I’m back to blogging! Please come visit me over at my new place: http://spokalulu.wordpress.com/
Don’t forget to tell me any new & important things in your life when you leave me a comment, either here or there. I haven’t been able to read your blogs for the past 2 months. (Life without internet has its drawbacks.)
Comments Off on I’m Back [in the saddle again]
Posted in friendship, Happiness, moving, Uncategorized
Yes, you read that correctly. I’m going to shut things down here. There’s an entire household that needs packing and moving. My husband is retiring and we’re headed back across the country to our home state of Washington.
Say WA
That was the tourism slogan back in 2006. No, they didn’t ask me. I prefer to say The Evergreen State.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me why we are moving. Cost of living is one reason. Every time friends here in Northern Virginia ask us to stay, I ask if they are offering to pay half our mortgage. That pretty much ends the conversation!
Another reason for going is family. Nearly all of our extended family lives in Washington, and my mother’s illness and death solidified the desire to be closer. My two oldest boys have chosen to attend college there and seeing your kids once in 9 months is too long to be apart at this stage of the game — at least according to this mama! Of course, the weather is a factor. I can’t get away from this hot, humid summer fast enough! And finally, throughout my husband’s career, Washington State has remained home to us. We grew up there, we attended college there, we met and married there. Two of our children were born there. We have kept our residency status with our driver licenses and our absentee voting ballots. We even managed to be posted there twice during the past 21 years.
But if you need more reasons, I’ll try to help you with a few images:
This lovely photograph of the famous 14,410 foot peak was taken by a family friend.
And it’s not just Mt. Rainier that is so wonderful. Washington is full of mountains, with two mountain ranges (Cascade and Olympic). Here are the Olympic Mountains over Puget Sound at dusk.
[click to embiggen]
Puget Sound is nice, but there’s more than just salt water. Washington has over 8,000 lakes and ponds. The Columbia River powers the region with several hydroelectric dams, the most famous one being the Grand Coulee Dam. If you don’t already know about it, go ahead and click the link and be amazed!
But maybe you don’t like water or glacier-covered peaks. Would you like a volcano? Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980 (she was a pain in the ash, as they say) and has been politely burping and letting off steam ever since.
And of course there is plenty of hiking and camping to be enjoyed.
I will return to blogging, although perhaps not in this particular spot in the internet. I’ve got some changes in mind but they aren’t quite ready for publication. Please keep me in your reader/feed or somehow on your radar. I’ll post the new link when I get my act together again.
I will be back in some form or other, hopefully by September, and I’ll be blogging from this place:
On Friday, I went over to SnakeMaster’s school and helped the kids create their 5th grade float… well, I helped to tape things down, the kids were the creators using a Candyland theme. [click on any picture to embiggen]
On Saturday morning, quite a few 5th graders climbed aboard and began eating candy prepared to ride up the main street (aka, the business route of the highway) of our small town.
It was all very sweet. The weather was warm, but not sticky. Good thing, too, with all those giant “chocolate” kisses!
I even managed to improve darken my farmer’s tan by adding a burn over the previous tan.
Mascot and driver (who wasn't even a classroom dad!) -- Hurrah for community volunteers!
The kids threw candy to spectators regardless of age.
After the parade, the kids all worked together to dismantle their project and families dispersed. I walked with SnakeMaster & one of his friends over to the town park where there were plenty of activities and even some free ice cream
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The grandparents arrived Saturday evening along with MusicMan and his girlfriend, Rapunzel (The Girl With The Magic Hair). It had been a year since we’d seen the grandparents, 5 months since we’d seen MM, and the first time to meet Rapunzel.
I am so relieved to not have the house on show during this time!
Sunday morning, Encyclopedia Blue preached a mini-sermon at the second church service for Graduate Recognition Sunday. Baccalaureate is next Sunday and the following weekend is graduation.
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There are now 9 of us in the household for the next 2 weeks. We are completely out of bread and almost out of milk & eggs. Obviously I will be going grocery shopping this morning! The grandparents will be here for just 2 weeks (they never take me seriously when I invite them to move in!) but Rapunzel is staying with us until the end of July, when she will help us drive back across the country to our new (as yet unchosen and unpurchased) home.
With 9 of us here, and only one computer connected to the internet — and of course GRADUATION and the end of the school year — *and* packing boxes and sneaking a few of them on-board the grandparents’ motorhome — well, with all of the above, I will be lucky to read blogs, let alone write a post!
