Happy Halloween!

Superhero Princess, Bear

I had a small budget for Halloween, but after going over on groceries and a few other things, it dwindled away to nothing, so all the kid's costumes have to be put together from what we have around the house. Saren is going to be a gypsy and already has everything she needs, though some jewelry would be a nice addition. Harper is going to be a cat using the wolf costume that Saren wore a couple of years ago, since it looks like a cat costume anyway and did from the beginning. Irina said something different every time I asked her what she was going to be. Sometimes she just said nonsense words, so she really was no help at all. Yesterday and today I came up with this superhero costume. If you call it a superhero princess costume it really makes her happy. If you call out "help!" while she's in the other room, she'll come and save you.

(I could have waited until she had taken a bath and washed the marker off of her face and I could have tried to find a less cluttery background, but I didn't. So sorry.)





Total cost: Zero dollars! I totally made the cape and the skirt (not very well, but good enough!) from my prom dress. I had been holding on to that thing for years because my mother made it and it was purple and lovely, but I finally decided that I would turn it into some dress-up clothes the other day when I was going through my giganto box of mementos. I figured now was as good a time as any. The 'I' and the crown were from felt and elastic I already had. She's got a dancing leotard thingy over a purple shirt and then Silas's babylegs to top (or rather, bottom) it all off. I think it all looks pretty good for a couple hours' work.

I also made this wonky hat thing for Silas. I will probably make him some pants too, but if I don't it doesn't really matter to Silas. He pretty much hates the hat anyway.

20 minutes of Silas's life

Sitting Up

Lying Down

Very Earnest in the Production of Spit Bubbles

Not Happy

Nursing

Asleep

Looking Up

It's looking like our moving in to the fortuitous house with the great street name is a done deal. Except that it's not. Because we haven't, like, signed anything. But we're planning on it and he's planning on it and I don't see that anything is going to stand in our way. Mainly I'm worried about the bank dragging their heels on kicking us out of our current house. If they do things in a timely manner, it should be the end of November when we hand over the keys, but they could delay or postpone the trustee sale date. If we move out before we have turned over responsibility, I'll be worried about vandals and such. But I'm not going to delay our moving past the end of the year regardless of what happens. We'll just have to leave the power on and leave a light on and do our best to check on it every day.

Also, I'm crossing my fingers that we will get a "cash for keys" deal with the bank, wherein they give us money for relocation so that they don't have to go to the trouble and expense of evicting us. If they don't offer, I'll ask. It couldn't hurt. I'm hoping to use that money to buy a new-to-us couch and loveseat that I don't passionately hate. Also a new-to-us dining table and 6 chairs, cuz we're a big family now and we need a big table. Right now our old, old table is the computer desk and our other table is really the craft table and we usually eat at the coffee table, which is not optimal. And I will probably get a twin bed for Irina because the used toddler bed we got for her is utter crap. Oh, and some better, stronger, bigger bookshelves! And a trampoline! And a cow so we can have milk! And a hot air balloon! And a car for Pat!

Actually, we really are considering that last because this house is so far out that on the other side of the wall of the subdivision is nothing but desert. The bus doesn't go as far out as we will be, so I'll either have to drive Pat to work or drive Pat to the bus stop on days that we need to keep the van. On the plus side, when we walk out our back door, our field of vision will be filled with a mountain, which will probably look really cool when the sun sets.

This house has 4 bedrooms and a den and an upstairs, but I think the den and the 4th bedroom are really one and the same. Still. I think this house may end up having more room than I know what to do with. I'm not really complaining. Like I said, we're a big family now and I'm sure we can figure out how to fill it up.

I can't wait to move out of this house. Also, it might be nice to actually see the inside of the other one sometime soon.

"(and friends)"...That's me!

Heather sent me my free contributing author's copy of her birth stories book today. I'm going to start reading all the stories tonight.



Look at this! It's my name! In a book! That has an ISBN and everything!



Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
You can buy the book here! And you should! Pregnancy and birth are normal! Not medical disasters waiting to happen! I'm in a book!

Possibilities

We had no internet for a few days so that threw me off my blogging streak. Such as it was.

So. House/apartment hunting. A few weeks ago we decided we would check out some of the apartments in the area near where Pat works to see what was available and what we could plan on getting within our budget for when we move. The first place we went to was closed on Sundays. The next place was closed on Sundays. The next place had a sign that said they would be back at 2:30, but it was 2:33 and we didn't feel like waiting around to see if they were going to get back when they said they would or not.

The next place was open and we were able to look at a 2 bedroom apartment even though we need a 3 bedroom. It was fine and had a bigger kitchen than I usually see in apartments and I thought all in all that it would do. We took the brochures and left. I made a note that I had had seen a cockroach while we were in the leasing office (not a good sign).

