and they said 99 dollars just to come in about it. Forget it! 100 dollars? Seriously? Maybe I will just pay a neighbor 50 bucks to hold my kid down and get this off him. Give me a break. Anyway, at bedtime I was able to finally get it off. I actually just used my fingernail and worked it out. I slathered a little antibiotic cream on him and we are tick free. Until next time.

New look.

I have been contemplating making a new blog to blog about all our house/land stuff. Instead I decided to just change this blog up and go with it. If for some reason I get a following from very many strangers, I can make it more secure or create a new one sometime.

I hope you like the new look. I plan to try to blog more often.

Mothers day on the farm.

The rain held off on Mothers Day so we were able to spend the day at the farm. We headed out in the morning and had a weinie roast. Gioia spent most of the time in her favorite climbing tree. Our fruit trees are doing great. The rain has been nice for them. We have 3 more trees that we had to decide where to plant. For now we are just planting them down the property line. We walked around the property, finding plenty of poison ivy. That has to go. I am highly allergic to it. The little neighbor dog came and walked with us for a bit. He is a little Toto dog. I got a few nice pictures. The first is looking towards the back of the property. Our piece goes all the way back to the farthest trees. The second pictures is looking towards the front, the van is parked by the road.

3 good, 3 bad things.

Well things are really going pretty well around here. So even if I feel like complaining I think I really shouldn't. So I am going to do the 3 bad, 3 good thing, to make it all fair.

Good:
1. My dad got a clean bill of health today after a little scare. Yeah!

2. My husband has a good job.

3. I have 3 beautiful babies that I get to stay home with every day!

Bad:

1. My glasses broke today.

2. Me, my son and my husband who is out of town with aforementioned job, all have horrible sore (possibly strep) throat. We are fighting it and winning with homeopathics, but it still sucks especially when i have single parent duties for 3 days.

3. I went to a lot of trouble to get the grill out, move cars out of the garage, just to make some hamburgers only to find out I was out of gas. Bah humbug.

See I told you the good would make the bad look like piddle. Oh well, but sore throat, broken glasses and no grilled burgers all in one day is not fun. :) But if thats all that happened today i guess I am doing pretty good.

Oh and I got all three kids to bed and asleep before 9pm and my husband isn't even here to share it with me. You know what I mean.... *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*. LOL!

TREES!

I am so excited! We got a flyer on the door a couple days ago. It was for this place called Narrow Tree nursery. They mostly sell to contractors and are not usually open to the public. Well it is their May sale and they are open this weekend and next. Also a free climbing rose bush for Mothers. So we went to look. It is a really nice place.
www.narrowtree.com

Well we ended up with 3 trees. One blue spruce, one elm and one other evergreen tree. They are all BIG. Maybe 8 feet ? Anyway, they would have been super expensive but they were some bargain clearance trees. The elm is not perfectly straight, but you have to look for the imperfection. Whatever! It is a gorgeous tree. The evergreen and the spruce I couldn't find the problem with them. Anyway, all that to say we got them for $75 each! Then $100 for them to plant all 3 of them. $60 for delivery to our farm. Planting includes the tree stakes and mulching them. Wow! Plus I got my free rose bush.