I’ll be back when I can. (Tomorrow is a scheduled post, but come by anyway to say hello!)
The magic words for today are:
Yes, we are happy & relieved. And what makes us even happier — besides a closing date at a convenient time in late July — is that the buyers are happy!
Posted in moving, Thankful Thursday
I’ve discovered something about myself: I can only handle 2 crises at once (and of course I’d prefer only one crisis — or none at all — but life doesn’t seem to work that way).
Here, in current order, are the 5 crises I am juggling for those top 2 spots:
1. My mother’s cancer and continual decline despite her denial (definitely the top stressor this week)
2. Selling our house (trying to be top stressor but being trumped by Mom’s cancer)
3. The logistics of moving (When? Where? How?)
4. The arrival of 4 more adults next weekend– bringing our household up to a count of NINE — for 2 weeks of graduation festivities and moving mayhem.
5. The graduating senior who must be prepared for college (he will probably be fine, but his mother isn’t prepared to send him off)
We continue the slow process of selling our house. A decent non-contingent offer has come in — it’s not perfect, but we will negotiate and hope for the best.
After an hour or more of tossing and turning on Tuesday night, I finally got up to check e-mail (teenagers use the computer all afternoon and evening around here) and then facebook… where I stumbled upon the news that a friend’s home took a direct hit from the tornado in Oklahoma that day. The family is safe, but the house is destroyed and 2 out of 3 horses had to be put down due to injuries sustained in the tornado.
It sort of made my own house worries seem paltry.
Posted in moving, Thankful Thursday
1. Blogger has been broken when it comes to making comments (or even reading). So if you haven’t heard from me and you usually do, that is probably why! It’s not for my lack of trying to comment.
2. It drives me crazy to not be able to comment on your posts! I’ve read some great ones and Blogger renders me “speechless.” Grrrr…
3. The house is still for sale. We haven’t had anyone in to look in the past 12 days. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to cover the feelings I’m going through.
4. It’s definitely been a week for comfort food.
5. Betty at http://glimpseintomidlife.blogspot.com/ asked me to share my homemade brownie recipe. Here it is:
4 squares (1 ounce each) of unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup of shortening (a little more if you like really fudgy brownies)
2 tsp. Vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups of Sugar
1 cup of flour
1 cup of chopped nuts (optional — I leave them out)
Using a large saucepan on the stove, slowly melt chocolate and shortening, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, add vanilla and eggs (stir quickly so eggs don’t cook!) then the sugar. Sift in the flour to avoid lumps, stir thoroughly. Add nuts if desired.
Transfer batter into a 9″ X 13″ X 2″ greased pan. Bake at 350°F for approximately 30 minutes, or until it tests done with a toothpick. Let cool before slicing with a sharp knife. Brownies should be moist and fudgy (esp. if you are a bit generous with the shortening).
I should probably let you know what’s going on in my world, especially since certain events have taken priority over blogging.
1. I recently spent 9 days in the Seattle area, being a caregiver for my mother while she recovered from surgery.
2. Cancer really ought to be spelled with 4 letters. Thin, sick, weak… it does that to people. In this case, “cure” is not part of the vocabulary and time is limited.
3. Prior to flying to Seattle — and ever since I returned home again — I’ve been dedicating most of my time to decluttering and cleaning my house. My husband has been packing boxes, painting blue walls beige (“beach sand” is what we told the 11yo boy) and generally being understanding of my stress level (code orange).
4. The house goes “on the market” today (with much prayer).
5. I hope to get back to blogging near the end of the month, after I take care of a few more responsibilities and get into the groove of keeping the house “show-ready” at all times.
I miss my faithful blogging friends!
~KC
Edited to add: I’m sure you’ve heard or read the news today about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It makes my own worries pale in comparison.
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Google Images is my friend :D|
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This weekend begins the long process of selling our house. We’ve set up a couple of interviews with Realtors and will hopefully be able to quickly choose which one to work with over the next few months. In preparation, I’ve been doing a lot of decluttering (I’ve written before about being overwhelmed by stuff) and sadly packing away some of my craft supplies in advance.
We haven’t done it yet, but since it is nearly mid-March, I think we can safely pack away and store all of the winter supplies in a rental unit somewhere to make the house look bigger show off the amazing storage space we have in our house. (Really, we do have amazing amounts of storage space. We just have too much STUFF!)
I’m steeling myself for the changes the Realtors will suggest to make the house “show” better. Criticism, even constructive criticism, isn’t easy to take, but I think I’m ready.
Kcinnova's World 
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