Labor Day

This is what we're doing on our Labor Day weekend. Labor day is for laboring, right? :)

We love the backyard at the new house, but it was really overgrown. We moved in during 100+ degree weather so it just had to stay overgrown until it got cooler! Look...there's actually a fence back there!

You see that planter with a shrub in it next to the diving board? I found it in all the vines that were growing back there. There was a shrub in a planter and we never even saw it! That's how overgrown it was.

My husband has really been the one doing most of the work. Yesterday evening I went out and started cutting vines and such in the corner. He was cutting shrubs. At one point I turn around and this is what I see...

Guess he decided to take a break! I was giving him a hard time that he was sitting around drinking beer while I was working!

I'll have to post some before and after pictures when we are all finished with the yard. I didn't think to go out and take good "before" pictures before we started, but I have some from when we first moved in.

For those of you who read my Cantaloupe Tree post (http://aimeesland.blogspot.com/2010/09/wordful-wednesday.html ) I had to pick that poor melon early. My husband accidentally cut the vine. I'm trying to let it ripen on the counter for a couple of days and then I'll cut it open. Hope it still tastes good. There was so much vegetation back there that you couldn't tell what you were cutting.

Wordful Wednesday

This is my cantaloupe tree. The new house has tons of shrubbery and trees. Really, tons. Its very overgrown. We have our work cut out for us! Anyway, the previous owners threw some of their compost in the corner by the pool and now cantaloupes have started growing there. The vine has worked its way up into a big shrub so now it looks like we have a cantaloupe tree!

to see more wordful wednesday posts visit: http://www.sevenclowncircus.com/

Look what I finally have room for!

My wonderful husband brought this big dry erase board home several years ago. The place he worked was going to throw it out! I loved it and wanted to use it in the school room, but it wouldn't fit...until now. The schoolroom in the new house has room for it. It was the first thing we hung up in this house. (Still one of the only things we've put on the wall) I love it and I use it every day. Now, if we could just get the rest of the stuff put on the walls that would be great!

Wordful Wednesday

I've been so busy since we moved that I haven't been very good at keeping up my blog. I have been very good at enjoying the new house though! We especially like the yard. We have a pool and that has been really nice since its pretty much been over 100 degrees everyday!


We also have lots of little critters in this yard. Being a homeschooler I love this...science right in our own back yard! We have hummingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, squirrels and we have seen 4 or 5 different kinds of lizards. I'm dying to get some good photos of them. I just haven't had the time. My son grabbed the camera and snapped some of a big lizard on our porch the other day. It a little cloudy looking because he took it through the window. Apparantly, the cat (who was inside) spotted it first! They drive her crazy! She sees them through the window and doesn't know how to get to them. She runs from window to window and literally tries to climb the walls!

To see more Wordful Wednesday posts visit http://www.sevenclowncircus.com/

I'm finally back online!

Wow, the last couple of weeks have been crazy! We closed on our new house on July 30th. So we have moved into the new house...almost completly. We had movers move all the big stuff last weekend. I've made trips to the old house every day this week bringing more stuff here and unpacking. I'm so tired! I have been on my feet for 2 weeks straight. In the middle of all that I had to get the van fixed.

The day we closed on the house my van got backed into. It dented one of the sliding doors so the kids could only use one. I tolerated it for a week because I was using the van to move stuff to the new house. After we got settled, we took it in to get fixed. I'm driving a Tahoe in the meantime. It's nice, but we call it "the tank"! It's very tall and wide...can't wait to get my van back. :)

Also in the middle of all this Claire got sick. I think the paint fumes set her off the week before we moved in. She's had a horrible cough ever since. I took her to the doctor and she came home with lots of medicine and an inhaler. She probably has asthma.

We are enjoying the new house, but its been tiring. Two days after we closed the downstairs A/C went out. Temps have been above 100 here for the last 13 days. Luckily, we got it fixed the next day. Nathan had a Dr. appt. that same day and I missed the repairman. Thank goodness he was able to go to another call and then come back.

We switched our phone & internet from one house to the other. It was suppose to be on at the new house last Friday. On sunday we still didn't have it. My husband called AT&T on Monday. Apparantly there was a problem...they sent us an email. Yes, an email to the people who are moving their service! How are we suppose to get an email when the service has been turned off? The problem? They needed to confirm our home phone number! Seriously, AT&T? You are our phone service provider. You know the number! Anyway, we got the phone on Tuesday, but had to wait until Wednesday for the internet.

So, that is what I've been up to. Sorry, if this post is a little random and rambles on. I'm watching the Ranger game as I type. (The first place Texas Rangers!!) We still need to move the last stuff from our old house. We'll probably do that this weekend. Then, I need to have a big garage sale! I'll post some pictures as soon as we get all settled in and unpacked.

So, what have you been up to?

Big News!!!

Well, after 3 years of trying, we are moving! Yea! For those of you who don't know here is a "brief" summary of our last 3 years...

Husband took job with a 1+ hour commute.
Told him I would move to the north part of town to cut about 30 min. off commute.
We put our house on the market.
I started to pack.
We found many houses we wanted to buy.
We never sold ours and no one would accept a contingency.
Decided we had a bad realtor. (We did!)
Put house for sale by owner for a few months...had 3 whole showings!
Found better realtor.
Put house on market.
Market took a really big nose dive!
No one could get a loan.
Foreclosures were everywhere. Our house would not sell.
Someone made an offer, but wasn't really serious and never contacted us back.
I got really fed up with all the showings, told my husband house has to come off of market while we are in school.
Husband reluctantly agreed to take house off market.
I unpacked. :(
We left our house off the market for the remainder of this last school year.
We started looking at houses again in the spring.
Found one we wanted. It was a short sale.
We made an offer. The sellers agreed. Then, it went to their bank.
Their bank decided they wanted to foreclose on them. :(
We couldn't buy the house.
We waited.
House finally came back on the market as a foreclosure...for $30,000 more!
We made same offer.
Bank came down $1000.
We said ok, this isn't going to work so we started looking again.
Found another house.
Made offer. Didn't tell anyone because we didn't want to jinx it! My husband wouldn't even let me start packing!
Contract was executed.
Hubby finally let me start packing!
Spent this last weekend cleaning and putting stuff in storage.
Will put our house back on the market this week. And Pray. Pray that it sells fast!
So, we will be moving in a couple of weeks.

So that's what I've been up to! Can't wait to move.

Aren't you glad I posted the "brief" version?