Coming along

We went to the new place last weekend.  We had to drop some boxes at my friend's house(she's letting us store them there), so we thought we may as well check on the progress. 

I hadn't realized until I posted these on Facebook that I haven't shared a picture of the new place yet.  I have been kind of hesitant to do so. 

Why?

Totally stupid reason. 

Part of me was embarrassed to admit that we are moving into essentially a mobile home park.  I have heard many words to describe the type of dwelling my new home is. Park model.  Pre fabricated housing.  

But let's be honest:   It's a single wide mobile home. 

And I love it.  

I never though I would be thrilled to say I am going to be moving into a single wide mobile home trailer. 

But I am. More than thrilled. Ecstatic actually.  

WHO CARES WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK??  They can take a long walk off a short pier.  

Like my Sees-ter said to me the other night: Lots of people move into mobile home parks when  they retire!  You're just getting a head start!  Lol.  

Also, the saying "you don't know what you've got until it's gone?"  It's 100% true. 

For 18 months I have been without a home.  

Without a faithful companion(the furry kind). 

Without a functioning kitchen. 

Without privacy. 

I did not realize how much I took those things for granted until I didn't have them anymore.  

I'm over the top happy to be having these things again.  I will not take them for granted again. 

And I have always, always wanted to live closer to nature.  It wasn't something I thought I could ever do, living in such a suburban area.  The fact that I can do so now, and still be relatively close to work is amazing.  A dream come true.  

So, the new place is coming along. They are still working on the deck.  Next the skirting will go on. After that the electricity.  We will have a land line telephone installed, as we don't get cell phone service up there.  

I'm still on the fence about cable.  We simply don't watch a lot of tv.  I hate the thought of paying to not watch tv.  We watch most of our shows online.  I think if we have Internet that will be sufficient. 

I'm not sure.  We'll see.  

Soooooo......here's some pictures of the new place.  

This vantage point is from what will be our "driveway". We will have to have some gravel put down so it doesn't get too muddy when it rains.  Not that we have to worry about that with the drought we are having. 

See the oak trees?  Beautiful!  And we are building a fence around the outside for when we get a dog The fence there on the left(next to the tree) is the boundary of our property, so it will be a nice sized area for a yard.  And a garden. 

This is so much better than apartment living. So much better.  

Here's the inside.  It's teeny tiny.  

And it's perfect for us.  

Come quickly, March 15th!

This has truly been the longest six weeks of my life.  

22 days, 6 hours, and 53 minutes.   

All You Need is Love

I've gone so back and forth as to whether  to post his here. I kind of wrote it as something private and didn't intend to share it with anyone but Joe, but then on a whim I entered it into a contest on fb and I won.  I agreed to let it be shared there, so I figured why not here too?

It is our anniversary after all. So here goes. 

Once upon a time there was a blued eyed girl. She was lonely and sad, until one day she went to a New Year's Eve party and she met a handsome brown eyed boy. 

The blue eyed girl and the brown eyed boy fell in love and decided to get married.

 People told them they were too young (she was 22 and he was 24), and that it wouldn't last. 

They didn't listen.   They loved each other very much and they decided to marry anyway. They were married in a little clapboard church in the middle of a snow covered field. 

And they were happy. 

After about five or six years(they didn't want to rush), the blue eyed girl and the brown eyed boy decided they would like to grow their family. They threw away their birth control and were giddy with happiness at the thought of becoming parents. 

But parenthood did not come come easily for them. Years of trying led to nothing but loss and heartbreak.  Tests and painful surgeries, and lots of money(lots and lots of money) was spent in the quest for a baby to grow their family. 

Still no baby for them.  

The blue eyed girl would cry herself to sleep every night and the brown eyed boy would hold her and tell her everything would be alright, as long as they were together.  

After five  years of trying to get pregnant, the blue eyed girl's sister welcomed a beautiful little Chinese girl into their family.  It was love at first sight for the baby's aunt and uncle and it was decided on the spot that they would stop trying to get pregnant and that they too would adopt a baby with almond shaped eyes from a faraway country.  

They filled out a lot of paperwork(so much paperwork). They spent lots and lots more money. 

But finally, after a year of preparation the Chinese government sent word that they were approved to adopt a baby from china.  

The blue eyed girl and the brown eyed boy were so happy. They bought baby clothes.  They decorated a nursery.  They chose a name for their little girl and dreamed of her every night.  

