Almost there...

The U-Haul van will be picked up tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and we will be moving the majority of our furniture. Jenn's scrapbook supplies may be left behind (because it's supposed to rain) as well as my comics collection, but for the most part, we will be done. We will at the very least be able to spend the night in the house tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, DSL service will not be started until at least Monday (which means no blogging or Internet all weekend), and DirecTV will not be installed until Wednesday. :( So no Eagles game for me, again (I've missed the Saints and Bucs games due to working on the new house).

I'm excited, but very sore and tired. I will be happy when this move is over. The house looks great, but my back hurts too much to enjoy it. I'll enjoy it immensely from the comfort of my new recliner come Sunday afternoon. :)

Braving the Coasters and the Elements

It was even COLDER on Sunday than Saturday, but we headed for Fright Fest at The Great Escape. It was a fun way to spend the day, with rides, trick or treating, and costumed characters. I was especially proud of Nicky, who rode on TWO roller coasters (his first "big" coasters) and Kairi who rode her first upside-down coaster - the monster in the picture behind her. The park was gorgeous with fall colors, and the upside of the cold was that we hardly waited in line at all!

Here's some pics:

After the park, we stopped at a nice restaurant (Michael's Italian Grill in Amsterdam) to celebrate our anniversary. Steak, pasta, and tiramisu made a yummy end to a great day. But we're gonna miss these two cuties until we can visit again:

The Sun and the Rain and the Appleseed

After the pumpkin patch, we headed up the mountain to Indian Ladder Farms, home of the best apples, cider, and doughnuts in the known world. The bounty of autumn was overflowing at the barn, and I couldn't resist a couple of "artistic" shots:

We headed out to the pick your own orchard. The weather was still cold, but now also a bit overcast. Still, the kids were still revved and not complaining, so we grabbed a couple of bushel bags and went to pick. I guess there are still some kinds of hard work that kids find fun!

Finally, we headed back to the barn for hot cider and doughnuts. On the way, it started to sprinkle, so the kids ran from orchard to crate to shed to car yelling "shelter, shelter!" No rain on this parade! After all that fresh air and exercise, everyone slept early (though the grown-ups did sneak in a game of Outburst - Barry and Cyndy won in a come from behind victory).

Punkin' Pickin'

One of our stops this weekend was the Pick A Pumpkin patch. We love this particular patch because of all the fun things to do. Besides the usual hayride and pumpkins, there are all kinds of activities and games. The kids explored a three story clubhouse, swung on a tire swing, found their way through three mazes (corn, hay, and mirrored), balanced on an obstacle course, and saw farm animals. And oh, yes, we FROZE. Despite the sunny sky it was COLD and shivery, especially with the stiff wind. But everyone was having too much fun to care! Here are some of my favorite pics:

"Aunt Cyndy Throws the BEST Parties!"

The kids were SOOO excited about this party for the past few weeks. They definitely weren't disappointed! Aunt Cyndy had decked every inch of her house and yard in creepy and fun decorations (including papering an ENTIRE ROOM in orange and black crepe paper streamers!) She had made one of her gorgeous cakes. She had planned fun party games and invited a great crowd. She had made cool themed food like mummy finger hot dogs and a taco filled mummy head. What can we say, she goes all out.

The kids had fun putting on their costumes a bit early - Kai found a cute devil/angel costume and Nicky was Captain Jack Sparrow. Turns out Hannah wanted to be a pirate this year too, so she and Nick made a great pair! Baby Faith was a darling Blue Flower Fairy. Even the grown-ups got into the act - Scott was a scary faceless executioner, Barry was a vampire, Cyndy a witch, and I dressed as a Medieval lady.

A Stolen Weekend

We stole this weekend from work and school and remodelling to go away as a family. Scott and I earned the time - we were celebrating ten tumultous but wonderful years of marriage. Our marriage has always been all about our family, so we took the kids to my sister's house for four days of fall fun. We can't think of a better way to spend our precious time together than to soak up the autumn while enjoying the company of my sister, her husband and our two darling nieces. The trip up and back was full of dazzling color and beauty. We travel through the Appalachians and enjoy every scenic vista (though photographing them at 65 MPH is a challenge). Check out the details of our trip in the posts above!

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, bad news and good news for the average American family this week. We won't be able to get a mortgage for the new house for a little while - we need to make some credit repairs to avoid a horrible interest rate. The good news however, is that we've devised a plan to 'rent' from the estate for a year (by continuing to pay the old mortgage) to give us time to clean up our credit, while we hang on to the house, and build even more equity.

Meanwhile, the house is FINISHED (thank you Mom and Gordie!) except for some paint and other minor repairs. So provided our plan to keep paying the current mortgage is approved by the estate lawyer on Monday, we will move in by Halloween.

The kids are glad we're chilling this weekend instead of spending all our time working on the house the way we have for the past month. They were GREAT while we worked, but they're happy to get to play with their toys again. They did have some fun during the remodel, though.

For example, here they're doing a little interior decoration on their temporary "playhouses"....


And here they're playing pick-up-sticks. Sort of....


And there's a lot to be said for a nap, although generally two camp chairs pushed together while your parents work past midnight isn't exactly the most comfortable place!


All things considered, working together to remodel the house was a good experience. Hopefully, everything will work out, and this is the last time we'll EVER have to move. Also, just a little advice learned the hard way - paying your bills ON TIME is the most important thing you can do for your credit. Turns out it's not the amount of debt we have, or even the few never paid medical bills we had overlooked that are really destroying our credit - it's the payments we made, but made LATE. We've learned. We will fix it. But it could have been (and could still be - shudder) too late. Why don't they teach this stuff in school???

House Beautiful (Soon!)

So here's some pictures of what has been keeping us off the blog (and the rest of the 'net) lately. Mom and Gordy are transforming the house, and we've spent 30 out of the last 48 hours helping.

Let's start with my new FAVORITE room, the kitchen.....

Here's before....

And.... AFTER!

Awesome, no? It was a LOT of work, but I completely love the results. We'll never be able to thank Mom and Gordy enough for their HUGE and INVALUABLE help!!! Oh, and for the strong of stomach... notice the gorgeous Pergo floors Gordy installed?? Well, this is the linoleum Scotty and I had to rip up, first!

And speaking of scary, when we were first talking about buying Bob's house way back last year, Nicky hated the idea. After some questioning, we discovered his problem - he was afraid of this huge hole in the wall and ceiling caused by never repaired water damage. Hey, it is pretty scary!

But the FIRST thing Grandpa Gordy did was to hurry right in and fix Nicky's "scary place". See, nothing scary here:

Today, though, we fixed Mommy's side of the scary room - check out the beautiful new cabinets, washer and dryer in my laundry room! (I put those cabinets together myself!)

And there's TONS more in the rest of the house, plus TONS of work that went into those two rooms that you can't see in the photos.

Now you see why we've been ignoring you all? Now, remember, this is still a work in progress, so more things have to be finished in all of the "after" pictures, but we're definitely progressing!