Things I'll Miss

You may have noticed some of the negative things I think about the house we've occupied for the last 11 months... So I thought I'd document some of the things I will miss - the things that made me want to stay a little longer.

It really looks pretty decent from the outside - besides the missing shutters, it has a nice color scheme. And the moss, from a distance, looks like green grass :)

The cherry blossoms. Our street is lined with cherry trees, and so for a few weeks in the spring, the view is breathtaking. It would just make me happy every time I caught a glimpse of the pinkish white blossoms out my window. And driving home was always an amazing sight - the houses are lost in the wall of beautiful blossoms.

The wildlife. I don't thing I've ever been surrounded by more wildlife in my life. Let's see if I can name what we've seen/heard/smelled in our own backyard: Deer. Lots of deer, from big bucks with antlers, to tiny new fawns, and graceful does. Sometimes in groups of 10 or more. Sometimes greeting me on my door step.

This was our first morning here. See the little fawn staring back at Harrison? Before I got my camera out there were at least 7 grazing in our backyard.

Woodchucks, skunks, squirrels, turtles, bunnies, and foxes. And the birds. Oh my. Flamboyant red cardinals, bright blue jays, noisy geese, disgusting vultures, high flying hawks, and many more that I do not know the names for.

The view from my kitchen window. We have 3 large windows in the kitchen, right next to our table. And just outside is our oak tree, with the cherry tree to the left. I can see out this window from my desk, and since it faces east, it gets great morning light. It just always makes me happy when I look out, and the view changes dramatically with each season.

This is Noah cruising with Jordan in her Barbie Jeep in the back yard.

Our neighbors. We have a pretty quiet street. Many people are the original owners of their home, so their children are grown. Our best friends are the newer comers to the neighborhood with kids. Grady (3) across the street, and Henry(2) and Meghan (6 months) a few houses down. Jordan comes to visit her grandparents (who share a backyard area with us). They are pretty sad to see us go, since we doubled the amount of kids on the street when we moved here.


Our back yard. The only thing I would add would be a fence. But then again, I don't think the boys would have become friends with Jordan, if we had a fence. It's very large, and we acquired a nice swing set at the beginning of the summer, which we are hoping to put in our new yard (it will take up almost the whole yard, so we'll see...) There's plenty of space for throwing the Frisbee or setting up the slip'n'slide. And we have a nice deck adjacent to it that we've enjoyed grilling on all summer long. One thing we wont miss - mowing it. Our lawn mower just died (we got it off craigslist for $10 when we got here, so we're not complaining). I think a weed whacker will probably be enough at our new place :)

All the storage space. More than 1/2 of the basement is unfinished, and so we have a ton of storage space. We keep all kinds of food storage, water storage, bikes, scooters, out of season clothes, seasonal decorations, and anything else were not using at the moment down there. And there's still LOTS of room for the kids to run around and play. Right now it's full of packed boxes. We'll have to be a lot more creative with our storage in our new place.

All that being said, I am so excited about our new place. And discovering all new things to love about it. And of course, all the things that I wont miss out this place...

Moving...again

As I mentioned earlier, we are moving again. And, no, we did not buy. I know what you are thinking. Why not? We get this question a lot. Especially from people who bought during the boom years here. "How could you not buy now?" Prices have dropped considerably, but we feel that if we did buy now, we would need to commit to the house for 7-10 years, and right now we can't find anything that we are willing to give that kind of commitment to in our price range. And for this NOVA girl, I'm not so sure I'm ready to even commit to Maryland for that long. I still have people surprised when they hear I grew up in Northern Virginia. "Then why are you living in Maryland?" Sometimes I wonder that myself... No, really we do love it here. Another reason we aren't buying just yet - we can find rentals for less than it would cost us to buy. And with nothing appreciating these days, it just doesn't make much sense to us to buy. So, we continue to save our pennies, and look forward to owning someday, soon.