The next place we went to was also open and we were able to look at both of their 3 bedroom floorplans. And again, both were fine. I could imagine living at that apartment complex. When we lived in apartments, I thought we would never go back to apartment living again. But apartments and houses both have advantages and drawbacks. In an apartment, you have access to a pool and a playground and clubhouse-type thing (though I've never used one of those) and possibly a fitness room and a internet room. And you don't have to take care of or maintain any of those things. You don't get a yard, but then you don't have to take care of a yard. But in a house, you don't have to deal with being in such close proximity to other people. So, having now experienced both, I couldn't really decide which would be better for us.

After we got home, I started looking closer at the two places that we had checked out. The second one had no pet limits, but added $25 per pet, per month. So, it took a rent that was already a little bit out of our price range and made it that much more so. That place was out then. I looked at the first place we had gone to. They charged $30 per pet, per month. However, the original rent amount was less than the other, so it wasn't too too bad. Then I talked to Saren, who had caught what the leasing lady had said about pets: 2 maximum. Of course, we could lie and say we have two instead of three. But then I looked closer and saw that they require proof of renter's insurance and vet certificates (for immunizations I assume). And I thought, good grief, what a hassle. Do I really want to deal with that much red tape and crap? So I think that place ended up with too many marks against it to consider either.

When we got home that day I was feeling like maybe the universe was trying to tell us something about apartments. Regardless, I felt like we would be better off just waiting until things were closer to coming to an end in this house before we started looking in person anymore. It was just very discouraging. But I still had an uneasy feeling. I just want things to be settled and to know what's going to happen next. I know it may be a while off still, but I still like having good solid plans.

Then a few days ago, Pat talked to someone who used to work with him about a house that he wants to rent out. They had talked briefly a few months ago, but I guess the guy had been keeping Pat and us in mind as a good possibility for renting out his house. So Pat tells me how much he wants for rent and it's 8 dollars less than our current mortgage payment (that we're not currently paying, of course). Now, our letting the house go has little to do with how much our payment is, so this is good. Really good actually. The amount is pretty great for a three bedroom non-ancient house. From what I've seen in my internet searches, it's a bit under the low end on rents for similar houses.

We checked it out on google maps and zillow and such and from what I can see, it looks pretty awesome. Of course, you might have to keep in mind that it won't take much for me to see a house as awesome coming from the house we're in, but still. It was built in 2004, has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and ....it was built in 2004! Do you know what this means? We could live in a house that has pipes that aren't all about to fall apart from corrosion! We could live in a house that doesn't have ridiculous wood paneling or mirrors glued to the walls! A house that has drywall instead of cinder block walls! Tile in the kitchen that doesn't look like it came from 1965! Three toilets that ALL work!

I am trying so hard not to get worked up about this. There has been no finalization. We still don't know exactly when the foreclosure is going to be totally finished. We haven't even seen the inside of it. (Um, or the outside, but that will be remedied tomorrow.) But, still, I can't seem to think about anything else.

It's just so... fortuitous. The guy came about at exactly the right time and will have the house ready at almost exactly the right time (though of course we don't know our timeline for sure yet). He is offering it to us at exactly the right price. It's (probably) exactly what we're looking for. He has no problem with the cats (has 6 of his own in fact). He isn't asking for any deposits!!!! I really want this to work out. I really want this to be the one. Our main drawback is that it isn't close to Pat's work, which is what we were planning on, but I think we can probably let go of that because it wasn't really a requirement, but a desire.

Oh, and the other thing. The name of the street makes an anagram that has our last name in it. See? It was meant to be!

Oh yeah, the thinks I have thunk

I know. I was totally supposed to blog about other things that had been on my mind. But I made a mistake when I said I would do it later. Because later means those things aren't as much at the forefront anymore. And I'm not entirely sure I could have done justice to them anyway. To be fair, I did say, "assuming I have great follow through," and apparently we can assume I don't.

But I did want to write about RVing because I have been thinking about it today. And who knows, maybe I'll get to the other stuff I wanted to blog about someday soon as well.

After the conference I was pretty strongly missing Winnie, our RV that we bought, took out three times, and then sold. Unschooling conferences can really get you thinking about unconventional choices, you know. And following your dreams and passions. Living full-time in an RV and traveling around the country has been a dream of mine for a long time. We seemed to come close when we got Winnie, but somehow it just wasn't right. So after the conference there was a lot of regret and thinking about how we could be free from the constraints of the rat race and follow our own schedule and our own whims and visit with all our friends that live in far-flung places.

And when we got home, after only a few days had passed, my friend Tara and her husband just up and bought an RV! And they are planning on living in it full-time and following work for Justin (her husband). There was a little RV envy involved and I started to feel very grumpy and resentful that circumstances will not allow us to just jump up and do the same thing.

