Home Search Results

This might be our next home! It was the last home we looked at on our day in the mountains, and both Brian and I fell in love with it!
And look at the view in the winter! (Actually, there would be a nice view in the summer too, . . . if we just lopped off a few trees in the way. I think we're going to do that.) : )
Here is our second choice (and on some days, it's still my first). This sucker would be a half mil if it were in perfect shape. But as is, well, it needs perhaps $20,000 worth of work, I would guess. New soffit & fascia, new kitchen floor, possible new roof, etc. A home inspector would have a field day! But it is truly a phenomenal home with absolutely everything I wanted, including a main floor with a whole wall of windows . . .
Looking out on this amazing summer view! (Can you imagine what it would be in the winter?!?) But it's at the top of our price range right now. How sad. We'll probably have to let this one go. : (

Today God truly was with us in that Brian's interview went well, and I got lots of answers in regards to the home search. First, I was supposed to look at Pickens, SC . . . but that road is so very windy that I knew I couldn't have Brian drive it every day. With the time I saved, I signed Leia Rose up for the very last kindergarten spot at Immaculata Catholic School. (How lucky was THAT?!?) Then I looked at homes in all the other little towns in between. The first home was the very last one. What a great way to end the day!
Now it's off to meet with our own realtor, list our house, . . . and blog a lot less as a result (I'm sure). ; )

Mamma Mode

During Daddy's interview & Mamma's home search today, Grandma (along with Uncle Alan & Aunt Cassie) took care of Leia Rose and Annie. Annie cried a few times throughout the day, begging for Mamma, but was generally well-behaved otherwise. This is a perfect example of a time when Mamma can't even take a SHOWER. ; ) I had already let Annie cry in being away from me for a day, so I didn't want to do it to her again. "Just let her come in," I said. She did, . . . and watched my entire shower. ; )

Trip to the NC Mountains

Leia Rose was so excited to see the mountains today that I told her we would watch the progresson in the car. Well, here it is:

John Williams Conducts for Our Anniversary

Tonight Brian and I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience in seeing the best concert of our lives: John Williams, our absolute FAVORITE composer and partial reason why we fell in love, conducted the 210th Anniversary concert of the Marine Band in Washington DC tonight!!! And I don't think it was a coincidence that this "Anniversary" concert was one month to the day after OUR 10th anniversary. This was our true present to each other, and nothing could have topped it!!!!

Brian and I have wanted to see John Williams conduct since before we were married. Some of our first conversations were about the music of John Williams, who we both love. Brian and I spent hours on the bench in Furman Hall right outside McEachern Auditorium (sp?) talking about all the different movie soundtracks that we owned, and why we owned them: Star Wars, Superman, Jurassic Park, Jaws, etc. They were all written and conducted by John Williams. And it was our conversation about Jurassic Park that was particularly significant. Brian spoke of a particular musical theme, at which point I said, "Oh yeah, I think that one is in 'Dennis Steals the Embryos.'" And I remember the face with which Brian looked at me, . . . he couldn't believe that a girl would know about a song in Jurassic Park called "Dennis Steals the Embryos." Ha! Little did I know that was when he fell in love with me. : )