Now on to why we are moving. We've been struggling with this decision almost since we moved into our current rental home. Our current home was a great deal. We have a large backyard, and lots of storage space, for a great price. About $500 less a month than we saw for any other single family home. But, that came with some issues. The house has been a rental property for almost 20 years - and the owners (out of state) don't feel the need to keep anything up. So, we've got old carpet, old linoleum, original leaky windows (have I mentioned our utility bills in the winter? Or summer?), moss for a front yard, smelly basement... I could go on. We offered to put in some labor to help improve the place, but they weren't willing to do that. So we made a list. A list of things we would want fixed in a new rental property, and things we were willing to give up. And then we thought about it, and I think we were just about to the point where we were willing to deal with the situation for a couple more years while we figured out what we really wanted. Our lease was for a year, but then was suppose to go month to month, so we figured we could keep our eyes peeled for something better, and then take it when we saw it. And then we got the letter. Rent increasing (by more than 6%, mind you) and a commitment to stay another year. That was more than I could take. So we started looking seriously. Luckily, Sam's brother, David, was staying with us for the summer, and was kind enough to watch the kids night after night while we looked at properties. We finally found one. We'll have a little less space, and a much smaller yard, but we'll also get newer windows, gas heating, gas range, fenced yard, garage, secluded shadey park across the parking lot, walking distance to the elementary school (a good one at that), a short distance from the chapel, with a bigger kitchen adjacent to the deck, and a master bathroom that more than one person can stand in at a time, with a walk in closet. Oh, and no smelly rooms. That was on the top of my list. It's a townhome, but an end unit, so we only share one wall, and we have our own driveway and garage. And the landlord is great - they live just down the road, and they lived in the home up until a year ago when they started renting it. They just contacted us to see if we would be willing to keep up the yard if they paid to have it professionally landscaped. Yay! A landlord that cares about the house! So, here it is:We move in a week from Saturday, and then Harrison will start school on the following Monday, so it's a busy time for us. We'll post more pictures, when we get settled (in about a year, right?)

Blackberry Picking at Homestead Farm

Last Saturday we took the family out picking blackberries at Homestead Farm. It was going to be a hot one, so we got there right at 9:30 - and it was already hot and humid. But the berries were ripe for the picking, and so delicious. There's nothing like straight-from-the-bush-berries. Yum.

Everyone joined in picking, and eating, of course. The boys quickly learned that the sweetest berries were the darkest ones with the largest individual berries. Any any time they'd find a group of them they'd yell, "Look at this treasure I found! What a beauty!" It was pretty comical.

Olivia ate berries the entire time. If there wasn't a berry in her mouth she was grabbing or whining for one. I think she must have consumed a couple pints, and near the end I cut off her supply, worried that there would be a tummy ache later on.

She even joined in the picking, but she wasn't as good about only picking the ripe fruit. She would grab anything in sight, and we even caught her eating a berry that was still attched to the bush.

They also had pick your own Zinnias, so we brought a dozen home. Next time we'll have to do peaches - we bought some from their fruit stand, and they were DELISH! We will be coming back to this farm many times. Thanks Homestead farms!

Olivia is 1!

I can't believe my baby is one year old already. It seems to have flown, but at the same time, I can't believe it was just a year ago that we were still in San Diego, preparing for the big move.

The boys woke up early, and when I went in the kitchen they were sitting in front of Olivia's presents with party hats on. They said they had been waiting all night to start Olivia's party. Harrison told me several times during the day that this was the best day ever. I guess it's been a while since we had a party around here!

Celebrations started in the morning with Olivia's new favorite treat - blackberries. We went blackberry picking on Saturday, and Olivia ate blackberries the ENTIRE time.

We opened one present in the morning for her to play with during the day. Thanks Grandma Margie! Olivia LOVES her new ride-on/push toy.

During Olivia's nap the boys and I decorated some fun cupcakes. Can you tell which ones the boys did?

Here's a close up of their creations.

We finished the day with Olivia's favorite meal (spaghetti) and then opened the rest of her gifts. I've learned if you wrap them in tissue paper, a one year old can actually open them pretty easily - and they love the crinkly noise it makes. And it doesn't matter that you can see what's in the package, because, well, they're one, and the concept of a surprise is a little beyond them.


This is Olivia opening some shoes - she has an obsession with shoes. She loves to chew on them! I still have all of her baby shoes out, because she loves pulling them out of the bin, and chewing on each one. We have to be careful where we leave our shoes, or she'll do the same with those.

Olivia is finally starting to enjoy looking at books instead of eating them. I got her a couple of touch and feel books, and she immediately flipped through and touched and felt everything.


Here's Olivia's B-day cake - well, cupcakes. I did make one slightly larger cupcake (heart-shaped) which I attempted some writing on.

And this is why I didn't try to decorate a whole big cake....


Olivia patiently waiting for guests to arrive. We invited over a couple neighbors to help us consume the copious amount of cupcakes. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of them. We will miss Jimmy, Nancy, Henry and Meghan when we move! (oh, yeah, we're moving - more on that later...)



First touch...


First taste....


Digging in...

Licking the plate clean.


Done.

Olivia is such a sweet and curious girl. She always wants to be a part of the action, and to see and know what everyone is up to. She loves her brothers very much, and she always lights up when they come in the room. She's got 7 teeth now (she's had just 3 on the bottom for about a month now, and I just love her crooked teethy smile. She's a skilled crawler and climber, but has not attempted any first steps yet. She likes to bounce to music, and is learning how to push her baby stroller around. She's very good to go on lots of errands, and takes 2 good naps every day. She's got a love for guacamole and mashed potatoes, and can consistently out eat her brothers. We love you Olivia!