After a while though, I reached the same conclusion I reached before and that was that 1) there's no need to table the RV/full-timing dream forever and all eternity, circumstances could change, 2) the underlying passion is more traveling than it is living in an RV full-time and maybe that can be worked toward and 3) having and creating a cozy (stick-built) home is something I want to do as well.

So I felt okay about it and I let it go.

But damn it if that wanderlust didn't creep back in! Maybe all that 1) 2) 3)-ing is all just rationalizing. Making myself feel better about what I can't have right now. The only really useful one is number 1, because it doesn't matter if I also like the idea of creating a comfy cozy home and that the underlying passion is traveling. I really do want to live in an RV and travel around the country! Most likely not forever, but for a good long time? Yes, definitely.

Still. We're in debt, we don't have a move-able income, we don't have any savings, we don't have an RV (anymore), and we have three cats, one of which has psycho urination problems. So the only useful thing to do is think about RVing, learn as much as we can about RVing, get out of debt, save up our money, create a move-able income, find out how to RV with cats, get one of them to a cat psychologist to be cured (hahahahaha), and then figure out if living in an RV full-time is something we can do and all want to do, at that future time. Because almost all of those things are things we need to do anyway in order to make our other dream come true, the one where we get the hell out of Vegas. That's priority one, we figure out the specifics later.

Also, Harper has been blogging a bit lately and would love some comments. Link on the left.

Book Log - September 2009

I've decided to do book posts on a monthly basis instead of a yearly one. That way I will remember the books better and not have a huge list for people to slog through (or not slog through and simply skip, as the case may be) and I'll still be able to keep track of everything I've read, which is the whole point.

I only have three for September because it was a rather busy month. Two of those books, though, I read in one fell swoop, over a period of 5 or 6 hours, keeping myself up too late and not really minding about the missed sleep. One was a YA book and one a middle grade book, so they weren't terribly long.

First up, Love, Aubrey, by Suzanne LaFleur. This is a middle grade book. Oh boy. This was a good one, but I cried. More than once. It's about an eleven year old girl who has lost her father and sister in a car accident. It covers the year following the accident and is about how Aubrey puts her life back together. Her mom, who also survived, is in the book as well, but she's not very central. Except inasmuch as she's Aubrey's mom and she's dealing with everything too and Aubrey has to learn how to deal with her mom's method of dealing. It was well-written and so sad at times. I say yes, but have tissues handy. (I've decided my new rating system will be either yes or no. I am a fan of simplicity. Commentary added when necessary.)

Next book, Paper Towns, by John Green. This is a YA book. I read Looking for Alaska a few years ago by the same author and when I saw that he had put out a few since then I decided to pick them up because I had enjoyed Alaska. (I can't tell you what that one was about, but I'm sure I'd get that feeling of deja vu if I read it again.) I have never been a teenage boy, so I don't know exactly how accurate John Green's portrayal of teenage boys is, but I suspect he's done a pretty good job. Well, smart and funny teenage boys, anyway, and I knew some of those. Smart and funny they might be, but there's still an element of crassness to them, which just makes them more endearing (to me). There was a lot of wit and humor in this book which I appreciated a lot, though at least at one point the high schooler shenanigans got a little tiresome and I just wished he would get on with the story already. Still, I enjoyed it. It was about a boy in love with a girl who he realized he didn't know at all. Basically he realized he was in love with his perception of who she was and my teenage self can absolutely positively relate to that. I give it a yes.

Lastly, but not leastly, The Big Book of Unschooling, by Sandra Dodd. This is Sandra Dodd's website in book form. Only it seemed more to me to be a doorway, or lots of little doorways, to her website. It is a series of sections and each one has a link to a section of her website where you can read more about that topic. Our book is Harper's copy, which she got from her fairy godparent (Holly Dodd) and her fairy grand godparent (Sandra Dodd). It's a good book to open up and read random bits from, but I also wanted to read it all the way through, front to back, at least once, so I did. I've always liked what Sandra has to say about unschooling. I've always found it helpful and insightful. There have been lots of times in my life where I have had a little Sandra in my head, watching me with my kids, trying to steer me in the best direction. She might be one of the biggest influences in my life when it comes to being the mom I want to be. Sometimes I think I get complacent and feel like there's nothing that any further reading about, talking about, or thinking about unschooling and mindful parenting can do to help me. Like there's nothing else I need to know. Or maybe it's just that I need a break from actively thinking about that stuff. But then I come back to it (through a conference or a new book or something I see online) and I just feel like I need to devour everything I can about unschooling and radical unschooling. It all feels refreshing and new again and I feel ready to dive in once more. So this book was very good for that and came along at just the right time. A definite yes.