Anyway, we had done research from even before we were married in order to try and see John Williams conduct. He would usually only conduct one or two concerts a year, . . . and they were always too far away for us to attend. Since we moved here, we continued doing the same research. And then suddenly, we saw that John Williams was going to conduct at this special free anniversary concert of the Marine Band. Well, we would go online daily to see how to get tickets, but for a long time it simply said that the concert would be free, but you still needed to have tickets. So we waited. Suddenly, one day they had an address and anyone who wanted tickets (only TWO tickets, mind you) had to write to a snail mail address. Snail mail!!! Anyway, we set it out, and a few of our friends did as well. Jenny Rose was planning to give us her two tickets so we could take the girls. Well, um, all of our other friends were rejected! Brian and I were the only two to get tickets!!! (And there were only 2000 seats in the theater.) Anyway, we had the coveted tickets, . . . but only two. And the only sadness of the evening was the fact that Leia would have LOVED this concert. She is so much like Brian and I in this vein. Anyway, we had spent the week preparing the girls for a big night of babysitting with MollyLucille (with us returning at 3 AM), and now it was time to be off! We drove about 4 1/2 hours and talked so much that we forgot to listen to music! It was like when we were first dating again! And it was a much-needed break that we truly deserved. So wonderful to rekindle our relationship before we even GOT there! But it wasn't long before we took a mini-driving tour of DC and then straight to the Kennedy center getting in the big "general admission" line. When we got in, we were SURE that the seats in front were reserved, . . . but they WEREN'T, . . . so we got to sit in the EIGHTH ROW!!! I had a perfect view of John Williams himself (in that we were seated at stage right) and I could even see/read what was on his little plasma screen in front of him, . . . and even some of the words on his big book on the podium! The concert itself was AMAZING! I cried through most of it, . . . just flooded with such emotion of being there and hearing the best music I have ever known. They played The National Anthem, as well as the themes from Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Reivers, 1941, Olympic Liberty Fanfare, Jaws, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Sugarland Express, and then a special tribute to George Lucas and Stephen Speilberg. And the biggest treat was that he actually spent time showing us how he scored a movie by showing us an Indiana Jones scene without the music and describing the themes he wanted to include, . . . and then conducting the orchestra along with that same track to add the music! He did the same with the clips from Harry Potter and Jaws. IT WAS AWESOME! And I got such a thrill out of being able to see HIS screen instead of looking at the huge one for the people at the back. ; ) But I made sure to keep my eye on HIM, more than the movie. I can see the movie anytime. We own all of them. Then he did lots of encores at the end where he conducted the song from the Yale motorcycle chase scene from Indiana Jones IV called "Motorcycle Mutt" and conducted a special tribute to the armed forces and (ta-da) conducted "The Imperial March". . . which is the "bad-guy-Darth-Vader song" from the Star Wars saga! Even the tribute to the armed forces was magical, . . . little did we know we had TWO 90-year-old marines sitting behind us, . . . so John Williams was sure to look our way!!! Our impressions of the concert were many, but the thing that absolutely floored us about our favorite composer was that John Williams was so very ANIMATED while he conducted, . . . and was a little bit less so when he had to concentrate on the movie screen. We feel now that we have an insider's view of this process of scoring a movie. How very blessed we are to have had this experience! Happy Anniversary, Lovie!!!

Preparing for MollyLucille

We had MollyLucille come over a few times this week, just to let everyone play and get acquainted with each other before Mamma's & Daddy's concert on Sunday. Annie had a cold last week, and she has been in true "Mamma Mode," . . . and on this particular day she was tired AND hungry. Not good. But as soon as she got some food in her tummy, she was doing this fun little running "Ahhhhh" game with Leia. As MollyLucille said, "What a difference!"

John Denver Speaks to Me . . .

God is finding such mysterious way to speak to me in my sadness about (most likely) leaving Chapel Hill. Of course there was Leia’s comment of “change is good.” And then there was the afternoon that I felt like the late John Denver was speaking to me, . . . and I felt like it might be the words of God:

Follow me where I go what I do and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down all the way and all around
Take my hand and say you’ll follow me

You see I’d like to share my life with you
And show you things I’ve seen
Places that I’m going to places where I’ve been
To have you there beside me and never be alone
And all the time that you’re with me
We will be at home

Follow me where I go what I do and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down all the way
Take my hand and I will follow you

and then . . .

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you've forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend
And you wonder where we're going
Where's the rhyme and where's the reason
And it's you cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind
For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day
Like the music of the mountains
And the colors of the rainbow
They're a promise of the future
And a blessing for today

. . . Come and stand beside us
We can find a better way

Ironically, the first song called “Follow Me” was one that we used to sing at Mass a lot while I was growing up. I never realized how well it fit! : ) And the second one called “Rhymes & Reasons” I have read quite a few places now that it was actually John Denver’s favorite of his songs, . . . even though he always felt somewhat sad that most people never requested it at concerts. Anyway, I always liked the song, but I always wondered in what context it could be put. I guess I have my answer. And, of course, I cried.

More Berries!

