Finally emerging from "snow"

Well, we are pretty much settled in at our "new" Eagle house. We bought it the day after taxes, April 16th but just really moved in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. There was some remodeling and some housesitting (thank you Maegen and Britta). We were up north with the cows and getting settled in our "new" house on the ranch in Donnelly (Dad's old house). We sold our "Boise house" on 9th St. and rented our "new house" in Donnelly. I'm surprised the kids can keep all the houses straight, but they do (sometimes better than I do). It's been a really busy time and I can't find the Christmas stockings, which makes me sad because I made them and they are really really cute. We moved from Donnelly to Eagle in the midst of a big snow storm coming through. I posted the pictures of the ranch earlier, but we've had plenty of snow since we've been in Eagle as well. The first big snow laid down a nice 10 inches and I then realized that we have an enormous driveway, really enormous. I decided to clear from the car to the house, but leave from the car to the road snowy and hopefully everyone's OK driving over that snow. We don't get many visitors anyway (but we have been getting a lot of UPS packages so sorry Mr. UPS man). It has finally pretty much melted off and I am beginning to feel like I'm catching up (not really getting ahead though). So as the snow melts I am also emerging from a fog of mental snow and glad to feel like I can take a breather (just for a minute though and only while everyone's asleep).

The other day my dad came over and said "What happened?" The kids toys were strewn all over the family room, there were half empty and half full boxes (which would actually make sense if you knew I was filling the goodwill ones as I was emptying the others), there were dishes on the counter and spills on dining room table, mail stacked up on my desk and probably some other things that didn't look quite right. My response was "Nothing." And that's exactly it.... a regular day around here can look pretty crazy.

In addition to just all the moving and getting situated, our pressure tank went out and we wound up getting a new pump too. We also had the chimney sweep out and then learned that our fireplace is for "affordable ambiance" and not really heat so much. So we're looking into an insert. We also haven't been able to find an exterior vent for my bathroom fan. In Clyde's room the vent is not connected to the ductwork but of course the problem's not at the vent but somewhere unknown under the floor. Our ovens are about 25 degrees off and the elements are on top inside each oven so all the heat goes to the top and things cook really unevenly. We can't get high speed internet through cable or phone, only dial-up is available.... and the list could actually go on, but there's no sense in airing any more of our dirty laundry (5 loads just the other day!).... One thing I will add... we didn't have a can opener, but as you can see, we made do.

This house will be a home soon. Thanks for listening. I print the blog and this post is for my kids in 30 years... when they think they've got it tough maybe they can remember how we still had fun with all this moving and their dad working 7 days a week. We are, actually, remarkably happy.