Then they waited.  And waited.  And waited.  The wait for babies from china had lengthened.  One year passed, then two.  They still held hope in their hearts that their child was out there, waiting for them, as they were waiting for her.  

Two years turned into three years, then three into four.  

But still they waited.  

During that time the brown eyed boy lost his job as a teacher. No matter how hard he tried he was unable to find another job. 

They fell on hard times.  They lost their apartment.  They had to pack up their nursery and baby things and put everything into storage. They cried buckets of tears, but still held onto hope that things could change and they would one day get a call from china letting them know they had been matched with a baby. 

But after five and a half years of waiting, their circumstances had not changed financially and they did not meet the income requirements to adopt from china any longer. 

They were forced to pull their paperwork and give up on their dreams of having a baby, again.  

They had been trying to grow their family for 13 years and the blue eyed girl was weary.  

Once again she cried herself to sleep every night and the brown eyed boy held her and told her they would be ok, as long as they were together.  

The stress of the adoption and infertility, coupled with financial strain took a toll on their marriage. 

They decided to separate, and try living apart for awhile.  

It was the longest six months of their lives.

 They missed each other terribly and came to the realization that they still loved each other very much and wanted to be together.  

 Having a baby wasn't in the cards for them and they were sad.  

They were sad but they realized they will be ok, just the two of them.  

On Valentine's day the  blue eyed girl and the brown eyed boy will celebrate 21 years of marriage.  

Through heartbreak and illness, tough times and bad circumstances, they made it. 

Together.  

They don't have much, but they have each other.  

And they lived happily ever after.  

Sometimes Love really is all you need.  

The end. 

Moving on up

I've already blabbed about this all over fb but someday I'm going to turn this blog into a book(no,really) so I wanted to post about it here as well.  

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before(snort), but I'm not happy where I'm living.  

I've been living in a bedroom.  Not a one bedroom.  A BEDROOM in someone else's house, with an attached bathroom and no kitchen.  

No.  Kitchen.   For a whole year.  

I'm over it.  Seriously over it. I've been over it for a long time. 

I've been looking for something I can afford but in my area that isn't easy to find. Or I could find a couple of apartments that I could swing but just barely. I don't want to put myself in such a tight spot again.  I wanted to find something I could truly afford, all on my own. 

I was becoming discouraged the more I looked. 

Until my friend(who moved her horse) saw this place near hers that had a for rent sign outside.  She asked me a couple of times if we had looked at them but it kept slipping my mind.  Finally two Saturdays ago I decided we should drive up and see them. 

And I loved them.  Really, really loved them. It was pretty much love at first sight. I signed a lease and paid the deposit on the spot.  

The best part?

It's up in the mountains. Surrounded by oak trees.  There are miles of hiking trails right outside my front door.  Literally outside my door.

And it's ten minutes from my friend and her horses!  That was the icing on the cake. 

Sooooo....I'm moving. Yay!!  

No more cooking without a kitchen. 

No more doing dishes in the bathroom!

No more lack of privacy(it has a bedroom!  With a door!)

No more kids running around upstairs making a racket. (That makes me sound so old. Damn kids!  Lol)

Finally I'll have my own place again.  

And it's so much better than an apartment.  

No one living above or below us.  

I'll have a place to have a garden(with a picket fence!)

I can get a dog. 

That one bears repeating:  I can get a DOG!

I've had  advice from several people not to rush into things, give myself time to adjust to the new place before adding a furry member to our family. 

Screw that.  I'm getting a dog. As soon as I possibly can. 

I still miss Gizmo very much.  I didn't know how much joy having a dog in my life brought until I didn't have it anymore.  We are going to start scouting out the animal shelters as soon after we move as we can. 

Can.   Not.  Wait.  

Be prepared for many, many dog pictures.  This dog is going to be my kid, ok?

Oh, and pictures of the new place too, as soon as I have them. Move in isn't until March 15th, which seems like forever away.  

Really it's only 38 days, 7 hours and 29 minutes. 

But who's counting?   :)

Here are some pictures of some areas very close to our place:

Isn't it Bee-yoo-tee-ful??

Oh, also when I googled images of these areas, lots of these pictures popped up:

Ummm....lots of pictures!  For now I'm going to pretend I didn't see those and live in denial about it.  We'll deal with that when we come to it(pleas god don't let us come to it too soon...or too often!)

I'm sticking my head in the sand for now.  Well, maybe not if those suckers are hanging around.  

I have a whole other post about some of the things we are going to have to become accustomed to living in the mountains.  (Like no cell phone service!!)