No one was more happy than Annie that Mamma picked more "bee-bees" and blackberries this morning. : ) I was surprised, actually, that Leia Rose didn't want to come with me, . . . but it was probably just as well because it was HOT. ; ) (And I'll just go ahead and say this, . . . perhaps I've already noted it, but my mind isn't all there these days, . . . that considering the amount of blueberries Annie ate, Leia Rose loves to mention how Annie was sure to have an "atorious black poop." Ha! This comes from me changing Annie's diaper a while ago and commenting that she had one of her "notorious black poops" that looks like dried black poster paint. Yuck. I know. It's all about the blueberries.) ; )
And here is Leia Rose, who said, "Mamma, . . . take a picture of my blackberry face!" : )
And then Mamma tried something new: making seedless blackberry jelly! Here is Leia helping separate the seeds from the rest. Whew! That's a long and hard job! But here was her reward: the seed pulp was the exact consistency of poster paint, . . . so I let Leia use some as such! It was fun! She even painted a blackberry in the picture! Ha!

Corn!

Then it was off into the corn fields! I don't know if we're really allowed to do this across the street from Maple View, but it sure provides a really special opportunity for the girls, . . . so we do it as often as we can!
It was so fun for the girls to see the corn really growing on the corn stalks and touch the real silk still attached!
Sarah was amazed, too! : )
Can you find Leia Rose in this picture? : )

The Picture of the Day

"Change is good!"

This morning Mamma was a bit broken up over the fact that Brian was rejected by GSK for the last two organic synthesis jobs. This means we will most likely be moving from Chapel Hill, and our beautiful home here. : ( And when I told Leia Rose how I was feeling, this is what she said:

"Change is good, right Mamma?"
[sniff, sniff, . . . laughter] "Ha! That's right, Leia! . . . Where did you hear that?"
"On Wonder Pets!" (Which she calls "Wonder Pects" which gives me an image of bodybuilding men with huge pectoral muscles. Ha!)

It seems that God is truly working through my daughter! : )

Visiting with Sarah

Today Annie, Leia Rose and I visited Sarah McDowell at her house in downtown Chapel Hill. Sarah's house is a treasure trove of international and cultural items from all over the world. We REALLY enjoyed looking at everything. In the process I saw quite a few things that I would like to find and buy, myself. It seems that Sarah and I have a very similar international taste, . . . although she will always have a much bigger collection than I ever would. ; ) Here is a neat puzzle that makes a heart when put together but spells "I Love You" when taken apart! Leia and Sarah worked on this for a long time, while Annie happily played with some ceramic coasters from Appalachia on the left.
Gabe's family lives in the mountains near Ashville, and so many items in Sarah's house have been purchased from local artists in the mountains of NC. These are some cool little animal figurines that are also really neat whistles. Leia is blowing the sheep whistle.
Annie tried it too.
And here is one of those cool wire toys from Africa. We have a documentary on tape of how the children make these out of old bits of wire.
And look at this neat little thing called "Fridgits," which is a cool marble track that runs right on your refrigerator! Got to get one of those!

There are a couple of pictures I wish I had taken, like Sarah's personal basket collection that had baskets made from all different things. One was made from all different colored plastic grocery bags and another was made solely from newspaper! And I WISH I had taken a picture of Sarah's office, which was filled with beautiful baskets & other items that Sarah has brought back from Africa to begin her online business. Sarah, being such a wonderful humanitarian, has designed her business to support and empower the women artisans of Africa (and specifically Tanzania) by using the internet in offering their wares to interested buyers all over the world. Here's your first plug, Sarah, . . . very soon everyone can go to http://www.withthesehands.com/ to see some great items perfect for gift giving and learn about the artists who made them!

Ready for Ice Cream

While Leia Rose and I were swinging on the hammock today, I decided to tell her that we were going to Maple View Farm tomorrow to have ice cream with Mrs. McDowell, . . . and this is the face Leia made! I think she's ready! : )

Another New Game: "Dee Dee"

I started calling this "The Jawa Game" just because the Jawas are the guys in Star Wars who actually say "Dee Dee," but my name didn't catch on, . . . so I suppose this'll forever be called "Dee Dee." This game just involves the girls saying "Dee" and flopping down on one chair, and then run to me (sitting on another chair) while saying "Deeeeeeeeeeeeee, . . . Dee!" Ha! Fun!

