Friday, July 31, 2009

A Blog of Pics

Mum is out of town. Right before she left, we rescued a Mum Pug & her wee one.








GOATS! Bella, Mary, Mikey, George-Josh (long story), Denae & Dudley

Punky Rooster. The big man around the yard.

The first batch of chicks I hatched in the incubator

Duckies! Pom-Pom, Mack, Gravy & Quack

Friday, July 17, 2009

Screw the doors opening... they keep slamming

what should have been a fairly easy project to get everyone help and together has turned into a nightmare. we have a real estate agent, the housing & loan guy, mum & i... nobody can find something that works w/in a respectable price range. sure, we can go to 60 acres and have no housing restrictions... um... only 1 million smackeroos! no biggy. we found a property that we can do whatever we want to... we just have a giant watertower cutting out a huge slice of the property and live with the trashiest of trash on the other side. oh wait, there was that really great property that the owner "thinks" there are no restrictions. can anyone get an answer on it, of course not! so day after day after day everyone is upset, angry, frustrated... *sigh*

okay... vent over.

so what's going on? everyone feels frustrated and defeated. the purpose of this exercise was:
1. Get Sue & Jake out here with us. We can help take care of her. They can't afford to live in CA any longer. they need out.... immediately.
2. Get mum out from this upside down house that is draining her financially. sure, when dad was alive things were okay because they had the money from the equity in CA... right when he died the stock market crashed... and he never put "transfer upon death" on ANY of the money.
3. Get the kids out of the current school district. i have been fighting with these people since we moved here over my kids educational needs and they are fighting me non-bloody-stop.
4. Get me out of mum's house and into my own. granted, living with mum isn't too bad. we take care of each other... but if i ever wanted to date or anything... kinda gets awkward :D

sssoooo.... back to the drawing board we go... again... my dear friend, nichole, keeps telling me to hold onto faith. over and over and over having the same problems, same restrictions, same frustrations, it gets hard. i guess w/o these trials and tribulations there would be no need for faith...?!?!?!?

more to come... if anything does come... *sigh*

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The door to one house closes.... a new one opens....

Well, we went in for a pushed extremely fast escrow on the house with the land.... and... at the last minute someone noticed a line on the title that said "one home only." Well, that wasn't going to work since we need at least a second home for Susie and Jake to move into (for those who have forgotten or didn't hear, my Aunt was in a nearly fatal car accident and is now paralyzed). SSSOOOO... back to the drawing board we went.

We found 8 acres for sale with a home one it. We are going to leave the home in front there and fix it up and turn it into a rental or guest house... who knows right now. Susie, Jake, Mum and I are going to put our homes in the middle of the property. So... with FAITH (that's for you, Nich) we are hopefully going to get this land.

More to come later...

Welcome Lucy & Jillian Gibson!

I just wanted to take a second to welcome the birth of the new Gibson twins!

Little Jillian has been having some complications and giving her new parents a nice little scare. Please pray for little Jillian!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Summer and Chickens and Moving... OH MY!

Summer is in full swing. We have gone to Chuck E. Cheese. We swim most afternoons. The kids are doing wonderfully well. A few chickens have died from the heat (which has been pretty depressing). I have made a wonderful chicken friend, Josh, and he and I are setting up to be breeding partners. I have a full sized cabinet incubator and just had my first hatch!!! We are now the proud owners of 6 goats (thanks Josh!). And... for the excitement of it all....

WE ARE MOVING

It goes a little something like this. Mum came back from her taking care of my Aunt who was in the nearly fatal car accident 10 weeks ago. We went to Farmer's Market and started talking to the cattle woman about her land. We found a real estate agent and 7 days later, put in an offer. 7 3/4 acres with about 5ish acres fenced for livestock. The house on it is about 10 years old and is 2,400 sq ft. Comes with a pool table, big fridge, and front loading washer and dryer. OH, and did I mention the HUGE in ground salt water swimming pool?!?! So, they accepted Mum's offer and we close a week from tomorrow. One of the best parts of it, the school district rates better than the current one AND I won't have to deal with that horrid really bad string of profanity principal any more. There is hope for a fresh start for KeelyMonster and the help that Colin needs. Now... to build a chicken coop.... :D

So, as it stands right now, the kids and I will be rattling around on the land by ourselves. In 6-12 months Mum is going to leave this house and join us out there, most likely in a new home, but if not, there should be plenty of room for all of us in the current house on the land. My aunt and uncle are hoping to leave CA as soon as they can and live with mum at the current house.... and they will have their home built on mum's land once they are ready. With Susie being in a wheelchair and all the complications of the accident, being with Mum is going to be the greatest thing for her. And having everyone apart, yet so close together is going to be one of the greatest feelings.

SO... pictures and updates to come soon. Now... time to find some boxes....

Saturday, June 20, 2009

"Mum, I'm a BIG BOY"

We went to Target to pick up a few essentials. A few of Colin's undies were starting to get a little snug, so we stopped to check the prices on some new ones. We walk over and he exclaims, "Mum, I'm a big boy! We need to get rid of my undies that my friends laugh at (he still has a pair of Thomas the Tank Engine) and get me all new BOXERS! I want boxers like a big boy!" So, we bought him a 5-pack of little boxer-briefs and he wears them SO proud! Through the day yesterday, he kept reminding me about how big he is now that he has his boxers on. *sigh* My baby is making his own underwear decisions...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Graduation 2009

My baby is all grown up.... Kindergarten C/O '09 *sigh*