Catching a Butterfly

The girls and I played outside today, and Leia Rose and Annie were most interested in the butterflies flitting around our butterfly bushes. We caught one using Leia's butterfly house, . . . and Leia named it "Rainbow." ; ) (Here Annie is asking Leia to "open" the house, . . . and Leia is flat-out refusing.) ; )

A New Game: "Uh, uh, uh!"

Ah, the innocence of children! ; ) Leia Rose and Annie have been playing together SO well lately and coming up with their own games. Here's one they play at least five times a day, . . . and one that I probably would NEVER let them play outside of the house for obvious reasons. Ha! They, appropriately, named it "Uh, uh, uh!" [Nervous Laugh.] ; )

Sliding & Swimming

Look at Annie's face going down the slide at Meadowmont! Think she's having fun? Heck YEAH!
And just look at this! I can't believe that my little girl who was afraid to put her head under the water last year is really SWIMMING!!! She got jazzed today just because she could tread water! This is what I heard her telling Daddy: "Daddy, you know how I was afraid when I couldn't feel the bottom? Well, I'm not afraid anymore! I was hanging onto the side of the deepest part of the pool, (you know, the part with the big rectangle of water where people swim?), and I swam down and stood on the bottom! It's just that my head was UNDER the water and not OVER the water! Ha! I could still feel the bottom!" And there you go. Just like that. No more fear. And it wasn't anything that anyone could have taught her.

Double Dose of Heidi! : )

Leia Rose has played with Heidi for the last two days!!! : ) Yesterday, we all had a nice playdate over at Heidi's house where the Mammas got to hang out too, . . . this was because it was too rainy to go to the pool. (The only issue here was that the girls played outside after the rain. And Mamma didn't think about it. And Wednesday night, sure enough, there was a huge tick on Leia's head right at the thickest part of her hair! For goodness sake! I was SO upset with myself for not even thinking about it! It's kind of like my brain says, "ticks are only at our house and not at other people's." Um, WRONG. Ticks are always the worst right after a rain.) Anyway, it was sunny on Tuesday, . . . and we went ahead and took a raincheck. The girls had SO much fun at the pool (especially snacking, as you can see), but the best part about it was that Leia had a swim lesson with Kerry, . . . and so they made it a double lesson. Note to self: ALWAYS have my children take swim lessons with a friend!!!! It worked SO well! Leia was excited to learn to swim with Heidi, . . . and Heidi was encouraged by seeing Leia go under the water! What a team! Now, BOTH of them are excited for their next one together, which is on Friday.

Wild Kingdom

Here is Leia Rose concentrating on a brand new show we let her watch: Wild Kingdom on Animal Planet. We have been noticing for a long time that she's starting to get bored with preschool shows, but we don't feel comfortable letting her watch much else. SO seeing that she loves animals and animal rescues AND seeing how much she loved watching Shenandoah's Planet Earth series (another birthday present, perhaps?), . . . we turned to Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. I did some research on the best shows for kids under seven, and Wild Kingdom, Extraordinary Animals, & Meerkat Manor came up! The only unfortunate thing? They only come on once a week, . . . so now Leia knows everything there is to know about hyenas. ("Mamma, did you know that hyena milk is more nutritious than that of any other mammal?!?")

Leia's Fossils

This is what Leia Rose had been waiting for: the ritual washing of her fossils! ; ) Our original plan was to do it during Annie's nap, but that turned into very special "Daddy Time," so Mamma decided to give Leia a treat and let her stay up so we could do it together. (Sure enough, we went out on the porch and stayed up until Leia literally said, "Mamma, I'm tired.") ; )
Leia Rose wanted two buckets of water: the blue one is soapy water, and the white one is rinse water. She dumped out all of her fossils on the table and then washed each one individually. Mamma's job was to dry them. Then we used the charts to identify each one as best we could.
Here is Leia Rose excited at her most precious find: . . .
"the tip of a T-Rex tooth!" ; ) (I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was just a significantly shaped rock.) ; )

Here is Leia Rose identifying a shell using the chart that I printed out from www. aurorafossilmuseum.com. They've got some really good info on that site!
But here is the chart Leia really preferred to use: her own identification chart. ; ) Yes, I have it sideways here, but if you look, you can see that she made lots of "T's" because that is kind of the shape of the sharks teeth. And now I see that on the second line she actually wrote "Puffin" because puffin bones were one of the things that could be identified. ; )
I already posted a picture of the sharks teeth, so I won't bore you with those again. These are from Leia's bag of treasures. (They are mostly shells, coral, & rocks.)
Here are the things we could really identify that I thought were interesting. From left to right: a fairly recent coral (which still hase some "things" growing out of it's little holes), a petrified coral, a piece of coprolite, a sting ray piece, a Drill C shell, and a bone from a cownose ray.
But here is my absolute favorite pile, . . . it's the one that Leia is most proud of because she "identified" all of the items herself. : ) "A clam shell," "a piece of a sand dollar," "the tip of a T-rex tooth!," "a real fish scale," and "a fossilized rock!" All of this imagination from some really common rock and shell fragments. ; )

Yellow?!?

Today, the mantra to Annie was in the form of a question: "Annie, who are we going to go worship today?" And Annie at first responded, "Yellow!" "Yellow?!? Ha! No, Annie. We're not going to worship Yellow, we're going to worship JESUS." "Annie, who are we going to worship today?" And second Annie responded, "Cake!" "Cake?!? Ha! No, Annie. We're not going to worship Cake. We're going to worship JESUS." Then later it was, "Annie, who are we going to worship today?" And thirdly Annie responded, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep!" " Baa, Baa, Black Sheep?!? Ha! No, Annie. We're not going to worship Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. We're going to worship JESUS." And finally, at dinner time it was, "Annie, who are we going to worship today?" And Annie FINALLY said, "Jee-Jee." ("Jesus") Whew! ; )

MollyLucille

Today, after Mass, we brought MollyLucille home to be a "Mamma's Helper" for a while in order to prepare the girls for Mamma & Daddy's big John Williams concert. (MollyLucille will be babysitting for the girls for the afternoon into the wee small hours of the morning next Sunday.) MollyLucille got to change her very first poopie diaper on Annie today! Luckily Annie made two poops! One was an instructional change, . . . and the second was a Mollylucille change. ; ) I think MollyLucille was surprised at how STRONG Annie can be with her legs while she's being changed. ; )
And you KNOW the girls had to show MollyLucille the stomp rocket. ; )
And the girls spent lots of time playing "Lucky Ducks" as well. The only problem today was that Annie was tired after being woken up for Mass, as usual. So she was in full "Mamma Mode." ; ) But seeing I was in the house, I didn't mind Annie trying to find me periodically. And by the end, Annie was calling MollyLucille, "Seal."

Museum Aftermath

Okay, you KNOW I had to buy these edible, baked crickets!!! ; ) Leia was none too pleased. I told her she HAD to try one for the experience. She agreed. ; ) Notice I chose "Bacon & Cheese" flavor for Brian's benefit. Ha! Then we planned a tasting contest similar to when we all tried the "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans." A contest like that always gets Leia into it. ; )
Leia was brave enough to try the first one, . . . and she LOVED them! She thought they tasted just like a chip! That's my girl!
Then we tried one together (note that this is Leia's SECOND one). Not bad!
But Annie didn't like them.
And, um, Brian didn't like them either. (Are crickets a vegetable, Brian? Then why are you making your vegetable face? Ha!)

I just love this action shot of Leia Rose, in the middle of doing her "stomp rocket"! This is a REALLY cool and inexpensive toy that BOTH of the girls could do and LOVED. ; ) What amazed me most were Leia's own thoughts on the car ride home about how a stomp rocket might work: "Hmmm. I bet you step down and air goes through the tube pushing the rocket up on the other side." Oh my! Smart girl! (The picture also shows how pressure washing a home with bleach can ruin the finish on your driveway. Home owners beware!)
Even Annie could do this! What was REALLY hard was getting a picture of the rocket in motion! : ) It would go up REALLY high (okay, not when Annie did it, but STILL). ; )
Now here is a really telling picture! Leia Rose took time out of stomp-rocketing to EAT MORE CRICKETS!!!! HA!!!
And, for my poor little Annie, I got this really cool pull-back bug. I thought it would kind of be like the wind up toys she likes so much, . . . and it was actually SO much better! It really runs kind of haphazard, just like a real bug! (I honestly should have bought the set. Hmmmm, maybe for her birthday.)